Chapters Chapter 1 - unexpected encounter
Greg sat in the driver’s seat of his car, listening to the tick of the engine as the chilly garage air cooled it down. He sighed deeply, glad to be home after a hard day’s work, and allowed his head to rest on the backs of his hands. His eyes closed, and he felt the weight of the day slowly settling over his body. He forced his eyes open, sure that if he had kept them closed for just a few more moments, he would have fallen asleep inside his car. He raised his head, which felt like it weighed a million tons, looked to the passenger seat, and lazily extended his arm to grab his backpack. When his hand touched its handle, he allowed his body to go limp over the center console, feeling the urge to surrender to his fatigue and pass the night inside his car instead.
"Aw, fuck," he groaned.
Gathering the remainder of his energy, he pulled himself back up, bringing the backpack into his lap. He opened the car door, swung his legs out and got to his feet. He looked around, trying to see anything in the pitch black garage. He took short steps, kicking at some tools he left scattered on the ground. A motor oil slick nearly caused him to slip, but he caught himself with a hand on his car. It was a struggle just to keep his hazy mind focused enough to get out of there. After some stumbling in the darkness, he managed to find his way to the door. He stood still for a while, taking a few deep breaths.
He opened the door as nonchalantly as he could and immediately almost fell down after missing the small step down from the garage door. He tried to curse, but what came out was an unintelligible mangle of words. Thankfully, the path to the back door was always illuminated. Or at least, it was supposed to be.
Did I forget to leave this shit on again? he thought.
To his relief, a full moon shone in the clear night sky. Its faint, white light aided him in his quest to find the back door. He made his way ever so slowly, making the herculean effort to pick his feet up so he wouldn't trip and fall face first on the ground.
He unlocked the back door and stepped inside. He slapped the wall next to the door frame, searching for the switch. When he found it, he flipped it and regretted it instantly. To his tired and darkness-accustomed eyes, the bulb was as bright as a quasar, thus essentially blinding him. He emitted a grunt, dumbly covering his eyes with his forearm. They felt like they had been flooded by pure energy, his eyelids doing little to stop the assault on his retinas. He brought another arm up to keep his eyeballs from catching on fire.
"Stupid lights," he mumbled.
After a few seconds, his eyes began to get used to the light. He lowered his arm and kicked the door closed behind him. Soon enough, he no longer felt like he was suffering through an alien lobotomy. He left the kitchen for the living room, turning the lights on.
Afraid his legs would fail him soon, he made his way to the staircase. He dropped his backpack on the first two steps, where it rolled down and hit the ground with a soft thud.
"I… should… quit doing… this kind of… thing," he whispered through heavy breaths. Something near his ear beeped. He raised his head, straining to see through the dark spots floating in his vision, and looked at his watch.
"Good. It’s still 7 pm. I should get enough… sleep this time."
With one arm on the handrail and the other on his forearm, he pulled himself up and resumed his ascension to the second floor.
"C’mon Gregory, you're almost there. Just a little… further…" he whispered to himself, trying to gather the motivation to not pass out where he stood.
The second floor corridor was reasonably well lit by a single yellowish wall light. Its light was always on during the night, so he wouldn't stumble whenever he had to wake up to use the bathroom. Or whenever he got home beaten up from work. He was glad his house had walls, for they were pretty useful in guiding him and keeping him from falling over. His head was spinning and he could hear a faint buzz in his ears. The pressure inside his skull was making him wish he could smash it open to alleviate it, but it wasn't hurting, so it could wait until morning. Keeping himself propped against the wall was proving to be a mighty challenge in itself. His shoulder was already burning after just a few seconds, and his feet were hurting from being stuffed inside his shoes for a whole day.
The corridor carpet was suffering a great deal of damage from his muddy shoes, but he gave no fucks about that. His mind had just forgotten how to do that in that particular moment. When he got to his room, no switches were flipped, no stumbling happened. He was on autopilot, and just dove face-first onto his bed. He let out a long sigh, a warm grin forming on his face.
Greg's eyes shot open and he raised his head. The sound of shattered glass startled him back into consciousness.
"What the…" he slurred, looking at the digital clock next to his bed. "4 am? Why am I even awake?"
Too tired to think, he laid his head back down and closed his eyes, ready to be engulfed by Morpheus' embrace. Once more, he recognized the crunch of glass coming from outside. His eyes shot open again in the realisation that there shouldn't be any noise this late at night. His bedroom's window was open and there was no wind blowing, nor any rain pouring, so it wasn't being caused naturally. The street he lived on was always eerily quiet. All his neighbors enjoyed the sound of silence. He groaned, rolled over, and put his feet on the ground, his head still feeling hazy. He rubbed his face slowly with both hands, and passed them through his hair, massaging his scalp. When his mind got coherent enough, he reached for his shotgun that rested against the wall next to the nightstand, grabbing it and standing up.
"Hmm," he said, looking down to his feet.
He sat back down on his bed, put the gun aside, and pulled his shoestrings, carefully taking the shoes off and putting them on the floor. Now, with his feet bare and armed to his teeth, he began his investigation. He stood in front of his bedroom door, facing the corridor outside. Again, the damned brightness of the hallway incapacitated him for a little while until his eyes got adjusted to the luminosity. He poked his head out of the room. The coast was clear. He then exited the room, giving his ears the most focus he could. He took careful steps, making sure to not hit the ground too hard. When he got to the top of the staircase, he stopped and looked down, just to make sure no one was inside his house.
What the… why are all lights on? Did I do this? , he thought, halting at the top of the staircase. He closed his eyes and brought his left hand up to his face, slowly rubbing it. Talk about being trashed... , he continued, sighing and letting his arm fall limply.
Scanning the staircase and front door before him, he could see through the front door's little window that the darkness of the earliest hours of the morning still engulfed the world outside. He began the most careful and stealthy descent of his life. With fast but well-measured steps, he made his way down. When he got to the bottom of the staircase, he looked around. A loud thud came from the general direction of the kitchen, indicating the noises were definitively coming from outside. He carefully peeked in through the doorway that lead to the kitchen, eyeing the the back door. The door to the back yard was still closed, to his luck, for he hadn’t locked it up after getting home.
He slipped into the kitchen, crouching down to avoid being spotted through the windows, quickly crawling towards the back door. Pressing himself against the wall next to the door frame, he stood up and looked through the door's window. It was way too dark. He couldn't see much outside. One thing he could see, though, was the garage door, thanks to the street light. Its glass window had been broken.
"Fuck," he growled.
He sat down on the ground beside the door. His blood went cold as he heard footsteps. A pit formed inside his guts that deepened every time the feet of whoever was outside hit the concrete ground. That wasn't an otherworldly unknown noise produced by an unknown source. There's actually people out there. And there shouldn't be any.
His mind went into overdrive, weighing the situation and his options. Should they be armed, chances are he would get shot. If they were not armed though, kicking them out would be a breeze. Expect the best, but be prepared for the worst. Taking this carefully seemed like the only sane option. Popping out like the star of an action film and forcing them surrender was out of the question.
He peeked through the window once more, trying to get more information from the surroundings of the backdoor. There was nothing much that could be seen. He placed his ear near the door, in the hope of capturing any new noise. Still nothing. Greg was in the dark, which made him sigh in frustration.
A slight clicking noise came from the outside, signaling the trespassers had opened the garage door. Greg looked outside again, and saw two silhouettes slip inside the place. The invaders switched the lights on.
"Ok, now this has gone too damn far," Greg growled under his breath, slowly turning the door handle, carefully pulling it open and slipping outside. He took cover to the side of garage, listening to the intruders, who spoke in harsh whispers.
"I don't see it, Russell. Is it still here?" one of the invaders said, peeking inside the car through the passenger door window.
"I SAW it going through that window. It HAS to be here," said Russell, looking around the garage.
"Maybe you're just high. I don't see shit in here."
Russell looked at the other man.
"Yeah, it will totally be inside the car," he said mockingly.
"Well, it could be," the other replied indignantly, getting away from the car.
"Ugh, shut up Larry. Could you stop being a moron and look around? I didn't run all night long just to walk away empty-handed."
Greg got closer to the garage door, pressing his back against the wall near the doorway.
"Why don't we just forget this? This is such bullshit!" said Larry, kicking some tools that were scattered around the floor.
"We already broke into a house. Now that we're here, let's do what we're here to do. And stop making noise. You're going to get us caught."
"Catching this thing ourselves is stupid, I tell you. If Kevin wants to keep cutting it, why doesn’t HE capture it back?"
"Wanna get cut instead?" asked Russel, flatly.
"Hah, like he would have the guts to do that," replied Larry, ironically. "Killing little animals doesn't make him any scarier than a 16 year old. He's just a twat that pretends to be tough."
"Then go back and tell him that!" said Russell. Both men stood in silence, staring at each other. "What you're waiting for? Go already!"
"Nah, too far away. I'm here anyway, so I'll help you to get that beast back."
"Huh, brave much?"
"What, are you calling me a coward?"
"Yes, I am."
"You better take that back!"
"Or what? Gonna cry?"
"You…!"
"Look, I'll punch your face later for as long as you want if you really want it. But now I want to get this over with, so PLEASE shut the hell up and LOOK around instead of staring at me with your asshole face."
"Pfft, whatever."
Greg decided it was time to pop into the garage. "Ahem," he said, pumping his shotgun, the loud metallic click startling the trespassers. "That's right boys, nice and slow now, I want to see hands in the air."
The two slowly raised their hands.
"Now, turn around, SLOWLY, and you two better not try anything funny."
The two slowly turned around.
"Now," Greg said, in a low and calm tone, "I wanna see any guns you two might have on the ground, one at a time. You go first, fatty," he said, pointing the barrel at Russell.
"W-we don't have any guns, sir..."
"No guns? Hmm... I don't believe in you. So you better drop anything you have you fat fuck, before I drop YOUR insides all over the ground," he said, taking a step further, making Russell step back.
"I-I swear man, we don't have anything!"
"We don't wanna rob you! Honest!" said Larry. Greg snapped the barrel at his direction. "And what about you, huh? What about YOU telling me what you two are doing here?"
Larry gaped several times.
"What? I can't hear you! C'mon, start talking!"
"Sir, we-"
Greg locked the barrel back at Russell's torso.
"Yes?"
"We didn't come to rob you, sir."
"Oh, really? So you two casually broke in my garage... just for the fun of it, I suppose?"
The two trespassers stood in silence, exchanging gazes between themselves and Greg's gun.
"I asked a fucking question. Answer it!"
"N-no, it's not like that. We just..."
"You what!?"
"We're looking for something... that went in here."
"Looking for something? What something would that be?"
"It's... it's hard to explain."
"You better try your best to explain it to me as clear as possible then," said Greg, tightening the grip on his gun.
Russell eyed Larry with wide eyes, getting the same kind of look back.
"Any fucking time now, sweetheart."
"We're after..." Russell gulped, "we're after a horse. That's why we're here."
"A... horse?" said Greg, raising one of his eyebrows.
"Yes... a horse."
Greg gaped, and his eyes turned into slits while he processed that absurdity over and over.
"Inside THIS garage?"
"Yeah, it came through that window," said Russell, shakingly pointing towards the garage's side door broken window.
"A horse... through that tiny window? Are you sure kid? That you saw a HORSE going through THAT window?"
"Yes, sir."
"Because what I think went through that window is a load of bullshit!" Greg said, training the gun at Russell's head.
"Woah woah woah! Don't shoot! I'm not lying! I swear!" cried Russell, taking a few steps back.
"And I SWEAR I'll paint the inside of this garage in brain matter grey and gut red if you two fuckers don't GET THE HELL out of here right now!"
"C'mon Russell! Let's bounce!" said Larry, plucking at Russell's sleeve.
"But we didn't get it back!" replied Russell to Larry.
"Forget it! Let's get out of here!"
"Get out of here?" said Greg. The two man snapped at his direction. "Why should I let you two just go?"
"Because... you... you just told us to do so?"
"Yeah, I said that, didn't I? But now that I think about it, that would be a BAD idea."
The invaders looked at each other and then back at Greg.
"Why?" asked Larry.
"You two would come back tomorrow to get your payback. Or maybe not tomorrow, but in the next week. Or in the next month. Or in ten years from now. Even if I called the cops and you two ended up in jail, you'd get out eventually, and I wouldn't have any peace until we met again. So..." he trailed.
The two trespassers widened their eyes.
"Who’s going first?" he asked, switching his aim between the two.
"C'mon now man, you don't need to do this," pleaded Russell, cowering against the workbench after him.
"Yeah, we wouldn't come after you. We learned our lesson!"
"Oh...?" said Greg, lowering the barrel of his gun a bit, "You... learned your lesson? What lesson would it be then?"
"Uh... well... we uh... we...," started Larry.
"That we... we shouldn't-"
"Yeah, you two learned shit, that's what," he said, bringing the barrel up. "So, I'm gonna ask again, who's going first? Better pick your choice before I choose for you two."
"Please, I don't wanna die!" cried Larry.
Greg's gaze went distant as he heard those words. He stood silent for several seconds, never putting the barrel down. The two men leaned against the workbench, frozen in terror.
"You know... I just had a wonderful idea," he said, his gaze returning to the two. He then looked to the side, eyeing one of his big tool chests. A hideous idea had popped inside his head, perfect for this situation. The kind of solution that would solve this problem for good, and even probably with minimal bloodshed.
He moved towards his big tool chest, his gun still keeping the two men at bay. He pulled the chest's lid open, strapped the shotgun to his back and grabbed the chainsaw that was inside of it. With three firm pulls on its string, he brought the beast to life.
"Mmhhhhmm... oooohhh yeeeaaaahhh..." he hummed deeply, inhaling the engine fumes with a maniac glee. He then slowly looked back at the two with wide eyes, noting their terrified expressions with extreme satisfaction.
In a sudden move, Greg trudged towards them, squeezing the chainsaw’s trigger, making an unholy racket.
"Holy shit! Aww shit! Aaaawww SHIIIT!" squealed Larry, backing away.
"LET'S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! FUCKING RUN, DAMN IT!" screamed Russell, pulling Larry by the arm.
"No, you won't get away. Not until I'm fucking DONE! COME BACK OVER HERE!!"
The two men ran around the car that was parked inside and bolted out of the garage, with Greg following them with a fast paced walk, intermittently revving his chainsaw. When he got to the sidewalk out front, the two were already far down the street. He turned off the chainsaw.
"And stay gone," he whispered.
He turned around and made his way back to the garage, to get a good idea about the extent of the damages. He entered the garage, put the chainsaw back in its place and walked around the car to see if there were any scratches.
Good, the car's okay.
He then looked back at his tool bench, which seemed to have been pulled out of place. Looking down, he noticed that most of the tools he had left scattered on the ground were now under the car. He sighed and began to collect them. His hands didn’t obey him very keenly, for they shook with great might, and every attempt of him to stop that failed miserably.
"4 fucking a.m.... thanks for kicking them... under the car, you... assholes," he grunted through heavy breaths.
After dropping the fallen tools on his bench, he laid both his hands over it, resting some of his weight over his shoulders, letting his head hang low, taking deep breaths. He could still feel his hands shaking, and his legs threatening to fault him at any moment.
Alright, alright. Breathe now, breathe , he thought to himself, trying to ease his mind out of that state of excitement. Each breath he exhaled seemed to take away some of that extra energy. The deep pit inside his guts began to dissipate, allowing him to gradually relax with the reassurance he wouldn’t throw up right there.
He forced himself away from the bench, bringing both his hands to his head, massaging his scalp vigorously before interlacing his fingers behind his back..
“4 fucking a.m… 4 fucking a-fucking-m… ” he whispered, looking to the light bulb overhead, sighing heavily.
He allowed his arms to fall limply, clenching and opening his fists several times, feeling the adrenaline dissipate away from his arms. He sighed heavily, walked back closer to his workbench, grabbed one of its corners, and readied himself to put it back to its proper place when a faint sound, like someone's breathing, got his attention.
Am I hearing that right? He angled his head, aiming an ear behind the bench. In fact, there WAS someone gasping for air behind it. He promptly grabbed the back corner and pulled it away from the wall, letting the light illuminate whatever was back there.
"What the..." he began, but words couldn't describe what his mind was experiencing.
Behind his bench, there was something that he recognized, but made less sense with each passing moment. It had four legs, a tail, a long neck, and a mane. It was a horse. A small one. It could have been just a foal, or even a small pony, except for a few unearthly differences. Its coat, a striking shade of purple, was the first point that made Greg doubt his eyes. Was he still half-asleep? It could be. Maybe it was the adrenaline of kicking those bastards off of his lawn. Also probable. Or MAYBE, that thing was actually there.
Its legs, covered in bruises and blood stains from top to bottom, made him wonder what it had endured before it ended up here. In fact, its whole body was in the same precarious condition. From its back, near its shoulders, two wings protruded out of its body and - wait, WINGS!?
Horses don't have fricking wings! That’s not right! What the hell is that? Greg got closer to it and looked it up and down, trying to capture better the details of what he was witnessing. Yes, there they were. Two majestic, purple wings. One was partially extended, pinned beneath the creature as it lay there panting. The other twitched nervously, showing its glorious, glossy long feathers. At least, for the ones that were still there. Heck, what happened to it? That wing was missing most of its feathers, and some parts of it had exposed flesh. He looked to the left, eyeing the creature's head. The only injury he could notice was a big cut on its left cheek. The cut seemed recent, and serious. He also noticed something as strange as the wings. A horn? What the—
"Pl... please... " the creature whispered. Startled by the sudden vocalisation, Greg jumped back, looking around the garage for more intruders. Finding none, he then looked back at the creature, not knowing what to do.
"Did you…?"
"Help…"
His jaw dropped open. Was an animal talking? And he was understanding?
What the hell? How am I even… Who do I think I am? Doctor Dolittle?
The creature coughed, gasping for air. Greg approached it again.
"Um, hey," he said, trying to think of anything to say, but the words were fleeing from his mind. "You… um… are you ok?"
"H…elp…"
"Uh… well… let me just…"
He wrapped his arms around its barrel, awkwardly lifting it up. Hearing the groan of pain the creature released, he decided that way wouldn't work. He then put it back on the ground and ran inside his house. He came back with a thick blanket, wrapped the creature carefully, making sure all its limbs were well secured, and scooped it off the ground.
"You're kinda of heavy, aren't ya?" he joked, turning around and walking out of the garage. "Well, let's take care of you, whatever you may be."
Twilight slowly opened her eyes. The sunlight coming through the window illuminated the bedroom well, making it too bright for her to fall asleep again. She groaned, covered her face with a foreleg, and rolled away from the light, burying her face in her mattress.
Shards of memory from a dream fluttered around inside her head, slowly making her mental cogwheels turn, making her mind dwell on it. She generally had a hard time recalling most of the details of her dreams. Only the main details stuck around long enough to be remembered. Her mind ruminated on those thoughts. From what she could piece together from the very volatile memories, she had managed to successfully experiment with the teleportation spell, even managing to leave her world altogether.
Heh, if only things were that easy.
She had gotten good results by messing with the runes of the default teleportation spell, getting a rather impressive range from it. As she marveled at the beauty of that spell, she wondered... how did she get back into her bed? She strained to recall the events before she went to sleep. They weren't very clear, for they blended almost seamlessly with what happened in her dream. Where did reality stop and the dream begin? She couldn't tell. However, she was too tired to be appropriately upset. Sleep deprivation played a big role in this, so there wasn’t much to fret about. If nothing else, she could always ask Spike if he knew how she ended up in her bed. For now, she wanted to sleep just a little longer, so she snuggled further into the covers, closing her eyes.
"Ouch,” she cried quietly when the fabric of the sheets agitated the cut on her face.
What the , she thought, shooting her eyes open, but covering them right after with a foreleg when she felt the daylight assault her retinas.
She quickly sat up, but regretted that decision in the very next moment. Why did her whole body hurt? She looked down to her forelegs, noticing several bandages wrapped around them. Most of her body was covered in some sort of bandages. The dream… it wasn't fading. Not this time. The more she thought about it, the more she could remember. It hadn’t been a dream at all. The deplorable state of her body was the proof of that.
This can't be good , she thought, feeling a pit form inside her.
That wasn’t her bedroom. The one she was in was smaller, about a quarter of the size of her own. The walls, all painted in an off-white tone, were a stark contrast to the generally dark and bluish tones that the bedroom in her castle displayed. The bright colors of the walls reflected the natural light well, which helped brighten up the room, but also made her eyes ache immensely.
The bed she found herself in was slightly longer than hers, and had around half its width, and was surprisingly not much more uncomfortable. Its frame was of a light brown wood, with no decorations. A pretty simplistic bed. The sheets were white, apart from the spots of blood where they came in contact with her wounds. Beside the bed sat a simple dark brown nightstand. On top of it was a glass, which seemed to be filled with—
Water! she exclaimed in her mind. She focused on the cup, reaching for it with her magic. She waited… and waited. But nothing happened.
"What? No magic yet? Ugh, that's great," she cursed under her breath. The dryness of her mouth felt like she was chewing fine grained sand, or a bunch of forever-dry cotton.
She shifted her position onto the bed, getting closer to the nightstand and to the much-desired water. She grabbed the cup with both her forelegs and gulped down its contents. The water felt like the most amazing thing in the world. Never had she stopped to think how good it was to drink a glass of water, or the sensation of the immaculate liquid quenching down her thirst as it travelled down her throat.
I could use a second one of these... or maybe two more , she thought, wiping her lips dry with a forehoof.
Ok... now... where am I? , she thought. She stood in silence for a few moments, hoping some noise would come from the outside of the room, giving her a better hint of what she might be dealing with. The place was silent though. The only sounds around were coming from the birds singing outside and her own breathing. Her body was demanding her to lie down again to resume its resting, but she was determined to find out how deep she was in trouble. Clearly this wasn't Equestria. But then, what was this foreign place? It seemed quite similar in some aspects. Whatever creature may live here seems to have glasses, beds, sheets, windows, and even a sun. Maybe they had more in common? Her hopes began to rise, but they fell down the next moment, as she decided that making such conclusions without enough information was a sin for any scientist worth their position. Such a mistake could mean death in this situation.
After that little deliberation, she traced her plan. First thing that obviously came into her mind was to explore the place. Know who or what had saved her and how friendly they might be.
"All right," she whispered, throwing the covers to the side, "time to move."
She rolled onto her side until she ended up on her stomach. She slowly extended her hind legs out of the bed. Her face contorted itself in discomfort as she slid out of bed, her stomach rubbing against the mattress until her back hooves touched the ground. From there on was easy. She quickly got onto her hooves.
"Ouch. My... ouch..." she tried to say, but her whole body lit up in pain.
Her body was completely sore. Her joints ached and felt stuck, like rusted gears that hadn't seen a drop of oil in ages. Her muscles were in flames, or at least they felt like they were, and what she was feeling now was just the aftermath. Her legs were unresponsive, failing to take her orders faithfully. Her left cheek was oversensitive. The cut on her face seemed to weigh a lot and was throbbing, something that was both unpleasant and distracting, and the bruises near her knees ached as they reopened every time she slightly bent them. Overall, she was pretty beaten up, but alive.
Ow. Ouch. Ouch. Even breathing hurts , she thought, squeezing her eyes shut and taking short breaths. "Got to move," she whispered to herself, trying to find some motivation to face the pain.
She made her way to the bedroom door. It was slightly open, revealing a small part of the hallway. From there she could see portion of a wall where a painting hung, along with part of a big, deep blue rug. As she approached the open door, she could feel a soft breeze coming from outside. Using her muzzle, she gently pushed the door open, revealing the rest of the hallway and the rug that covered the floor. To her right there was a brown, wooden door. To her left, she could see another door, this one open, the rest of the corridor, a wall light, and the top of a staircase. Focusing on her ears, she tried to capture any sound of movement, which again, seemed to not exist.
Maybe there's nopony home.
She exited the room, taking a left. The rug muffled her hoofsteps, something she noticed which made her walk more confidently. Passing in front of the open door, she could see another bedroom, with its windows open and the white, translucent curtains being blown around by the wind. She halted, looking into it. She sat down there with a smile on her muzzle, closing her eyes and enjoying the sensation of the cool, early morning breeze flowing around her face and neck. She then looked down to the ground, letting the air pass over her head and between her ears. The chilling sensation helped to relieve some of the tension in her fatigued muscles.
