As He knew it

by Suke

Entry #1: The End

Date:

Dec 20th 2012

So, this is my first entry for my Adventures in the States. According to this fancy watch I splurged out on before boarding the plane, I arrived in Maryland about quarter past one local time, and quarter past six back home. I am actually writing this before an End of the World party. Although, I should probably add some context.

Around the time school was finishing, A levels done and dusted, a friend of mine had invited her own friend from the US. I, being a little VERY drunk, thought I’d try out the theory that American lasses absolutely bummed the stereotypical English accent. She’d just turned 18, and of course, with the legal age at 21 back in the states (mostly), she was OFF HER TITS with legal alcohol. We both were, and I threw in some ‘Jolly Good Shows’, ‘Pip Pips’ and ‘Tally Hos’. Long story short, we made out in the last bar of the night.

Now, at the beginning of this month, over a year later, I post on Facebook that for Christmas, I was going to fly to America. Short notice to everyone but my family, and it was gonna be for as long as I felt I could afford. Shortly after said post, this chick starts talking to me with FB Messenger. Over the next almost three weeks we chatted, got to know each other, and helped me to decide the state I’d start my trip.

Anyway, she picked me up this afternoon. Now that we’re in person, we get on like a house on fire. It’s brilliant. I really hope there might be something there too; a relationship. She’s so beautiful and nice and... I now realise I’m blabbing on, and also I’m writing this weird for a journal.

A friend of hers (another friend of a friend dealie) is playing on the whole Mayan thing for an excuse to host a huge party, with limitless booze apparently. Frankie (my lovely friend) isn’t 21, but looks the part and has a fake ID. Dunno if I agree with the ethics or whatever it is, but right now, I care not. It’s tonight because the official time for ‘The End’ is 11:11 GMT. I thought it would have been something like 21:12, but meh to it all. I doubt the world will end. And if there is any ending, it’ll be more like the end of the world as we know it. Lives will still exist, as will the planet, but things might be very different for some if not all of those alive.

Frankie is calling for me. We’re going to this shindig, the time in Maryland now 20:30. Made sure I was ready early to write this. And I’ll bet less official end awaiters back home will be all, “YAY! No doom!” Were I there, I’d probably shout, “The Doctor saved us!” Oh yeah, on a final note, a major plan for this trip is to go see some American Doctor Who filming or something.

---

“That was... uneventful,” Rarity said as He disappeared.

“I have to admit, she’s right sister,” added Luna.

Celestia looked over to her sister and nodded, wondering whether she might be able to improve upon the viewings.

It was nearly a week since discovering Precious. Gathering ‘the gang’ hadn’t been hard. However, they had to wait for Twilight’s discharge from Ponyville Hospital, and after that, the foal’s discharge. The Doctors were insistent they couldn’t allow the new mother and child out without checkups. Then there was the arrangements everypony had to make so they could stay in Canterlot for however long the viewing would take.

But now, around the private throne room, now plushed up for plenty of comfort, the ponies who had grown to know Him were united. Their number was small, yet still big enough to take up a lot of room nonetheless. All the room’s light came the electric lights hanging from the ceiling, as the need for privacy prevented the construction of windows in the room.

For barely ten minutes, they’d sat and watched the image of him speaking his written words. It was boring, to say the least. Pinkie Pie had fidgeted the whole way through, and Rainbow Dash was only awake because of her friends fidgeting.

“Perhaps,” Twilight spoke up. “Perhaps you could see if you could tap into his lingering presence. Carrying it around so much, surely our land’s magic will have left an imprint of his soul and memories onto Precious.”

“Great idea sis!”

Shining Armour was sat nearest to the door, his training demanding he stay close to the only way of passage. The siblings smiled to one another. Twilight didn’t wince, as she used to, when light caught Shining’s mechanical eye. Nigh on identical to a real one, its only difference was the zoom function. A personal request of the soldier.

Cadence sat on her own smaller throne, situated to Celestia’s left, Luna to her right. Arrangements had been made so that the Crystal Empire could temporarily run on its own accord. The Crystal Princess also smiled, albeit without showing her teeth. Unlike Luna and Shining, Cadence was not fond of her metal replacement teeth. They’d been made to look identical, and coated with a texture imitating gel, but that still didn’t stop her from hiding her ‘blemishes’.

Such change amongst us all, though Celestia as she scanned the journal for any residual presence. Sure enough, it was there, and quite strong. Latching onto it with her magic, she pulled it to the forefront and demanded it show those present what it had for them. A real view into his experiences.

