"I'm serious Olivia, they actually accepted me for the internship, do you know how big of an honor that is?" I ask as I wave the letter in her face.

"Not really? What's so special about this particular internship? Why is it so different than the other ones you applied for?"

"Because, only one out of every ten thousand applicants actually get accepted! I'd have a better chance of getting hit by a car by walking outside than to get in."

"But D.C. is over two hundred miles away from here, are you really going to go there for the entire semester?"

"Yes, I have to take this Olivia, it could really get me somewhere in life. I know I'll be gone for like eight months, but I promise I'll visit whenever I can."

"Well what about me? What am I supposed to do while I wait?"

Instead of responding, I pull Olivia into a quick kiss before pulling her back and holding her shoulders.

"My flight leaves tonight."

"What!? Why didn't you tell me!?"

"Because I didn't want you to freak out! I love you Olivia, and if I could some how get an internship like this in New York, I'd take it in a heartbeat, trust me. This is really important to me, and I'd hope that you understand that."

I start walking to the door of Olivia's apartment before her voice stops me.

"...You'll come back... right?" I turn around and give her a confident look.

"I always do." With that, I give her a confident smile before walking out the door... Only to begin falling into an endless black pit, my screams being the only thing that I can hear. All my senses fade away as reality starts to come back to me.

"AH! FUCK!" I yell as I shoot up on the couch, sweat pouring down my face. "Ah... son of a bitch." I mumble to myself as I wipe my face off with the sleeve of my shirt.

"Zack? You alright?" Rarity asks as she bursts through the door. "Why are you screaming?"

"Oh, um... nightmares, y'know?"

"What about?" Rarity asks as she jumps onto the couch. I scoot over to make room for here, still wiping my forehead in the process.

"My girlfriend, Olivia." I respond as I dig into my pocket and pull out my wallet. I flip it open to reveal a picture of Olivia and I standing next to each other in Time Square.

"That's a beautiful name. She looks pretty too."

"Yeah... the last thing I ever told her was that I'd be back." I grunt out in anger as I throw the wallet across the room, hitting the door frame. Rarity cringes back a little at my sudden outburst, but quickly regains her composure.

"And, you never told her goodbye?"

"No! I got put in that damn machine, and now I'm here! Dammit, she lived her whole life probably thinking I left her and never came back!" I yell as I punch the couch in realization. This whole time, I'd only been thinking about how all of this affected me, and not other people. Olivia, my parents, anyone who still gave a shit about me.

"I'm... so sorry." She says as her ears droop on the sides of her head.

"It's not fair Rarity, why did it happen to me!? I'm a good guy right? What did I do to deserve having my life ripped away from me? Am I special or something? Because if I am, I don't want to be!"

"Zack, calm down, it's-"

"I'm fine! Just... just let me calm down... Is it time for the party yet?" I ask, trying to change the subject, as well as trying to calm myself down.

"Yes, it starts in twenty minutes."

"Alright, then lets go." I state as I stand up and walk back into the main part of the shop, grabbing my wallet on the way out. It seems a lot cooler out here than in that stuffy little room. Probably all of my body heat had escaped me and was now floating around in there. God this is going to be the longest walk of my life.

"Ready?" Rarity asks as she throws on a scarf with her magic.

"What happened to no clothes?" I ask as I slip my shoes on, deciding to leave my bag here. I doubt I'll need my gun or knife while at a fucking party.

"It is still chilly outside, and I'd prefer to stay warm."

"With just a scarf?" I ask as I open the door for her, letting her exit before I do. The snow crunches under my feet as I exit the building.

"Well yes, it isn't THAT cold now is it?"

"Speak for yourself..." I mumble as I rub my hands up and down my arms for warmth.

"The weather team really outdid themselves tonight, huh?" Rarity asks as she looks up at the sky, the sun fading in the distance causing the sky to turn a bright orange.

"Weather team?"

"Yes, the pegasi that control the weather? Rainbow Dash is their captain y'know."

"Control the weather? Bullshit, the weather can't be controlled, nor does it need to be. That all works on it's own. It's called nature, look it up."

"I'm serious! The pegasi are the only ones who can control what the weather will be. That's how it has been for as long as anypony can remember."

