Return to Equestria

by David Silver

45 - Fierce Defender

"I'm not unreasonable." Joy was eyeing him like a lioness that spotted an easy meal. "If you're a legit pony."

Gerome inclined his head. "What's a not legit pony?"

Joy clopped a hoof to her face. "I mean a pony who is legit. If you're not a phony pony full of baloney."

A mare whistled supportively. "Are you going to crush him in a game?"

"Tempting... But not appropriate." Joy lowered her hooves. "We're not testing if you're serious about..." It was only then she realized she had an audience. "Stop staring!" She shooed at them to go back to their games. "Anyway... Not testing if you're serious about a game. We're talking about him." She leveled a hoof at David. "You don't even know anything about him."

"Um..." Gerome tapped his hooves softly, fidgeting in place. "He likes writing. He likes playing imagining games." He curled a hoof at his head. "He can see things up here."

Joy colored swiftly. "W-what? How do you know that last part?!"

"He told me and I listened." Gerome nodded confidently. "What do you know, um, ma'am?"

Joy wrinkled her nose, considering what to disclose. "I know what he likes to eat. I know how he acts when something goes wrong, or goes right. I know how he likes to play his games and what kinds he likes. I knew about the picture thing." She tapped at her head. "Even if that's super strange."

"I can do that," argued Posey with a shrug.

"Me too," chimed a stallion, causing a chain reaction as ponies compared their various mental visualization abilities. It seemed most could see images in their mind.

Joy listed with deflation. "W-what?" Having it rubbed in her snout that her condition wasn't normal... "But..." Ponies kept volunteering their abilities, ranging wildly from basic images to the full dream experiences David had described. But most of them could see something. "But..." She took an unsure step back, her sense of self cracking as a disability made itself clear. "I don't see anything," she barely muttered.

A door slapped open. A unicorn came striding in, a manic look in her eyes, and a beret bobbing on her head with her hurried steps. "There you are!" The mare went straight for David and Joy. "Both of you."

Joy wheeled on the new presence. "Wha? Onyx!" She smiled at the familiar face. "Hey. Welcome back."

Onyx returned the smile, but hers was full of nervous energy. "Hey. Why is everypony staring at us?"

Posey raised a hoof. "We were just talking about the things we can see, up here." She tapped at her own head.

Onyx nodded. "Oh, neat..."

"I can't see anything," whispered out Joy. "I'm broken..."

David set a hand on Joy's back. "You're not broken. It's okay. Also, weren't you..." Names were not his strong point... but Onyx felt wrong... "Gloo--Gloomy!"

Onyx started at that. "What? Oh... Old nickname..." She laughed nervously. "Not important. I need to talk to you... Am I interrupting?" She noticed Gerome looking at them so intently. "Sorry?"

Gerome cleared his throat. "Hello, young lady."

Onyx cocked a brow. "I don't think I'm that younger than you. So... what was happening before I rushed in?"

Joy turned to the computer. "Enough. I have a store to run. You, play games." She pointed at Gerome. "You, make yourself busy, not next to him." She pointed to David, and then at Onyx. "Games!" She dug out three cards. "Unlimited for the day for the lot of you. Go go go!"

Sending them scurrying away, Joy huffed as she returned to the front desk to help ponies going about their business.

David noticed something sitting next to him. Onyx floating the chair up as she hopped into it to have a seat. "Hey." He waved a few fingers, other hand logging into the machine, an act that got faster when his other hand joined the effort. "You alright?"

"No, but also yes?" She rested her hooves on the desk, but wasn't playing with the computer. "Everything before today is... fuzzy... I feel like I just got away from something... I'm super happy to see you and Joy." She smiled gently at that. "Hope that goes both ways?"

David huhed at the curious explanation. "Sounds rough. Happy to see you though." He offered a hand, and got a hoof slapped against it. Good enough. "Things have calmed down, mostly..."

"Did they? Tell me about it. I feel like I could do with somepony else's adventures for a change right now." She sank, head between her hooves. "Even if I can't remember mine right now..."

"Well... To start, we settled the mare romance question."

Onyx sat up sharply. "You did? Um... so which did you go with?" She glanced away and back. "You didn't go for both of them, did you?"

David laughed at the idea. "I was being extra stupid. I can barely keep up with Joy, and I wanted to throw another on top? What was I thinking? No. Besides, the other wandered off back to her thing." She had a name... it was a good name... "So just us by default, and we settled on being Best Friends, and, know what? I'm pretty alright with that."

Onyx melted with a smile. "Aw, that's kinda sweet... Congratulations to both of you." She reached up to adjust her berret. "I need to get one of those..."

"I don't think there's much stopping you." He shrugged, inclining his head towards Gerome. "Like I told him, do what you like doing, where other ponies can see. The ones that like it will come on over and say hey if you let them."

"That... is such painfully obvious advice." Onyx clopped a hoof to her face. "But still true... Alright. Alright! I'll do that. It's time to get my life back in order!"

David patted her on the back. "Sounds great. You're not rhyming so much."

