"All children need hugs! That's why they made us." The stuffed Pink pony bounced on the shelf as she talked. "They can squeeze us and scrunch us next to them." The Pinky Pie plush wrapped her hoofs around her self in a mock hug, twisting and contorting her self in unnatural ways.
The purple stuffed pony just looked on as the borderline insane one danced and twirled on the shelf. "Pinkie Pie, honestly." She complained.
Pinkie stopped bouncing and smiled to her stuffed friend. "Sorry, Twilight. I'm just so excited. I know today is the day we're all going home!"
All around the store, the patrons walked, oblivious to the secret lives of the toys in front of them.
"Oh, mommy! I want a Pinkie Pie plushy!" A small little girl tried to pull her mother toward the toy shelf. Pinkie Pie shook with excitement, "This is it!" She cried.
Twilight just watched the spectacle unfold in front of her. Shaking her head ever so lightly, but smiling all the same.
"Not now honey. I told you I'd buy you something for your birthday next week." The mother tried to smile, but in truth she was slightly annoyed and in a rush.
"Aww... but mom..." The Child continued to bemoan her mother's unwillingness to give in.
On the shelf the Pinkie Pie plushy sunk and sulked at her missed chance to go to a good home.
Twilight tapped her on her shoulder before giving her a hug. "Oh don't worry Pinkie, your kid will come soon."
In truth, no matter how much she may have tried to deny it, Twilight too secretly wish to go home to kind little girl, or even boy. 'All children need something to hug and have something to hug them back.' She reminded herself.
"Oh boy would you look at that." The Apple Jack plushy next to Twilight spoke up. Usually she was quite quite and reserved. Both Twilight and Pinkie followed her plushy hoof as she pointed to a young man walking in the store. The man wasn't very old nor was he young. He was a slightly over weight, yet relatively ordinary man around the age of 30 or so. His hair line was receding, and there was evidence of early on set wrinkles, and greying hair.
His backpack is what most worried the trio though. It was adorned with My Little Pony stickers and patches.
The man spotted the three on the shelf and smiled very gently. He approached them his eyes looking around the store to make sure no one was staring at him. He missed the few people who were.
His smile grew as he came with in arms distance of the three. "Wow, you three are perfect." He said to no one in particular.
Pinkie, and AJ were frozen with fear. They remembered the last time an older man came into the store to look at them. He was unwashed, and unkempt. The smell alone would have been enough to make them vomit had they the stomach to do so. The grimy man had picked up the pristine white unicorn plushy and mumbled some rather raunchy words before taking her to the counter to buy her. Pinkie and AJ never saw their rarity friend after that, though they had hoped the man had a child to give her to. In their hearts they both knew that wasn’t the case.
Twilight, thankfully wasn't there for that. In fact she was unboxed, only after Rarity had been sold.
This new man wasn't quite as scary as the unwashed horror from before. Still, there was something off about him.
Pinkie's Heart would have stop had it been beating. The man picked her up and looked her over a few times. "You guys are perfect." he whispered to himself, before looking at the price tag. His smile waned. "I can't afford all of you." He put the plushy back on the shelf.
A collective sigh of relief came over the three, but their relief lasted only a moment. The man stroked and patted the side of the Twilight plushy. "You were always my favorite one." A slight tear formed in his eye. "To hell with money." He said as he grabbed the toy from the shelf.
Pinkie and Apple Jack looked at each other in fear. "W-well, maybe he has a kid at home?" AJ spoke. "Y-yeah. Maybe..." Pinkie trailed off.
Twilight was frozen in terror as the man walked her to the counter for check out. 'oh dear, oh dear. No, no, no this isn't good.' She thought.
The man placed the plushy on the check out counter and waited for the girl at the register to acknowledge him. She huffed after looking him over. "Let me guess, for your girlfriend right?" She snarked as she rung up the doll.
"H-how could you tell?" He stammered, his face becoming flush with embarrassment and fear.
"Tch. At least you anit as smelly as the last guy who bought one."
The man emptied his wallet of cash and watched it disappear into the metal drawer. "Thank you for shopping at toymax, please come again."
The man hid the Twilight plushy in his bag, failing to close it all the way as he did so. Twilight stuck her head out to watch in horror as her shelf friends waved good bye. A glimmer of fear in their eyes. She was also able to see the cashier and her friend point and giggle under their breath at the man.
