The Titans' Orb: Breaking Dawn

by Mister Horncastle

Chapter Eighteen: The Reunion

I kept the theory to myself initially, the last thing I needed was Josh bouncing up and down on his bed all night in excitement over the prospect of Alex potentially being a time traveller. I did tell him about the Fluttershy plushie incident though, which he was immediately very apologetic for, as the last thing he wanted was to make anyone feel uncomfortable. With the knowledge that Twilight was going to handle it, we were able to get a decent night’s sleep without much interruption, besides the EconoLodge’s air conditioning turning the room into something of an icy tundra for no good reason. Once I’d switched it off though, Josh and I slept well, and awoke in the morning at roughly the same time.

“You sure they won’t be mad at me?” Josh asked, still nervous about the girls finding the plushie.

“I’m sure Twilight’s handled it, it’ll be fine mate.” I assured him, getting properly dressed.

I tried reaching out to the unicorn via the collars, but upon receiving no reply, it was clear to me that she was still asleep. After helping ourselves to the instant coffee in the room, we checked out and left the building. As not to spook the girls too badly, I gave the side of the bus a few knocks of increasing volume, letting them know that it was me.

“Good morning, ladies!” I called out as Josh unlocked the doors.

I winced intensely as my vision was briefly replaced with bright flashes, bloodstained snow, and glimpses of Nah’Lek. There was a loud yelp from within, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that Twilight had been having one of her Spookies. The thin line between dreaming and waking had transferred over the collars to me, as it had done so in the past for us.

“Hey, Twilight! It’s okay, you’re just having a bad dream!” Applejack called out.

{If only it was just a bad dream…} I thought, full of sorrow.

{Yeah, tell me about it…} Twilight’s bitter voice resonated from within my head.

Josh opened the doors and then jumped back in shock, gasping loudly. I looked in and immediately burst into raucous laughter upon seeing what had spooked him. The life-size Fluttershy plushie stood in the doorway, staring lifelessly out at us.

“Ha! Got’cha!” Pinkie giggled.

“Okay, I’ll admit it, that got me good!” Josh laughed.

“I take it you girls got over the shock then?” I chuckled, hopping onto the bus with him.

I went over to check on Twilight while Rarity answered me.

“Oh, we ended up having such a laugh over it. Yes it was a little strange at first, but once we got over the initial shock and had a long conversation about it, we found it most amusing!”

“Well, I’m glad you were able to see the funny side in it.” I grinned, giving Twilight a thankful smile, knowing full-well that it was her that had helped them come to terms with it.

“Heck yeah we did, Fluttershy sat next to it for like an hour while we talked, and Pinkie kept getting the two of them switched up!” Cackled Rainbow Dash.

“They look the same, alright!?” Pinkie shrieked, sticking her tongue out.

Rarity’s horn lit up and the tinted windows returned to their usual state. The morning light poured into the bus, which resulted in a very disgruntled groan from Twilight.

“I want coffee.” She grumbled.

“We’ll stop somewhere along the way to get you a coffee.” I replied, lightly patting the mare’s head.

Muttering something under her breath, Twilight curled up and buried her head into her pillow, not yet ready to interact with the world, which was understandable after the Spooky she’d just experienced. Josh gave me a confused look and I mouthed to him that I’d explain later. He nodded and hopped into the driver’s seat, and we prepared to embark once again.

“Can we have a toilet break before getting on the main road? I’m busting.” Applejack requested.

“I’m hardly surprised, the lot of you have been cooped in here all night. Call me psychic, but I’m guessing that you all need to go?” I suggested, which very quickly received frantic nods from everyone.

“You got it!” Josh called out, turning the keys in the bus’s ignition and bringing the vehicle to life.

We pulled out of the car park and were on our way, and after a quick stop on an isolated woodland road to relieve the call of nature, we got onto the main road and resumed our road trip.

After a good twenty or so minutes into the drive, I announced that I had some news to share with the group, they crowded around me with great curiosity.

“Well, it’s less news, and more of a theory that came to me last night in the shower. But honestly, I can’t see how it makes sense any other way.” I said.

“Go on?” Rarity insisted.

Clearing my throat, I explained how My Little Dashie had surfaced on the internet back in Two-Thousand-and-Eleven, which couldn’t be possible if some of its elements were taken into account.

“And so, it’s become pretty clear to me, that Alex, travelled through time!” I declared, spreading my hands out in front of me to emphasise the point.

“Say whaaat!?” Josh cried out from the front.

“Surely that can’t be true, can it?” Rarity gasped.

“I don’t know, that’s quite the claim to make.” Twilight tutted, “The functionality of time itself is almost impossible to comprehend, let alone magic capable of altering it.”

“Didn’t you travel back in time? As far as the cartoon depicts it, you went batshit insane because your future self from a week in advance tried to tell you to not go batshit insane.” I pointed out.