"Ahh... this feels... so good," she said, a dumb smile on her face. She opened her eyes, looking to the rug under her.
I can't exactly say I'm safe here. Better leave this for later.
She got up, her body proclaiming inaudible curses which translated into pain for unnecessarily sitting down and standing up. She resumed her walk, paying attention to her surroundings, still not sure what the place was saving for her. Getting to the end of the hallway, she found herself facing the staircase. She looked down, seeing the front door and the white daylight coming through its small window. It made her wonder why she didn't go for a walk in the early mornings, since she always got up so early. She began her descent, her hooves now directly hitting the wooden floor. The sudden loud sound startled her.
Ponyfeathers , she thought, better take this one pretty easily.
Her shoulders protested against the abuse of putting most of her weight upon them as she made her way downstairs, but she had no other choice than to ignore them and keep pushing forward. One hoofstep at the time, she was closer to getting out of that uncomfortable position. She felt relieved when she got to the bottom of the stairs. That staircase was the most difficult one to traverse she had ever come across. To her right was the living room. She noticed the two light brown couches, one near the same wall as the front door, and the other against the wall perpendicular to the first one. The walls were the same white color of the bedroom, with a few weird and pretty abstract paintings hanging on them, with varying tones of red and yellow. Also, there was a black and flat panel apparently attached to a wall, facing the largest of the couches. In the center of the room was a small table with a glass top, with a bunch of papers scattered on top of it. Under the couches and the center table was a big, thin rug. The place seemed cozy, she thought, even though she wasn't sure if it was safe.
She moved towards the center table, in the hopes that the leftover papers would serve as clues to her whereabouts.
Ok. Now, where to begin?
She concentrated her thoughts on the nearest paper thing that was sitting idle, pulling from her memory the well-known levitation spell. Again, her horn left her unserviced, giving her a slight headache. She pursed her lips and winced as the localized pain throbbed inside her head, bringing a foreleg and rubbing her forehead.
Sighing in defeat, she pulled the chosen magazine closer, attempting to open it with her hooves.
"Sweet Celestia, how does anypony else read without magic?" she whispered while failing to open the magazine. "This is ridiculous! I can't bucking open it! Ugh, for Celestia's sake, stop slipping!"
A door was opened in the kitchen, making Twilight snap at the direction of the noise.
Oh no! , she thought, frantically.
She maneuvered to hide but failed miserably when she, in the frenzy of the moment, managed to trip herself on the rug, falling face-first on the floor with a loud thud that echoed throughout the house.
"Owch!" she cried, her eyes closed tightly as the pain reverberated through her frame, with a few tears pinpricking on her eyes as her body shrieked in anger from the sudden abuse.
The noise from the kitchen suddenly stopped. She felt a pit in her stomach. The feeling of knowing that you possibly gave away your position to an enemy, especially in such a ridiculous manner, made her blood freeze. Hurried footsteps came from the kitchen, and she could hear them thundering towards her. Twilight's ears fell flat against her skull, her legs getting rather numb with the horror that was filling her body.
I’ve got to get out of here! I’ve got to get out of here! I’ve got to get out of here! , she repeated to herself in her mind, trying to force herself to stand up again, but her body refused keenly.
"Uh... are you ok?" asked a voice from behind her.
That's it , she thought. All the efforts she had put up so far were thrown to waste because of some stupid mistake. This was her fault, she thought. She was going to die because of her own stupidity. She wouldn't see her parents anymore. Nor her friends. Nor Spike. Nor Celestia or Luna. She was doomed. Condemned to perish in some unknown world, with completely hostile creatures. Who would bury her? Who would give her a tomb to rest in peace? Who would put flowers over her grave? A few instants that seemed to last an eternity for Twilight passed, carrying with them a dreadful silence. She waited for the enemy to deliver the fatal blow upon her vulnerable body, the silence in the room only helping on making the situation scarier. Whatever was near her, it sure was taking its sweet time to get this over with.
"Hey, are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?" said Greg, stepping closer to her.
"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!" she yelled. The sudden rush of adrenalin made her legs responsive once again, which she used to prop herself up and run away towards the dining room.
"Hey, wait!" exclaimed Greg.
Twilight used all her strength to run away from him, but failed when she had to brake. She tried to stop but her hooves slipped on the glossy wood floor. She hit the opposite wall of the dining room, knocking down a vase that rested on top of a small plaster column. The column hit the ground with a dry thud, breaking in two. The vase hit the ground and shattered itself into millions of shards. Twilight lost her balance and fell upon all that mess.
"Holy shit..." said Greg, bringing both his hands to his head.
She forced herself up again, going through the passage that lead to the kitchen, knocking down everything around her.
"Damn it, stop running! You’re gonna bring the whole place down!" exclaimed Greg. He walked quickly towards the dining room and peeked into the kitchen. Twilight had knocked down a few of the benches that sat around the center counter of the kitchen while trying to stop. She stood there, leaning against the center counter, taking fast breaths and looking around for any signs of danger.
"Hey..." said Greg, being extra careful not to shout. Twilight yelped, resuming her evasion. She went towards the other kitchen's entrance, which lead to the bottom of the staircase and the living room.
"Fuck!" said Greg, gritting his teeth. He ran back to the living room in an attempt to stop Twilight while there was still some of his house left. Twilight noticed Greg coming in her direction and, failing once more to stop, jumped over the center table. She didn't manage to steer her jump very well, and ended up flying towards the TV, hitting the flat screen television with her body. She quickly stood on her hooves, pressing herself against the corner of the room.
"DON'T HURT ME, PLEASE!" she pleaded while covering her face with her forelegs.
"STOP IT!" yelled Greg. Twilight went silent, and slowly lowered her forelegs to look at the strange creature that was pursuing her.
"I'm not going to hurt you! If I intended to do you ANY harm whatsoever, I would've done it BEFORE you woke up!"
Twilight kept staring at him.
"So... now... can we... PLEASE... calm down a little?" he said in a low but firm tone, raising his hands defensively. Twilight responded with a quick nod, her stare fixed at him.
"Good... good," he said, exhaling. He brought his hands to his waist and looked down at the floor, eyeing the out of place rug and and center table. He looked to his side, seeing the now destroyed flat screen TV lying on the floor. He switched his glare to the dining room. The plaster column laid on the ground, snapped in two, and the floor was covered with shards of porcelain from the vase. He closed his eyes and pursed his lips, shaking his head while exhaling once again.
"Are you okay?" he asked, looking at her. She responded with another short nod.
"Look, you didn’t need to do ALL that, alright? I won't hurt you, I promise. You can come out of your corner if you want, okay?" he said.
Twilight relaxed a little bit as she heard that. The creature promised not to attack her. That was comforting, to some extent.
She stared back at him for a little while and, very reluctantly, got herself out of the constrained corner. She measured her steps cautiously, checking the creature's reactions at each step she took. She halted a few steps away from him and looked around. Her ears fell flat upon realising the mess she caused.
"I-I'm sorry! I d-didn't mean to-"
Greg raised his hand, interrupting her. He pursed his lips and looked away from Twilight, letting out a heavy sigh. He looked down to the ground, slowly breathing out all the frustration. He then looked back at her, giving a short nod.
Twilight's mouth gaped several times before she finally gave up and closed it.
"Did you hurt yourself on those shards of porcelain?" he asked.
"Uh... n-no. I guess not," she said, sitting down and eyeing her forelegs and body.
"And when you fell down?"
"No, I'm good, thanks."
"Good? Oh, well, that's... that's good," he said.
Twilight looked away from him, biting down her lower lip as she looked around once more, taking in the results of her overreaction.
"So... uh..." he began. She looked up to him. "Sleep well?"
She kept staring at him, the question not quite sinking in.
“Mmm?” he inquired.
"Uh… Yes. Yes, I did, thanks."
"Oh, good, good. That's also good."
Twilight looked down to her forelegs, eyeing one of the curatives.
"Also, thank you for the bandages. I wasn't in very good shape."
"Yeah. You were in pretty bad shape. How did you get like this anyway?"
"It's... kind of a long story..." she trailed. Greg kept looking at her for a while, waiting her to continue talking, which she never did.
"Must be a heck of a story then. There were those two fuc- uh... ahem... guys... here yesterday, who broke in my garage. They said they were looking for their horse. I suppose... they were after you?"
Twilight’s ears flattened against her head, and she averted her gaze from him. Vague and unfocused memories from the last night flooded her mind, forming a pit inside her guts. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to recall any more details from what was deeply buried inside her subconsciousness. The less she remembered, the better.
“Uh... I guess... you don’t want to talk about it..."
"I would like not to," she replied, looking back at him.
"Oh, alright. Sorry, didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable."
Twilight just stared back at him.
"Can I have a glass of water? Well, another one actually. I already drank the one you left for me."
"Oh, sure, sorry. How rude of me. Should have asked that first. Just a second."
Greg ran to the kitchen and came back with a glass full of cold water.
"Thank you," she said.
He held the glass while Twilight stared at it for a while.
"Uhh..." Greg said, confused.
"Oh, sorry. It’s just... nevermind," replied Twilight. She grabbed the glass with her forehooves. With some difficulty, she managed to put the glass on her mouth and swallow all the water.
“Thank you,” she said, holding the glass forward with her forehooves so Greg could take it. He gave a short nod, taking the empty glass back to the kitchen.
“So,” he said, walking out of the kitchen, drying his hands on his jeans, "since you can talk, I imagine you also might have a name. What would that be?”
"Oh, yes. I’m Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship," she said with a large smile, her chest stuffed full of pride in proclaiming her royal title.
There were so many things wrong with this. Greg didn’t know where to begin. There it was, a talking, purple horse-pony-thingy standing on his living room, fluently talking the very same language as him, telling him she was the princess of... what now? Friendship?
"Sorry, didn't catch the last part. You said you are...?"
"Um, the princess of... friendship...?" she repeated, this time less confident.
He heard it correctly. What a surreal situation! Not only was he talking to an animal, but one that was apparently royalty. Is that even a thing? Do animals have royalty? What does this all mean? Is it from another world? Another dimension? Independent of the answer, this was happening, right here, right in this instant. He crossed his arms and looked down to the floor, a small smile forming on his face. He kept his glare fixed on a darker spot on the floorboards while a light sensation formed inside his stomach. It quickly spread around his body, making his smile grow wider when it got to his face.
Twilight kept staring at him, trying to understand the reason for him going completely silent. Her mind began to go over everything she said up to that point, trying to find out if she had said something utterly stupid that, somewhat, managed to shut him down. Her glare moved around the floor around her while her mind worked at full steam. Failing to find any flaw in her discourse, she looked back up at Greg.
An uncomfortable sense of awkwardness that only Twilight seemed to feel began to build up exponentially. A pit formed inside her stomach that, combined with the thirst and all the stress, was making her feel slightly worried.
“Uh… hey… are you ok?” asked Twilight.
Greg looked back at her, the smile never leaving his face.
“Yeah. Yeah, everything is alright,” he said.
“Uh… look, did I… did I say something… uh, wrong?” asked Twilight, unsure.
“No. Not at all. Why do you ask?”
“Well, you went completely silent… I thought I had said something bad...”
“Oh no no no,” he said, chuckling, “You didn’t say anything bad. Don’t worry. I’m just impressed, that’s all.”
“Impressed? About what?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“About you,” he said, smiling.
“Uh… what?” she said, looking suspiciously at him.
"I never thought I would make contact with an alien, especially like this."
"Uh, excuse me!?"
"Don't get me wrong, I didn't mean it in any depreciative way,” he said, raising his hands defensively, “But really, this is very interesting. I'm right here, in my living room, talking with a creature that seems to not to be from this world. Or if you are from this world, meaning you’re not an alien but whatever, I just can’t imagine how... I mean, horses don't talk... at least in a way humans can comprehend, so I can’t fathom, in case you’re from this world, how you manage to speak like me. Or if you’re not from this world, then… well, regardless, I’m speaking with another sentient life form. That’s... mind blowing. I mean, how many people have the opportunity to TALK with another sentient species?" he said, with a wide grin on his face. "It is... it's just that... uh... well... wow, this is… this is just awesome."
Twilight was speechless. Greg looked down, with his arms crossed, still smiling, shaking his head sideways slowly, while the incredible feeling of making contact with another sentient lifeform sank in, numbing his mind. He then came back to himself.
"Sorry for rambling in front of you, but you just made my day. Thank you", he said, with a wide smile.
Twilight's face still held serious.
"Well, princess, it's a honor," he said, bowing at her. "My name is Gregory Resley. I'm... well, I live here. I ah... I'm not royalty, just a normal person. I’m a software engineer and uh... I don't know what else to say so... welcome to my humble house."
"It's a honor as well Mr. Resley," replied Twilight.
"So, now that we have properly introduced ourselves... may I ask, are you hungry?"
Twilight ears perked up as she heard that. She could feel her insides digesting themselves.
"You have NO idea," she answered with an excessively wide smile.
"Cool, I made pancakes," he said, walking towards the kitchen. He came to a dead halt right after, and turned around to face Twilight.
"Uh... is pancakes alright? I mean... uh... what do you eat? I guess I should’ve asked that first. What do you eat?"
"Pancakes are fine," replied Twilight, smiling.
"Fine? ok,” he said, giving a quick nod, walking back in the kitchen.
Greg came from the kitchen holding two stacked plates in one hand and another plate full of pancakes on the other. Twilight was sitting on a chair, staring down at the dining table’s darkened glass top, looking at her reflection as her mind wandered around the universe.
"They’re still hot, so be careful," he said.
Twilight looked up at him while he set up the table.
"So, uh..." he trailed, putting a few pancakes onto Twilight’s plate and then proceeding to sit down in his chair. Twilight slightly raised one of her eyebrows. Greg’s mouth gaped, opening and closing, but nothing coming out of it. An expression of confusion spread across Twilight’s face.
"Yes?"
“Yeah. Uh... alright. So, uh... how... how did you get here?” he said, sitting down on his chair.
"I teleported. Or rather, misteleported."
“Teleported, huh..."
"Yes."
"Like, using a machine...?"
"Wha- oh no. Using magic," she replied.
Greg’s left eyebrow raised significantly.
"...magic?"
"Yes," she replied.
Greg stood in silence for a little while, staring at Twilight. He looked down to the table and slowly nodded.
“Magic...”
Twilight twisted her head slightly in confusion.
"So... you’re a magician. Hmm, that’s cool," Greg said, looking back at her.
"No no. I’m well versed with magic, but I’m not a magician. I don’t do performances or anything of the sort."
"Hmm. So what kind of magic you do?"
"Well, the general type. Magic is my special talent."
"Hmm. So, you used your magic to teleport here… why?"
“There’s no reason actually. Ending up here was kind of accidental," she said.
"Accidental? Like, you were walking on the street when you tripped on a rock and then... 'oh noes, I'm teleporting'?” he said, exaggeratedly gesticulating with his hands.
"Uh, no…?" she said, chuckling.
"So what? You teleported blindly?"
"Something like that. I guess saying that I teleported mindlessly would be more appropriate."
“I uh… I don’t get it. You teleported… without thinking where you were going to end up?”
"No, I was trying to teleport somewhere, but the spell backfired…”
“Hmm...” he said.
They stood in silence for a little while, eating their pancakes.
“Seems to me that this spell thing is sort of dangerous.”
“Actually it isn’t. It’s pretty safe. It gets dangerous when you modify them though…”
"Oh, so you modified this spell of yours..."
"Yeah... I uh... I was doing some research... with this spell. I modified it... but I guess I exaggerated a bit..."
Twilight sighed.
“If I had been more cautious, I would probably be home right now...”
"Hmm, you got into all this trouble because you messed up?"
"I didn't 'mess up'. I was... well... experimenting."
"Hmm,” he said. "And it didn't go as expected."
She sighed. "No..."
"In other words... you messed it up."
Twilight frowned at him.
"Hey," she said, annoyed.
"How does this spell messing business goes anyway? How do you mess up one?"
She kept her glare fixed on his face for a little while, but gave up and sighed. "You just have to mix the wrong runes, or lose your concentration for a little bit. That's enough to cause problems."
"And what’s the case for you?"
“I lost my concentration... which made me mess up the runes. Just a little bit.”
“Hmm...”
"I was in one of my research marathons, something I do sometimes when I find something interesting. This time, I found a book about teleportation, one of my preferred spells."
"Mhm."
"I read in it that it was possible to change the default teleportation spell to get more range with a simple, easy to do adjustment. I followed it down the line... well, sort of."
"Mhm."
"I spent two days researching the subject. When I felt confident enough, I decided to try it out. It was pretty simple, a couple of runes that had to be changed and more concentration to keep it stable. I tested it and it worked. The thing is, the modification seemed pretty logical for me, so I began to experiment. First getting five times more range, than ten, twenty, forty, a hundred times. It seemed almost like a linear increase to me. Subsequent changes on the runes giving subsequently longer ranges. But one thing I failed to notice, I imagine because of my lack of sleep, is that each increase turned the thing less stable. I didn't notice because the amount of magic needed to brute-force stabilize it was neglectable. I kept pushing it to its limits, until... well..."
"You ended up here?"
"It was instantaneous, just like teleporting normally. Then I felt the effects... the amount of magic necessary to keep it stable was enormous, which made me blackout. And it probably what depleted my magic... and gave my horn those cracks," she said, rubbing her horn with her forehoof.
"Hmm, I don't know anything about, well, any of that, but to me your theory seems sound. And, if you allow me to say, you're pretty lucky."
"Uh... what do you mean?"
"I mean... think about it. In all the infinity of the universe, of all the places you could've ended up landing on top of, all the stars, all the black holes, asteroids and all other spatial structures and formations that are completely empty of life, you managed to land here, on a planet with rather reasonable creatures."
Twilight stood in silence for a while, pondering what he said.
"Well, in a sense..." she said, looking down to the table and tapping her chin with the tip of her left forehoof, "you're right." She continued, looking back at him, "I was pretty lucky."
"Yeah," he said.
"Gosh, I really need to figure out what to do. But..." she trailed, bringing a forehoof to her forehead, slowly rubbing it.
"I can imagine your rush in getting back, but you should give yourself some time to recover. Just yesterday you were about to die. And today you already managed to fall down. Twice. Give yourself some time to settle down, then start to figure out a way back."
"But I’ve got to get back..."
"Working with a tired mind is the worst thing you can do, believe me."
Twilight looked down to her dish. Greg looked around, thinking of a way to keep the conversation moving forward.
"Does someone back in your world know what you were up to?" he asked.
"No..." she said, sighing deeply. "Maybe Starlight, but I don't think she'll be able to figure out what actually happened. I didn't write down the modifications I was doing”.
“Uh… why didn’t you write them down?”
“I… well, you see...”
“Not keeping note of the results from an experiment is the worst thing you can do when… you know… when you’re doing experiments.”
“I know! I know! B-but I was modifying it so frequently, a-and it was working pretty well! I was going to write them down once I was done with it! I swear!”
Greg kept staring at her. She sighed, cheerlessly pushing the plate before her aside and burying her face in her forehooves, letting out a muffled groan. He raised an eyebrow and rubbed the back of his head.
She raised her head and rested her chin over her forehooves. “I messed up… I really messed up...” she said, weakly.
“Look, don’t beat yourself up too much because of this, alright? Everyone has the right to mess up at least once.”
“Yeah, but look what this mess up costed me! I’m now stranded here!” she exclaimed, raising her head, “And no one knows where I am!”
“Uh, yeah, but y-- ”
“And if I don’t find out what I did wrong in the spell, I’ll never get back home! I can’t even tell what I messed up when I was casting the spell!”
“Hey, cal--”
“And I don’t have any of the books I was using to consult! What am I supposed to do!? I don’t know what I--”
“Okay! Okay!” he said, making her halt. “Calm down. I know you might be scared, but freaking out won’t solve your problem. On the other hand, thinking carefully probably will.”
She gaped, but didn’t manage to reply.
“Now, didn’t you leave anything behind that might help someone find out what happened?”
“Uh...” she sighed deeply, rubbing her face with her forehooves. “I… wrote down the modifications proposed by the book. I think Starlight might be able to tell I was modifying the spell from that. And that it didn't go as expected. But that’s all. Whatever modifications I came up with… I didn’t write them down.”
“Hmm...”
“And since ending up here was kind of blind luck, I'm not sure she'll ever manage to track me down."
"Well..." he said, tapping his finger on the table, "let's not lose our hope then," he finished with a smile.
"Yeah. I guess you're right," she said, looking down to the table top. “Gosh, if Star Swirl finds out about this… I don’t know where I’m going to hide myself,” she whispered to herself.
“Hmm?”
“It’s nothing.”
"Uh… well,” he said, sighing. “Oh, uh, by the way... you can call me Greg. No ‘Mr. Resley’ kind of formality is needed. You know… just… uh… yeah."
"Okay."
They both kept staring at each other. When the awkwardness built up to unbearable levels, Twilight felt the urge to look away and diverged her focus to the walls, looking around the place. Greg did the same, though the top of the table received all his attention.
“I see you finished your pancakes. Are you still hungry?” he asked.
“Oh no, I’m satisfied. Thank you very much.”
“Okay, let me take the dishes to the kitchen then,” he said, quickly standing up and taking the dishes away.
Twilight looked to him as he went. When he wasn't visible anymore, she looked down to the translucent dining table top, gazing at her own reflection. Despite the deep cut on her cheek and most of her wounds, she was in pretty good shape. The worst of it was her muscles aching. Actually, the cut on her face was the worse. The muscles aching was the second worst. Still, she found someone willing to help in the moment of her greatest need.
"Here it is,” said Greg, as he looked around in the cabinet containing towels, soap, and toilet paper rolls.
"Are you sure this won't be a problem?" asked Twilight.
"Why would it be?" he asked, pulling one big towel from the neatly organized pile and putting it over his shoulder.
"I... don't know. I just don't feel too comfortable asking. I just got here."
"And?"
“And almost destroyed your house.”
Greg stopped fiddling with his hands inside the cabinet and looked at her.
“And?”
"I don’t know… it feels like I'm already making demands."
"Pfft," he said, waving his hand at her and resuming his search.
"Feels like I'm bothering. I don't want to bother you."
"C’mon. It’s no bother to take a shower. And for that you will need a towel. Really, it’s no big deal. You're my guest and this is a guest towel. See? Guest," he said, pointing at her. "Guest towel," he continued, pointing at the towel, "guest, guest towel, guest... alright."
Twilight looked down, poking the ground with the tip of her forehoof.
"It would be a bother if you got out of the bath without drying yourself and got the whole house wet," he said, extending a light blue towel to her.
She looked up, eyeing the towel.
"If I was you, after getting all beaten up the way you are right now, I would totally want to take a hot bath. Probably even before eating something. I think you just got the order reversed there, but it’s ok."
She looked to him with a puzzled expression, raising an eyebrow.
"Reversed order?" she asked, feeling like she had lost track of the conversation.
"Uh... yeah, you know... you ate first, THEN you're going to... nevermind," he dismissed, waving his hand.
She kept on eyeing the towel he was offering her.
"Uhh..." she said with an embarrassed smile, her ears falling flat.
"Oh, sure, no magic. There you go," he said, putting the towel around her neck.
"Thanks."
"No problem. You do know where the bathroom is, right?
"Upstairs, end of the corridor."
"Yes. The right valve opens the hot water."
"Okay, thanks."
"Here, I think you might also need some soap."
"That would be good."
He handed the soap to her and she awkwardly grabbed it with her teeth. She could taste it through the paper wrapper, but it was just weird, not bad, so she just ignored it. Twilight, now prepped for a full-fledged bath (or at least enough to take off the smell of sweat from the previous night) began to make her way upstairs. The dreadful stairs again, she thought. They returned to make her day, once more, pretty special. Walking up it proved to be somewhat easier though, as she had more force on her hind legs than on her front ones. At the top of the staircase, she turned left and walked towards the door at the end of the corridor. Her final destination, the bathroom.
