The Titans' Orb: Breaking Dawn

by Mister Horncastle

Chapter Seventeen: Road Trip

Poor Rainbow Dash didn’t come to for quite some time, and when she finally did, Pinkie apologised at least sixty times for being so inconsiderate in the way she’d spoken.

“Ugh, it’s fine…” The pegasus mumbled.

Fluttershy passed her a bottle of water, which she gladly accepted. I helped her get to her hooves so that she could come and have a proper lie-down on the couch seat. The rest of us went on to answer more of Josh’s questions, giving him the basic rundown of our journey.

“Damn, you must have tons of scars and stuff!” He exclaimed, upon being told about my torture in Brazil.

“Oh I used to be absolutely covered with them, but one of the wonders of this sword, is that it can heal my wounds, including scar tissue.” I explained, tapping Vitra 'Aku’s handle.

Josh gasped in amazement, before begging for us to continue with the story. Retelling him our adventure so far, even as an abridged version, took about an hour; needless to say, he was completely blown away by what we’d gone through.

{To think, we’ll most likely be retelling all that again soon, to Rainbow Dash’s dad.} Twilight privately said to me through thought.

{Yeah, that’s true. I guess we can consider this as practice?} I replied amusedly.

After rolling her eyes, Twilight agreed with me. With Alex in mind, I remembered that I needed to see if he’d ever sent me a reply.

“Hey Josh, might I have your phone for a moment? I need to log into my Skype account and check if Alex ever got back to me.” I requested.

“Sure!” He merrily replied, passing the device to me.

Thankfully, he already had the app installed, so I simply needed to log out of his account and back in with my own. To my delight, the first thing I saw, was an unread message.

Hello Callum, glad to know my stories have made you feel so inspired.
I’m flattered that you’d like to meet for an autograph. I’d usually say no to such a request, as I’ve had quite a few creeps attempt to meet up with me recently and it’s made me pretty uncomfortable. But seeing as you’re from out of town and only here on vacation, I’ll happily make an exception for you.
When would you be arriving to Michigan? And where? I’m based in Owosso so hopefully you aren’t too far out from there. There’s a McDonald’s not far from me where we can meet, we could make it a lunch & chat sort of thing if you like?
I’d be thrilled to know about you and your life in England, you British have always been interesting to me.
Best wishes, Alex.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a location!” I cheered loudly.

Everyone let out cheers and whoops, and I punched Owosso into Google Maps. After briefly scanning the town to get a gist of the area, I picked a convincing nearby city as my fake place of stay, and then got back to Skype so I could send a reply back to Alex.

Hi again, thank you so much for agreeing to meet up, I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am. Sorry you’ve experienced some creeps troubling you, I guess that’s the downside of having a big reputation online?

I arrived just yesterday actually, so I’d be delighted to meet in a day or two after I’ve settled in, funnily enough I’m not too far from Owosso! I’m in Saginaw to visit some extended family that live by the Wildlife Reserve, that’s totally close enough to come to you. I do love a McDonald’s, so I’d be delighted to meet there for a chat!
This will probably be the highlight of my holiday, I’m absolutely stoked!

“And, send.” I murmured as I finalised the reply.

“So what’s the plan exactly?” Twilight asked.

Humming, I suggested that we took things one step at a time. For starters, we needed to sort out sleeping arrangements for tonight. After that, we needed to wait for Alex to respond, so that I could liaise a time for us to meet up, where I could finally tell him the truth about Rainbow Dash.

“What if he doesn’t believe you? When you meet him?” Dashie inquired, looking anxious.

“Doesn’t matter.” I replied.

Elaborating, I explained that it wasn’t important if he believed me or not, because once I’d met him, we could simply follow him back to his home, where Rainbow could confront him directly. I proposed that from there, we’d let the two of them have a few days together, and I’d give Rommel a call to get him properly on board. Then once he had arrived, we could finally get a move on to the West Coast, and continue our search for the next Orb fragment.
Seeming contented with the plan, everyone gave affirming hums and nods.

“So, is this Rommel person really going to be joining us?” Rarity asked.

“I offered, so the ball’s in his court now. But if he ends up wanting to join us, I think it would be a good thing. Mel’s a decent bloke with a good skill set, and if nothing else, he’s a well-armed ally that we can use.”

Twilight frowned and opened her mouth to speak, but I quickly added that it wouldn’t be a permanent thing. Despite saying this, she still had an objection.

“We’ve come so far without anyone else, I really don’t know how I feel about suddenly travelling with another human who we don’t know. The Princess sent us to you, and you’re all that we need!”

“I um, think I have to agree with Twilight.” Fluttershy murmured, “Meeting someone new and being stuck with them for an unknown length of time sounds pretty scary.”