Twilight couldn't help but be terrified at the prospects of going home with this man. She tried to remain positive and upbeat. 'Maybe he has a niece, maybe I'm a donation to a hospital...' but no matter what she tried to tell her self she didn't believe.
"Don't worry Twilight. You'll only be in my bag while I'm at work. Once we get home I can put you on my shelf." She cocked her head as the man mumbled to her. He had no idea she was actually listening to him. He had no idea he could. "I've got tons of books you can read. Lots of history and math texts. I..." The man shook his head as he realized how loud he was being. People were starring at him.
The two walked into a coffee shop, Twilight continued to peak out of his bag. Everyone in the shop went about their business. A few stared at him for a moment. One or two could be seen grimacing but for the most part they left him alone.
"Next in line." The female barista called to the man. "Oh, morning Jerid. The usual? Cafe latte?" Jerid reached into his back pocket and gave a subtle awkward smile. "How about just a small ice coffee today?" He pulled out two crumpled dollar bills and paid the cashier.
While waiting for his coffee Jerid worked up the courage to talk to barista . "Hey Melinda." The barista who just rolled her eyes and ignored him. "I-I was thinking, I know you told me you like anime and that new..."
She stopped him. "Look, Jerid, you're a nice guy and all, but I told you I'm not interested in hanging out with you. I'm sorry, but..." She went back to cleaning, ignoring Jerid's humiliation.
'That was kind of mean.' Twilight thought to her self. 'But maybe there's a reason she doesn't like him.' She continued.
“Oh... ok. I just.” He choose to just stop talking and embarrassing himself.
Jerid picked up his coffee and the two left the coffee house, Twilight watching all along.
Jerid worked in a medium sized office building not far from the west bank dock. It was a rather nice office complex, and Jerid actually held a decent position of Associate Finance Coordinator. Which was a fancy title for an accountant.
On his way into the office Jerid over heard some of his coworkers talking about celebrating Henry's birthday. The word laser tag was thrown around along with inviting the whole office. Most of the conversation was coming from Alvin's cube.
"Aww sweet! You guys are all going to play laser tag tonight?" Henry winced as Jerid overheard their conversation.
"Uh, well we were just thinking about. No real plans." Henry did his best to back peddle the conversation. Hopping he could convince Jerid that there was nothing to go to.
"Oh. Well I understand. I love to go if you guys could fit one more person?"
Alvin took the opportunity to jump and say something, "Actually Jerid, most of us have a lot of paper work to get done tonight. I'm willing to bet that most people won't be able to go.' Alvin and Henry both saw Jerid's face scrunch up a bit at the news. Neither of them wanted to be mean to Jerid but. "Of course you can come Jerid." Henry broke down first.
The smile on his face beamed. "Cool thanks guys. I'll see you around 5 then." With that Jerid walked back toward his own cube. The two spoke in frantic whispered Jerid was unable to hear what they were saying.
Twilight kept her head poked out of the bag and was able to hear part of the conversation that Jerid didn't hear.
"Look I don't want him at my party any more then you do. I'll talk with Mark and see if maybe he can't do something." She didn't quite know what to make of it. Clearly they didn't want him at the party.
The rest of the day went well for Jerid. He had finished his spreed sheets in near record time, and was even making headway on stuff for next week. The thought of actually having something to do for a change was a real motivator.
He wasn't expecting to see his manager Mark come by.
Mark placed a small stack of papers on Jerid's desk. Jerid looked at them with a bemused expression. "Hey Jerid, I need someone to finish these reports by tomorrow. Think I can count on you?" Jerid looked at he wall clock, "But mark, it's almost 5. I was really hoping to go out with everyone tonight for laser tag."
Mark looked at the clock and back to the paper work. "Well you know how this job is. if you want to be sure of time off you need to let me know in advanced. Now I need this paper work done, and I'm going to be too busy to do it."
Jerid looked at the small stack and did some quick math in his head. "Well, I guess I could get started on it. If I make good headway, I might be able to catch up with everyone later."
"That's the spirit!" and with that Mark walked off. Jerid picked up the top page and sighed.
Twilight could only look on with a bemused expression. This didn't seem fair to Jerid. At the very least everyone could have just been honest with him. For a brief moment, she forgot that Jerid was a man. All she could see was someone who needed a friend.
Jerid worked on the sheets for a few moments, eventually the clock on his system chimed that it was 5PM. He figured it would be best to tell everyone that he wasn't going to be going to lasertag. As he walked toward the parking garage where everyone was gathering. He could over hear them talking and stopped in his tracks when his name came up.