“Okay firstly, shut up. Secondly, yes. That was a weaker time spell that thankfully pulls you back to your original time after a short period, I was completely out of my league with that stunt. The Princess was absolutely furious with me! That spell was designed for the brief observation of past events, and nothing more. Oh and thirdly, shut up.”

“Huh, interesting.” Josh remarked.

“Quite.” I agreed.

Twilight continued, elaborating that there were numerous spells that influenced time, but none of them were safe; improper use could cause paradoxes, infinite loops, and fractures, none of which could be rectified without a very strong magic user that knew what they were doing.

“Well, I’m not saying Alex has the know-how to travel through time. I’m suggesting that Princess Celestia possibly took him back to an earlier time after retrieving Rainbow Dash or something. I’m sure if anyone knew how to safely alter time, it would be her.” I said.

“That’s certainly a possibility. I guess we’ll just have to ask him later.” Twilight hummed.

“Man, I can’t wait to find out for sure!” Josh exclaimed, “If you’re right about this, it’ll be so frickin’ cool!”

“Absolutely.” Rarity concurred.

“Oh I couldn’t agree more! It would be, um, so cool!” The Fluttershy plushie sang out in a high-pitched voice, dancing from side to side.

The real Fluttershy then emerged from behind it, giggling to herself like an idiot.

“I see you’ve made friends with your doppelgänger?” I pointed out, chuckling.

Nodding with a grin, Flutters continued to puppet the plushie and perform the silly voice for it.

“We’ve become the best of friends!”

Everyone erupted into laughter, except for Twilight, which reminded me that we should stop for coffee at some point to cheer her up. This ended up working out well, as Josh wanted to stop for fuel in order to refill the additional jerry cans in the bus. We pulled into a service station, and Josh gave me some cash while he filled up the cans. The Starbucks was closed for renovation, so I went into the Chick-Fil-A as that was the only other option. I ordered two white coffees, and seeing as I was hungry, I also ordered their most generic sandwich.

“Special delivery!” I called out upon re-entering the bus.

“Welcome back!” Said Josh, sat in the driver’s seat and munching on a granola bar.

“What is that?” Pinkie called out, pointing at the Chick-Fil-A bag.

“Chimpkin.” I hissed back deviously.

“Wait, that’s chicken meat?” Rainbow Dash asked, her mouth agape.

“Mm-hmm.” I confirmed.

I sat down next to Twilight and passed her coffee to her, then opened the bag, which very quickly filled the bus with the scent of fried chicken. Everyone watched with curiosity as I sank my teeth into the sandwich and clamped my eyes shut, humming merrily to myself at the exquisite flavour.

“Damn, that’s good.” I munched, slouching into the unicorn.

“It smells it, can I have a bite?” She muttered.

Josh whipped around and stared at Twilight in shock, gasping.

“Um, but Twilight, it’s meat!”

Still bitterly reeling from her traumatic night terror, Twilight wasn’t exactly running on her normal morals, her post-Spooky mentality was always that of a depressive one, rife with dry nonchalance.

“Don’t care, smells good, want bite.” She grunted.

“Twi, I’d really rather not risk you having an upset stomach.” I said.

Squinting at me sternly, Twilight made her stance very clear.

“Gib, chimpkin.”

Rolling my eyes and emitting an unsure huff, I tore off a reasonably sized piece of the sandwich and gave it to her. She popped it into her mouth and very clearly enjoyed it just as much as I did, as she sighed heavily and slumped into me, just as I had into her.

“Chimpkin good.” She mumbled, savouring the morsel.

“Yes, and also not for otherworldly herbivores.” I tutted, “Too much meat could seriously screw up your digestive system you know?”

“I learned that lesson the hard way, I’m never touching fish again.” Applejack chuckled.

“Yeah, no kidding.” Rainbow Dash agreed, “Those farts of yours traumatised me more than Brazil did!”

After almost choking to death on my coffee from laughing, I explained to a very curious Joshua how I’d let everyone try some fish during our time at sea, which had not agreed with the farm pony whatsoever.

“Dang, that’s hilarious.” He giggled, starting up the bus once more.

We got back onto the main road, and with some coffee and a bite of ‘chimpkin’ in her belly, Twilight’s mood began to improve, much to the relief of everyone else onboard; despite how supportive everyone had been with Twilight, there was no secret that her low moods still put everyone on edge. Deep down, they still feared her, and I hated that fact…

Hours passed, and after a plethora of naps, toilet breaks, riveting conversation, and cheerful singsong, we were finally closing in on Owosso just as the sun was beginning to set. Along the way, we had decided to all sleep in the bus together, opposed to finding another hotel; Josh was most pleased at this news, as he’d already spent far more money than he’d expected to on this journey, which I had admittedly felt a little guilty about. We were parked in an isolated lay-by near some farmland, the chances of people walking by were practically zilch, so we decided that it wasn’t necessary for Rarity to tint the windows again.

“To think, this time tomorrow…” Twilight mused, looking out at the cloudy night sky.

“Ugh, I’m so anxious!” Rainbow Dash groaned, burying herself into her hooves.

