A weird programmer/ builder has been summoned to Equestria by Twilight Sparkle. At first, he wanted to leave as soon as possible, but as he warmed up to the ponies, he found that it was becoming less and less of an option.
Aj is a 17 year old Freshman in college who was aspiring to be a programmer and builder who was summoned to the land of Equestria. Longing to return to a normal life, he found that in a short month, he'd be able to go back home to his normal life. But as he stays in Equestria, his decision of whether or not to leave becomes increasingly difficult. As the time winds down for him to make his choice, he'll have to choose between going back to a reassured life, or living one full of new adventures.
It was the night before college. It was far from my first "first day", so I shouldn't have been so nervous, right?
Whether or not I should be nervous didn't matter. I knew what I wanted, and what I had to do to get there. I wanted to be a professional programmer, and nobody was going to ruin that for me.
Or, so I thought that night before. I was sitting in my room close to midnight listening to soft music and worrying my head off. Every time I tried to sleep, I thought about me going into the wrong classroom, or something a dumb 6th grader would do. Finally, my phone rang, grabbing my full attention. I checked the caller ID to find my sister calling. I reluctantly reached for the phone before deciding to answer it.
"Hello, Aj?" asked the voice on the other side. "The fact you're still up means you can't sleep, right?" I chucked in my sleep deprived state.
"You're getting better at this whole psychology thing," I complimented her. "Although that was easy. Tell me what I'll say next."
"You're going to tell me why you can't sleep of course." I sighed and rested my head on the pillow to my bed.
"That should be obvious," I remarked. "Why else would I not be able to sleep the day before college?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," she said with a chuckle. "Don't worry, college isn't as scary as it seems. Plus, aren't you like 18? I thought you said the butterflies in your stomach were things of the past."
"First of all, I'm 17. Second of all, what about you? Don't you have a huge fear of spiders?"
"Hey! Fears and nervousness are two different things." I could basically hear her shiver through the phone. "I hate those stupid spiders. Anyway, I've got to go. Tell dad and Bery I said hi and that I'll be there to see you leave, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," I said. Closing my eyes. I'll tell them in the morning." The phone made a low beep sound before shutting the screen off. Finally, I was able to shut my eyes and fall asleep.
The next morning was a rush. When I opened my eyes, I woke up to my younger sister, Bery standing over me, shaking me up.
“Hey Aj, it’s 8 already! Get up or you’ll be late!” At that sentence, I felt like I was already up, and into my pants, I jolted up so fast. After my initial shock and the realization that I had to get there to see my new roommate before my introductory class started, I started doing the math. Considering the college was about an hour from home, and to be on time for my class I had to be there at 10, I was pretty freaking worried.
"Thank you so much Bery," I said grabbing her in a hug. "Where's Rin and dad?"
"They're downstairs thinking you had major pre college jitters," she explained. "They sent me up to check on you, but it seems like you were as calm as a butterfly."
"Heh, irony," I said to myself before shaking my head. "Nevermind, tell them I'll be around in 45 minutes, okay?” She nodded her head vigorously, grabbed me in another tight hug, and ran out of my room, closing the door behind her.
In a fit a paranoia last night, I laid the clothes I wanted to wear out the night before, meaning all I needed to do was take my shower, groom myself, dress and get out. The only problem was, I’m no Speedy Gonzalez. It takes me about 45 minutes to do all that stuff thoroughly. Unless I wanted to leave in soaking clothes with my short, black hair uncombed and messy, I was going to take my time.
After hopping out of the shower at 8:32, I dried off and proceeded to work with my hair. I can’t even count how many times Rin called me more feminine than her just because I care for my hair.
Finally, after a combing, I looked at my bed, where my clothes lie. I donned a pair of black jeans and a grey long sleeve shirt. Over it, I wore a white pullover hoodie. I picked my normal black and white pair of sneakers my dad told me to clean a week in advance and hastily put them on. Finally, I grabbed my two suitcases full with my laptop, flash drive and clothes and scrambled downstairs to my two sisters and dad.
“Finally!” said Rin, my older sister. She was dressed in a lovely red dress that went down to her ankles. Under the dress, I could see she was wearing some sort of leggings that draped down the middle of her calves. Completing the royal look was a pair of expensive slippers. “Are you done? We’ve got an hour to get to your campus, and I’m not sure you’ll make your class.”
“What was even taking so long?” asked my father. Unlike my sister, he apparently didn’t think it was such a grand event. He wore regular worn jeans with a black t-shirt that was too big for him. He was a short man, shorter than even me, but his voice was still intimidating. “What, you trying to be late or something?”
“No, but standing here talking about it isn’t helping anyone,” I commented. “Let’s go before I’m really late.”
We all got into the car which was already started. Rin took the wheel, my dad took the shotgun seat, and I was in the back with Bery. Although I couldn’t wait to see what my roommate looked like, I also wanted the car to break down so I couldn’t get there. Nevertheless, the ride continued as normal. A bit later, Bery tapped me on the shoulder.
“Hey Aj, are you scared?” she asked.
“Of course not,” I lied. “It’s not like this is my first-”
“He terrified, Bery,” said Rin, receiving an evil eye from me. “It’s okay to be afraid, you know. I was when I first went to college.”
“Hmph,” grunted my dad. “That’s cause you’re a girl, Rin. I don’t expect that from my son.”
"A girl you allowed to take judo lessons," she retorted. The two stared at eachother for a bit until the light turned green.
“Well I think it’s okay,” said Bery. “I’m not going to make fun of you.”
“Thanks,” I said, closing my eyes. “You know for a kid, you’re pretty insightful.”
“What does insightful mean?” I smirked in her direction.
“It means you’re very smart,” said Rin. “And I hope you continue to be.” As Bery smiled and the mood in the car lightened, the butterflies in my stomach started to fly away. I actually started to feel better about going into the next chapter of my life.
Arriving on the scene, I instantly retracted my earlier thought.
Considering I was already late, I shouldn’t have been surprised when they dropped me off, said “bye!” in a reassuring tone, and drove off, leaving me to my own thoughts. I rushed towards the dorms and stopped right in the dorm office, panting and sweaty. The dorm manager looked up at me through his own glasses, probably confused.
“Can I assist you?” he asked politely.
“Yes, um, I uh, have a room-”
“Ah yes,” he said, sorting through his keys. “Don’t worry. You’re not the last latecomer. Your room number?”
“I uh, think it’s 203,” He sorted through the keys, finally picking one out of the group and handing it to me.
“If you’re right, you should be pair up with a… Silver? That must be a mistake or something. Ask him his real name when you get there.”
“Thanks,” I said bolting up to my room. Finally reaching the door, I took a few deep breaths. How bad could this Silver guy be? Then I thought about all that could go wrong. College has a way of matching you up with either the best person ever or the worst person you’ll ever meet. It also didn’t care which one you got. Fed up with my nervousness, I slowly opened the door. As the door opened, I found myself looking at a blinding light. After allowing my eyes to adjust, I looked into a strange setting.
Two women were inside the room I'd entered, both lying on the floor panting. A few seconds passed and one of these women looked towards the door, her eyes growing in surprise.
"S-sorry, is this the wrong room-"
"Lyra, it worked!" she squealed. "A human's here! I knew we'd get it eventually!"
"Are you sure he's not another earth pony?" said the other one with a disheartened tone. "Cause by now, I think I'll just take an F."
"No, really, he has no tail." The other woman popped up and looked at me as well.
"I can't believe it," she gasped. "I cannot believe it actually worked! Twilight, You're a genius!"
"I try," she said in a happy tone. "So, what do we do now?"
"How about telling me what's going on here?" I asked. "Are either of you Silver?"
"Silver?" asked the women in harmony. "Who's that?"
"Okay, neither of you two are Silver," I observed. I sighed and looked over the two. "So who are you two exactly?" The woman who saw me first stood up.
"My name is Twilight Sparkle, student at Celestial Academy, magic division." Both her name and the school name threw me off. "Next to me here is my friend and roommate at Celestial, Lyra Heartstrings, anthropology extraordinaire."
"Pleased to meet you human," said Lyra tipping a metaphorical hat. "Welcome to Equestria."
"E-Equestria?" I asked surprisingly. "What's that?"
"It's our kingdom, ruled by the Princesses Celestia and Luna," said Twilight. "We used a great deal of magic to bring you from your world to ours, so we hope you enjoy your stay."
"My stay? W-wait, no, I can't stay, have an introductory class-" I checked my phone, seeing to check the time. It read 1:25. I took some time to contemplate what was going on.
“What’s your name?” asked the one named Twilight Sparkle.
“You can call me Aj,” I said, my voice unnaturally shaky. “B-but, I need to get to my class now-”
“B-but,” stuttered the one named Lyra Heartstrings. “We still need you here.”
“What would you want from me? Did you just want to see what a human looks like before sending me back?” Lyra and Twilight looked between each other, both with a look of nervousness in their eyes. Finally, Lyra turned to me and sighed.
“Well, you see, I kinda boasted to our classmates that I’d bring something new to the table. After forming a partnership with Twilight, she helped me summon you to this world, the purpose being to study you.” She chuckled nervously. “Knowing that, I also want you to know that you can’t leave this world for about… a month.”
“Oh, no… Rin is gonna kill me, dad is gonna kill me, my professors are gonna kill me…”
“W-well it’s not all bad,” said Lyra in an attempt to comfort me. “Look at the bright side.”
“What bright side?”
“I don’t know, but when we find it, we should look on it.” I sighed and tried to collect my thoughts. “Okay, so what’s the first thing I have to-”
“Twilight and Lyra!” said a voice loudly from behind me. I moved out of the way for a short, bright white skinned woman wearing a light pink blouse with a similar skirt all accented with gold. She also wore glasses covering her bright pink eyes. “Explain to me why I felt a large wave of energy coming from this location. And why there is a man in the dorms!”
“Fleur, don’t you see?” asked Lyra. “We did it. We summoned a human to this world.” Fleur made a complete 180, walked up to me and stared me in the eyes.