Getting in front of it, she looked to her right. The bedroom she had woken up a few hours ago. Her ears flattened against her head when she thought about lying on that bed without taking a shower before.
I was unconscious, I didn't mean it , she thought, trying to lessen the feeling. She looked to the bathroom door. It was closed, as usual. She tried to invoke her magic to open it, but wasn’t surprised when it didn't do anything more than create a weak purple halo around it. She sighed and reluctantly extended her foreleg, pulling the door handle down and giving the door a gentle push. The place was dimly lit, the only light source being the small window on top of the wall opposite the door. She put the soap she was holding over the towel that was extended around her neck.
"Uh... Greg?" Twilight called from the second floor.
"Yeah?", he answered from downstairs, his voice barely making its way to Twilight's ears.
"Is the bathroom supposed to be this dark?"
"What?"
"Is the bathroom..." she repeated herself, taking a couple of steps in the direction of the staircase, "supposed to be this dark?"
A few instants passed.
"No."
A few more instants passed.
"Uh..." she said.
"Just look for the switch, next to the door frame. It shouldn't be hard to see. It glows in the dark."
"Thanks."
She then proceeded with the instructions she just received. Next to the door frame. It glows in the dark. Got it. Entering the place, she looked up and noticed a small, greenish glow on the wall. Extending her foreleg, she pushed the small switch upwards and the place got completely lit.
"Whoa. That's better," she said, smiling.
She pushed the door closed, taking extra care to not slam it shut. Turning around, she scanned the place. She saw the sink on the right wall, and to its left, a toilet. On the far wall, she saw the shower, the thing she needed the most right now.
"I guess... I'll take a shower then," she said, as she proceeded to put her things over the toilet lid.
She pulled the curtain open, revealing the shower completely.
"Right valve..."
She extended her foreleg, twisting the right valve. The shower came to life, spilling warm water, the heat of it already forming some steam. She put her foreleg under the water, feeling its temperature. The warm water sent a shiver down her spine, making her body tremble. She closed her eyes, looking to the ceiling with a sweet smile on her face.
"Oh, sweet Celestia..."
"Aahhh..." she sighed in delight, looking down and closing her eyes, her ears falling flat against her head. The warm water ran down her neck, making its way down to her back, meeting with the water that was pouring over it directly from the shower, streaming around her sides and falling over the bath tub. The water was flowing down her legs, cleaning her bruises and taking away the weight of her little endeavor through this unknown world. It helped to relieve the sensation of hopelessness, allowing her mind to think about more pleasant things. It wasn't that often that she actually stopped to enjoy a bath. It had always been an automated, mechanical task, done in the early mornings. It made her think about why she didn’t take absurdly long baths in her castle. Hot baths are awesome, but it was something she apparently didn’t know how to enjoy, until now that is. It took her getting stranded on another world to enjoy taking them. This actually makes her seem like somepony who doesn't like bathing, she thought. Another shiver came down her spine, making her shrug the thought off. She was bathing already for pony sake, and that's what mattered.
She carefully opened her eyes, making sure the water running down her face wasn't going to fall into her eyes, and took a deep breath. The steam from the hot water made inhaling a hell of a lot easier, something that made her feel invigorated, lifting up her spirit.
She kept staring at the clean, white, and shiny bottom of the bathtub, marveling at how the water flow was distorting the reflection of the light bulb. She placed her forehoof over the reflection and wondered at how the light illuminated her wet, purple fur. Well, NOW it was looking purple. It was nice to see it clean again. She was sure, before taking this bath, her coat was around four tones darker than its normal color. It wasn't THAT much noticeable though, since this tone difference was kind of a subjective matter. Rarity understood it better. Maybe she would ask her about it sometime.
Eyeing her forehoof, she noticed one of the cuts. It was clean now. No blood, no dirt. It also ached a little, just like the rest of her bruises, but that was the 'healing' pain. The water had washed away her bandages, something that ended up being pretty helpful, since her magic hadn't recovered enough yet and so it was hard for her to do the most trivial of things. The cut on her face began to weigh down and she felt her face heating up around it. What a uncomfortable feeling, she thought. She touched it with her left forehoof, trying to not reopen the cut that had already begun to heal. The area was over-sensitive, but Twilight couldn't help but keep touching it. The pain was the irrefutable proof that this wasn't some sort of nightmare. This was pretty much happening, right there, right in that instant. Just a few days ago, she was writing a letter to Celestia about teleportation spells. Several hours ago, she was having her breakfast with Spike in her castle, eating the best pancakes she had ever eaten. Just a few hours ago, her life was 'normal'. Normal for a princess maybe. Not everypony has the habit of messing with well-established spells. For her, a few hours ago, everything was fine. And now, she's on another world, unsure if she’ll be able to get back home. She was able to find someone willing to help, yes, but to what extent? Will he give her the chance to find the answer to her problem? Or would he dump her out as soon as she gets better? She couldn't know, of course. She knew him for just a few hours. He seemed to be kind. He gave her stuff to take this bath, and seemed happy to do so. But still, the experiences she had since getting into this foreign world weren’t good until she found him. Or rather, until he found her. She decided not to dwell much on that matter at the moment, for her hopes began to drop. This wasn't the right time to start predicting the worst. It was time to enjoy a bath. And that was something she was willing to do.
She raised her head, looking around. The bathroom was completely foggy. She could barely see the bathroom door or the sink and the light bulb was already losing its well-defined form and turning into a big and luminous blur. How much time had she spent in the bath? Hopefully not much yet. She sat down, facing the bath tub's edge, resting her chin on top of it.
She sighed in delight once more, shivering. "I don't even know if I want to leave this bathroom," she said, smiling. She eyed the towel over the toilet.
Well... maybe I should. I still have to figure out a way out of this place. And I don't want to overstep my bounds taking a long bath .
She sighed.
Yeah, I think it's time to go , she thought, raising up and, with much effort, bringing the towel close to her using her almost non-existent magic.
"Phew. I don't remember towels being this heavy."
Twilight placed her left forehoof under the valve, forcing it closed and cutting off the water. What a sad moment. The bath was over. But it was necessary. She had a heap of work to do.
Author's Note
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Chapter 3 - looming danger
Greg's eyes shot open. The sun was about to rise, and the weak daylight was already coming through his bedroom's only window, bathing his surroundings with its calming colors. He blinked several times, trying to push away the drowsiness from his eyelids and face, and stared at the barely visible ceiling, taking several deep breaths, gauging the quality of the night of sleep that just ended. He stretched his arms up, popping several joints in the process, and threw the covers to the side, quickly sitting straight on his bed, looking around the dark bedroom. The digital clock over the nightstand marked 5:49.
With a quick movement he stood up and set his course towards the bedroom's door. He turned right, going towards the staircase, but halted soon after. He looked back at Twilight’s bedroom door, which was wide open. He turned around and walked softly, trying not to wake up the sleeping mare with his generally heavy footsteps. He rested a hand over the doorframe and peeked inside. Although the place was also pretty dark, he could tell that she wasn't there. The bed was still made. Greg sighed, looking away from the bedroom and walking towards the staircase. At the bottom of it, he scanned his surroundings and, without much effort, found who he was looking for.
He walked across the living room, entering the dining room, slowly approaching the dining table.
"Twilight?" he whispered.
The unconscious mare's ear gave a small twitch upon hearing her name, but she remained lying sprawled over the table. One of her forelegs was spread away while the other served as a pillow. A small dribble of saliva ran down out of her mouth and over her foreleg, pooling over the papers that were lying under her.
Greg got closer to her, resting a hand over her withers.
"Twilight?" he said, a little bit louder.
"Uhmmhum..." she mumbled.
"Twilight, c'mon," he called again, giving her a small shake.
"I got to... vinhs... twish pabers... hold onzz..." she managed to say. Greg sighed.
"Twilight, wake up," he repeated, giving her a more vigorous shake.
"AHH! Uhh, I'm awake! I'm awake!" she said, sitting straight on her chair, panicking.
"Woah, hey, calm down," whispered Greg.
"I uh... I just... what... what time is it? Is it morning yet?" she slurred, cleaning the saliva from her face.
"Yeah, almost," he said, looking at the living room's window. "Did you sleep here again?" he asked, looking back at her.
"Mhm..." she replied, rubbing her face. Greg sighed.
"Why?"
"I was... working on the spell..."
"Yeah, I can see that. Why you didn't go to bed?"
"I guess I lost track of the time..."
"Again?"
Twilight stood in silence. Greg sighed in frustration. "Look, I'm not your parents to tell when you should go to bed. I'm sure you're already old enough to decide what you want to do without giving anyone any justifications, but I can't just watch while you throw your health away. You've been doing this for almost a month now. I can see those dark spots under your eyes getting darker and deeper at each passing day. You can't just keep this going."
"I got to solve the problem with this teleportation spell... it's important..." she said weakly, grasping the pen next to her with her magic, readying herself to resume her work.
"I know," he said, grabbing the pen and slowly putting it back down on the table. "I'm not telling you to stop working on it. I'm just asking for you to rest properly, that's all. This problem you're trying to solve, those papers of yours," he said, tapping on the sheets of paper under her hooves, "those are not going anywhere. I'm not taking them away, and they won't grow little legs and run away. I guarantee that.” He rested a hand over her shoulder. She sighed.
"Alright."
"Good. So, why don't you go to bed? It's still early morning. You can still rest plenty."
"No no. I... I can't. It's already day. I can rest as much as I want during the night. I can't waste daytime sleeping."
"Of course you can. And you'll be resting. I doubt that'd be a waste of time."
"You asked me to help with the breakfast today, remember?"
"Don't worry about the breakfast. I can handle it."
"But... but you asked for help. I can't just let you do it all by yourself while I sleep."
Greg raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously? Are you for real right now, Twilight? What do you think I'm made of, thin glass or something?"
"What you mean?"
"It's just breakfast. I'm not going to die just because I'm doing everything on my own. We can do it another day. A day where you're not trashed. So...?"
Twilight sighed. "Alright, I'm going."
"Thanks," he said.
"I'm sorry I'm not going to help you."
"Pff, you'll be helping way more right now by resting."
Twilight stood up from her seat, her legs failing her slightly until she found her balance.
"When should I wake up?"
"I'll wake you up. Just go to bed."
She nodded and walked away.
Greg stared at her as she went. When she wasn't visible anymore he switched his gaze to the papers covering the table. The sheets had several weird looking symbols, some of them within nodes that were connected in some sort of network. Near each node there was some kind of formula. Greg grabbed one of the several papers and inspected it closely. He tried to understand what was written, but the dim daylight and his lack of knowledge on alien languages weren't helping him much. He put the sheet back on the table and brought a hand to his head, scraping his hair.
Twilight's eyes slowly opened. She eyed around her surroundings while her mental cogwheels started to spin up. The bedroom was brightly lit and a slight breeze was flowing in through the window, the place making her feel comfortable enough, making her eyelids feel like they weighed a ton. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and letting her body relax again. She could feel herself slip back in the realm of dreams, her legs getting numb while her thoughts made less and less sense. She shook her head and opened her eyes once more. The day was already there and she didn't like to spend time on the bed when there's so much to be done. She rubbed her eyes with her hooves, trying to make her eyelids feel lighter, so she could keep them open more easily. She groaned, her tired body complaining every time she moved or breathed.
She threw the covers to the side, sitting straight on the edge of her bed, looking down and forcing her shoulders upwards, hearing a few pops from her joints. She set her hooves on the ground, feeling like her head was filled with lead. She didn't pay any mind. She was sure the sensation would alleviate once she got fully awake.
She exited the bedroom, headed to the staircase, quickly walking it down and entering the kitchen.
"Hey," said Greg, looking away from the stove.
"Oh, hey..." she replied, rubbing her face with a hoof and yawning.
"Rested enough?"
"Not even close."
Greg chuckled, looking back at the stove.
"I thought you were going to wake me up."
"I tried. Oohhh boy, I tried. You just wouldn't budge. I figured you still needed a few more hours. To be honest, I was about to go upstairs and try again once I was finished with the stove here, but you're already here, so..."
"So, uh... do you need any help? I guess I woke up right in time to help you with breakfast..."
"Breakfast? We’re already long past lunch," replied Greg, smiling.
Twilight stared at him for a while.
"Oh.”
"Yeah. I think you were pretty tired."
"I'm still pretty tired," she replied, yawning. “So, what’re you cooking?"
“Nothing special, some pancakes again. I got hungry, so I decided to take a break from my work and make something to eat. I also realised you’d be hungry, so… yeah.”
They stood in silence for a little while, the room filled with the crackling sound of the pancakes against the hot pan.
"I don't get why you're doing this," asked Greg, without looking away from the pan before him.
"What?"
"Not sleeping," he said, turning his head to look at her.
"I'm just trying to dedicate the maximum amount of time to solve the problem with the spell."
"And how is not sleeping going to help you in that matter?" he said, turning his gaze back to the stove.
"Each day is getting harder to work on it. I just... can't think properly anymore. I'm spending way too much time doing nothing, just staring at those papers, without making any progress. It's frustrating!" she said, hitting the floor with a front hoof, trying to dissipate some of the frustration. "I realised that I still had the hours that I spent sleeping... I could borrow a few hours to work on the spell. I'm—"
"A few hours? You're borrowing almost all of them."
"I'm just trying to dedicate as much time as possible to it. But not even that is working anymore," said Twilight, looking down to the ground, her head still weighing a lot.
"You should know by now that no one works well when tired."
"I know... I know..."
"Don’t you think maybe your difficulty concentrating is because you're not getting enough sleep?" he said. Twilight stood in silence for a little while, looking at the floor and tracing the edges of one of the floor tiles with the tip of her hoof. Greg turned around to look at her, waiting for her answer. She sighed.
"Yeah, I had my suspicions..."
"Should've listened to them. They were right," he said, looking back at the stove.
Twilight sat down, feeling her body get heavier.
"Do you need any help?" she asked.
"Uh, no. It's alright. It's almost done."
"Okay. I'll get back to work then," she said, standing up and walking towards the dining room.
"Twilight, wait," he said, dropping the wooden spoon he was holding over the sink, shutting down the stove and walking towards her. Twilight halted, turned around, and walked back in the kitchen.
"What?"
"I know you must be eager to get back to your thing, but I suggest you put it down, at least for now."
"But I got to—"
"I know, I know," he said, raising his hands defensively. "Again, I'm not telling you to give up on it. I really want you to keep trying. But right now you have to give your mind a breather. Forcing it won't do you any good, believe me."
Twilight sighed, looked down and nodded.
"What should I do then?" she asked, looking up at Greg.
"Get some pancakes, maybe?" he said, smiling.
Twilight's stomach recognized the cue, giving a long rumble.
"Oh, hehe," she said, blushing.
"Aaahhh, I uh... I'm fully full," said Greg, leaning back on his chair with a wide smile on his face, stretching his arms upwards.
"Mmhhmm... this was delicious. I didn't realise I was starving," replied Twilight, releasing the fork from her magic grasp.
"Well, no wonder. You skipped breakfast and lunch."
"Yeah..."
"Are you done with your dishes?"
"Mhm."
"Ok, let me take them to the kitchen then."
"Oh no, let me do that. You already cooked, it's the least I can do," she said, preparing to get off her chair.
"Nope! Too slow!" said Greg, leaping from his chair and quickly taking the dishes.
"No, wait!"
"Yeehaw!" he yelled, running towards the kitchen, dropping the dishes inside the sink. He then peeked in the dinning, making Twilight chuckle.
"You can't beat my dish-takin'-o'-fu abilities, lil' purple grasshopper!" he said, walking in the dining room and faking a martial arts stance.
"Yeah, I'm sure I can't," she said, chuckling.
Greg stretched his arms up the most he could, squeezing his eyes shut, hearing small pops from his shoulders. He then allowed his arms to go limp, interlacing his fingers behind his back, forcing his shoulders forward. He then brought his hands to his cheeks, energetically rubbing them. “Phew,” he said, letting a sharp sight out. “Damn, here comes the food coma. Heh, I feel light headed."
"Yeah, I could go for a nap right now," said Twilight, yawning.
"Me too..." he said, putting his hands on his waist and looking down, slowly nodding while his mind lost itself around the universe. He stood in silence for several seconds.
"Hey... I guess I have an even better idea for something we could do now..." he said.
"Hmm...?" said Twilight, yawning once more.
"Well, unless you’d prefer to take a nap, of course," he said, looking at her.
"Oh, no no. I really don't like sleeping during the day," she said, rubbing her eyes, trying to push the dormancy away. "What's your idea?"
"Why don't we go for a walk in the park? To help all this food settle down?"
"Hmm, go out?"
"Yeah. What do you say?"
"I uh..." she started, eyeing the papers that were stacked at the corner of the dining table. "It's a wonderful idea, but..."
"But...?"
"I think I should keep going at the spell."
Greg sighed. "A little pause on your work won't kill you. C'mon, getting some fresh air will do you wonders."
Twilight's gaze switched between Greg and the papers several times. She sighed. "I guess you're right."
"Of course I am," he said, smiling. "So, let's go!"
"Right now?"
"Uh... yeah...? When did you think we would be going?"
"I... don't know. In the near future? Like, in the next couple hours?"
"Pff, nonsense. We're going right now."
"I'm afraid physical exercise just after eating this much wouldn't be a good idea."
"Oh, but we're not walking there."
"No? So how do we..."
"Car?"
Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"What?" he asked, confused.
"Car?"
"Yeah, car."
Twilight gaped slightly.
"Didn't you see it parked inside the garage?"
"Oh... that's a car?"
"Yeah," he said chuckling.
"C'mon, don't laugh at me. I didn't know," said Twilight, pouting and crossing her forelegs.
"I'm not laughing. It's just sort of amusing to talk to someone who doesn't know what a car looks like. It's not common. To me that is."
Twilight kept staring at him.
"Funny, I was sure I had already taken you on a ride with it."
Twilight shook her head negatively.
"Hmm. Do you have any sort of vehicles on your world?"
"Of course. Carriages. Trains. Hot air balloons."
"Carriages? And I guess... they are pulled by...?"
"Uh... ponies?"
"Ponies, yeah. Uhum," he said, nodding and looking away from her.
Twilight raised an eyebrow, a small smile creeping on her muzzle.
"Hmm... what kind of trains do you have there?" he asked, looking back at her.
"Steam engine trains."
"Hmm, so no diesel. Huh, guess you guys don't use any sort of liquid fuel to power vehicles. What do you guys use on your steam engines to generate heat?"
"Uh... coal?"
"Coal. Well, that makes sense," he said, nodding slowly, staring distantly at a wall. Twilight kept staring at him for a while.
"Uh... so, are we going?" she asked.
"Oh, yes, yes. Let's go."
“Oohh, now I get it. Those diesel engines are pretty neat. No wonder they replaced steam engines on trains so quickly.”
"Yeah, it's a perfect substitute for steam engines. They're capable of producing much more power, with less maintenance cost. A win-win."
"Hmm," Twilight hummed. “No need for coal wagons... nor a huge amount of water… or somepony constantly feeding it fuel. Surely more practical. But are those engines as simple as you explained me? I mean, that’s it?”
"Well, I'm not a mechanic. Nor a vehicle enthusiast. I'm sure I missed a ton of tasty details about it. And also there are a million factors that I can't even imagine that exist that ALSO play an important role inside one of those engines."
"And what about this car? Does it use a diesel engine as well?" she asked.
"Uh, no. This one is a gasoline engine. It runs on... well, gasoline, which is terribly more flammable."
"Isn't that somewhat dangerous?"
“Yeah, having a fuel like that can be pretty dangerous. It burns well in cars, but also well on people. Although for some people, that’s a plus.”
Twilight kept looking forward for a little while before realising what he actually said. As the meaning sank in, her eyes slowly narrowed down and she gaped, turning her head to look at him.
“Uh… and… you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
Greg stole a quick glance at her, giving her a small smile, making her stare back at him with an incredulous expression.
“Greg! That’s terrible!”
“What?”
“Why did you set another human on fire?”
“What? What the hell are you talking about, Twilight? I never did that.”
“But you… you… you said… or rather, didn’t say that...”
“Hmm?” he said, looking back at her, trying to keep himself from chuckling.
“You didn’t tell me how you know it burns well on people.”
“Well… uh... it’s just a guess, I guess,” he replied, smiling.
She kept staring at him for a while before letting out a frustrated sigh, crossing her forelegs and rolling her eyes. “Hmph,” she grunted, turning her head to look outside.
“C’mon now, short-tempered,” he said, nudging her shoulder with an elbow, “I’m just joking.”
She didn’t look at him, and instead let out a negative grunt. He looked forward, taking quick glances at her. He stretched his index finger, taking one last glance before poking her in her side.
She yelped, jumping on her seat and recoiling against the passenger door, looking at him with a surprised face.
“Hmm… ticklish?” he said, smiling grimly at her.
“No… don’t even think about it...” she said slowly, using her forelegs to protect her barrel.
“About what? This?” he said, poking her through the gap her forelegs formed, making her spring away from him.
“Dagh! Hey, stop it!”
“Stop what? This?’ he said, poking her again.
“Ah, stop it! St-stop it! Stop it! No! Greg! Quit it! Noo! Ahh!” she said, contorting herself as he mercilessly tickled her side and belly, using all her might to not giggle.
“Only when you let this serious face go, c’mon,” he said, deploying all his fingers into battle.
“Ahh! Greg, stop it! Ah! Ahhahah! Ahhahhahah! St-top it! Stop it!” she said, laughing and snorting a couple of times, kicking her legs wildly and squinting her eyes, with small tears pin-pricking.
“Alright, alright,” he said, resting his tickling hand over the driving wheel, chuckling a bit.
Twilight looked down at her seat, panting. After recovering her breath, she looked at him.
“Are you through being pissed off?”
She looked forward, wiping the tears from her eyes, trying to keep the lightness inside her chest from forcing a smile on her muzzle.
“C’mon, you’re here to relax, not to get stressed,” he said, resting his hand over her shoulder and giving her a small shake.
She sighed. “I’m sorry. I....”
“You do know I was just joking about the gasoline thing, right?” he said, resting his hand back over the driving wheel.
“I guess,” she said, shrugging.
“You guess? So you actually think I’d do something like that then.”
“N-no, I didn’t mean th--”
“Now you’re being mean. I thought you were done being cranky. Will I need to tickle that out of you again?” he said, approaching his hand to her.
“No! No no no, no, no, no,” she said, frantically using both her forehooves to keep his hand away.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure. Just… just don’t do it,” she said, looking at him and pressing herself against the passenger door.
“Alright,” he said, slowly bringing his hand back to the driving wheel, making her sigh in relief. He let out a chortle, that quickly built up to a full fledged laugh.Twilight looked at him, raising an eyebrow and scratching her head.
“Uh, what’s so funny?” she asked, confused.
“This. This was so silly that I… ah… this was very silly. Heh. Ah yeah, you silly pony.”
She stared back at him, shaking her head slowly as a small smile crept onto her muzzle.
“Phew. So, now that you’re not exploding in fury… what were you saying?”
“What I…? Uh… I… let me see...” she said, fixing herself over the seat and tapping on her chin. “Ah, I was going to ask you about the difference between this gasoline engine and the diesel engine. I mean, besides the fuel used," she said, looking back at him.
"Hold on," he said, stopping the car at the red light.
"Well, the four stroke idea is still present, but they happen in a slightly different manner on a gasoline engine. While a diesel just lets air enter the cylinders, and combustion happens by injecting the fuel in the ignition stroke, a gasoline engine admits a mixture of gasoline and air during intake. And the ignition happens by means of a spark plug, which lights up the mix. Which burns."
"Hmm. Is that all?"
"Uh... yeah, pretty much. It's rather simple... sort of. I mean, the stuff present on a diesel engine is mostly present on a gasoline engine as well. Crankshaft, intake and exhaust valves, coolant system, cooling fan, yadda yadda. The idea is kind of the same. Again, I'm oversimplifying here because I don't want to stretch myself farther than what I actually know. I'm sure there's more stuff that happens inside an engine I'm not even aware of."
"Hmm..." hummed Twilight, scratching her chin, her mind furiously processing and assimilating all that information.