“Oh come on everypony, it’ll be fun! We get to make a new friend!” Pinkie sang.

“Friendship is magic, right?” Josh said enthusiastically from the driver’s seat.

Rarity suggested that everyone thought practically over thinking emotionally, and that if he was a capable individual whom I trusted, then we should welcome him to the company.

“You’ve never doubted your ability to keep us safe by yourself until now, what’s changed? Is it because of the hotel incident, when you were away with Phoenix?” Twilight asked.

“It’s not that.” I denied, shaking my head.

“Then what is it?” Applejack quizzed, joining in on the conversation.

Looking out the bus window, I reminded the girls of where the next Orb fragment was, and how I’d seen the mysterious island with my own eyes while under the influence of Rarity’s enchantment.

“I have no idea what we’re going to find on that island, but the creature I saw in that vision had big yellow eyes, a lot of teeth, and it was fast. Now, I’ve been thinking about it on-and-off over the past few weeks, the Titans’ Sword was guarded by a kirikan, a creature from the Everfree Forest. Our running theory is that Hawnu Rey’eng put it there, and who’s to say he wouldn’t do something like that again? For all we know, that island is swarming with a whole mob of beasties from your world…”

Unsheathing Vitra 'Aku, I continued to emphasise my point.

“Now I may be pretty good at offing other humans, but if that island has shit that I don’t know how to fight, then I don’t feel confident going into it alone. Not without some guns, and someone trustworthy that’s capable of operating them.”

Sighing and putting the sword away, I relaxed as everyone seemed to agree with the idea after listening to my argument. Twilight eventually conceded and said that Rommel was welcome to accompany us if he wanted to, which thankfully brought the others on-board too.

“For what it’s worth, I’m looking forward to meeting him.” Said Applejack.

“Me too!” Pinkie squealed.

“So what am I, chopped liver?” Josh laughed.

“What does that mean?” Twilight quizzed.

“It’s a saying.” I explained, “Chopped liver is a small dish that’s often cast aside quite quickly for something better. Basically, Josh thinks that Mel is already replacing him as the novelty addition to our quaint little adventuring party.”

At this, Rarity chuckled softly and laid his concern to rest.

“Oh don’t you worry darling, you’re just as important to us! We’d still be stuck in a hotel room without you, and this remarkable carriage of yours.”

“Yeah dude, this is basically a little fortress on wheels!” Dashie added.

“Did I just get officially called darling by Rarity?” Josh gasped, before emitting a squeal of delight.

Giggling, Rarity reflected on how she did indeed say ‘darling’ a lot.

“I remember the first time she called me darling, I had to fight very hard to compose myself.” I laughed.

“You did?” Fluttershy asked.

“Oh yeah, that and the first time Applejack called me Sugarcube.”

“Gosh, I do call everyone that, don’t I?” AJ tutted, shaking her head with amusement.

“You really do.” Rainbow Dash laughed.

“Don’t know why you’re laughing, Rainbow.” I said, “You call everyone dude!”

“What? No I don’t!” Rainbow Dash denied.

“You really do though.” Twilight joined in, “You call everypony dude back home.”

“Can confirm!” Pinkie shouted.

“I’ve genuinely lost count of how many times you’ve called me dude throughout this trip. You even called me dude when we-” I stopped myself, clearing my throat, “Uuh, never mind.”

Tightly pursing her lips and staring at me intensely, Rainbow’s cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Applejack and Rarity both trying their hardest not to burst into laughter, and the others all refused to make eye contact. Needless to say, we all went rather quiet after that, and allowed our driver to properly focus on the road…

A good few hours had passed, and after plenty of small-talk (and a side of napping), we decided to make our first pit-stop, as everyone was direly in need of a toilet break.

“What’s the play here? Should I park at a service station or something?” Josh asked.

“Hm, what if you leave the interstate for a few and drive close to a wooded area? Then everyone can quickly hop off, stretch their legs, do their business, and then we can continue” I suggested.

The plan was set into motion, and after eventually getting to a more secluded road beside some woods, we all hopped off and went our separate ways to relieve ourselves in private. Josh and I got back to the bus first, and we leaned against the outside and chatted for a bit while we waited for the others to get back.

“So you really got to see the inside of Twilight’s mind? With that collar?” He inquired, pointing at my enchanted necklet with one hand, and rubbing at his own throat with the other.

“Yup, and I saved her life while I was at it.” I replied, “Although, it did cost her the ability to use magic.”

“Really? Jeez, I was wondering why she hadn’t used any magic yet. Explain to me what happened again? Pinkie was so erratic earlier that I could barely make any sense of it.”

“That’s Pinkie Pie alright.” I chuckled.