“C’mon, you’ll be fine.” I assured her, nudging the pegasus with my elbow, “Don’t forget, he doesn’t even know you’re here yet. The guy’s probably going to be a whole lot more lost for words than you are.”

“That’s true.” Applejack agreed.

“You’ll be okay Dashie, I’m with you every step of the way!” Sang the Fluttershy plushie.

“Okay Flutters, you’ve really got to cut that out.” I laughed.

We all had a little chortle together, and then got ourselves comfortable. Rarity and Pinkie Pie slept on one of the couch seats, Applejack and Rainbow Dash slept on the other; Josh slept closer to the back, shamelessly holding onto the Fluttershy plushie, meanwhile the real Fluttershy piled up in the middle with me and Twilight.

“Do you guys normally sleep like this?” Asked Josh.

“Not often, it depends on the situation.” Rarity replied, “We have three camping tents which we like to split up in, but we’re happy piling up together when the circumstance demands it.”

“The circumstance has demanded it quite a lot.” Dashie added, chuckling.

Humming, Josh suggested that the girls must have grown a lot closer over this adventure, which everyone was in full agreement that they had, which now very affectionately included me as well. As though to emphasise the point, Fluttershy and Twilight both nestled into me as we got ourselves more comfortable, which brought forth a less-than subtle sigh of envy from Josh; I huffed with fond amusement and rolled my eyes, before slowly closing them and allowing the call of slumber to come to me.

I was woken by the light of the early morning sun, as it emerged from the horizon and poured into the bus. The only noteworthy sounds were the heavy breathing of the sleeping bodies around me, and the faint birdsong outside. It then dawned on me that Fluttershy was no longer amongst Twilight and myself, and I had to do a triple-take to realise where she had gone; at first it seemed like she had gone to sleep by herself near one of the couch seats, but on closer inspection, I realised that it was the bloody plushie. The real Fluttershy, most bewilderingly, had taken the plushie’s place! The pegasus was contently nestled into Josh, with his arm draped over her middle.

{Huh, well I wasn’t expecting that…} I thought to myself.

Rarity was the next to wake, her eyes slowly blinked open and I dipped my head to her in silent greeting. She reciprocated the gesture, and then upon noticing Fluttershy’s whereabouts, did the exact same triple-take I had done. Looking back to me, she mouthed “Did you see her go over there?”, to which I shook my head and mouthed back that I had no idea when it had happened.

One by one, the girls woke up and all did multiple takes at Fluttershy, all except for Pinkie, whom still could not tell the difference.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting that.” Twilight whispered to me.

“I thought the exact same thing.” I hissed back.

At last, Flutters was roused from sleep, which we attributed to light levels and birdsong, and definitely not from the six of us intently staring at her in disbelief; the mare immediately went beetroot red and gave a sheepish grin. Josh woke soon after and released the pegasus, he sat bolt upright and slapped his cheeks to properly wake up.

“Oh, hello everyone!” He sang cheerily.

“Gee, I wonder what’s got you so chipper this morning.” I deadpanned, smirking.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He giggled.

Getting up properly, Josh professed that he needed the bathroom and unlocked the bus in order to find a nearby bush, and the second he was gone, we all whipped round to stare at Fluttershy again.

“So, care to explain?” Said Rarity.

“Well, um, y-you see… Okay, I just felt like it would be nice of me, okay?” She began, practically babbling her words at first, “It’s pretty obvious that he’s very fond of me, and so I just thought, it might be nice to give him the opportunity to cuddle the real thing for one night, instead of that plushie! He’s obviously very lonely, so I decided to pluck up the courage to give him something he’ll never forget. Now please stop judging me!”

Stamping her hoof, Fluttershy then hid beneath her mane, unable to handle our gaze any longer; Twilight stepped forward and de-escalated the situation, calming the pegasus down.

“Hey, we’re not judging you, we were just caught off-guard, that’s all, I promise! And actually, I think it’s really brave of you, just yesterday you were feeling really uncomfortable around him. You pushed past something that was giving you a lot of anxiety, and did something really kind in the process!”

The rest of us chipped in, telling her that she should be proud of herself, and that there wasn’t a shred of judgement coming from us. Upon hearing our words of reassurance, Fluttershy quickly began to relax, so much in fact that she boldly admitted that she had actually enjoyed Josh’s close company.

“It reminded me of those early days when Callum and I shared a tent together, before we went to Portugal. I guess, um, I forgot how nice it was, to be held at night.” She sighed.

“That’s actually adorable.” Applejack tutted, smiling warmly.

Changing the subject, Pinkie chimed in.

“Can I just say, I have no idea what’s going on here! Is this still about the fake Fluttershy? Because it’s right there, guys!” She shrieked, pointing a hoof at the very real Fluttershy.

We all shook our heads and Rainbow Dash seized the pink pony to playfully ruffle her mane. Josh then returned, and we all acted as casually as possible. He hopped into the driver’s seat and I came to stand beside him.

