Unexpected Roommate.

by Ditz

What is going on!?

“JOHN!”

"Gah!"The sound of a loud beep reached John's ears, waking him up instantly, and much to his chagrin, he turned over, noticing the familiar beeping of his phone reaching his ears.

“Who the hell sends a text message at…” he stopped as he picked a glance at his phone looking at the time “3:30!? Ugh,” he complained, but chose to at least check the text, he had a very angry message to send back “I’m too tired to make this long” He took a gander at the message, but he found himself confused at its contents.

'You seem to be having a tough time,'read the message.

“No kidding. But wait, who send this?” he asked himself, checking the number but finding out that none was visible. "Private, figures," the thought of Michael playing a prank came to mind.

“Geez, can’t he wait till morning?” against his better judgement, he decided to humor him, thinking of a way to get him back.

'Yeah, this guy called Michael is a real dick,' he replied, not really knowing how to start, but feeling

'That’s not a very nice thing to say, you know?' came the replying text.

“You would say that,” John quickly muttered before replying. 'Well, he is, he makes fun of other people just to feel better about himself.'

It was a full minute till he got a reply 'Well, does he have a reason for doing so?'

'Are you trying to justify it?' he replied angrily, well, as angry as a text can be.

'No, no! I just feel that you are in need of help, which is the reason I’m contacting you, what he is doing isn‘t right, sure, but I think if you opened up a bit, ,' John was confused, was Michael trying to be friends with him? “Guess he is trying to apologize?” he asked himself before replying 'Ok, I'll bite, you can help me.'

“Great, I will be right there!” said the returning text which he read out loud just to make sure he read it right. “He is coming here? Tonight? Okay, that’s kind of creepy,” he thought, choosing to reply before he did something dumb, but was stopped shortt by a purple light appearing on the ceiling.