The two sat in silence for a while. Greg stared at the symbol in the middle of the driving wheel while Twilight looked outside through the window.
"So, what are we waiting for here?" she asked, turning to face him.
"The green light," Greg said, pointing a finger forward without looking away from the symbol on the driving wheel. She gazed to where he was pointing, quickly looking back at him.
"Green? Like that green?" she said, pointing a hoof towards the semaphore. Greg looked at it, being startled by a car behind them that honked its horn.
"Oh shit... yeah, that one," he said, quickly accelerating the car.
"You know, this car... it's so useful. The distance we covered within a small amount of time is just amazing. I mean, the engine doesn't need to stop to rest or anything, nor is the car stuck on rails. Carriages and trains are useful, but with this," she said, tapping at the car's center console, "you're pretty much free to go anywhere you'd like to go."
"Yeah, almost free to go anywhere you'd like to go. You can't drive a car through a wall. Uh, I mean, actually you can, but you shouldn't, because that's bound to destroy the car. And kill you. And you might also hurt someone else. You can't climb walls with it. Nor fly. Well, actually that depends. If you throw yourself off of a bridge, you can say you're sort of flying for a few seconds before hitting... whatever lies under said bridge. You also can, but shouldn't, drive over sidewalks. There's people walking there. You can't drive on the opposite side of the road as well, or you get stopped by the police. You can't drive your car backwards too much on a street with intensive traffic. That can cause problems. So, yeah, not FREE free, but kinda free. You're free to go wherever you want to go, as long you use the proper roads. And don't kill anybody. And are licensed to drive. And you can't drive while drunk. Or while you're high. Nor too fast. Also not too slow. And you ALSO can't park anywhere you want. That can cause a lot of problems."
Twilight kept staring at him with a flat expression.
"Yeah... I guess cars do save us a lot of trouble," he said, smiling. Twilight shrugged, looking outside, staring intently at every building that passed by as they drove down the streets, noticing and comparing the geometry of the architecture of this new world to the kind she'd been used to seeing back home. She looked at the people that passed by, looking at their variety of clothing. Most of the people that passed by didn't notice her. Just a few kept their gaze locked on Twilight, who stared back out of curiosity. She looked at everything she could, taking in the new world that she slowly was getting used to.
"I sometimes wonder how it would've been if we were still using horses as our main transport method," said Greg, breaking the silence. Twilight snapped at his direction. "I mean... well, we'd still be able to clear large distances relatively fast but... well, considering that we wouldn't have steam engines... it would be bizarre. How would we move production and stuff...? I wonder..."
"Are we too far away?" she asked.
"Not much. Around ten more minutes or so."
"Oh. And how is this park?"
"Uh, well... it's... it's alright. It has some nice woods to walk in. Pretty nature-y. Clean air. Yeah, a little bit cleaner air."
"So, what's the deal there?"
"Deal?"
"Yeah, what's the plan when we get there?"
"Uh, none, I guess. We'll just go there... walk around... I have nothing planned. I'm just going. Free like the wind. Following the flow, like a... uh... uh... bah, whatever. I suck at analogies. We're just going there to throw some time away."
"Oh..." she said, her ears falling flat.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing? You almost seems disappointed."
"What? No, I'm... I'm not."
"So, what's wrong?"
"There's nothing wrong. I just thought..."
"Mhm?"
"I thought you had something planned."
"Like?"
"Well... look, I don't want to sound unappreciative. I'm really thankful you're trying to help me to relax a bit, but..."
Greg stood in silence, waiting for her to continue.
"Twilight, what's wrong?"
"It's just..."
"Yes?"
She sighed. "It's just that I feel this time would be better spent working on the spell. I mean, if you don't have anything planned in the park, and we're just going to throw some time away, I can't help but think that this time would be better spent elsewhere. And that elsewhere would be the spell."
The silence fell like a brick after Twilight finished speaking. They stood silent for several seconds. Twilight's mind started to replay what she said and, each time she went through her just-spoken words, a pit deepened inside her chest. She bit her lower lip, looking outside through the window. Greg sighed deeply, pulling the car to the side of the road, stopping entirely.
"Look... Greg... I'm s--"
Greg raised his hand, interrupting her.
"I get you," he said, resting his raised hand over the driving wheel.
"Uh... you do?"
"Yeah. You have a problem that only you can solve... and you want to spend the maximum amount of time on it. You want to get back to your world. I get it. It's understandable."
"Oh, Celestia. I sounded like a jerk just now," she said, covering her face with her forehooves.
"Hey, hey," he said, resting a hand over her shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "It's ok. I just thought that taking you away from your puzzle a little bit would be healthy for you. I still believe that, to be honest. I mean, just in this meantime we talked about... well, engines... and cars... and trains. You managed to get your mind out of that problem for a bit, talking about something else."
She looked at him.
"When I suggested that you take time away from it... it's not because I'm trying to hinder your progress or anything. On the contrary, I'm really hoping you find your way home. But believe me when I say that spending EVERY SECOND on a problem is bad. I know because I used to do that."
"Hmm?"
"Yeah. When I was younger... and eager to prove to my employers that I was a programming genius... I would go lengths to deliver a working solution for whatever problem they had. I would spend the amount of time necessary to write the most robust code I could, debug the shit out of it, and make sure it ran as fast as I could make it run."
Greg sighed.
"Well, my brilliant strategy finally took its toll upon me, because there was a brief period of my life that I literally couldn’t think. The lack of sleep started to stack up more and more... I kept pushing... and it kept getting worse. My family had to interfere... before I had a breakdown or something. It took a few months for me to get back at full steam. From all of this I learned a pretty valuable lesson. Don't trade your health for progress on finding a solution to a problem if you're not sure that you'll get there soon enough. One or two bad-slept nights are acceptable, though I don't recommend it. But a whole month... that's terrible for one's health. And you've been doing the same things I did years ago. You're making the same mistake I made, and that's making me worried."
Twilight gaped, but gave up on forming a coherent sentence.
"I don't want to tell you that you might be obsessing over this spell, because I know it’s your only way back home. Without it you can’t go back, and you’re the only who can fix it. But you essentially want the solution for yesterday, and that’s not how things work. If you end burning yourself out over this… I mean, the more you’ll try to push, the less you'll achieve. I'm just trying to steer you away from this. Please, Twilight, don't go down this path. Give yourself some time to recover."
"I... I..."
"It's really tempting to go back and keep working. I understand that feeling waaaaay too well. But... just a little breather won't kill you. Alright?"
"Alright... alright," she said, nodding. "I wish I hadn't said that though..."
"Pfft. It didn't get to me," he said, waving his hand, looking forward. "So, what do you want to do? Should we go to the park...? Or home, maybe...?"
"No, no, the park. It does sound like a good idea. Some time away from that spell. Yeah, let's go to the park."
Greg smiled at her. He looked forward, accelerating the car. A few seconds later they stopped at a traffic light.
"I'm happy you choose the park, Twilight," he said, looking at her. His smile soon vanished. Twilight's face held a deep expression of dread. Her stare was fixed forwards. Her mouth was slightly open... and trembling. Greg gaped slightly, not understanding what was going on. He rested a hand over her shoulder, giving her a slight shake, but the mare didn't budge. Her stare kept focused at something far ahead of them.
"Twilight, what's wrong!?" asked Greg. He followed the direction of her stare. She was staring at a man crossing the street. The hooded man stood still, some meters away from the car. His stare... was dead on Twilight. Greg switched his gaze between Twilight and the creepy man a few times, his worries getting worse.
The hooded man started to make his way towards the car, which made Twilight's face contort itself in horror. Greg looked at the approaching person, and his brain quickly began to put the pieces together. Something was very wrong with that man. It was him that was making Twilight act strange. Her face... she was getting more terrified with each step he took closer to them.
In a split second reaction, Greg pulled the glove compartment open and pulled out his pistol. He threw his seat belt to the side and pushed his door open, getting out of the car and aiming his gun at the creep. The man halted upon realising he had become a target.
"Go ahead, motherfucker, make my day," he growled through his breath, his eyes narrowing into slits, just waiting for that sordid person to make the wrong move. The man seemed to take the hint though, shoving both his hands inside his pockets and walking away in a brisk walk. Greg tracked the man with his gun until he was no longer visible. He checked his surroundings, looking for someone else that might seem suspicious. The street was almost deserted though.
He got back inside the car, pulling the door closed and fastening his seatbelt. He looked down at Twilight. The horror expression now had given way to... tears. Twilight had both her forehooves covering her mouth, muffling powerful sobs. Two streams of tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Twilight?" he asked, putting his gun over his lap and resting his hand over her shoulder. "What's wrong?"
Twilight slowly looked at him, using all her might to keep her sobs under control.
"C-can we go h-home... please?" she asked, whispering, the sobs trying to force their way out.
"Home? Twilight, what's going on!?"
"Please?"
Greg gaped several times, all of that not making any sense at all. What the hell just happened? Who was that person? Why did he seem to make Twilight so terrified? Billions of questions spawned at the same time inside his head and he had no way of dealing with any of them right now.
"Okay, sure. We're going home," he said, accelerating the car.
The car rocked sideways as one of its wheels hit the border of the ramp that lead to the garage. The muffled sound of the car's shocks were almost nonexistent compared to Twilight's powerful sobs. Greg slowly made the car go up the ramp. Twilight lit her horn, quickly pulling the passenger door's handle and shoving the door open.
"Hey! Twilight!" exclaimed Greg, violently stepping on the break after realising Twilight had ran outside. He pulled the handbrake, threw the seatbelt to the side, pushed his door open, and ran inside after her.
"I’ve got to solve this... I’ve got to solve this... I’ve got to solve this..." Twilight whispered through sobs, sitting in her chair, her hooves shaking as she pulled all the papers close to her.
"Will you PLEASE tell me what the hell is going on, Twilight? Twilight!" said Greg, stepping in the dining room.
"I’ve got to solve this, Greg! I’ve got to solve it right now!" she said, sobbing.
"God dammit! Would you just TALK to me!?"
"NO! NO, I CAN'T! I DON'T HAVE TIME! I HAVE TO FINISH THIS!" she yelled, using a hoof to clear the streams of tears of her face.
Greg gaped several times, his mind going in several directions trying to find an explanation. Upon realising he didn't have enough to infer the cause, he groaned.
"UUGGH, what the hell is wrong with you!?" he said, stepping closer to her. She didn't respond.
"Twilight!" he said, putting his hands over the papers, stopping her. "What's wrong!?"
She looked down to her seat, her sobs getting out of control.
"What happened!? Who was that guy!? Do you... know him?"
Twilight slowly nodded, never looking up.
"From where!?"
"I... I-I... can't do this... I can't do this... right now... I need to... rest..." she said weakly through sobs, getting out of her chair and running upstairs.
Greg kept looking at the staircase for a few seconds before averting his gaze to the papers on the table.
Greg stood still, facing Twilight's bedroom door. He brought his head to the door, focusing on his ears and trying to capture any noise coming from her bedroom. The only things he could hear were his own breathing and the faint thumping of his heartbeats inside his ears. He unsurely brought his hand upon the door, giving it a soft knock.
"Twilight?" he asked, almost whispering. No response from the mare.
Is she still sleeping? he asked himself, straining his ear against the door even more.
He knocked again, this time harder. "Twilight?"
"Yeah...?" the alicorn responded, her voice barely making its way out of the room.
"Uh, can I come in?"
"Sure..." she replied.
Greg carefully gripped the handle, slowly twisting it until it gave a soft click. He pushed the door open, peeking his head inside. The room was almost pitch black, with little light coming through the room's window.
"Hey," he said softly, fully opening the door and walking in. He stepped closer to the bed, halting in front of Twilight, who was laying down, facing away from him.
"Are you feeling better?" he asked.
"Mhm," she sighed, without looking at him. Greg sighed, sitting down at the edge of the bed, remaining in silence for a little while.
"I uh... made you a sandwich. Heh, figured you'd probably be a little hungry by now so... I hope I didn't mess it up too much. I'm still not used to cooking flowers..."
"I'm not hungry... but thanks..." she replied weakly.
Greg stared at her for a couple of seconds before switching his gaze to the plate he was holding.
"Oh. Uh... well uh... alright then," he said, standing up and walking towards the door.
Twilight quickly rolled on the bed. "I'm sorry for earlier," she said, sitting straight up.
Greg halted and turned around. "Well, I don't even know what happened, so I'm not sure why you would need to apologize."
"I was... rude to you."
"Hmm... you were?"
"Yeah, I... yelled at you and... ignored your questions... and left you talking alone... when I came up."
"Did you?"
"Yeah. That was pretty rude of me."
"Huh, that's funny... I didn't notice any of that," he said, taking a few steps towards her.
"But it happened..."
"Hmm..."
Twilight averted her gaze away from him, letting it fall upon the sheets that covered her partially.
"You really worried me, you know?" he started. Twilight looked at him. "I... uh... never saw you like that. I mean, it's been weeks since you got here. I get that you have your way of doing things and your own habits and all... but just... crying like that? I didn't know what to make of that," he said, approaching the bed and sitting down on its edge. "I mean... I actually have some theories of what made you cry like that, but I don't want to start tossing them around and make things worse."
"Look, it's..." she trailed.
"Yeah?"
"Uh... it's nothing. Nothing important, I mean. I was just not feeling okay earlier, that's all. But now it's already passed."
"Hmm... will you tell me what you were feeling that made you cry like that?"
"It's... not important," she said, trying to keeping her voice from trembling.
"To make you cry like that? I think it IS important."
"Please, just... just forget it, okay? Just pretend that what happened today never happened. Just ignore it. Can you do that for me?"
He stared down her purple eyes for a few instants before giving a short nod.
"Thank you."
"I can't promise I'll forget it, though. Or that I won't think about it. I still expect you to tell me what happened, just not right now."
"Okay."
He sighed.
"So, uh... I'll leave you to rest then," he said, standing up.
"Greg?"
"Yeah?"
"You're right."
He stood in silence, trying to figure out what she was talking about.
"About...?"
"Me... overworking."
"Oh, well, yeah. You're overworking yourself."
"I find it really amusing..."
"Hmm?"
"I gave this very same advice to a friend of mine... months ago..."
"About overworking?"
"About not taking care of yourself."
"Oh, uh... so... why didn't you follow your own advice?"
"I tried. I swear to you, I REALLY tried. But I wasn't making enough progress. And each day that passed... felt like I was slowing down. Felt like I wasn't moving forward. I know that resting enough is important in order to work properly, and reaching an answer is just a matter of time, but... I've been stuck on this thing for so long that... you know, once what you know fails consistently, you start to doubt what you know. I started to doubt that it was just a matter of time to get a fix for the spell. Maybe I just had to work as hard as possible. So that's when I decided to dedicate MORE time to it. I just want to fix that spell so I can go home. I just... want to fix it..." she said, bringing her forehooves to her face, rubbing it.
Greg sighed, approaching the bed once more and sitting down on its edge. He put the dish over the nightstand and rested his hands over his knees.
"And it's hard for me to do anything other than work. I got lucky with you speaking the same language as me, but your writing is completely different. I absolutely can't understand anything that's written in any of your books. I'd totally LOVE to read them, learn everything I can from what this world has to offer. But I can't read them... and... and... what else is there for me to do? Fixing this spell is really a big priority to me, and I don't have ANYTHING else to distract myself... I mean, there are the movies, but really... I was never much into movies, so it's hard for one to really catch my interest..."
They stood in silence for a while.
"Wow," he said, slowly nodding.
"Hmm?"
"You know, It's a really good thing that you said all that. I wasn't aware I was being an awful host."
"What?"
"No, really. To find out that you've been overworking yourself because you're utterly bored... because I didn't offer you anything else to do... damn... I truly messed up."
"N-no, that's not what I—"
"I'm glad you told me how you feel. I really am. I'm happy to find this out. Now that I stopped to think about this, it makes sense. I should've made your stay here more interesting. I DID think several times about inviting you to do different things, to go out for a jog... or maybe a workout... but I felt I would be intruding too much on your business. You're grown up, I can't just tell you what to do. Also, you're a princess, so I guess you're used to having even more authority about what you want to do. I felt like I shouldn't be suggesting activities, but... now I see I should have. I should've asked more instead of assuming that you'd tell me to get lost."
“I’d never tell you to get lost!”
Greg stood in silence, staring at her. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
His sight lingered towards the mattress, remaining locked on it for a while before he gave a short nod.
“And I didn’t mean to say you’re a bad host, because you’re not. I mean, me not having something else to do is not your fault. It’s just the situation. I don’t have any of my books here and—”
“Actually… it is… my fault. I mean, a little bit. If I had offered something else for you to do… I mean, taking into consideration what you just told me… you probably wouldn’t be overworking yourself if you had something else to do. And since I’m the host, I have to provide that something else, otherwise… well, there won’t be anything new.”
Twilight sighed, slowly shaking her head, looking away from him.
"You know... I had an idea," he said, standing up.
"What?" asked Twilight, looking at him as he left the room.
"Hold on," he said.
After a few instants, he returned to the room, holding a rather big object. Twilight eyed the thing on his hands, squinting her eyes, trying to deduce what he was holding.
"Is that... a book?" she inquired.
"Yeah, it's a book."
"So, what's your idea?"
Greg approached the bed, sitting down on its edge.
"Do you like detective fiction?"
Twilight gaped slightly at his question, staring for a few instants at his half-illuminated face.
"Uh... yeah. Why?"
"So," he said, tapping at the cover of the book. "This one is called Sherlock Holmes. It's one of my favorites. This book right here," he said, tapping once more at the book's cover, "contains several short stories about him."
"Uh, that's nice, but I can't read them."
"But I can."
Twilight stared once more at his face, her eyes slowly turning into slits.
"Wait... do you... are you offering to read them for me?"
"Yeah," he said with a warm smile on his face.
"No no, really, it's not necessary. I'm very grateful for the offer, but I can't ask that from you."
"Why not?"
"Well, it's... it's because... c'mon Greg, look at me. I'm already a full-grown mare."
"So what? I'm already a full-grown man. I don't get your logic."
"Bedtime stories are something that parents tell their children before bed. Their YOUNG children."
"Well, you're not my daughter, but you're not old either. So I really don't see a big issue here. C'mon, you said you can't distract yourself with books because you can't read them, but I can read them! It'd be good to distract yourself a bit right now."
"Look, thank you for the offer, but I... I don't feel comfortable about the idea," she said, resting a hoof on his shoulder. Greg's smile slowly got dissolved, and he looked down to the cover of the book.
"Uh... well, alright then," he said, sighing. He stood up, making his way out of the room, with Twilight staring at him as he went. He slowly pulled the door closed, leaving just a small gap for the corridor light to get in. When he wasn't visible anymore, she looked around the almost pitch black room, seeing the roof of the neighboring houses illuminated by the street lights through the window. Most of the windows from the other houses were unlit, making her wish she was also asleep by now. The night was very calm. Even the crickets seemed to take a break from their duties. That silence was enough to make all the noise that was going inside her mind unbearably loud, not allowing her to relax. The whole day was a mess, from start to where she was now. Although she wanted to think that the day was worth it because the time spent talking with Greg was good, she couldn't help but recall the events that took place on that street. That... man. The mere thought of him made her blood freeze in a manner she had never felt before.
She squeezed her eyes shut with great effort and slowly shook her head, forcing every thought about what happened out her mind.
She sighed heavily, opening her eyes and letting her gaze fall over her forehooves. She stared at them, noting how the light from the outside reflected off them. She brought a hoof near her face, slowly twisting it, marveling at how it reflected the light coming from the outside rather well. She looked at it for quite a while before staring outside once more, looking at the several houses around, taking in that they were filled with creatures just like Greg. The outside... this world... so much different from hers... but also very similar in some aspects. A place that felt so pacifistic, but is actually one that contains great dangers. So much stuff that she could see and learn from this place, but she couldn't because she didn't feel secure enough. Never had she experienced such a sense of insecurity before. What happened today... if it weren't for Greg... what would've happened? Would that man have gotten to her?
She squeezed her eyes shut once more, pushing out that thought.
She sighed, laying down, resting her head on the pillow. She stared at the wall, thinking about her current situation. She wondered how far away she was from fixing that teleportation spell so it would become stable enough to be used. Several weeks spent working on it and she still hadn’t managed to find a fix. Something as simple as a teleportation spell. Regardless of her efforts, the problem almost presented itself as unsolvable, and every time she tried to force her brain to work on it, she could feel a pit of anxiety form inside her chest, almost like her whole body was refusing to spend one more second on it. The mere thought of tackling the problem made her want to forget it entirely. She could feel her mind saturated from constant failure, and she just didn't want one more for the collection.
She sighed deeply, letting some of the frustration out.
Her thoughts shifted to the conversation she had during the car ride with Greg. Rare were the times she actually had someone to nerd about stuff with. Generally ponies would put her down for trying to start such a conversation, and yet she managed to spend several minutes talking about the mechanics of diesel engines and other interesting matters with him. And she agreed with him. Doing something other than working on the spell actually helped her, for the constant feeling of hopelessness that'd been looming over her completely vanished during that brief moment. Brief but relaxing. Well, until that traffic light came...
She squeezed her eyes closed again, grunting at the persistence of that thought. She rolled on the bed, and stared at the ceiling. Yeah, she agreed with him. Taking some time off, thinking about something else for a while. It helped her to calm down.
She sat straight on the bed, eyeing the nightstand and the sandwich he had left there. With the little light that illuminated it, she could tell that the bread didn't have its crust. She never had anything against it, but having it removed was rather nice.
She looked down, sighing deeply, thinking about that little gesture. One of many. He's been trying to help her lately more than never. Making her rest properly, taking her to the park, making her sandwiches, offering to read bedtime stories...
Her mind halted on that last part. Read... a bedtime story. The idea almost seemed surreal. Was he really willing to do that?
He WAS willing to do that... but I put him down... really smart move, Twilight , she thought, sighing. She looked at the door, staring at it for several seconds. Honestly, what would be the problem? Is there any problem? she questioned herself, expecting any of the mental voices that she used to argue with herself about problems to give her a reason not to accept. She waited, but an answer never came. Nothing other than the one that she had already given him. And she didn't believe in it herself. She pursed her lips, looking down to her front hooves, slowly shaking her head. She sighed, looking at the door.
"Uh, Greg?" she called. She waited for several moments, but got no answer back.
"Greg?" she called again, this time louder. She kept staring at the door, waiting it to open, but soon gave up and looked down to the floor, sighing.
The door slowly swung open just enough so Greg could peek his head inside.
"Yes?"
She snapped at his direction. "Uh... do you... do you think you could... read that story for me?"
Greg raised an eyebrow. "Really?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"Won't it make you feel uncomfortable?"
"Well... I thought about what you said... about the story helping to distract myself. I think it's a good idea to get my mind away from that spell a little bit. Even if it feels a bit weird..."
"Well, if you really want it, I'll read it for you. I'll just grab the book, hold on," he said, pushing the door open and walking towards his bedroom. She stared at the corridor as she heard his footsteps going towards his bedroom. Soon enough, he walked back in the bedroom with the thick volume on his hands, and sat down on the edge of the bed. Twilight kept staring at him.
"Uh, you're going to stay like that?" he asked.
"What you mean?"
"Well, generally when one reads a bedtime story to someone, this someone is lying down on the bed, trying to fall asleep."
She just stared back.
"Of course, you don't need to do that. It's just a suggestion."
She gave a quick nod, laying down, nestling her face on the soft pillow, using her magic to pull the sheets closer, smiling at him. He smiled back.
"You know, since you don't feel too much comfortable with this, I could teach you how to read my language."
"Really?"
"Yeah. You know, if you don't find the solution for that spell soon, I mean. It's not THAT hard, and then you'd be able to read by yourself. I think it'd be more practical for you. So, what you say?"
"Uh... honestly, that'd be really nice. I'd like it very much," she replied, smiling.
"Cool, so we could do that when you manage to free yourself a little bit from the spell, okay?"
"Okay."
"Nice."
"Uh, you'll still read for me now, right?"
"Of course."
"Will you manage to read like this? It's pretty dark in here," she said.
