> Can't Keep My Eyes Off of You
>  by nameundetermined
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> Chapter One
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My mom always told me that I was an easy child to raise. Even right from the get-go, things were fairly calm during delivery, and I barely made a peep as the doctors were getting me out of her. The doctors actually initially thought I had issues with my respiratory system because of the lack of crying, but really, I just didn’t seem to want to cry.

As I was growing up, I still had the occasional temper tantrum. I mean, what kind of kid never throws a tantrum? But what made my tantrums a bit different was in the execution. Rather than the aggressive thrashing of limbs and screaming and crying that might accompany the impotent angered reactions of a normal child, my tantrums were silent, brooding. I would simply stay in place, arms crossed, face dark as a stormy sky as I simply glared at whatever happened to be the source of my infuriated vexation. Any attempt to move or corral me was met by swift and immediate resistance until I was left to my stewing.

I recall once, a teacher attempted to intercede during one such episode where I simply refused to move from my spot. As soon as she made to lay hands on me, I lashed out and knocked the art supplies covering my desk towards her, peppering her with crayons, glitter, and glue sticks. This seemed to be enough to make her feel that calling my parents was the only reasonable option, with the teacher describing my methodology as “tranquil fury.”

Aside from the occasional episode of this nature, however, I was a fairly gentle, and obedient child. I would sit in silence during my playtime, only muttering to myself loudly enough that I could understand my own words clearly as I enjoyed my toys and the worlds that I would create with them. Of course, I would still up and wander, explore my surroundings whenever possible, as a child is often so prone to doing, but my parents were always in control of the situation whenever I did so.

My father actually used to tell me a story about a time when I was playing at a bus stop, going dangerously close to the street at times. There were some other people at the station that seemed concerned by this, one of them enough so that they even asked my dad why they were letting me wander off that way.

Instead of answering his question, my father took a more effective approach, simply barking out my name. I snapped up and immediately walked back over to him with no questions asked, like a well-conditioned pet.

Of course, being quiet and fairly introverted, I was not the best at making friends. It was not that I was unable to, per se, I was friendly enough, speaking when spoken to and never being unkind to others. It was more that I did not have any desire to. I had my mind, my vast imagination, I had my books and my toys and all of this was more than enough for me to be utterly content in most instances. This led to me leading what some might have considered a fairly lonely life., which was not helped as I entered elementary school and found myself unable to relate to my peers as well as I might have liked.

While the bullying was fortunately never physical in nature, the other children seemed to have a knack for wearing me down psychologically, eroding what little confidence I had. It was not made better by the fact that at this delicate developmental period in my young life, my parents had sadly, decided that they no longer loved one another and had made the choice to separate. Dealing with a less than stellar school situation while having to withstand a less than stable home life was, needless to say, a recipe for further and further reclusion into whatever I could do to ease my suffering.

And that is where television came in. Even as a young child, I was quite attached to the magical little box that sat on the floor of my room and ushered forth ever more entrancing and endearing patterns of shapes, sounds, and colors that felt tailor-made to hold my attention for hours on end. And the degradation of my living situation only made that more and more true as the years passed.

It was not terribly uncommon for me to come home, eyes reddened and a bit puffy, shirt covered in stains from the fluids generated by my sorrow, only to walk past the parents that would normally be there to help me in my time of need in favor of locking myself in my room and sitting in front of the television to drown out the steadily louder sounds of their never-ending and ever-escalating arguments about this that and the other. One could say that I had more of a relationship with television than I did with my own parents. 

Or at least, I used to think it was with the television, but we can come back to that later, no need to make this more complicated than it needs to be.

Eventually, as I was rounding the bend to the halfway point of middle school, my mother had begun to grow wary of my fixation with the small screen. I had gotten well used to a routine of coming home, doing whatever chores needed to be done, finishing my homework, and immediately situating myself in front of my television for the rest of the evening. There was rarely ever more than a foot of distance between me and the screen. 

