Gone

Chapter 2: Tea

I stepped back, but continued to stare up at the large structure before me.  Never in my life have I ever laid my eyes upon a building this magnificent.  I was a little confused though.  All I asked for was help in getting bits, so I assumed that Pinkie would be taking me to a place to apply for a job or something like that.  I was definitely not expecting to be brought to a freaking castle!  Anyways, Pinkie knocked on the large door and it slowly began to open.  A very bright light shone through the doors, so I covered my eyes with my left hoof.  As the door continued to open, I could swear I felt some sort of shift in the environment.  It was as if I was about to get into something that could end very badly, or end in an insanely good way.  At this point, I was pretty sure I was losing my mind.  The door was fully open now, and my jaw dropped so much that I thought it unhinged.  It was beautiful!  The pillars holding up the castle looked as if they were made of some sort of crystal, there was a lovely carpet on the floor, and I was just speechless.  Pinkie told me to follow her inside, but I could not move.

“Well, come on!  If you want bits you might wanna follow me inside!”  Pinkie Pie said in her usually bubbly voice.

“Uh…OH!  Sorry, I was just admiring the interior.  I have never seen something this beautiful!  Well, with the exception of the Solis Occasum Beaches’ sunsets!”  I said, but soon realized I said something that I most definitely did not intend to.

“The what?”  Pinkie asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Nothing!  I’m just rambling…”  I said, trying to keep my original home a secret.

“Ok…well, might as well move on!  To the Cutie Map!”  Pinkie said before darting into the castle.

I rolled my eyes, but followed her.  The doors seemed to be shut behind us by an unknown force, but with all that has already happened, that’s the least of my worries.  As I made my way further into the building, I could not help but notice that it seemed quite bigger on the inside than the outside.  It felt like the room expanded, but as I stated earlier, I was certain that I was just losing my mind.  Soon, I noticed something that blew my first look at the castle out of the water.  There was a large room with a total of seven chairs and a large table with what appeared to be a map of some sorts.  Pinkie was already in that room, so I decided to enter as well.  Once inside, I took a look around and noticed a large structure above me.  It appeared to be tree roots coming out of the ceiling with strings of colorful lights hanging from it.  I was amazed at how mystical a princess’s castle could truly be, but my state of amazement was shattered by the voice of Pinkie Pie.

“TWILIGHT!!!”  She shouted.

“Dear Celestia, Pinkie Pie!  Can at least try to be a little less loud?”  I said with a slightly raised voice.

“How do you know about Celestia if you have never been to Equestria?”  Pinkie instantly asked me.

“I read about Celestia and her sister, Luna, in a book back where I’m from.  I also read up on bits and pieces of Equestria and its history, but that’s not the point.  The point is my eardrums can only take so much, so could you please do whatever it is you’re doing a little more quiet?”  I told Pinkie while looking her straight in the eye.

“Whatever…”  Pinkie said, but she just continued shouting.

After what seemed like hours of shouting, I heard a different set of doors opening followed by rapid hoofsteps.  The hoofsteps continued, but then a lavender mare came crashing into the room with messy mane and an angry look on her face.

“WHAT, PINKIE?!”  The lavender mare shouted.

“I found this stallion on the streets!  He’s new here, and he asked me if I could help him find a way to earn bits!  I told him that I could, so I led him to you!   Maybe he can help you solve some of those weirdo friendship problems!”  Pinkie said.

“Are you serious?  You could have just looked in the Equestria news for job applications and helped him pick one out!  Why lead him to me of all places?”  The mare said in an annoyed voice.

“My Pinkie sense told me to!”  Said Pinkie Pie.

“I hate to be one to interrupt, but can someone tell me why this is happening!?”  I said before falling back into one of the chairs by the table.

“You see Pinkie?  Even our guest is confused as to why you brought him here.  Since he is already here though, I guess there is no point in sending him out.”  The messy-haired mare said.

Pinkie put her head down, sighed, and sat down in the chair with party balloons engraved on it.

“I’m sorry for all of this.  My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, but you can just call me Twilight.  Would you care for some tea?”  Twilight asked me.

“I guess, but I can get it for myself if you just direct me to the kitchen.”  I said.

“Nonsense!  You’re our guest, so you deserve the best.”  Twilight said before running to what I assume to be the kitchen.

