East.
This was the only direction Jesse Pinkman wanted to drive. It didn’t matter how far he needed to go. All he knew was that he wanted to be as far from Albuquerque and all of its evils as possible. What he planned to do, he didn’t know either. Todd had decided to leave a couple of ten-thousand dollar stacks in the glove compartment of his El Camino, probably just enough to jumpstart his life and find a way to get things back on track.
How he would do this, however…
Jesse’s mind was swimming with delirium. After months of sleeping in a concrete cellar and serving as a slave to cook Blue Sky with Todd for Jack and his gang of white supremacists, all Jesse wanted to do was rest in an actual, comfy bed. He would be plagued with nightmares, no-doubt; from countless brushes with death, the killings he himself witnessed, his small period of homelessness, his killing Gale, as well as losing Jane, Adriana, Mike, and nearly losing Brock twice, sleep seemed like a complete impossibility.
Perhaps, he needed something to eat…
Yes.
At the next 7-Eleven, he could eat some real food, drink a few beers, buy some toiletries and clean himself up at the closest motel. Lord knows he could use a shave. But not before a nice long nap. Signs along the building-laden highway pointed that Indianapolis was only a few miles away. There would definitely be something there.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Behind the counter of the 7-Eleven, a black-skinned woman was sorting through the bills in her register, making sure that there wasn’t a dime out of place. With the few people inside still browsing the shelves, the cashier was inclined to take her time.
With the doorbell ringing, signaling the arrival of a new customer, the cashier instinctively looked to the door, but found her gaze stuck on Jesse, who stood limply at the entrance, looking at the cashier intently. His dusty, black, oversized, long-sleeved Henley shirt, his baggy black pants reeked of blood and sweat. His sandy-brown hair was messy and oily and a short beard ran along the bottom half of his face, not a sign of grooming on it.
His repugnant stench began to fill the noses of the customers and the cashier, who tried their best to mask their disgust. Jesse was too exhausted to notice, only concerned with one thing.
“Yo,” he rasped politely. “Do you know where I can find the razors?”
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Jesse emerged from the steaming motel bathroom, rubbing a towel through his smooth, hairless chin and jaw where his mangy unkempt beard had been. His greasy, disheveled hair was now smooth and combed out, matted down by the moisture that his towel couldn’t dry. Naked in the solitude of the nauseatingly yellow room, his body, head to toe, was covered in cuts, scars and bruises that he endured through Jack’s slavery.
While sleeping on a bed was one of the greatest pleasures he felt in months, he still felt far from fully rested. Stumbling towards the bed, he leaned forwards, falling on top of right on top of it. Jesse let out a relaxed sigh, appreciating the chilly feeling of the sheets as he slowly ran his arms up, keeping his hanging legs from dragging him back down.
Right now, nothing could bring him out of this moment. For all extents and purposes, he was free. And as long as he didn’t return, he would continue to be free.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Jesse stepped out of an El Arado, his hands in the pockets of his new grey, stone-washed jeans. Jesse took one hand out to brush tortilla crumbs off of his expensive blue t-shirt, a light-grey long-sleeved t-shirt underneath. His longer hair was also trimmed and spiked-up, giving Jesse a far more acceptable image than when he entered Indianapolis.
Jesse even felt a lot better with himself and his new look. No one in this city knew who he was, and he didn’t know any of them. He had the best protection that not even Mike could provide for him back in Albuquerque; complete anonymity. As long as he didn’t cause any trouble, not that he would want to anymore, he would be just fine.
Walking east down north side of the street, he looked for another place that he could settle down for a while. Looking along the windows of the buildings, there was one that made him come to a halt, suddenly hit with a wave of nostalgia.
Written on a giant word bubble, in large, goofy, yellow letters read: The Hero House. Browsing through the windows, he looked at the numerous comics and graphic novels on display, as well as the people inside and browsing through what the store had to offer. With shimmering eyes, nothing else compelling him to continue his walk, Jesse made his way inside the store, too eager to kill some time.
