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The Between
The Awful Truth
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Canterlot
The Royal Archives
The Train
The Dreaded Town
An Opportunity Arises
The Forest
The Ride Back
A Feast
Celestia's Tale
Trip's Tale
Restless
The Downswing
Of Reptiles
Somewhere Else Entirely
Somewhere Else Entirely

Home

The screen went black for a second, the break between the commercial and the show, and the television became a mirror, capturing the couch, the lofty ceilings of the room it was in, the fancy artwork hung up on the walls, and the two siblings sitting down on the floor in front of the couch. There was a boy, seventeen years old, tall for his age, with short black hair and light olive skin. Sitting next to him was a girl, eleven years old, with short blonde hair and pale skin. It was hard for some people to believe they were related.

She was watching the screen, but he was watching her. Her hair had just started growing back and she was gaining all the weight she lost, and he was relieved about that. But he was also felt immense pain at the moment, because she was torturing him. She knew he hated My Little Pony, and she had heard him voice his many opinions on it, but she kept using the same explanation as to why she made him watch it.

“You promised.” She smirked. “You said you'd do anything.”

“I know, but that was when I was going through the bargaining stage.” He said, trying to sound like he was joking rather than angry. “You're making me go back to anger. Besides, I think the warranty of that contract has expired.”

“No, the 'contract' says it's as long as I'm better. When I stop being better, you can stop watching.” she said, making air quotes around the word "contract".

There was an uncomfortable pause.

“...Don't joke about that, Ren.”

She looked away from the screen and saw the seriousness in his face. “Sorry, I didn't mean it like-”

“No, I know, it's just, it's still kinda hard to make it a joke, you know?”

“I'm sorry.” she responded.

“It's okay.”

Even the TV made no noise for a second. There was a pause in the conversation between characters even, just to emphasize the awkwardness in the room. It was quickly picked up, however, by one of the characters saying... something. He blocked out their voices most of the time. It was the Yellow One saying something to the Orange One.

“What about me?” he interrupted.

“Huh?” she responded.

“What if something bad happened to me? Could I stop watching then?”

She smiled. “Psh. Right. It doesn't count if you do it to yourself.”

“Dammit.” he said. She took a cushion off the couch and started assaulting him with it. “Darn! Fine! I meant darn, alright!” she continued hitting him, while laughing.

Their father's voice called them from the other room. “Trip!” Renee stopped as they both looked towards his voice.

“Yeah, dad?” Trip said as he stood up. He walked to the door of the TV room, to the dining room, to the kitchen, through the living room and over to the front door where his dad was putting on his jacket and shoes.

“I'm going to a meeting tonight. I didn't have time to cook, so just go and buy something from Wendy's or something, okay?” he handed Trip two twenty dollar bills. “Tonight's meeting’s gonna be a little more than two hours, so make sure she's in bed by ten.”

“Alright, dad. Not gonna strangle anyone?”

He rolled his eyes. “Ugh. I don't know. If I hear Jackson complain about random shit again, I might have to rip his scalp off.”

Trip laughed. “Just say ten 'Hail Maries’ or something.”

His dad smiled. “Your mother was always the religious one, not me. Christ, I don't even know if I remember how the fuckin' Hail Mary goes. I'll just have keep to myself, I guess.”

“Okay. And Dad?” Trip said, barely above a whisper. His dad stopped and looked at him.

“Yeah?”

“I'm proud of you.”

His dad nodded. “Thanks, buddy.”

“Ten months.”

His dad smiled again. “Soon to be eleven!” He gave Trip a hug. “I'll seeya later, bud.” He let go and called to the other room. “Bye, Ren!”

“Seeya, dad!” She called back.

He opened the door and headed out.

Trip walked back into the TV room, where to his annoyance, he found that his sister had paused the show.

He rolled his eyes.“You don't even have the decency to watch two minutes without me?” Trip said.

She grimaced. “Nope. I don't want you to miss one precious frame.”

“Renee, you will be the death of me.” He sighed.

She pointed the remote at the screen. “You gonna sit?” She pestered.

He looked at the screen, at two of the cartoon horses, frozen in mid sentence as he considered her offer. “Actually, I'm pretty hungry. I'm gonna go get us dinner. What do you want?”

She smirked. “Dad told you to go Wendy's, didn't he?”

“Yeah. You know that's all he thinks we eat.”

“Yeah. Just get me two of the #3’s and a Coke.”

Trip looked at her wide eyed. “Sure you can stomach all that?”

“Yes! I haven't eaten anything all day!”

Trip gave her a stern look. “You know that's not healthy...”

“Well, if you get me something to eat, I'll be fine!” she yelled.

“Okay, Christ. I'll be back in a second. Feel free to watch without me.” he said, gesturing to the screen.

She smiled. “Okay. I'll rewind it when you get back.”

He laughed. “Damn you.”

“WHAT was that?”

“Curse. I said 'curse you.'”

“That's what I thought.”

He left the room and grabbed his keys off the counter off of the counter as he walked out the front door to his car. As he got in and started the engine, the stereo turned on, blasting his music way louder then he remembered having it.

