bleak/reverse

So, there I was, living another bland, self-recycling 24 hours. It's the fourth year of my solitude in antisocial, odor-filled hell. I got back from the store after picking up some groceries. I treated myself to some Cheesecubes. As you'd expect, they're crackers shaped like cubes which taste like cheese, real good stuff. As I finished storing my food, I decided to scroll through the television channels (Yes, I have cable, though I rarely watch anything since there's nothing good on anymore.) and see if I could find a movie somewhere. As expected, no films were on (Except an ABC Family airing of Pulp Fiction, but who the hell is going to watch an awful censored version of that?) and I switched off the TV.

I had a DVD player, but I rarely bought movies as I wanted to save as much of my parent's money as possible for important things, such as food, gas, electricity, etcetera. My DVD collection had around under ten titles, all of which I had seen probably seen at least twenty times. I was hungry and I wanted to heat up some macaroni and cheese, so I decided I would pop in a DVD just for the satisfaction of having background noise in the home. Background noise helped me feel less secluded.

I went into my room, opened the door leading into my tiny yet cluttered closet, and checked the shelf with the DVDs. "Hmm...A Clockwork Orange? No...or maybe...Goodbye Uncle Tom?" As you might guess, I had a rather...uncommon taste in films. Before you ask, no, I was never shown Clockwork Orange as a kid. Goodbye Uncle Tom was given to me last year as a hurtful prank by an ex-friend. The title made it seem like the departing of a family member, so that kind of piqued my curiosity. However, I also immediately thought of the character Uncle Tom from Uncle Tom's Cabin, so that raised my interest even more. But when I saw the movie, it wasn't about family or Uncle Tom's Cabin at all; and no, I will not explain what it truly is about. You can find out yourself, not that I'm suggesting you do, anyway. Some things are better left unknown.

After standing there deciding which film to choose as my background noise, I eventually settled on The Shining. I don't know why I picked it, considering I had seen it around four times already. Then again, I always had a soft spot for that film, since it reminded me of my innocent childhood. It was the one movie that scared me as a child.

My childhood...when my parents were alive. When everyone seemed to care about others. When you'd go outside, and someone, somewhere would tip their hat and say "Good morning to you, sir or madam". I miss those days.

So, anyway, I put the DVD in the player, and the movie starts. As the opening flyover scene plays (along with that creepy music) I take my dinner out of the microwave, and place it at the dinner table. After my parents died, I was always the only one sitting at the end of the table, one hundred percent of the time. I took my time, slowly stabbing my fork in the tiny, curved noodles as I stuck them within my mouth, chewed for a few seconds, and swallowed them. They tasted very bland, but that's because macaroni and cheese has been my dinner for the past seven months. Before that, I had chicken fries dipped in ranch. Everything gets old after a while.

As I took the last bite, I heard an odd, explosion-like sound from outside. It wasn't the movie, I had seen it so many times that I knew almost every sound effect in its entire runtime. It didn't concern me very much, honestly. Nonetheless, I got out of my chair, went out my front door, and took a quick look around. It was just after sunset, it was a little harder to see what was going on. I looked for the obvious; fire and smoke. Couldn't see any, so I turned around to walk back inside. "Must have been some fireworks or something," I groaned to myself. Since I had nothing better to do, I sat on the couch and decided to watch The Shining. It was at that scene where Jack is at his interview for the caretaker job in the Overlook hotel. I just sat there, and watched the film all the way to the end credits. It was nice reliving a childhood memory again, I should do that more often. It was around 8 P.M. by the time the film ended, so I shut off the television, laid on the couch, and tried to fall asleep.

Some hours later, I was woken up by a repeating, quick-paced knock on my door. I checked the clock on the wall. Who the hell would be knocking on my door thirty minutes shy of midnight? For good measure, I retrieved my dad's pistol, which he had kept for self defense. It was already loaded. I didn't have a legal license to wield a gun, but I didn't care. If this freak was gonna try to break into my home, he'd have a lot of regrets coming his way.

I slowly approached the door, and yelled "Who is it?" to the person outside. To my mild surprise, a female voice answered my call.

"Hello sir, we were wondering if you could help us with a problem we're having at the moment..."

My suspicions were pretty high at this point. There was more than one person? I responded with "Who are you and who's with you?" and kept a firmer grip on my pistol.

"Right, of course. Let me introduce myself. I'm Twilight Sparkle, and the mares accompanying me at this moment are Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy, We're lost, you see."

I was catching onto the fact that this was nothing more than a cheap prank by some scumbag fellow-teenagers who I probably don't care for associating myself with.

"Go away," I yelled. "I don't like jokes."

"But, sir, this isn't a joke."

"Okay, prove to me that you really are who you say to be, then!"

