Equestrian State of Mind

***

Electric’s Room, Monday, 7:32 A.M.

The sun was bringing down its shine onto Electric’s face as he lied on his bed, reminiscing the moment he saw that certain pony. Something about it keeps coming back to haunt him. His feelings were not so easy for him to control, and thus he has failed to finish his daily schedule on multiple occasions. It all piled up into a domino effect, from which he groaned in frustration. Electric could do nothing but blink mindlessly at the situation. Even if hours had passed, he would still feel numbed by the pain; The same pain he had endured for several weeks. By now, that feeling only serves to him as his Achilles' heel.

As he slowly let himself succumb into the void of nothingness, the sound of mail coming through his mail slot echoed in his ear. Without even thinking, he would already know that it was the landlord sending letters about overdue rent. Those letters had been coming for a few times already, but Electric would just let them pile over themselves.

He stared at the ceiling in deep thoughts. Thoughts about his childhood home in the Crystal Empire, where his step-parents raised him. It might’ve been an unpleasant experience living with them, but for now, Electric only remembered the good times playing with his friends in school.

“I wonder how they are doing now...”

Focused back on the real world, Electric got bored from lying on his bed doing nothing. He rolled over until he fell down to appreciate the satisfyingly cold floor pressed against his cheek. Once he got up on his hooves, he walked over to the front door, where the pile of letters were laying around. Once he laid his eyes on them, he couldn’t help but notice a particular envelope. A bright red envelope. Electric grabbed the envelope and read the sender’s address. It was indeed from the landlord. He quickly ripped it open, took out the letter and read. It was what exactly what he thought it would be; an eviction notice.

Electric stared at the contents of the letter, frozen in place. He hung his head down, and sighed.

“It was bound to happen, Electric. What the hell are you gonna do now?” He cursed himself.

He read the letter one more time;

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

EVICTION NOTICE:

To: Electric Dazzle

Date: 12/19/1016

City/Municipality: Vanhoover, Equestria

Address: Harbor St. 2

Your rent is due the total amount of $ 1500.00 . You are required to pay this sum in three days, or face eviction from the premises. If you fail to abide, you will be extracted from the premises with force by the police. You are expected to not remain by the date 12/21/1016.

Landlord: Onyx Armor

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Well fuck you too, Onyx,” said Electric, as he ripped the notice to shreds in behemothic anger. Once there was nothing left of the letter, he sat down on his flank. The frustrated pegasus looked at the scraps of paper on the floor with his voided eyes.

What would his parents think of him right now? That he’s a completely sad excuse of a pony, or that he couldn’t get his act together? It was either one or the other. Electric, although weak-willed, was never one for relying on others for help. He always wanted to solve his own problems by himself. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been so independent, judging by the state he is in right now.

“Time to pack the bags, I guess…” He said, sighing heavily. He glanced at the mess he made and thought that maybe he should clean it up, but he decided against it.

Electric looked around his living room to decide on what he needs to pack up, and the first thing he saw was the guitar his step-parents handed to him. Apparently it was a gift from someone, but they never told him who it was. Strange, he mused.

As Electric was done placing his guitar into its case, he went to his room to grab his expensive textbooks and whatever clothes he has left. He grabbed his saddlebag that he uses for school and tried to fit everything he could in there. Luckily, Electric only had a single hoodie plus a scarf which was enough to keep him warm during winter.

With his clothes and books ready, there was nothing much left for Electric to pack. He thus decided to lay down on his bed, seeing as there was nothing left for him to do but wait for the inevitable. As soon as he got on his bed, he could hear the sound of his door getting knocked on.

He froze in place, thinking about what to do. Maybe jump off the balcony? Shit... The longer he sat frozen, the harder the knocking got. Suddenly there was silence, right until a loud bang was heard. Electric saw a white hoof busted through the door, reaching for the handle.

He sat in place, not keen on moving a single inch. He was sweating profusely and had his teeth clenched tight, as he was unable to react. After the hoof reached to push down on the handle, the door opened with the distinct sound of an unlocked door.

“Where the buck is that idiot?” A familiar voice followed through as it entered inside, knocking a pile of mail on the way in.

Hoof steps were heard along the corridor, until a coat of white with a long, two-colored mane emerged from it.

“What the..” He paused for a moment, trying to process what he was looking at, “Why didn’t you answer the door?”

Electric looked at him, with an almost angry stare. “You broke my damn door! I thought I was getting burgled!”

“A burglar wouldn’t knock on the door now, would they?” Shock smirked.

“Well I was about to open it, you jackass.”

“Resorting to lying now, are we?”

Electric groaned. “Look, I’m getting evicted. I thought my landlord was going to come here and kick my ass in person.”