Jesse walked past the shelves of collectables and candies and underneath the novelty t-shirts featuring the decals of several famous comic book heroes, and straight for the boxes of comics further in. Fanning through the first unoccupied one, Jesse fanned through the individual comics protected by plastic sleeves. It really didn’t matter what he was in the mood for. Just to spend a few hours looking through some comic books and reflect back to simpler times was all he needed at the moment.
“Can I help you find anything?” asked a male employee in a black t-shirt uniform, startling Jesse.
With his train of thought momentarily broken, Jesse searched for an answer.
“Naw,” he sighed with a dismissive wave, “I’m good. Thanks.”
Without a word, Jesse resumed his browsing, allowing the employee to assist another customer who would actually require his help.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Jesse sat on a toilet inside a blue cubicle of the Hero House, his pants up as if he were merely sitting on a chair. A plastic bag filled with sleeves of comic books stood propped against his leg. The time he had spent inside had been very therapeutic. While it was merely a drop of ointment over the gash that had been the last two years of his life, it gave him plenty of clarity of where to go from there. Perhaps he could draw again like he used to in high-school; start his own comics.
Maybe he could find something in Indianapolis, or even continue east to New York and make it big there. The possibilities were endless. However, a grumbling stomach removed Jesse from his musing. Pulling back the sleeve of his shirt and examining his watch, he realized that it was 7:00 already.
It seemed jet-lag was even possible driving in a car.
Regardless, it was time to find something for dinner and get some more sleep at the motel. Standing up, Jesse straightened his pants and stepped out of the cubicle and towards the sinks.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Jesse plopped back down on his bed with a large Styrofoam carry-out box in his grasp, his bag of comic books hanging on the palm of his hand. Setting the box down, he slipped the handles of his bag off and let the comics slip out and spread over the bed. Jesse was looking forward to an idle moment such as this for far too long: a fresh, greasy burger and fries and a night of reading comics.
Flipping the lid open, Jesse took out two fries and chewed them as he began pulling the sleeves off each comic. Upon grabbing the third one, revealing an X-Men cover, he pinched the bottom and yanked, hoping to get the book out in one effort, only for it to get stuck. Jesse had one hand on his fries, the other on his comics. With another forceful yank the books would not come free.
“Come on, you bitch!” growled Jesse as he shook harder and harder, only for the top inches of the book to come out. “Screw it.”
Jesse relinquished his fries, wiped his hand upon his pants, and grabbed hold of the book. As he gently slid the comic out, he felt a second book begin to slide out from behind the first. Jesse chuckled, amused by the prospect of getting a free book with the one he bought.
“Whoa,” Jesse giggled in a low, uncomfortable chuckle, “what do we have here?”
As he slid the second book out first, allowing X-Men to fall free. Upon seeing the cover of the mystery comic, his face contorted into sheer confusion.
“The fuck?” he thought aloud.
The cover of the book featured the skyline of a metropolitan city with the giant figure of what looked like a horse on the cover. The horse had a blueberry-colored coat, which was covered almost entirely by a purple latex suit with black leggings. The horse’s mane and tail were a bright green, which looked to be flaying about as if her hair were like tentacles. On the top of the cover read the title: Power Ponies.
Jesse, still unsure just what he was looking at, examined the book in detail; flipping briskly through the pages, examining the back and front covers. He still couldn’t tell what he had just gotten, but it looked like the dumbest looking comic he’d ever seen. Minus the fact that it’s colorful equine characters (and a dragon sidekick), screamed “for prepubescent girls,” the artwork itself looked unbearably cheesy, as well as the dialogue that he managed to catch through his flipping.
But hell if he couldn’t have a laugh at it.
“Well,” sighed Jesse, reaching for his burger, “I know where my evening’s starting tonight.”
Jesse flipped the comic over and turned to the first page, biting off a hefty chunk of his sandwich, ketchup and mayonnaise caking the corners of his mouth. On the opening panels, a pink colored pony with a long blue mane and tail fell off a catwalk into a vat of chemicals, promptly emerging as the horse on the cover of the book.
“Yeah,” chided Jesse through his mouthful, “totally not a ripoff of the Joker or anything.”
