Running from the Brink of Dawn
My name is Leroy Williams. My world has been invaded. But most people are fine with it, because the invaders were the cuddleponies. Creatures that find a host and form a symbiotic bond with it, generating a much longer lifespan for the both.
At least that is what I was told much later, after this whole ordeal. But I didn’t know that when a pony was chasing me across the world.
“Resistance is FUTILE, HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY IT????!!!!” my pursuer yelled at me with annoyance as she ran after me.
“You can say it as many times as you want to! IT! WON’T! WORK!” I shot back at her as I ran away from the purple unicorn.
“It is your race's destiny to be with ours, and we are the last to be joined! So please just make this easy and let me cuddle YOU!”
“NEVER!” I said with determination. But then I tripped and fell. But then I didn’t stop falling. as I kept falling and falling and falling through color and light, I thought that I had been captured. Then I fell unconscious.
I woke up to find myself in a hospital of sorts. I sighed in relief, I thought I was in the clear. Then She came in, a much larger pony than I had seen before, her fur colored a dark blue, with her mane and tail having the looks of a night sky. I was about to scream in terror when she teleported over to my bedside to put a hoof over my mouth.
“Do not be frightened,” she said in a calm, but stern voice, “I know where you came from and I know who you think I am, but I promise you I am not. I can assure you that you will not be handled as your race was because my kind cannot do such feats. Now, I’m going to take my hoof away if you promise that you won’t yell.”
I nodded, and she took her hoof away from my mouth as promised. “um, sorry about that. I'm Leroy, who are you? I questioned. “you may call me Luna.” She said with a smile.
It had taken some time (a whole year in fact) for me to adjust to this world of Equestria, but it was worth it. And you know why? Because I had escaped the invasion. It wasn’t easy, but I came to terms with the fact that my world was lost. To be honest they were far beyond my help. I had been taken in by a family that grew and sold apples for a living, under one condition. That I help with the work in one way or another, which was fair in my opinion.
I couldn’t do any of the heavy work like bucking the apple trees like my friends Applejack and Big Macintosh, so I got the job of organizing. What, do you ask? Pretty much anything that has to do with Sweet Apple Acres, from events being held there, to business deals with the apple related products.
Then there was also meeting Twilight sparkle, this worlds version of my cuddle chaser, but with one difference. She has wings. Though it was awkward meeting the pony who nearly looked like the one who had relentlessly chased me around the world for nearly half a year. But now after a lot of mind rearranging, we're friends and I visit on the weekends, so we can geek out over a book series she introduced me to, Daring Do.
Life was good, I had friends, a loving adoptive family, and a good job. I thought life was looking up for me, but then she found me. Luna and her sister Celestia had put down some emergency protocols if my cuddly pursuer were to ever find me, though we all thought we wouldn’t need them, we created them just in case. I'm glad we did now.
The apple family (plus me) was eating breakfast before we were to get to work, when we heard a knock at the door.
“I got it.” Applejack said as she was the one to answer the front door now, but as she when into the hallway that leads to the front of the house she looked through the one-way window that had been installed, and she scraped her hoof on the floor twice, signaling me and Big Mac to head downstairs.
We knew we didn’t have much time, so once we were in the basement, Big Mac went up to a bookcase and pushed it away revealing a hidden door. I swiped a small amulet that I always kept with me over the lock on the door and it opened and closed as I walked through.
As I quickly walked down the stairs, I heard the bookshelf being moved back into place. As I descended the last step, I looked at the train that was awaiting me. It was a bit sleeker than the bulky locomotives at Ponyville train station, more like a Japanese bullet train from our world. Luna said something about this being the newest in transportation magic, all I had to do was push a button. And when I did I was zooming off to Canterlot, where Luna had first found me.
As I arrived at a secret underground station, I looked out the window to see the princess of the night, or as I knew her, my first pony friend.
“are you alright?” she asked.
“yeah,” I said to my friend.
“I never thought this would happen. So, what now?”
“Your pursuer is aware of your presence here,” Luna informs as I followed her through the castle.
“How!? I was in Ponyville an hour ago!”