But the breaking point was when she started to notice that I was talking to the television. When she eventually became concerned enough to intervene and turn it off, I would begin to cry and become quite anxious, I would beg her to turn it back on, insisting that she was “taking my friends away.” And reacting in a way that she would never have expected from the quiet, brooding boy she had raised. She ended up scheduling an appointment for me to meet up with a therapist, and after a few visits, it was recommended to my mother that she no longer allow me to watch television.

It was...not easy to say the least.

What followed this recommendation was a constantly escalating series of moves between my mom and myself. She banned me from watching television, I did it anyway. She took the thing out of my room, I simply watched it in the living room late at night when she was asleep, or when she was at work. She even went so far as to unplug the thing and seal the outlet, only to come home early one day to find me with it plugged in and the seal carefully removed, to be placed back on later as I had done several dozen times already.

I seemed to hit her limit once more when she moved the television to her room and locked the door, only to be unnerved by finding my collection of makeshift picks and shims in my sock drawer during what she claimed was a routine cleaning of my room. This finally prompted her to, after an excessive punishment, remove televisions from our house altogether, even removing the computer from the living room to prevent me from sitting in front of that sort of screen instead.

At first, I begged and pleaded for her to return the television. I cannot for the life of me remember what about it being gone drove me to such unreasonable heights of discontent, but every day I spent without it made me feel as if something that had been very important to my life was missing.

After a while, I began to fill the void with healthier activities, Reading, writing, a smattering of hobbies. I ended up joining the team responsible for writing the school newspaper and developing an interest in journalism, something which followed me into adulthood and led me to my current profession.

When the first year of high school rolled around, I was quite busy with an array of advanced classes and extracurricular activities. Though I was still lacking in the social interaction department, all in all, most folks would consider me to be succeeding in life at this point. 

One of those people seemed to be my mom because that year was the year she finally decided to lift the ban on television in the house. It was still heavily regulated, I was limited to one hour a day, and expected to report to her if I was having any sort of issues mentally.

My first time back on the old tube, I flipped through the channels with mild curiosity. Most of the shows I stumbled upon did not really catch my attention. A lot of the new programs were not much to my tastes. As I continued to surf the vast variety of available channels, however, something came to mind that I had not thought of in quite some time. A memory seemingly from time almost immemorial sprang forth and I found myself mouthing the words “Channel 222” as I punched them in with the remote.

As the channel changed, I found myself greeted with a familiar intro, and I felt a strangely warm feeling in my chest as if coming back to a friend I had not seen in a very long time. The nostalgia washed over me in waves as a familiar theme song ended and I mouthed the on-screen title.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
> Chapter Two
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My smile slowly widened more and more as I sat there and soaked in the theme song playing through the speakers of my television, and I found myself slowly mouthing along with the words under my breath. “I used to wonder what friendship could be…”

I fought the urge to get up from the couch and sit closer, sitting where I was, gripping the arm of the sofa firmly to ground myself a bit as a plethora of unfamiliar old feelings slowly trickled through me.  For one I could hardly believe the show was still on the air, considering how long ago I had first watched it. As the opening faded and the show shifted focus to a small, rural-looking town filled with ponies, I leaned in slightly, keen to see what sort of adventures these strange little creatures were having these days.

It seemed that the focus of the episode in question was going to be on a purple alicorn. I could not remember her name for the life of me, but goodness she certainly did strike a chord somewhere in the old dome. If I remembered correctly she was the main character out of the cast. Though the last I could remember about her, she was a unicorn, not an alicorn. I wondered where she got the wings from as I noted that she was being followed around by A rather chipper-looking little purple dragon holding a long piece of parchment that dragged along the ground as he spoke.

“So we have most of your errands done for the day. We still need to stop by the apothecary to pick up that catalyst you needed for the new spell you were wanting to try out, and we need to swing by Quills and Sofas to grab some ink and er...more parchment…” he said as he looked down at the list he was holding. “Anything I’m missing, Twilight?”

I looked over at the clock and saw that my mother wouldn’t be home for another few hours or so and shrugged, figuring fuck it, I could sit closer if I wanted to. I took my old perch on the floor closer to the television, though not quite so close as I used to sit.