"That ain't how I remember it." I mumble to myself as I pull my shirt up over my nose and mouth so that they don't get frostbite. "Damn magic..."

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing. Are we almost there?" I ask, though Rarity stops before I can even finish.

"Right here actually." She says as she points a hoof at a building to my right shaped like, oddly enough, a giant gingerbread house. If I didn't know that was made out of wood, I'd eat the shit out of it.

"The hell kind of a building is this?" The windows inside show a bunch of different ponies walking around, which lets me know that we aren't the first ones here. There better be some good ass music here, or I swear...

"This is Sugarcube Corner, the town's local bakery. Pinkie Pie works and lives here."

"She lives in a bakery? That's fucking awesome." I say with a smile. What can I say, I like baked goods.

"Um, yes... what you said." Rarity says with a nervous chuckle. Ah, these ponies and their lack of usage of foul language. It's gonna drive me insane. I lived in New York for fucks sake, it's basically a second part of me.

"Shall we?" I ask with a heavy sigh, not from not wanting to go in, but from still being pretty tired.

"We shall." Rarity begins walking into the store, and I follow closely behind her.

I think I just walked into heaven. The smells, God the smells. I think I could easily live here and never leave again.

"Hey guys!" A shrill voice yells right in my ear.

"Gah! Son of a b- Oh, hey." I say as I grab my heart, trying not to keel over dead. Third heart attack today, not exactly a good thing.

"So glad you guys made it! You're the last ones to show up!" Pinkie says excitedly, bouncing up and down in front of me.

"Last ones? How many ponies showed up?" Rarity asks with a curious tone.

"Like, half the town! Everypony wants to meet the new human in town!"

"Ah, fuck me." I mumble as I rub my face with my hands. "But I don't like meeting new people." I say like a spoiled child.

"Too bad!" Pinkie says as she pulls me farther inside where everyone is standing around chatting, eating various baked goods and sipping from cups of punch. In the back, I notice a set of DJ tables set up, though it doesn't look like all of the wires are set up yet.

"Hey, um, I'm gonna go check something out real quick." I say to Rarity and Pinkie before running off to check out the turn tables.

"Well hello beautiful." I mumble as I check over the equipment. Who would have thought they'd have technology like this when they don't even have televisions?

"Hey, hooves off pal." A voice calls out from behind me. I turn around to see a white unicorn with a wild electric blue mane staring back at me with the reddest of eyes.

"Oh, um... sorry." I say awkwardly as I rub the back of my head.

"Ah, I'm just messin' with ya dude. I remember you from the park. Zack, right?"

"Yeah, and was it Vinyl?"

"You got it."

"So, you're the DJ for this party? That's pretty cool."

"Yeah it is! I love working Pinkie's parties, they're always a blast! Hey, come check out some of the tunes I'm gonna play." Vinyl says as she walks around to the other side of the table. I follow her, admiring all of the work that must have gone into setting this whole thing up.

"How long have you been here? Setting this up I mean."

"Eh, couple hours. Nothing too big. You should see the setup for some of my concerts! Man, those can really get out of hoof... Anyway, check this out."

I spend the next ten minutes listening to samples of different kinds of music that Vinyl had prepared for the party. They all sound really cool in my book.

"These are awesome! Maybe you ponies aren't so lame after all." I say as I bump my fist against her hoof. I look up over the table to see Rarity waving for me to come over to her. "Hey, I'll be back in a bit, you keep that music going, alright?"

"Gotcha, still need to do some tests before I can actually blast some tunes."

I walk over to Rarity to see what she wanted with me, though what I see wasn't quite what I expected. All of Rarity's friends are here, even Fluttershy, though she isn't exactly the reason I start to sweat a little nervously.

"Oh, Rainbow Dash... Hey..." I say awkwardly as I rub the back of my head, not exactly sure what to say. Man this is awkward as all hell.

"H-Hey." She says simply, though she looks at the ground as she does so, refusing to make eye contact with me.

"...So, Fluttershy, I see you're better!" I say with fake enthusiasm to try to change the subject. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad she's okay, but that was just way too awkward for me. The tension was so thick, Miley Cyrus couldn't have broken it with her wrecking ball. Yeah, that was one thing that just never left the internet... Damn.