“I do not know, but she seems to be able to sense your presence. How she was able to deduce that you would be in Canterlot, as well as get here faster than you did is beyond my understanding.”
“So, what about Celestia?”
Luna doesn’t answer as we walk to the doors to the throne room.
“shall we?” she asks. I nod, and she opens the doors, revealing a rather tired looking Celestia, and in her magical grasp, the reason I’m in Canterlot in the first place.
“Oh good, you're here,“ Celestia doesn’t get to finish her sentence, as a Purple flash of light goes off dispersing the aura. Time seems to slow down as the violet unicorn turns around and jumps at me, making one last ditch effort to cuddle me.
She missus as a bright blue flash teleports Luna and I across the room, so were standing next to Celestia.
“now what is your name?” Celestia asks the violet mare.
“T-Twilight Sp-parkle……” she says before collapsing on the floor in tears.
This surprised the royal sisters and I so I asked, “why are you crying?”
“destiny…” she whimpers. “What?” “DESTINY!” she yells at me, “ITS DESTINY FOR OUR RACES TO BE TOGETHER, IT'S DESTINY FOR US TO BE TOGETHER, SO WHY? WHY? Why? why……………….” She drifts off for a few moments, “why did you run from me?”
I stare at her not sure what to say, so Twilight sighs and starts to explain, well everything. “I saw my future by accident when I was very young, it was snowing and there we were, you and me in a small wooden house, sitting on a couch, cuddling under a blanket by a fireplace.” I stare at her, dumbfounded, as I recall a dream from long ago of the very same nature.
Twilight continues, “I wanted that future so bad, I could taste it! So, I learned all I could about caretaking and affection, even becoming the apprentice of the herdmother herself! But when I found you, you didn’t come to me, you ran away from me. I chased you for weeks, and then stopped, thinking that you would come to me. But then everypony else got their buddies, and you still hadn’t come. So, I went after you again for six months, six long months.”
“Then you disappeared, I was devastated, but I felt your presence coming from the glowing crack in the ground. I didn’t hesitate to jump into it. And now after what feels like eons. I’ve found you…… so please?” She asks with tears in her eyes. “just a little bit of cuddling? I... I promise it will be nice!”
“I have no doubt I would be,” I say, immediately regretting it.
“Then, why?” the unicorn asks, “Why to resist unending bliss?” I sigh, still not sure how to answer, but after what feels like hours I answer.
“You would have imprisoned me.”
“What?” she asks with a mixture of sorrow and confusion. “I wanted to help you, not trap you.”
“An unintended side effect I would seem,” commented Luna.
I gave her a look before continuing. “tell me, what would have happened if I had started to snuggle you?”
“we would have started to glow, as our bond became permeate,” Twilight said with confidence.
“and how long would we have snuggled for?” I asked.
“well technically we would be cuddling, but forev…” she trails off.
“yes?” Luna says with a raise of her brow, the teary-eyed unicorn did not notice this.
“forever…” twilight mumbles.
“Exactly. We would have collapsed on the ground and cuddled each other for as long as we lived. But there are other things to life than just cuddling if I were to just do nothing but that I would not be living. I would be dead in a sense, and you would be my coffin.”
Twilight looked at me in silence, shock covering all her features. Luna, on the other hand, was unreadable. While Celestia, I didn’t know where she was. ‘probably went off to an important meeting or something’ was what I thought until she appeared in a flash of light that nearly had me running for the hills.
“what is that you have there my sister?” asked Luna.
“it’s a book,” said Celestia.
“I know that,” the blue alicorn huffed, “but why did you bring it here?”
“because I thought it might help.” The elder of the two stated calmly.
“BUT WHAT IS IT FOR?” my first, and at the time angry, pony friend yelled.
“my, my, Lulu, there’s no need to shout, all you had to do was ask,” Celestia says with a gleam in her eye. I could swear I hear a familiar, but all too annoying song of laughs and gibberish play softly from… somewhere.
“so, what is in the book that will help us?” I ask motioning for us to get in a group huddle. Her little joke finished, Celestia looked at me and stated quietly so Twilight couldn’t hear.