“Right everyone, we need to plan exactly what we’re doing here. If Alex doesn’t believe me when I tell him about Dashie, chances are he’ll probably take off. We need to make absolutely sure that we don’t lose him if he drives away or something. So, any suggestions?” I stated openly.

“I could fly above the clouds and watch him from above?” Rainbow suggested.

“That could work.” Josh concurred, nodding.

“Hm, but what if there aren’t many clouds? And what if you get spotted when you take off?” Twilight speculated, frowning.

“And, how would you know which car is your dad’s? You could accidentally get vehicles mixed up while you’re following him, and then he’s gone.” I added.

Shrugging, Dashie grumbled that it was just a suggestion.

“It was a good one!” I assured her, “I just want to make sure we do this right, so that there are no chances of losing him. If only we had a tracking device or something…”

Snapping his fingers, Josh loudly emitted an almighty “Ah-hah!”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re about to provide us with a solution.” I said.

Opening the bus’s glove box, he pulled out a secondary mobile phone.

“What if you could hide this in his car? And I tracked it using Find My Phone?”

I raised my eyebrows, that was actually a really damn good idea.

“Josh, that’s actually brilliant! But why the hell do you have two phones?”

“Oh, I’ve got three actually. I play a lot of Ingress, so I made three accounts and bought a couple of extra phones, so I can capture portals and stuff really easily.”

“Fair one.” I hummed, “Follow-up question, what the bloody hell is Ingress?”

Beckoning everyone to come and have a look, Josh opened Ingress on his main phone and explained how it was a GPS-based mobile game, where you could join one of two teams, and had to go around capturing portals, which appeared at real-world landmarks and significant public buildings.

“It’s basically a giant digital game of Capture the Flag, and the whole world is the playing field!” He finished, closing the app.

“That’s so awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

The rest of us agreed that the game was nothing short of a marvel, and that it was something truly innovative and unique.

“Yeah, shame it won’t be for long though.” Josh sighed.

“What do you mean?” Asked Twilight.

“Well, the makers of Ingress are collaborating with The Pokémon Company, and they’re basically going to release a game just like it, called Pokémon Go. Instead of capturing portals, you go around catching Pokémon. It’s set to release in just two months. Well, if the beta tests go well.”

“That sounds pretty cool actually, I’ve always enjoyed a bit of Pokémon.” I murmured.

“Yeah, I guess it’s going to be good.” Josh admitted, “I just really hope it doesn’t mean they’ll ditch Ingress, because I love this game to bits.”

“I guess time will tell.” I shrugged.

Josh plugged in the second phone to make sure its battery was charged, and then double-checked that its location services were running, so that we could trace it using Find My Phone.

“What if we can’t get it inside his car?” He quizzed.

“I don’t know, duct tape it to the underside?” I suggested, “Or up inside one of the wheel arches?”

At this, Josh nodded.

“That’ll work.”

I speculated that we’d have to stop by a hardware store on the way then, in order to buy some tape that was strong enough to do the job. But in his seemingly unending resourcefulness, Josh revealed that he already had some duct tape stored in the bus. With that, I clapped my hands together and smirked.

“Well then, let’s go and scope out this McDonald’s.”

It didn’t take long to drive over there, and thankfully it had a decently sized car park.

“Here I was thinking we’d have to park across the street by that funeral home. This is perfect!” Josh cheered.

“Yeah, well let’s not stop here just yet. We still have a few hours to kill, and we don’t need anyone getting suspicious at a big black bus parked by a Maccies for ages.” I replied, thinking ahead.

Nodding, we continued to drive past and circled around until we were back where we had slept the night. Josh and I spent the spare time educating the girls about what Pokémon was, as they had been curious about it from the moment Josh had mentioned it earlier.

“It’s a shame Equestria doesn’t have DVD players or anything like that. Otherwise Callum could send you home with a few Pokémon box sets or something.”

“I’m sure we’ll survive.” Rarity replied blankly, obviously not that keen on the anime’s premise.

Fluttershy too, wasn’t much of a fan after being told what it was about; this hardly surprised me, seeing as Pokémon’s entire plot, both in the games and in the anime, was to capture wild creatures and force them to brutally fight against one another until one collapses from exhaustion and injury.

“Man, when you really think about it, Pokémon is seriously messed up.” I laughed.

“I guess that’s one way of looking at it.” Josh muttered, clearly very invested in it.

After a little more chit-chat about various topics, it was finally nearly time for my meeting with Alex; the bus revved to life, and we were once again on the move. Sitting beside Rainbow Dash, I put an arm around her and kept her calm as her anxiety started getting the better of her.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay.” I whispered into her ear.

“It feels like my heart’s going to pop…” She said quietly, her voice lightly shaking.

“Alright, well just remember that it’s not going to pop.” I gently replied, “We’re just going for a little drive, and then I’m going to get out and have a little chat with your dad. Chances are, he’s going to drive away, and then we’re going to go pay him a visit.”