"Yeah, see?" he replied, turning the book's cover towards the bedroom's door. "There's plenty of light coming from the corridor. It won't be a problem."
"So, what story will you read?"
"Uh, let me see..." he said, going to the summary of the book. "Alright, I think this is a good starting point. 'A Scandal in Bohemia'."
"Ohh... interesting..."
"Yeah, this is a nice one."
"What is it about?"
"You're about to find out. So, yeah, brace yourself," he said, looking down at Twilight, who returned the look with a smile. "Here we go. Ahem," he said, clearing his throat, "'To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman . I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name...'"
Author's Note
: )
The pressure inside Greg's head was immense, and his face burned hot. His whole body was in flames, and the gentle early morning breeze did little to stop the sensation from getting more intense. He focused on keeping his body as still as possible, but his muscles twitched every time he tried to precisely adjust his balance. His arms, shoulders, and chest burned due to the weight over them, and the lengthy physical strain from handstanding was making the blazing sensation hard to ignore. He looked up, his stare stuck on the ground over his head, with several drops of sweat traveling up his neck and dropping from his chin and nose. He forced his attention on his body so he wouldn't lost his balance and fall.
He breathed in and out sharply a few times before managing to gather the will to move himself once more. He locked his thoughts on his arms, trying to keep them under control as they ached and trembled, slowly lowering his whole body, his head getting just a few inches away from the hard concrete ground, before putting all his might to push himself upwards again.
thirty-two... thirty-three... thirty-four... thirty-five... thirty-six... thirty-seven , he mentally counted, stopping to catch his breath each time. His lungs seemed unwilling to cooperate, but he forced them to work, feeling his chest and abdomen ache as he drew air in. His wrists hurt for sustaining the whole weight of his body, but being close to a round number made him push the pain away and keep going.
As the thoughts of doing the next reps flooded his mind, so did the anticipation of the pain it would cause. He could feel a slightly numb sensation slowly traveling down his arms, and a cold pit form inside his chest, as he felt that the pain was closing in, and he'd have to endure it.
thirty-eight... thirty-nine... , he counted, squinting his eyes, his arms threatening to fail him.
"Forty!" he growled, giving a powerful push against the ground. He let out a loud sigh, and allowed his legs to fall back, landing his feet loudly on the concrete floor, quickly standing straight up and rubbing his palms together. He brought his left hand onto his right shoulder, massaging it while moving his right arm in circles, trying to lessen the burning sensation that persisted.
"Aw, fuck," he said, panting heavily, squinting his eyes shut and raising his chin to the sky, feeling his chest and back start to burn from the physical stress. He looked down to the ground and stretched his arms back the most he could, interlacing his fingers at his back, feeling his back and chest silently cursing at him. He then allowed his arms to fall limpy before bringing his right hand to his forehead, wiping away the sweat that managed to fall in his eyes.
"I guess... y-yeah... it's good... for today..." he said, resting his hands over his waist and looking down to the ground, gasping for air. His head felt light, and his hands were shaking. The lack of oxygen made a pit form again inside his guts, the thought of asphyxiating and passing out quickly wandering in and out his mind. He began to slow down his breathing, to calm down his body. After a few minutes, he let out a deep sigh.
He turned to the back door, slowly stepping towards it. He pulled it open and stepped inside, eyeing his kitchen as he traversed it, looking at the cabinets he would be opening very soon and mentally planning the things he'd be cooking when the time for preparing breakfast came.
Walking into the living room, he eyed the things as they came into view. The center table, which now had no old and boring magazines laying over them, the new flat screen that hanged on the wall, the white walls with the same ugly paintings, the two light-brown couches with a few cushions, and a purple alicorn sitting over the couch next to the window, with her head rested over the couch's backrest as she looked outside.
He halted, locking his stare at Twilight.
"Hey," he said. Twilight raised her head from the backrest and looked at him.
"Hey," she said.
"Up already?"
"Mhm," she replied, resting her chin back over the backrest, her ears flattening out. Greg stared at her for a while before walking closer and sitting down over the couch armrest.
"So, uh..." he trailed, trying to make her say something. She just looked at him.
"How long have you been here?"
"A few minutes."
"Hmm. And... what are you doing?"
"I was doing... uh... I was taking a look at the spell."
"This early? Wow."
Twilight sighed.
Greg kept staring at her for a while before looking down to the couch. "Did you get something to eat?" he asked, looking back at her.
"Not yet."
"Why didn't you eat something before working?"
"I thought that maybe if I went over it right after getting up, I'd have the insight I need."
"Hmm."
"But it didn't happen," she said, letting out a sigh. "I think I'm a bit tired from trying to fix that teleportation spell and not making much progress," she said, looking outside.
"Maybe it'll get better after you eat something. I'll just take a quick shower and then I'll get breakfast going, okay? I'm thinking about waffles. What do you say?"
"I guess I'll just get some oats."
He stared at her for a while, before looking down at the couch's seat and giving a short nod. "Uh, well... alright, then. I guess I'll just get some cereal to myself in that case," he said, standing up and walking away from the couch.
"Why are you dressed like that?" asked Twilight, looking at him. Greg halted, turning around to face her.
"I was... working out."
"Working out?"
"Yeah."
"Since when did you work out?"
"I always did."
"Oh..."
Greg kept staring at her for a while. "You're still asleep by the time I'm done, so..."
"I guess that explains why you're larger than the other humans," she said with a small smile, which soon vanished from her muzzle.
"Yeah, I guess," he said, shrugging. Twilight looked back outside.
"Why did you really wake up so early today?" he said, stepping closer to the couch.
"Bad dream," she said, without looking away from the window.
"Bad dream?"
"Yeah," she said, looking at him. "I have it sometimes."
"The same dream?"
"Mhm."
"Hmm."
"It's the second time this week."
"Oh. And... what happens in this dream?"
"It's nothing important. It's just a pesky nightmare."
Greg kept looking at her for a little while before his stare trailed downwards. He gave a short nod.
Twilight rested her chin over the backrest, looking through the window.
"Hey, could you do me a favor?" he said, looking back at her.
"Hmm?" she said, looking at him.
"Could you set the table?"
"Sure," she said, standing up from the couch and trotting towards the kitchen. Greg stared for few seconds at the window Twilight was looking through before turning around and heading to the staircase.
"Alright," he said, walking into the dining room carrying a bowl of cereal, setting it over the table and sitting on his seat. He took his spoon and brought some cereal to his mouth.
"Hmm," he said, chewing. She looked at him.
"Hmm mhm."
"Hmm?", she said, raising an eyebrow.
"Hmm," he replied, raising his hand to signal for her to wait him swallow. "How are the oats?" he said, mouthing more cereal.
"They're fine," she said, slowly nodding, looking back at her bowl of oats and slowly shuffling them around with her spoon.
"Yeah?"
"Mhm."
He kept staring at her for a little while before eyeing around him, looking for what to say.
"So, uh... not hungry?" he said, gesturing towards her bowl.
"Not much," she replied, almost whispering, letting her spoon out of her magic grasp.
"Hmm…” he said, staring at her. “You know… I've noticed you've been eating less each day. You never finish your whole meal."
She sighed. "I'm just haven't been feeling too hungry lately..."
"You've been losing weight, you know?"
"Uh..." she said, narrowing her eyes slightly.
"And that's not a compliment."
"Oh..."
"Really, it's starting to worry me, Twilight."
"Look, I'm okay."
"If you're okay, why aren't you eating?"
She let out a frustrated sigh.
"If there's something wrong with you, you need to tell me. If it's something lacking in your diet, you have to tell me so I can go after whatever it is. If I'm messing things up when I cook, you have to--"
"It's not the food!"
Greg stood silent, staring at her for a while. "So what is it?"
"I don't know!" she said, snapping at his direction and hitting her forehooves on the table. "I'm not-- I'm just not hungry! It's simple as that! Why is that so hard to understand?"
Greg raised an eyebrow, and kept staring at her.
"I'm just-- I..." she trailed, her sight drifting towards the table's top.
Greg looked down at his cereal, mouthing some. Twilight looked at him, slowly realising that she had lost control.
"I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that to you."
Greg slowly nodded, without looking away from his meal.
"Greg, I'm sorry. Please, don't be mad at me."
Greg kept staring downwards at the table top, bouncing that situation around inside his head.
"Look, I'm, uh..." she began, looking down at her bowl. He looked at her. "I haven't been feeling well lately..."
"Hmm," he said, looking at her.
"I'm stuck."
"Stuck?"
"Mhm," she replied quietly.
"Stuck on what?"
"On the teleportation spell," she said, letting out a long sigh and rubbing her eyes.
"What's wrong with it?"
"I don't know," she said, resting her forehooves over the table.
"Hmm..."
"I mean, there seems to be NOTHING wrong with it. I've checked and rechecked it several times. It's all I’ve done for the last three days. The runes are all correct. I guess. I think I managed to work out the modifications I did, but..."
"Hmm... so... what's the problem?"
"The problem is that, for some reason, it's not working."
"Hmm... did you try to teleport yourself back home already?"
"No. I tried just the destination prediction part of it, just to see if I didn't mess it up, as it's the most important part of the spell. I tried it, but it didn't find a destination. Which means it's not working."
"Hmm... destination prediction?"
"Yeah."
"Uh... what does that mean?" he said, raising an eyebrow.
"It means... predicting where your destination is."
"Oh... I didn't know that was a thing."
"To teleport you have to know where you're going. And for that, you need to know where your destination is. And the spell helps you to predict the position of your destination. It deals with pesky details like moving targets and obstructions. But for some reason, it's not working," she said, pushing her bowl aside and resting her chin over the table.
"Hmm," he said, rubbing his chin, his stare at infinity. "Oh, so you don't do it blindly."
"Of course not," she said, raising her head. "Teleporting without knowing where you're going is downright suicidal."
"Hmm, makes sense. Uh... and... what would've happened if it was working? I mean, uh--"
"If it was working, I'd have seen the destination I've chosen, my world."
"Oh... uh, so...?"
"So... I don't know. I'm really stuck on this.”
"Hmm."
"And it's really..." she trailed, letting out a sigh, "it makes me feel awful."
"And why's that?"
"Because I can't seem to solve this. It's a teleportation spell, for crying out loud. They're not THAT complicated. It shouldn't be so hard. And still, I'm not managing to find the problem with this one. And that makes me feel stupid."
He kept looking at her.
"I mean, maybe I'm actually stupid. I messed up a simple teleportation spell--"
"Okay, c'mon now, don't do this. I imagine it's not an easy problem to solve."
She sighed.
"You shouldn't toss all the value of your hard work away just because you're stuck on a small part of it."
"But it's the most important part of--"
"Yeah, but it's just ONE part of it. The bulk of the work is done, right?"
She sighed. "Right."
"So, there you have it. You've made a lot of progress. And you got stuck before, so--"
"But not this badly."
"If this is the hardest part of the problem, I guess it's acceptable to get stuck on it for a while longer. You shouldn't beat yourself up this much because of this. It's a hard problem."
"Yeah, I know. I know."
He kept staring at her.
"But I expected to make much more progress than what I'm making right now. I've been trying my best to get enough sleep so I can work better and..." she trailed.
"And?"
"I mean, I've been sleeping... sort of well. Those nightmares haven't been helping me much, waking me up in the middle of the night. And I've also been trying to distract myself, so I won't get burnt out, but..."
"And how's that going?"
"Uh... bad."
"Bad? Why?"
"It's just that... for some reason I can't tune off from the spell. I feel bad for not working on it. I try to do some reading on the internet, learn some random things, distract myself. But there's always that feeling... that I'm wasting time. And it's getting hard to ignore it, because it makes me wonder, more and more, if I'm ever going to make it back home," she said, looking down at the table top. "And when I give up and try to work on the spell... ugh, I almost can't bare to stare at those papers anymore. It's really frustrating."
"Hmm... and... ALL you've been doing to distract yourself is... read?"
"Mhm."
"Hmm..." he said, looking down at the table's top, slowly rubbing his chin. Twilight looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "What is it?"
"I think... I might have an idea of what's going on here..."
"You do?"
"Yeah," he said, looking at her.
"What is it?"
"Learning is a mentally demanding task, yes?"
"Uh... yeah?"
"Just like working on the spell."
"Hmm..."
"So... I guess you're not actually cooling down after working on the spell. You're just keeping yourself hot with something else."
"But that doesn't make much sense. I always read to relax. It has always worked."
"Okay, but what's the last time the only thing you did for months straight was read?"
"Oh, uh... I guess... when you put it that way..."
"Mhm..." he said, giving her a short nod.
"What should I do, then?"
"Yeah, bout' that..." he trailed, leaning against his chair and looking down at the table, rubbing his chin.
"Hmm?"
"What else did you do back on your world?" he said, looking at her.
"My routine?"
"Yeah. What were the things-- uh, what did you used to do?"
"Well... I read."
"Besides that."
"I had some small royal business paperwork I had to deal with, nothing complicated. It's actually pretty silly."
"Mhm," he said, looking at the table's top and rubbing his chin.
"I would, quite often actually, go on a picnic with my friends."
"Hmm..."
"What?"
"Nothing," he said, without looking at her, shaking his head and waving a hand at her. "Carry on."
"Uh..." she said, eyeing around the room, trying to recover her train of thoughts. "Sometimes I'd play Dragon Pit with Starlight and Sunburst."
"Play what?"
"Dragon Pit. It's a board game."
"Hmm..." he said, staring back at the table.
"And, on rare occasions, I'd go to the local spa."
"Hmm."
"Hmm?"
"That's all?" he said, looking at her.
"Mhm. I mean, sometimes I'd go and visit my parents. Or my brother. Or they'd come over. Or one of my friends."
"That is, indeed, something that's lacking here," he said, rubbing his chin and looking back at the table's top.
"Uh...?"
"You've spent that last couple months inside this house."
"That's not true. I go outside."
"In the backyard," he said, looking at her. "That barely counts."
He leaned forward, resting his forearms over the table. "Well, it seems you used to interact with more people back in your world. And, although you like to read a lot, you also went out. And from all those things, the only one you've been doing is read."
"Well, I have you to talk to."
"Yeah, but you have JUST me to talk to."
"Hmm..." she trailed.
"And I don't have much more to do in here. I don't play games. I mostly just work. So... uh... I guess… given that you’ve spent so much time in here… the only thing there's left to do is going outside."
"Go outside? But last time--"
"Yeah, I know. I know," he said, raising his hands defensively, making Twilight's inbound train of words halt. "Last time was sucky, I know. That's why I was a bit reluctant to suggest this again. But… it has been a couple of months already and... we... we'd just go, literally, outside," he said, pointing towards the living room's window. "We'd be walking right outside. We could just walk down a few blocks, and then come back. Just so you can stretch your legs. And... that'd be it. For today, that is."
Twilight looked away from him, nervously tapping her forehooves on the table while she cogitated Greg's idea. "But... wouldn't be more humans outside?" she said, looking back at him.
"Maybe. But I was thinking we could go late in the night, when there's almost no one outside."
"Hmm," she said, looking away from him and biting her lower lip.
"So, what you say? Should we try that?"
She looked back at him, and kept staring at him for a while before sighing. "Yeah. I think we can try."
He stared back at her, giving a small smile and a short nod. She looked down to her front hooves, rubbing them against each other nervously.
"I hope nothing goes wrong this time." she said quietly.
"It won't. I promise."
"But how do you know--"
"I won't let it. Okay?"
She stared at him, trying to force herself to not remember what happened a few months ago. She looked away from him and pushed out a small smile, but didn't manage to keep it on her muzzle for long.
"In the meantime, try to take it easy."
"I'll try."
"I think I need to find some cool stuff we can do in here if you're going to spend most of your time inside this house. I thought that a fast and unlimited internet connection would do, but... well, I guess I overlooked the monotony."
"What do you have in mind?"
"Nothing concrete. Yet. It's been a long time since I had any guests. Like I said, I mostly just work, so... yeah. I'll think about this. But I'm confident going out is gonna make you feel better."
"I hope so," she whispered, looking towards the living room.
"Well, time to work," he said, standing up from his seat. "Are you done with your breakfast?"
"Mhm," she said, looking at him.
"Okay, let me take all this stuff to the kitchen," he said, grabbing his bowl and going for Twilight's.
"Let me do the dishes. You said you have to go to work."
"Yeah, but--"
"No buts. Let me do them."
Greg chuckled. "Well, alright," he said, setting his bowl back over the table. "Thanks," he said, smiling and walking towards the staircase. She smiled back, taking the dishes in her magic grasp.
The car rocked sideways when a front wheel hit the sidewalk. Greg pulled the handbrake and tapped his pants and jacket pockets, cursing in frustration when failing to find the garage door remote. He sighed, allowing his hands to fall limply over his lap, and looked around the car. He grunted, pulled the glove compartment open, and shoved his right hand inside, pushing aside several papers and a couple of cd cases that were forgotten in there.
Shit , he cursed in his mind, sighing.
He unfastened his seatbelt, throwing it to the side, and shoved his door open. His gaze snapped at the garage door upon stepping out of the car, seeing it slowly raising. He rested his hand over his door, staring at the garage door as it unveiled a purple alicorn.
"Forget the remote again?" she asked, smiling.
He nodded, smiling back and getting back in the car. He pulled his door closed, looking at Twilight as he fastened his seatbelt. He stared at her for a while before she noticed and stared back, giving him a smile. A small smile found its way to his face, but soon vanished as he realized she was outside during the day, where anyone around could see her. He quickly looked through his window, scanning the street, looking for anyone that might end up seeing her. The street was deserted as usual, with all the neighbor's cars properly parked on their driveways. All but a white sedan, parked a block up the street.
Hmm... , he thought, frowning.
He kept looking at the car, searching inside his mind if there was any neighbor with a white sedan. He raised an eyebrow when he didn't find one.
Someone's inside it... , he pondered, his eyes capturing signs of movement inside the vehicle. He strained his eyes to make out the details of what that person was doing, as it seemed that they didn't have their hands over the driving wheel, nor lying over their lap.
Their hands are raised to their face... their elbows are high... , he noted to himself as he slowly accumulated more details of what he was looking at.
Hands near the eyes and elbows high... are they holding something to their face? , he asked himself as he could barely make out the shape of an object in front of the person's face through the windshield.
Could it be... wait... binoculars? , he asked, frowning heavily and narrowing his eyes.
"Greg?" asked Twilight, standing still at the garage door. She stepped closer to the car, halting near his window.
"Heeey, wake up," she said, waving a forehoof in front of his face. He flinched back, looking at her.
"Everything alright?"
"Uh... yeah," he said, looking at the white car in the distance.
"What... what are you looking at?" she said, turning her head in the same direction Greg was looking, eyeing the street, trying to find what caught his attention.
"Uh, nothing. Hey, uh..." he started, making her look at him. "C'mon, hop in. Let's park," he said, looking at her, waving his left hand towards his car.
"Oh, sure," said Twilight, trotting around the front of the car, using her magic to pull the passenger door open. He grabbed his backpack and threw it to the backseat, making room for her to sit.
He looked outside once again, and stared at the white car for a little while before looking forward, shifting into first gear and moving on. In a few seconds, the car was fully inside the garage.
"Phew, finally," he said, cutting the engine, pulling the handbrake and letting his head rest against the headrest of his seat.
"Tough day?" she asked, looking at him as she pushed her door open.
"Nah," he replied, letting his seatbelt go and shoving his door open.
He stepped out of the car and went directly to the door control near the garage door, pressing the button. As the door rolled down, he leaned his head, trying to get a last glimpse of the car. He didn't manage to look at it for long, for the garage door quickly blocked his view.
"Anything in the trunk?" she asked, standing still next to the car's trunk, smiling.
"Uh, yeah..." he said, turning around to look at her. "Yeah," he continued, stepping closer to the car and opening the trunk. She walked towards it, humming a song and bobbing her head slightly.
"Hey, you look a lot better since this morning," he said, looking at her while pulling the trunk open. "Did something happen while I was out?"
"I was thinking about what you said earlier and... I don't know why, but I'm feeling quite excited for tonight," she said.
"Oh, that's really good to hear," he said, smiling back at her.
He leaned forward and grabbed one of the bags, making sure the groceries were inside it properly, so they wouldn't fall out. When he extended his hand to get the next one a purple aura engulfed all of them, including the one he held, and the bags floated closer to Twilight. He chuckled when he saw the bags floating around her.
"I'll never get used to that." he said, closing the trunk.
She chuckled, and made her way out of the garage. He followed right after.
His mind shifted back to that white sedan parked up the street, making him stop dead on his tracks, his sight locking on the concrete floor right in front of him. His mind stuck on that car, and the memories of the person inside it, holding something resembling a binocular flooded his mind.
"Forgot something?" she asked, shattering his barely formed train of thoughts.
"Hmm?" he said, looking at her.
"You just froze in there. Did you forget something?"
"Uh... no. I, uh..." he trailed, going silent once more. Twilight stared at him for a few moments before stepping closer and looking up at him.
"Greg?"
He stood mute.
"Greg."
"Uhh?" he replied, confused, looking at her.
"Did something happen?"
"No. No, uh..." he said, resuming his way to the backdoor.
"Huh," she said, walking alongside him.
"Hey, I'm thinking about baking a cake. Chocolate cake. What do you think?"
"I think cake is always a good idea," she said, smiling.
"I'll take a quick shower and then I'll get that going."
"Okay. You want me to go fetching the things you'll need?"
"Sure."
The street was empty, save from a car or another that eventually passed by. The crickets sang their melodies, and the chilly night breeze shuffled through the leaves of the trees around, making them sizzle. Twilight's hooves hit the concrete below her with a dull thud, eventually masking Greg's footsteps as he walked alongside her. The silence and peace on that place resembled the quietude of Ponyville during night time.
Twilight looked around cautiously at each step she took. Her ears laid flat against her head and her eyes quickly shifted around, locking briefly on the lit windows of the houses she passed by. She looked ahead of her, searching for signs of anything suspicious that she might need to avoid, but found nothing worth worrying about. She looked to the other side of the street, scanning the opposite sidewalk, her mind entering and leaving full panic mode every time she confused a shadow or bush with a threat. She could feel a pit inside her guts, making her feel like her insides were being sucked away to another dimension. Her instincts were telling her that there was something wrong with that place, and that it was wise to find shelter.
The pit grew deeper, and her mouth became drier than a desert as she moved on. She used all her mental might to keep control, but she could feel she was reaching her threshold, and wouldn't manage to keep it together for much longer. Millions of thoughts flooded her mind, none of them making much sense, but all of them carrying the very same confusing message.
What's wrong with me? The question echoed inside her head, as she couldn't make sense of why she was feeling that way.
The tingling sensation on her legs becoming stronger as the time passed by, making them feel heavy and a slightly disconnected, that they'd give up on her at any moment. The mere thought of not being able to move inspired great fear in her, her mind getting stuck on the scenario where something would attack her and she would be unable to flee.
What's wrong? I-I can't-- I don't-- Why? What's wrong with me? What's wrong-- , she thought, her thoughts colliding against each other.
No, no. I can't do-- I can't do this anymore. I need to-- I-- , she said to herself, logic slowly fading away, giving room for pure panic.
Controlling that turmoil inside her head seemed to be a lost battle. Regardless of how much she forced herself, she couldn't pin down what was causing it. She couldn't understand herself anymore. Her mind slowly shifted to how she was feeling, bouncing between how what she was thinking wasn't making sense and how she couldn't understand what was wrong with her body. The concern of being attacked become irrelevant as the time passed by.
I-I can't breathe. No, I-- I can't-- I can't breathe! , she thought frantically, feeling her throat getting constrained, and her head strangely light. She slowed down her pace to a halt, breathing quickly and loudly, seeing small dark spots surfing through her sight, her head becoming unbearably light, and the world slowly beginning to spin around her.
What's happening!?
"Twilight!" called Greg, making her snap out of her chaotic introspective state. The thick cloud of thoughts quickly dissipated, and she frantically eyed around her, trying to find where Greg was.
"Hey," he said, stepping closer to her. She turned around to look at him, noticing he had stopped several feet behind her. She stared at him, her vision getting slightly clouded by the tears that were welling on her eyes.