“And it feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeels! Yeah it feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeels liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike, Heaven's so far away!”

He quickly grabbed the volume dial and turned it down until Dexter Holland's screaming was at non-ear-bleeding levels.

He backed out of his driveway, and drove to the top of the street, where he turned left.

I don't get that show. He thought to himself. Grown fucking men are watching it. It's a show for little girls. Okay, well, little boys would probably like it too, but still. Grow up, guys, seriously.

He turned right.

I mean, I watched cartoons when I was a kid, yeah. But I grew out of that. And I'll even let Renee watch cartoons without judgment because she has two years to catch up on childhood that she lost. Well, that and the fact she's named after a cartoon herself. Way to name your only daughter after a cartoon dog with anger issues, dad.

He turned right again.

Well, dad kind of had an excuse, since he never really could admit to himself that he was an adult. But once he cleaned up, he's stopped watching cartoons. He watches things like football and the news, “Like Reasonable Adults Do.” Dad, the things you say...

He turned left.

But no, the worst part definitely is how much praise it gets. It's not bad for a kid's show or anything, but Jesus people, it’s not Shakespeare or anything. I can't go on Facebook without seeing Todd make a post every week about how 'awesome' the latest episode was. What happened to you, Todd? At least when you went through your Dungeons and Dragons phase, you could keep to yourself. And I even kinda like the idea of Dungeons and Dragons! Why couldn't you try to rub that in my face instead of this escapist, Peter Pan shit? God. I especially hate it when he's like “Oh, if you watch a few episodes, you'll like it!” Yeah, Todd, I've seen just about every episode. I have what's called a 'little sister'. So I think I have the right to not- wait, fuck!

He slammed on his brakes. The neighborhood he was in was familiar, but it gave him more the feeling of going to school or the hospital than getting to Wendy's.

“Shit, shoulda turned right there.” He pulled into a driveway to turn around. As he was backing out, he saw through the window and saw that there was a man sitting on a recliner watching Family Guy. Trip had mixed feelings about Family Guy. Yeah, it was for adults, but animation still reminded him of childhood, and he wanted to leave his childhood behind him.

He successfully readjusted himself and started driving again. It took him a few good minutes to drive all the way back to the intersection where he had made the wrong turn.

Damn, he thought, I was really deep in thought, Jesus.

It wasn't long before he came drove up to the Wendy's he wanted to be at. He pulled into the drive-thru, and he cursed as he saw the line containing no less than eleven cars.

He put his foot on the brake and turned his stereo back up.

Once he had gotten his food and was finally starting to make his way out of the parking lot, his phone started buzzing. He pulled it out and saw he got a text from Renee.

“what's taking you so long I'm famished”

What the hell kind of word is famished? Whatever happened to hungry?

He responded. “MMWH, calm.”

He always sent her that whenever she wanted to know where he was. Basically, it meant “Making my way home, calm yourself.” He put the phone back in his pocket and almost honked at the guy in a black smart car with tinted windows in front of him who was taking his sweet old time turning left out of the parking lot, despite the fact there was no traffic for miles around.

Trip didn't honk his horn. He wanted to, oh God how he wanted to, but he had always had the stories of people dying after they honked their horns at somebody, and that somebody pulled out a gun and shot them without even having the common courtesy to step out of their car in the back of his mind.

“Move, you fuckin' asshole, c'mon...” he whispered underneath his breath.

Then, quickly, and in a manner that seemed almost dangerous, the car in front of him accelerated almost to the clear other side of the street before making the sharpest left turn Trip had ever seen and driving into the night.

Trip moved forward and and signaled right. As he looked left, he tried to see if he could find the black car in the darkness, but it was completely gone.

Behind him, a car horn went off. He looked back, and he reached his hand over to his glove compartment and opened it. He pretended to pull a gun out and point it at the car behind him. Laughing at himself, he closed the compartment again and pulled out of the driveway and watched as the car behind drove off in the other direction.

He drove for about two songs on his CD before he came to an intersection with a red light. He flipped his right turn signal on. Around him there were no cars. A lot of stores were turning their lights off, closing for the night. It felt more like nighttime than it had before.

The light turned green. He rolled through while turning right, and then his phone buzzed again. He made sure he could keep straight and then looked down to get his phone.

He was interrupted by the sound of metal being crushed and the sensation that gravity had gone away for a few seconds.

He was floating, every way was up. Metal scraping against asphalt, bones crunching against metal, glass shattering. His arms gave out, allowing his forehead a straight path into the steering wheel. The direction he knew as “up” was now down, but only for a split second. The car continued to move until it fell on it's side and slid until it hit something.

Pain was creeping into Trip's body all over the place. Blood was slowly pouring into his eyes, and unconsciousness was engulfing his body.

The Between

Trip awoke standing up, on what seemed to him to be non-existent ground. He surveyed the world around him. Everything around him was white, and cracked like dried mud, revealing shades of silver. There was no sun, or moon, or any other identifiable source of light, yet somehow, it was bright as day.