“You’re a human? I see they’re not as impressive as you made them seem, Lyra Heartstrings.” She backed up, pushed her glasses up on her face and flashed a clipboard into her hand. “It is still a violation to have unauthorized men in the women’s dorm. I expected better from you, at least, Twilight.” She wrote something down and ripped it off, apparently levitating it towards Lyra’s hands. Finally, she used her finger to call me towards her. “You, with me. Now.”
“Where are we going, exactly?” I asked. “Where should I leave these bags?”
“Wait, Fleur, you can’t take him,” said Twilight. “Summoning isn’t banned or even discouraged on school grounds. We’re not breaking any rules.”
“Maybe so, but I was still uninformed that a man would be summoned, and that a summoning of this caliber would be performed. Therefore, I’ve decided that this must be reported to Celestia.”
“No need, Ms. Dis Lee,” said a voice from behind me, startling me once again. A tall woman with bright white skin similar to Fleur's and long rainbow colored hair stood there. She surveyed the entire room, her eyes dabbling on the others, but stuck onto me. "I am right here."
"So, what is your opinion on the matter, Princess?" asked Fleur in a less than firm tone. Celestia's eyes did not deviate from my own.
"Well done Lyra and Twilight," she said, stunning Fleur. "This magic is very complicated, and I am glad to see you two managed to actually summon a human." After a while, words started to fade and all I could hear was a ringing.
"B-but, Princess," fumbled Fleur. "Rules are rules after all. They are put in place for our safety and well being."
"That is true, which is why I leave you with this," the long white horn I hadn't noticed before started glowing a yellow color. "Not only do I allow this human here, but I condone any and all experiments done. That is all." The flash of light seemed to free me from the spell she put me under. Fleur made a noise in defeat before walking past me. I shook my head, blinked a couple of times and turned towards Twilight.
"That woman... what did she just do?"
"That was our Princess Celestia, Ruler of the Sun," explained Twilight. "She's usually very lenient to my experiments."
"B-but what did she do?" I asked again. "It was like as soon as our eyes met, I couldn't tear them away, no matter how hard I tried. I started to to feel all weird before she just vanished."
"You were probably captivated by her," explained Twilight. "I know that when I first saw her, I couldn't stop thinking about her presence for a while. You'll probably get used to it soon."
"Nevermind that," said Lyra. "Did you hear what she said? Unrestricted experimentation!"
"I am also happy that she gave us such a privilege, but I think we should allow Aj to settle into his new surroundings, don't you?" asked Twilight. She turned to me, a smile on her face. “You’d like that right?”
“Yeah, I guess,” I said. “If I’m going to be staying here, I might as well get acquainted to this place.” I walking into the room and placed my bags next to a bed. I walked into the hallway and motioned down it. “After you?”
"So, let me get this straight,” I said as I traversed the courtyard below the women’s dorms. "I'm no longer on planet Earth?"
"That's the thing," answered Lyra. "We don't know. In my history studies, I've found the names of humans you may recognize, but people say without the concrete evidence to prove it, we may as well be flailing in the dark."
"And that's where I come in?" I asked. "All I have to do is confirm that humans existed and be on my way? Sounds simple enough."
"Yes, but simple does not always mean easy," explained Twilight. "Unless you can somehow prove that you are a human and not a trick we concocted, than they won’t believe it."
"Sounds like a tall glass to fill..." I said dejectedly. “How exactly am I supposed to do that?"
“Dunno,” she admitted. “I don’t doubt you’ll find some evidence though.” I sighed, suddenly thinking about what would happen if I mucked up trying to prove my humanity. Suddenly we stopped in front of a large open gate. In front of us was a large street full of multicolor skinned people moving about and minding their business. The interesting part was the amount of people with different bodies. Where one had nothing and traveled on the ground, the other had wings and zipped across the sky. Some had horns like Twilight and Lyra and simply traveled like the normal ones.
“This is the entrance to our school’s residential area,” said Lyra, pointing towards the large gate. “Past here is part city, part campus.”
“Huh?” I asked, confused by how she described the city. “How does that work?”
“Well, this isn’t technically restricted to students of the Academy. This street is technically named Neighsayers Avenue, but all the students just call it Point Street. They call it that because it’s the main point on campus.” She gestured to all the students moving by. “These are our fellow students at Celestial Academy, from the different divisions the school is broken down into.”
“I guess that makes sense…” I said. “Do you guys have classes to attend now?”
“Uh...today is Saturday. I haven’t signed up for an extra class-”
“But I have,” interrupted Twilight. “I have Arcane Etymology 4 Honors, but that doesn't start till 3."
"Arcane Etymology?" I asked. "What is that?"
"It's the study of magic incantations and spell words," she said with happiness. "In the honors class, we even go as far back as Starswirl's Grimoires to-"
"It's the most boring, tedious class ever," explained Lyra, getting a frown from Twilight. "I'm sorry Twi, I just don't want the guy to get the wrong idea."
"Anyway, classes aside, we brought you to Point Street because of the time." I pulled out my phone and pressed the middle button. In bright white numbers, the phone displayed 1:34.
"It's 1:34," I recited. "What's so special about 1:34?"
"Well duh, it's lunchtime," said Lyra. "I'm really in the mood for some tacos."
"Oh, I almost forgot about that," said Twilight returning to her earlier state. "I did promise you that we'd have some tacos didn't I?" She nodded at me. "However, now we have Aj to feed. Do you eat vegetarian meat?"
"Never tried it," I admitted. "Does it taste good?"
“That’s up to your taste buds, now isn’t it?” said Twilight.
“I guess…” I said, following them down the street full of people. While they made it seem like wading through the crowd was easy, I can assure you, without the proper training, it’s not. A string of the phrase“excuse me” and apologies later, we reached the restaurant, a heavily populated place with people of all different ilks. As we walked in, a woman wearing a long blue and black dress came to show us to our table. After we were seated at one of the many tables, she whisked away to deal with others quickly only to return to our table carrying a notepad.
“What’re ya having?” she said quickly bouncing on her feet.
“3 tacos please,” said Lyra. Before even confirming she heard us, she basically skated away to the next cluster of guests. Once she was out of sight, I looked back towards my own table.
“You know,” said Twilight breaking the silence. “We could perform our own small experiment right here.” Lyra’s eyes lit up at the mention of an experiment.
“Really?” she said excitedly. “What are we going to do?”
“Don’t get your hopes up. It’s just a few a questions while we wait for our tacos.” she put her elbows on the table and leaned forwards, narrowing her eyes. “Tell me Aj. What is school like on Earth?”
“It’s not fun, I can tell you that,” I said. “You’ve got to go through 5 different sections all so that you can be successful. I’m lucky because I want to be a programmer. I don’t need any years of school to be successful, I just need to be good.”
“Hm,” thought Twilight. “I see. Another question. Do you belong to any religion?”
“No, I’m an atheist,” I admitted. “An atheist doesn’t belong to any religion.”
“Do you have any siblings?” asked Lyra. “What about a girlfriend?”
“Yes, and not currently, no,” I answered. “I have two sisters, Rin and Bery.”
“What about your parents?” said Twilight. “Do you keep in touch with them?”
“Yeah, I was living with my dad prior to my... involuntary leave.” I closed my eyes. “ And as for my mom… we try not to talk about my mom.”
“Here you go, three tacos, right?” asked the server girl. She placed out three plates before leaving to the next table. I took a bite and let my mouth fill with warm deliciousness. It was so good I almost cried.
“This is amazing!” I said louder than expected. After sharing apologetic gazes with the people around us, I continued. “What is it that they put in here?”
“It’s just vegetarian meat, tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese,” explained Lyra. “Have you never tasted it before?”
“Never,” I said taking another bite. “I think I might get into this.”
A-anyway, I have more questions,” said Twilight. “Of course, only if you’re willing to answer.”
We spent a long time at that restaurant. I sat and told them all I could remember about history in exchange for a few more tacos. Once my hunger subsided, I sat in a daze as Twilight jotted down various notes about what I had said in her notepad. Apparently done taking notes for now, she clicked her pen.
“I would love to sit here and ask you more questions, but it is a quarter to three, so I should really be going.,” She gave her notepad to Lyra. “Make sure you to stay out of trouble while I’m gone, okay?” Lyra rolled her eyes.
“Twilight, I’m not a filly anymore. I can handle myself with at least a bit of responsibility.”
“Is that so?” asked Twilight. “Because I distinctly remember you being the one to get too drunk last Summer Sun Celebration and-”
“Okay, okay, I thought we agreed never to talk about that ever again.” Her eyes flashed to me. “Especially not with anyone else around.”
“Yes, I did promise, didn’t I?” she said standing up. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I will be gone for a few hours. Take care.” She disappeared in a flash of purple light, nearly blinding me. After my eyes resettled, I found the tables around us were unhappy with the interruption, evident by the glares.
“Um, Lyra?” I said getting her attention. “I think we should leave before we become more unwanted.”
“Agreed,” she said. We both got up and left the shop, merging straight into a crowd of ponies. Somehow, I’d learned to wade through the crowds in the short amount of time since I first did it. Soon, we were where we started, at the top of Point St. We started heading in a different direction.
“So, now what Lyra?” I asked. "Where are we going?”
“I was thinking about doing some actual experiments. Nothing dangerous, just body dissection.”
“I really hope you’re joke-” I bumped into something, sending it crashing to the ground. After I stopped being disoriented, I looked on the floor and saw a woman with yellow skin and pink hair look up at me. She had wings matching her skin color spread outwards, although she wasn’t using them to fly. Once she looked into my own brown eyes, both of us blushed, her in embarrassment, and me in awe.
“I’m so sorry!’ she apologized, gathering herself. “I did not see you there.”
“Sorry about that Fluttershy,” said Lyra. “He’s new here. He didn’t know to watch out.”
“Oh,” she said looking at me up and down. “It’s okay Lyra. I’ll see you later.” She scuttled past me without another word, me just standing there, completely speechless. It took Lyra waving her hand in my face to tear me out of my own thoughts.
“Hey Lyra…” I started. “Who...who was that girl?”
“Oh her? That’s Fluttershy, one of Twilight’s friends.” She turned and continued to walk on, me following suit. “As her name entails, she is usually very shy to people she doesn’t know.”
“I see,” I said as I walked. “So if she’s one of Twilight’s friends, I’ll end up seeing her again sometime, right?”