"What's wrong?" he said, kneeling down in front of her.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I-I can't-- I can't do this anymore," she said, sobbing and panting heavily.
"What can’t you do anymore, Twilight? What's wrong?"
"I-I-- I don't-- what's wrong on with me? Why am I--" she said, feeling a lump on her throat.
Greg kept staring at her, eyeing her up and down, trying to find the cause of her distress. He then wrapped her with his arms, bringing her closer. She sat down and rested her chin over his shoulder, sobbing loudly.
"Shh, shh, it's okay. It's alright," he whispered to her, resting his hand over the back of her neck and slowly scratching it.
"Greg, what's-- what's wrong with me!?"
"There's nothing wrong with you. But you need to calm down, okay?"
"But--"
"Try to breathe more slowly."
"B-but I can't-- I can barely breathe!"
"No, you can breathe. There's nothing wrong with you. Just try to breathe more slowly."
Her mind screamed from all directions she was about to pass out, but she forced herself to listen to him. Going against her body's will for more oxygen, she forced herself to ignore the suffocating sensation she felt in her chest, and began to draw air in a increasingly slower pace. Her mind entered panic mode, but slowly settled down. As the minutes passed by, the pit inside her, alongside the tingling in her legs, wore away. She could feel her control over herself returning.
"That's better," he said, holding her a bit more tightly.
"What's happening with me, Greg?"
"I'm not sure," he said, letting her go of his embrace. "But it almost seemed like a panic attack."
"What?"
"Yeah. A panic attack."
She stood in silence, the eventual sobs making her inhale sharply.
"I'm sorry I ruined this," she said, letting out a sigh.
"Ruined what?"
"This. Going out. It was supposed to be relaxing, but I managed to make it stressful for you."
"You didn't ruin anything, c'mon."
She sighed, using a forehoof to wipe a tear away.
"You didn't ruin anything. Why would you even say that?"
She kept staring at the sidewalk.
"If you weren't feeling okay, why didn't you tell me?"
"I was feeling okay earlier. I was feeling really good about this, but... when we stepped out, I... I don't know... I started to feel weird."
"Weird how?"
"I just couldn't... stop thinking something really bad was about to happen."
"Well, nothing bad happened," he said, smiling at her.
"Yeah, I know. I... I know."
Greg eyed around them.
"That's why I ruined this. I was worrying about nothing, and caused you unnecessary stress."
"C'mon, you didn't ruin anything. Don't beat yourself up."
Twilight looked down to the ground under her, letting out a sigh, noticing the cracks on the concrete.
"Well," he said, standing up. Twilight looked at him. "I think it's good for today. We went quite far. What you think about going home?"
"I think that's a good idea."
Twilight slowly walked in the backyard, looking around the barely lit place, listening to the noise of the soft grass being crushed under her hooves. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, inhaling the cool night air and feeling slightly light headed before slowly letting it go. She opened her eyes, blinking a few times before turning her attention up at the sky.
She sat down on the grass, appreciating the vastness of the dark veil that covered the sky, it's monotony broken only by the several shimmering bright dots that rested still over it. She moved a forehoof to her shoulder, rubbing it in circles, taking in how it ached slightly, just like the rest of her body. She held back a chuckle, thinking about how long it was since the last time she had any sort of physical exercise.
She laid down on her back, staring fixedly at the dark sky, feeling the grass under her body tickle her slightly as she slowly breathed in and out. Her eyelids felt a bit heavy, and she yawned every so often, with some tears appearing on her eyes every time she did so. The day was taking its toll over her body, and she couldn't fight back the crescent will to go to bed. Her mind wandered around the universe as her gaze switched between the infinite glistening points on the night sky. Her vision got in and out of focus, making her rub her eyes everytime it happened. Her yawns got more and more frequent, and she slowly gave up to the weight that was forcing her eyelids to close, slowly breathing, feeling her legs go numb, and her thoughts become clouded.
"Hey," Greg said, approaching her. She opened her eyes and looked at him. "Sleeping already?"
"Nah," she said through a yawn, looking back up at the sky. "I was just..." she continued. Greg stared at her face for a little while before looking up. His eyes lingered around the dark sky, locking briefly on the small dots that shifted color slightly.
"Mind if I join you?" he asked, looking down at her.
"Not at all."
Greg stepped near her, laying down to her right, letting out a content sigh and interlacing his fingers over his belly. He shifted his sight around the sky for a little while before looking at Twilight.
"Feeling better?" he asked.
"Mhm," she said, looking at him. "A little thrashed, but..." she said, getting interrupted by an yawn. "...I'm okay."
"That's good. It's, uh..." he trailed.
"Hmm?"
"Uh... I'm glad you're okay," he said, staring at her. She smiled back at him.
"I only wish it didn't happen," she said, looking back at the sky. "I still think it ruined the whole going out thing."
"Nah. Don't fret about that."
"I promise I'll try to keep it together tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? So... you want to go again?" he said, a smile growing on his face.
"Mhm," she said, looking at him.
"Cool," he said, smiling. "That's good to hear."
Twilight let out a long yawn.
"Are you sure you don't want to go to bed?"
"Mhm," she said, clearing the tears that appeared on her eyes.
"It's already pretty late."
"I know. I just want to enjoy this sky a little bit more," she said, looking up to the sky.
"Hmm..." he trailed. He looked back at the sky, staring at it for a while, letting out a snort.
"Hmm?" she said, looking at him.
"Nothing," he said, shaking his head. "It's just... I... it's funny. I don't get to spend much time stargazing. Not because I'm busy, but because I'm lazy. But when I do get to do it, well... I mean, each one of those small bright dots in the sky, that quickly shifts from red to blue back to red... each one is a full fledged star, just like the one we orbit around. Or at least most of them. Some are planets, but whatever. They are stars, just like our sun. You see them as those infinitesimal dots against a dark background, but in reality... they're thousands of times larger than this planet. Some are several thousand times the size of our sun. And I think that's really amazing, because it gets you to think how small you actually are. From space, you can't see a person. At least not with a naked eye. We're already small compared to our planet. And then there's our sun. And then there's those stars thousand of times the size of our sun. And then there's the galaxy, which are clusters of billions of those start. And then there's intergalactic space, where all this stuff... several light years apart from each other... moving at several thousand meters per second fits in. They all fit in. I mean, space is so freaking huge your mind collapses onto itself if you try to take in the REAL magnitude of its size. I think that's really crazy. I mean, you can easily read the numeric value which represents the size, but when you compare your own size to it... wow."
Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"And those stars... the light we're seeing from them... they travel really damn fast, but not infinitely fast. So, they take time to reach us. And most of this light was emitted thousands of years ago. And since those stars are so far away from us, and their light is so strong, they reach us, but take quite a lot of time. And when it gets here... we're actually looking at how a star used to be. For all we know, each one of those stars could be exploding right now, but we wouldn't be around to see it happen. Heh, we're actually looking at the past. The past is all around us. Even when looking at you, Twilight," he said, turning his head to look at her. "I'm not seeing you in the present, but slightly in the past. The light coming from around us that is illuminating your face takes time to travel to your face from whatever emitted it, and it takes more time to bounce off of your face and reach my eyes. We can't see the difference, but it's measurable," he said, looking back at the sky. "Yeah, we sort of live in the past."
"Wow, that sure was... enlightening," she said, smiling at him.
"Profund, right?"
"Yeah," she said, chuckling before getting interrupted by a yawn. "I was already tired before having that attack, but... it sure drained me," she said, rubbing both her eyes before letting her forehooves fall over the grass besides her. "I wish I knew why this has been happening with me," she said, quietly.
"Been happening?" he said, looking at her. "Did that happen before?"
"Well... yeah. Just not so intensely."
Greg stood in silence, staring at her.
"I generally just feel a bit strange. This time it began just like always, but then it ramped up to... that. But I'm okay now."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"It's... it's not a big deal," she said, shrugging. "You don't need to worry."
"How am I not to worry? It was a panic attack. You can't just ignore something like that."
"Well, I just feel weird for a few minutes when it happens, so... once it stops, I'm fine."
Greg kept staring at her, slightly shaking his head.
"I just don't think it's worth telling. I don't want to bother you more than what I already have been with every little thing that happens with me."
"That wasn't a little thing. Not by a longshot."
Twilight looked back at the sky, remaining silent.
"And... bother me more? What you mean by that?"
Twilight stood in silence. He kept staring at her.
"Twilight," he insisted.
"You already do too much for me."
"What you mean?"
She let out a sigh. "You make me breakfast, lunch, coffee breaks, dinner. You stay up so I have company when I decide to work late," she said, looking at him. "You changed your whole routine. Just because of me."
"So what?"
"You're waking up two hours earlier than you used to, just to make sure breakfast is ready when I wake up."
"I'll ask again. So what?"
"You come back home to cook lunch, which puts you in a really tight schedule, when having lunch out would be much more practical for you."
"Okay, but--"
"You're spending a lot on... things for me. Things you didn't need to buy before I came along."
Greg let out a frustrated sigh.
"And that’s without even taking into consideration the things I broke in all those months I've been living here. The food I burned. The many times I woke you up in the middle of the night. Just because I can't step lighter."
"Listen--"
"You used to barely stay home. You used to spend most of your time out."
"I used to stay out a lot, but not anymore. Now I stay home, because you're here."
"Exactly. Because I'm here."
"Look, I... still don't get your point."
"My point is that I'm being inconvenient enough already. I already cause enough problems. I don't want to compound it further by exposing irrelevant things happening with me."
"Wait, problems? What problems?"
"Me. Getting in your way, making you change your routine, breaking things."
"But you're not-- okay. Okay, that's... that's bullshit, alright?"
Twilight gaped slightly.
"You say this like I'm doing you some sort of... of... favor."
"But you are."
"No, I'm not. I'm doing only my obligation. Nothing more than that."
"What?"
"You didn't choose to be here, okay? You didn't choose to mess up the spell. Or to get stranded here. Neither did you choose to crash on my house. Nor did I. But it happened.
She looked away from him, sighing.
"It is my obligation to help."
"But that doesn't change the fact that you had to change your life because of me."
"It was an accident, Twilight."
"But it happened anyway! And, regardless of how many times you or I say it was accidental, it doesn't change the fact that I involved you in something you didn't ask to be in!"
"God damnit, Twilight! It was an accident! You said it yourself! What do I need to say so you can understand you did nothing wrong!?"
She stood in silence, staring at him.
"I have to wake up earlier, now. Big deal! It's not like I'm going to die because of it. Yeah, I have less time to enjoy lunch break because I'm coming back home to cook. Wow, that's so terrible. Now I have company while I have lunch, something I enjoy more than having more time."
Twilight's eyes widened slightly. Greg kept staring at her for a little while before letting out a sigh.
"I'm just trying to make your life here as comfortable as possible. I never experienced what you're going through right now, being stranded on another world. I mean, just saying those words sound like... wow. It's insane, but it has happened to you. And I try to empathize. I wish I could help you with the spell as well, but my hands are tied by my own ignorance. The least I can do is give you the conditions you need to fix that spell."
"I--"
"And saying that I'm spending a lot in things you need? First of all, money is not a problem. And second, those things are a necessity. They have to be bought. Simple as that."
"But--"
"No buts. I don't know where all of this is coming from, but it isn't from a place of reason. At all."
"But I..."
"You what?"
"I'm not even repaying you."
"Repay me, Twilight? For what? I already told you I'm not doing you any favors."
"I... I don't want to be a burden. I don't contribute with anything in this house."
"That's not true. You help to keep things in order here. You help me with the groceries. Help me to cook. You keep me company. You do a whole lot around here."
She sighed.
"And... a burden? Why do you think you're being a burden?"
"Because I've been working for months on that spell and I don't seem to make any significant progress. This thing is just dragging itself on and on. And I can't tell how much longer it will take. What if... what if it takes years? What if I never manage to fix it?"
"You'll manage. And you may take as long as you need to get it working, okay?"
She looked back at the sky, taking a deep breath.
"Look, I..." he trailed, letting out a sigh. "I really like having you here. I like your company."
Twilight gaped slightly. "You do?" she said, looking at him.
"Yeah."
She stood in silence, staring at him for a while. He looked back at the sky.
"I really don't get why you think you're being a burden. Or a problem. You really aren't."
Twilight kept staring at him.
"Before you came along, all I did was work. I didn't go out to relax. I didn't talk much to others. Things around here were pretty... dull."
She kept staring at him.
"And I don't want to sound, uh... selfish... but I'm... I'm glad you messed up that spell."
"Greg..."
"And this spell of yours. You think you're taking too much time to get it done. I can barely assess the complexity of it, but... the way you work on it... you're one of the most committed per-- uh, well... you're the first pony I... well, not the first first pony I have ever seen. You're the first talking pony I ever met. And... uh... okay," he said, closing his eyes and waving his hands. "Let me reformulate this. You're one of the most hard working... non-human... persons... uh... I have ever met. I mean, you wake up early, eat, spend your whole morning working. Then you have lunch. Then you spend your whole afternoon working. Then you eat something. Then back to the spell. Then you take your break. Then you go to bed. And repeat. And repeat."
"I have to get it done. I just try to spend most of my time at it."
"I know. That's how I know you're really dedicated to it."
Twilight blushed slightly.
"And I know that you want to go home. I understand that's your priority. I want you to get home too. I just don't want your motivation to be the feeling of not being welcome here. Okay?"
Twilight stood in silence, staring at him, with a smile slowly finding its way to Twilight's muzzle. "Thanks. I... I think really needed to hear that." she said, smiling at him.
"Com'ere," he said, opening his arms and smiling warmly at her. Twilight approached him and laid down closer to him, resting her head over his chest and letting out a sigh. He wrapped his arms around her, resting his right hand over the back of her neck, slowly stroking it.
Greg kept staring at the sky, feeling a light sensation inside his chest. The sensation pushed its way towards his head and his face, making a smile slowly creep its way to his face. He let out a chuckle, making Twilight look at him.
"What is it?"
"It's nothing. This just reminded of someone."
"What?"
"This discussion," he said, looking down at her.
"Hmm..."
"Yeah."
"And who did it remind you of?"
"My daughter," he said, looking back at the sky.
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "You have a daughter?"
"Yes. Her name is Clarice."
Twilight stood in silence, letting that information bounce inside her head, trying to decide what to say.
"Wow. I had no idea."
"Welp..." he trailed. "When she was a teenager, we used to argue quite a lot."
"Hmm..."
"Yeah. I mean, for the most silly things, generally. But we always ended like this after making amends."
"Like... how we are now?" she asked.
"Yeah. I'd ask her for a hug, and she'd cross her arms, pout, turn her face away, walk away, denying it adamantly. And I'd ask her again. And again. Until she cracked a smile and hugged me. It was pretty amusing. Like, she tried to remain serious, but she didn't manage to hold up for long."
"That'd be funny to see," said Twilight, smiling.
"It was pretty funny. Well, sometimes it wouldn't work. Sometimes she'd need a bit more time to calm down. But it generally ended like this."
"Where is she now?"
"She's living far from here. In another state. She already has her own life. Her own house. A good husband."
"She's already married? Wow."
"Yeah," he said. His sight drifted around the sky as the past flooded his mind. Twilight nuzzled his chest slightly, feeling the weight of the day slowly forcing her eyelids closed.
"It's been a while," he said quietly.
"Hmm?" she said, looking at him.
"Nothing. I'm just..." he trailed, taking in a deep breath and letting it out. "Just thinking out loud."
Twilight kept staring at him, looking for what to say.
"It's funny to think that..." he trailed, exhaling loudly. "Having a child is something interesting. Seeing that small person grow up, learn things and..."
"Hmm?"
"Have you ever... have you ever had one of those introspection moments where you stop and see your life from an outside perspective?"
"Uh... I guess?"
"Heh. It's funny. I'm forty-six years old, but I don't feel old. I mean, mentally. I have a pain here and there sometimes, but... they don't happen that often. And... although I don't feel old, I am rather old. I had a child already. She's already an adult, and has her own life."
Twilight kept staring at him.
"And I saw her grow up. Saw her learn how to walk. How to talk. How to do math."
Twilight remained silent.
"And... when she finally graduated in college... I was... I guess I never felt so happy. I mean, all the years I saw her growing up, I asked myself about what could I do to ensure she'd succeed. And the answer was actually pretty straightforward for me. Give her a good education. Make her love to learn new things. But regardless of that, I always worried. I don't know if others worry this much about their children. I don't know if her mother worried as much as I did, but I know I always had that... pit in my stomach appear whenever I thought about her future. But she managed. She succeeded. Which means I succeeded as well. She graduated in law school as one of the best in her class. And she got a job at a really big law office. Like, just a few months after graduating."
"You must be really proud of her," Twilight said while smiling.
"I am, Twilight. I sure am." he said, sighing. "Today... I feel at peace. All my worries are gone. I know she achieved a stable life, a stable relationship, and now all she can do is grow towards success."
Twilight smile slowly vanished as her mind got flooded by the memories of her parents.
“And… what happened to her mother?”
“Uh… nothing. She’s uh… She lives elsewhere. She lives close to Clarice nowadays. Yeah.”
“But why?”
“Well, we... ” he trailed, letting out a sigh. “We are divorced. We’re not married anymore. And she… decided to live close to her daughter.”
“Oh...” said Twilight, her sight trailing downwards, a small pit forming inside of her for feeling she had overstepped her bounds. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that.”
“C’mon, don’t be silly. You don’t need to apologize for asking a question.”
Twilight let out a deep sigh, shaking her head slightly.
"What's wrong?" asked Greg, looking down at her.
"It's nothing. I just remembered something."
"What is it?"
"Uh, just something I've talked with my mom about before I... well, it was the last thing I talked about with her since I got here."
"Hmm..."
"When you talked about your daughter being married and... you made me remember."
"Hmm. And what is it?"
"Uh, it's... it's just something silly."
"Hmm..."
"It's... my mom asked me when I uh... I'd get married."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"And?"
"Well, it was a bit... heh, weird. Talking about this with her."
"Yeah?"
"Mhm. It was a bit unexpected."
"Mhm."
"Like, I was visiting my parents that day. My dad was out, he was still at work. I was in the kitchen making myself a sandwich, and my mom walked in and... asked me how things were going."
"Hmm..."
"And somewhere in between of all that, she started to talk about stallions and... asked me when I'd get married. That there was a lot of cute stallions around and..."
"Hmm..."
"It was a bit weird to hear that. From her."
"Well, I can only imagine. I'd also find a bit weird if I was making myself a sandwich and someone stepped in my kitchen and started to talk about stallions," he said, smirking at her.
"Ha, ha, pretty funny," she chuckled, giving him a tap on the chest.
"So, uh... what happened?"
"Well, we..." she trailed, letting out a sigh. "I think the conversation could've ended slightly better."
"Hmm?"
"We had a... bit of an argument."
"Really? Why?"
"Well, it's not what she told me that... uh, she can a bit insistent at times."
"What did she insist on?"
"On me getting married."
"Uh... why?"
"I mean, is not like she WANTS me to get married as soon as possible. It's just she seems to think that the only way to be happy is that if you marry somepony."
"Hmm..."
"And I don't think it works like that."
"And what did you tell her?"
"Exactly that. That it didn't make much sense to me to be happy ONLY if I have a special somepony. And I marry him."
"Hmm... and what did she say?"
"She got a little bit upset, but... she said she understood and... wouldn't bother me with it anymore."
"Oh..."
"I wish I... I wish I had told her I was sorry for saying it the way I did it."
"But... did she get offended by the way you-- I mean, the way you said it sounded pretty okay to me."
"Let's say that the discussion didn't happen exactly the way I told you. It was a bit longer than that."
"Oh."
"And my reply wasn't as calm as I made it sound."
"Hmm."
"I mean, I believe there are other ways of being happy. But..."
"Well, I think she says that with your best interests in mind.”
“I know she does.”
“But there are other ways to be happy. You don't need to be with someone if you don't feel like it."
"But my mom… my parents... They keep saying I need to find and marry a stallion to be happy. Not right now, but... eventually."
"Well, you could've just told her that although you understand that they have your best interests in mind, you don't feel the need to be with someone. That you feel fine on your own."
"The thing is... it's not that I don't want to be with somepony..."
"Oh... so... what's the problem? Just the marriage part?"
She bit her lower lip, looking away from him.
"Just tell them you don't want to go radical just yet and marry someone. Tell you just want a boyfriend for now."
"That's also not the problem..." she said, looking at him.
"No? Uh... so I'm a bit lost here."
"It's... I uh..."
"Yes?"
"It's that they say I need to... marry a stallion..." she said, looking away from him.
"And?"
"I-I... I'm... I'm not really... into... you know... stallions..." she said, almost whispering.
He widened his eyes, his hand halting its scratching on Twilight's neck. He stood in silence for several seconds as the meaning finally sank in.
"Greg?" she asked, looking up at him, a pit forming inside her as she started to think exposing herself like that was a big mistake.
"Oh... well..." he said, a bit lost.
"You... you don't think I'm weird, do you?"
"Uh... no. No, no. Not at all. So, you're not into stallions... and you're afraid to tell them?"
"Mhm..."
"Hmm..."
They stood in silence for a while.
"Do you think that's alright?" she asked, almost whispering.
"About you swinging the other way? Honestly, Twilight... I don't think my opinion matters that much. I don't even think that's my business."
She widened her eyes upon hearing that.
"I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have bothered you with this," she said, pushing herself away from him and getting ready to stand up.
"Hey, hey," he said, pulling her back closer to him. "Calm down, what's the problem?"
"I shouldn't have told you this."
"Why not?"
"You just told me you don't care!"
"What? No, I didn't say that. What I said was that this isn't any of my business. It's totally a different thing. I do care, but I don't have the authority to argue about it. Especially because this is something one can't argue about. It's a matter of taste. You know, what you feel attracted to, what makes you happy."
She relaxed a bit, nestling her cheek on his chest and letting out a sigh.
"Honestly I'm okay with it. If you're happy, then... I'm happy."
"The way you say this almost sounds like you're disappointed with me."
"Why would I be?"
"Because... I... I'm a princess and... I like other mares. What kind of princess does that? I see other mares pairing with stallions and... I'm... I just don't like them. I mean, I don't hate them. I have friends that are stallions. I just don't... like them the way I'm supposed to. You're saying you're okay with it, but I know you think this is weird."
"Twilight, listen," he said, gently pushing her chin upwards so she could look him on the eyes, "I'm not judging you, I swear. Who am I to judge you, anyway? This is a subjective matter. It’s what you like. It's what you prefer. And I assure you I don’t think any less of you because you like mares. Okay?”
She just stared back.
"Do you believe in me?"
"Mhm."
"Alright," he said, looking back up at the sky. Twilight nestled her cheek on his chest, closing her eyes and letting out a content sigh.
"Thanks for listening to me," she said quietly.
"Oh, sure. No problem," he said, smiling at her.
"I think you're the first I’ve told this to."
"Uh... really? You didn't tell this to any of your friends?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't know. I... I still feel like I'm doing something wrong, and... I didn't want my friends to think I'm... weird."
"If they're your friends, they shouldn’t care which way you swing."
She sighed. "And I still don't know how I'm going to tell my parents."
"Don't worry. You'll have it figured when the time comes."
"But what if they get mad at me? I don't want to--"
"You'll only know that when you tell them. But I'm pretty sure they'll understand you. They won't get mad."
Twilight let out a sigh, letting her body relax once more, feeling her eyelids slowly closing against her will while she went over all he said. She shot her eyes open when a question popped inside her mind.
"Greg?"
"Hmm?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"What if... your daughter told you something like that?"
"Hmm... well..." he said, eyeing around as he organized his thoughts. "Uh, if it was my daughter... I guess... well, I wouldn't be mad at her. That's for sure. But I would also be a bit... surprised. Not because I think she's wrong but... I came from a rather traditional family. And part of my beliefs were molded by my parents when they raised me. So I do believe she should marry a man. But in the end, it's a matter of what makes her happy. This is one of the things parents can't choose better for their children."
They stood in silence for a while.
