A Different Kind of Paradise

Chapter IX: Amends

Gabe reluctantly looked up into the mirror, and sure enough he saw himself as a human; he couldn’t help but lift his hoof, and see his human reflection lift the same hand, and like the last time reached out and touched it.  Unlike the last times however  the moment he touched the image of him turned into the psychotic laughing image of Justice; forcing Gabriel to pull away in shock, and then collapse on the sink and begin crying.

Gabe felt terrible.  He had hurt a friend who had been through too much already, he alienated himself in front of the most trusting person he had ever known, and apparently managed to allow a hideous demonic creature to revive from the brink of oblivion.  His week had gone from bad, to worse, to better and back to bad.  He wanted to fix this but didn’t know how.   What if apologizing to Danny wasn’t enough?  What if just seeing him made his condition worse?  He wasn’t even sure if this Justice thing was 100% real, but he was too Christian to let some wolf-headed maniac be his only reason for making up his wrongdoings to a friend.

That’s when Gabe knew what he had to do; he dashed out of the bathroom and skidded through the living room.  He wasn’t going to overthink it, he was going to find Danny and set things right if it was the death of him.  He grabbed the knob, threw the door open and bolted through; nothing would stop him from setting things right.

Gabe’s eyes fluttered open as his living room came into view, he didn’t know why but he had a pounding headache.  He muttered “wha…” as he contemplated how this happened, soon enough he got his answer.

“Feeling better?”   He heard Danny ask from beside him.

Gabe looked up and sure enough it was Danny, with Pinkie Pie-like speeds he leapt up and threw his arms around Danny; sobbing a little.  “Danny!  I’m so glad you’re back!  What happened?”

“Before or after you charged out of the front door like a bull and knocked both of you out cold?”  Nero joked as he put some ice in a plastic bag; he walked over and tossed it to Gabe.

Gabe rolled his eyes as he pressed the bag against his head.  “Before.”

This prompted Nero to begin laughing; the blushing Danny simply pushed him down.  Unfortunately for him that didn’t keep him from laughing.  “Well, after a nice romp through the… wherever, Fluttershy fixed me up and helped me back here.”

Gabe was relieved to hear Danny was O.K., something the clicked in his mind.  “Fix… OH!”  He ran off to his room; he came back with a small black case in his mouth, he tossed it to Danny who caught it with his magic.  Danny opened the case and saw it was his glasses, in one piece.   “I got Rarity to fix them.”  Gabe explained.   “And it looks like your eye is doing better, so I have 2 out of three down.”

Danny slipped the glasses on and shook his head to clear his mane out of his face.  He sighed before he began “as you know; I never forgave Lars, Nate, or even Noah for the way they treated me.   The reason being that they never seemed to regret what they did; but from what Nero told me you truly feel sorry for what happened, and because of that I forgive you.”

In a twist of events as Danny was preparing to brohoof Gabe to seal the deal he felt Gabe wrap himself around him, sobbing.  When Danny saw this he started to cry to; never once had anyone who hurt him do anything to reconcile.  Before long Danny, in tears, hugged Gabe back.

Even Nero decided he wanted to join the fun, and with that all three friends had embraced one another, the wounds of yesterday healed and nothing but a bright future on their minds.

“What a load of crap!”  Justice’s voice roared as an apple smashed into a large screen that showed the image of the three reconciling.  The beast was sitting in his throne room, watching everything transpire.  He picked another apple and held it against his forehead.  “Oh well” he said to himself, “it’s not my fault if Gabriel wants to keep lying to himself.  I just need the right tool to allow the real Gabriel to come through.”  As if to demonstrate to an imaginary audience he used his clawed finger to peel the ripe red apple in his fingers to reveal that the rotten and malformed inside.   He then turned the apple around and started carving into it.  “And I know just how to do that.”  He started laughing as he examined his work, the eight-pointed star he had carved into the apple.