“Wait a second,” said Lyra. “You have a crush on her, don't you?”
“I’d be surprised if anyone didn’t,” I replied. “Actually, do you know?”
“Well, there is Arct Shine, but he’s a jock,” she shook her head. “She’s too timid for that lifestyle. Other than him, no one has openly admitted any feeling for her.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” I said. “I thought there would be a whole fanclub of people in love with Fluttershy…”
“Maybe. Nobody has had enough courage to say that they like her to her face, though.” I sighed, knowing that I was getting distracted from what I should've been thinking about.
“It doesn’t matter anyway,” I said to her. “I’m not going to be here long enough to make any sort of relationship with her happen.”
“Oh really?” asked Lyra. “I disagree, I think you could get with her if you really tried. It’d be a cool experiment.”
“Yeah, yeah, you and your experiments." I said jokingly. "Anyway ,we were going where?"
"Unless I misunderstood myself, we should not be here." I said as I stood outside a dorm room. "I already told you, I'm not interested in her."
"I know, I know," said Lyra. "All I want you to do is talk to her. You can do that, right?" I frowned in her direction, not amused by her insistence that I talk with Fluttershy. She looked at me with eyes that reminded me of Bery. I sighed before knocking at the door. A shuffling could be heard before a voice popped up from inside.
"Who is it?" said Fluttershy on the other side of the door. I expected Lyra to answer, but she stood there waiting for me. I rolled my eyes in annoyance and answered.
“It’s Lyra’s friend, Aj,” I said reluctantly. “Lyra is also here.” I heard a lock click before the door opened slightly. Fluttershy’s face poked out of the door.
“Um… hello,” she said in a quiet voice. “What are you doing here?”
“We’re just here to pay you a visit,” said Lyra. “Can we come in?”
“S-sure, I guess,” she said opening the door all the way. “Would you like some tea?”
We ended up entering her dorm room which smelled heavily of vanilla flavor. It also seemed to be fit for one person, unlike Twilight and Lyra’s dorm room. As I sat down on the couch next to Lyra, Fluttershy brewed a fresh cup of tea in a kettle plugged into a small desk in the corner of the room. As we all sat down to drink, the room became eerily quiet. If only Lyra would’ve stayed like that..
“So Fluttershy,” started Lyra. “How’s Arct these days?”
“Oh, I don’t know…” she said sloshing around her tea. “I try not to leave my room unless I have to.”
“Ah, I see.” Lyra’s eyes wandered to me, expecting me to ask another question. I drank from my glass before proceeding.
“So Fluttershy,” I started, ready for any answer. “What did you come to this school to study-”
“I study Veterinary Medicine,” she said a bit louder than she normally did, her face full of spirit. “I do love taking care of my critters here.”
“Oh,” I said taking another sip of my tea. “So you like animals?”
“Yes. Very very much.” She placed her cup on the table before leaping up and heading towards her bed where she clasped something on it. She came back to sit down, a small bunny nestling in her hands. “This is my pet Angel Bunny. We spend a lot of time together.” She looked up at me. “Do you have any pets Aj?”
“I had a snake, but my sister Rin took her to college. Her name was Lisbeth.” Lyra looked at me with a smile on her face. I didn’t know whether to be confused or scared, so I just sipped my tea.
“Hey, Fluttershy,” said Lyra butting into our conversation. “It’s getting pretty late. Wouldn’t you like to continue this conversation later?”
“Well, only if you wanted to listen,” said Fluttershy.
“I guess I could learn something new about snakes, but only if I wouldn’t be a bother.” I said.
“No, no, you wouldn’t be a bother,” responded Fluttershy. “I don’t normally have company over, but I think I can manage.”
“Well then, that settles that,” said Lyra loudly. “C’mon Aj, Twilight is probably looking for us.”
“Oh yeah,” I said putting down the cup on the table. “Thank you for the tea Fluttershy.” I got up and followed Lyra out of the room. After the door closed, I gave Lyra the hardest glare I muster.
“W-what?” she asked walking away. “What did I do?”
“I thought I specifically said I didn’t want to get mixed up in this.”
“You’re not mixed up in anything,” she promised. “It’ll just be a little conversation between two people trying to be friends, nothing more.” Although I wanted to argue, I couldn’t. I sighed and started following her.
“I guess, but don’t blow anything out of proportion, okay?” I heard her chuckle.
The reason I wanted to go over by Fluttershy's was because I wanted to get to know her better, no matter how much I denied it. I wasn't really sure what to do until Twilight got back from her class that evening.
"A completely surefire way to get her attention is to talk about animals," she advised. "But watch out for that bunny. It's evil."
So now I stood outside her room first thing in the morning. Sleeping on the dorm room floor in a sleeping bag was uncomfortable, to say the least, but I did get a good night's sleep. I walked up towards the dorm door, took a deep breath and knocked on the door. I heard shuffling like before come towards the door.
“Hello?” said Fluttershy from the other side of the door. “Aj, is that you?”
“Yeah,” I responded. “Sorry for coming so early.” I heard the click of the lock and the door opened revealing Fluttershy. She was wearing a fuzzy green sweater and blue jeans with fuzzy white socks.
“That’s okay,” she said letting me pass through into her room. After sitting down on the couch, she sat across from me, sipped from what I think was coffee, and sighed in delight. “Isn’t today such a nice day?”
“I don’t know, actually,” I admitted. “I haven’t gone out all day.”
“Really?” she asked. “Then how did you get here from the men’s dorm?”
“Oh yeah. Nobody ever told you, did they?” I asked. “Well, I’m not a pony like you might think. I don’t even go to this school. I’m actually a human from a different dimension/time period. I’ve been staying in the girls dorm with Twilight and Lyra-”
“Oh, wow, a human! I’ve never met a human before,” she said excitedly. “What’s it like? Being a human?”
“W-well, it’s not that much different from being a pony, I guess,” I replied. “Except we don’t have wings or magic like you guys do.”
“What do you do for fun?” she asked, being much more outgoing than I thought she could be. “Do you like caring for animals?”
“Well, I like to program things. Not everybody does though,” I explained. “And as for animals… I like cats.”
“I don’t have any cats here,” she said. “I’m only allowed to keep Angel here.”
“Angel?”
“Angel,” she said, motioning to a space behind me. Turning around, I found a small white rabbit behind me. His face was surprisingly cartoonish and frowned up. “He’s my cute little Angel Bunny.”
“Oh, you’re that rabbit Twilight was talking about,” I said. “Notoriously evil”
“Are you hungry Angel?” asked Fluttershy. The bunny bounced around me and onto the couch, a nodding of his head symbolizing his agreement. “Okay then, I’ll go prepare something for you. You just stay with Aj, okay?” The bunny looked at me like I was a problem. He hopped over to my seat and stood next to me.
“Oh yeah, leave me with the devil bunny,” I whispered. “Do you need any help?”
“No, I should be fine,” she assured me. “It should only take me about 15 minutes to prepare. Thank you anyway.” She walked out of the dorm room and down the hall to what I assumed would be some kind of kitchen. I turned towards the bunny sitting next to me, looked him up and down and sighed.
“What do I do now?” I asked him. He blinked at me a few times before twitching his nose, shrugging his shoulders and hopping away. “Yeah, I guess it was pretty dumb of me to ask a bunny a question.”
The door flew open, startling me. Entering the dorm was a person with ash grey skin and wings, dark black hair and similar eyes. He looked straight at me, his face warping to show resentment.
“Who are you?” he asked in a disgusted tone.”More importantly, what are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” I responded. “But if you must know, I’m Aj.”
“Aj?” he asked in the same tone. “I don’t know you. What, are you new here?”
“Somewhat.” The person’s face started showing agitation.
“Don’t play with me, buddy,” he warned. “What are you doing here in this dorm?”
“Well, I was invited over by Fluttershy,” I answered. “Now that I’ve answered your questions, answer mine.”
“You really don’t know who I am?” he asked in disbelief. He placed his left hand behind him and his right high up in the air. “I am Arct Shine, quarterback of the Celestial Flares.” He stood there for a few seconds before adding, “Burn in my light.”
“Uh, yeah,” I said in slight shock. “What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here?” He repeated, returning to his original form. “I’m here because I saw some chump enter my girlfriend’s room, that’s why.”
“Your girlfriend?” I asked. “You sure about that?” He walked up to where I was sitting before grabbing me by the shirt and lifting me out of my seat.
“Yeah, I’m deadly sure,” he said, pushing me towards the door. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a woman to wait for.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said, not backing down. “So maybe I should stay. Don’t want to just leave such a nice girl with the likes of you.”
For a few seconds, we just stared at each other. Of course, it wouldn’t stay like this. He walked up to me and tried to grab me by the collar once again. I grabbed his wrist, and pulled him into a wall next to me. Shortly after, I pulled him close and brought my left fist to his face. He countered with a right hook across my face, disorientating me. Once I was back to normal, he grabbed me by the throat with both hands and slammed me into a different wall, sending a lot a pain throughout my body. He threw me across the room towards the windows, sending me crashing against the wall. My body became unresponsive as if it was crumpled paper. When he got over to me, I could see him wipe blood from his nose and smile.
“Hopefully you’ll think twice next time before messing with me me,” he yelled as he kicked me in the chest. “See you later, punk.” He got up and walked out of the room. The signs of our struggle apparent and my brain unable to think of what to do next, I closed my eyes, waiting to see what would become of me when I arose.
All I felt was a numb pain. I felt my body ache in a bed that I did not own. As I opened my eyes, I saw the bright light of a dorm room ceiling. I looked to my right, Lyra and Twilight on the other bed looking at each other and talking.
“-he was beat up,” finished Twilight. “Guess he provoked him somehow.”
“Yeah,” replied Lyra. “Fighting the quarterback of any football team is a terrible idea.”
“It was my calling,” I said, grabbing their attention. “I was trained by my dad to never back down.”
“Your dad has a lot to learn from cowards,” said Twilight. “A coward wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said trying to sit up. “Don’t worry, I’ll be up in a few hours. These usually blow over if I move around.”
“How often do you get your flank handed to you?” asked Lyra.