“I want you to help her. You told me when we first met that you didn’t see any malice when you looked at her, now I believe its time that you get to know one another a bit better than a few games of cat and mouse can accomplish.”
It was true, the cuddlepony had protected me on more than one occasion, even if it was from afar. “but how can I get to know her I can’t even make physical contact with her?” I whisper back
“The spell in this book can counteract whatever magic she has to “help” you.” Said Luna quietly.
“so what you're saying is,” I say quietly, “is that I could give her a hug to cheer her up and her glow wouldn’t affect me?”
“in theory…” mumbles Luna.
“What?”
“Well, this spell was designed to help mares keep themselves to themselves when they were in heat, but we made a few modifications to it to adapt to her,” Celestia says motioning to my former pursuer.
“And how do is work?” I ask. Celestia whispers those details into my ear.
“So, if we go through with this how am I going to differentiate both twilights?” I ask, “I mean I already meet twilight on a weekly basis, what am I going to call her?” I say talking about the twilight behind us.
“why don’t you ask her?”
I look over at the pony that had chased me for half a year. She was always so confident that we would end up together, but now, as she sat on her haunches she looked as if she didn’t know what to do. Using the info the I had just gotten I when over to her kneeled down and hugged her noticing the glow didn’t start. ‘probably because of she so confused.”
“Wha, what are you…” she stutters over her words.
“look,” I say starting to pet her mane, “what I said before is still relevant. But my friends Celestia and Luna have found something to help us. It would allow us to be separated if we wished, so we could do other things. So we could live a little bit.”
“but I don’t know how to...” the unicorn stammers.
“Then let me teach you. Let me show you what its like to live. Now it won't be easy, in fact, you may even need to change your name. but before you make a decision, I need to say something to you.” I pull back from the hug revealing a confused and rather flustered cuddlepony. “I’m done running, are you?”
A minute passed by, a tense silence flowing through the air. And then and my cuddlepony started to glow. “Thank you.” whispered the unicorn as she hugged me and nuzzled my check. Celestia and Luna took note of this and cast the spell on us, it reformatting Twilights own magic.
After a brilliant flash of Golden and Violet light, the room went quiet again, that tense silence makes itself present again.
“Did it work?” asked Luna. I didn’t answer. I didn’t feel overly content like those reports about what to expect when you were to get cuddled back home say I would feel like, but I didn’t feel that unhappy either, more like somewhere in the middle.
As I moved my arms out of the hug I heard a small whimper from the pony I was cuddling.
“You’ll hug me again, soon right?” she asked sounding scared.
“I promise.” She let me go, and I could hear an audible sigh of relief coming from Luna.
“so, what am I going to be called now?” asked the cuddlepony as we stood up. That was a good question, but I had an answer for it.
“How about Violet?” I offered as I looked at my new friend.
“I think I can go with that.” Said, Violet, as she gave me a soft, but no less genuine smile.
THE END
Author's Note
not sure if i got the tags right..... and also I'm pretty new to this whole shabang, so constructive criticism is very welcome.
also if i feel up to it I'll add an epilogue.
(edits made on 4/29/18)
A week passed for my friends and family, and I taught violet on how to become a part of society, just as I promised. Thought it wasn’t without its bumps and bruises. Violet meeting twilight was one of those instances, and I mean no disrespect to her, but it’s kind of comforting that even violet can’t keep up with twilight’s breakneck thinking speed.
But that’s a story for another day, this one began with me standing in front of and knocking on a door. “come in.” said an elderly voice that I’d come to respect. As I enter Granny Smith’s room I look over to the pictures on the wall, most of which were younger versions of Applejack, Big Mac, and their younger sister Applebloom, but there were a few pictures of me bonding with the apples. Though there was a picture of me and violet’s reconciling hug. “who took that and how did that get there?” I thought.
“you need something Leroy?” asked Granny Smith, snapping me back into reality.
“uh, there’s a message from the princesses wanting to know if we want the train taken out. What do you think we should do?”
The old mare put her hoof to her chin in thought and after a few moments breaks the silence.
“go get your brother and sisters, this is a decision that the family should make together.” I nod and take my leave to look for the others.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, and while violet and I technically aren’t adopted by the apples, they call us family, so that’s good enough for us.