Right as the last word left my lips, I heard my door open. I jumped backwards and pointed the gun straight out in front of me, gripping the handle with both hands. What I saw was completely unbelievable. There stood the purple unicorn herself, Twilight Sparkle. My head suddenly felt warm with panic as I realized I was pointing a weapon with the power to kill, straight at a talking cartoon horse...that is, assuming she and the five other girls behind her weren't hallucinations. I pointed the gun down toward the floor, inches away from my feet. That probably wasn't a good idea as I could have easily shot myself, but at the time I wasn't thinking clearly.

"Stay there," I told the four-legged party of six. "I'll be right back." I instantly broke into a sprint as I dashed into my parent's bedroom, opened the gun safe (Entering the code was not a big time-killer, as I had it memorized) and gently set the weapon in there, closed the safe's door, locked it, and sprinted back to my front door, hoping to see the ponies still standing there. To my half-relief, they were still present. But to my half-fright, I feared that I was becoming a schizophrenic. Twilight gave me an odd look as she saw I was panting from the brief jog I had. It didn't take long for me to cool down, and the conversation with the otherworldly animals continued.

"So," Twilight said. "I take it you're the owner of this home?" I responded with an emotionless "I guess you could say that, yeah." as I thought of how the explosion sound from earlier could be tied with this...projection of ponies. No, it couldn't be a projection, because Twilight (I'm assuming it was her, anyway, since from what I remember from the show she was the most skilled with magic) opened my freaking door.

"You seem like a trustworthy gentleman," said Twilight, as she went on to briefly explain why she and the others were even here. "So do you mind if we stay here for a little bit while we try figure out how to get back to Equestria? You see, something went wrong with a teleportation spell I was practicing, and...well, now we're here, in...what's this place called?"

"Earth", I replied. "You're on the planet Earth, but if you're asking about a specific place, well, you're at what I call the Lonesome Road."

"I see," Twilight replied in a generic tone. "Are you the only one who lives here?"

"On the Lonesome Road? No, there's a few other homes on this street that are occupied."

"I meant in this specific home."

"Uh, yeah. Why do you ask?"

"Because from what I'm seeing, you're taking this matter quite well, far better than anyone else would, I'm sure. That's why we need to stay in your home specifically, with nobody but you."

I was a bit flattered, since I'm not usually complimented on how well I take news. In fact, I was never complimented on anything until just then.

"Well, yeah, I guess you can stay here if you want to, but you guys gotta promise to not ransack through my stuff, okay?"

"Sure, we won't, right girls?" Twilight's call was met with various responses, such as "Oh c'mon, I'm Rainbow Dash! I'm sure my flying skills alone are cooler than anything this guy has", "Of course, I mean, i-if that's okay with you", and "I won't cause any trouble, and that's a Pinkie promise!".

And with that, the four-legged party of six made their way into my boring, lonely home. A land of hardwood flooring, beige walls, and solitude. Yeah, perfect place to crash for a while. I watched how they entered my home. Twilight casually trotted in with a face showing relief and gratitude, the blue pegasus with the rainbow mane (I'm assuming that one was Rainbow Dash, I hadn't seen the show in about a year so I couldn't quite recall the names of the characters) casually flew in with a bored, mildly disappointed expression. The one with the cowboy hat (Applejack, I think) entered in the same manner as Twilight. The pink one with the fluffy mane (Pinkie, duh) hopped in with a glad, cheerful smile on her face. Rarity had this snobby, "Oh my God, what is this filthy trash pit?"-type of look on her face and walked in a bit faster than the others. Fluttershy was the last one to come in, she wouldn't even look at anyone directly and she slowly, carefully stepped indoors and into the living room where the rest of the party was.

Once the party reunited in my living room, Twilight cleared her throat, and spoke. "Thank you very much for letting us stay within your home, mister...?"

"Stephen", I replied. "Also, you're all welcome, feel free to make yourselves comfortable." And with that, Rainbow crashed into the middle of the couch that I slept on every single night, Fluttershy flew over to then landed onto the other end of that same couch, and Rarity sat on the end across from Fluttershy. Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie still stood on the floor.

There was a bit of an awkward silence for thirty seconds. I broke the ice by asking my newfound guests if they'd like a bite to eat. Most of them replied "No", but Applejack said she could use a snack. From what I remember, in the show, Applejack enjoyed eating...well, apples. Guess what I didn't have to serve? Apples.

As I went into my kitchen to suggest Cheesecubes, I heard the television turn on. "Whoa, Stephen, you have a working TV!" Rainbow exclaimed. I guess that remark she made earlier was simply a prideful lie. She apparently knew how to work the remote, as I could see her surfing through the channels. The rest of the party turned their vision to the screen. Rainbow ended up turning the channel to...ABC Family, which apparently aired Pulp Fiction right after it ended at around 11:00 P.M., I think. Thanks to commercial breaks, it was still somewhat early on in the film. It was the scene where Jules "interrogates" Brett. Since this is ABC Family, I knew they censored it to the point of being virtually unwatchable. I'm not exaggerating, your infant could watch it and be fine in his adulthood. I had a pit in my stomach as I anticipated how Jules' famous "English" line would be ruined.

