The Entheogenic Excursion

“I stripped myself until I was free and fell on a cloud that had mistaken my bedroom as the heavens. I swam back, spreading my arms as far as I could, believing that if I tried hard enough I could wrap my appendages around the world itself. I took in a deep breath and brought my fingers through my hair and across my face, all of which felt incredible to touch. I worked my hands down my neck and over my breasts, down my waist and across my thighs. All sensations had been cranked to eleven; I was higher than I thought. I only had one joint, but I was in total bliss. I felt like an ignorant infant, sensing all the sensations for the first time and from the comfort of my own safety. I threw my arms back on the bed and stared blankly up at the ghostly ceiling fan. I asked myself something aloud, a question I knew since I started knowing things: Who am I?
Easy, I thought. Everyone calls me Lavvy, I hate my real name. Lavender Alaina Valentine. I’d call myself Lav if I was dude, but nope, I was born like ‘this’; so I added the ‘vy’ to make it more feminine. I’ve made it twenty-four rotations around the sun, I’m five foot five and I have been since tenth grade, and one hundred and twenty-one pounds and can eat anything I want without worrying about calories. I write with my left hand, but with every other task I’m a righty. I once had a dog named Landon, he ran off into mountains and never came back. Good for him, I always thought. I don’t like the way I look, but I know most girls think the same, so I try not to care about it. I have hips and an ass that refuse most jeans, and a mess of hair that comes down right to the center of my spine. And worst of all, my two front-most bottom teeth are a tad crooked and annoy the hell out of me.
I’m horribly awkward in social situations, so much so that it turns away potential partners. Speaking of which, I’m not even sure which way I lean on the fence anymore, if you get me. I’ve dated three guys, but am not sure if I like guys anymore, though never considered about liking my own gender. And someone told me I had lost my virginity once at a party, but I don’t remember; but I know for a fact it wasn’t with any of my partners. That was the last time I went to a party, six years ago.
Some people call me strange, but I’m no stranger to that. I sometimes wish I was normal and I wish people would think I’m not just an introverted hermit who smokes pot in the late afternoons. I’ve made stupid mistakes, okay? People who do drugs aren’t bad people. They’re not misguided either, especially not people who only dabble in weed–like this chick. They chose to take a step out of their comfort zone and they did. How can we ever learn more about ourselves and the world around us if we don’t take chances? Concerning cannabis, why is the world so up in arms about a plant that makes you feel good with no long lasting effects? The truth is out there, there’s some golden honesty in this stuff. I’m tired of all these secrets and lies, God dammit.
Well, I don’t want to worry about anything at the moment, I just want to enjoy this. I am the loner stoner and proud of it. Reaching up into infinity, gliding beyond worlds unseen, I channel bits and pieces of information from great philosophers of our yesteryears and years to come–and forget them shortly afterwards. Shadows taunt and murmur obscenities in the corners of my viewing range, I don’t want to bother to get up and make tea for them. I’m comfortably numb and I just don’t care. We all make progress as soon as progress makes something out of us.
And just as I was about to start visiting other dimensions, there was a tapping on my front door.”

Lavvy sat up straight, looking towards the far door to the cold world. She wasn’t sure if she had heard a noise just now or not–until it knocked lightly again. Her eyes shot wide, she didn’t know who it could be at this hour.

She looked at the clock on the wall and read aloud, “It’s only five-fifty. Who the hell comes to bother me at five-fifty?”

Lavender sat up promptly and walked in the direction of the crimson-painted door. The shag carpet between her toes felt heavenly as she slid her feet with each long stride. She stopped too close to the door and backed a few feet away to open it. As her hand met with the cold nob, she had almost forgotten that she was in the nude.

She looked down and noted her circumstance with the intriguing response, “Oh...” Lavvy slipped on some sweatpants and a shirt two sizes too big before returning to the door. The person outside was waiting ever so patiently she thought. The air outdoors was just below thirty degrees; Lavvy heard it was even going to snow tonight. She finally allowed her hand to reunite with the handle of the door and turned it quickly. She threw it open and saw not a man or woman. Lavvy then noticed a short clump of long hair just at the bottom of her vision and her eyes plummeted down to see that before her stood the thing she hit and forgot about.

The two stared at one another for quite some time. The white little four-legged creature said nothing, only keeping eye contact with the woman in the door frame. Lavvy knew that now what she had seen was no mere illusion and she now knew what she had hit. It was pony, no doubt about it. Not a regular pony from Earth, but the one’s that came from the magical land of Equestria.

