A Gentleman in Equestria

Chapter 4: Nightmares, coffee and bullies

“AAAHHH!” Vinyl screamed. I woke with a start, reacting to her screams of terror. Sitting up, I saw her sitting on the other side of the pillow partition we had set up the night before, breathing heavily and crying. She'd obviously had a nightmare.

  “Hey, hey, calm down.” I told her in a reassuring tone. I put one of my forelegs around her shoulder, and pulled her close. “Have a bad dream?” I asked. She nodded, still crying. “Well, don’t worry. I’m here. You’re safe.”

    I held her close for a while, letting her calm down. She rested her head on my chest and shoulder, dampening my fur with her tears. I didn’t mind, I was helping out a friend, making her feel safe and secure, and that’s all that mattered. She was genuinely upset, and that was something I did not want to see.

    After a few minutes, Vinyl stopped her sobs long enough to say something.

  “Arch,” she said, “I’m scared.” That must have been one hell of a nightmare; she was still shaking, and there was a tremble in her normally confident voice.

  "Hey now, don't be scared." I told her, "It was just in your head, everything's fine."

    After a few minutes of reassuring Vinyl that everything was going to be fine, she decided that she was calm enough to go to sleep.

  "Vinyl," I told her, "if anything else happens in the night, wake me up. I'm here for you." She nodded to show she understood.

    I looked at the pillow partition we had set up before we fell asleep the first time. It didn't seem to help the situation, setting up a physical and metaphorical barrier between Vinyl and me. I removed it, allowing Vinyl to get closer, staying warm and safe.

  "Good night Vinyl." I said, settling down for the second time that night.

  "Good night Arch." she replied, sounding tired.

  "Sweet dreams." I said, as we both drifted off to sleep.

Fortunately, there were no more interruptions that night and, the next time I woke up, it was morning.

    I slowly opened my eyes, letting my pupils adjust to the difference in light level. My mind started itself up, preparing to be used. Memories of last night came flooding back to me; Vinyl waking from a nightmare, me trying to be a good friend and help her calm down, and removing the pillow partition.

    My mind swiftly moved onto bringing feeling to my body. I felt a hoof draped over me and something at my back. I turned in bed slightly, trying to get a look of the something. I caught a glimpse of white and immediately realised what, or should I say who, it was: Vinyl. She was cuddling me in her sleep, dozing softly, holding me. Her muzzle was pressed against my back, and I could feel her slow, warm breath on me.

    It surprised me, waking up to this kind of affection. Unexpectedly, it felt good, a warm sensation that I quite liked. But, I knew that I couldn’t continue this. Vinyl and I were just friends, right? I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea: that I welcomed this kind of thing. I knew that, as much as I liked the feeling, I couldn’t stay in this position. I slowly and carefully lifted Vinyl’s hoof and placed it down on the mattress in front of her. Now free, I slowly moved myself into a seated position, my hooves dangling off the edge of the bed.

    Sadly, in all my efforts not to wake Vinyl, I was a little too heavy-hoofed, and she was soon rising from her slumber.

  “Good morning.” I said to her. She didn’t reply, seeming too tired to talk. 'I guess she isn't much of a morning pony,' I thought. Really, though, neither was I, yet I felt rejuvenated after the night’s sleep. I guess it helped that I had more than 5 hours sleep. Finally, Vinyl found the energy to muster up a couple of words.

  "Good morning." She practically sighed when saying it. 'She definitely isn't a morning pony.' I thought. Then, I had a brilliant idea.

  "Do you want any coffee?" I asked her. Coffee solves everything. Okay, maybe not everything, but nearly everything.

  "Kitchen." was all Vinyl had to say. Without further cue, I opened the bedroom door and moved across the living room to the kitchen. As Vinyl had said, the coffee was there, sitting atop the counter. I found two mugs in a cupboard, and soon, there were two cups of steaming coffee on the kitchen counter. I left one where it was, and took the other to Vinyl.

    When I reached the bedroom, coffee in hoof, Vinyl was seated at the edge of the bed rubbing her eyes.

  "Here," I said, holding out the cup for her to take. She levitated it out of my hand using her magic (damn, I wish I could do that), and took a large gulp of the hot beverage. She seemed to become less exhausted, but needed a lot more caffeine to become fully awake. I left her drinking her coffee, and went to the kitchen to drink mine.

After 15 minutes, I had finished my coffee and felt wide awake. I was setting down the mug on the counter when Vinyl appeared from the bedroom.

