Falling Into the Unknown

I was in a dream.

Red team had just captured the precious bottle of hot sauce, and the purple/green alliance was trying to take it back. Both of them threw their water balloons at one another, each one somehow making a nuclear explosion. I raised my rubber band gun and hit one of the evil purples, protecting our precious hot sauce.

I was just nearly the end of the dream, the part where I would win, when a gigantic tap on my leg woke me up. Actually, it felt like at tap. It was more like a kick.

“Gah!” I shouted, rising up, still sitting on the ground. Azure stood above me with a gigantic grin on his face, and it was obvious as to who had woken me up.

“Azure! What the hell!” I said. “I was just about to capture the bottle of precious hot sauce.”

Azure cracked up at the mental image, as did virtually every other guard in the room. I rose to my feet and glared at the room, but even then it took about thirty seconds for it to calm down.

“Ok, Azure. What do you need?” I asked.

Amber trotted up to us, armor off.

“Hey bro! Hey Tyler!” She said. “The wedding is about to start, and we’ve been invited, as have some of the better-preforming guards.” She paused for a moment, before looking around and leaning in. “And possibly because we are the only friends that Tyler here has.”

I sighed and shook my head. It looks like I was stuck with both Azure and Amber for the time being, along with whatever other ponies Celestia might send to stalk me. Honestly, I preferred the siblings. At least they actually were friends, other than just pretending to be.

“Ok,” I said. “Let’s go watch this. Come on.” I grabbed my stuff, slinging it over my back.

Eventually we reached the hall where it was being held. This time, apparently, it went normally. I was bored out of my mind for the entire five minute ceremony. Eventually, what it boiled down to was: ‘We both love each other, ect.’ Nothing else needed to be said.

I stood with Amber outside of the castle, in the garden. A party was underway, and it looked like it was going to be going for a while yet.

Shining Armor, the lucky guy, walked up to our group. I tensed up a bit, prepared for another battle with him. I was surprised when he simply sighed, and looked up at me.

“Look, creat-… Tyler. I am sorry for my behavior the past few days. The first time I was under the influence of Chrysalis’s spell-”

“You mean that bug-like abomination of nature?” I interrupted.

Shining smiled. “Yep. The second time was just after the wedding. You have to understand; I was under a lot of stress, with the invasion and all, and the remains of the spell clouding my judgment.

“So, I have come to ask for your apology. Please.” He said, looking up at me, holding out his hoof.

I held out my hand and shook his hoof. “Apology is accepted. I know what you mean, and I know what you were under.” Truthfully, before this point, I hadn’t, but now I could see why he was acting like an asshole. I was glad that it was over with – I would prefer to have fewer enemies rather than more.

“Hey, Tyler!” The voice of Azure called out to me.

“Hey yourself!” I retorted.

He laughed, before trotting up to me.

“I have something to say to you.” He said, taking a deep breath.

“Thanks, Tyler. For everything.” He said.

I blinked. “Thanks for what, Azure?” I asked.

He sighed, looking at me. “Tyler, you’ve been the only other guy here willing to talk to me. I have a few friends, sure, but you’ve been willing to do what none of them have: Truly talk to me, instead of simply bantering. You get tired of seeing the same old cynical guards, and all the newbies who all think they are on top of the game, after a while.”

He took a breath, putting a hoof on my shoulder. “Tyler, I know it may not seem like much to you, but it means to same thing to Amber. She’s been doing the same thing for three months. Even though you foalnapping her wasn’t the best thing to happen, now she had somepony to talk to. She doesn’t care anymore that you’re an alien, from a different world. Cadence still likes you for doing your best and risking your life to help them, as do Shining and the other Elements.”

I blinked again. “Wow.” I said. I had never known that I meant that much to the ponies around me. Actually, I had never meant that much to anybody around me. The only one who talked to me in school on a regular basis was my Brony roommate, and even then, all we did was argue.

“Thanks.” I said in an unsure voice. Suddenly, a thought came to me. “Azure, I need to go off for a bit to think. Ok?”

Azure just smiled. “Sure, bro. Have fun doing… Whatever you’re going to be doing.”

Now I needed to think about what would come next. Walking along one of the paths, I sat down at the edge of a pond in the garden. I was all alone, with not a soul in sight. I sighed, drawing a deep breath. I didn’t know what I would do. Should I escape? Leave everything and try to get away? And how would I? I was on a city that sat on a cliff, no real way in or out.

A few days ago, I would have given everything to escape. But, since then, I had met friends. Friends! Among ponies! There was no way that this could be happening, yet it was. Two weeks ago, half a month, I was a perfectly unhappy college student, doing the same thing day after day.

“What am I going to do?” I asked myself, burying my head inside my arms.

“It is your choice.” A voice called out to me. Turning my head, I gazed out to see Luna, standing ten feet away, on the edge of a grouping of trees hiding me from the party.

I sighed. “Hello, Luna.” I said, almost robotically.

She walked beside me, sitting down on the grass beside me.

“We know what thou are thinking.” She said. “You are deciding whether to abandon all that you have made here for what you hope will be a better future, or stay with what you have.”

I looked up to her, small tears streaking down my face. “I don’t know what to think!” I almost yelled. “I don’t belong here! I shouldn’t be here… Maybe things would be better on the outside, who knows. But, goddamnit, I don’t want to abandon the only friends I have!” I broke down, descending into tears.

“You don’t have to make your choice alone, Tyler.” Another voice said. I looked to my left to see Amber, walking out of the tress.

“I kidnapped you! How could you ever think of me as a friend?” I said, in tears.

She sighed. “Tyler, it wasn’t like that. At any moment, you could have taken me away from my entire family – permanently. But you didn’t. You showed compassion, even for somepony trying to catch and cage you.”

“She’s right, Tyler.” The voice of Azure spoke out from behind Amber. He walked out of some bushes, joining his sister. “You could have taken my sister away from me. You could have run during the invasion, escaping during the chaos. You had dozens of chances you could have taken to cause us harm, but you didn’t. You stuck by us, for whatever reason you did.”

I simply stared at the water in front of me. How I wished this was simply in my imagination, where I could simply exit it. But no, all of this was real. Azure and Amber were real, as was the land that my roommate had spoken of, and all the experiences that I had gone through when I arrived here. I don’t know why I came here, but, since coming here, I had killed one giant monster, several dozen abominations of nature, and nearly killed several ponies in the process. If my roommate had been here, he would have called me an amateur, but I didn’t care.

Shaking off my sadness, I turned and looked at the three ponies, all of whom cared about me more than I thought.

“I don’t deserve this.” I stated.

Luna sighed. “I believe that all beings have the capability to change. However, you don’t need to change. You were simply… Misunderstood. Even when you showed us those images with your mind, to warn us off, I could tell you were only trying to protect us from something that would harm us. And it did. Knowing what you knew, it was beyond out comprehension.”

Amber looked over at Luna. “What did you see, anyway, Princess?”

“I am sorry, Amber, but I cannot say.” She replied. “If you want, you will have to ask Tyler about it later. Along with some other things”

I noticed Amber glaring at Luna, her Catalina Blue fur turning a lighter shade for a moment. Dismissing it, I saw the ponies turn towards me.

“Tyler,” Luna said. “No matter what your decision, we shall respect it. We gain nothing by keeping thee kept captive here.”

I simply stared into the water. My brain felt like it had virtually shut down. I literally stopped thinking.

Finally, after two minutes, I answered.

“I’ll stay.”

Azure walked up to me and placed a hoof on my shoulder, with Amber doing the same on my other. Together, we stared out above the lake as fireworks began to go off in celebration of the wedding.

I was with my friends.

My true friends.