Short Shorts

by Coranth

95. A Stop At... (My Little Pony/A Stop At Willoughby)

The "Life Script."

Birth, School, Work, Retirement, Death.

Especially work.

The pressure to succeed.

The stigma if you don't, can't, or actually try to choose not to work.

"You parasite! You worthless bum! Cretin! Kidult! Get a job, you loser!"

Get a Job... so I can... what?

Keep up with the Jonses? Take out a Home Loan? Mortgage? Marry some [censored], have her pop out some brats and then divorce me later, cleaning me out in the process? "Make" a living, instead of... oh, I don't know... live, even if my life is simple?

It gets to me.

I fucking hate it.

Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong time. Sometimes I feel like an old man in a young man's body. Not physically ailed, but... I look around at the world and think, "What the hell happened?"

It's like... everyone around me is speaking a foreign language and I'm the only one who speaks English

Why can't I just stay home? Be like Fluttershy, just... living in her little cottage with her animals.

Why must I sacrifice my time, my freedom to work for some... boss who might "lay me off" at the drop of a hat.

The thought of having to leave my house--to talk to and interact with... people... makes me ill.

Human Society can just go fuck itself!

Eventually... it all just becomes too much.

Something in my mind just... breaks...

...

. . .

. . .

... and as my Mother takes me to Centrelink, for yet another one of their pointless programs, as I sit in the back seat feeling ill to my stomach I start to nod off to sleep; anything to escape for just a brief moment...

I feel something unusual pressed against my right side, then; something warm, alive, and breathing. The feel of feathers - a feathered wing - wrapped about my left. Slowly my eyes open... and I find myself within a golden chariot, pulled by... by...

Guardsponies. Lunar Guardsponies. Thestrals.

We're flying through the evening sky just after sunset; coming down to land, actually, at a village. A village I have seen before. A village I know well. Behind us there lies the brilliance of an unmistakable castle.

I... I am in Equestria.

And... if I am here, then... who else is with me? Slowly, hesitantly, I turn my head to look at the pony pressed against me, keeping my warm despite the air's slight chill.

"L-Luna..." A sob escapes my throat, then, and my beloved nuzzles me, gently.

"Ponyville!" says she, softly. "This stop is Ponyville!"

She started to turn her head away, but I gently cupped her muzzle in my hands. I could feel her breath upon my face as she breathed.

“What do you mean Ponyville? What’s Ponyville?” Gently I released her then scratched her behind the ears,

For a moment, Princess Luna leaned into my touch, smiling; then she gestured with a hoof toward the village we were approaching. “That is Ponyville, mine love. Right there.”

“Wait a minute,” I said, my voice tight and unbelieving. “Wait just a minute. What’s going on? There’s no place called Ponyville. And look at it. The moon is out. It’s... it’s summer.”

Luna cuddled even closer to me, nuzzling. “That it is mine love, mid-July and a lovely, warm summer eve.”

“But listen,” I said, “it’s May, 2014. What’s going on, anyway?" I shut my, eyes tightly, then opened them again. “It’s May,” I repeated. "I'm supposed to be visiting a Centrelink Assessor. What is this place? Where are we? What’s happened!”

Luna softly kissed my cheek, stroking me soothingly with a midnight-blue wing.

“Please,” I said, lowering my voice, “please, Luna, what’s going on? Where is Ponyville?”

“Ponyville, beloved,” the Night Princess answered. “That’s Ponyville, right there. Ponyville. July. Summer. It’s 880 A.D. It’s a lovely little village.” Something intense crept into her voice. “Peaceful, restful, where a man and his mare can slow down to a walk and live their lives full measure.” As she spoke, the golden chariot - the Royal Chariot - came to a gentle landing, brought down by the four ponies who drove it.

The Ponies of Ponyville had begun to gather about the Chariot, now, among them Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Twilight, the purple Alicorn waving at us enthusiastically. Tears misting my eyes, I turned to Luna and kissed her softly. "You know, love" I spoke through my tears, "I... I think we should stay here for a while. We should get off here, at Ponyville."

A warm and affectionate smile upon her muzzle, Princess Luna nodded, kissed me again... and then together, she and I stepped down from the Chariot to the ground...

Comments

[Blade Star]

I am intrigued. Follow this up in further chapters.

[Melancholy Angel]

I don't get it, if he knows he's in Equestria, why the heck is he asking "What's Ponyville?"

P.S a little much on the misanthropy don't ya think?

[EdBecerra]

4316354
It sounds a bit like an old Twilight Zone episode, "A Stop at Willoughby".

It's just my guess, but I'll wager that if the kid gets off in Ponyville, he'll be dead in the real world.

And probably much happier.

[Carpinus Caroliniana]

4317102, sounds like it.

I'm now picturing a scene where he leaps out of the moving car and is killed whereupon he ends up in Equestria.

It's a variation of the old "Equestria as the afterlife" concept.

[Coranth]

EdBecerra, Carpinus....

YOU GOT IT! That's exactly it.

Ed,

The "kid" is me. The first bit of this snippet paints exactly how I feel about human society. If that marks me as a misanthrope... so be it. Least I'm not as bad as she-who-is-Chatty. If you want to hate on me for being a 'quiet' misanthrope, feel free, I've never cared much about what other people think of me anyway...