Stroking my thumb back and forth across her shoulder, I lowered my head and was able to lure some eye contact from her.

“Look around, all your friends are all here, and we’re going to be with you every step of the way, and that’s a promise. You’ve got this, Dashie.”

Gulping, the pegasus gave me a weak nod and tried to steel herself. Twilight approached me and inquired as to whether I’d be wearing my collar or not, to which I shook my head.

“I don’t want him thinking I’m a total weirdo the second he sees me.” I chuckled, “I’ll leave Vitra ‘Aku on the bus as well, I hardly see myself needing it.”

Nodding, Twi sat back down and left me to continue comforting Rainbow Dash. Shortly after, we were back in central Owosso, and Josh pulled into the McDonald’s car park. I sucked in a large breath of air, before releasing it all in one loud huff.

“Alright guys, here we are, the moment of truth.”

We all peered out of the side windows, and Rainbow Dash almost immediately emitted a shaken gasp; she opened her mouth to speak, but not even a breath could escape her lips as her jaw quivered. Following her gaze, I saw a man stood beside a pickup truck, wearing a red and black plaid cap, a button-up shirt, suspenders, and what I could only guess were Dickies work pants.

It was him.

“D… Da… D-Da…” Rainbow stammered, her eyes already welling up with tears.

“Alright, alright…” Applejack cooed to her, pressing up against Dashie for support.

“He drives around in that?” Josh scoffed, rubbing the back of his neck.

Taking a closer look, I could totally understand Josh’s attitude; the pickup truck Alex had arrived in was a rusty old silver Chevrolet, lightly garnished in dents and scratches.

“Dash, I know you said Alex was a trash picker, but I didn’t think you meant his cars.”

I got a laugh out of Pinkie and Josh, but the others all scowled at me, to which I cleared my throat and cut it out; I was only trying to lighten the mood, but it hadn’t gone down too well.

“You know what? The pickup truck works perfectly!” Josh pointed out, “Now we don’t need to duct tape the phone underneath or anything, we can just put it in the back.”

“Ooh, good thinking!” Rarity praised.

“Top man, you’ve just made your job easier.” I said, giving his arm an affirming pat.

“Wait, m-my job? What do you mean?”

“Well I can’t do it, can I? I’m not going to just walk over there, say hello, and then slip a phone into his truck right in front of him. I need you to do it once we go inside.” I explained.

“Gosh, uh, right, okay!” He agreed, clearly nervous.

“You’ll be fine mate. Once I get inside the building with him, just hurry over there and pop it in, then get back to the bus and job’s a good'un.”

Nodding, Josh mentally prepared himself for the task; he also handed me some cash for the McDonald’s, which I thanked him for. I took one last look at the girls and grinned.

“Well, off I go.” I said as Josh opened the doors for me.

Everyone wished me luck, except for Rainbow Dash, who was still completely shell-shocked. I gave her a sympathetic smile and stepped out of the bus. I went around the back and distanced myself from the vehicle, not wanting Alex to see where I had come from. Taking a deep breath and steadying my racing heart, I made my way across the car park and we made eye contact; he realised it was me and immediately broke into a friendly smile, striding towards me with confidence. Holy shit, this was really happening, I was actually meeting the Alex Griffin himself, in the flesh!

“Callum, right?” He inquired upon finally reaching me, extending his hand.

“That’s me.” I replied, accepting the hand and giving it a hearty shake.

Now that he was up close, I was able to inspect the man properly, and he wasn’t what I imagined at all; I had always pictured Rainbow’s father as this tall, slim, well-built fellow with pale skin. I was instead met by a man shorter than myself, and respectfully, much plumper. Not that there was anything wrong with that, I had simply expected someone more akin to Josh Radnor or Paul Rudd in appearance, and less, well, Danny DeVito.
Looking at his cap, I noticed that it possessed a large logo in the middle, which read the word O'Neill, along with two identical pins either side of it, fashioned after Big McIntosh’s cutie mark.

{Guess we know who your favourite pony is then.} I mused in thought.

Shaking my head with awe, I emphasised how incredible it was to finally meet him in person, to which he humbly accepted and gestured to the McDonald’s.

“Well, want to go sit down and get a bite?”

Nodding, I eagerly followed him into the building, where I was immediately blown away.

“Are people ordering from touch screens?” I gasped.

“Yeah, they started rolling them out last year. I take it they’ve not reached the UK yet then?” Alex remarked, approaching one of the free screens to begin our order.

Telling him that I didn’t think so, (not that I would know), I watched as Alex tapped on the screen and selected what food he wanted, which I honestly found to be extraordinary. As he ordered, I took a quick look behind us and out the front door, where I was just able to spot Josh slipping the phone into the back of Alex’s truck, and then scampering off back to the bus; mission accomplished.

“So you just tap on the items you want, and it places the order?” I asked, returning my focus to Alex.

“Eeyup, give it a try!”

He stepped aside, and gestured to the massive screen before me.

“Go ahead, I’ll pay for it.”