---

The toilet flushed fine enough, considering all of the substance it had been asked to remove. A substance the man now washing his face wish he hadn’t had to expel. He’d managed to avoid getting stuff all over his clothes, but it still felt horrible. He checked his face in the mirror to see if he’d missed anything. As he looked over his reflection, it looked over him.

His hair was a couple inches long, and combed over to go for that look Chris Evans had as Captain America. His face was clean, shaven and otherwise. Making the final judgement that all the sick was gone from his features, the man grabbed a towel and thoroughly dried off. On his way out, he stopped to look at the bathroom. To put it in one word: Extravagant.

“And I just puked in it. Heh, probably not the first time either,” he said to himself, turning back to the exit.

Stepping out, he was affronted with the racket that was by far the greatest party he’d ever been to. The place was huge, yet there was nary a place without people drinking, chatting and other party activities.

“Hey you,” came Frankie’s voice from behind.

Two arms wrapped themselves around the man’s waist, and his friend’s chest was pushed against his back.

“Hey.”

The man had sobered up more than he cared for after being ill just a moment ago. He didn’t like noticing the smell of Frankie’s breath. Ruined the appeal.

“How arrrrre you li’ing our American hospi- hospi- treatment?”

“I haven’t been treated aggressively, and I haven’t been asked about my nationality as often as I thought I would, so I’d say I’m liking it very much.”

He discreetly checked the time on his watch. 01:23 Maryland time, 21st December. Just less than 5 hours remaining. Would be the first party he’d gone too that lasted that long.

“Thaz good... I got somefing to show ya.”

“Mind if I down myself another drink first? I need to regain some inebriation.”

“You alwayz use long words don’tcha?”

“Blame my upbringing.”

The arms pulled away, and Frankie came into view, leading the way to one of the many places around the mansion they could get a drink. Her hair was just an inch short of shoulder length, auburn and straight as straight can be. For the occasion, she’d dressed in a dark red top with no straps or midriff; like a tube of cloth wrapped around the chest area. Her lower half consisted of tighter than tight jeans and simple converses. The jeans exaggerated what little ass Frankie had, making it rather nice to look at.

After a couple minutes and at least 2 flights of stairs, the pair of them reached a cooler, still crammed full with assorted alcoholic beverages. Frankie grabbed two bottles, popped off their caps and passed one to him.

“Bottoms up!” she shouted before putting her drink to her lips and tipping her head back.

He did the same, and shortly thereafter, both bottles were slammed down simultaneously. Frankie let out a satisfactory sigh, then burped.

“Good stuff. NOW!”

Before he could react, Frankie had grabbed his hand and yanked him away. Random people were saying greetings of different kinds. He noticed some of them had ‘knowing’ faces. Next thing he knew, he was pulled into one of the many bedrooms, and pinned onto the bed.

“Wh-”

Two pairs of lips collided, and tongues soon after. They made out furiously. He could only hope Frankie had locked the door, because he did not want any interruptions. He barely registered it when she put a hand into his trousers, reaching out for-

---

“Oh my,” Fluttershy whispered, hoof held to her muzzle, face blushing.

She wasn’t the only one blushing either, the whole room was. Even Cadence, well versed in love as she is, turned ruby red at the sight. Celestia quickly blurred out the image and muted the sound.

“Well, we can’t say it’s boring anymore can we?” joked Luna.

Celestia grinned awkwardly, and said, “I’ll see if I can’t fast forward it.”

---

If anyone were to walk in now, they’d see the stereotypical post sex pose, as seen in TV and films. Frankie was on her side, sleeping calmly with an arm reached over him. He lay with his hands behind his head, smiling to himself. He couldn’t sleep after all that, that was for sure. He thanked God he had his Faithful Emergency Condom, or FEC as he called it, sounding like some Irish man saying fuck.

On the bedside table sat his watch, displaying 04:08. Two hours left according to the Mayans. How much of those last two and a half hours was sex, how long had they paused in the middle, and how long had he just lay there afterwards? It didn’t matter. He just decided it was a great way to be welcomed into USA.

Taking care not to wake ‘Sleeping Beauty’, He shuffled out of bed and slipped back into his clothes. A pair of jeans (he didn’t have anything other than jeans for leg wear), old trainers (so old no one could tell their brand or original colour), and a blue and black checkered shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He knew he smelt of the deed, but assumed it wouldn’t be much of problem for the massive amount of wankered adults still being rowdy as ever.