Jesse placed his burger down and flipped the book upside down, getting off the bed and walking to the mini-fridge beside the TV. Opening it up, he pulled out a can of beer, popped it open with one hand and sipped the head that began to seep out. Plopping back to the bed, Jesse flipped the book back over and resumed his night of enjoyment.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Jesse was nearing the final pages, and he had a slight smile on his face. As he ate more burger and fries and finished another beer, tossing the empty can at two others scattered on the floor, his comments began getting more belligerent and hateful.
“God damn,” he slurred, wiping ketchup from his mouth with his sleeve, “if this is what gets printed today, I just might become the next… Stan Lee, or something.”
Flipping the page over, he faced the front of the back cover on the left, only having a few panels left. The final panel featured the Power Ponies, all six of them, he couldn’t even be bothered to remember their names, all gathered at the top of a building across the street from a museum.
“A th– A th– A th– A th– a that’s all, bitch!” Jesse gurgled in the best Porky Pig impression his drunken stupor could muster.
Flipping the book up, hoping to remove it from his sight, it landed right back at the front of the back cover, the rest of the book folded under it. Jesse reached for the comic once again to swat it away, only to be caught by a small line of text at the lower right-hand corner.
“Oh,” he exclaimed. “I wonder if I won a prize, or some shit.”
Pressing the page close to his face, he finally could make out the words written out.
“Take a closer look,” he recited, “to join the adventure in this book.”
Jesse looked over the words once again, almost as if trying to decode some intricate meaning from them. Finally…
“Nope!” he shouted, flicking his wrist and sending the comic towards the TV. “Not happening!”
The book hit the screen of the television, clattering to the floor and open to the last page and back cover.
“Now,” wondered Jesse, “what else was there? X-Men?”
At that moment, a tremendous light zapped out from the book, a bright, sparking orb floating just above the pages. Immediately, the noise and sight shot Jesse up from his bed, crawling closer to the bottom edge to see what was happening. Seeing the orb for himself, he nearly jumped backwards in fright.
“Whoa!” he shouted loudly. “What the fuck is going on?”
As he tried to crawl to the back of the bed, he felt an odd force pull him back to the front and towards the orb.
“What?” Jesse screamed in anguish as he struggled to get back. “No! What’s happening?! Help! Somebody!”
Jesse tried to leap up again to pull away, only for his flailing legs to spin his body slightly and bounce on the bed, causing his legs to fall off the edge and dangle inside the portal of the comic. Jesse grabbed the sheets of the bed in vain, pulling them and the remains of his dinner with him as he fell into the book, disappearing in the light.
Jesse screams were silenced as the portal closed, the comic disappearing with it. The sheets of the bed flew from the bed from Jesse’s pull, knocking fries and his nearly finished burger off, otherwise, leaving no trace of Jesse behind.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Inside the ruins of a large castle library, wooden shelves filled every space of the massive room, minus the aisles that one could walk through. A bright ball of light appeared in one of the aisles, spreading beams of light and zapping sounds all around.
Still screaming in fear, Jesse was hurled out of the portal and into one of the shelves, knocking several books off the higher levels. One book struck Jesse in the gut as about a dozen more began to rain on top of him, forcing him to cover the back of his head for protection. Not long after the last one fell, Jesse shot back up, standing on his feet and looking around him.
“What the fuck?” Jesse wheezed. “Where the fuck…?”
Seeing the mass of shelves around him, he looked down the length of the room to see a large stone window with no glass to see, one of its pillars broken away, bringing in a cool, evening breeze as the sun began to set. Jesse, finding the place uncomfortably alien, backed up down the aisle, wobbling at the knees.
“Yo…” Jesse shuddered, feeling sick and afraid. “This isn’t cool…”
The back of his heel tripped over a book, sending him toppling over to his back. Jesse woozily got up, looking at the pile of books that had gathered where he appeared. Spinning to his knees, Jesse crawled to the pile books, shoving them off to the sides and grunting angrily as he searched for the Power Ponies comic.
“Where are you?” he shouted. “Where the fuck are you?!”