"English, lovey duck-fur! DO YOU SPEAK IT?!"

And just like that, as the (very un-Samuel L. Jackson-sounding) dubbed voice blurted out that line, the whole room erupted into laughter. Even Twilight chuckled a bit, and Rarity went "Ha, ha!". I don't think I can describe how hard Pinkie laughed. I even chuckled a bit. Man, I hate television. I returned to my original intentions and asked Applejack if she wanted to try my Cheesecubes. She replied by asking if I had any apples, but I replied with a steady "No". She accepted the Cheesecubes.

As I poured the Cheesecubes into a bowl, I could hear the party enjoying the film on screen, exchanging excited comments and guesses as to what would happen next. I guess they don't have movies like this over in...Equestria, I think it was called. I set the filled bowl in front of Applejack, who was now sitting on the couch between Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. She thanked me for the snack, and I proceeded to pull out a chair from the dinner table and set it close to the main couch. I sat in the wooden chair, and watched the (butchered) film with them. "How are they going to ruin Brett's death," I thought to myself.

"...And I will strike down upon thee with GREAT vengeance and fuuurious anger, those who attempt to POISON and DESTROY my brothers. And you will KNOW my name is the LORD...when I lay my vengeance upon thee."

Guess what? The gun Jules points at Brett was digitally removed, so instead he was pointing his index finger at Brett. It then cut to the shot where Jules would say "Does he look like a bitch?", but instead the dubbed voice said "Let's scramble, Vince!". The look on Jules' face, combined with the pathetic dubbed voice (which I'm sure the party could tell it was dubbed) made the six ponies burst into laughter. It was the funniest thing they had seen in a while!

We sat down and watched the whole movie. We had a good laugh. Unnecessary censorship always gave me a nice laugh attack. Hearing Jimmie say "deceased brown man storage facility" was enough to get my sides aching. Once the movie ended (at close to 2 in the morning) the party all found places to sleep. Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Rarity all slept on the couch, and Applejack and Pinkie slept in the king-sized bed in my parent's bedroom. Twilight, however, wasn't quite ready for a good night's rest yet. She was still standing in the living room. I yawned as I sat in the uncomfortable wooden chair. There was nowhere else to sleep aside from the floor. Twilight started walking toward me, and we had a quick conversation.

"Stephen, I just wanted to thank you again for helping us. If you weren't so kind as to let us stay here, I don't know where we'd be right now. I'm going to practice various spells that I researched prior to this event, and I will practice them every day until I'm sure we can get back, and then we'll be out of your hair."

"I don't mind if you're in my hair or not, in fact, it's boring as all hell in this place. I think you guys arriving here made it a hell of a lot funner."

"We're not here for fun, Stephen. We're here to stay and try to leave as quickly as possible."

My heart sank a little bit, as she once again pounded the idea of solitude into my brain. I was beginning to enjoy the company of the party, I didn't want them to leave so soon. "Okay, then. Do whatever you need to, I suppose."

"I will."

As she was turning around to walk back to the bedroom, I spoke up again. "I just have one question for you; why do you need to go back , anyway?" I sounded like a weirdo.

"Because we have friends and family back in Equestria, Stephen. Why do you ask?"

"Well....uh...." I was frozen by my poor social skills. I didn't feel prepared to tell her that I had no friends and was desperate for company.

"No, wait, don't tell me. I already know the answer."

"You do?" I asked, with the innards of my body chilling at her reply.

"Yes. You just want a friend, don't you?"

I was amazed, how did this little unicorn know my feelings? Was it a lucky guess? Was it...magic? I oh-so-desperately wanted to know, so I asked her "How did you find that out?"

Twilight didn't respond, then she formed a slight grin which she had a little trouble hiding, and walked into the bedroom to study her spells, I guess. I suppose I would try to make the best of each day they were here, even if it wasn't for very long. I didn't want to be alone again. I could have tried to befriend those otherworldly beings, hell, maybe they'd choose to stay here or something! But then I remembered my uncle monitored the bills for the house, I don't know why he did, but he just did. If he saw a sudden increase in costs, he'd get suspicious. And if he got suspicious, I could kiss his financial support goodbye. Plus I also remembered that the party had friends and family in Equestria. But yet, at the same time, I didn't want to be alone...maybe they'd let me go with them? But then what would my uncle think? What if he started a search for me? But then again, why should I care what he thought? I'd be in Equestria, living with...people. I wouldn't be alone, and at the time, friendship was top priority for me. I just hoped that if they did end up leaving without me, we'd at least be friends.

That's all I wanted. I just wanted to have someone to talk to, care about, laugh with, play with, bond with, you get the idea.

Since it was past midnight (2:47 A.M., specifically) it was currently the second day of their stay. I'd be getting up four hours and thirteen minutes later, and I'd have to wake up the party...except for Twilight, since she probably stayed up the whole night.