“Flank?” I responded. “What’s a flank?”
“It’s a way to say your butt,” said Lyra. “How often do you get your butt handed to you?”
“Often, yet not often enough,” I said. “Rin always beats me in when she visits my house.”
“Rin is your sister, right?” she asked. “What is she like?” I sighed before bouncing around on the bed.
“She’s a riot, first of all. Hilarious, especially around alcohol. She’s about 6 feet tall, red hair with freckles, pretty attractive too.” I listed. “But she’s also a black belt in judo, and is not afraid to show it.”
“Sounds pretty amazing,” said Twilight. “You must look up to her a lot.”
“Maybe,” I responded. “So enough about me. What happened to Fluttershy?”
“She’s the one who found you down on her floor. She reported your assault to Fleur who reported it to Dean Luna.”
“Dean Luna?” I asked in pain. “Sounds important.”
“Yeah, she is,” said Twilight. “In fact, she’s second only to Princess Celestia.”
“Excuse me,” said Fleur from the door. “Dean Luna has requested the human’s audience. Come with me.” I nodded and tried to get up, my back aching in response. With Twilight’s assistance, I was up and on my way to the office. Once I was in the hallway and out of earshot, Fleur turned her head to face me.
“You okay?” She asked as I limped along. “Come now, I know it didn’t hurt that bad.”
“You’d be surprised,” I retorted. “What exactly does Luna want me for-”
“Dean Luna wants to discuss the rules of this school to you. Make sure you don’t break them anymore,” she explained. “Starting with your living condition.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Mostly because I was the one who reported you to her,” she responded. “Suddenly some random human appears and all the rules go out the window? I don’t think so.”
“I don’t mean to insult you in the slightest,” I assured before asking. “But… can’t you try to have a little fun?”
“When you are someone of high importance like me, you don’t have time for ‘fun’,” she replied. “Through the door please.” I looked up, a door that said Dean’s Office in bright gold letters right in front of me. I took a deep breath and put my hand on the handle before pushed the door open. A voice became clear on the other side.
“Ooh, I can’t to bite into you you succulent devil…” said a voice on the other side of the door. Opening the door fully, I could see a woman with black hair and dark blue skin with a matching pair of wings and a horn. She was laid back with a piece of cheese, probably swiss, dangling a few inches from her face. Once she dropped it in her mouth, she opened her eyes to find me and Fleur looking at her with glares of confusion. She moved the platter of cheese she was talking to and crossed her fingers. “Please come in.”
“Uh, yeah,” I said walking in and taking a seat. “You wanted to see me Dean Luna?”
“Please, just call me Luna. I don’t like the formalities anymore,” she admitted. “Anyway, what were we meeting about?”
“The complaints, I made ma’am,” reminded Fleur. “The ones I pitched this morning.”
“Oh yes, yes, I remember,” she said clearing her throat. “How about we discuss these matters privately, Mr. J?”
“Uh, sure, I guess,” I said nervously. After I heard what she said to that cheese, I wasn’t very sure that she was completely sane. “I don’t mind.” Luna nodded towards Fleur who nodded back. She backed out of the room and closed the door. I heard as the click clack of her heels diminished as she walked away. Once it was nearly miniscule, Luna sighed very loudly and sat back in her chair, bringer her platter front center.
“Nice girl, isn’t she?” asked Luna as she picked between her cheese. “Not great in a position of power. She should really focus on her classes more.”
“Um... “ I stuttered watching her devour her cheese ever so sensually. “I-is there a reason you called Fleur away?”
“Well, it’s mostly because I know Fleur would not allow me to relax in front of her,” she responded pushing the platter to me. “Would you like some? It’s very good.”
“S-sure…” I said picking up an piece of swiss and taking a bite. “So, is there anything you want to talk about?”
“Well, yes actually,” she admitted. “I want to talk about Fluttershy. Why is it that you fought Arct?”
“He was being an asshole,” I responded quickly. “And why is his name Arct Shine? His colors are anything but light.”
“A disrespectful comment and a question about his color scheme?” asked Luna in surprise. “How much more do you want to be cliche?”
“I don’t mean to be,” I said defensively. “It’s just that… Fluttershy is… er, deserves better than Arct. I’m not saying I’m that better person, but I hope damn well that they don’t end up together.”
“Spoken like a true admirer,” said Luna. “Keyword, admirer. Ever since Arct beat you up, most everybody thinks that you’re just some joe shmoe, me included.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked. “I’m not gonna be here long enough to form any kind of relationship with Fluttershy anyway.”
“It’s meant to motivate you,” she responded. “Don’t go down without a fight. Well, another fight, anyway. And, even though you haven’t realized it, you’ve already made an impression on her.”
You’re right,” I said with a chuckle. “I will forever be known as ‘the one who got his ass beat’.” Luna laughed before eating another chunk of cheese.
“You should set out to change that,” she said turning to rifle through her desk. “But first, you should get your mind off of her and on something else. Starting with… the day after tomorrow.”
“The day after tomorrow?” I asked. “What is it?” She flashed a paper in front of my face, a large carved pumpkin looking at me. Underneath it, there were some words. “Come to our haunted house, a foreclosed old warehouse on Carver St, Canterlot. A few special guests will receive a special trip to the abyss!” I looked up from the paper with my eyebrow raised. “And why should I attend a haunted house attraction… in the middle of September?”
“September?” She asked. “No, no, today is October 30th. Nobody told you?”
“Apparently not,” I confessed. “So… I should go to this haunted house?”
“Sure. Ask Twilight. She’s always been in the Halloween spirit.”
“I guess,” I responded. “She doesn’t seem like the type to have any type of fun. However, I have only known her for a day.”
“That’s the spirit,” she said leaning forwards. “One more thing. If Fluttershy confronts you about what happened, tell her not to worry, alright? She has enough to worry about with her classes and her pets bunny.”
“Hm,” I hummed. “Thanks Luna, you’re really helpful.”
I stood outside of the door to Luna’s office, paper clutched in my hand. Leaning against the door alleviated the pain, so I did. After a few minutes, a familiar click clacking brought me back to my feet. As I suspected, Fleur turned the corner, stopping as soon as she saw me.
“Oh, you two are done,” she said. “I was just coming to check on how things were going.”
“Yeah,” I said limping away. “Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s getting pretty late-”
“Why do you keep doing that?” she asked, stepping in line with me.
“Doing what?”
“Walking like that.”
“I’m in pain,” I said in an obvious tone.
“Hm,” she hummed in thought. “You humans must be frailer than us ponies. A normal stallion would’ve recovered by now.”
“Thanks for making me feel better,” I said sarcastically. “Anyway, I might as well tell you that your demands were not met.”
“What do you mean?” she asked in confusion. “Was there some sort of compromise?”
“Not really a compromise, per se. More like your demands were flat out ignored.” She stopped walking along with me, her mouth open in surprise and offense. “Sorry, but I tell it how it is.”
“Preposterous!” she yelled. “I will report this to Princess Celestia immediately!” she stomped her foot on the ground. “Think you can ignore me? Well, I’ll prove I’m not someone to be ignored.”
“Fleur,” I said. “Calm dow-”
“Don’t you tell me to calm down!” she yelled. “You don’t know!”
“I don’t know what?” I asked, trying to keep my voice down. I didn’t know what time it was, but I’m sure it was late.
“Just… nevermind!” she yelled before stomping off in another direction. “Know this, human. You may have earned the Princesses favor, but I will not go unspoken.” She turned the corner and disappeared, the clicking and clacking fiercer than before.
“Sometimes I wonder…” I whispered to myself before turning and heading in the direction of Twilight and Lyra’s room. After stopping in front of it, I knocked on the door to see who was inside. I heard quite a bit of rustling before Lyra’s familiar voice came around.
“Who is it?” she said, with a chuckle.
“Aj,” I answered.
“Aj?” said Lyra from the other side of the door. “Aj the pizza delivery guy?”
“Of course,” I said with the utmost sarcasm. “What other Aj do you know?” After a few more chuckles, I heard the door unlock, Lyra emerging in a yellow pair of pajamas.
“Welcome home!” she said in an inviting tone. “How was you talk?”
“Great actually,” I said as I walked in and took my place on the floor. “More importantly, why didn’t you guys tell me it’s Halloween tomorrow?”
“Heh heh, about that…” said Lyra softly. “Twilight, I’m going to a party that day. I can’t go with you.” At that, Twilight, who was peacefully reading her book closed it quietly and sighed.
“Well that goes my plan for Halloween,” she said. “Thanks Lyra.”
“Y-you’re not gonna hold a grudge, are you Twi?”
“Hmph,” she said putting her book to the side. “I don’t suppose you would have something to do Aj?”
“As a matter of fact, I do,” I said showing her the flyer. “Luna gave it to me. “
“Hm....” She hummed as she read over the flyer. “Seems like fun. However, as it is 10 o'clock and tomorrow is Monday, I will be seeing you two in the morning.” She laid herself out in her light purple t-shirt and gray sweatpants before turning towards the wall.
“I think I’ll hit the sack too,” I said, laying my back on the ground. “At least my body will feel better in the morning, right?”
“Maybe,” said Lyra as she stretched herself out similarly to Twilight before laying down on her bed. “See you in the morning.”
“Night.”
Usually when I fall asleep, I don’t have any dreams. If I do, I’ve never noticed them as more than black voids and thoughts.
This was similar. I seemed to be walking through a dark and damp space. My body felt very tired as I walked, my footsteps becoming heavy and loud.
I couldn’t focus. Everything in my brain told me to go forward. Knowing that fighting it would take more work, my body complied. Soon, I saw a large circle of light beam down on the floor. Naturally, I headed straight towards the light like a moth. As I closed in on the light, A figure started to appear. Someone was tied up.
“Who… is that?” I asked myself. “Hello?”
“A-Aj?” asked a familiar voice. Twilight’s voice.
“Twilight?” I asked. “Is that you?”
“Where are you? I can’t see-” I heard her lurch as if she was choking. I pushed my body to the fullest as I ran towards her.