The purple alicorn...Twilight... smiled down back at him as she trotted at a steady pace. “You tell me, Spike, you were the one I put in charge of the list,” she said, smirking as she used what seemed to be magic to make her horn light up and pull the parchment over towards her, looking it over with a small hum. “Hmmm, I think that would be about everything we have to take care of actually, good work,” she said kindly, passing it back over to him and ruffling his...frill? The scales at the top of his head with a small chuckle.

Twilight...Twilight….now that was a name I had not heard for a very long time...as I rolled it around in my head, I felt it slowly come out of my mouth before I even knew it was happening properly. “Twilight…”

As I said her name, her ears seemed to perk at something happening on screen, and she looked around as if confused. “Spike, did you say my name?” she asked as she looked back at him again as the little dragon rolled the scroll back up and gave her a small befuddled glance of his own.

“Uh, no? Why, did you hear something?” He said as he scratched his head, looking around a bit as if to try to find what might have caught her attention before shrugging. “You’ve been working pretty hard today, maybe you are just a bit on edge, ya know?” he said, brushing it off after a few moments and garnering a reluctant nod of agreement from Twilight at his statement.

“I suppose you might have a point, I have been more than a little hard on myself lately. Let’s get these errands wrapped up and see what the girls are up to.”She said before continuing her steady-paced trotting towards a small shop in the midst of the town.

Huh...well that was all kind of odd. I felt as if I had missed something important, but shrugged. I was sure that they would bring it up again later in some form. This was a kids show after all if I remembered correctly, they would probably not be overly subtle in a way that would make things fly over the heads of little kids.

I watched quietly as the screen faded to another scene of Twilight leaving what I assumed to be Quills and Sofas, hovering a few bags behind her as she presumably was heading home to put her things away. 

“Huh…” I said softly again under my breath. This show was a bit slow plotwise it seemed, but it wasn’t unpleasantly so. Just more...slice of lifeish I suppose would be the best word for it. Like it wasn’t in a hurry to get anywhere, it was sort of charming, really.

However, it seemed that the peace was due to be interrupted. Another familiar face soon appeared on the screen. A very happy one at that! 

An excitable-looking Pink pony with a fluffy, curly mane bounced into view with the biggest smile on her face as she hummed a cheerful tune.

“Oh, hey Pinkie Pie!” Twilight said happily, trotting over to the other pony, who seemed to be a friend of hers, the wings on Twilights back ruffling slightly in what seemed to be mild excitement of her own! “You seem especially happy today, what’s the occasion?”

Pinkie Pie smiled wider at her, ceasing her bounce midair and settling onto the ground slowly as she started to speak “Oh Twilight! Just the pony I wanted to see. Well, I got a Doozy earlier, and at first, I was really worried because you remember how the last doozy went right?” She said, waving her hoof and giving a little displeased shudder before returning to her very happy demeanor. “But then right after my teeth chattered and both of my ears twitched one after the other, which means my Pinkie Sense is trying to tell me that someone we haven’t seen for a really long time is gonna be in town today!”

Twilight frowned slightly at this. From what I could remember this was not an unusual exchange for the two, though I might have been mistaken about that. “Ah yes, your….Pinkie Sense.” She said the last two words with a sense of mild distaste, shaking her head. “Well, thank you for the heads up, Pinkie Pie, I will be sure to keep an eye out.”

I could not help but give a small chuckle at this as I listened to the two of them. I was starting to remember what I enjoyed about this show so much, I think. However as I chuckled, Pinkies ears twitched and she slowly looked towards the...screen, her eyes wide as she slowly broke out into an even wider smile, poking Twilight repeatedly and quickly on her shoulder “I don’t think you need to look too hard Twilight.”

My own eyes were surely quite wide at this point as twilight gave the pink pony a confused look and turned her head towards the screen as well, freezing in place and putting a hoof over her mouth, standing there for a few moments like a deer in the beams of a particularly bright set of headlights before turning back to Pinkie Pie and chuckling softly as if trying to play something off. 

“Ahahah, I’m sure you’re right Pinkie, we’ll probably see whoever it is around town one way or another, you know how it is with your Pinke Sense.”

