Alister: Remembrance and Revelations

“Al? Al! Wake up or you’ll be late for school!”

I opened my eyes and found myself lying on my bed. The bright light from the window forced me to withdraw my gaze as I slowly put on my glasses.

I had that dream again. I thought to myself. Though this time, it was more realistic like I was actually standing there.

I dragged myself to the bathroom where I took a shower, brushed my teeth and put in my contact lenses.

I ran downstairs with my backpack over my shoulder heading for the door when my mother came up to me.

“Do you have everything you need? Pencils, Pens, Homework?”

“Yes mom.” I said.

“Well you best be off or you’ll miss your bus. And don’t forget your lunch!”

I stuffed my lunch into the bag and ran to the corner where the bus usually picks me up.  Standing at the corner already was my neighbor who also went to my high school. She was cute, but I never had the courage to ask her out on a date.

She looked over while I was approaching the corner.

“Al! Good Morning!” She said with a smile on her face.

“Morning” I said tiredly.

“Did you sleep late again?” She asked.

“Only because Mrs. Brooks homework was ridiculous to finish.”

“That’s true, but that’s no excuse to get it done early. You should stop playing video games so you can get it done quicker.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I said rolling my eyes.

When the bus finally brought us to school, I headed down to the cafeteria where the usual gang hangs out before classes.

“Al! What’s up my man?”

Dominic, my best friend since elementary school, came up to me as I approached our table.

“Nothin much.” I shrugged. “Just seeing what crap you’re gonna push on me today.”

We both laughed and headed towards our morning classes. The time was going by very slow. I was drawing on the desk before the first bell rang for the next period. During chemistry I was sitting at my usual seat near the window. I always look out; trying to see if anything interesting would happen, which nothing does. But today, something caught my eye. A rainbow just formed in front of my eyes in a perfect circle. I rubbed them just to make sure I wasn’t daydreaming again. But it was still there when I opened them.

“Mr. Sterling! Will you pay attention?!” yelled my chemistry teacher. “This will be on the test!”

“Yes sir. Sorry sir.” I muttered while the class was sniggering at me.

After classes were over and the club meetings finished, I walked home with Dom like we do every day and talk about life.

“I mean what if it’s real? Area 51 I mean.” Dom said. “Some people say it doesn’t exist and the governments just using the desert for nuclear testing. What if they’re right?”

“I don’t know.” I said annoyingly. Dom loves to talk about Area 51 and the mysteries of aliens.

“Al, let me ask you something and I’m being completely serious now.”

“When are you not?” I said sarcastically.

Dom gave me a blank stare and I knew then he was serious.

“Do you like your life, Al?”

I thought for a second. Why is he asking me this?

“Sometimes I do.” I replied. “But sometimes I just wanna be in another world where I can do what I want or be in a world with characters from cartoons.”

“Al, don’t start your brony crap again. You’re lucky I can put up with you knowing you’re a brony.”

“Well you brought it up.”

“Anyway, say, like, tomorrow morning you open your door and another world was right in front of you. What would you do?”

“Probably not. I say things most of the time but don’t really mean them”

“I guess you’re right.”

We got to the corner where we split up to get to our home.

As we said our goodbyes and started turning directions, Dom said, ‘If I were you tomorrow, I’d open the door and walk through.”

Confused, I ignored him and went home. I ate my dinner and my homework late, again. I took out my contacts and snuggled underneath my sheets and fell asleep. The same dream was occurring. I could see Starswirl the Bearded and his Dimension Splitter. I saw the test with the apple and the pony getting sucked into the portal. I heard Starswirl screaming his name.

“ALISTER!!!”

When I heard it, I woke up in a cold sweat. I grabbed my glasses off the nightstand and put them on. I wanted to go get a midnight snack since I was hungry and it was still very late in the night. I tiredly walked to my bedroom door and slowly opened it. My eyes focused right away at what I saw. I blinked just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. Right outside my door was a town in the middle of the day bustling with busy ponies. Right outside my door, I was looking at Ponyville.