“Twilight?!” I yelled. “Can you hear me?!” the choking sound continued. I ran as fast as I could, my muscles screaming under the pain. As I finally reached her, Twilight hung from her hands, completely unscathed. Before I could even raise an eyebrow in confusion, something stabbed me from behind. I could see no blade, but I coughed up blood nonetheless.
“Aj!” screamed Twilight from her binds. I tried to call back, but only blood returned. Before my vision completely blurred a blue ghostly woman appeared, a small smile on her face.
My vision soon returned. I was laying on the floor of the dorm, my body drenched in sweat. I wasn’t sure of what time it was, but I was sure that I didn’t get any sleep. I rubbed my eyes and pulled my phone out of my pocket.
“I:17 AM.” I recited. I thought about going back to sleep, but the dream was still fresh in my mind. I turned towards Twilight was still sound asleep in her bed. I sighed, got up and went into the bathroom., washed my face and looked in the mirror. “What am I supposed to do this early in the morning?”
Suddenly a large thump sounded out. I dried my hands and opened the door to the dorm. Other than Twilight and Lyra moving over in their beds, nothing stirred. I walked to the door and opened it, revealing a fallen Fluttershy.She looked over me before looking away and blushing.
“S-sorry for w-waking you up…” she stuttered.
“What’s keeping you up?” I asked “It’s pretty early.”
“N-nothing!” she said. “I-I wasn’t-”
“Whoa, whoa, I’m not accusing you of anything,” I said. “If you don’t want to talk, it’s okay.”
“T-That’s not it,” she said. “I did want to talk…”
“First, let’s get you up,” I said extending a hand. “Then, tell me what you wanted to talk about.” She reluctantly took my hand, helped herself up and took a quick breath.
“I w-wanted to talk to you about Arct,” she said quietly.
“What about-” I remembered what Luna said. “Nevermind, don’t worry. Whatever happened, happened.”
“O-okay,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure you were alright. You looked pretty beat up.”
“Trust me,” I said with a chuckle. “It’ll take more than a few punches to take get me down and out.” She smiled, one of the most beautiful smiles I’d ever seen. I couldn’t help but blush.
“That’s good to hear,” she said. “And… that’s not the only thing I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Uh, yeah?”
“You wouldn’t… happen to be doing anything for Halloween would you?”
It was at moments like these when only one word came to mind when I thought of a response.
Damnit.
“Uh, actually, I’d told Twilight I’d go to a haunted house with her… sorry,” her smile dropped to a smaller, yet still adorable one.
“Oh, okay then,” she said. “Haunted houses aren’t for me. Maybe you’ll join me when you get back?”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said eagerly. “Uh, I mean, I’d be happy to,”
“Okay then,” she said. “I’ll… see you around.” I don’t know why I did, but I grabbed her in a tight hug before she left. She hesitated before wrapping her hands around me as well. We stayed like that for a few seconds before I let go.
“B-bye.”
“See you around,” she quickly walked towards her dorm as I turned back into the dorm room where Lyra lay with her eyes opened and a smile on her face.
“Awkward hug is awkward,” she said in a sleepy state.
“What?” I asked. “How long have you been up?”
“Every since you started talking,” she said. “So, Aj, you getting a piece of that?”
“Shutup,” I said. “Go back to sleep.” She laughed before rolling over and going back to sleep. I took a shaky breath before laying back down and going back to bed. I sighed before laying myself back out on the floor. I put my head down and smiled. Early Halloween was one of the best I’d ever had.
Too bad it wouldn’t last long.
“Uh,” I said, holding my neck as I woke. “What happened?”
“I don’t know, but it may be because the way you slept,” said Twilight. “You head was very… slanted.”
“Hey, Twilight.” I stretched out. “What time is it?”
“It’s 6:23,” she said. “I don’t know what time the house opened, but I didn’t want to wake you.” She wore a purple sweater vest with a white dress shirt underneath complete with a tie. As she stood up from her bed, I could see she wore a navy skirt
“You’re...going in that?” I asked. “Not too intimidating.”
“Oh, is this wrong?” she asked in a worried manner. “Should I change? I did not prepare to change.”
“Calm down,” I said. “Don’t worry. You don’t have to go as anything, I guess.”
“Oh. Okay then, I’ll go as that.” She stood up and closed the book she was reading, extending her hand to help me up. “Are you ready to go?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said. “I wonder how long this will take.”
“I don’t expect it to be long, but I do expect a good show,” she said.
We left the dorm and eventual the dorm rooms. Heading towards Point St, I could see that the sun was going down and the lights for the holiday go up. We waded through the people until we came to a large bronze gate.
“This is the start of the college, by the way,” she said. “You’ve never been here, have you?”
“No,” I admitted. “This is actually the first time I’ve been past Point St.”
We continued walking outside of the gates. Twilight seemed to know where we were going, so I followed her. Finally, we found a two people standing outside of a large squarish building. One stood with a suit on while the other stood with a large circular wheel that you’d normally see if you were playing bingo. As we approached, the man in the suit smiled wide.
“Ah, our very first customers,” he said with excitement. “Unless of course, you are just passing by?”
“Is this the haunted house?” I asked as I pulled out the paper in my pocket. “This haunted house?”
“Ah, yes, then you two are our first customers.” He pointed to his companion. “Come now. My friend here will draw a ball from this machine. If the ball is golden, you win a trip to the abyss!”
“The abyss…?” I said skeptically. “What exactly is the abyss?”
“The abyss is the area below this warehouse,” reported the woman holding the machine in a monotone voice. “It’s a large underground burial site. Since we’re renting out the place, we were given a heads up by the actual owners that we could use it for our attraction.”
“Sounds… dangerously untested,” said Twilight. “Although, I doubt we’ll get this golden ball first, right?”
“Maybe,” I said with a shrug. “It’s worth a try.” The woman placed the machine on the ground and began to spin it around. When the balls had enough momentum, she stopped, all of them settling down in one place or another. The woman turned around and made a small grunting sound.
“Well would you look at that,” she said showing us the ball we got. “First try and already we’re down 1 golden ball. Congratz.”
“Hm,” hummed the man in thought. “Guess it’s just Halloween magic at work then. Follow me.” We both followed the man inside the dark house, a large illuminated trail showing him where to go. At the end, there was a large black space. We walked along the left wall until he came to a few creaky boards and stopped. “Here we are.”
“Where are we?” I asked. “I don’t really see-”
The floor gave out, scaring the heck out of me. My back was sliding on something cold and metal before giving way to dirt. After a few seconds, we went into a freefall, the ground smacking into me at a very fast speed, nearly knocking me out. After coming back to my senses, I shakily rose to my feet.
“What the hell was that about?” I said to myself. I looked around, finding Twilight on the floor next to me.
“Ah,” she said in pain. “My head… it hurts.”
“Welcome to my world,” I said. “Come on. It’d be better for us to just get this over with-”
“Hello!” said a voice loudly in my ear. “Are you two my new playthings?” I turned quickly to my left, a ghostly woman floating next to me.
“Who are… oh, I see,” I said. “You’re part of this charade, right?”
“Charade?” she asked in confusion. “I don’t know what you mean mister.”
“You’re not part of this haunted house?”
“Well, not particularly,” she said with a chuckle. “I am haunting these grounds.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” said Twilight. “Ghosts don’t exist.”
“Somebody needs a reality check,” said the ghost. “Do me a favor and pinch her for me.”
“No. Just tell me who you are,” I said bluntly. “Then tell us how we can get out of here.”
“Ooh, bossy,” she said. with another small laugh. “Okay then. My name is C. C for Cassandra, but nobody calls me that anymore. Nobody calls me anything anymore.”
“Um… okay?” I said skeptically. “My name is Aj. This woman to my right is Twilight Sparkle.”
“Hello there Cassandra.” She did a backflip in what I could only assume was excitement.
“Okay, now that we’re all acquainted,” she said. “You two can follow me.”
“Are you actually going to lead us out of here?” I asked with hope in my voice.
“Yes! What kind of friends would we be if we didn’t help eachother out!” She started flying towards the darkness. “It’s quite a ways away, so if we hurry, it won’t take us more than 15 minutes.”
“Great then,” I said following her.
We walked through the darkness, the ghost’s light showing us where she was and where to go. Every few seconds, she look back at us and giggle. Twilight, suspicious that she was planning something sinister, had falled behind me. After a few seconds, the sound of whirring blades came into earshot.
“We’re almost there,” she said with another disturbing giggle. “I can hear them from here!”
“What is that?” I asked with a bit of worry in my voice.
“What does it sound like?” she said, her smile creeping up on her face. Once she stopped, the sound of whirring apparent, I dropped my jaw. Thousands of saws were running several feet below three pillars in an illuminated room.
“W-what is that for?” said Twilight. “Y-y-you’re not gonna-”
“Make you jump for my enjoyment?” asked Cassandra. “You know me far too well.”
“B-but you said you’d help us out of here,” I said with a shaky voice. “You said it would take fifteen minutes.”
“Oh stop crying about it,” she said fading into the ground. “And it will only take 15 minutes. Just do your best as fast as you can and you’ll be out in no time.” She completely disappeared, leaving us to our own thoughts. I looked at the blades, rusted and dirty, and gulped.
“Okay Twilight,” I said in a reassuring tone. “We should take our time.Can you see the end?”
“Y-yes,” she said with an equally as shaky voice.
“Do you think you could teleport over there?”
“I...I’ll try,” she said taking a large breath. “What about you?”
“Can you move two people at once?”
“I can do it, but only once,” she said. “It takes a lot of magic to do it.”
“Then conserve your magic,” I said, my voice becoming firm. “We don’t know what we’ll be facing, so I need you in tip top shape, alright?” Her eyes widened in fear.
“But what if… what if you miss?”
“Then tell Fluttershy and Lyra I got sent back home,” I said. “They have no reason to worry about me.” She looked as if she wanted to argue, but I took a deep breath, and jumped to the first pillar, landing directly in the middle of it. It stood in place surprisingly well. “See, nothing to be-”
As if Cassandra set out to mess with me, the pillar lurched in one direction before lurching in a different one. The first one knocked me off of my feet and the second one sent me rolling into the spikes. Using the momentum from the slide and quick thinking, I pushed of the second pillar and instantly jumped to the third. I jumped down onto the platform and turned around, taking my first breath since I did all of that.