“Evicted?” Shock, puzzled by Electric’s statement, remembered; “I guess that explains the overwhelming amount of mail in front of your door,”

“Still,” Shock continued, “How did you ended up getting evicted?”

“I couldn’t pay my rent since I ran out of my savings.” Electric shook his head, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life.”

Shock scratched the back of his head, “Look, if you’re really that deep in trouble, you can crash at my place if you want.”

“Huh, well…” Electric looked elsewhere thoughtfully. “Thanks for the offer, I’ll think about it.”

“Suit yourself. Meet me at my place if you’ve made up your mind.” Shock said, heading towards the living room of Electric’s apartment.

Electric continued to sit on his bed, wondering what’s going to happen in the next chapter of his life. With so much going on, he couldn’t seem to pay attention to a single thing any longer than he usually could. Though, however short his attention span was at the moment, that certain pony remained a constant in his mind. Even after countless hours of soul searching, he still pondered who that pony was.

Soon enough, Electric got tired of just sitting around on his bed all day. He wanted to do something for once. With his companion in the living room, he decided to join him in hopes of getting any new info about the mysterious pony. Electric hopped off his bed and went straight towards his living room, though the sight he saw next was not so pleasant; at the very least for him. Shock was trying to play a song with Electric’s only guitar, albeit horribly.

He winced. “Are you going to break my guitar, too?”

“With that attitude, I might.” Shock said, still trying to find the right chords for his song.

Electric shook his head once again, as he looked at the pile of mail. He wondered what he could do with it. Before Electric could think up of something good, his train of thought was interrupted by Shock.

“So what are you going to do with all that mail?”

“I don’t know. You got any bright ideas?”

Shock laid down the guitar he was holding into its case, trying to think of something, “How about we burn them?”

“And where are we going to burn them, exactly?”

“Here, of course,”

Electric was puzzled, wouldn’t doing that will result in the building ending up in flames? He wasn’t entirely sure about Shock’s decision. However, he was going to leave soon, so why not give it a chance?

“Alright, and how are we going to burn them?”

“We could use the stove, but that’s boring,” Shock went and picked up all the mail and placed them in the middle of the living room, “So I suggest we use some good ol’ magic.”

“Just don’t accidentally light this whole place on fire.” Electric noted.

“Magic is kind of like metal, you know?” Shock said, emitting a small ray of light from his horn onto the pile of mail, “You can bend it anyway you want.”

“But just like metal, there’s a limit to how much you can bend,” Shock continued as a small flame burst out from where the ray was shining on. In a few seconds, covering the whole pile of mail.

Electric and Shock stared at the burning letters in sudden silence. No smoke emerged from the fire, thanks to the wonderful world of unicorn magic. Silence stayed around for a while, until nothing was left of the pile, but a muster of ash and ember.

“I would’ve clapped right now,” Electric sighed, “But that was seriously underwhelming.”

“I’d like to see you do something like this,” Shock said, leaning back onto the sofa he was sitting on.

“I don’t have a horn now, do I?”

“Then you should be more appreciative of things like these,” Shock gave a smug smile, “Not every day we get to witness the unusual.”

“Okay, hornhead. I couldn't care less about the unusual.” Electric rolled his eyes.

Shock laughed, “You know I'm right.”

“You're killing me, dude.” Electric remarked as he walked up to the fridge. From behind the door, he pulled out what looked like an aluminium can, labeled; ‘Lura’s cider’. Sitting down on the sofa, Shock ogled at the label with curiosity.

Electric downed the last remaining cider in one go, placing the empty can onto the table. He took a relaxed position on the couch, with an empty facial expression that gazed into the void of nothingness. As there was nothing else to do, Shock went to pick up the guitar again to lift the atmosphere a bit.

"So, have you got any news about my doppelganger?" Electric asked him.

“Oh, the mystery pony?” Shock rubbed his chin, “I don’t think so.”

Electric sighed. "Whatever, guess I'll never find out who it was..."

Shock saw how Electric lose all of the emotion he had before on his face, slowly sinking deeper into the sofa he was sitting on.

“Look, I’ve lost something too and till this day I’ll never get to find it,” Shock remedied, “But you still can.”

Shock stood up from the sofa, heading towards the door, “So, it’s either you keep your chin up and keep moving forward,” He opened it, and looked behind. “Or, you stop right now and look for something else.”

Electric glanced at the door, which soon closed with a light slam. Once the ambient sound of his apartment has settled in, he felt lonelier than he previously was. He looked at the clock that was hanging sideways on the wall. His first class would start in forty minutes. He snapped back to reality, got up from his torn couch and grabbed his saddlebag filled with books to put on his back. Although the saddlebag was quite heavy, it was still snugly fit around his spine. Satisfied, Electric checked for the last time if he missed anything important. He had thought of something, and quickly opened one of his bags to search its contents with his hoof. He pulled out a brass key which was for his apartment, and placed it on the kitchen counter.