"I mean... it's... seeing her grow up surely taught me a lot about what things I could decide for her, and what things I shouldn't even try. When she was a teenager, she sometimes would say some pretty... awful things. Like, I didn't love her. I wanted her to be unhappy, and have no friends. Like, standard things a teenager sometimes says. And it hurt a little deciding things that would end up making her upset, but I did it with her best interests in mind."
"What kind of things?"
"Well, mostly her friends. Uh, she was getting involved with some... uh... awful people. They did drugs and... drank a lot of alcohol. And they'd go out and race inside the city. Yeah, they were quite troublesome."
"Oh..."
"She told me they were cool, but I didn't believe it. I didn't want my daughter drugging herself. So I didn't allow her to go out with those friends of hers. And she got upset, and threw things around and... called names. And didn't speak with me for a week. And... I admit sometimes I wondered if what I was doing was right. If I wasn't being overprotective. Well, turns out I was right. Her friends got arrested because the police found a lot, like, a LOT, of illegal stuff with them. Had my daughter been there with them... oh boy, things would've turned out quite complicated."
"Wow."
"Yeah. Most of the time we, parents, know what's best for our children. That's why, even if our children says harsh stuff to us, we're supposed to guide them through a path we believe is right. But there are also a few things we can't decide on their behalf. And that's who they fall in love with. So, who she chose to marry with... that's something no one else but her could decide."
"If she had chosen to marry a woman instead of a man... well... I would support her, as it's her decision, and not mine. Even though it would deviate slightly from what I was raised believing in, I would support her. And I wouldn't think any less of her because of her decision. All I'd care about is that if she'd be happy, regardless who she decided to be with."
Greg looked down, seeing a big and warm smile on Twilight's muzzle.
"Alright?" he said, booping her nose.
"Mhm," she said, looking down and nuzzling his chest. Although her body felt heavy, she could feel an ever growing lightness inside her chest. Something she didn't feel for quite a long time, which helped her push the constant doubt she had on herself away. She felt the extra energy flowing through her body, making her legs feel lighter and ache less, and her mind uncloud.
Her mind shifted to the beginning of the day, going over everything that happened. From the discussion at breakfast, to the delicious chocolate cake she ate a few hours prior. From the excitedness from going out to her possible panic attack.
Her mind focused on that, recalling the event. The numbness and tingling on her legs, the lightheadedness, the inexplicable dread inside her chest. And the worst of them all... suffocating.
She drilled on that, wondering why that happened. She couldn't recall ever feeling that awful before, and she couldn't find inside her mind anything that could explain that.
Her mind shifted to the moment after of all that confusion she felt. She was hugging him. He helped her. She didn’t know how he knew what to do, but he helped her in that frightful moment. She felt glad she wasn't alone. She was glad he was there for her.
Just like he's here, right now , she thought, letting out a sigh.
She began to go over what they talked about, remembering what he said about stars and the universe. The long monologue made her chuckle, but her mind got stuck in a small part of what he said.
"Uh... Greg?"
"Hmm?" he said, looking at her.
"You said that... this planet orbits a star?" she asked, looking up at him.
"Uh... Oh, yeah. We orbit the sun. What about it?"
"Are you sure the sun doesn't go around the planet instead?"
"Uh, yeah, I'm sure. That wouldn't make much sense. The sun is much larger than the Earth. I mean, the sun isn't still either. Earth's gravity pulls it out of its place a little bit, so it sort of wobbles instead of being still. But then again, there are other planets in our solar system, all making the sun wobble as well, so... yeah. And the sun also orbits the center of the galaxy, which is a supermassive black hole and--"
"Hmm..."
"Why you ask?"
"A simple teleportation wouldn't make sense in this case..." she mumbled.
"Hmm?"
She froze in place, her eyes wide and her jaw slightly open. Her mind ran in overdrive as she put the new pieces of the puzzle on their places.
"That's it!" she said, standing up and trotting away.
"That's what?" he asked, sitting up and looking as she trotted away.
"I know what I'm doing wrong on the spell!"
Greg stared as she trotted in the house, bearing a large smile on his face. He stood up, slapped the grass stuck on his clothes, gave a short nod and walked towards the back door.
Author's Note
Well, I think it's about time a chapter showed up : )
Twilight stepped closer to the back door and lit her horn, pulling the door open. She trotted outside, stopping once the sky was clearly over her head. She eyed her surroundings, feeling a comfortable lightness inside her chest as she admired the calmness of the early morning. The gentle morning breeze flowed around her face, making her cheeks go slightly cold, and a small shiver travel through her frame.
She looked up to the peaceful blue sky, her sight locking on the long and thin clouds that lazily threaded by; the soon to be risen sun giving them a striking shade of red and purple, a sight which slowly brought a smile to her muzzle. The stunning showcase of colors made a small pit form inside her, this one being different from the uncomfortable sensation she was used to feel on an almost daily basis. Her chest wasn't full of fear; but instead, full of hope.
She closed her eyes, taking a slow and deep breath, the cold morning air chilling her nostrils and making her skin bristle slightly. The long breath made her feel a bit light-headed, a sensation which soon dissipated through her body, making her feel invigorated. She let out the air through her mouth, opened her eyes, and looked down to the concrete ground under her. Even the dull gray color looked good under this clear sky, she thought.
As the seconds passed by, she could feel that pit inside her grow. The anticipation of doing something she hadn't done in a long time was filling her with so much energy she almost couldn't contain herself. She was going to do it. Finally.
She slowly unfolded her wings, keeping them extended to their full length for a few seconds, feeling their muscles ache slightly from not being used in quite some time, a sensation which made her feel even more excited.
She took a few steps forward, trying to stay as far as possible from anything she could end up hitting, and looked up to the sky once more, eyeing the clouds rolling by over her head. She wondered how high they actually were, and how long it'd take for her to get there.
She focused on her wings, concentrating her will, getting ready to put all her might into them.
With a single, powerful flap, she propelled herself upwards, with each subsequent flap making her fly even faster.
The cold morning air now hushed around her face and ears, cooling them down even further, making several shivers travel down her spine, one after another. The sensation made her chuckle, which in turn gave her even more energy, making her flap her wings harder.
She kept her sight locked upwards, seeing the clouds slowly getting closer to her. She wondered how far from the ground she actually was, but decided to ignore that, as it didn't actually matter. All that mattered was enjoying this rare moment. She was flying, after what seemed like an eternity.
After a few minutes, she had ascended to the height of the clouds she had seen from the ground. Carefully she approached them, gently landing over them with a soft thud. She looked around her, taking in that the cloud she stood on was actually huge, but appeared to be much smaller when seen from the ground.
Her sight locked onto the horizon, where the red sun shyly peeked over the edge of the world. She felt a lightness inside her push its way towards her muzzle, forming a smile as her eyes lingered around that fantastic imagery. The incredible contrast the red sun made against the early morning sky made her feel relaxed and calm.
She sat down and laid on her back, staring at the clear blue sky for a few moments, slowly breathing. The sky filled her vision from side to side, and her eyes drifted across it, trying to find any discernible point to lock upon.
It'd sure be creepy if the world turned upside down and the sky ended up being the ground , she noted to herself as she rolled to lay on her belly, crossing her forelegs.
She extended her hind legs back, keeping them stretched for a few seconds, feeling her legs muscles burn a bit. She then closed her eyes and pointed her muzzle upwards, forcing her chin up the most she could, slowly breathing in as she did so. She held her breath for a few seconds before letting it go, slowly lowering her chin and opening her eyes, letting out a content sigh.
As the minutes passed by, the cloud she stood upon slowly shifted from red to orange to white. The sun was making its way to the sky, bringing with it a full day’s worth of work.
She let out a sigh and approached the edge of the cloud, resting her chin over it. From that height, she could see the whole city, and several cityscapes she knew very well.
She squinted her eyes slightly, locking her sight briefly on the people that walked under her and wondering what they had set themselves to do that day.
She narrowed her eyes and covered them with a foreleg when the sunlight finally peeked over the cloud she was on, remembering once again she also had her own matters to attend.
She reluctantly stood up and carefully stepped closer to the edge of the cloud, feeling a cold pit in her stomach as she leaned forward towards the edge, taking in how high she actually was. A small smile found its way to her muzzle, and it grew larger the more she leaned forward. She allowed her body to lean forward until she fell off the cloud, the wind once again zipping around her body.
She extended her wings slightly and maneuvered herself, making her muzzle point towards the ground before folding them back again. The deafening noise of the wind hurrying around her ears was amazing, she thought, and the ground rushing towards her looked surreal.
A few seconds away from the ground, she shot her wings spread, giving a few flaps, slowing her fall down enough to allow a comfortable landing. Her hooves hit the grass under her with a soft and wet thud, and she stood still for a few seconds, feeling the adrenaline slowly wearing away.
She then set out towards the back door, walking in the kitchen and heading towards the passage to the dining room. She halted on her tracks, looking at the fridge.
I guess I'll get something sweet to nibble on before getting to the spell , she thought, trotting towards the fridge and pulling its door open. She eyed up and down, gauging her options. Didn't take long for her sight to lock onto something that made a wide smile appear on her muzzle. A large and succulent apple pie.
Letting out a content hum she brought the pie out of the fridge and put it over the center counter. She stood over her hind legs, resting her forehooves on the counter and stealing a quick sniff at the pie, the faint but sweet aroma making her hum in delight and her grin grow wider.
She walked closer to the sink, using her magic to fetch a plate, fork, and knife from the cabinets around it, bringing them back over to the center counter and taking a seat on one of the stools.
Taking the knife on her magic, she cautiously sliced the pie, trying not to mess it up too much. The scent it released while she brought her slice to her plate made her salivate and her stomach growl.
I wonder when Applejack had the time to bring this here , she thought to herself as she brought a fork full of pie to her mouth, letting out another delight hum. I need to thank her next time I see her. She surely outdid herself with this one .
Twilight eyed around the kitchen while her mouth was being assaulted by the crunchiness and sweetness of the treat she was eating. She looked through the back door window, thinking about how bright was outside and wondering how early in the morning it actually was. Her eyes lingered around the place once more, this time looking for something which could tell her what time was it. Her eyes locked onto the wall clock that hung over the passage to the living room.
Nine oh three... still morning... , she thought to herself while chewing. She kept staring at the clock, following the second hand, wondering if she'd be able to see the minute hand moving.
Hmm... the clock seems to have stopped , she thought upon noticing that the second hand remained still, always marking seventeen seconds past a minute. What time should be now, then? I better tell Greg about this , she thought, taking another bite of her pie.
"Hello, Twilight," said Greg, walking in the kitchen through the backdoor. Twilight snapped at his direction.
"Hey," she said, staring at him while she chewed. "You didn't go to work today?"
"Yes, but I'm already back," he said, stepping closer to the counter and sitting down on a stool. "I couldn't stop thinking about a few things on the spell."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"What about it?"
"I was thinking that employing a simple ripple-search for the destination prediction part won't do. You can end up running out of magic before finding a destination."
"Yes," said Twilight, staring attentively at him while taking another bite of her pie.
"So, this is what I was thinking about. What if, instead, you used the magAWK--" Greg got interrupted, going mute.
Twilight raised an eyebrow before her sight drifted down to Greg's chest, making her jaw drop and her eyes widen. She stared at the long metal blade that went through his chest, and the torrent of blood that was streaming out of the rip on his chest.
With wide eyes, Greg slowly looked down, his jaw also dropping when he realised the irregularly shaped blade going through his body.
Twilight's sight switched several times between his chest and his face. Several words collided inside her head, never forming any coherent sentence. Her mind had partially blacked out, and she didn't knew what to do.
She looked to the left of Greg, feeling her fur beginning to stand on end when her sight locked onto something she wasn't expecting to be there.
Near Greg stood a creature which seemed to be made of gray smoke, and its shape resembled a tall man.
Twilight felt paralyzed when she locked eyes with the beast. Its dark and deep eyes pierced through her, and she felt it drilling a hole down to her very soul.
The creature swiftly pulled the blade away, still staring at her, making her flinch with the suddenness of the movement. The creature kept staring at her, just as if it wanted to gauge her panic through her facial expressions. Greg leaned forward slightly, resting his left forearm over the counter and bringing his right hand to his chest, trying to stop the blood from flowing out of his body.
Twilight's sight kept locked onto the creature while her mind quickly went over all the spells she knew, looking for one that could save Greg. Her mind locked onto the teleportation spell, but regardless of how hard she tried, the spell wouldn't work.
Feeling the pit deepen inside her and her mind starting to get clouded by panic, she decided that a brute force solution was all she'd got left. She concentrated on Greg, trying to build a shield around him, but her horn wouldn't obey.
Time seemed to have slowed down for her as she saw the scene before her completely still. Instants felt like minutes inside her head, and no magical solution had presented itself functional. She decided that she had to do something to save Greg's life. She had to get that creature away from him, regardless of how.
She decided to somehow tackle the smoke beast, but her body wouldn't obey either. She looked down to her hooves, staring at them, switching her gaze between them as they remained still over the counter, completely oblivious of her will. Her joints were stuck. She wasn't in control of her own body anymore.
She stared wide eyed as the creature raised his arm, bringing the enormous blade over its head. She looked back to Greg, who was staring at her with a terrified expression on his face. She looked back at the creature, madly glaring at it when it, with a dry blow, hit Greg on the top of the head, slicing his body in half.
Twilight's eyes shot open, and her body gave a violent jolt. She quickly sat up on her bed, spastically eyeing around her dark bedroom, gasping for air. Her forehooves were shaking, and the shortness of air made a pit form inside her guts. She brought her left forehoof to her chest, trying to lessen the overwhelming lack of air she felt while her just-awoken mind tried to reason about what was going on.
C'mon, breathe. Breathe! she thought to herself, trying to regain control over her body. Her head was spinning, but after a few seconds everything started to subside. She kept staring forward, feeling the panic slowly fade away, and the pit inside her vanish.
She let out a sigh of relief and covered her eyes with her forehooves, breathing slowly, feeling her eyes get slightly damp. The sensation of her body finally settling down made her wonder why those nightmares happened, and for how much longer she would manage to endure those badly slept nights.
She opened her eyes and looked down, letting her forehooves rest limply over the mattress. She stared at her forehooves for a little while before bringing them closer to her face, moving them, making sure her joints were functional and her limbs were well under her control. Seeing how effortlessly she could move them made her wonder why her body always locked up in those nightmares. She was sure she would act swiftly in case somepony was in danger, but still couldn't fathom the reason for her to become utterly useless in her dreams.
She let out a sigh and allowed her forehooves to rest over the mattress under her once more. Her mind sneakily shifted to the part which had stuck on her mind. That creature besides Greg. The gigantic blade. The blood.
No! she screamed mentally, closing her eyes tightly and shaking her head, making the gory scene disappear from her mind. No, it didn't happen. It's a nightmare , she thought, trying to force her mind not to replay that specific part of her dream. None of that happened. He's alright. He's alright.
Her ears twitched towards the window when the sound of a lightning bolt far away echoed, muffled inside her room. She opened her eyes and looked at the window, seeing the heavy rain falling over the window, rolling down the glass. The sound of the violent storm hitting the roof made it hard for her to hear her own thoughts.
She looked back to the walls of her bedroom, her mind insistently shifting back to the part of her dream she tried not to think about.
Stop it! she demanded, hitting her forehooves onto the mattress in frustration, the agitation making the horrid images go away.
Just a nightmare. It was just a nightmare , she thought, trying to reassure herself nothing bad had happened. She swallowed, feeling her throat dry and sore, and a faint headache appeared.
Well, there goes another good night of sleep , she thought, letting out a frustrated sigh, throwing the covers to the side and getting out of her bed. She slowly made her way to the bedroom door, tripping on her still slightly dormant legs, feeling her eyelids were still quite heavy.
Using her magic she pulled the door open, halting and squeezing her eyes closed when the bright hallway light shone on her face, making her eyes hurt and head throb. She instinctively covered her eyes with a forehoof, letting out a groan.
Stupid light , she cursed in her mind, focusing her magic on the light switch in the hallway, flipping it. She let out a relief sigh when the place turned dark, and the pain on her head and eyes diminished.
She flared up her horn, filling the hallway with her weak purple light, and resumed her way out of her bedroom. She stopped in front of Greg's door, noticing it slightly open. She looked into the room through the gap from the middle of the hallway, but didn't see anything other than darkness. After frowning heavily for a few instants while trying to see him through the gap, she approached the door, gently pushing it open and peeking inside. The only noticeable feature was the small amount of light coming through the window, falling over the white translucent curtains.
Her mind quickly shifted back to her dream, making her feel a pit inside her guts. She knew it was a dream, but she wanted to be sure. She wanted to make sure he was okay. That nothing had happened. But she didn't want to wake him up either.
After a few moments of intense pondering she gave up and made her light brighter, making the purple light fill the room. Her eyes locked on Greg, and she stared at him attentively for a while. She sighed mentally once she saw his chest slowly raising and lowering enough times, the faint sound of his breathing finally putting her mind at ease.
It was just a bad dream , she said to herself once again, stepping back to the hallway, using her magic to pull Greg's door closed. She wondered if those nightmares had any actual meaning, or were just meant to be a prank the universe was pulling on her.
She quickly rejected the last option as being utterly ridiculous, focusing on the first one instead. She wondered what her subconscious wanted to tell her, and why it needed to use such horrid images to do so.
Feeling unwilling to actually put her mind to work on that she instead resumed her way to the staircase. She cautiously stepped down, focusing on her hooves as she set them down, trying to hit the wooden steps as lightly as she could. Once she was at the bottom of the staircase, she took a left, walking into the kitchen.
She stopped, eyeing around the barely lit place, feeling a small pit forming inside her chest. Her sight locked briefly on every dark corner of the kitchen, making her frown while she tried to decide if there was something in there, or if it was just her mind playing tricks on her.
She focused her magic on the light switch, flipping it and regretting it in the very next moment when the sudden brightness made her head hurt again.
Ugh, forget it , she mumbled, turning the lights back off.
She stood still, rubbing her forehead, trying to push away the irritant throbbing pain inside her head that came and went.
She swallowed, the dry throat reminding her why she was there, making her move forward again. She stepped closer to the sink, using her magic to fetch a glass from one of the cabinets, bringing it over the center counter. She then pulled the fridge's door open, taking a bottle of water in her magical grasp and setting it over the counter as well.
She took a seat on one of the stools, filling her glass to the brim and taking a sip of it, feeling a profound relief when the water brought back the moisture to her mouth and throat.
Once she had emptied her glass, she eyed around the place, feeling the strange uneasiness inside her grow back as the place made her remember how she felt in her nightmare. Useless. Defenseless. Feelings she surely hated.
She shook her head, trying to forget about that. She then looked at the clock that hung over the passage to the living room, narrowing her eyes as she tried to read it. She locked her sight on the second hand, letting out a sigh of relief once she saw it moving.
She looked back down to her glass, pondering on how paranoid she had become in those last few minutes. She already knew it was a dream, but still felt the need to check everything she could. Just to have another piece of evidence to prove this was reality, and everything was fine.
After a while, she decided she already had enough of that paranoia, and there was no reason to keep thinking about the dream. There was just one thing she wanted to really do in that moment. Kill her thirst.
As she served herself another glass of water, a bright light shone in her eyes, making her instinctively cover them with a foreleg. She tried to peek over her foreleg to see the source of that light, but the brightness of the light wouldn't allow. A lightning bolt struck nearby, its brightness revealing something that made her jaw drop and her eyes widen.
Still, on the other side of the back door, stood a dark silhouette, resembling a man.
Her still slightly foggy mind put the pieces together. There was someone outside, spying in with a flashlight. And whoever was there was seeing her through the window.
Feeling her hooves beginning to shake and a pit form inside her chest, she quickly made her way down off her stool but, in the frenzy of the moment, knocked it down with one hind leg. The loud noise caused by the stool hitting the floor made the light vanish.
She ran towards the living room, stopping in her tracks when she noticed another flashlight had just vanished from the living room's window.
She stood frozen in place for a few seconds, hearing her heart thumping inside her ears, before gathering the courage to step closer to the window. She got onto the couch and stared outside. She eyed around the street, straining her eyes to see through the heavy rain. Her sight stuck on a white car parked on the other side of the street under a street light, and what appeared to be two people getting inside it. She stared at it briefly, before the car quickly accelerated away.
She stood in silence, the only noise making her company now coming from the heavy rain hitting the outside of the house and any occasional lightning bolts.
She got down from the couch and made her way to the staircase, walking up it. At the top of it she took a left and, almost trotting, reached Greg's bedroom. She pushed the door open and approached his bed, trying to find a way of waking him up without startling him.
"Greg," she whispered, drawing her muzzle to his ear.
"Greg, wake up," she insisted, resting a forehoof over his shoulder and pushing it.
"Please, wake up," she said, her voice shaking just as much as her legs.
"AH! Uh, wha-- ugh... Twi--light...?" he tried to say, but his hazy mind kept stumbling on the words. "What ha… uh... d-did something... uh," he slurred again, rubbing his face with both his hands before stretching his arms. He let out a sigh, allowing his arms to fall limply over the bed.
"Hey," he asked, looking at her, squinting his eyes slightly when the light from her horn fell over his eyes. He then looked at the room’s door, frowning.
“The hallway is dark… did… did you turn off the--”
"There were people outside," she replied, almost whispering.
"What?"
"They were peeking inside, using flashlights."
"Fuck," he said, throwing his covers aside and sitting up on his bed, rubbing his hair with his left hand.
"They saw me."
"They?" he said, letting his hands fall limply over his lap. "How many were there?"
"I think I s-saw two."
"Two..." he said, locking his sight at the floor before him. "And they saw you."
"Mhm."
He remained in silence, his sight shifting between different spots on the floor.
"Greg, who are those people?"
"I don't know," he said, standing up and grabbing the shotgun near the head of his bed. "I'll check outside to see if there's still someone there," he said, walking towards the door.
"No, please... they... they're gone. You don't need to go outside," she said, walking towards him.
"Yes, I need to," he said, stopping in front of the door, turning around to look at her. "I need to make sure no one is there."
"But they could be armed."
"Well, they better be. Because if I find any of them outside, things are gonna get ugly. For them," he said, walking out of the bedroom brandishing his shotgun.
Greg walked into the kitchen through the back door. He strapped his shotgun to his back and closed the door, checking each of the locks twice to see that they were in working order.
"Alright," he said, walking in the living room, resting his shotgun against a wall. "There's no one outside."
Twilight kept staring at him.
"Damn, this rain is freaking cold," he said, using his hands to wipe away the water that was dripping from his forearms. "You said there were two?"
"Mhm."
"Hmm. And where did they go? Did you see them running away or..."
"A car. I saw them getting in a white car."
"A white car..." he said, slowly approaching the couch and sitting beside Twilight.
A white car... could it be the same car? , he thought to himself, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, interlacing his fingers. His sight stuck on the floor while his mind was being flooded with the memories of the white car he saw a few hours prior, parked a block away.
I stared at them for quite a long time. If they were spying on us, that'd have made them go away. But whoever was there...
Why would someone spy on us? Who could it be?
"Greg?"
"Uh! What?!" he said, unburing himself from his own mind.
"You... you think they're after me?" she asked, looking at him.
"Uh... no?" he said, looking at her. "That's very unlikely. Why would someone be?"
"I don't know, I..."
They remained in silence for a few seconds.
"I agree that having people looking inside with flashlights is not good, but I…” he trailed, going silent.
“Hmm?”
“I suppose it's more likely to be burglars planning a robbery than anything else."
"Could they get in?"
"Well, of course. But not without making a lot of noise. And they'd struggle a bit. The doors have some pretty decent locks."
Twilight stood in silence, rubbing her left foreleg with her forehoof nervously.
"But I'll be adding one more lock to each door by the morning. Just in case."
"You think they'll come back?"
"Not tonight," he said, resting his back against the couch, staring at the ceiling. "I guess they took advantage of the heavy rain to uh... well... yeah. They won't be risking being caught twice in the same night. I think we're good for now."
She let out a sigh, resting her head against the backrest, closing her eyes.
"I'll call the cops, tell them we saw someone looking in. And by the morning I'll hand them the security camera footage. Maybe they’ll find something,” he said, staring at the ceiling, feeling his eyelids becoming heavier. “So, let's go back to sleep?" he said, looking at her.