“Okay!” I yelled in excitement and fear. “Teleport over here Twilight!”
“O-okay.” She closed her eyes, disappeared in a flash of purple light and appeared a few inches from where I stood now. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay, just very, very scared.” I said. “Sorry, am I weirding you out?”
“No, I’m fine,” she said. “To be honest, I’m a little scared myself.”
“You passed!” said Cassandra as she popped up next to me. “Congratulations! Let’s go on to the next challenge.”
“Wait, I have a question,” I said, my hype going down. “Who are you? Why are you here?”
“Hm…” she buzzed. “How about this. If you complete everything, I’ll tell you.”
“Deal.” I said. “Where is this next place?”
“Heheh. Eager, are we?” she said with an infamous giggle. “Follow me then. I’ll lead you there.”
The walk was short in reality but seemed so long. Twilight seemed like she was trying her hardest to stay as close as possible. Eventually, I grabbed her hand, shaking and cold, wrapped it in my own, and gave it a squeeze.
“Don’t worry. We’ll be out soon enough,” I assured her. “Then you have laugh it up with Lyra when we get home.”
“Yeah,” she said with a gulp. “When we get home.”
“Okay, here we are,” said Cassandra. Before us lay a long glistening path. It looked as if it was lined with crystals. “This here is the hall of whispers. It’s a 100 foot long hallway. Shouldn't take you too long, right?”
“Right,” I said. I walked in, Twilight following suit. “We’ll be in out in 5.”
“I’ll be watching,” she said, fading into the floor. I turned and continued down the hall.
“What is it with you two?” asked Twilight in the darkness. “You two seem to have become friends all of a sudden.”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’m just chummy with people, I guess.”
“Oh…” she said. “I guess that’s why you and Fluttershy hit it off so well.” She sighed. “If you went with her instead of me, we wouldn’t be in this situation.
“Yes, but why would I do that?” I said. “I made you a promise and I intend on-”
“You’re too kind,” said Twilight. “You should've left me for dead back at those saws…”
“What?”
“W-what?” she said. “Did you hear something?”
“Didn’t you just… nevermind.” Twilight stopped.
“I… I am smart…” she whispered.
“What do you mean? I know you’re smart, you don’t have to tell me that.”
“Stop it!” she yelled. “I… I… I’m not a failure.”
“You’re not! What are you…” I started to realize what was happening. “Twilight, can you hear me?” Tears started to well up in her eyes.
“No… I…” her eyes started becoming unfocused. “I’m… not a failure.”
“Listen Twilight,” I said with a long breath. “You are one of the smartest ponies or people I’ve ever known. You excel most other people fall short and quit. Hell, even I’m not as resilient as you are.” I shook her a bit. “Did you hear that? That was praise, not punishment.”
“Yeah… yeah I heard you.” she said as she slowly returned. “Thanks Aj. You’re too kind.”
“You’re welcome, now let’s-”
“I don’t know why you’re mother would leave such a nice boy,”
My heart nearly stopped. Breathing became very hard and Twilight’s eyes showed confusion.
“No… it’s just an illusion-”
“Oh, did I hit a nerve?” she said in a voice that wasn’t hers. “Did your mother hate you or something?”
“Your mother, huh? Let’s take a look here…” It sounded like someone was picking things from my mind. “Severe Schizophrenic and Alzheimer's.”
“She could never remember me…” I said almost uncontrollably. “I was her son and she…” I let go of Twilight and went to the nearest wall. I pressed my hands against it and slammed my head against it. “Get out!”
“No, no, I can’t do that. I’m just getting started,” it searched around some more. “Ah, it said she was cured. Went to go work for a company by the name of Alesso, did she?”
“Get out, get out, GET OUT!” I screamed, slamming my head against the wall with more and more ferocity. The ghost seemed to get louder and louder with every smack.
“Ah, I see now. She was ripped off. Left high and dry in the Alesso Company, the place she loved so much. She loved it so much… that she named one of you after it… she named… you after it…” The voice was fading with my consciousness. I felt blood dripping down my face, but my eyes hurt so much I knew I was crying too. I didn’t stop myself from wallowing.
“She killed herself…” I said. “She killed herself and it’s all that dumb company’s fault.”
“Aj…” said Twilight behind me, her original voice coming back to me. I felt her hand on my shoulder. “I-I’m sorry. Sorry you had to relive that.”
“I don’t know how many times I’d heard that. I thought I’d heard them all.” I stuffed my hand into my eyes to try to wipe of the blood, sweat, and tears I’d produced. “But…I thought I was done with being sad, angry, tired. I thought I’d move on…”
“Wow,” said Cassandra from beside me. “Somebody’s a cry-” I slammed my fist into her ghostly figure as hard as I could, my fist passing straight through her. She reformed a few feet away. “Wow, I can see I’m not wanted here.”
“No,” I said, my hand shaky and my voice shakier. “Get me out of here so I can wash all this off. Wash it… away.”
“Hm,” hummed Cassandra. The hallway contracted and pulled itself towards us, the end becoming closer. “You were supposed to go for longer, but I can see that you want this to be done. Alright, I can comply. Follow me for the final test.”
“Whatever,” I said, regaining what little composure I had left. “Whatever gets us out faster.” We walked again, me following the ghost and Twilight following me. Unlike before, I didn’t reach out to comfort Twilight and she didn’t reach out to comfort me. Finally, in the middle of the darkness, there was a door. A normal push door that says exit. I sighed, the exit literally in sight.
“Now, for the final test.” she said turning around. “It’s quite simple really. And easy choice.”
“What kind of choice?” asked Twilight.
“It’s a choice of life,” she said, a sadistic smile plastering her face. “One of you will die here. Who you pick is completely up to you. I’ll even give you as much time as you need to-”
“I’ll go,” I said with a monotone. “I should've known that you were going to do something like this.”
“N-No!” said Twilight. “You can’t just die! After all she put us through-”
“I’ve decided Twilight. If I anyone had to die here, this night, it’s going to be me.”
“But-”
“Cassandra,” I said, cutting her off. “Go on. Kill me.”
“Yes, of course,” she said raising her hand. “But first, I’ll let her leave.” Before Twilight could say anything, she was whisked through the door, the door disappearing after she entered it. “Now, she won’t bear witness to your death.”
I thought this would happen differently,” I said. Weren’t you going to tie her up and make her watch?”
“I was, but after hearing what you said about your mom, I’d figured that your companion had enough spooks for one day.”
“Yeah but enough stalling,” I said spreading my arms and legs out. “Do what you will.” She put her hand to her forehead and saluted.
“Sayonara,” she stuck her hand right in my chest before ripping something out. Already exposed to pain, it wasn’t very painful. “Now you’ll replace me. Do some spooky scarings in my name will-” A large light erupted from behind her, blinding me and taking her attention from me. Through this light came one of the most awesome things Twilight still denies I saw.
Twilight walked into the room, lighting the space up the space. I was dropped to the floor, Cassandra too focused on Twilight. She was covered in a bright aura making her difficult to look at. Her eyes were a blinding white, her facial expression: anger.
“W-what are you doing?” asked Cassandra showing honest worry. “There is no way you could’ve overpowered my magic!”
She didn’t even respond. Putting her hand out, she grabbed a hold of her and slammed her onto the floor, despite her being a ghost. She took her other hand and pointed at me, my strength and spirit re-joining me. I slowly ascended from the spot. Twilight steadily made her way to Cassandra, Cassandra showing a bit of fear in her face.
My vision was replaced. Instead of white I was shown a sepia background. It wasn’t reality, just an image. It showed a young girl, her parents arguing and fighting while she played outside. Another image showed her being pushed around by others. More and more pictures showed up showing sympathy to the girl until one particular one was stopped on.
It showed Cassandra, alive with a match in her hand. She proceeded to throw the match at her house, a devilish smile occupying her face. Another image,showed her getting into a lot of fights, each one ending up with someone else in the hospital. Cassandra enjoyed the violence. She wanted more and more.
But one image showed her end. She’d been shot after getting into a huge bar fight at 24 years old. She was laying in a pool of her own blood, the same scared face on her.
I returned to the room, my body the only thing stopping Twilight from doing anything to the ghost. I turned towards Cassandra, my face in a frown.
“I swear Cassandra, if you put me up to this,” I said shaking my head. “Anyway, I see that you were neglected, shunned, bullied, all that jive.”
“So I had to teach them a lesson!” she yelled back. “They all hurt me, so I should hurt them back!” I sighed, believing that I was about to say what I did.
“Just because it happened to you doesn’t mean you can do it to others, dumbass!” I yelled. “That makes you just as big of an ass, if not bigger than them!”
“What do you know!”
“What do you think I did when I found out Alesso was the reason my mom killed herself? I went straight up to their headquarters and tried to revolt. I was arrested on a count of assault, battery, and damage of property. Did that make me feel better?”
“W-Well-”
“Of course not! If it hadn’t been for my family, I would’ve ended up like you. A vengeful spirit.” I put my hand out. “But it’s not too late for me to be that family you so desperately needed. All you need to do is be loved.”
“It’s too late for me…” she said. “I’m dead. No one can save a dead person who’s stuck.”
“Oh yeah?” I reached out and pulled her up, her ghostly body suddenly able to be pulled. “I beg to differ.”
“What are you-” I put my hand on her face and brought it to mine, locking our lips in a kiss. The kiss was soft and short but it was enough to get the point across. After breaking apart, her face was plastered in red, she slapped me across the face.
“I guess I shouldn’t have been that excited,” I said. “But do you get it? Allow people to love you.”
“Yeah, I got it!” she yelled. “A smile came to her face, one that was actually nice. “Anyway, those talking walls were right. You are far too nice.” She looked back towards Twilight who happened to be looking away in embarrassment . “When she gets back to normal… take care of her alright? You two make a nice couple.”
“Yeah, yeah, just go already.” I said. She turned and faded in the bright light, her body being brought up in a very angel-like fashion. After she was gone, the light in the room dissipated. I turned just in time to catch a collapsing Twilight. Hauling her up and over my shoulder I headed out into the bright light of the early morning.