With nothing else important left behind, he headed for the exit. With a turn of the knob, the door opened. But not as he expected, as the door unexpectedly fell on itself. Electric blinked, and sighed as he stepped over the door.

Lecture Hall S5, North Vanhoover University, 9:43 A.M.

Mr. Quill would usually stay for a while after class had ended. That was the proper opportunity for Electric to notify him about his decision to stop attending university, as the current condition he is in now would not contribute to his studies but to only serve as a major distraction. There was no point in going any further with the classes he’s taking since he doesn’t take that much interest in what Mr. Quill was teaching anyway.

As the class ended, Electric packed his notebooks and such in haste before his lecturer decides to leave the hall. He stood up from his chair and quickly walked towards the middle-aged stallion who was minding his own business.

“Uh, excuse me… Mr. Quill?”

Mr. Quill stopped his current doings, and turned towards his student, “What do you need, Dazzle?”

He stared at him for a bit before talking. “I-I… Uhh,” He gulped.”I wanted to-”

“Electric, try breathing for a moment.” His professor advised.

Soon enough, Electric complied. He took a long deep breath and slowly let the air out.

“Now, can you speak?” The professor asked calmly.

He calmly nodded in response before continuing; “I just wanted to say... I'm dropping out.”

Mr. Quill closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh, “And may I know as to why you’ve decided to drop out?”

“Financial reasons for the most part,” Electric gazed towards the floor, “I’m just under a lot of stress right now.”

His professor understood Electric’s decision to stop, since he has seen cases of stress taking a huge toll on students before. However, he still couldn’t help but feel disappointed that Electric couldn’t keep his promise.

“I guess there’s no stopping you,” Mr. Quill tried to keep a smile before he remembered something, “Have you spoken to the advisor yet?”

“No, I haven’t.” He replied.

“Well, you should go and see her, Miss Encre will be leaving soon.”

“Okay… Thank you, Mr. Quill.” Electric put on a slight smile.

“I would say my pleasure, but…” Mr. Quill adjusted his glasses, “I just hope you’ll come back.”

“I don’t find that likely,” Electric headed for the exit. “Goodbye, Mr. Quill.”

He walked out the door without closing it behind him, and headed left, where the advisor’s office was located.

Shock Wave’s Humble Abode, 10:32 AM

Step after step, Electric finally reached the floor where his friend lived. The first door was a simple one, which had Shock’s last name written on a circular piece attached on the door. He knocked three times.

…

No answer.

As he heard nothing from the other side, he tried again.

Still nothing. Electric got slightly frustrated, and started banging on the door several times.

“Hey, hold yer horses, I’m coming.”

Electric blew some air out of his nostrils, not amused at the pun. The door opened, and Shock Wave revealed himself. He leaned on the doorframe in an unusual speechless state. This is certainly not his normal self.

“Sooo…” Electric broke the silence. “Will you let me in?”

“Oh, right.” Shock said as he got out of the way.

Electric slowly stepped inside, but what he saw after he entered surprised him completely. Broken glass, wood and other debris lying on the living room floor. He looked at Shock, who didn’t seem to be even a bit disconcerted about the mess.

“Sheesh, do you even bother to clean up once in a while?” Electric asked in a vulgar manner.

Shock just looked at him with an empty gaze, “What ‘chu mean?”

“What do you mean- Ugh,” He pointed at the debris. “Just look at this!”

As soon as Electric turned back to what he thought was a messy living room, what he saw next would make a normal pony go insane. Instantaneously, all the debris in the room disappeared and the room turned out to be as clean as a whistle. Electric then turned back to Shock, whose horn was glowing a solemn purple color, which quickly dissipated.

“You... are a plothole.” said Electric.

A cheeky smile was imprinted on Shock’s face, knowing that what he did was seen by his winged companion. He closed the door behind them, leaving the two of them alone in Shock’s apartment.

“So, how was class?” Shock questioned, attempting to lift the atmosphere at least a little bit.

“Well, I dropped out for good,” He told bluntly. “So there’s that.”

Shock chuckled as he remembered a conversation they had a few months ago, “Great, you can start your shift tomorrow.”

“Yeah, hilarious,” Electric snorted. “So, where do I sleep?”

“The room right before the kitchen,” Shock raised his hoof and pointed towards the direction of the room, “There should be everything in there.”

Electric sighed, and walked up to his place of slumber. He dropped his saddlebags off his back, and settled down.

“Gee, thanks.”

“You’re very most welcome.”

***