A Different Kind of Paradise

Chapter V: The Price of Hope

A torrent of cold water woke Gabe up screaming, his head still hurt.

“Oh my God, are you O.K.?  Nero that’s enough water.”  Danny shook Gabe awake and cut off the stream being used to wake him up.  “What happened to you?”

Gabe shook his head, and after shaking off most of the water he replied.  “I… I don’t know.  Everything just locked up and I heard a voice.”

Nero jumped off of his cloud, and with a cocked brow asked “You heard a voice?  I doubt that’s natural; even for ponies.  Danny is that natural for ponies?”

Danny shook his head.

Gabe groaned as he got up, he didn’t want to dwell on what just happened.  “I’m just tired from…”  He looked around, knowing that saying he was a being from a different universe would probably get him institutionalized, he chose his words carefully.  “The “move.”  I just need some fresh air.”  With that he turned away and began walking.

“Voices?”  Nero asked Danny.

“This transition has been rougher on him more than you or I.”  Danny responded.  He knew Gabe wasn’t happy here, and wished he had a way to help him enjoy this place.

Nero sighed.  “Hey” he remembered something.  “Wasn’t he like this after Beatri…”

“Let’s not bring that back up.”  Danny interrupted.  “Well, my break just ended.  See ya’ Nero.”  He went back to Sugar Cube Corner.

Nero looked to where Gabe had walked off to, sighed, and then flew back to re-charge some thunder clouds.

The warm smiles of the ponies Gabe passed were nice, but they didn’t help his headache, or the fact that he was hearing voices.  “Like I said, I’m going crazy.”

He was interrupted by a slight chuckling above him.  Gabe looked up and saw an all-too familiar purple unicorn sitting on a balcony.  She saw that he had noticed and apologized.  “Oh, sorry.  That just brings back memories.”

Gabe just stared with a cocked head, not understanding.

After a brief chuckle Twilight went back into her tree house.  “Hold on, I’ll let you in.”  After a few seconds the door opened.  “Come in.”  Twilight welcomed.

The library looked nice, even without the party decorations.  Gabe couldn’t help but admire how neat it looked in less than a day.  “You sure got this place picked up fast.”

“Thanks.”  Twilight said “Pinkie and Spike helped out, so it was a breeze.”

Hearing that made Gabe chuckle “I can’t believe Pinkie Pie does something other than bounce around and eat sweets.”

“Hey” Twilight defended her friend.  “She’s really dependable and pretty smart when you get to know her.”

After a few moments of silence Twilight, with a look of curiosity on her face, broke the silence.  “Um, Gabe; when we first met you mentioned somepony.  I believe her name was Beatrice?”

Gabe jumped at hearing that name.  “It-it’s a long story; you wouldn’t want to hear it.”

Using her magic, Twilight pulled up two cushions.  “Humor me.”

Gabe took in a deep breath, it had been a while since he re-lived this memory.   “Back at my home, I fell in love.  This gir…”  He suddenly remembered some of the more defined points of this world’s vernacular.  “Mare, this mare was perfect in every way.”

“Aw.”  Twilight cooed at Gabe’s story.

“Too bad I wasn’t.” Gabe continued before letting out a heavy sigh.  “I messed up, I was an idiot and she left me.”

Twilight gasped.

“I did everything to become a better person, to undo my mistake.  But when I went to make it up to her…”  He paused, a tear forming in his eye.  “It was too late.”

Twilight put her hoof on Gabe’s shoulder and began to comfort him.  “I learned that it’s never too late to make up a mistake, and if she won’t understand than she’s not a real friend.”

“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!!”  Gabe threw Twilight’s hoof off of his shoulder, now crying.  “She was in an accident!  And now I’ll never see her again!”  He wiped his face, and much softer he said “I would do anything, anything in this world or the next, to see her again.”

A few moments of silence passed.  Twilight was stunned and Gabe was sullen.  After a while a young voice ran through the library.  “Whoa, that’s heavy.”  They turned around to see a small purple reptilian humanoid with a tail and mo-hawk like spines on his head.

Gabe screamed at the sight of the monster and jumped behind Twilight.  “WHAT IS THAT!?”

In response to Gabriel’s freak-out, Twilight jumped in shock.  “Gabe, calm down.  That’s spike, he’s my number one assistant.”

“O.k.?”  Gabe said slowly as he approached.  “Nice to meet you Spike.”  His voice still wavering a little.   A shiver up his spine took his mind off of the short scaly being in front of him.  “What was that?”

Twilight was still chuckling at Gabe’s first reaction to seeing a baby dragon, she realized exactly what he was talking about.  “Wait, how did you feel that?”

“Feel what?”  Gabe asked, looking around, trying to find whatever was giving him chills.

Spike made his way towards the kitchen as he replied.  “Some weird energy thingy somepony named “Danny” coated this place with.”

“I’m sorry Spike, I tried to get over the spell he used, but the fact that this place is coated in raw magic makes it too hard to resist.”  Twilight defended herself.  She turned her attention to Gabe.  “Did Danny mention anything about the spell he used.”

“Sorry.”  Gabe shook his head.  He gasped in shock as he saw several books fly past him.

“Well” Twilight sighed “I guess its back to the books.”

Spike groaned.  “I’ll make snacks.  Gabe, you sticking around?”