After a harsh morning, I woke up to the evening light as it shone in through the window. This morning, quite haphazardly, I carried Twilight to our room and passed out on the floor next to her bed. Unlike this morning, my body was back to full strength and in the process of pushing the events of the night before to the furthest reaches of my mind.
Once awake, I proceeded to do what I normally did in the morning. Stretch, shower, and change clothes. I changed into a white patterned wool sweater and a pair of comfy, yet slightly baggy pair of black jeans.
After exiting the bathroom, I could see that Twilight was still unresponsive and Lyra was nowhere to be seen. I assumed that Lyra went to class and was probably being more disruptive than productive.
I walked over to Twilight, who was still unconscious and put my hand over her forehead. She didn’t seem to be ill, but her breath came shallow and she was sweating a lot. I pulled my hand away and forced myself to stop thinking negatively.
“I have to go talk to Fluttershy,” I said to myself. “I never did go see her that last night. She must’ve wondered why I hadn’t showed.” I walked out and closed the door silently behind me.
The walk to Fluttershy’s dorm was silent. And silence made me think. Out of all the people in this world she could talk to about animals, she wanted to talk with me. Maybe it was because I didn’t know too much about animals. I’d never held a conversation with someone as shy as her before, but I had to wonder if her behavior was purely her being shy, or her doing something else.
Arriving at her door, I tried to place those thoughts in the back of my mind. I didn’t need them polluting my head while talking to Fluttershy. I slowly knocked on the door and waited. As normal, there was a bit of noise behind the door before she reached the door.
“Hello?” she asked.
“It’s Aj,” I said putting my hand to my neck in embarrassment. “I wanted to apologize for last night. Being a no-show and all Twilight and I were hung up doing something important”
“Something important…” she repeated. “Was it really that important?”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “It was important, but why do you ask?” She opened the door slightly to pass a phone through it. I took the phone and was met with a large play button in the middle of the screen. After pressing it, a few voices came through.
“Yeah, Twilight, I’m really happy that you came with me,” said the voice, a near perfect imitation of mine. “Beats staying cooped up with that stiff Fluttershy.”
“Stiff is right,” said a good Twilight impersonator. “She’s always being so needy and always depends on others for things she wants. Just because she’s got breasts doesn’t mean she’s queen of the world!”
“Yeah, I almost fell into that trap.” I was crushing the phone in my hand, my palms turning white. “Hmph, almost.” The sound clip ended and the hallway was in total silence. I saw Fluttershy walk out of her dorm, her face stained with dry tears.
“Did you…Did you really say all that?”
“Of course not,” I said in anger. “But it’s gonna be hard to see it any other way, isn’t it? Who gave you this?” I could tell Fluttershy was scared at my anger.
“A-Arct said that he caught this one his phone while out walking,” she said backing up. “H-he sent it to me and said that you were a despicable person for saying it. I… I believe him.”
“In the face of grief, reason becomes null,” I said handing her back the phone and relaxing. “Now that he’s got you thinking this way, I know I won’t be able to pull you out of it. But I might as well try.”
“Try?” she asked. “Try what?” I swallowed all my emotions of embarrassment, pride, anger, fear and left myself with courage. I was going to say it, no matter what.
“I’m going to try to tell you what I wanted to tell you ever since I met you. Back in the human world, people like you are a rare one in a million. Never before have I seen someone with such a kind and gentle nature, or someone who’s so good to others, considerate, caring. I don’t know why you’re so shy. You have absolutely nothing to be insecure about. Not only do you have a good personality, you great friends that you know care about you and want the best for you, like Twilight and Lyra.” I needed to stay confident for my finale, or I’d mess the entire heartfelt situation up. “I wanted to tell you that I like you Fluttershy. And if you want to believe what’s in the sound clip, I can’t stop you, but I want to ask one question. Would someone who’s despicable say all of that to try to put a smile on your face?”
Even I was speechless after that speech. I poured all I’d ever felt for Fluttershy into one long confession, and I still expected her to say “yes, someone despicable would say that” and just break my heart. I took a long breath and waited for an answer.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get one. Fortunately, it was something much better.
It was small, almost unrecognizable, and quick, but I definitely felt the kiss she placed on my lips. Once it was done, I could see tears falling from her eyes once more and her face flush in red.
“Thanks,” was all she said before retreating back into her dorm room. If I could look in a mirror at that moment, I bet I would’ve never seen a dark skinned person look so pink.
“What a turnabout, don’t you think?” said Luna from behind me. As I turned, I realized she wasn’t alone. Standing adjacent to her was the Princess herself, a congratulatory smile on her face. Other than those two, Lyra was standing there, the biggest grin I’d ever seen on anyone face plastered on hers.
“I’d say,” said Princess Celestia. “I don’t normally meddle in the affairs of my students, but I have to admit Luna. This was interesting to see play out.”
“So you guys were just waiting for me to say all.. of that…” I said, realizing all I said had been heard. “Oh god, I really just said all that.”
“Yeah you did,” said Lyra. “In hindsight, don’t you think you should’ve looked around you before you made such an embarrassing confession?”
“It was in the back of my mind, okay?!” I said in extreme embarrassment. “What are you doing here anyway?”
“Me and my sister we simply patrolling the halls when we saw Ms. Heartstrings. As we went to confront her, we saw a… peculiar event going on.” I put my hands to my face as if that’d hide what I’d done. “Although I suggested we intervene, Luna said we should wait and see what happened.”
“I need to sleep,” I said moving past them. “I need to think about what just happened… a lot.” I walked quickly towards the room, opened the door, and bumped into something. After falling to the ground, I rubbed my head and looked to see who I’d bumped into.
“Aj?” asked Twilight. She was wearing a purple striped dress shirt and a pair of blue jeans. She looked at me and then looked away. “H-hello.”
“So you’re finally up. What took you so long to rejoin reality?” I asked jokingly. Apparently Twilight didn’t find it very funny.
“I don’t know. The last thing I remember was being dragged out of the dark. After that… I can’t remember. I woke up here, so I guess everything is alright?”
“Everything is fine,” I said. getting up and dusting myself. “Cassandra moved on to the net life, and I carried you back to the dorms. I have to say, you’re comically heavier than you look.” I extended my hand, which she reluctantly took.
“T-thanks,” she said coming up to my level. “Thanks for everything.”
“You seem different,” I said with a raised brow. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I only have a small headache.” She grasped my hand. “Don’t worry about me. I’m more worried about you.”
“Why?” I asked. Her eyes flicked to the left for a second before returning to mine. “If it’s about the Halloween thing, it’s fine-”
“It’s not okay!” she yelled suddenly. I was taken aback by the force of her voice. “What about the thing about your mother? What about almost having your soul ripped from your body? You’re just going to push it all behind you?”
“Listen, Twilight,” I said pushing her inside and closing the door. “I will push it all behind me. If I stay stuck on the same thing through my entire life, how do I do anything but be angry and sad? The sooner you push these things away, the better.”
“No, that’s not true!” she yelled back. “You’re choosing the cowards way out. You have to face these demons because you can’t run away from them. The sooner you face these things the better.”
“I tried facing them,” I said quietly. “It’s not easy. I… I’m too scared to look them in the face. I don’t know where you got this idea that I’m strong, but I can’t do it-” A streaking pain came across my face. After I looked towards Twilight in confusion, she put her hands on my shoulders and brought her lips to my own. I was so confused that I didn’t have time to kiss back. Once she pulled away, her face plastered with pink, she grabbed me in a hug.
“Sometimes, I wonder,” she said. “No one who is willing to give themselves up for others can be called weak. What you did back there baffled me, it almost drove me insane thinking that you could’ve died for me. A single thank you or a thousand, nothing I said would be enough to tell you I’m grateful. So I let my actions speak for me.”
“I… Twilight.” I really didn’t want to tell her that Fluttershy had done the same thing not to long ago, but I’d watched enough movies to know that if I didn’t say anything now, someone would end up hurt. “Twilight, I just told Fluttershy that I liked her. I… I only know you as a friend. I’m sorry.” Twilight hugged harder before letting go. She looked at me with a smile.
“Then I’ll be the best friend I can be,” she said, opening the door and walking out. I stood there in silence for a while, pondering why my sacrifice made such an impact in her mind. Tired and confused, I placed my head on the floor and dozed off.
There are a few locations I was surprised to wake up in. One was in a hospital after a seemingly good night’s sleep. Another was on the floor of a Chuck E Cheese with a cup of Pepsi with tickets mixed in spilled in my hand. This, however, was the one that really got me. I was in a floating ball of writhing gray mass. It was making oddly making no sound. I was sitting down, the floor nowhere to be seen. I rubbed my eyes and tried to make sense of the situation. I touched the surface of the ball, my hand vibration uncontrollably being the consequence. After trying option number 1, I tried my only other option. “Hello?!” I yelled. I tried to stand, but the top of the ball was too short. “Twilight? Lyra?” “Oh, you’re alive?” said a warped voice. “I was beginning to think that you were dead.” “Who are you?” I asked. “You’re voice is all gargle-y.”