Jerid stood in the parking garage listening to their conversations. "I can't believe Jerid would just invite himself along like that. I mean the guy is a total creep."
"So who are we waiting for?"
"Oh, Mark said he was going to come tonight."
"Really? That work horse? Mark never comes out."
"Nah but he dropped all his paper work on Jerid. Should keep him at his desk till late tonight, and frees up Mark to come along."
"So two birds with one stone. Cool."
Jerid lowered his head and walked back to the office complex, passing Mark as he did so.
Mark saw Jerid slouch as he walked back into the building. He rolled his eyes and bit his tongue at what he was about to say. "Jerid, are you ok?"
It was the first kind thing anyone said to him today. He turned around, and for a moment, just a moment. Jerid felt like someone cared about him.
"Hey Mark hurry up or we'll leave your ass!" Henry yelled from deep in side the garage.
Jerid forced himself to smile. "Yeah, I'm fine Mark. Just being a creep." He tuned and walked into the building.
"Mark come on already!" Mark turned around and walked toward the group. A small part of his mind was eating at him but he ignored it. 'Jerid will be fine.' He reminded himself.
He reached down to his bag and pulled the stuffed animal out. Twilight went rag doll limp as he did so. "Well Twilight, it looks like it's just you and me here for a while."
Twilight sat on the edge of the desk and watched Jerid type his numbers on the screen. It seemed very labored and difficult for him. After a few hours he stopped and looked at the screen. "You know what, Twilight. Screw these guys. Lets go get food and head home." Jerid carefully placed Twilight into his backpack. Again, she tuck her head out to watch the world go by as he walked away from his cube an office.
Jerid lived fairly close to his office complex and the walk back was brisk and quick. He made it a point to pop into a local pizza shop to eat dinner. Two slices of the special. Ironically, it wasn't anything special but it filled him up. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealously as he saw couples walk by.
After dinner he made his final walk home.
Jerid opened the door to his small apartment. It was fairly spartan, a small couch, a computer desk with two displays, a decent sized book self filled with books, and a small bed pushed against a wall. In the very back of the apartment was a tiny kitchen with a stove, refrigerator and microwave. A door just to the side of the kitchen lead to the bathroom.
Jerid put down his backpack and smiled as he opened it. Twilight laid prone in the bottom of the bag. She felt his hands grab her and gently pull her out of his bag. "Welcome home Twilight." He spoke to her as he walked her around his apartment, pointing out the limited items in it.
A part of Twilight thought it was cute, if a bit creepy. Jerid seemed like a decent enough guy over all, just really lonely.
"And this is my book shelf. Not as many books as you might like, but i think there are some..." He trailed off while talking to her.
"Listen to me babbling on to a stuffed animal. You can't hear me. and even if you could you..." His eyes burned slightly as some saline moisture began to coat them.
"Let watch a quick show before going to bed."
The cartoon show started to play on his monitor. "My little pony! I used to wonder what friendship could be." The lyrics started to play, and Jerid hug Twilight closer to his chest. "You know Twilight, one day I will have friends like that. People who wont just abandon me and leave me alone. Maybe one day I'll even be able to find someone like you." He whispered to himself.
Twilight could feel her heart starting to break. Sure Jerid was a bit odd, but he didn't deserve to be alone. No one did.
Jerid yawned as the episode ended. Off in the distance, he could hear his next door neighbor enjoying his female company. A small and jealous frown came over him as he shook it off. It wasn't right for him to be jealous and he knew that. He was alone, because of his own mistakes. He mentally berated himself for his social failings he climbed into bed with his stuffed animal.
Again, for just a moment Twilight was worried that Jerid might do something obscene with her. Instead though, all he did was hug her. "What's wrong with me?" She could hear him sniffle and start to cry, You know Twilight all my life I've been alone. All I..." He took a moment to breath. "All I ever wanted was a friend."
Jerid laid in bed hugging the purple pony close to his chest. A few more tears and sobs were emitted as he cried him self slowly to sleep. Twilight thought back to what Pinkie Pie said, "All children need to be hugged once in a while." She thought about before, correcting her "Everyone needs to be hugged once in a while." She whispered to herself. She slowly spread her hoofs apart and accepted his embrace.
For a moment, she could hear his sniffle subside, as a small and brief smile crossed his lips.
Everyone needs a hug once in a while.
Author's Note
IDK, just something I thought up. It's FiM related, but obviously doesn't take place in their world. Let me know what you think.