He sneaked out of the room, wishing to be around the waking when the clock reaches the ‘point of no return’, but not wanting to wake her just for that. To be perfectly honest, He didn’t believe this nonsense, what with the date conveniently making a pattern in the American dating system.

He grabbed another beer, uncaring of its brand or strength. Next, with one hand in its pocket, and the other serving the bevvie to his mouth, he strolled out to the main lounge area, where countless people slept, drank, chatted, puked, made out, etc. A quick scan of the room found a random guy sat on his own, seemingly taking in the atmosphere with drink in hand.

Upon his approach, he called over, “Great party isn’t it?”

“The weather’s just fine,” replied the random.

“Huh?”

“I felt your question was rather like asking ‘Good weather we’re having isn’t it?’ Thought I’d try to be funny.”

He finally reached his seat beside the random.

“Oh, er... heh, funny.”

Random held out a hand and said, “I’m Vernon, by the way, or Vern to my friends.”

“So can I...?” He asked as he took the offered hand and shook it.

“We’re all friends here.”

“Ok, Vern it is. I’m-”

A bottle was dropped elsewhere, causing him to look to the source, distracted. Shaking his head, he turned back.

“You were saying?”

“My name’s-”

A random drunk girl fell over. He helped her back up and sat down.

“They call me-”

---

The memory they were watching went blank all of a sudden.

“Hey, what gives?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“I don’t know,” Celestia replied. “There’s nothing wrong with the spell or anything else I can think of.”

“Then what d’y’all think happened?” AJ queried.

The Earth Pony mare took her trademark stetson hat off briefly to scratch her head. Her short mane was growing back nicely. At least some of us got off lucky with non permanent visual scars.

“He may have been knocked out,” Shining suggested.

Pinkie moaned, “Aww, but I wanted to know his name.”

Celestia agreed, “As do we all. Oh, and I think I’ve found where he comes to.”

---

“You alright buddy? That’s a nasty blow to the head you had there.”

The poor man warily opened his eyes.

“What happened?”

Vern came into focus as he answered, “Some idiot thought to try juggling his empty beer bottles. When he inevitably dropped them, one landed hard on your head.”

“Oh.”

He reached up to a sore spot on his head. A light touch sent a wave of pain through his cranium, and his handed flinched away.

“Yeah, hurts don’t it? Just be happy I was here.”

“Huh?”

“Well, considering about half the people here are underage, they didn’t wanna call an ambulance. I’m a doctor, and sober enough to not risk your health too much.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Looking around, the man found himself sat exactly where he blacked out. In a corner, another party goer amongst the seemingly unhalted mayhem was nursing a bloody nose.

“That’s the guy who went and bopped you one. Your girlfriend showed up while I was tending to you. One look at you and she demanded ‘Who hurt my man!?’ Dude was all apologetic, but that didn’t stop the early Christmas present she had for him. I swear that crack echoed throughout the house.”

“You don’t mean that his nose is broken? In one hit?”

Vern nodded, looking like he was on the verge of laughter.

“So where’s Frankie?”

“Washing the blood from her hand. You came to literally seconds after he ran bawling his eyes out and she stormed off to a bathroom.”

The two men went silent, and Vern sat back down. A glimpse at his watch told him there were mere minutes before the world as they knew it was supposed to end; 06:05. The minutes went by. A clock on the wall showed the time to everyone else, a minute or so faster than the watch, but the watch was timed to his phone’s clock, which, in turn, was set by the signal it received.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Vern glaring at some other guy walking by on the opposite side of the room. The man would have asked what the problem was, but Frankie returned just then.

“How’s my little stud?” she asked.

She still had a bit of a drunken walk, but she’d sobered up enough to speak properly. She placed herself on the man’s lap and cuddled.

“Better. Heard you defended my honour.”

“Is that what you call it? I suppose I did. Felt good too.”

“Don’t get too used to it. I don’t make a habit of being taken from behind.”

“I don’t recall doing that back- oooohhhhhhhh.”

Vernon raised an eyebrow at this, but the man gave a replying look that read, ‘Don’t go there.’ Instead, the doctor chuckled to himself.

“Still haven’t told you my name,” the man pointed out.

“Don’t.”

He was taken aback.

“Why not?”

Vernon held up a hand and pointed to the clock. Everyone was slowly quieting down and watching the seconds tick.

As the second hand reached the fifty mark, they all shouted, “10!”

It ticked further.

“9!”

The whole building rang with voices well in time.