As I open the door to step outside, a cold gust of wind hits my face.
“Wow,” I shiver a bit, as I think to myself. “Better get the winter clothes out. I’ll be a popsicle if don’t soon.”
I continued walking until I reached the tree that housed the cutie mark crusaders’ clubhouse. There are some random cleaning supplies scattered around the base of the ramp that leads to the entrance.
“Hey Applebloom, you in there?” the yellow filly popped her head out the door, in a maid’s outfit?
“Hi, Leroy! You need something?”
“Ok one, why are you in a maid’s outfit?” I ask, “I thought your cutie mark was for help ponies find their marks, not house cleaning.”
“It’s to help me get into the mindset, the clubhouse needed cleaning, and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were busy today, so I've just been here cleaning all day.”
“Are you almost done?”
“Yeah just about, why?”
“Granny Smith called a family meeting,” I explain. “Could you find Big Mac? AJ and Violet are at Twilight's, so I’m headed there.”
“Ok!” the filly responds, before disappearing back into the clubhouse to finish her goal. I left her to it as I made my way to town.
But as I got closer, realization hit me on the head like a ton of bricks. Pinkie Pie, Ponyville’s over-extrovert, somehow hadn’t meet Violet yet… Granted, this was Violet's first trip outside of sweet apple acres, and Pinkie was on vacation to see her family for the last month, but given how introverted violet is, and how excited/confused pinkie would be about there being two “twilights”…….
‘oh no….’ I thought as steps quickened to a light jog as my mind envisions the chaos. Violet is Not ready for Pinkie’s, “energy” yet.
As I walk into the town I come to call home, well nothing happened. ‘huh,’ I thought. ‘maybe getting violet back home without pinkie noticing won’t be so…’
“HI LEE BEAR!” shouted the pink ensemble of parties, fun, and overall joy.
And there it is, my day just got so much harder.
“So? What’cha doing?” asked my pink friend.
“Walking over to Twilight’s, you?” I respond as nonchalantly a possible.
“I’m talking to you silly! But not for long though.”
Her mane deflates a little at that last part. I raise an eyebrow. Sure, I don’t especially want her around presently, but pinkie never missus an opportunity to hang out with me, or with anypony for that matter.
“Whys that?” I ask with genuine curiosity.
“Sugercube Corner has lines all the way to the door, the cakes’ just let me take a short break, so I could say hi to you!” She responds as her mane poofs back up.
“Oh, right! Isn’t it like, national cake appreciation day tomorrow?” I say in realization of my second friend’s favorite holiday.
“Yupparoni! Do you need to pick one up? I can whip one up really quick!”
“Thanks, but granny smith said AJ and I are going to help her make an apple upside-down cake for tomorrow, I’m really excited for that surprisingly.” I say with a little bit of glee.
“Ok, I have to get back to work now, soooo much baking to do, see you later Lee!” Pinkie says to me as she bounces off to work.
“Phew, that was too close.” I think to myself as I walk up to the giant crystal structure that’s is twilight’s castle.
“To think this whole thing came out of a box, a box from a magic tree no less!”
I knock on the door and wait for a minute or two. The door open to reveal a small purple dragon.
“hey, spike.”
“Hi Lee, what are you doing here?”
“Granny Smith called a family meeting, I’m here to pick up the girls. where are they anyway?”
“they’re in you and twilight’s normal meeting place,” Spike says as he lets me in. “also, could you tell twilight to come to dinner when you see her?”
“got it, see you later, spike!” I say as we go our separate ways.
I walked through the halls of twilight’s seemingly bigger-on-the-inside castle until I got to my destination. Now mind you, this castle is big and confusing, and the only reason I don’t get lost in there (well, recently anyways) is because I memorized the path to one room. A small side office.
I knock on the door. “Come in, Spike.” Says twilight, I think. You see, both Violet, and Twilight have the same voice, the only way I can differentiate them is their appearance and well…….
“LEROY!” shouts Violet as she hugs/tackles me to the floor as I walk in.
“Hello to you too, Violet.”
“You know you can’t surprise me, right?” she asks with a knowing grin.