Clearing my throat, I recalled how Hawnu Rey’eng had given me the collars in Portugal, and upon understanding that Twilight had been poisoned by the Fel, and was being tormented by Nah’Lek’s shade, I realised that I would have to help her from the inside, literally. After our fight at the mansion, the unicorn was restrained, and I used the collars to enter her mind.

“Whoa… So, how does that work exactly? Going inside someone’s brain?” Josh breathed.

Tilting my head and puckering my lips, I tried my best to explain how it placed me in a dreamlike forest, with each tree essentially representing a neuron.

“Whatever enchantment lies in those collars, it’s strong.” I said, “Doing stuff in the forest can literally affect the brain on a cellular level. Cut down the right trees, and you could literally put someone in a coma.”

At this point, Josh was staring at me with dinner plates for eyes, he practically looked like a bush baby as he drank in the tale of my metaphysical journey within Twilight’s skull.
I continued to explain how due to the Fel’s corruption, it had transformed her forest into a bitter place, blanketed in everlasting frost and howling winds. Deep within this icy land, lay her mana well, an organ within the brain which stored mana, the very lifeblood of the universe, and the energy source for all magic.

“Since she’d been corrupted,” I continued, “Twilight’s mana well didn’t contain mana as it should. Instead, it contained Fel, which for all intents and purposes, is the evil version of mana. It’s a powerful substance that feeds on life itself. Fel grants the user great power, but it slowly strips away the goodness of their soul and eventually transforms them into a demon.”

“Holy mackerel…” Josh gasped, “Did that happen to Twilight?”

“Almost,” I replied, “I genuinely don’t think she’d have lasted another week, she was a raving lunatic towards the end, full of blind hatred and malice. She literally tried to kill me during our fight, there was barely a shred of the real Twilight left.”

Sighing, I closed my eyes and remembered that god-awful night. From hurling me into trees with her telekinesis, to shooting fireballs that had burned away almost every layer of skin from my chest, the mare had scarred me from head to toe, with every intent to end my life; and I in return, full of rage and grief from Bunnie’s death, had beaten her senseless and probably shattered every rib she had.

Had it not been for the other girls’ cries for me to stop, I honestly couldn’t say if I’d have killed her or not…

By the time I had finished explaining about Nah’Lek’s shade, and at last the purging of Twilight’s mana well, my throat was beginning to itch from all the talking, and yet Josh was still as eager as ever.

“That’s incredible, absolutely incredible! Wow! So what was it like, being in her body? What was it like running on four legs, and not having any hands?”

“Oh, it was so weird at first.” I laughed, “But you get used to it pretty quickly, I just trusted in Twilight’s body and let her muscle memory do half the work for me.”

Humming, Josh looked down, and then spoke softly, his eyes darting from side to side.

“And what was it like, having… You know… Mare parts?”

Raising my eyebrows and blinking rapidly, I found myself caught off-guard by the question. Although in hindsight, it was a perfectly reasonable question for him to ask; who on Earth didn’t ponder about what it felt like to be in the body of the opposite sex, even if for but a moment?
Alas, Josh would find my answer to be rather lacklustre.

“In all honesty mate, I couldn’t tell you. There was so much urgency in my mission that I didn’t stop to take in all the details of the experience. Not to mention the sheer amount of adrenaline that was coursing through me. All my focus was on draining that mana well, the fact I had a female body at the time wasn’t even an afterthought for me.”

To this, Joshua shrugged.

“Well that’s dismaying, but I guess it makes sense.” He replied, tilting his head.

“Dismaying? Dude, I saved Twilight’s life!” I retorted firmly, somewhat irked by his response.

Shaking his head, he quickly backtracked and tried to explain himself.

“No no, I didn’t mean it like that! It’s just, you’re the only dude in existence to swap bodies with a girl, a pony girl for that matter, and you can’t even remember the difference. I just meant that it would have been really cool to know what it was like.”

Exhaling through my nose, I conceded that he had a point.

“Can you go back there? To her mind I mean?”

“Yeah,” I replied, “we’ve visited one another’s minds a handful of times now. Although, we don’t always swap bodies, it seems to happen at random.”

“Well, the next time you do swap bodies with her, you should totally experiment a little. You’d be the only guy in the world to know what it’s like…” Josh encouraged, smirking.

I remained silent and frowned at him, to which he nervously added that it would just be for science. Rolling my eyes and tutting, I forgave his morbidly inquisitive nature and spoke my mind.

“Look, I’m just as curious as the next fellow. But I don’t think it would be right to objectify Twilight’s body like that. Trust me, she’s been used enough.” I said, bitterly spitting those last words like they were poison.

“Okay, but what if she wanted to experiment with your body?” Josh pressed on, “You could do swapsies or something! If Twilight’s anything like she is in the show, you know for a fact she’s curious. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s already thought about it, but just hasn’t brought it up!”