In the distance, he could see trees, or what looked like the completely black silhouette of trees. Whatever they were, there were a lot of them. Some had leaves, and some were bare. They went as far as his vision could see, and probably farther from what he could tell. Each one of the trees were a pretty large distance away from each other, maybe around a hundred feet. The roots grew into the invisible ground and spread in all directions, resembling black veins, some of which visibly pulsated.

Trip tried to take a couple steps forward, but found that any kind of movement was almost impossible. The air around him was thick, and while he could breathe it easily enough, moving his limbs required an amount of strength Trip wasn't sure he had. He strained his head to look down and also saw that some of the vein-roots were attached to his foot.

No, they weren't attached to his foot, they were grown into his legs. He forced himself with extraordinary effort to turn around, and saw that the vein-roots belonged to a tree he was standing directly underneath. He looked up and saw the tree was very large, and had many leaves. He looked down and saw that it had more vein-roots growing out of it than any other tree he could see. When he focused on the tree, he could could only think of one word; “Home”.

Behind the tree, he saw something. A speck of yellow, the first actual color he had seen since he entered this place. He pushed all the muscles in his body to move to a point where he could see all of what was there. Eventually, he saw it; a giant yellow snake, about the size of an eight year old child was curled upon itself underneath the tree on top of a vein-root.

Trip stared at it for a few seconds, and, almost as if it had sensed him there, its eyes focused and it uncurled itself into an upright position. Trip noticed now that the snake had what looked like a smiling expression on its face, and, strangely, eyelashes. It tilted its head observing him, and even slid closer to him.

Normally, Trip was kind of put off by snakes. He wasn't afraid of them, but he didn't particularly like them. But this snake had a sort of friendly aura to it. It poked its nose under Trip's hand. Trip wondered how the snake could move so easily when he himself could not. After it was done observing him, the snake moved back slightly, putting about a foot of distance between them.

They both stayed there, face to face, for a long time. Trip never once thought to give a command to the snake, or even to try making a motion at the creature. His mind, much like his body, was sort of at a standstill. When he looked at the snake, and could only think 'yellow'.

The snake opened its mouth, and a voice came out.

"-ain damage is minimal thankfully. As soon as he wakes up, his motor and reasoning skills should be intact. Phil’s a very lucky kid, Mr. Stern."

Phil? How did this snake now his real name? The snake didn't open or shut its mouth as it produced the feminine voice. It merely stood still with what seemed like a smile on its face. Suddenly, it tilted its head to the left, and the voice changed.

"Okay, that's... that's really good. Tell me, ma'am, did the police say how the accident happened?"

That was a masculine voice this time. A voice he recognized. The snake tilted its head the other way.

"Reports said it was a collision, but no other vehicle was found at the scene of the crash. Frankly, with the damage being as bad as it was, I don't see how any car could have left in one piece."

The snake tilted its head again.

"Do you think, maybe, it might have been intentional?"

"The crash?"

"Do you think Trip might have crashed his own car?"

"I actually don't think he could have, Mr. Stern. Whatever hit him, got him straight on the passenger side. It had to be big, big and strong. It must have been a tank or something. A black tank."

"What?"

"They found black pai-"

The snake closed its mouth. Trip felt somewhat as if hearing the rest of the conversation should have been important, but he didn't really mind. He was distracted by the trees. They were moving, now, as though they were floating on water. The vein-roots had been shrunk as if whatever liquid that may have flowed through them had been sucked back into the trees. The trees as a whole moved in no particular direction, but a lot of them seem to be moving closer to Trip.

The snake opened its mouth again. Another feminine voice, similar to the first one, maybe the same, started talking.

"-ery lucky. With as bad of a crash he was in, most people would probably be dead, or paralyzed. He's definitely going to be up and moving again, hopefully sooner than later."

"Okay. Okay." this new voice sounded very sad, very young. Also a girl. Also familiar.

"You okay sweetie?"

"I'll be fine, it's just..."

"Do you need a minute?"

"Do you mind?"

The snake closed its mouth for a quick second. Trip could feel pressure on his hand, as if someone had grabbed a hold of it.

"Hey, Trip, it's me. Can you hear me? Look, I know you didn't do this. Dad's getting all freaked out, but I know you wouldn't do this on purpose. You're gonna get better. I know you’d probably just say I’m in denial, but... but I’m not. I know. And... I know it's awful, but, the first thing I thought when the nurse told me you were going to get better... don't get me wrong, I was worried before, but when she said you'd be okay, I had a very clear thought. I said 'He did this so I would stop making him watch MLP with me.' Isn't that awful? You've got how many cracked ribs and I thought you did this on purpose... I'm almost as bad as dad..."

A nervous sounding laughter came out of the snake's throat.

"Well, as soon as you wake up, I'm bringing dad's laptop here and we're going to watch the next episode together."

Annoyance welled up in the top of Trip's skull. He couldn't feel the emotion itself, but he was aware that he would be feeling it under normal circumstances. But of all the facts he could rationalize at this moment, he could tell this wasn't a normal circumstance.

The snake closed its mouth yet again. It tilted its head to the left, and opened it again.

"Next episode." it said, as if it were playing back the words it just spoke. The snake gave as close to an intrigued look as it could with its limited facial features. "Next episode." It said again. "Next episode. Next episode."