As he crawled around the aisle, searching underneath every book, violently tossing them away once he was finished with them. However, the floor revealed no trace of the book. As Jesse continued crawling around on the floor, searching in vain for the comic book, his body began to give in to depression as he collapsed to his side, weeping like a baby with his hands in his wet face.
Jesse Pinkman was far from home, farther from home that he never thought he could be. He was afraid, he was lost.
Above all, he was alone.
Chapter 2: Yellowed Pages
Jesse sorely woke up, his eyes still greeted to the library where he had found himself the night before. His eyes were burning and red, which was only made worse by the bright sun shining directly into his eyes. Jesse attempted to stand up, only for his head to feel heavy and racked with pain.
Jesse knew that it couldn’t have been from the beer he drank the night previous; it was cheap beer that was meant to quench his thirst, and he had drunken larger quantities of stronger brews in the past. It certainly didn’t help that he was transported to God only knows where. The pain his head felt coupled with the stress he was feeling was began to horribly affect his stomach.
Crawling to the wall of the library, he emptied the contents of his stomach onto the floor. Jesse wept a little bit as he gagged more gobs of saliva and puke from his throat. It seemed that even a simple cheeseburger proved to be too rich after a diet of cheap pork and beans and the occasional pint of Ben and Jerry’s after a successful cook.
Many hours had to have past, being that it was already morning, and Jesse would need some breakfast soon. That would mean having to explore the building he now found himself in… as well as the numerous unknowns that lied within.
With a final, enraged spit, Jesse stumbled to his feet, using the wall for balance. Jesse began to wobble his legs towards the large broken window, seeing the area around him to find any signs of civilization. Upon reaching there, his heartbreak and anguish returned as he saw nothing but a large expanse of a foreign jungle-like forest.
With no means or strength to defend himself, Jesse decided to walk throughout the building, deciding that the inside would at least be safer than out there.
Jesse first came across a spiraling staircase leading downwards. It didn’t really matter to Jesse where the staircase led. If it for some reason resulted in his death, it didn’t seem to affect him; for all extents and purposes, he already was dead.
“This is insane,” he muttered to himself.
Leaning against the guardrail-less wall, Jesse slowly stepped down one foot at a time, careful to not falter, slip, or alert anyone or anything that would be lurking inside. As he reached the halfway point, he heard the sound of something walking through; loud clops as if it were horse’s hooves on cobblestone.
The noise alerted Jesse so well that his footing was lost as he tried to step back up the last stop, causing him to fall and roll down the next couple of steps. Jesse groaned as he tried to get himself up.
“What was that?” asked a young boy’s voice.
“I don’t know,” a young woman’s voice responded. “You stay here. I’ll go and check.”
Clearly hearing her objective and the sound of the clopping coming closer, Jesse felt a surge of adrenaline rush through his body as he shot up to his feet and sprinted up the stairs. As he reached the top step, he found the rows of bookshelves and promptly hid himself behind the first one. Coming up from the top step was a lavender alicorn pony with a purple mane and tail streaked with magenta, as well as a marking on both flanks showing a magenta six-pronged star.
“Hello?” the pony called out. “Is anyone there?”
Jesse listened to the sound of the woman’s voice, and she didn’t sound threatening in the slightest, and perhaps she could help him out. Regardless, he would probably be found soon enough in his spot anyways, and coming clean would make him appear less hostile.
“Yo!” Jesse called, feeling slight regret as he crossed the point of no return. “Lady, please…. I… I need help!”
The pony reeled back, appalled by the crass way in which he referred to her, but she could recognize a frightened voice when she heard it. Hearing the voice come from the bookshelves, the pony gently approached the source.
“Please, come out,” the pony called back. “I can help you in any way.”
Jesse, feeling an instant wave of trust come over him, stepped out from his hiding place and sticking his hands up for a more harmless approach.
“Listen,” he said, “this might sound whack, but…”
Jesse found himself face to face with the alicorn, both staring the other down with alienating shock. Both of them were dumbfounded by their appearances, but they were mostly astounded by how sentient they appeared to each other.