Come to think of it, she had appeared naked the last time we swapped, implying that she had indeed thought about it, even if it was just briefly. Regardless, I shook my head and chose not to tamper with our already very delicate relationship; the last thing I needed was some sort of weird self-exploratory body-swap experiment making things awkward for us.

“Look, I’m not going there.” I told him, putting my foot down, “If she were to ask me, I’d at least consider it. But until then, I’m more than happy just knowing what my own body’s like.”

“Fair enough.” Josh replied, dipping his head.

Eventually, the girls returned to the bus and quickly hopped on. Once we were all comfortable, we got on the move again and continued our long journey to Michigan.

“Right then, it’s about time we got you more prepared to see your dad.” Rarity announced.

“O-kay… Where’s this going?” A very unsure Rainbow Dash murmured back.

“Oh don’t be so sullen, darling! You’ll feel much more confident afterwards.”

Gathering everyone in a circle, Rarity devised that Rainbow Dash should give us some anecdotes about her time with Alex; and between each anecdote, the rest of us could share an account of our own, so we could help normalise the memories she now had.

“Fine, where should I start?” Dashie agreed, awkwardly shuffling her hooves.

“At the beginning!” Pinkie sang.

Pursing her lips, poor Rainbow already looked like she was about to implode, so I tried to ease her into it with a suggestion.

“How about you tell us about bedtimes as a kid? Did you have any bedtime routines? How about sleeping arrangements? Did you have your own bedroom?”

Thankfully, my gentle tone and certain line of questioning was able to blandish her out of her shell, and she finally began to open up.

“Um, well… Starting off, I slept in a crib, not that I remember much of it. When I got a little older, I’d start climbing out and getting into his bed, so for a few years we’d just sleep in the bed together.”

“Aww…” Pinkie sounded off, clutching her chest.

Ignoring her, Dashie continued to explain how they kept that arrangement for quite a few years, until she started to get claustrophobic amidst the bed covers, (that, and her father’s ceaseless cuddling.)
There was in fact a spare room, but it had been used for storage, it was chock-full of boxes and old school things. As an alternative, Rainbow took to sleeping on a recliner in the living room. This suited her just fine, as she preferred having a smaller, firmer place to perch upon, opposed to having a big soft bed to swallow her up.

“That’s the pegasus in you alright.” Twilight mused aloud.

“Um, but I’m a pegasus and I really enjoy cuddling. Especially in big warm nests.” Fluttershy pointed out.

“Yeah, but you’re you.” I teased.

Attempting to hide her knowing grin by looking down at her hooves, Fluttershy admitted that I had a point, which brought forth giggles and chuckles from the lot of us. Once the laughter had died down, Rainbow continued to explain how Alex had chosen to sleep on the couch to keep her company in the living room. This is something that continued until he eventually cleared out the spare room, and bought her a real bed for herself.

It was awfully strange to hear the mare’s retelling of her childhood like this, for I already knew all this information, albeit more simplified. The number of times I had read My Little Dashie was frankly quite embarrassing, I knew every detail. Now here I was, listening to what was essentially the extended edition of the story.

Once she was done talking, everyone else brought up their own sleeping habits as little foals, which ended up being quite bittersweet for poor Applejack; thankfully the farm pony was able to remain selflessly positive through her reminiscing, keeping the priority on Rainbow Dash.
I in turn, talked about my night-time quirks as an infant, along with how Clifford had been such a patient and attentive father back in the day. Following that, I decided to ask something that had been bothering me since learning of her dad’s real name.

“So, on the internet, the guy has almost always referred to himself as Rob, despite his name being Alex. Have you got any idea about why he does that?”

“Yeah, that’s just something silly. He used to play online video games with some friends, and they had a little group together, a clan I think it was called. My memory’s still a little fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure it was called the Republic of Bacon, or something like that. It basically had the letters R-O-B for short, and he used it in all his internet names, so people started calling him Rob, and he stuck with it.”

“Huh, so it’s just an acronym. How interesting…” I murmured.

With that mystery put to bed, we continued coaxing more Earthly childhood memories out of the pegasus, and the more she told us, the more perky she became. Soon enough, the stories and anecdotes practically came tumbling out of her! Rarity’s idea had worked flawlessly, and she knew it, for the pearly unicorn sat there comfortably with a very contented smile on her face.

A good forty or so minutes had passed, and with her hooves dancing in the air, Dashie had now completely come to life, excitedly gushing about her fifteen years on this planet as Alex’s daughter; it was truly wonderful to see the mare back to her old self again.

“Okay, so when we finally moved away from the city, dad had quite a lot of extra money. At this point, I was old enough to watch him play video games, and I really wanted to join in. So after doing a load of research and stuff, he got me my very own Xbox, with this really cool controller that you could change around. Like, you could plug different things into it and they’d act like the buttons of a normal controller.”