The trees started moving again. Much quicker this time. At least twenty of them were definitely heading in Trip's direction. His head involuntarily turned to one, that was a little bit larger than the rest, and had more leaves than most. It was also moving much quicker. He looked at it, and the irritation formed in his skull again.

The vein-roots came from the tree and started inching their way over to him. Trip felt the need to look back at the snake, but his muscles were too weak now to do even that. He could only fixate his eyes on the completely black foliage coming closer to him at an increasing rate.

Suddenly, the vein-roots from that tree raised themselves and lunged themselves at Trip. They wrapped themselves around his torso and started spreading all over his body. They started constricting him, and he could feel them crushing his ribs. But oddly, it didn't hurt. It was as if the vein-roots were rearranging his bones, not breaking them. The roots spread down to his legs and up to his shoulders. As they started creeping up past his eyes and blocking his vision, Trip was able to gather his thoughts and say one thing, which surprisingly, was not drowned out by the roots.

"Oh, fuck."

The Awful Truth

Trip didn’t know what to do or say. The tube devices moved as his arms would have moved. He felt the sensation of his fingers moving, but saw nothing resembling a hand.

They cut off my hands, Trip thought. Those sick f... Those sick people!

“Why did you do this to me?” he yelled. But as he looked up, he saw that the horse was gone. He leaned forward and tried standing on his legs. He could manage it a little bit, but it felt extremely awkward, and just wrong. He felt as if his legs weren’t made to bend as far as he needed them to. Balancing on them was a real chore, but trying to walk on them was even harder.

“What did you do to me?!” He yelled. There was no response. “Where did you go?” as much as she freaked him out, he still wanted the horse there, so at least he could get something resembling an answer. Even though she... it seemed to know just about as much as him. Where could it have even gone to? He was in the middle of a field. An animated field. All he could see around him were trees and sky. There was no way it’d be able run away as quickly as it would have had to, especially without making noise.

Without warning, Trip’s legs gave out. His arms caught him, and he found himself on all fours. Strangely, he found this position comfortable and natural. His shoulders probably were reconstructed in the crash, along with his legs. He crawled forward, astounded how easy it was to move like this.

As he was surveying the land around him, Trip came to a strange realization. There was no road. There were no cars. Should he have been surprised? Was he in the same place as he had crashed? Was he even still... no, he was still on Earth. He couldn’t even entertain the idea that he wasn’t. It was a stupid idea to think that he wasn’t. Obviously, what had happened, was something in his brain had been knocked out of place, which caused him to see everything as animated, and had him hallucinating about horses. Maybe he was still in a coma. Any explanation was better than... whatever crackpot theory his mind was trying to make him accept.

He tried crawling around some more. He was disturbed by how easily he could do it. If he was in a coma, then this grass felt very real. And if he was hallucinating, then he probably looked very strange, crawling around in the middle of the road, unable to see the car crash anywhere near him.

He raised his head to the sky. His neck was a lot longer then he remembered it being. But that didn’t mean anything. Body perception could get all skewed in dreams, or after car crashes. At least, he was pretty sure they could. Trip tried to focus hard on stories about the human mind being fooled or altered after trauma. He was trying as hard as he could to not put an equation together in his head.

I’m standing on all fours, I have no hands, and my neck is really long. The grass beneath me feels very real, and the same goes about the sun and the wind around me. I think I’ve been- no, that’s ridiculous. But it’s still a possibility that- no! No it’s not! It’s not possible at all! But maybe there’s a chance that-

While Trip was thinking, he heard a very loud ripping noise from behind him. He looked over and saw a tear in the sky. As if the world were a drawing, and the piece of paper it was drawn on was being ripped in half. The tear revealed a white void, and just the sight of it gave Trip a sensation of dread and fear.

The tear started extending down, to the ground, near where Trip was. Without thinking, he tried to stand up and run away, except he couldn’t manage to get very far while on his feet. Eventually, as the tear started getting closer, he gave in, and got on all fours. Somehow, in this position, Trip ran faster than he ever remembered running in his life. He felt wind against his face unlike any time he had ever felt it, and at times, he almost felt as if he was floating in short bursts.

But it didn’t seem to be helping him at all. Behind him, the tear had sped up and reached the ground, and was starting to split the land, opening up a canyon behind him, as if it were chasing him. And even with this new speed, it was gaining in on him. He wasn’t sure what happened if he fell into the hole, but he wasn’t particularly interested in finding out.

He turned to his left. He didn’t make a very sharp turn, but just enough to get out of the way of that thing. As he ran, he looked behind him and saw the tear continue in the direction it was travelling, away from him now. If he had kept running straight, he would have been swallowed by it in no time. Not only did he see that, but he also saw that the tear was mending itself. At the point where the tear started, the tear was closing in on itself, leaving the sky, and eventually the ground, as it was before.

As Trip was watching, he was forced to a complete halt by a tree. His body swung around it, almost as if he were giving the tree a hug, and he landed on the ground with a loud THUD.

He moaned in pain on the ground. He tried standing up again, and faltered. He kept on forgetting about standing on all fours.