Jesse was frozen stiff, not wanting to do or say anything that would provoke the alien pony, but it was her who broke the silence, shouting in fear and making Jesse bolt down the aisle. The pony, realizing what she had done, chased after him.
“Wait!” she cried out. “I’m sorry! Please, come back!”
Turning a corner Jesse grabbed a pair of books from an adjacent shelf and spun halfway around, waiting for the pony to appear in his sights.
“Come on…” he quietly prepped himself. “Come on… come on…”
The instant the alicorn’s horn peered out from behind the wall, Jesse chucked a book at her, striking her squarely in the side of the head, making her yelp in both pain and shock as the aged pages shattered from the spine. Jesse tossed the next book, but before it could hit her again, the book stopped inches from her face, a sparkling purple aura coating both the pony’s horn and her book.
Seeing the now angered face of the pony with the second tome and the now-ruined first one in what appeared to be a magical grasp, Jesse collapsed to the floor, his legs only serving to flop around like dismembered tentacles from a helpless octopus.
“No!” he cried, using his hands to pull him down the aisle as the pony came even closer. “Shoo! Get! Oh, god!”
“What is wrong with you?” she shouted, pushing the tattered book in his face. “Do you have any idea how old this book you destroyed is?”
Somehow regaining function of all his limbs, Jesse tried to shoot to his feet and sprint off, only for his body not to be moving forwards, but up. Suddenly, his vision became purple and hazy, and he instantly realized why.
“No!” he shrieked. “Let me go! Don’t kill me!”
“Kill you?” the alicorn asked, turning him to have him face her. “Why would I–”
“Twilight,” cried the boy’s voice. “Are you okay?”
“Spike!” shouted the alicorn Twilight in concern.
The boy, Spike, appeared, only for Jesse to stare wide eyed at him once he saw that he was a small, bipedal purple dragon with a green underbelly.
“Holy shit!” he sputtered. “Is that a fucking dragon?”
“Twilight!” exclaimed Spike, recoiling in fear at the sight of Jesse. “What is that thing?”
“I told you to stay!” scolded Twilight.
“I’m sorry, Twilight. I just heard something hit you, because I heard you shouting, and then–”
“Never mind. Whatever it is…”
Twilight studied the strange creature’s face once again, noting his quivering lip and his eyes as they streamed tears like cascades.
“…he’s certainly looks more frightened than he does dangerous.”
“Listen,” panted Jesse, the feeling of weightlessness in Twilight’s magical grasp increasing his anxiety. “please… don’t hurt me! I promise I won’t hurt you. Just please… let me live.”
Twilight set Jesse softly onto the ground, his adrenaline rendering his arms as wobbling ends.
“I have no intention to harm you…”
Jesse looked oddly at the winged alicorn, unsure of her pause.
“What is your name, creature?” she asked.
“My…” he stammered. “My name?”
“Yes. You do have one, don’t you?”
Jesse continued to look at Twilight as if she had been speaking a completely foreign language.
“Listen,” assured Twilight. “You have no reason to be scared.”
“No reason to be scared?” Jesse giggled insanely. “Bitch, I just got sucked into this place through some fuckin’… wormhole or whatever and now I’m talking with… a god-damned unicorn!”
Twilight shifted herself back, threatened by Jesse’s words.
“I’m not sure what a… bitch is,” she said, “but I’d appreciate if you didn’t call me that. Secondly, have you never seen a unicorn before?”
“N– No!” he exclaimed. “Those things are fairy tales where I come from.”
“Speaking of, where do you come from?”
Jesse looked about him, hoping to find the proper things to say on the floor or the spines of the books on the shelves. Twilight, still seeing his evident mistrust and fear, slowly approached him.
“It’s okay,” she cooed, reaching for his leg. “You can trust me. I promise I won’t harm you.”
Twilight’s hoof grazed Jesse’s jeans, and by instinct, Jesse reeled his foot back and kicked out, forcing Twilight to jump backwards.
“Hey!” she scolded. “That wasn’t nice!”