Pinkie gave her a confused look, glancing back over at the screen. What are you talking about, Twilight? He-”

Twilight placed a hoof over her friend’s mouth to muffle her, smiling nervously at her as she interrupted suddenly “HOW about weeee go see what the girls are up to, huh?” She said as she withdrew her hoof.”

Pinkie attempted to object. “But-”

“Pinkie. We need to prepare for our friend to come back. They’ve been gone for a while and they might find things are a lot different than they remember here in town, We want to make sure they feel welcome and comfortable, right?” She said slowly, as if trying to convey something aside from strictly the words she was using to her friend as she gave her a stern look. “Now go and get the girls together so we can make sure he has a proper welcome, and I will take care of a few things here, okay?”

Her eyes lit up with realization as the pink mare realized what her friend meant and she nodded quickly, beaming at her and giving a small semi-serious salute. “You can count on me! I’ll make sure our friend has the bestest, most super special welcome back to Ponyville party this town has ever seen!”

Twilight smiled in relief as her friend seemed to understand what she had been trying to drive at and nodded in acknowledgment. “Excellent. Meet me back at the castle once you have them all up to speed on the situation. I’ll be there making sure everything is ready.”

The two of them nodded to each other one final time before splitting, Twilight picking up Spike in her aura, who had been looking at the two of them in utter confusion up until this point, and placed him on her back before dashing towards her destination, the camera following her while Pinkie went off to who knows where to get more ponies.

I was starting to become increasingly confused myself, was this one of those sorts of first-person OVA sorts of situations where the episode broke the fourth wall to make the viewer feel included? It certainly would not be too strange for them to do something of the sort to make a little kid feel extra special. But I would have expected that sort of thing to be a blu-ray extra on a limited edition release or something, not playing on television as a regular episode.

It was definitely strange. The plot hook seemed to be there, they were throwing a party for a friend who had been gone for quite some time and was only just now coming back. But what bothered me was how uncanny everything was. The characters certainly seemed to be acting as they normally would, from my recollection of them, but everything felt just a tad off, and with the way they were talking I could not help but feel that the hubbub was about….me? Not just whoever was watching, but me in particular.

I shrugged off the uneasy feeling that was building in my gut and looked away from the screen. Only a few minutes into watching the tube again and I was already slipping into an uncomfortable mindset. Maybe a different show would be better to start off at least, I could always watch another episode later if I can catch it on this channel.

I instead turned my attention to a fairly formulaic seeming action flick, Plenty of gunplay but not a whole lot of plot from what I could see. I had sort of popped in about halfway through so things were really ramping up. I allowed myself to become immersed in the mindless violence for a bit, enjoying the spectacle until the commercial break.

A cheerful male announcer spoke clearly as a logo for a channel that seemed to be called ‘The Hub’ Came on screen.

“Tonight on The Hub! Watch everyone’s favorite ponies work together to prepare for a very special surprise guest!” The voiceover chimed out as it flashed to several different mares all seeming to do tasks pertaining to preparing for a party, coming together at the end with six of them posing for a photo, Pinkie Pie moving from her spot to place her hooves on either side of the screen and looking toward me, the viewer.

“Please catch our show right now! we worked really hard on it Just for you.” She said with a hopeful, almost slightly worried expression on her face before the sceen faded back to the regularly scheduled programming.

Okay, that was a bit too much television for me, I thought to myself as I turned the thing off, chills running down my back as I rubbed at the back of my neck.

That was about a week ago now, and I have been too creeped out to turn the television back on since. Every time I think about giving it another go, the thought of them comes to mind and I just… can’t bring myself to face them. I know they are just cartoon characters…

I think they are just cartoon characters. I wouldn’t go as far as saying I hope they are cartoon characters. I’d have to be a mental case to go so far as to think it was even remotely possible that they were….

But if I was so sure, why was I so apprehensive about going back? It wouldn’t hurt to give it one more shot right? I mean, I loved the show so much as a kid, and I had to admit I had been getting invested again until all of that had started happening. 

Steeling myself, I decided I would give the show another chance, I grabbed the remote, taking a deep breath as I turned the television and flipped back to the same channel as before, mouthing the numbers slowly. 

“Two...Two...Two….”