“I guess you are kinda clumsy, aren’t you?”

Trip jumped and turned towards the direction of the voice. There it was again, sitting down, back against a tree, the gray, red-headed horsicorn.

“What was that?” Trip yelled, out of breath.

“Oh, the sky thing?” It remarked, casually, looking up at the sky where the tear had materialized. “I don’t know, really. Those things just happen sometimes when nothing’s really going on.”

Trip stared at it with shock and disbelief. How could it be so calm about the world just being torn open?

“You’re not from around here, are you, mister?” it asked.

“I... I don’t know. Where is here, exactly?” he responded.

“This is a forest.” She answered, matter-of-factly. Trip rolled his eyes.

“Well, gee, thanks for the helpful insight, b-” he tried as hard as he could to force out the “itch”, but couldn’t. “What’s with that?”

“What’s with what?” The horse asked, confused.

“Why can’t I swear here?

“Oh, you can.” The horse closed its.eyes and started nodding. ” You can swear all you want. But I just don’t see anything to swear on.”

“Really?!” he yelled. “I’m pretty sure the universe ripping itself in half is something to swear about!”

“Well, I still don’t think there’s really anything you can make an oath on.”

Trip couldn’t believe his ears. This horse was not only an abomination, it was annoying and clueless. But he wasn’t freaked out at it anymore, oddly. As if seeing almost being eaten by a singularity made this Heck-Horse seem tame.

“Okay, okay,” Trip muttered. “Where is this forest? Like, what landmarks is it near?”

It opened its eyes and pondered the question. “Well, we’re about a twenty minute walk from Canterlot.”

“No.” Trip said. “That’s idiotic. Canterlot...that’s like...no, that’s something from that stupid... Hed. His ehis eyeswidened, and then he closed them and put his hands over his head.

“Stupid what?”

“...no. No. No no no no no.”

“What’s wrong?”

“This. This... situation, this place, this... everything. This is shouldn’t be-”

“What do you mean?”

“-happening. This is like... something out of... like... one of those crappy fan fictions my sister makes me sit through or something.”

“A what?”

Trip looked up. “What would you call yourself?” he asked her.

She looked confused. ”You mean, like my name?”

“Yeah. Sure. What’s your name?”

She searched for the answer, and looked very stressed as she did. “You know, no one’s ever asked me that before.”

Trip gave her a look of angry confusion. “Well, you still have one, right?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

He wanted to cathel her out on this, but he really didn’t feel a reason to. She was probably so stupid she forgot her own name. “Fine. Do you have... a mark? Or like a symbol?”

“Oh, you mean a cutie mark? Yeah, I’m pretty sure I have one, lemme see...” she stood and turned around, exposing the image of a rose on her left... side.

“Yup. That’s what I thought. Tell me, am I in Equestriville? Or whatever?”

“Equestria?” She laughed at that. “Yes. Of course!”

Trip stared at her sternly and unflinchingly. It obviously made her uncomfortable. “Do you realize how stupid this is?”

“How stupid what-”

“How stupid it is that I have found myself launched in a fictional world ruled by talking horses that have superpowers granted from magical tramp stamps!” he screamed. It surprised him that he could say ‘tramp stamp’, but he couldn’t focus on that right now. “I am existing within a show being created by a team of writers and animators for children. Somehow, I’ve been teleported into something that should not- does not exist. This is like, level 80 unfair karmic punishment.” He stepped closer to her. “Tell me, what have I done, what is my sin, that made me wind up here?

She averted eye contact with him. “I... I don’t know. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never met you before in my life.”

“That’s right. Of course you don’t. I have to come to that realization myself, or some b- stuff like that.” he turned around and started walking away.

“Wait, where are you going?” She called from behind him.

“If I know how stories like these work, I’m gonna have to go learn a lesson or find a spell or something to take me home.” he looked back and saw that she was walking right behind him. “Why are you following me?” he asked impatiently.

She looked away, embarrassed. “Cause I don’t have anything else to do. I have nowhere else to go.”

Trip wanted to scold her for that answer, but there was something in the way that she said it that made him feel pity for her. “Fine. Whatever. I’m probably gonna need some kind of ‘spirit guide’ anyway.”

She smiled and picked up her pace so she was walking next to him. “Yay!”

Did she forget about me calling her an abomination? Trip thought. “But in all seriousness, do you really not have a name?”

“Not that I know of!” She said cheerfully.

He rolled his eyes. “Fine. From now on, you’re... Rose. Like your mark. Simple enough?”

Her smile turned into a look of disappointment. “Rose? Just Rose? That’s kind of a dull name.”

“It’s all I’m going to call you.”

“Hmm. Well, what if we gave me a name that emphasized my beauty. What about Rose... Entrance? It makes me sound like people will become entranced if they look at me too long!”

Trip didn’t have the heart to tell her that he didn’t find horses attractive, and that she was no exception. “Sure. Whatever you want. But I’m calling you Rose. And you call me Trip.”

“Okay. Just Trip?”

“Yes. Just. Trip.”

“Okay. That’s pretty boring too, if you ask me.”

“Are you gonna be like this the entire walk up?”