  "That was great!" she said, a lot more upbeat than she was before. She trotted over and put her mug on the counter. "Thanks for making it." she said, "it's usually an hour before I'm this wide awake."

  "No problem!" I replied, "It’s the least I can do for the generosity you've shown me."

  "Hey, I'm repaying you, remember?" Vinyl told me, "It's my fault you don't have a room of your own yet! Stop doing things for me, it's making it harder to repay you." I didn't respond, not wanting to get into this argument again. Instead, I changed the subject.

  "Hey, didn't you say you had music practice this morning?"

  "I do? Oh yeah, I do!" Vinyl looked at the clock hanging on the wall. "And it's in ten minutes!"

  "I suggest you go then," I told her, "I'll take a walk through the halls, explore."

  "If you don't get lost, I'm fine with that." Vinyl said as she put on her glasses, "See you later!" And with that, she opened the door and left.

    I looked at the clock. 'Brian,' I thought, 'do you know what time it is?' The clock read 8:06am, but that's not the time I had in mind. 'Adventure time!'

I had been wandering the corridors for around 10 minutes when I had found the cafeteria. It was a medium sized place. Tables were dotted around, surrounded by chairs. A few ponies were sat around some of the tables; a few others were at a counter, buying breakfast.

  "Arch!" came a voice, "over here!" I looked over in the general direction of the voice, and saw the excitable grey mare from yesterday: Derpy. I trotted over to her table, she was sat there alone.

  "Hi Derpy!" I said, happy to have someone I knew in this vast sea of strangers, "How are you?"

  "I'm good," she replied, "but I'm a little tired from my mail route this morning." 'Of course,' I thought, 'she must have to get up early to deliver mail.'

    Just as I opened my mouth to question Derpy on her mail route, a call came from across the cafeteria that caught my attention.

  "Lesbos!" a voice jeered. I turned in my seat to find the origin of the insult, and saw a few earth ponies calling more insults.

  "Carpet munchers!"

  "Muff divers!"

    They were three stallions, all well built. Two were dark brown, one larger than the other, and the other was a dark orange. All three were hurling insults. I followed their line of sight, to see who their targets were, and saw they were looking at Lyra and Bonbon. Both of the mares looked on the verge of crying, holding each other. I couldn't let this go on, I hated the whole situation. I got up from my seat, and yelled at the bullies.

  "HEY!" I shouted, drawing everypony's attention to me. "Leave them alone!" I demanded. The orange pony laughed.

  "And why should we do that?" he replied, sneering.

  "Because if you don't," I said, "I'll have to stop you." Everypony apart from the bullies gasped.

  "Arch, are you sure you want to do this?" Derpy whispered.

  "Hell yes," I replied, "nopony should be insulted because of sexuality." I turned back to the bullies. "So," I said, "are you going to stop?"

  "Like fuck we will." the larger of the dark brown ponies said. He charged at me. I stepped out of the way, narrowly avoiding him. He crashed into a few tables, sending him into a heap covered by chairs.

    Next, the other brown stallion came up to me. He sent a punch my way, which I dodged by bending down. I came back up quickly, landing a perfect uppercut on his chin. He stumbled back for a moment, dazed, and I advanced, sending an onslaught of punches his way. He was unable to dodge, and took the full force of the flurry of punches. Many hit his face, others his chest.

    He dropped to the floor, unable to fight. I was tiring, but there was now only one pony left to deal with. I looked up from the brown pony to where the orange pony was. He was still standing there, watching me with a smirk on his face. I fucking hated him, the way he could stand there smirking as I beat up his thugs, smirking after calling Lyra and Bonbon those names. I started walking towards him, ready to take him on, but after a few steps somepony grabbed me.

    I was restrained, put in a full-nelson by the pony that had crashed into the tables. If I in any way tried to move, I was held back, the pony keeping me in the same position.

  "Well, well, well." the orange pony said, coming towards me. "It seems our hero wasn't able to save the day." He punched me in the gut, winding me. "Or I'll have to stop you!" he mimicked. He punched me once again, knocking the air out of me for the second time. He leaned in, his mouth next to my ear. "Tell me hero," he whispered, "how did you think it would go? That we would give in?" He leaned out, and punched me a final time, knocking me to my knees. "We never give in." he said, slowly walking away.

    The pony restraining me dropped me, and I fell to the floor, out of breath. I was exhausted, I was breathing heavily. I was beat, unable to continue.