“Holy shit, that’s awesome!” I exclaimed, genuinely taken aback.

“Yeah, it allowed me to play a bunch of games! There were loads of custom-made buttons and stuff that I could use with my hooves, my mouth, and even my wings! It took me ages to learn how to use it, but I eventually got really good!”

Once she’d finished talking about her gaming experience, she went on to talk about her dad’s impressive collection of VHS tapes, including the original Titanic, which came on two separate tapes that you had to switch out halfway through the film.

“Wasn’t the Titanic that massive ship that hit an iceberg and sunk?” Twilight asked.

“How’d you know that?” I inquired, tilting my head.

“I remember reading about it in Humanity's Tragedies, it was one of your books back in England. It described the Titanic as the deadliest peacetime sinking of an ocean liner or cruise ship, over fifteen-hundred people died.” She elaborated, grimacing.

“Hang on, that’s how it ends?” Rainbow Dash blurted out, “Dad never let me watch the second tape, he said it was just full of boring mushy stuff and that they all lived happily ever after! You’re telling me after all that, the boat sank!?”

Dashie shook her head in disbelief, before giving a bemused huff.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting that.”

After giving her a few seconds to process, I changed the subject and asked if she had really performed a sonic rainboom here on Earth. Immediately springing back to life, she sat back and crossed her hooves.

“Yep! Easily one of the coolest days of my life.”

“Damn, that’s mental…” I sighed, hanging my head low.

As though she could read my mind, Twilight spoke up and suggested that she and I could pay a visit to her brain with the collars at some point. From there, she could perhaps find a way to replay the memory of when Dashie performed one in Cloudsdale, which would allow me to witness one for myself.

“That’s an excellent idea!” Rarity cheered.

“It really is quite something to see…” Applejack added.

“You really think that would work?” I hummed.

“Well, you were able to recreate your old house last time. We ate nachos in your backyard for crying out loud! If you were able to do that, then I’m sure there’s a way I can recreate a memory of my own too. We’ll just have to experiment with it and find a way to make it work.”

Thanks to Josh’s earlier comments, the last thing I needed to hear was the word ‘experiment’ in the same context as visiting one of our brainscapes; I was more than happy to delay seeing a sonic rainboom until long after I’d forgotten all about the subject of switching bodies and ‘doing swapsies’, as he had so eloquently put it.

“It’s a good idea for sure, but let’s put a pin in it for now.” I said, before swiftly changing topics, “So Josh, how far do you think we’ll get today? It might be worth looking into where we’re staying tonight.”

“Well, it’ll probably start getting dark by the time we get through Pittsburgh, so we could stay somewhere between there and Cleveland?” He suggested.

“That works.” I concurred.

From there, we discussed the two choices available to us; we could either sneak into a hotel again like we had in Ocean City, or we could all sleep in the bus together in a less densely populated area, which had a lower chance of the girls getting seen.

“Uh, do you think we can all fit in this bus together?” Twilight pointed out.

“Oh there’s tons of space, it’ll be fine!” I scoffed.

“I don’t know, I’d feel pretty uncomfortable if we all had to sleep so close together.” Fluttershy murmured.

We all knew immediately that she wasn’t referring to physical comfort. It was obvious that she was anxious at the thought of sleeping in such a tightly packed space with Josh included, which made sense as he was still somewhat of a stranger to her. Much to my surprise, Josh very thoughtfully proposed that we could park close to a motel, and that he could stay in a room there while the rest of us slept in the bus. Although I felt a little bad for essentially hijacking his vehicle, I took him up on the offer, as it would make the girls more comfortable.

Scanning Google Maps for somewhere within Josh’s budget, I eventually found a modest little highway hotel called the EconoLodge, just on the outskirts of a city by the name of Akron. The place had free parking and Wi-Fi, so I would be able to continue talking to Alex and organise a meetup.

“Job’s a good'un!” I declared.

After adjusting the GPS to direct us to the EconoLodge, I passed the phone back to Josh, and we continued on what had been thus far, a most enjoyable road trip.

The sun had set, and after a couple more toilet breaks and a fuel stop, we soon closed in on the city of Akron. Seeing as it didn’t cost anything extra for a room with two single beds, I offered to board the night in the lodge with Josh; I felt like it would be nice to give him some company, especially seeing as he had so selflessly become our personal free taxi service across the whole bloody country. As a plus, it would also give the girls a little break from humans for a bit.

“What if people try to look into the bus in the night?” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

“Not to worry, darling. I can handle that issue.” Rarity responded.

I gestured for her to elaborate, to which she explained that she was capable of a spell that could tint glass.

“Why the heck do you have a spell like that?” I asked, bewildered.