“Be like what?”

He gave a resigned sigh. “Never mind.”

Excerpts

“So, Trip, where are you from?”

“I’m from a mystical far-off land known as Maryland. It’s pretty obscure, you’ve probably never heard of it.”

“Hmm. Sounds a little familiar. What-”

“No it doesn’t.”

“Excuse me. What’s it near?”

“It’s near the edge of the world where ponies go to die once they realize they’re existence is worthless.”

“I’ve never been there. It sounds sad.”

“Of course you haven’t.”

“Rose?”

“Really? I don’t think they grow in this part of the forest.”

“No, no, you’re name is Rose. Remember?”

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry! Teehee!”

“You don’t have a very good memory, do you?”

“No, I would say my memory’s okay.”

“You forgot the name I gave you not even ten minutes ago.”

“No, I didn’t forget it, I’m just not used to it.”

“Why don’t you already have a name?”

“Cause no one ever called me anything before you showed up.”

“Not even your parents?”

“I don’t have parents.”

“Wow. That’s actually really depressing. So, no one ever talks to you? Do you have any kind of friends or anything? Cause-”

“Well, not-”

“-I would assume, since the name of the show has ‘friendship’ right in it.”

“No, not really. I do have a few ponies who I like standing next to more than others, though.”

“Standing? That’s your idea of a good time? Standing next to someone?”

“Well, yeah. Well, because, normally, we stand and watch important things happen.”

“You’ve never thought of doing something ‘important’ yourself?”

“Hmm. That’s an interesting idea.”

“Of course it is.”

“So, do you have parents?”

“What?”

“Back in Merry Land. Do you have parents?”

“Um, yeah. Well, no. I have a dad.”

“No mom?”

“No. No mom.”

“What happened to her?”

“She’s gone now.”

“Oh. What happened?”

“I don’t feel like telling you.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.”

“Rose?”

“You mean me, right?”

“Who else would I be talking to?”

“Oh. Yeah. What is it?”

“What’s with the horn?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, I know it gives you telepathy and stuff, but like, what does it feel like to use it?”

“Well, I, uh, I couldn’t really explain it to you.”

“Why? Is it cause I don’t have a horn?”

“No, it’s because-”

“Rose, are you racist?”

“What? I just can’t really tell you what it’s like, cause I’ve never used it.”

“Oh. That’s right. You don’t do anything except stand in the background, do you?”

“Well, sometimes I go for walks...”

“Riveting.”

“Do you have any other family, Trip?”

“I have a younger sister. Who, now that I think about it, should really be here instead of me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, she would enjoy it here much more than me.”

“Does she like taking walks, too?”

“...yeah. Walks.”

“Well, where is she? Why isn’t she here with you?”

“Honestly? I have no idea. I’m sure she stays up at night wishing she could be here.”

“Well, how long did it take you to get here? Maybe you can take her here one day.”

“I actually highly doubt that.”

“Why?”

“I got here by mistake. By a mistake I don’t think I’d be able to make again.”

“Oh. Well, you never know!”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Rose?”

“Hmm?”

“I thought you said it was a twenty minute walk.”

“Yeah?”

“We’ve definitely been walking longer than twenty minutes.”

“Well, we’ve been walking kind of slow.”

“Still, I feel like we’ve been walking for an hour, almost.”

“Well that’s only because the walk is really boring, with nothing to talk about. Silence makes time seem to go slower.”

“Hey, I thought we were making good-”

“Oh look!”

“What?”

“This tree! I’ve seen this tree before.”

“It looks like every other tree here.”

“No! Look, the branches are different.”

“All the branches are different.”

“From here, we can get to the edge of Canterlot in about three minutes if we run!”

“I don’t really feel like running.”

“Come on! You were just complaining about this taking too long!”

“Fine. I guess.”

“You wanna race?”

“Not really.”

“Hmph. You’re not a lot of fun.”

“Well I’m sorry.”

Canterlot

He was somewhat surprised by the town, somewhat not.

How could horses build houses? Oh, they probably have one’s with marks of like, buildings or something. And horns let you pick stuff up. I guess it’s not that hard to imagine. I guess.

The sun had barely come out of the sky, and shadows were starting to get shorter. As the two of them carried on, more and more of the creatures came out and were walking around. His natural impulse was to run. He expected them all to attack him, like white blood cells. He thought eventually, they would all realize that he was an unnatural obstruction to their world, and they would all gather up on him and tear him limb from limb and bury his parts underneath a statue or something and move on with their lives. But no one seemed to mind him there.
He kept expecting them all to stare at him. There was a few times some of them would attempt to make eye contact, exchange a hello, and a few times some of them even tried to initiate a conversation.

“Hey there, youngsters!” one standing outside of a shop called out. Of course, Rose stopped.

“Hello!” she said. “How are you today?”

“Well, I’m doing just fine, thanks for asking. Can I interest you two in-”

“No. We’re all out of money.” Trip interrupted. “And besides, we have somewhere we need to be.”

“Oh, well, I’m sorry to have-”

“Yes. You should be. C’mon.” As he walked on, Rose caught up to him.