“Yeah yeah, mind connection, I know.” I retort.
“What are you two talking about?” asked Twilight.
“Violet and I have a mental connection that was formed when we bonded, it doesn’t let us speak to each other mentally or anything like that. but instead, it’s more like a mental map showing us how near or far the other is.”
“It’s one of the reasons he can figure out whos who with you two,” Applejack comments.
“Now Leroy,” Applejack turns to me, “what are you doing all the way over here? Aren’t you supposed to be fileing next week’s delivery forums?”
“Granny Smith called a family meeting. She wants us back at the house as soon as possible, Applebloom and Big Mac are already there.”
“Oh,”
I immediately regret my choice of words as I feel violet slump a little. As I explained before, the Apples, Violet, and I are family, but we haven’t made it official for violet yet. the keyword here being yet.
“I guess I’ll see you later then.”
“she thinks this is an apple only meeting…” I inwardly panic. “what aren’t you coming?”
“Why I’m not an Apple,” she says, a little downtrodden. “and you said it was a family meet,”
She doesn’t finish her sentence as Applejack walks over to her and put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Now look here, Violet, your just as much family as Big Mac or Applebloom, you hear?” Applejack gently scolds as Violet looks at her confused.
“I don’t want to hear nonsense like that coming out of your mouth from now on, that goes for you too, Leroy.” She finishes as looks at me. Violet tries to hold back tears as she nods.
I look over to Twilight. “Can you teleport us back home?”
“why don’t want to walk back?” she asks with a smirk.
“Pinkie’s back in town,” I say, and Twilights eyes lose their playful look.
“I want to talk to you later on how we're going to break the news to her about Violet, are you ok with that?”
“Sure, just give me a moment,” she says and a few seconds later, me, Applejack, and Violet are standing out the front door of our house.
We walk inside to find Granny Smith, Big Mac, and Applebloom waiting in the living room.
“Did we make you wait long?” I ask Granny Smith as we take a seat.
“No Leroy, you didn’t. now that we’re all here its time we discuss what going to happen moving forward.”
“How so?” Asks Big Mac.
“Well for starters, the train. It took near a third of last year to get that where it is. Not to mention the uprooting of several trees. The only way we got by, was thanks to the princesses’ gifts and your friends, Applejack.”
Granny Smith looked over to Applejack.
“What is your opinion on this?”
“I don’t think there’s a debate here. We finally have full crops again. having work crews in to take the train out again would not just slow us down for about two months, it would be dangerous.”
Granny nodded then turned to Big Mac.
“Do you agree with your sister on that?”
“Eeyup.”
Granny turned to Applebloom.
“uh, Leroy promised me a ride on the train…”
Granny chucked at this then turned to me and violet.
“And what do you two think?”
“I agree with Applejack, it would be a hassle to remove the train, but at the same time I don’t know what we could use it for now.” Violet nods in agreement.
“it does lead to Canterlot, and its fast. If we ever needed to see the princesses, it would be the best way to get there quick.” Says Applejack.
“Alright,” granny looks around the room. “All who says we should leave the train where it is, say I”
“I.” says everyone in the room.
“right, Leroy go write a letter to send to the princesses, everypony else, you can go back to what you were doing.” Granny says as she leaves the room.
After work that day, as I'm sending the letter with our verdict off, I hear someone walking up behind me. I turn to see Applejack.
“you headed off to bed?” I ask.
“Eeyup, I think you should too.”
“Well, you definitely live up to the whole “Element of Honesty” thing.”
“Hehe, guess your right. by the way, violet was looking for you.” Applejack says as she walks off.
“Thanks, AJ.”
I walk into the living room to find Violet sitting on the couch.
“Hi, Leroy! Uh, do you think we could have some cuddles before we go to bed?” she asks nervously.
“sure, that fine,” I say as I sit next to her.
As we cuddle, Unbeknownst to us, some snow starts to fall outside the house, as winter starts to set in.
“This isn’t so bad,” I think to myself. “not bad at all.”
Author's Note
....would anyone be interested in a slice of life sequel, expanding on Leroy's time in Equestria?
Also, constructive criticism is welcome as always.