No one knows why they are here, but they’re here and all of Earth had to make the best of it–which didn’t last too long. Lavvy thought they had gone extinct, they were fought over three years ago and were used by illegal drug manufactures to make the hyper-hallucinogen ‘Rainbow Vapor’. Ponies were kidnapped by the herds and when the extraction process took place to get the drug, it would kill off the creature. What was produced was a multi-colored, glassy dust as fine as sand; a single pony could make enough to fill a small beer bottle. Its intense hallucinogenic properties were the reasons why it was so sought after; though it seemed its addictive side effects were never heeded by the consumers of the drug. Even religious cults had sprang up around Rainbow Vapor, making it into a distinctive and overly powerful entheogenic.

It was common for the drug to be administrated through the eyes, but others inject, snort, or take it orally. The effects of the drug would usually begin a few minutes after taking it, and after that you wouldn’t come off of it for a minimum of twelve hours. The larger amount taken, the longer the trips would last; rumors spread that some trips had lasted days. The trips are said to be similar to DMT, but far more potent and longer lasting.

People begged for the drug until the governments of the world set out a massive crackdown on the Vapor. The drug wars became more severe, mass gun battles broke out in heavily populated areas throughout the first and third worlds. As the ponies were supposedly all used up, the drug wars ended, but the world was never the same. Knowing this information and more, Lavvy didn’t take too kindly to ponies.

Without any evidence of manners, she greeted the equine before her, “May I fucking help you?”

The creature tensed a little and made a slight, yet noticeable grimace. It wasn’t stupid, Lavvy knew that for sure–but the pony wasn’t going to walk away. She (the mare) had gone too far, and knowing that she had been hit by this same individual before her, she knew she had to follow through with her plan of action.

The white unicorn straightened her posture, looked the human in the eyes and pushed out in one breath, “Can I stay with you?” What came out of her wasn’t the words she intended, but her instinctual and submissive desire to retreat from the cold. She wanted to start off the conversation with a simple, 'Hi’ but that didn’t turn to her favor. Lavvy tilted her head in silent confusion, still sharply looking down upon the pony before her.

The equine tried again after a breath of cool mountain air, “You... hit me today, you know?”

The human took a small step back and crossed her arms, “Ya I know. So what?” She was thankful that at least the human female knew it was her she had hit.

The pony mustered up the courage to tell her, “I feel like I need some compensation. You hit me pretty hard with that car.” She dangled her left foreleg saying, “I might have sprained an ankle.” Lavvy could clearly see a purple and blue rash had risen from the spot, though her mercy still could not be found.

The antsy woman tapped her foot in irritation spouting, “What are you going to do about it? Tell the cops? They’ll arrest you on the spot for just being you. I don’t feel generous today, okay? You can die out in the cold for all I care.” Lavender began to close the door before her, but a hoof was swiftly lodged between the frame and the opening. Lavvy sneered through the crack, “I will break that hoof off, you little shit!”

“Listen,” the pony called out in a voice as gentle as the now falling snow. The hostility the human presumed the mare would have against her wasn’t present as she continued to leave the door ajar. The pony went on more softly, “Wouldn’t you have a bitter feeling in your gut knowing that you left some poor, homesick pony like me to die out in the cold?”

“It’s not my business.” She leaned her head on the wooden door frame as the pony listened closely on the opposite end. She explained her harsh behavior mildly, “Your kind is frowned upon in this society, I don’t want to be housing you. More than likely there are search parties after you–either from the government or from a cartel. I’ll be royally screwed if they find you with me. I can’t risk it.”

“Just for the night, please?” Lavvy remained silent, so the pony vocalized her just reasons, “I’ve been wandering for months now. I had a group I journeyed with and we had nowhere to really journey to for a long while. One by one, we were either captured or killed by the elements. One night, I got separated from my kind and I’ve been roaming through the forests ever since. I’ve been lost for weeks, barely surviving the world out here. Please... just one night. Please let me in.”

Lavender was finally broken down by the pony’s story as she slowly reopened the door. The two made contact again as she stepped out of the way and sighed, waving her arm to come in. The mare with the electric-colored mane and tail gave a warm smile as she took a few steps in. Her wet and dirty hooves met with the beige carpet as she could now feel the heat from the home’s interior wash over her quivering, frigid form.

After a satisfying moment, she promptly trotted in and said in a now uncaring tone, “Thanks!” Lavvy was a bit taken back by this interesting display of contorting emotions the pony had displayed and acted out. Without bursting forth with rage, she held her anger quite easily and was more curious as to what the pony would do now that she had gained access to her abode. She thought that during any other time besides now, she would have thrown the pony out and locked the doors; though she was high and feeling like a saintly pacifist with no need to fight any longer.

She pushed the door closed and walked slowly behind her guest, watching where she would go and what she would do. The mare turned the corner into her bedroom as if she knew the place by heart. Her eyes lit with excitement as she flopped down on the human’s quilted bed–which was oversized for the little pony–and gave a large exhale.

Lavvy could now see the dirt, grass, and leaves on her hooves and coat as she cried out, “Woah, woah, woah!” The pony’s ears perked up and pointed towards the human female.