"Oh, um. Yes, thank you for getting me to the hospital and all." She says quietly and somewhat nervously.

"No problem. It was my fault you got hurt anyway." Fluttershy smiles at this, probably taking it as an apology, which is kinda was.

"Hey um, I'm gonna go check on some of that food and stuff..." I say as I point towards the refreshment tables.

"Alright, yall just be back here when my brother arrives with the cider!" Applejack calls out from behind me. Wait, what? Cider?

"Great, drunk ponies, that's all I need." I mumble as I roll my eyes before shuffling over to the table full of different foods, trying my best to ignore ponies either staring at me or trying to start conversation. I can do all that later, but for now, food time. The Zackster is starving!

"A little bit of this... little bit of that..." I start singing to myself. No idea where the words came from, just kind of making them up as I go along. "Put it all together and now ya got a snack. Add a little sugar, add a little spice, now ya put it all together and it's lookin' really ni-"

"HEY!"

"FUCK! Stop doing that!" I yell at Pinkie who somehow popped up from behind the table, though I don't remember seeing her walk over here.

"Were you singing?"

"Maybe... What's it to ya?"

"You should totally sing some songs for us once the music is set up! C'mon, you're really good at it!"

"Um, no I'm not. I've never been able to sing Pinkie, and now isn't going to be the night I become a rock star."

"I better see you on that stage some time tonight, or else." She says. "Enjoy the party!" She yells as she suddenly vanishes back under the table. I bend down expecting to see her under said table, yet, nothing. The hell is this sorcery?

Putting aside the fact that this world just keeps breaking physics, I gather a few more goodies before heading over to an empty table up against a wall at the other side of the room, pretty close to the DJ table. I sit down, sighing as I do so. I rest my hand on my cheek and I slowly pick at the food, but it isn't long before my hunger overtakes me. I think I might have diabetes now.

"Hey Zack." I look up to see Applejack sitting in front of me on the opposite side of the table.

"Hey." I say casually as I go back to picking the crumbs on my place with a fork.

"Ya don't look too happy. Are ya alright?"

"Yeah... I've just been thinking about some things since I left for the party. Nothing you'd really understand. So, what's up with you?" I ask, trying to change the subject.

"Well, remember how ya told me to check on Rainbow Dash a couple nights back?"

"Yeah, and when I came back for you, you weren't even there. What gives? I had to carry back that cart through the blistering cold alone by the way."

"Oh, ah'm sorry 'bout that, guess I wasn't really thinkin' about it at the time."

"That's alright... So, whatever happened with her? She seemed kind of shaken up if you asked me."

"Oh she's fine, better than ever actually. A good night's rest later, and she was her old self again."

"Okay? Then why did she seem so nervous and shaken up when I approached you guys a few minutes ago?"

"She's just... Uncomfortable around you right now. She said she's confused about what to think about you."

"Seriously? It's not like I saved her life, but I'd hope she would be at least a little grateful." I say as I squint my eyes slightly.

"Zack!" AJ hisses at me. "She's more than grateful! She's just confused is all."

"Confused about what?"

"She doesn't know why ya saved her after she treated ya like a monster and all."

"I saved her because someone was is trouble, not because of who she was. You really think I'd just leave someone in a situation like that? I don't give a shit who they are, nobody deserves that."

"I-I don't. I know ya saved her because it just the right thing to do, but she doesn't know that. Ya need to talk to her. Ya aren't leaving this party until ya do."

"You're really serious about this aren't you?" I ask as I take a sip of my punch.

"Yes! Ah am! She just needs to hear it from you, or she's just gonna be like that for who knows how long. She feels guilty Zack, and only you can do something about it."

"...Fine, I'll get around to it I guess." I say as I grip my cup in both hands, staring down at my red reflection in it's contents. Applejacks nods and walks away, leaving me to think to myself for a bit.

Fuck it, this was gonna happen eventually, so I just need to man the hell up and face the facts.

It's time the two of us had a talk.

Author's Note

Part 2 coming soon, once I can finish up a bit of work on other things. Hope you enjoyed this one for now

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