“Well,” reasoned Jesse vehemently, “didn’t anyone ever teach you to not pet wild animals?”
“With all due respect,” she spoke, still winded from Jesse’s attempted attack, “you don’t look all that wild to me. Your clothes for the most part look clean and untorn. Minus your bedhead, you look well-groomed. Please, sir, I just want to help you by understanding just what you are.”
“Well, I don’t want any help, so why don’t you take your… dragon and just leave me alone!”
Twilight kept her spot, continuing to look deep into Jesse’s tough façade.
“I said go!” he shouted, hopping to his feet to put himself taller, only by half a foot or so.
“Come on, Twilight,” Spike responded as he shied away. “I think he means business.”
“And what will you do?” asked Twilight to Jesse, ignoring Spike. “It’s clear you’re far from your home, your family, and your friends. Where will you go from here?”
Jesse stepped forward and opened his mouth to speak, only for the words of the winged unicorn to block his own.
“I’m willing to help you,” cooed Twilight. “I’ll help get you back home. I’ll let you stay with me while I try. I just want two things from you.”
Jesse stared at Twilight, her words still ringing like a siren in his ears. Reflecting on his nonexistent home, the family that no longer cared for him, the friends he lost and abandoned, and his feelings of isolation he felt in this strange new world, he backed himself away, stumbling as he tried to maintain his composure.
“Hello?” Twilight asked him, unsure of his actions.
Falling down on his rump, Jesse pressed his palms into his eyes and let out several sobs, the pain he felt only matched by his inability to repress it to this strange creature approaching him.
“You…” Twilight slowly reasoned, “don’t have a home… or a family… or… friends, do you?”
Jesse continued crying, feeling the dark pits of his life surrounding him again. Twilight stepped towards him again, making Spike’s face freeze with shock and fear.
“Twilight?” he questioned. “What are you doing? Get away from that thing!”
“He’s not just a thing, Spike…” she responded, reaching for his leg again
Spike recoiled from the seemingly inevitable as Twilight rubbed his leg once again. This time, however, Jesse’s leg was lax and tired, unable to fight any longer. Jesse’s sobs seemed to cease as Jesse rest his eyes on his arm.
“…he’s just a frightened creature in need of help.”
“Well,” chuckled Spike nervously, “he said he doesn’t want our help, so I think we should go before he eats–”
“Jesse,” he moaned. “My name is Jesse…”
Twilight finally hearing some progress from the man, let out the slightest of smiles as she felt Jesse opening up to her.
“Alright, Jesse,” she continued. “Can you please tell me where you’re from and how you got here?”
Jesse looked up to Twilight with a slightly baffled expression, as if there was far too much to tell her with no way to condense it or make it sound plausible.
“Just tell me what you can,” she whispered. “At this rate, I’ll believe anything you tell me.”
Jesse nodded, constructing his words in his mind.
“I…” he began. “I come from a place called Earth… I… was reading this comic book of these superhero ponies that somehow got into my bag.”
“In your bag?” she questioned.
“I went to buy some comic books to read, and this one just happened to show up with the others. I read it, and then…”
Jesse made a popping sound with his lips that quickly changed to him blowing through this top set of teeth on his bottom lip.
“…here I am.”
“Superhero ponies?” Spike questioned, standing beside Twilight as he suddenly began to realize something. “Was there a little line on the last page of it?”
“Y… yeah,” Jesse said, kneeling down to look the dragon in the eye.
“Did it say, ‘Take a closer look…’”
“‘…to join the adventure in this book,” both of them said at the same time.
Jesse, floored by this coincidence, fell back into a seated position.
“Oh, wow!” he gasped. “This little guy knows what I’m talking about.”
“I’m afraid I do too, actually,” Twilight said with a rolling of her eyes.
“Huh? What do you–”
“When Spike read that line, he, as well as my friends and I, were sucked into the book and made to play out the rest of the story in the comic. When we got out… the book disappeared.”
Jesse kept his eyes on Twilight as the last piece of the puzzle was put into place.
“So… that book came all the way to my world?”
“I suppose it did. You wouldn’t happen to know where it is now, do you?”