He kept staring at her, a smile growing on his face as he saw that she had already fallen asleep.
"Twilight," he said smoothly, trying not to startle her. Twilight shot her eyes open, snapping her sight at him.
"Don't you wanna go to your bed?"
"Mhm," she slurred, rubbing her eyes with her forehooves. "I... don't know if I'll manage to fall asleep tonight."
"Uh, well... you just managed to do it."
"Yeah," she whispered, resting her head against the backrest once more and closing her eyes.
"Well, I..." he trailed, making her look at him. "I could... read a bedtime story for you. To help you fall asleep. What do you think?"
"I already read all the story books you have here."
"Oh... uh, well... that's... that's a problem."
"Mhm," she said, closing her eyes once more.
"What if..." he said, going silent and staring at her for a few seconds. She raised an eyebrow, without opening her eyes, signaling for him to continue.
"Instead of reading a bedtime story... I... TOLD you a bedtime story?" he said, smirking at her.
Twilight opened and rolled her eyes before staring at him with a small smile.
"Yeah," he said, shaking his head slightly, his sight trailing towards the ground. "Why did you wake up so early?" he said, looking back at her.
Her smile vanished. "I had a nightmare."
"Again?"
"Mhm," she said, letting out a long sigh and looking away from him. "You were there..."
"Yeah?"
"Mhm."
"And what happened?"
"You... uh... you came back early from work because... I think because you were thinking about the spell."
"Oh... me thinking about the spell?"
"You said something about using uh... I guess... you said something about ripple-search."
"Ripple-search?"
"Mhm."
"What's that?"
"It's one mechanism used to find the destination of a teleportation operation," she said, looking at him.
"Hmm... wow, you're even dreaming about the spell."
"You were going to tell me that you'd had an idea of how to solve the missing part of the spell, but..." she trailed, looking away from him, going silent for a few seconds.
"But...?"
"There's a creature that showed up and... it... it had a blade and..." she trailed, the horrid images of her nightmare flooding her mind, stopping the words from coming out of her mouth.
"And?"
"And... nothing," she said, shaking her head slightly. "Nothing. It was just a stupid nightmare."
"Hmm."
"Just a stupid nightmare," she whispered to herself. He kept staring at her for a little while resting his back against the couch.
"Well, I'm sure it won't happen again tonight. What do you say we go back to sleep?"
She let out a sigh. "I guess that's a good idea."
Chapter 6 - blood seekers
The car's front wheel hit the sidewalk, the shocks letting out a muffled metallic groan. Greg stepped on the brake, stopping right before his garage and engaging the handbrake.
He allowed his head to fall back and rest against his seat, closing his eyes, taking in a deep breath, and letting out a long sigh.
A slight headache appeared, making him curse his brain and its willingness to start to hurt out of the blue. The annoying pain inside his head made him acknowledge the slight burning sensation in his shoulders and neck.
The stiffness in his shoulders made him recall the work day that had just ended. He pondered on the progress made and the tasks accomplished, feeling a small lightness inside his chest as his evaluation of the day was rather positive.
He breathed slowly, the hum of the idle engine making him relax. His eyelids felt heavy, and his thoughts become foggy. He shot his eyes open and leaned forward, realising he was drifting away from consciousness when he started to question why the engine was making any noise at all.
He brought his hands to his face, slowly rubbing his face and planning his next few steps until later that night, when he'd have his usual walk with Twilight.
His attention was brought to the passenger door by the noise of it being pulled open. His sight instantly locked on the barrel of the gun that was being pointed at him, a cold pit forming and deepening inside his guts.
He looked up to the face of gun's wielder, his eyes locking with the dark-haired man's as he entered the car.
"Drive," said the man, pulling his door closed.
Greg remained in silence, staring at the man as his mind unscrambled itself from the shock.
"I told you to DRIVE," the man insisted, forcing the barrel of his gun against Greg's temple.
"Why?" said Greg, his mind starting to work again.
"Because I told you so. And if you take a minute longer to drive us out of here, I'll go inside your house and kill that purple horse."
Greg's body tensed up and he kept staring at the strange man in disbelief as that last statement was processed by his mind.
"Yeah. I know about it. I'm going to kill it, unless you drive this fucking car. Now DO IT!"
Greg stared fixedly at the man as his mind started to craft horrid images of the man hurting Twilight, making him feel cold flashes inside his chest.
He pursed his lips staring at the man with narrowed eyes. He slowly put his left hand back onto the steering wheel, shifted the car in reverse, and drove off.
"Here's good," said the man, waving his gun for Greg to stop.
The man looked around, scanning the outside for anyone that could see them. The street was deserted, their only company the decaying buildings around them.
"Cut the engine," said the man, looking back at Greg. He brought his hand to the ignition, reluctantly turning it.
"Okay, old man, now you better listen. That horse belongs to the Blood Seekers, and we want it back. So, you're going to move your old, wrinkly ass, and bring it to us, got it?"
Greg narrowed his eyes as he heard that. "The Blood Seekers?"
"Yeah, you old fuck. That's the name of my gang."
"A gang? But... why would your gang want her?"
"Didn't you listen to me? I just told you it BELONGS to us!"
"No, she doesn't."
"Yes, it does. And you gonna bring it to us. Peacefully."
"I'm not bringing her to you. You better forget it."
"Do you have any idea who we are, huh? Any idea who my boss is?"
"No."
"Then let me tell you. Kevin always gets what he wants."
Greg remained in silence.
"And he doesn't care about who he has to get rid of to get what he wants."
Greg kept staring at him.
"And he wants that thing back. And he wants YOU to bring it to him."
"Then you'll need to tell your boss he's not having her."
In a sudden move the man punched Greg's right cheek, throwing him against his door and making him cover his face with his right arm.
"What about that, huh!? Are you done playing the brave man!?"
"Motherfucker," whispered Greg, holding his right cheek.
"We're not giving you an option here. You better take the chance we’re giving you to resolve this peacefully and bring it to us."
Greg's cheek began to throb, making his mind go over his options. The man had the upper hand, as he had the gun, and it was always pointed at him. He considered trying to take it away from him, but at that distance he reasoned he'd get shot before getting close enough. Reacting didn't seem like an option. He decided to try to reason with the man instead.
“Why do you want me to bring her?” Greg asked.
“We don’t want to step into that neighborhood. The police are all around.”
“What if I refuse, then? You just said you can’t--”
“Well, I said we don’t WANT to, but we can. We might need to deal with the police, but we can. And you won’t want us stopping by your house.”
Greg remained in silence for a little while, shuffling his options in his mind.
"Why… why is she so important?"
"'Cause it caused us problems."
"What kind of problems could she have possibly caused to you?"
"That bitch blew everything up. Our house. Our stash. Our money. She hurt my buddies. My best friend lost his hand. And my boss lost some fingers because of that bitch. It's going to pay for what it did."
"She blew up your stuff?"
"Yeah. It exploded everything. I don't know how. It used its horn."
"But..."
"If it had just let us cut its horn out without resisting, we wouldn't be here now. Everything would be fine. This whole thing is its fault."
Greg's jaw dropped slightly and he narrowed his eyes. He remained in silence for a little while.
"JUST cut her horn out!? What for!?"
"Well, my boss thought it was cool, and wanted it. As a souvenir. He didn't want the whole horse. Just the horn."
"You were going KILL her JUST to take her horn!?"
"Yeah, why not? It’s just an animal."
"She's a sentient being, you moron!"
"She exploded my friends!"
"Oh, and you're honestly surprised!? You wanted to kill her! What else did you expect!?"
"It's an animal! It was meant to be killed!"
"You're the one who was meant to be killed!" yelled Greg.
"Oh, oh, oh. Lower your voice," said the main, pointing the gun at Greg's forehead.
Greg kept staring at the man, pursing his lips, feeling his blood start to boil.
"Fuck!" he muttered through his teeth, trying to dissipate some anger.
"I don't care what you think, old man. That thing belongs to us, and we'll get it back. It will pay for what it did."
"I won't let you get near her. Did you hear me!?" Greg said, gritting his teeth.
"You can't do anything about it. All you're doing is delaying the inevitable."
"Fuck you."
"We're gonna skin that bitch alive, break its legs with a sledge hammer. Shove hot iron inside her bones."
"I won't let you!"
"We'll slice it open and pull its insides out. And then we'll hang it on its own intestines."
Greg clenched his fists while staring fixedly at the man.
"We'll make sure that stupid animal feels it all. Nevermind the horn. Only seeing that BITCH scream will be enough. And we already made a long list of what we're going to do. It's gonna be fun."
That last sentence hit Greg in a surreal fashion. He couldn't understand how someone could mix the word fun in the same sentence that mentioned torture, and seem so happy in doing so. His blood was already boiling, and he could hear his heart beats in his ears.
"And after that, who knows?" continued the man, smirking at Greg. "I have friends that are into necrophilia. They can put its corpse to good use."
Greg kept his stare locked on the man's face, and he breathed loudly through his teeth.
"So, that's it. You'll bring that thing to this exact place, next week, understand?"
Greg remained in silence.
"I'm going to accept your silence as understanding," said the man, holstering his gun.
Greg stared fixedly at him, his fists clenched and shaking, his mind overdriven. The words of that man struck him in a way he didn't understand, making his mind, now flooded by the memories of Twilight, distort those fond moments in horrific ways. Tragic outcomes forced their way inside his head, the gory imagery making he question himself that, if what this man told him was true, then Twilight would... they'd kill her.
They'd kill her.
The sentence echoed inside his mind, sounding more and more like the rumble of an lightning that hit the ground right next to him.
The cold feeling inside his chest returned with full force, flushing him out of himself, making him question his own awareness, and if that situation was actually going on. If that was reality.
The slight hope of all that being fake was immediately crushed as he realized how pathetic and useless his attempt at fleeing the situation was. That was reality, and it had to be dealt with.
Little by little, he uncovered the layers of thought he had stacked upon himself, feeling the cold reality strike his chest again. The uncomfortable feeling made his legs and arms go slightly numb. He felt like his whole body was being electrified, and the sensation made him angry.
This is not fair , he thought, feeling his whole body start to heat up.
Suddenly, a shortness of air struck him, making him pant heavily. His body felt heavy and tired all of the sudden. He felt weight over his legs and feet, as if he was standing on them. His arms ached and his shoulders burned as if he had lifted heavy weight.
He looked down. Before him, fallen on the ground next to the passenger door, was the man that just before was pointing a gun at him. Who was threatening him and Twilight.
The man laid on his back, breathing raggedly, his face covered in blood, his nose bent and off-centered.
Greg clenched his fists and felt a sting on his right one. He brought his right hand up and stared in disbelief at his knuckles. They were cut and bruised, and covered in blood.
He tried to reason out what had happened, and how he got out of the tight spot he found himself in mere seconds ago. Forcing himself to remember proved itself fruitless. He had no recollection of what he did. Although there was a hole in his memories, experience had led him deduce what had happened.
He had lost control. The mere realisation masked away his shortness of air and forced in a deep uneasiness, making his mind dwell on that and his thoughts start to race.
The fallen man coughed and let out a moan of pain, bringing Greg out of his introspective state. He snapped at the man's direction, his bloody face reminding Greg of why he was all beaten up, and why he deserved it.
Greg walked closer to the man and grabbed him by his jacket, bringing him over the car's hood, the shock against the car making the man cry desperately.
"Shut up!" yelled Greg, shaking the man by his jacket, making him go silent.
"Now, you... you gonna listen," he said, panting heavily, his face a few inches away from the man. "I'm not fooling... around here. I'm not fooling around."
The man stared at him, wide eyed, his hands and arms curled, shaking uncontrollably, trying to cover his demolished face from any further abuse and stop the torrent of blood that was streaming out of his twisted nose.
"If you... show up near my house ONCE MORE... I swear I'll... crack your skull open and FUCKING STOMP YOUR BRAINS!! DID YOU GET ME!?"
The man nodded, weeping frightfully.
"And you gonna tell this Kevin motherfucker that... it's not a wise move to mess with a mad man. You gonna tell him that if he... shows up... if he tries... ANYTHING... I swear, I'll rip his insides out and PISS ON HIS GUTS!!"
The man agreed energetically while Greg stared fixedly at his eyes, without ever blinking.
"You said your boss doesn't care about who gets in his way. Well, let me tell you, I also have no qualms about who I need to deal with to keep my family safe."
The man kept staring at him, wide-eyed.
"Now fuck off," said Greg, throwing the man to the side.
Greg stared at the fallen man for a few seconds before walking back towards the driver’s door. He stopped dead on his tracks, turning around and trudging towards the fallen man. The gang member cried as he saw Greg approaching.
“Also, old man your ASS!” exclaimed Greg, stopping a few feet away from him, pointing a finger. “I’m only forty-six!”
He walked back to the driver’s door, pulling it open, getting in the car, and them slamming it closed. He grabbed the seatbelt and quickly fastened it before resting his right hand over the ignition. He turned it and looked forward through the windshield, his sight immediately locking on the huge crack spanning across it.
He followed the cracks with his eyes until they landed on a hole. A perfectly round hole.
A bullet hole.
He narrowed his eyes, staring as he puzzled about how that had happened.
He looked around the car for more evidence, his sight locking on a gun on the ground in front of the passenger seat.
He started at the gun for a few seconds before looking forward and driving away.
The car's front wheel hit the sidewalk, making Greg stop. He reached inside his pocket and found the door remote, pressing its little button and making the garage door quickly raise.
He drove the car in, pressing the button again and waiting for the door to fully close before cutting the engine.
He kept his right hand at the ignition and his left hand glued to the steering wheel for a few seconds before letting both fall limply over his lap. His sight remained stuck at the steering wheel as he slowly breathed.
With each breath taken he felt his body settling down from what happened some minutes ago. His mind went over everything that happened, but he couldn't understand how that was possible. He knew it happened, but it all seemed too surreal to believe. All that stuff had happened. He did it all.
He looked down to his right hand, staring at his palm for a few seconds before turning it down. He clenched his fist, feeling a stinging pain on his knuckle. He stared fixedly at his hand, seeing how bruised it had become, analysing the different cuts the teeth of that man had made on his skin, and the stains of blood that covered a few parts of his fingers. He wondered which blood was his and which came from that man, and how his hand didn't hurt while he was punching him.
That made him wonder about the pieces of memory that were missing. He forced himself to remember, concentrating the most he could, but the lacking memories didn't show up. That gap in his mind, and what caused it, made him feel a sudden cold sting on his guts. Knowing that he could lose control like that and not even realise made his mind wander around the memories of Twilight. His mind began to craft horrid images about her, making him feel a tightness on his throat and the cold sensation inside him intensify.
He wanted to forget about that. He wanted to believe that nothing of that had happened, but his tired body wouldn't allow it. His bruised hand was there, proving to him it was all real, and that it wasn't insane to believe it all. He could do it. It was all real. He was a mad man, and the only thing that kept him from causing a tragedy was a layer of reason. His rational mind.
Those thoughts reminded him once again of what happened minutes ago. The reason he had those thoughts. The reason his hand was bruised. The reason he almost punched that man to death. Or why he had a gun pointed to his head for several minutes.
They're after her , the thoughts slowly crept in his head once again.
A cold feeling struck him, making him feel disconnected from his body for a few seconds. He kept staring at the steering wheel with wide eyes while the realisation finally sunk in.
They're coming after , he repeated inside his head. They're after her. She saw them but I dismissed it as nothing .
I'm a fucking moron... , he thought, feeling something start to bubble inside his head.
I'm... a fucking... MORON! he yelled inside his head, slamming both his hands on the rim of the steering wheel.
SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! he exclaimed to himself in his mind, hitting the border of the steering wheel again and again.
He let his head fall back against his seat, staring at the car's ceiling, feeling a slight shortness of breath.
Shit! What am going to do now? , he thought, bringing both his hands to his head and closing his eyes, taking in long breaths and slowly letting them out.
It's a fucking gang! They will-- NO! They won't get her! I won't let!
But-- Shit! How?!
I-- I gotta think , he thought, unfastening his seatbelt and pushing his door open. He walked in front of his car, stopping dead in his tracks and staring down at a stain of oil. He brought both his hands to the back of his neck, interlacing his fingers and letting out a sigh.
Okay. Focus. This is my problem. I've got to solve it.
First, obvious thing. Warn the cops, again. Explain what happened today. Hopefully they will catch them quickly. I already gave them footage of those fuckers showing up around here, so they know I'm not lying. That's good. That's good.
The camera might have caught the dude showing up in the driveway as well. I guess it’s also a good idea to give that to the police.
He let his hands fall limply, looking up to the ceiling.
Yeah. That's good. But what else? he thought, walking closer to his car's hood and looking down at it for a little while.
They'll probably ask for reasons this gang might be around here. But... how could I... if I were to tell them about Twilight... how... to even explain? They're after a purple alicorn. The police might think this is some kind of drug. Yeah, now that'd be great. Having the police think I'm a drug dealer.
Alright, focus. Telling them won't do me any good. But showing the footage where she appears... that... yeah. I'm sure she was caught by the security camera a few times. An image surely has more worth. I think this would solve this problem. They'd be at least aware of her existence.
They'll... probably knock on our door a few times to see how things are going. What if I'm not home when it happens?
Greg kept pacing in circles in the middle of the garage, bouncing ideas inside his mind for a little while before stopping dead on his tracks.
Okay, I'll need... I'll need to tell her abou-- No. I can't. If she knows about this, she... she's barely getting any sleep as it is. Her nightmares are already keeping her up. That's already hindering her progress on the spell too much. If she knows someone is after her... she won't... manage to sleep anymore. She won't manage to think anymore. Her health will degrade quickly. No. I can't... but... I-I-- she has to... it's not right to keep this from... No. She can't. I can't let her know about this. She has to feel safe.
But if the police shows up... well, she... if I tell her to not answer the door under no circumstances... she might get suspicious. I can't have that happen. Also, if the police were to catch a glimpse of any movement inside the house while I'm gone, they could end up thinking someone broke in. And that would be... bad. Okay, so... what if... I-I could tell her the police is looking for the people that spied in. And that they could show up a few times. Yeah.
He brought his hands up, keeping them on his face for a few seconds, breathing slowly before letting them fall, exhaling loudly.
Also, when I'm not home... she spends a considerable amount of time alone during the day, while I'm at work. That's... my God, how didn't they get her? Shit, I... I fucked up. I really fucked this up. NO! Focus. She... she spends-- she's alone for a good part of her day. Having her alone is dangerous.
The police will probably suggest she be taken someplace else. Or maybe both of us. But...
Witness protection program? Uh... no. We don't qualify. We don't have any meaningful information. We're just not important. It's more likely to just have the police step up their presence here. Yeah.
Regardless, I guess I could call Stevie, tell him what's going on. He... no, but if... if she moves away, even for a little while... she'll wonder why. If she finds out why... I... I can't have her think she's not safe! No, I...
"Shit!" he whispered to himself, starting to walk in circles.
Okay, focus. Even if I... if I moved away with her... that would still raise questions. She'd start to get suspicious.
He sat down on the tip of his car's hood and rested his forearms over his thighs, interlacing his fingers and letting out a sigh. He eyed around the garage, seeing how the sunlight coming through the garage door's window was ceasing to exist. He looked down to the floor, trying to focus himself once more.
Alright. I'll need to stay close to her. And moving away doesn’t seem like an option. I'll... , he trailed, eyeing around the garage, gauging his options.
I'll ask to work most of the day from home. I'm sure they won't mind some remote work done for a few weeks. Assuming this is how long it'll take, but... yeah. I guess that'll let me stay close to her as much as possible.
He let out a sigh, standing up and walking around his car, stopping front of the passenger's door.
Yeah, I think that sort of works. Call the cops and stay home as much as possible.
He made his way to the side door before halting on his tracks.
And call Stevie. He needs to know about this too.
He stood still for a little while, staring blankly at the door, his mind still at full steam.
Maybe... I think it's a good idea to put some better locks on the doors. And some bars on the windows. That will make it impossible for them to break in. Well, not without the proper tools. But then, that guy said they didn't want to attract any kind of attention, so blowing up a wall or… yeah, doesn't seem like an option for them. She'll... probably wonder about all this added security...
I guess I could... well, she doesn't know the gang is after her, but she DOES know that someone spied in. So... I believe I can use that as a justification. Yeah. Seems about right.
He let out a sigh before giving a short nod and energetically pulling the door open. He stepped out the garage and headed towards the backdoor, walking confidently now that he had the situation under control. He subconsciously started to go over the details of his plan, and every time he went over, his confidence wore away a little bit.
He stopped in front of the backdoor, with his hand over the doorknob. He kept staring at it for a little while, feeling the pit deepen inside him as that whole situation started to repeat on his mind.
He tried to reassure himself that he was going to solve this, but the hopelessness inside him had already corroded all his confidence.
"Greg?" slurred Twilight from the couch, staring at Greg. The sound of her voice made him stop, bringing his train of thoughts to a full halt. He eyed around, realising in a bit of a surprise that he had stepped into the kitchen, and was standing right before the staircase. He looked at Twilight, and kept staring at her as she squeezed her eyes shut and stretched her legs the most she could, letting out a content sigh.
"Hey," she said, getting up from the couch and walking towards him. "I made some pancakes. Well, I tried. Cooking was never my thing, heh. I was going to wait for you but... uh... I was hungry, so I already ate. They're probably a bit cold now, but they're still good," she said cheerfully, smiling at him. Her smile slowly wore away as her sight locked on his right cheek.
“What happened to your cheek?”
“My… my cheek?” he said, bringing his right hand up, touching his face.
“Greg, your hand,” said Twilight on a concerned tone, walking closer to him. Greg widened his eyes slightly when he realised she had noticed his bruises. He lowered his hand, trying to discreetly hide it behind him.
"What happened to you? Are you okay? You’re a bit pale."
Greg kept staring at her, his mind stuck on what the man said, her face making him recall all the good memories he had with her. Her smile, her voice. Her laugh. They'll all be gone if they get her.
"Greg, hey," she said, standing on her hind legs and resting her forehooves over Greg's shoulders, staring directly at his eyes.
"Greg!"
"Uh?"
"Are you okay?"
"I... I'm... okay."
She stepped away from him, her sight remaining stuck at his face for a few instants before trailing around his body, trying to find the cause of his strange behaviour.
"What happened to your hand? To your face?"
"Uh... I… " he trailed, bringing his right hand up, covering his knuckle with his left hand. "Uh... it's... I... I fell."
"You fell?"
"Yeah. I fell. I fell at the office. I was... stepping down the stairs at the office when I was coming back home and I... slipped. And... rolled down the stairs."
"Did falling cause all those bruises?"
"Yeah... uh... but I'm alright. Don't worry."
Twilight kept staring at him, narrowing her eyes slightly and raising an eyebrow.
Greg kept staring at her, his stare switching between her eyes as his mind wandered away and recalled what the gang member said.
Why they want to do that with her? It's not fair , he said, feeling a tightness in his chest.
"Are you sure you're alright?" she said, the sound of her voice making him snap out of his mind once more. "You're acting really strange."
He remained in silence for a little while before walking closer to her and scratching the back of her left ear, feeling a smile make its way to his face as he started to recall all the times he had scratched her soft fur. The lightness inside his chest soon vanished alongside his smile, and a sudden weight appeared over his shoulders, making his body feel heavy and unresponsive.
Her soft fur made him remember his situation. He had a problem to deal with. Her safety was in his hands. And if he were to fail, she'd pay the price. He had a plan, but he didn't trust it. He didn't manage to convince himself he had a chance.
"Uh... listen..." he said, stopping his scratching and giving a small pat on her head. "I uh... sorry for keeping you waiting."
"Oh, it's alright."
"We had a uh... last minute meeting at the office, and... yeah, it surely drained me. So I was wondering if we could... if we could skip our walk tonight."
"Sure."
He gave her a short nod before turning towards the staircase, slowly walking it up.
"Uh, and..." he said, stopping and turning around.
"Hmm?"
"The doors... could you lock'em?"
"Mhm."
"Thanks," he said, resuming his way upstairs.
Author's Note
Well... surprise! A chapter. After six months. Yay.