“Are you sure? I brought my own money.” I asked in disbelief.

“Of course! It’s the least I can do after how far you’ve come just to pay me a visit. Seriously dude, order whatever you want.” He insisted.

Thanking him profusely, I got myself a Quarter-Pounder meal, with a white coffee and a side of fries. Alex collected it once it was ready, and we found ourselves a comfortable spot at the back, far away from anyone else.

“Damn, it’s been ages since I’ve had a burger…” I munched happily.

“You don’t get fast food much back home?” Alex asked, popping some fries into his mouth.

Shaking my head and briefly talking from the perspective of my former life, I explained that I lived in a scummy little town called Ifield, and the only available food joints were an overpriced Indian Restaurant, and a tacky Chinese shop called the New Rainbow House.

“And the last time I ordered something from there, I found a piece of metal in my food! So long story short, I don’t have many fast food options.” I laughed.

“For real? Damn, did you try to sue them?”

“Nah,” I replied, shaking my head, “It was just a piece of those metal scrubbers you get for cleaning skillets and grills, hardly worth a lawsuit. I just called them up to complain, got my money back, so there wasn’t really a need to take it further.”

“Fair enough I guess.” Alex hummed, taking a sip from his drink.

We chatted for quite some time, even after we’d finished eating. It seemed that he’d actually quite enjoyed my company, despite my ‘slightly obsessed fan’ persona; but all good things came to an end eventually, and he inhaled in a manner that clearly indicated that he’d like to leave soon.

“So uh, did you have something for me to sign? You did come all this way for an autograph right?”

“You know what? I completely forgot to bring something!” I laughed, before ditching the façade, “But that’s alright, because I didn’t really come here for an autograph.”

Blinking twice and furrowing his brow, Alex remained perfectly still, trying to understand what I was implying. Leaning forward and speaking in a lower tone, I told him the truth.

“I’m here about your daughter.”

After looking puzzled for a moment, Alex gave his head a quick shake and spoke very quickly.

“I don’t have a daughter.”

Giving a look of false surprise, I lightly tilted my head forward.

“Really? See, the rainbow-haired girl who I’ve been travelling with for almost a year, says otherwise.”

Visibly tensing up, Alex sniffed loudly.

“What are you talking about?”

“You heard me. She arrived here last year in June, along with the other five. They’re here on a mission, and for some reason, I was chosen to accompany them as a guide.”

I took a sip from my coffee, keeping eye contact, before continuing.

“Now, I’m sure you can imagine my surprise when one day, she falls apart, I’m talking a complete and utter mental breakdown. Why? Because she’s just remembered that she was raised for fifteen years, by you.”

Scratching at my stubble, I explained how she had demanded to see him, and so we’d quite literally travelled halfway across the globe, so that she could come and pay a visit to dear old dad. Once I’d finished speaking, I gulped down the last of my coffee and let Alex process the information; he briefly smiled and let out a small huff, before giving me an expression of sheer disgust.

“Are you for real? You seriously came all this way, just to give me some big fairy-tale speech? I’ve had to put up with a lot of delusional people who think that dumb story is for real, but this really takes the cake.”

The hostility in his tone began to show, but I maintained my composure, and allowed him to keep talking.

“Do you have any idea how many people message me, thinking it’s some real-life personal account of how I raised a fucking cartoon character? Here’s a hint, you’re not the first! I get people on a bimonthly goddamn basis, asking me what it was like to raise her and shit like that! Jesus Christ dude, did you really think I was going to fall for this? See, now this is why I was hesitant to meet up, I’ve had freaks like you trying to meet up with me for weeks now! So what do you want, huh? What the hell do you want?”

Leaning back in the booth and remaining as cool as a cucumber, I calmly replied that I wasn’t interested in what it was like for him to raise Rainbow Dash.

“You see, I’ve already been told the far more riveting perspective of what it was like to be raised by you. Like how you had to bribe her with her favourite snacks just to trim her hooves, or how you kept her second baby tooth when it fell out. You’d have kept the first one, but she swallowed it by accident.”

“Now you’re just embarrassing yourself, I’d like you to leave now.”

Undeterred by Alex’s demand, his quivering voice and facial expression told a very different story, because we both knew that there was no possible way I could have known the things I was saying, unless...

“Oh, and her favourite meal was mashed potatoes mixed into Mac and Cheese, with a big old dollop of butter!” I continued, wagging a finger at him. “But you’d only let her have it on the weekends because it was too carby, and you didn’t want her getting fat, especially seeing as she was cooped up indoors most of the time.”

“Okay we’re done here.” Alex said urgently, getting to his feet.

Before he could walk away, I made one final statement.

“Do you still have that hoodie she liked to wear? The dark grey one with the white strings? She was wondering if you’d kept it or not.”

Without warning, Alex lunged forward and seized my shirt with both hands, tugging me towards his face.

“I don’t know who the hell you are, but stay the fuck away from me.” He spat.