“What?” The white unicorn asked, shrugging her shoulders in the process.

“You’re filthy and lying on my clean bed.” She hastily grabbed her guest by the tail and forcibly yanked her onto the carpet. The pony fell on her haunches with a thud as she leaned against the foot of the bed. Lavender pointed a finger at the mare and denounced gruffly, “No! Bad pony! Bad!”

A new room was opened and from a click of a light switch revealed a small, white tiled bathroom.

“Come on,” Lavvy urged, walking ahead as the little, sentient creature looked about the washroom, “let me fix you a bath.” The pony stepped back as soon as the dial to the tub creaked away. Water gushed from the faucet and into the basin, the pony was flabbergasted at what the strange human was doing.

“Are you kidding me?” She looked up at Lavender and back towards the porcelain tub. “F-fine,” she breathed in defeat. Without warning, the human grabbed hold of the pony’s barrel and hoisted her into the bath. Lavender was surprised at how heavy the creature was, but managed to place it into the basin without much of a struggle from the mare.

“Hey! What’s the big idea,” the pony huffed in vexation. “I could get in the tub myself!”

“I just wanted to help,” Lavvy said in an almost motherly tone. The human stopped herself–she had no idea what she was doing exactly or why she was acting like this. She was obviously being overly generous and strangely affectionate towards the pony. Then she remembered another fact about the ponies she had overlooked.

She had read on the internet a report on the human interactions with equestrian ponies, which had a psychological effect on solely humans. After some time of being in their presence, humans would show more affectionate behavior towards the ponies which (to the tested humans) were difficult to consciously be aware of. It was a relatively new study, but it was picked up by the other ends of the more liberal media and taken as fact. It was a mix of this, and the comforting and loving sensation of her weed high that made her act so unusual towards the pony.

As the tub filled up with the mare inside, the soothing hot waters began to loosen up the mare as she knelt her belly into it and took in the healing liquid. “Ahhh...” she moaned in relief, “that feels... so much better. Thanks for–”

A scrub brush was quickly jostled atop her mane as Lavvy began to rub the filth of the pony’s vivid hair. With each pull and push of the stiff bristles, the pony called out, “Could-you-warn-me-next-time?” Lavvy stopped as she bent onto her knees next to the tub to get a better reach. The pony jolted her head back and questioned drastically, “W-why’d you stop?” Lavender grinned and continued to wash the mare. She went over most of the mare’s body, brushing the pony’s mane, tail and coat clean.

She began to finally work on the bottom of her hooves before Lavender stated, “I’m not really sure why I’m doing this.” The pony never questioned her as she had fallen into a deep state of tranquility. “I mean I have reasons, like I read this study one time on how ponies and humans interact with one another, and how humans are affected by the pony’s presence and proceed into a more generous and welcoming state of mind–”

The pony snickered and blurted out, “That’s a load of horse shit.”

Lavvy stopped scrubbing again and asked her, “What do you mean?” The pony’s large, oval eyes wheeled over to Lavender–her pupils glistened like a cerise sunrise in a violet sky.

“I’ve been in longer contact with humans than this occasion, but those occasions were different. They tried to harvest me–to make that sick drug out of my essence. Those bastards never treated me like a sentient being, more like an animal.”

“Well, you are an animal in a sens–”. She was cut off when the mare rolled her eyes back around and into the tub waters, staring down at her soppy reflection. Her mane tumbled alongside her face, its tips barely touching the waters. Lavvy wished she could have taken back the words she had just said and brought the scrubber back up to the pony’s back.

As she began massaging her spine, she expounded upon her past mistake, “I’m sorry. You’re very different from the ponies of this world and are far more human than most of these people I associate with on a day-to-day basis.” The pony looked back towards Lavvy with puzzlement in her expression.

She brushed on the pony’s lower back as she continued, “I can’t explain it, I just feel... safe around you. The media plays you all out as an international crisis, as if you all were terrorist or serial killers. A lot of people–and once including me–believed that because we had no other proof otherwise. Please forgive my hostility... And if someday we could all look back at this as a whole, try and forgive us.” The pony smiled and nodded her head slowly.

“I’ll try... I thought the same way with every other human, but I too was wrong.” Lavvy returned the pony’s smile with her own as she reached for the sinker and pulled the plug off of the drain. As the water began to exit out into whirling fluid, Lavender reached for a towel and began to caress the mare’s head dry. As she rubbed the towel roughly against the mess of hair and carefully around her horn, she whipped if off and the pony’s mane frizzed into a ball of fluff and tangles.

“Oh,” Lavvy remembered quite lately, “I forgot to tell you my name. It’s Lavender.”

“That’s a nice name,” the pony complimented, eyes straying away, “it’s a good pony name.” Her vision was pulled back to hers as she stated, “My name is Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch.”