“Why were you so mean to him? He was just trying to be nice.”

“Because one, I don’t have have any money. Two, we have somewhere to be.” He turned around and made a surprised face. “Wait, didn’t I already say that? Wow! Maybe, if you started actually paying attention, you could answer your questions for yourself.”

“Okay! Gee, are you this mean all the time?”

Trip sighed. “No, I just get like this when I’m stressed out. Sorry, sorry. But really, I don’t think we should talk to anyone. People might start suspecting something’s off about me if they get too good of a look at me.”

“What would be so bad about that?”

Trip stopped in his tracks. “Because, um...” That question really put a halt to all his other thoughts. “Because we don’t know how they’d react if they learned where I’m from.”

Rose tilted her head. “Why, is there something bad about Maryland?”

“Well, kinda. It’s hard to explain, though. A lot of them wouldn’t get it. There might be a big uproar, and to me, that seems like a big waste of time I don’t think we have.”

She looked confused. “Why? What do we have to get done? And by what time?”

Trip looked away, unsure. “I don’t know. There’s usually a time limit on these things, from what I remember.” He looked at her again, with an urgent look on his face. “Eventually, I might not be able to go back.”

“To Maryland? Why?”

“I might end up having to stay like this.” He thought to himself, If she says “why” one more time...

Mercifully avoiding that word, “Like what? What’s wrong with you?”

He continued walking. “Like I said. It’s hard to explain.”

Rose ran in front of him and turned her body. “Well, try.” she said, authority in her voice. “Is there something you need help with? Or did you do something bad?”

He rolled his eyes. “No, it’s just... look! I’ve said enough times. I can’t explain it to you. It’s starting to get old.” From the look on her face, he could see she obviously wasn’t pleased with this answer. “All you need to know is that I’m not on the run from the law, and I’m not from anywhere you’ve ever heard of.”

She stared into his eyes. It kind of made him feel uncomfortable. “You promise?” was all she had to say.

He was taken back by that. “What? Yeah! Trust me, I’m too much of a coward to commit any type of serious crime. I couldn’t hurt a fly.”

“You’ve already hurt my feelings, and probably that pony over there’s!”

“I couldn’t hurt a fly physically. Emotionally is another story.”

She kept her stern look, and sighed. “Fine. I guess I could believe that.”

“Good. Thanks. Thank you.” Trip continued walking. “Now, I have a problem. Where do you go when you have a problem around here?”

“Well, if your problem is serious enough, you’d go to Princess Cel-”

“Which we’re not doing, remember?”

“Okay. Besides, I don’t think your problem is that bad anyway. We could also go to the Royal Archives, if you really don’t want to talk to anypony.”

“Wait, yeah. That’s like the library around here, isn’t it?” Trip’s eyes widened. “And it’s probably got a lot of stuff about magic and sh-stuff. Would there be anything on curses or something?”

Rose contemplated the question. “If there was anywhere you could find something on curses, it would be there. Why? Do you really think you’re cursed?”

“It’s the most logical explanation. And that’s saying something.”

She chuckled at that. “I couldn’t think of anyone who’d want to curse you,” She said, sarcasm in her voice.

“Ha ha.” Trip responded, with equal amounts of sarcasm. “So, do you think you’ll be able to show me to this Archive?”

“Yep, it’s a huge tower and a bunch of buildings. There’s no way you’d be able to miss it.”

“Okay. Well, could you still show me how to get there?”

“Yes! Just follow me!”

The entrance had a few of them standing there, guarding. “Great.” said Trip, as he and Rose stood behind one of the houses across the street from the Archive. “Now we’re gonna have to figure out a way past the guards.”

“Really? I’m sure they’d just let us in, if we asked.” said Rose.

“We can’t let them know I’m here, remember?” He kept his eyes on the guards. “I don’t want to stir up any unnecessary trouble.”

“I don’t think it would cause any trouble at all.”

“Still, I don’t want to take any chances. I think maybe, if you make a distraction, I’d be able to sneak past them. Stuff like that always works in cartoons.” He waited for Rose’s response. But when he turned to where he remembered her standing, she wasn’t there. Then he looked back and saw her talking with the guards.

“Hello gentlemen, I was wondering if we could have access to the Archives?”

“Rose, no, what are you doing!?” Trip whispered to himself.

The guards looked at each other. “For what reason?” One of them asked her.

“Oh, I was just trying to grow a garden, and I was wondering if there was any type of magic I could use to make my flowers grow in more colorful. They’re looking very pale.”
The guards looked at each other again.
“You’ll want the Botanical section, but that’s on the other side of the Archives. You may pass.” said the guard on her right.
“Thank you gentlemen. Oh, and I have a friend who's with me.” She turned around. “Trip! They said yes! Move along, mister!”

Trip couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed. Ponies really were as stupid as he thought. “Come on! We don’t want to make these guards impatient.” Trip stepped out from behind the house. Rose turned to one of the guards. “He’s helping me with my garden. He’s a little embarrassed to admit that he finds an interest in it.”

Trip made his way up to the entrance. Still wide-eyed, he nodded to them. “Gentlemen.”
he said as he walked past them. “Or, gentleponies, I mean.”