I remained expressionless, and he promptly released me, before storming out of the restaurant and power-walking towards his truck. I calmly tidied up my shirt, and then watched as Alex slammed the door shut, started up the vehicle, and drove away.

“Well that went well.” I hummed to myself.

I then reached into my pocket and pulled out the cash that Josh had given me.

“Hm, yeah, that’ll be enough.” I muttered, getting up.

Upon hopping back into the bus, Rainbow Dash zoomed up to me faster than I could blink.

“Dude, what the heck happened?”

“He left so quickly!” Fluttershy joined in.

“Yeah, and he looked pissed!” Josh added.

“What did you say to him?” Asked Twilight.

“I smell something yummy!” Pinkie squealed.

“Alright, alright, chill out everyone, let me sit down for Christ’s sake! Here, I brought you all a little something.”

I sat down on one of the couch seats and opened up the McDonald’s takeaway bag I was carrying, before revealing six orders of fries for each of the girls, and a cheeseburger for Josh. Everyone tucked into their food while it was still hot, and I very quickly became the most popular man on Earth.

“Gah… These are so good…” Twilight moaned with her mouth full.

“Mmn hmm…” Rarity agreed, savouring every bite.

“So can you tell us what happened already? You’re killing me here, dude!” Dashie demanded, frowning at me as she nibbled at what little she could stomach while in such an anxious state.

“Alright well, it went better than expected, but it also went worse.” I began.

“Um, how does that make sense exactly?” Asked Fluttershy.

I went on to explain that Alex couldn’t find it in himself to believe me, but he also knew that I was telling the truth, as I had told him some of Rainbow’s anecdotes from yesterday, stories that I couldn’t possibly have known without being told about them by her.

“He told me to leave, but it was clear that I’d shaken him up. Then I mentioned the hoodie and he completely snapped, got up from the table and grabbed me, essentially told me to fuck off, and then he left.”

“So it went awfully, is what I’m hearing.” Dashie whined, hanging her head in despair.

Shaking my head, I gently placed my hand under her chin and raised her head again to face me.

“Not at all. I only say it went worse because I wasn’t expecting him to get so hostile. But otherwise, we’ve got this in the bag, Dash. Don’t you get it? He knows now!”

Grinning as I pinched one of her fries, I sat back and guaranteed that Alex was now headed straight home, where he’d dig up his old photo album, which contained pictures of ‘his little Dashie’.

“He’ll flip through a few pages, think about what I said, and then he’ll get over the initial shock and realise that this is for real. Don’t forget that he wrote My Little Dashie in Two-Thousand-and-Eleven, maybe even in Twenty-Ten, so for the past five to six years, he’s had to move on with his life and accept that he’ll never see his daughter again. Now some complete stranger’s cropped up to tell him that she’s back? Of course he wasn’t going to believe me at first!”

Shutting her eyes and nodding, Rainbow took in my words and knew that I was making sense.

“So, what happens now?” Twilight asked from beside me.

“Now, ‘Mister Three-Phones’ over here is going to track him down.” I commanded, gesturing at Joshua with my thumb, “Then we’ll swing by in an hour to say hello, once he’s had a moment to gather himself.”

“On it!” Josh gleefully accepted.

He bounced into the driver’s seat and got to work, clearly very pleased to have such an important job, especially after successfully planting the phone in the first place, the lad was confident now.
Once everyone had finished their fries, I put all the empty containers into the takeaway bag, and hopped back out of the bus to put it in one of the nearby rubbish bins. Upon getting back in, Josh had got Find My Phone up and running, and we had a clear view of where Alex was heading.

“He’s going south out of town, I guess he lives closer to the farmland?” Josh hypothesised.

“Guess so.” I agreed.

We watched the blip on the map move further and further down, until it eventually stopped near a more wooded area, close to the Maple River. It was no more than a ten minutes drive, but we decided to get a move-on anyway as it would be better to leave the city. Josh brought the bus to life, and we made our way down until we were just a minute or two away, where we waited in a lay-by.

“Jeez, what am I going to say to him?” Rainbow Dash asked aloud, her head faintly swaying back and forward.

“Hello, would be a good start?” Rarity suggested playfully.

“Har har, very funny.”

“I don’t think you can plan this, Dashie.” Twilight chipped in, “When you both see each other, I think the right words will come to you.”

“What if they don’t?” Rainbow whimpered, gritting her teeth.

“Then we’ll help you.” I said, jumping into the conversation, “I’ve already spoken to him now, so it’s no biggie for me. Once we get there, if you lose your words, I’ll do the talking until you find them again, alright?”

Clamping her eyes shut and blowing out a long breath to calm herself, Dashie nodded.

“Okay… Okay, I trust you.”

As a group we all came together and gave the pegasus a supportive group hug.

“If only Josh had a Rainbow Dash plushie like me! Then I could do the talking for you!” Fluttershy sang from behind her fabric doppelgänger, wiggling it to and fro.

This thankfully brought a much needed laugh from the mare, to which we all heartily joined in upon.