“Because dear, I’m a fashion designer. Occasionally, I’ll include faux gemstones in some of my more affordable stock, which are made of glass. Before I order real stained glass for the final product, I’ll use clear glass and tint it with the spell, so I know if the colours clash or not.”

Holding my hands up, I admitted that it was a very valid use for such a spell.

“It won’t stain them permanently, right?” Josh asked, somewhat nervously.

“Not at all, darling! The spell lasts for about nine hours, give or take, and I can always force it to wear off sooner too.”

With that issue sorted, there was little else to discuss. Soon enough we arrived at the EconoLodge, and it was a lot nicer looking than I’d expected. Fastening my collar back onto my neck, I told Twilight to stay in touch and that I’d be just a few yards away from her.

“We’ll be fine, go have a good night.” She replied, smiling warmly.

“And thank you Josh, for letting us stay in the bus while you sleep elsewhere.” Said Rarity.

“Yeah, it’s highly appreciated!” Applejack added.

Josh insisted that it was no problem, and clambered out of the driver’s seat, but not before reaching into his glove box and retrieving a revolver.

“Holy shit, you have a gun!?” I blurted out.

“Yup, this here’s my Peacekeeper, the lawman’s gun of the Wild West, still fully operational!”

“Impressive.” I hummed.

After clarifying that he had a permit for the firearm, he put on the accompanying holster and put the weapon away. We hopped off the bus, and with one last goodnight to the girls, Josh locked the doors and Rarity cast her tinting spell; all the windows grew darker and darker, until it was completely impossible to see within the vehicle.

“Whoa, that’s amazing.” Josh breathed.

“Never gets old, magic.” I agreed.

We headed into the foyer together and booked a room with the receptionist, she gave us a key and we found our way to the room, which was actually rather nice for such a cheap hotel.

“Here I was, expecting blood-stained mattresses and a corpse under the bed.” I chuckled.

Laughing, Josh and I took our shoes off and got comfortable. He decided to take a shower, and I took the opportunity to use his phone to see if Alex had responded, which thankfully he had.

“Excellent!” I said to myself, reading the reply.

Oh cool, Saginaw’s a nice place from what I’ve heard.
Well, if you really don’t mind making your way down from there, how about we meet on Saturday at around two-pm? It’s the McDonald’s at Six-O-One, West Main Street.
Does that work for you?

Not hesitating for a moment to reply, I quickly confirmed that Saturday at two o’clock worked perfectly, and that I very much looked forward to meeting him. He was still online, and got back to me immediately.

Great, see you then. Oh and just so you know who to look for, I’ll be wearing a cap, a button-up shirt, Dickies work pants, and suspenders.

I hadn’t a clue what Dickies work pants were exactly, but I was sure to keep the suspenders in mind. In turn, I told him what I’d be wearing, and I wrapped up the brief conversation with another bout of excessive thanks, which he ended up not replying to.

“Man, I am nailing this annoying fanboy act.” I hissed to myself, grinning.

Saturday, that was just two days away. The day after tomorrow, we’d finally meet the man who fathered Rainbow Dash for fifteen years, and kept her safe all throughout. How the man had kept her hidden for such a long amount of time baffled me, he must have been an incredibly meticulous individual.

I was about to reach out to Twilight and give her the good news, when she reached out to me first.

{Hey uh, Callum? Can I ask you something, about Josh?}

{That’s funny, I was just about to tell you the good news! Alex has just confirmed a time to meet up, we’ll be seeing him on Saturday, just two days from now.}

{Oh that’s fantastic news, I’ll tell the others in a moment!} She cheered.

{So what’s this about Josh then?} I inquired.

{Well, it’s a bit awkward… We’re all trying to get comfortable right now, and Pinkie went to the back of the bus to look for an extra pillow or something, and uh…}

Pulling an awkward face as Twilight paused, I had a haunting feeling that Pinkie had found something of a more provocative nature, and what she said next all but confirmed it.

{Is he… Is he, like… Attracted to us?}

Inhaling through my nose and then sighing, I most certainly didn’t want to worsen the situation by saying that he was; but knowing the kind of person that Josh was, I couldn’t outright say that he wasn’t.

{Um, I would say attracted is the wrong word…} I began.

{Go on?}

Choosing my next words very carefully, I tried to rationalise things with her.

{Okay, well as you’ve probably guessed by now, even with your limited contact with humans, Josh is a bit of a quirky fellow compared to others. He’s a good person, no doubt about that, but he’s an oddball that doesn’t fit in with most crowds. Watching the My Little Pony cartoon is a huge source of solace for him, as it once was for me, so I would say that he’s grown quite attached to you girls as comfort characters.}

{So, it’s more like having a celebrity crush or something?} Twilight suggested, also trying to rationalise it.