“8!”

Frankie had said her friend synced all the clocks.

“7!”

Speaking of the girl, her voice was very loud in the man’s ear.

“6!”

As was Vern’s in the other.

“5!”

Through an opened patio door, the countdown could be heard from the whole estate.

“4!”

Had they synced every house?

“3!”

Even he felt slightly tense. Most likely due to the high alcohol consumption and local atmosphere.

“2!”

Damned Americans and their apprehensive atmosphere.

“1!”

Was it just him, or was the floor rumbling?

“DOOOOOOOOOOOOM!”

People were looking to one another, checking everything was as it were before. They all gave it some extra seconds to take a delayed effect.

Nothing.

From outside, another abode could be heard wooting in celebration. Those present around the man all shrugged and followed suit.

One voice was heard shouting, “Live to fuck another day!”

Another voice, one after the man’s own heart, declared, “The Doctor saved us!”

Lastly, another voice was noted screaming to the heavens, “Smite me, O Mighty Smiter!”

“Well, that was bogus,” Vern said, keeping his cool through all of it.

“Great party though, right?” Frankie asked.

“Yes, good weather indeed,” the man replied.

He and Vern burst out laughing, Frankie joining in with a confused look.

When they settled back down, slightly out of breath, the man asked again, “Why won’t you hear my name?”

“You’ve tried and failed three times, and third time’s meant to be the charm. And, in one or more countries in Asia, they have this strong fear of the number four because it’s connected to death somehow. I think it has something to do with similar spelling.”

“Didn’t think you a superstitious man, being so collected at an End of the World party.”

“I don’t believe blatant fear mongering. Anyway, from now on, I’ll just call you Buddy.”

“He’s nothing like Buddy Holly,” Frankie interjected.

‘Buddy’ was going to object, but he noticed something rather odd. The ground was still rumbling. At first, one would think it was from large movement in the building, but you can sort of tell when that’s the case. This was different.

“I meant like ‘buddy’, the other word for friend.”

“I think your superstitions are stupid.”

Putting a hand to the ground, Buddy felt the rumbling better through his fingertips. It felt just like that small earthquake back in Britain. Only, one problem:

It was getting stronger.

“Each to their own, Miss...?”

“Frankie.”

The watch was looked at for the umpteenth time. The real, global countdown had begun, and 5 seconds remained.

Frankie continued, “Buddy here has a real name.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“Meet-”

The rumbling evolved into a ground shaking earthquake at the drop of a hat. Screams accompanied the sound of rock fissuring in the distance.

“Hit the deck!”

As Buddy did so, he realised he was the one to shout the command. He lay on his front, a hand over his head, ignoring the pain of contact. The other hand and attached arm was held over Frankie, who he’d pulled down with him. Instead of joining the screaming symphony, she took a different approach of sobbing quietly into Buddy’s shoulder. To his other side was Vern, both hands over his head, face looking sternly at the floor.

“We’re all gonna die!”

“Shut up! It’s just coincidental.”

The quake got even stronger.

“THIS ISN’T A COINCIDENCE!”

“JUST GET THE FUCK DOWN!”

Something over head cracked.

“IT’LL MAKE NO DIFF-”

An ear piercing scream, and squelching sound. Frankie dug her nails into Buddy’s arm. He was shaking. Vern had closed his eyes and, even with all the other sounds, Buddy could hear him saying his prayers.

As a last ditch, pointless effort to keep up morale, Buddy yelled, “WE’RE GONNA GET THROUGH THIS! I PROM-

---

The view went blank once more.

“He’d told us it was scary, but this just takes the cake. How could anyone live through that without mental trauma, let alone the physical ache?” Zecora thought aloud.

“I don’t think he did get off scott free, Zee,” explained Scootaloo.

The pegasus, now a young mare, looked back at her friends. Sweetie Belle wiped tears from her eyes, and those of her sisters too. Applebloom huddled up to Big Mac. Bab Seed just stared, mouth agape. Maybe it had been Scoots alone who had noticed the slight emptiness in the eyes, and unnecessarily frequent checks of the watch.

Pinkie was bouncing on the spot anxiously.

“Ooooooo I do hope they get out alright.”

“We will find out soon enough,” Celestia said.

---

Buddy’s Footnotes:

I still look back on this day. It turned out pretty swell, except for the ending. I’ll never get over how nice Vern had been.

P.T.O

Author's Note:

DAMMIT! Just missed 20th Dec here in England. Stupid colouring issues.