“No. It up and disappeared again when I got up.”
“I see… And that’s all you remember?”
“Except for wandering inside here after I woke up and coming across you, yeah.”
Twilight stepped up closer to Jesse so that she stood beside his left arm.
“Look, Jesse,” she consoled, her hoof now on his shoulder. “I know this might be asking a lot of you considering what you’ve been through…”
“Lady,” huffed Jesse grimly. “You don’t know any of it.”
“Any of what?”
“What my life was like back where I was from. You say you don’t even know what ‘bitch’ means. If that’s true, you would think I was a monster after you knew what I’ve done on my home world.”
Twilight, suddenly off put by Jesse’s odd wording, stepped away from him, Jesse’s icy glare telling her to keep her distance.
“What were you going to ask me, huh?” continued Jesse. “If I wanted to stay at your place? That I could chill at your pad until I can stand on my own two feet again and start a new life in your magic fantasy land and live happily ever after?”
Twilight looked genuinely hurt at Jesse’s words, Jesse trying to hold back his smile as his defense seemed to be working.
“I’m not going to lie,” he admitted. “All things considered, leaving my world is probably one of the best things to happen to me in two years, leaving all that bullshit behind. But like hell I’m going to bring it to this one. If you’re smart, you’re going to leave this castle, and you’re never going to see me again so I can live and die alone like I’m meant to.”
Twilight looked deep into Jesse’s eyes, suddenly noticing a nervous blinking. Her face turned serious as Jesse gasped, his bluff being caught.
“I can’t let that happen,” she said. “I think Equestria could learn a lot from a creature like you.”
“Equestrian?” Jesse queried.
“Equestria.” Twilight corrected sternly. “You know, this ‘magical fantasy world’ you’re now in.”
“Look, lady…”
“My name is Twilight!”
“Okay,” he admitted, “Twilight, whatever, the only thing your world can learn from someone like me is exactly what not to be in life, okay?”
“I understand that you had a rough life, Jesse, but so have many others I’ve met and who have changed for the better.”
“Oh, yeah?” challenged Jesse, as if insulted by this suggestion. “Have they ever been forced to watch the ones they loved be killed right in front of them? Have they even had to kill others just to survive themselves?”
Twilight’s eyes started going wide, haunted by what this creature was suggesting.
“Twilight,” whined Spike, “I think we should leave before he does something bad.”
“Yeah,” agreed Jesse, keeping his eyes on the alicorn. “You should listen to him. It will do you and whoever you know a lot of good.”
“And what good will it do you?” asked Twilight. “That I just leave someone out here to die alone in the middle of the Everfree Forest? Please, Jesse. I truly believe that whatever it is that’s troubling you, I… no, my friends and I can help you.”
Jesse, stunned by Twilight’s insistence, slowly began to turn his tired exasperation into desperate rage.
“What are you, my mom?” he yelled, the tone of the term he bestowed her like a bitter poison on his tongue. “We’ve only been talking for a couple of minutes. Why do you care so much about me?”
“Because someone should!” Twilight yelled back. “And if you care so little about me, why do you trust me enough to tell me your name?”
Jesse wanted to answer, but found his words caught in his throat, unable to answer truthfully. Twilight nodded to herself in slight triumph as she watched Jesse slump back down in a submissive sit.
“I think you do want to come with me,” Twilight cooed, “because deep down, I know you don’t want to die.”
“No, I don’t!” Jesse relented. “But I’ve messed up every life I’ve been a part of, and I can’t let that happen here.”
“I can assure you, whatever life you led wherever you came from will be far different here. Just give me a chance, and if you still don’t like it, I’ll let you free to do whatever you want.”
“And you promise that?”
“On my life,” she said, reaching her hoof forward.
Jesse stared at Twilight’s hoof, knowing exactly what he had to do. Spike looked between the two, nervous about the fate of the strange creature before him. Jesse peered to the uptight Spike, easily seeing his reluctance on the entire matter. Jesse reached his arms to put his hands on his knees, leaning back and exhaling, finally having made the decision he knew he wanted to make.