“I honestly think Fluttershy might love that thing more than you do.” I told Josh, still chuckling.

“You may be right.” He tutted in agreement.

We spent the next half-hour keeping Dashie’s spirits high, before we decided it had been long enough; it wasn’t much trouble finding the long driveway that led up to Alex’s house.

“Holy mackerel, the guy really likes his trucks huh?” Josh exclaimed.

Parked beside the building were four different pickup trucks, including the one he’d driven to the McDonald’s, which was ironically the best looking of the bunch; the others were all terribly rusted and banged up.

“Maybe it’s a hobby?” Twilight posed.

“I guess that’s not out of the question.” Josh hummed.

“Yeah, maybe he buys them, does them up, then sells them on?” I agreed.

“Or perhaps he just collects them?” Rarity added.

Shrugging, Josh brought the bus to a stop and killed the engine. He opened the doors for me and I stepped out, but not before assuring Rainbow Dash one more time that everything was going to be fine. I then made my way towards the house, and went up the steps that led to the porch. Giving the front door a firm set of knocks, I waited patiently until it eventually swung open, and Alex’s face quickly became contorted with horror as he realised that it was me.

“Hello again!” I chirped, smiling cheerfully.

It was then that I realised that Alex was holding a pistol, he stepped out of the doorway and pointed the barrel directly at me. My expression became, quite understandably, less cheerful, and I made sure not to make any sudden movements as he glared at me with fearful eyes.

“Okay, who the hell are you? How the fuck did you find my house!?” He snarled.

“That’s a nice gun you’ve got there, although I wouldn’t recommend using it.” I hummed, “You wouldn’t want to murder someone. Not right in front of, her…”

I used my head to beckon to the encroaching hoofsteps behind me, and then I slowly stepped to one side, allowing father and daughter to lock eyes, after all these years. The gun clattered to the ground, and Alex froze like a block of ice, unable to even breathe; the only sign that he was still alive were the tears that swiftly welled up in his eyes. Rainbow Dash stood at the bottom of the steps and looked up to him, tears of her own already streaming down her face, as she burst into the widest grin I’d ever seen.

“Hi dad…” She mewled, shaking like a leaf.

Finally able to take a breath, Alex stumbled forward and slowly made his way down the steps, clutching onto the handrails for dear life to support himself. Upon reaching the bottom, he fell to his knees and stared into his daughter’s eyes.

“Dashie?” He breathed.

The pegasus gave the faintest of nods, to which they both completely broke down into each other, Alex lunged forward and embraced his child, and Rainbow reciprocated, sobbing so heavily that merely witnessing it moved me to my very core. For what felt like several minutes, they remained like this, bawling their eyes out, and they deserved every damn second of it. I slowly eased myself down the steps to them, and eventually Alex looked around to face me, his poor face now sopping wet with tears.

“You… You!”

Scooping up his blubbering daughter with ease, he staggered to his feet and waddled to me, slamming an open palm into my torso and gripping my shirt. He gasped heavily, fighting to get the words out as he tugged at me with raw emotion. There was little else I could do but smile kindly as he practically clawed at my chest in emotional bedlam. And at last, he was finally able to weep just a handful of words, which was all he needed to say.

“You brought… You… You brought me, my Dashie…”

---

Author's Note:

Over the past couple of months, I've had the absolute pleasure of talking to the one and only ROBCakeran53, to get a better understanding of the man and more accurately write him as a character for this chapter, and the chapters to follow.

I cannot be more thankful to him for putting up with my random and incessant questions about him and his life, from his choice of clothing, to his political views!

I've been looking forward to releasing this one for years, so I really hope you like it.
- Callum

Comments

[The Archiver]

Aye les go! Finally Alex has made contact with his daughter for the first time in 15 years or so.

[MikiStenbeck]

can Alex Join this Circus of numnuts? XD

[Bossypants]

“Well, the makers of Ingress are collaborating with The Pokémon Company, and they’re basically going to release a game just like it, called Pokémon Go. Instead of capturing portals, you go around catching Pokémon. It’s set to release in just two months. Well, if the beta tests go well.”

This gives me PTSD😂

[Bossypants]

Hell of a chapter! Ending had me tearing up a bit ngl. Now, If I remember correctly, either near the beginning of this book or during the previous one, nalek mentioned finding dashes dad. I already know something heart wrenching is going to happen, and I am not prepared in the slightest!

[Mister Horncastle]

11615962
Glad you found the chapter to be moving, I've always planned to have moment since the concept of the story, so I wanted to make it as emotionally gripping as possible.
I'd like to think I hit the right chords. 😁

As Nah'Lak's comments in the Prologue which you're referring to, all I can say for now is, hold on to your hats. 😉

[GoldOsburn]

*meanwhile while the heartwarming moment is going on Josh is currently getting his phone back and seeing how banged up it is*

[Comet_Chaser]

Ack, my fuckin heart man. Can't handle this much emotion, man.

[Omniscence]

11617258
Done! Have fun! ^w^