  "Hey, hero!" the orange pony said. I looked up, reacting to the sound. He was standing a few feet away, Bonbon in front of him, crying, restrained by the larger brown pony. I wanted to shout, to tell Bonbon to move, but I couldn't. I didn't have the energy in me.

    The orange pony drew back his hoof. I knew what was going to happen. I wanted to do something, to stop this from happening, but I was still on the floor, panting.

    Time seemed to slow down for the next few moments. The orange pony's hoof came down, aimed at Bonbon's cheek. A few moments later, the hoof made impact.

    Bonbon whimpered, a red mark now on her cheek. That was the last straw.

    I snapped. Something inside me flared up, like a surge of adrenaline, but a thousand times stronger. I no longer felt tired, instead I felt full of power, full of anger. The only thing I wanted was revenge.

    I stood up. The large brown pony, who was laughing at Bonbon, noticed me.

  "He's gettin' up." he said, (Captain Obvious saves the day!) "and he's a freak!" I disregarded his insult. He dropped Bonbon to the ground and charged at me once again.

    This time, I didn't dodge him, I was going to destroy him. A second before he hit me, I grabbed him and used his momentum to throw him to the ground. I kicked him in the head, knocking him unconscious.

    The other brown pony came at me. He threw a punch, which I dodged. I grabbed him by the shoulders and head butted him. He was unconscious before he hit the floor.

    Now the only enemy left was the orange pony. The bastard was going to pay for hitting a mare. I started walking towards him.

  "Back for more?" he asked, sneering. "Come on, hit me, freak."

    I hit him with an uppercut, bringing him up to his hind legs. I used the chance to punch him in the gut, taking the air from his lungs. I span around and bucked him. He fell to the floor.

    I bent down, and put a foreleg over his neck, allowing him enough air to barely stay alive. He struggled below me, trying to hit me any way he could, but to no avail. I leaned into him.

  "Listen to me, bitch." I said, threateningly, "You do not. Hit. Mares." I leaned out and punched him in the face. I heard a snap, and saw blood pouring out of his nostril. I did not stop there. I kept punching him, my rage filled every punch. I heard a voice from behind me say,

"He's going to kill him!" I kept hitting the orange pony, who soon blacked out from the lack of air.

  "WAKE UP MOTHERFUCKER!" I yelled in his face, "WAKE THE FUCK UP!" I drew back my right hoof, pouring every ounce of anger into it, making it my most powerful punch yet.

    But before I could deliver the deadly blow, I felt a sharp blow to my head, and blacked out.

The next time I woke, I found myself staring at a white ceiling.

  "He's awake!" a familiar voice said. I tried to move to find the source of the voice, but found myself restrained by something.

  "Ahh, good." a voice I placed to be Dose, replied. The nurse pony's head appeared above me. "Arch, can you hear me?" he asked.

  "Of course I can." I replied. "But can I ask why I'm tied to the bed?" Dose looked confused.

  "Don't tell me you have amnesia again!" he said, seeming annoyed, "Do you not remember what happened in the cafeteria?" 'Cafeteria, cafeteria...' I thought. Then, I remembered. Seeing Derpy, hearing the bullies’ insults, the fight, nearly killing the orange pony. Everything up until the blow to the head. I guess the restraints were for if I lost it again.

  "I remember." I said. I nearly killed him, what the hell was I thinking? "Can I get these things removed? I don't think I'm going to try and kill anyone here." I asked Dose. He nodded and released me, acknowledging that I wasn't dangerous now. I sat up, and looked around.

    My bed was surrounded by a white curtain. The only pony I could see was Dose, but I knew there was more due to multiple voices that were talking in the background.

  "Who knocked me out?" I asked, wanting to know who prevented me killing that bully.

  "Let me bring him in," Dose replied, before disappearing outside the curtain. A few moments later he returned with another pony. "Here." he said, then he left, leaving us alone.

  "So, you knocked me out." I said to the pony. He was a pegasus, red in colour and quite tall, taller than Dose. On top of his wings were dark gold metallic-looking trimmings. His mane was black and red, and styled the same as Vinyl's, his tail was also red and black. His eyes were a light purple. Strangely, he had no cutie mark.

  "Well, you were about to kill the guy." he replied.

  "Fair point." I said. "So, what's your name?" I asked.

  "Thunder Bass," he responded, "yours?"

  "Archimedes Micro," I told him, "Arch for short."

  “Good to meet you.” Thunder Bass replied.

A/N: This one was a bitch. But here you go, a very long Chapter 4. Again, feedback (including constructive criticism!) is appreciated. Also, a grand hello to Thunder Bass!