“It’s not important who I am. The thing that matters is what I’m telling you,” said the voice. “Your time here is becoming a problem. You’re pulling the strings of the universe, and it needs to stop soon, lest this entire world collides with another.” “W-what are you talking about?” I said. “What, or who, are you? What is this about colliding worlds?” “I’ve already told you what I needed to. You will soon have to find a way to leave this world behind.” “Wait, hold on!” I said. “I don’t understand. What am I supposed to do?” The person made a moaning sound before slowly coming into view. “Listen, I will only say this one more time,” she said. She was tall, taller than anyone I’d ever seen. Her hair was a shade of burgundy and her coat was white. Her eyes were a piercing baby blue. “You and your friends who brought you here must put you back where you belong. To have brought you here, they must’ve used a trans-dimensional portal. To send you back, you need another. The only problem is, they’ll need to concentrate it to send you back to your dimension.” “Okay, I think that kinda makes sense,” I said. “I’m still kinda wrapping my head around all this, but I have a question.” “Speak,” she said. “Will we be able to muster enough magic to send me back to my right dimension? If I’m sent to the wrong dimension, am I just screwed?” “That came to my mind. So, against all my morals, I have played with your inner magic,” she reported. “Your human magic is special. Instead of our dimension’s magic, which is controlled purely by skill and knowledge, you humans have a potential much greater than ours. Your emotions flex and change the power of your magic.” “Wait… I have magic?” “I hate to repeat myself, but yes,” she said. “Both rage and love affect your magic the most. Cassandra, who you sent to me, was able to part with all her enraged feelings because of the appearance of love. Even so, a loving relationship between two friends can be destroyed with the power of rage. You must be careful.” “I… thank you, um…” “My name is Faustia,” she said turning away. “Never forget it, Aj.” My surroundings warped in and out for a few seconds before I returned to Twilight and Lyra’s room. I fell from a few feet up, landing in the middle of the room on my back. “Ow,” I said in pain. “Thanks, Faustia.” I sat up and looked around. No one was in the room. I was a bit skeptical at first, but it soon made way for my primary objective: finding Twilight. After re-adjusting to the room’s familiar atmosphere, I opened the door into the hallway. I found no one, which was preferred. After walking around a corner, however, I found that I wasn’t alone. “Oh,” said Fleur in disappointment. “It’s you.” “Me it is,” I said. “Do you know where I can find Twilight?” “No, and even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.” She walked around me. “Besides, I’ve got my own problems.” “If I help you with your problem, will you help me with mine?” I asked. “It’s super important.” “My problem is not one so easily fixed,” she said. “Pray tell, what is your problem?” “A god of this universe just told me that if I don’t leave this universe now, another universe will crash into this one, I assume killing everyone in each. I need Twilight to open a Trans-dimensional portal with me and send me back.” She looked at me in perplexion. “So, pray tell, what is your problem?” “I must admit, in comparison to yours, mine seems to be the fits of a young child,” she admitted. “I’m worried about my parents and their upcoming visit in a few hours.” “You have trouble with your parents?” I asked. “I know all too well. Tell me what’s wrong.” “If you are truly interested in hearing my story, please follow me.” We continued to down the hall, soon reaching a door like all the others. She opened it and revealed what was inside. The first thing I noticed is that there was no bed. It was replaced by a desk. The desk was pretty large, taking up most of the room’s space. She walked up to it and ran her hand past it, sitting down in the chair on one side. I sat down in the chair across the desk from it. Looking around, I could see many achievements in the forms of trophies, certificates, and medals. “Nice room,” I complimented. “Made it yourself?” “Yes, I did. You didn’t come here to compliment my interior design choices, did you?” “No, I’m sorry,” I said. “Tell me what your problem is.” “My parents… are not very compromising,” she began. “They want me… to be a high-class member of Celestia’s Council. I actually want to be a doctor, helping people. I secretly signed up for a medical class after hours, which, if found out by my parents, will be a very, very big problem. As I said before, they’re coming over in a few hours.” “Why not just keep the class as it is: a secret?” I said. “Just list off your normal classes and drop the medical one.” “That’s a problem for two reasons,” she said. “One is that my father can easily tell when I’m lying. The second is… I’ve become a little greedy with my medical class, I’m afraid.” “What do you mean, greedy?” I asked. “You’re taking it more often?” “Precisely,” she admitted. “Consequently, my other classes have suffered. I am even in danger of failing one of these classes. One check of my grades and they’ll know something is wrong.” “Seems like a pretty hard problem to solve,” I said. “If I had a nickel for every time I said that. For me, though, I’ll have your problem solved in 45 minutes to an hour, give or take a few minutes depending on this school’s security.” “What do you mean? What are you planning on doing?” I smirked slightly and pulled my phone out of my pocket. “Do you know what this is?” I asked her. “Of course I do. It’s a cell phone.” “The cell phone. One of man, and apparently pony kind's greatest inventions. Able to do more and more by the day. Smart people know how to use their phones in a way that… isn’t intended.” “I still don’t follow,” she admitted. “What does your phone have to do with anything?” “I’m going to change your grades.” Her face changed to one of complete shock. “After that, I’ll teach you how to lie. Problem solved.” “I… I’m not sure,” she said. “It is illegal to breach the school’s systems, but at the same time, it seems like the only way.” “I admire your loyalty to this school. I also admire your ambition. Those are two qualities I wish for myself,” I complimented her. “Sometimes people need to set aside their good to make more good… if that makes sense.” “I really, really, don’t want to lie to my parents. What if they find out?” “I can only tell you to tell them the truth,” I advised. “I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but you don’t want to be tangled up in a large web of lies. Once the first one breaks, no matter how hard it may be, it’d be best to fess up.” “Fine,” she said with a sigh. “I guess I should thank you. Not many are willing to stick their necks out for someone who’s treated them like I have you.” “Well, you are helping me with something,” I said. “You’re helping me find Twilight. Thank you as well.” “What should we do now?” she asked. “What do you have to do to… change the grade, as it were?” I chuckled a bit before smirking back maliciously. “I have my secrets.”
I felt confident as I walked into Fleur’s room. I had all the documents in my hand, as requested by Fleur and her parents. Passing as Fleur’s trained assistant in just a few minutes was harder than it seemed. As I placed the files on the desk, I was reminded once again why Fleur never lied to her parents. Her father was large and burly, but still had an air of regality. Her mother was small and skinny, the opposite of her father. They both looked very agitated that it took me nearly twenty minutes longer than it should have to get her grades printed. “Shabby assistant,” said her dad. “Anyway, what can I expect on this?” “Nothing but straight A’s I assume,” she said glancing at me. “You assume?” said her mother. “You say that like you’re not sure.” “Oh, I am,” she said. Her father looked over her folder for a few seconds before closing it and putting it down on the table. “These are acceptable but irrelevant,” said her father. “How does Celestia like you? I made sure to put an extra word in for you whenever I can, so you better not be wasting my time.” His voice was very commanding and slightly annoying. I kinda wanted him to get yelled at. It made me smile. “We… haven’t talked in awhile, I’m afraid,” she admitted. “B-but I assure you it’s-” “I will hear no excuses young lady!” yelled her father. I raised an eyebrow. “I’ve stuck my neck out for you in ways you don’t understand. I don’t appreciate a the lack of effort on your side.” He leaned back in his chair. “And if you don’t tell your assistant to stop eyeing me, I will have him ruined.” “I’m sorry?” I asked. “Ruin me?” “Aj, please-” “Hold on, Fleur,” I said. “How do you plan to ruin me?” Her father laughed a hearty laugh. “The hows are infinite!” he yelled. “To name one, I could break your body with this.” He pointed at his horn. “Another one is I could make your life here a living hell.” “Meh,” I said releasing my composure. “Go ahead Fleur. You can talk with your parents now.” “No, you don not dismiss me!” he yelled, standing up. “Fleur, control your assistant!” “Aj, desist,” said Fleur. Her voice entailed fear. It was one I knew well. “May we please be civilized here?” “We could be civilized here,” I said with a large smile. “He’d have to leave, though.” “What do you plan to accomplish, Aj?!” she yell-whispered. “What about the thing?” “Look, the thing was fine, but I think you should’ve asked me out first.” Her father slammed the desk once again while her mother gasped. The father’s magic was wrapped around my body and slammed me into the wall. “Whoa buddy. Trigger happy much?” “I will not be disrespected. I am a member of Celestia’s Council, and I’m a master mage.” His face was basically radiating anger. “I warned you to hold your tongue. Fail to do so, and you will now face the consequences.” “I have a question, actually,” I said. “Aj, stop,” said Fleur. “There is no need to go on.” “Wait, wait, hear me out,” I said. “Do horn’s grow back?” “What?” she asked. “W-well, no, not naturally. You’d need multiple months of therapy and regular healing potions and spells, but-” “That’s all I need to know,” I concentrated and changed the flow of the magic. Instead of a large force pushing against me, I changed it to a humongous force pushing against him. Without much warning, the magic around his horn was turned a dark gray and shattered immediately. The room was silent for a minute. Both Fleur and her mother stood there shocked at what happened. I dropped to the floor and brushed myself off. “Wha-what- what-” he said stuttering and touching his stump of a horn. “M-my horn…” “Maybe your daughter can patch that up for you,” I said. “I hear she’s pretty good at healing magic.” “A-Aj!” she said. “What happened? You weren’t supposed to-” “I’m sorry, but you can’t keep running from your parents forever. I tried that once,” I said. “You gotta stand up and say, Dad! I want to be a dancer!” “What are you talking about!?” she yelled. “I want to be a doctor, not a dancer! They’re two different things!” “Doesn’t it feel better to say that out loud?” I asked. Her face changed from one of worry to one of realization. She looked at the floor. “Dad,” she said quietly. “I want to be a doctor.” “He can’t hear you with that attitude!” I said. “Come one, give your dream some oomph.” “I want to be a doctor dad,” she said. “I am going to be a doctor, and there is nothing you do to stop me!” “That’s the spirit,” I said. “And on behalf of all the people who want you to succeed: good luck. “ I made way for the exit, opening the door and stepping out. “Wait, Aj!” called Fleur. She stepped out and closed the door behind her. “I… don’t actually know how to thank you. What do you want?” “Seeing as though I’ll be leaving this world in a couple of days, I presume, I just want your word.” I nodded. “Tell me that you will do everything in your power to succeed.” I scrunched up my face. “Hanging out with you got me to say I presume,” she chuckled. “Yes, I will try my hardest to succeed.” She nodded back. “And, as a doctor, you must give me your word that you will stay safe. It seems like something big is going on in your mind right now. You talked as if something was bugging you.” “Hehe, yeah, I guess I did,” I took a deep breath. “I give you my word that I will be the safest I can be. I also promise that one day, you’ll have to deal with me as a patient.” She laughed, making me smile. “Oh boy, can I wait for that day,” she said. “Well, I must be going. My dad’s probably having a freak-fest in there.” She scrunched up her face like I did. “Oh god, hanging out with you has made me say freak-fest” I chuckled back. “Bye Fleur.” “Bye Aj.” She closed the door behind her as she entered her room. I felt a huge burden leave my shoulders just then. I turned and looked into the courtyard where the sun was starting to set. It was then I started to think. “Damnit Fleur,” I said to myself with a smile. “You didn’t help me find Twilight.”