After hearing the question Gabe hesitated: what did he have to gain by staying?  He then looked at Twilight, and saw what Beatrice was like; he sighed to himself and said “yes.”

The sun eventually set, and the sky turned dark as the hours passed from day to night.  But Gabriel didn’t care; he was enjoying his time with Twilight.  Soon Twilight put her head in the book she was using and began closing and opening it repeatedly.  “We’ve been through every book in this library looking for details: twice.  We have nothing.”

“I suppose it’s for the best.”  Gabe began, yawning.  “I think it’s best if we both turn in soon.”

“Yeah.”  Twilight agreed.  “Besides, maybe tomorrow I can send a message to Canterlot asking for some additional books on this topic.”

“Canterlot?”  Gabe asked, shocked that she had connections in the captiol of equestrian, home to the solar princesses.

“Well yeah.”  Twilight said in response.  “Being the pupil of the princess does have some advantages.”

Gabe was still dumbfounded.  “Princess?”

“Yeah, I remember when I sent letters to her every week, but y’know; times change.”  Twilight bragged.

After a few seconds of silence Gabe began giggling like a maniac and that laughing enthusiastically.  He then bolted out of the library.

Spike slowly closed the door and said “I think you broke him.”

Back at their apartment: Danny rested on the couch as Nero prepared himself a sandwich.  Each of them perked their heads up when they heard what they swore was Gabriel’s voice: but it was giggling.  Soon enough Gabe crashed through the door, giggling like a madman.  Neither Danny nor Nero had ever seen him so happy.  “GUYS!!” Gabe shouted with enthusiasm.  “Guess what I just found out!”

“Lightning is a great way to cook grilled cheese?”  Nero guessed, only to receive awkward glances from both Gabe and Danny; he shrugged it off and took a bite from his grilled cheese sandwich.

“No” Gabe responded with an air of euphoria, his eyes filled with tears of joy. “I just learned that Twilight has connections with Princess Celestia, one of the most powerful ponies of all of Equestria!”

Danny got up and moved to the kitchen as he replied “Well, duh.  That’s one of the major kicks of the show.”

Gabe started laughing; at first it was joyful giggling, but then it seemed almost dark.   “Danny, maybe you don’t understand:  she’s been ruling for thousands of years, she must have found evidence of different universes, like ours!”

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”  Nero approached Gabe, hanging on every word.  Neither of them heard Danny say something soft and weak.

“I’m saying that we can get Twilight to contact the princess, and we would have our ticket back home!”

“What?!” Danny said; louder than last time, but still to catch any of their attentions.

Gabe started to make his way towards the door.  “C’mon guys!  The sooner we explain all of this to Twilight, the sooner we get back home!”  He opened the door.  “Things are finally looking…”

“NO!!!!!”  Danny screamed at the top of his lungs, catching the attention of both Nero and Gabriel.  He was crying as he mustered out what he wanted to say.   “Y-y-you can’t seriously be thinking of leaving, can you?  Please Gabe; just think, maybe God wanted this for us.  To start brand new lives and live them to the fullest, with nothing from our pasts slowing us down.”

Gabe just stared dumbfounded.

“This place is a new beginning.  Gabe, you were so happy this afternoon, what changed?”  Tears were flowing from his eyes, he had found happiness here, and would die before giving it up.

Gabe began breathing heavily, he had had it; he was sick of being a pony, sick of this town, sick of these voices, and sick of Danny.  He ran up to Danny and with a hoof he beat him in the face, Danny fell back and cried in pain.  “You have always been so pathetic.  So content on giving up your life, is that your best excuse?   Well let me let you in on a little secret Danny; no! it’s not a secret because everyone already knows, here’s the thing.  YOU HAVE NO LIFE!!  As far back as I’ve known you, you’ve always been a weak little bitch, always about to keel over and start crying.  Whose fault do you think it is for all of those people beating on you and calling you gay?  IT’S YOUR’S!  Maybe if you had been a man and faced your problems instead of always running away to your little fantasy land, you might have actually had something to live for, something worth going back for.  But no.  Your plan is to stay in pony-land because you can’t face your problems.  Looking back, this is probably why all of your old friends left you; not to protect their reputations, but because they couldn’t stand your whining!  I’m really surprised you’ve had the willpower not to live up to all of your old suicide threa-AAHH!”  He yelled as his hoof stepped on something sharp.  He looked down to see he had cut the bottom of his hoof: on a shattered pair of glasses.  He realized that those were Danny’s glasses, realizing what he had just done he looked up to the face the glasses belonged on and reeled in terror.

Danny had a black eye and was crying intensely.

Gabe panicked, he had just screamed at one of his best friends, reminding him of all of the demons he wanted to escape, he needed to think of something quick.  “Dan…”

He was quickly cut off when Danny let out a loud cry of pain and a cold force flew him against the wall next to the door.  When he opened his eyes he saw Danny running past him, bawling audibly.  He reached his hoof out to try and stop him, to apologize.

But Danny was already gone.

“No. No, no, no, no, no!”  Gabe repeated to himself as he got to his hooves; but when he got to the door, all he saw was the night sky and a blue dot getting smaller and smaller.  Out of the corner of his eye he saw Nero with his mouth agape, when Nero saw that Gabe was looking at him he closed his mouth and slowly backed into the hall.

Gabe had just done something that might have cost him one, maybe two of his friends.

Now he wanted to cry.