{Yeah, that’s a great way of putting it! He’s spent a lot of time seeing you girls on a screen, and it’s brought him a lot of happiness. So he’s just become a bit, well… As I say, attached.}

{I see… Well I guess that makes sense, awkward as it may be.}

Rife with curiosity, I simply had to inquire.

{So uh, what is it exactly that Pinkie found?}

{It’s a life-size plush of Fluttershy.}

Thankfully, Twilight wasn’t there in person to see me put and hand to my mouth and break into silent laughter. With bulging eyes, I tried my hardest to maintain a serious tone with her.

{When you say life-size…}

{Oh I’m not joking, Callum. It’s as big as we are.}

Keeling forward and vigorously fighting the laughs, I pictured what the girls had just come across, along with the absolute horror in their faces. Awkward as it might have been for them, there was no denying that this was funny as hell, at least to me it was.

{Well, at least it wasn’t a dakimakura…} I thought.

{Say again?} Said Twilight.

I went on to explain how dakimakuras were a type of body pillow that had the print of someone on it, usually a fictional character, and often in sultry poses.

{Oh, yeah... I’ve seen something similar to that at a Daring Do convention once.}

After a moment of silence, Twilight told me that Fluttershy was (quite understandably) freaking out over the whole ordeal, and was scared that Josh would try to ‘get it on’ with her or something.

{Look, he’s not that type of guy.} I assured her, {He’s just a lonely oddball, and the cartoon version of Fluttershy helped him feel less alone. Remember that just a few days ago, he didn’t even know that you all really existed. You were fictional characters, that brought him a great deal of comfort. Surely you can understand that?}

I sensed that Twilight was about to respond, when I added that I had once been in Josh’s shoes; My Little Pony had been something that comforted me greatly, and when my living situation turned from bad to worse, it was that damn cartoon that had kept me going. Despite being abused for years by that vile wretch of a fake mother, and enduring my relentless depression, I had been able to cling on to life through dumb fantasies of going to Equestria one day, and living alongside my pony friends.
Whether it was partying and pranking with Pinkie and Dashie, helping Applejack on the farm, tending to animals with Fluttershy, trying on fancy outfits with Rarity, or stargazing on a balcony with Twilight, there was no denying that my life had been saved by the show, and I wasn’t afraid to admit that anymore.

{Callum, that’s…}

{Yeah I know, it’s dumb and pathetic, but that’s the truth. So if you’re going to judge Josh, then you have to judge me in the same light. Because I wanted to wrap my arms around you, long before I knew you were real.}

Where my burst of sentiment had come from, I didn’t know, but I was glad that I’d been honest about this with someone, even if it meant confessing something so abnormal, and well, sad.
And yet, Twilight’s response was not of mockery, nor of pity.

{Cal, that’s so sweet…}

Remaining silent, I blinked rapidly in confusion. Sensing my bewilderment, she continued.

{Come on, how many hopeless romantics have been spurred on by dreams of the lover they’ll never hold? How many of the destitute push on in desire of the riches they’ll never have? And how many storybooks do you think are written by those who wish to be sucked into the pages, and become part of the tale?
Everyone fantasises, Callum, and you’re no different from any of them. And for what it’s worth, nor is Josh.}

I released a heavy sigh at these validating words, and try as I might to stop it, my lips began to quiver with emotion as Twilight continued.

{Impossible desires are what drive so many of us, and that’s okay, just so long as you don’t lose yourself to them. There’s no wrong way to fantasise, and that includes wrapping your arms around some silly cartoon version of me.}

I sniffed loudly, and wiped at the tears in my eyes.

{But hey, now that you’ve hugged the real me, I’ve got to ask… Did I meet your expectations?}

Bursting into a great tearful grin, I told her that she’d not only met them, but exceeded them beyond anything my stupid brain could ever conjure.

{I had a feeling, I give good hugs.} She giggled.

{It’s true.} I chuckled in agreement, still wiping my eyes.

Josh at long last got out of the shower, so I decided to wrap things up with Twilight before he came out of the bathroom.

{So, think you can sort out this plushie situation?} I asked.

{I’ll handle it, go get some sleep.}

{Thanks Twi, goodnight.}

{Goodnight Cal.}

I shuddered, for some reason that ‘goodnight Cal’ had struck me in some way. Before I could dwell on it further, Josh opened the bathroom door and torrents of steam came billowing forth; it looked as though Darth Vader was about to step out, with how obscured Josh’s silhouetted body was amidst the illuminated haze.

“Dude, did you leave any hot water for me?”

“Oh, you wanted a shower too?” He chortled innocently, “Sorry, I take pretty long ones.”

“Don’t you just…” I droned, rolling my eyes.