"Did I?" She thought back on past experiences. "Wow... Maybe that adventure beat it out of me? I still feel a wicked rhyme or two, waiting to come out. There'll be more." She winked. "Have no doubt."

David fired a finger gun at her. "There's the stuff. Well, you're welcome to stop by whenever you're in town. Pretty sure we're both happy to have you around whenever."

"Whenever," Joy echoed, plunking down a can of Soda in front of Onyx and a bottle of water in front of David. "Things nice and calm over here?"

Onyx picked up her soda, stuck to her hoof as she willed the tab free with a hiss of carbonation. "I am feeling way better now... It's good to be around friends... not adventuring..."

"Adventuring got old." Joy looped back around towards the front. "Here's to just living."

David popped open his bottle, screwing it off to get a sip. "Pony water is... so dang clean." And refreshing!

Onyx raised a brow at him. "Was your old water... dirty? Harsh."

"Not that dirty!" He could imagine the muddy water Onyx was thinking of. "But there's a difference. This is like... almost distilled, but just enough to make it not taste like literally nothing. It's pretty great." He put down the bottle and pulled up the page he had been on, resuming his work on the persona. "You play imagining games?"

Onyx shook her head. "Imagi... Oh, those! Nope. All those funny dice are kinda fun. Always wanted to try rolling a few."

Well, since it was asked. David dug out his bag of dice and spilled them out.

Onyx beamed, grabbing up all of them at once and letting them fly. "oOoo... Rolled a 3... a 5... a 12... and a 7?" She angled her head at each die, calling out the numbers as she came on them. "Is that good?"

"You won the game," he cheered, some faux-electronic noises of victory fanfare to go with it. "How did you do that so fast?"

She swatted at him. "You're teasing, silly." She hopped to the floor. "Alright, I feel... less frazzled." She lifted the soda for a chug. "I'll be off, oh! You have a phone, right?" She dug hers out. "Let's swap."

They touched phones together with a happy chime from either, announcing the contacts were shared in the contact.

Joy swung back over. "She's done?" She had seen Onyx wandering away, looking fairly happy about things. "Figured she'd want to talk."

"She did, but what I said was good enough, apparently." David swung his phone around. "I got her number."

"Sweet." Joy quickly took down the details into her own phone. "So she's not ghosting on us, alright. Now..." She looked over towards Gerome, who was busy not looking at them. "We need to talk, after the store's all closed up. I'm not done about that." She went off, smile returned as she put her customer service face back into place.

David busied himself with trying to get his character, er, persona in order. But he spotted movement. Gerome was trying to escape. He pushed up without a word, intercepting the pony at the door. "Where are you going?"

Gerome squeaked, realizing he'd been caught. "Your friend seems mad. I figured... I shouldn't upset her."

"She's more scared than mad." He tapped Gerome at the top of his snout. "So be patient and we'll talk after the store closes."

"Oh... you want to?" He stepped awkwardly in place. "Alright... Um, I'm a little thirsty."

David thrust his opened but still fairly full bottle at Gerome. "Drink."

Gerome accepted it with a hoof, sticking to it. "Thanks." He started towards his computer. "See you... afterwards, alright?"

"Alright." David finished his circuit back to his seat.

"Hey." Which brought him past Joy, who noticed his movement. "He giving you any trouble?"

"No way. He was ready to run away. You scared him good." He grabbed another bottle of water but scanned it himself and paid for it with his phone without Joy's help.

"Hey! I woulda just given that to you..." She pouted a little. "Still... alright. I was trying to be scary, so sure. I won't bite his head off or anything, unless he hurts you... Then skulls are back on the menu!"

A few giggles sounded from nearby. Some ponies had heard her. "I'm just joking!"

Gerome settled back in his seat, holding the bottle between his hooves. "He drank from this..." There was a little something... naughty... about it, but he took a sip from it, and could swear he tasted a little tiny bit off. David? Was he tasting David? He went a dark red, embarassed at his unseemly imagination. "Stop that," he berated himself, pulling up a website that proved far less offensive.

Nothing else got in the way of their peaceful day. David even managed to get his persona finished, mostly. Joy was bidding ponies goodbye at the end of it, closing things up. David joined in the closing process, and soon the store was locked and shut.

But there was still one pony left behind. Joy gestured with a toss of her head. "This way. Time to talk. Thanks for waiting."

Gerome followed after her, David after him, up the stairs. "Oh, I don't mean to be in the way."

"Too bad." She waited at the top for both to pass her. "You are. Not the end of the world. Now, I need to know what exact kind of interest you have in him." She pointed to David. "Proper or not, I see him as a big goofy son and best friend, which means I'm ready to defend him from anything that might hurt him. You could say it's more like a grandfather? Sure, let's go with that. He's an elder I want to keep safe. You're, what... Not that old." In human terms, she was in her early 20s. David was in his 40s, and Gerome looked somewhere in his 30s. "We have a nice spread right here... So, out with it."

Author's Note:

We had to pause for a business day, but here we are! Also hey Onyx. It's been a while!

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

At keast only some of his dice are prime sided, he doesnt need any that have more sides than the number of particles in the known universe, and he isnt being stalked by a murderous childs doll.