“OH SHIT, I KNEW THE ALIENS WOULD TAKE OVER,” he mouthed, a scream attempting to leave his body, but no words coming out, and without warning, passed out.

~~~~~

“Aaah!” John woke with a start, as sunlight went through his window, letting him know it was early morning. “Oh man, I need to stop drin- Oh, wait, I don’t drink… Maybe I should start doing that” He laughed at his own comment and attempted to get up, but as he did, he felt something soft, warn, and slightly hairy at his feet.

“What the hell is this?” he asked, timidly looking down, noticing something on the floor.

In a fit of panic, he lifted his feet off, and rushed himself to the wall, holding his legs in fear. And he awaited, hoping for the event to be part of his imagination. But to his horror, a groan came, and all while questioning his sanity, he saw a purple maned mini-horse getting up from the spot he had just stepped on.

“How the hell did Michael even manage to put this fucking horse in my house!?" John hissed, pointing at the confused looking animal in front of him, before quickly pushing the thought away and reaching his cell phone to make a call to animal control.

“For your information, I’m not a ”horse” but a pony, I understand that we both are both equines, but I consider us both a notable distinction nonetheless,” he heard a voice say, he looked at the pony, laughing it off, of course, as everyone knew, ponies didn't talk.

“I need to start drinking right now,” he muttered to himself before hearing someone clear their throat before looking up again and seeing the pony’s lips move.

“Please, don’t ignore me, it's rude. Now before we begin, I believe you may have some quest--”

“AAAAAH-” he began yelling before being promptly silenced by some purple light coming from the pony‘s horn… Wait, horn!?. “Oh God, oh God! It’s gonna kill me!” he thought in a fit of panic, his life flashing before his eyes, and the most random thought coming to mind. “Why didn’t I said yes at the party!? At least I wouldn’t have died a virgin!”

“Please, calm down!” the pony pleaded, releasing her 'grip' from his mouth, unfortunately, John's reaction was to begin screaming again, and running for the door, only to find out that it would not budge.

“Please! Please! Don’t hurt me! I will do almost anything you want!” he yelled before looking at the animal again.

“Huh?” he begin studying the pony and noticed that it was just sitting there, looking at him, patiently waiting. “You… Are not gonna hurt me?” he reluctantly asked and the pony shook its head. “Was that you just talking? Or was that me just going insane?” He chuckled nervously.

The purple pony took a deep breath before opening its mouth again. “Yes, I’m sorry to have scared you, I didn’t mean to, I now know that I should have given you more details, perhaps some sort of telepathic communication would have been better to have eased into this, can we start over?”

John gave the pony an awkward smile and a nod, awkwardly getting back on his bed and simply sitting there, not really paying the pony much attention, attempting to regain his thoughts. “There is a talking purple pony in my room, and- Ouch!” he hissed after he pinched himself. “And it’s not a dream," he took a deep breath, pushing some of the stress out. "I will just see what it wants, and get it over with”

He took a deep breath before asking what was the most prominent question in his mind “What are you?” she seemed amused at the question, but didn't say much of it.

“You mean to say 'Who' I am. Anyway, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I have been send by the ruler of my land to study how friendship works in this land, and in turn, perhaps, give some of my knowledge on the subject here as well,” she finished, allowing John to ask what he needed to ask.

'Friendship? Seriously?' he thought, baffled, but pushing the thought aside for the moment, he continued. "Eh... Why me?"

“Well… The ruler in my land chose to have somepony who had trouble forming friendships, and it was chosen at random, and you came up, and…” She stopped realizing what she had said. “Oh dear, that didn’t sound right, did it?” she finished awkwardly.

“Wait, so you chose me because I was one of the sorriest looking people you could find!?” he snapped not thinking of the consequences that might have brought him “Great, maybe you can put a rank on the 'sorry-o-meter' and put my face on it,” he added sarcastically.

“No, no, I came to study friendship by helping you!” she put her hoof on her face before adding “I know how that sounds, but I honestly want to help you mister, even if it‘s just an assignment!”

He felt a headache coming up but decided to ignore it. “Okay, I’m sorry, I’m just finding this whole situation difficult to grasp, we need to calm down, and it will be fine,” he collapsed on the bed frustrated, one last question coming to mind. “Let’s say I am believing all of this is happening, and I don't question it, and I let you study me as you said, if so how long do you plan on doing that?”

“A week at the very least, I need to get to know you, and since we are now technically roommates for the moment, we can talk about your world and mine, maybe get to know each other better!” she finished excitedly by doing a cute little 'clap' using her hooves.

He smiled a bit at her excitement, choosing to humor her. “I understand, OK, I’ll bite for now, and go figure, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is John Pennick, and, um it’s nice to make your acquaintance,” he said, reaching out and awkwardly shaking her hoof, noticing the strange fuzziness it had to it. 'I don’t trust her, but gaining her trust is the first step, maybe I’ll have the advantage if something goes wrong,' he thought, as he begin making contingency plans to use just in case.

They both stared in silence for a minute before John broke it by clearing his throat and getting up. “I think I need a shower Ms. Sparkle, so if you will excuse me for a bit.”

"Of course, don't mind me!" she said, returning to her previous spot on the floor.

"Be right back, miss," he said as he clumsily grabbed a set of clothes.

“Uh, John?” she called reluctantly as he headed for the door.

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle?” he responded, barely glancing back to her.

“Call me Twilight,” she told him with a smile, calming John slightly, he returned the smile back, hoping to keep appearances as he made his way to the bath.

Author's Note:

Notes 2
Nothing to add here, this one was originally rushed alongside the prologue, heck, if not even more as I grew anxious to see how it did.

I fixed a ton of things when rewriting, but I couldn't change too much, so that's sad.

Comments

[MoonriseUnicorn]

Well, I hate to say it. But you are right. It is cliche.

Also, John is a Gary Stu. Normally, we think of Gary Stu as being overpowered, having no realistic flaws, etc. But actually according to definition, characters with overly tragic backgrounds are also Gary Stu characters. Just from your description we have:

he worked for minimal wage, and he wasn't in top shape, (albeit, that was due to his own stubbornness), and he didn't have many friends, he was a loser in the eyes of most, and he himself thought that was the case.

It's cliche, and overly tragic. No friends, everyone thinks he is a loser including himself, he's out of shape, he works a minimum wage job, etc.

The problem with these type of characters is that the author intends the reader to feel sympathetic for them. But that's not what actually happens. Because the reader doesn't see the character as believable. Just cliche and overly tragic.

See, a Gary Stu can be a character where everything goes right in their life, and nothing ever goes wrong for them. But a Gary Stu can also be the opposite. A character where everything that can be wrong in their life is wrong.

[gunslingerbrony]

Having read other HiE and pony on earth fics your charachter is a bit generic but I disagree that he is a Gary Stu its not like he has a overly tragic backstory and plenty of people have been in this guys shoes although if it were up to me id have it that the mc has friends but they just aren't very close I would go on about why I disagree with the other comment but as I've said before I'm typing on my kindle so its hard to gotoo in depth with my reasons