As Twilight left the room, I decided to just keep quiet and think about all of this.  Comparing what I already knew about Equestria to what is happening now, I came to the conclusion that the book I read needs some serious updating.  Then, I began thinking about my friend back at the Solis Occasum Beaches.  His name was Horizon, and we were some of the closest friends you could possibly imagine.  We would hang out at school, play video games together, and whenever someone tried to put us down, we would simply ignore them.  Yeah, they would keep bugging us, but we just pretend that they don’t exist.  Then one time, it got severe.  There was this whole group of ponies that wanted to see me get emotionally hurt.  Don’t ask me why, but they seemed to hate me a whole lot.  As far as I could remember, I never did anything wrong to them.  Maybe they were just insecure and needed to release anger, but still, that’s no excuse to be excruciatingly awful to somepony.  Then one night, Horizon called me on my phone and asked me if I wanted to go and hang out on the beach.  I told him yes, and left the house.  As I arrived on the beach, I noticed that Horizon was in an argument with some ponies.  Upon further inspection, I realized it was the group from school.  I noticed that things were getting pretty bad, so I decided to man up and walk over there.  As soon as they saw me, they all just smiled.  What followed was a violent fight with spells, punches, and a few stab attempts.  Yes, one of the ponies in the group brought a knife.  Horizon and I had managed to win the fight, but someone must have phoned the authorities because we heard sirens off in the distance.  We both looked at each other, did a simple nod, and darted off in different directions.  I ran into the jungle on the island, but I have no idea where Horizon went.  Little did I know that that was the last time I would see Horizon for quite some time.  As I frantically ran through the jungle, I could feel the adrenaline in my body pick up to speeds I had never felt before.  I could hear fast hoofsteps behind me, and I knew that they were right on my tail.  Flashlights shone through the branches and leaves of the jungle brush, and as soon as I realized that I had come to a cliff, I knew that it was all over.  I was right at the edge.  They had me cornered, so I had nowhere to go but down.  There was water below me, but you never want to jump into water before knowing how deep it is.  Although, during my terrified state of mind, I jumped.  The air rushed passed me, my cloak flew in the wind, and my mind raced.  I had to think of something fast, or else I was certain that I would fall to my death.  Quickly, I did the first thing that came to my mind.  My horn lit up with a yellow aura, and as quick as lightning, it all stopped.  In case you did not know, I used a teleportation spell.  Where I ended up appeared to be a ship in the middle of the ocean, but then my horn malfunctioned from the adrenaline, and I was teleported to Equestria.  Why did it malfunction?  Well, whenever I’m extremely anxious, nervous, or excited, my horn can very rarely do something I cannot control.  This happened to be one of those times.

“Tea is ready!”  Twilight’s voice shouted.

As I was ripped from my flashback and random thoughts, I got up and followed Twilight towards the dining room.

“So, everything going alright?”  Twilight asked while we walked.

“Yeah, I’m just a little mind boggled right now.”  I replied.

“I understand.  Nothing a little tea can’t fix…hopefully.”  Twilight said.

Soon after, we arrived at the dining room.  Twilight used her magic to open the doors, and gestured me to take a seat at the table.  I did just that, and Twilight sat next to me.  I grabbed my tea, took a couple of sips, and started conversation.

“So, what’s it like being a princess?”  I asked.

“Tiring, boring, stressful, and not as fun as all of those fairy tales say.  It’s a huge responsibility having to go around Equestria solving friendship problems.”  Twilight said.

“Yeah, I can imagine what that must do to your state of mind.”  I said.

“Actually, it’s quite simple how I get rid of stress.  My sister-in-law, Princess Cadence, taught me this breathing trick.”  Twilight told me before demonstrating the trick she mentioned.

“That’s interesting.”  I said.

“I get that a lot.”  Twilight said before giggling a bit.

Just then, Pinkie Pie walked into the dining room and sat across from Twilight and I.

“Hey, I’m sorry.  I didn’t want to confuse you, Illusion.  And Twilight, sorry for waking you up in the middle of the night.”  Pinkie said.

“It’s ok, Pinkie.  It’s not the first time I’ve been woken up like this.”  Twilight said.

“Thanks Twilight.”  Pinkie replied.

“So, your name’s Illusion?  Heh, I like it!”  Twilight said to me.

“Thank you, I like your name too.”  I replied.

“So, where are you from?”  Twilight asked.

“Far away.”  I said.

“Can you specify?  If I know where you are from I might be able to help you more.”  Twilight said.

“I’d rather not say…”  I replied.

“Pleeeeeeaaaaase?”  Twilight asked with a smile.

“Why are you suddenly so eager to help me?”  I asked.

“Well, it’s kind of my job as a princess to help ponies in need.  Also, I just feel that we could be good friends!”  Twilight said.

“Me of all ponies?  There’s no way.  Back where I’m from, I only had one friend because nobody else wanted to be around me.”  I said in a depressed tone.

“Hey, I wanna get to know you!  You seem like a nice guy!”  Twilight said in a comforting tone.

I sighed, but gave in.

“Alright, we can be friends.”  I said before giving a small smile.

“Good.  Well, since we are friends now, can you tell me where you’re from?  I won’t tell a soul.”  Twilight said.

“Fine.”  I said before leaning in and whispering, “The Solis Occasum Beaches.”

“Never heard of it.  I’ll check my library tomorrow and see if I have anything on it.”  Twilight said, winking at me.

“I’m getting tired, I think I’m gonna head out and see if there is anywhere for me to sleep.”  I said before standing up and making my way to the door.

“Stop!  You can sleep here!  I have a guest room upstairs.”  Twilight said.

“Wow, really?  Are you sure?  I don’t want to be any trouble…”  I said while looking off to the side.

“Yes I’m sure!  We’re friends now, so you can sleep here!”  Twilight said before getting up and walking me out of the dining room.

“Let me show Illusion to the guest room and I’ll be right back.”  Twilight said to Pinkie as we walked out the door.

Twilight and I walked through the room with the map, into a hallway off to the side, up some stairs, and into the guest room.

“Well, here we are.  You have a bed, a desk, a cabinet, and a whole lot of other stuff!  Make yourself at home!”  Twilight said with a great big smile.

“Thank you Twilight.  You most certainly are a good friend!”  I said before giving Twilight a full smile.

“No problem!  If there is anything you need, just ask.”  Twilight said.

“Alright.  I think now is a better time than ever to get some sleep.”  I said before walking towards the bed.

“Ok then, goodnight!”  Twilight said before smiling and closing the door.

I was alone now.  I removed my cloak, hung it up in the closet, and crawled into bed.  I laid my head down on the pillow and closed my eyes, all the while thinking of what tomorrow will bring.