Getting up, I went over and playfully shoved him aside to get into the bathroom.

“If this water’s cold, Celestia help me.” I tutted, shutting the door.

“Sorry!” Josh’s muffled voice called out.

Stripping down and unclipping the collar, I hopped into the shower. By some bloody miracle, there was still some hot water left, and I quickly got to work on lathering up before it ran out. As the water cascaded over me, I spent some time reflecting on everything Twilight had said, smiling warmly and feeling a whole lot more comfortable with the person I used to be, before this adventure began.

As I rubbed shampoo into my hair, my thoughts drifted to Alex and Rainbow Dash. It was then that something quite odd began to dawn on me; I realised that the My Little Dashie story had surfaced on the internet years ago, back in Two-Thousand-and-Eleven.

“That doesn’t make sense…” I murmured, massaging at my scalp.

If fifteen years had past, Alex must have started raising her from at least the year two-thousand, which couldn’t have made any sense either, as his story explicitly mentioned the two of them watching My Little Pony together, with Alex even mentioning how the show itself eventually stopped airing!
However I looked at it, it just didn’t make any sense.

“Unless…” I whispered.

My eyes flashed wide open, and I dropped the bottle of shampoo in shock. The realisation washed over me just as the now-lukewarm water did; there was only one way all of this could have been possible.

Alex had been to the future.

---

Comments

[PonyJoe1]

I shuddered, for some reason that ‘goodnight Cal’ had struck me in some way.

I think it strikes Callum in the same way it struck me as a reader.
I realised that it wasn't just a "Goodnight Cal." - It was an "I love you."

Let me explain, because I don't explicitly mean romantic love, (there's obviously a much more complicated relationship at play here), but there's evidently so much LOVE in her voice with those last two words, backed up by her use of an affectionate nickname by calling him Cal, (just like how Bunnie used to call him Callie).

You've got to remember how much they've been through together. These two absolutely HATED each other at the beginning of all this, along with Twilight being totally terrified of him at times. And now here we are, almost a year later, with Twilight whispering goodnight into his mind, with enough love to overfeed a goddamn changeling.

I think it struck Callum so hard because Twilight basically just told him that she loves him.
And he FELT it.

[Soulless Soldier]

Oh boy, we are getting into some time travel timey-wimey type stuff here. Won't lie tho, took me faaar too long to piece together and make sense of those final three paragraphs 😂. Honestly can't say I completely understand the current timeline to the timeframe being referenced for Alex but I think I sort of got it.....I think. Oh well, time will tell (no pun intended)

Or are we playing some Multi-verse type shit here?? Like Dash has memories of a life she had but it's not THIS ALEX that she has memories with. In This Universe, what Alex wrote was pure fiction, a fan story, but in the memories and Universe Dash has memories for, (and the same one Callum knows) THAT story written by Alex was written as a retelling of true events and their lives! That could also explain why the timelines don't currently match up.... Oh man, this is burning my brain with excitement, this is either gonna go up in awkward smoke for Dash, Cal, and Alex or we really will be dealing with a time-traveler.

But then that makes me wonder. Why would Alex go BACK in time? Unless, this is the same dude and he is a traveler (but maybe not by choice), and after those 15 years of raising Dash, Celestia and the gang came and picked up Dash, and They sent him back to 2011 where he then typed up his story with Dash so he wouldn't ever forget their time together. AHH, too many possibilities right now! Cant wait to see how this plays out

[MikiStenbeck]

oh that's wonderful, an upload of both this and this is just perfect, :D

[ForgottenOne]

Another great chapter. I love reading this and I may just reread everything for the fun of it

[Mister Horncastle]

11591526
I'm really glad you're enjoying my story!

If you were to re-read it, you'd be in for a very different story in Book 1.
I'm only up to Chapter Twelve as far as the changes go, but over the past few months I've been remastering the first entry to The Titans' Orb. Being a much better writer than I was 10 years ago, I've wanted to make the first entry to The Titans' Orb something I'm truly proud of, so as the months go by, I've been making some very significant alterations; there's been some vast changes to the dialogue, and a handful of scenes have been completely rewritten.
My aim is to make the first book more refined and engaging for new readers, and different enough for my long-time readers to get a completely fresh experience if they ever decide to start the story from the beginning again.

[Mister Horncastle]

11588628
I found this comment of yours to be rather profound, I'm genuinely humbled by how deeply you've thought about this, thank you for taking the time to write it out. 💕
You've most certainly been paying attention.

[ForgottenOne]

11591563
Awesome I love to hear when writers go back and edit their past stories to reflect their current writing skill

[SpadeofGames]

Really enjoying how this story is going so far :D

[Cubot]

Why ima starting to get the feeling that Alex it isn't the one from My little dashy?

At least... No yet?