The guards watched with a perplexed look as he walked past. “Um,” one of them remarked. “That’s a rather interesting cutie mark you have there, sir.”

“Thanks.” Trip said, not looking back. “My mother picked it out for me.”

No response from the guards to that one.

The Royal Archives

It was about as big as he thought, maybe a little bigger. Books lined the wall, on assumedly every subject known to mankind. Or, ponykind rather. Ugh, that felt weird to say. “Alright. So, where are the books on magical curses?” Trip asked.

“I’m not sure. Come and get me when you find what you’re looking for, though.” she said as she started walking away.

“Wait, where are you going? I thought you were going to help me!”

“What?” she stopped and turned around. “No, I already said, I’m here to look up things to help me with my garden.”

“You have a garden?” He responded, flabbergasted.

“Well, no. But I’d like to know how to start growing one. So, what better place to find some information?” She started walking away again, but stopped. “By the way, what is with your cutie mark?”

Trip turned around and started looking at the spines of the books. “I don’t know. I don’t know and I don’t want to know.”

“You don’t know what it means?” she responded, confused.

“I don’t know what it is, and I don’t want you telling me, either.” he shooed her away. “Go look for your flowery stuff. I’ll find you when I’m done here.”

“Okay. Try not to take too long, alright?”

“Alright.” But that was easier said than done. From what he could see, none of the books had their names printed on the spines.

Of course they don’t, Trip thought. They never do in cartoons. And just as he expected, none of them had their names on the front, either.

But he found that simply holding the book in his hands... err, hooves, gave him a general idea of what the book was about. And by looking at the cover, the title of the book would appear in his mind. He pulled a book out.

“This book is about the proper use of snails as paint brushes. The H-? And its title is... Crawling Art: How to Train Snails to Paint Masterpieces. Who would even...?”

He put the book back. He was going to have a swell time trying to find what he needed. He looked over and saw a bookcase ladder. He walked over to it and awkwardly climbed to the highest step on his two back legs and grabbed a book at random. It was titled Ducks and Their Migratory Habits. How enthralling.

I’m in the Zoology section or something. Oh wait, there are sections! This is gonna take a while...

He walked down the many corridors and the many, many bookshelves. None of which had any identification of what type of books they held. He felt as if he was looking for a needle in a haystack, but not just any old needle, a hay colored needle.

Occasionally, he would stop and pick a book out at random. He found a few on Culinary Arts, some on Anatomy, and even a few Self-Help books. But after so long, he came across a sort of thin book called Basic Ethics When Using Magic. Finally! He opened the book and flipped through it just to see if it might have some sort of basic information that could help him. But as he saw the pages, he felt as if a cruel joke was being played on him.

He saw no words. He only saw scribbled lines. One after another. On every page. “Are you kidding me?” he said, throwing the book across the room. He had spent so long just trying to get the general area, only to be thwarted before he could even find the right book. And to be doomed by accidentally picking up a foal’s textbook!

Wait. How had he known that it was a foal’s textbook? And why was he using the word foal? He went to the other side of the room and picked the book back up and opened it to the page he had just read. He stared at the scribbles. They didn’t rearrange themselves before him or anything, but as he looked, they started relaying information to him.

“-generally understood that magic should not be taught to a pony until he or she has reached an emotional and mental maturity so that they are able to deal with the repercussions... what the h- kind of language is this?”

He put the book back on the bookshelf where he found it. He started looking through the titles of the books again. After what seemed like a year of searching, he came across three books of interest: Removing The Effects of Spells, Dealing with Unwanted Magic, and Relocation Spells.

He sat on the floor and cracked open Removing. He stared at the scribbles until they gave him information.

“Magic has many uses, but, as most ponies know, not all of the effects of magic spells have wanted benefits. For example, a smell spell can make a pony smell as if he had been resting in a field of flowers, or like they’ve been wrestling skunks in a swamp for a week (Rex, 12). But either way, removing this particular spell is a simple matter of...”

Trip rubbed his eyes. Staring at the page for as long as he had to was tiring. It took more concentration than it should have. But he continued reading anyway.

He was halfway through Dealing and halfway asleep when he heard footsteps. He looked up and saw red on top of gray. He rubbed his eyes and saw Rose walking in. “How’d it-Oh my gosh, Trip, what have you been doing?”

“Reading.” Trip said tiredly. “Actually, staring at pages. I’m not sure if any actual reading has taken place here in the... how long have I been here?”

“It’s almost sundown! How many books have you read?”

Trip looked at his small pile. “Two. Well, actually, one and a half. I didn’t find anything in the first one, but I can tell you how to remove spells from plants, if anyone ever does that. You know. Cause you’re into plants and stuff. And this one isn’t really about removing spells as much as it is just living with them. I don’t know which one I like better. I think the first one, cause it actually tells you how to get stuff done. I don’t know though, cause I’m only halfway through this one. But that’s only cause I’ve been reading this one sentence over and over again. It’s like I can’t focus past this. Not all spells can be removed. Not all spells can be removed. Not all spells can-”

“Trip. Trip, look at me. Don’t tell me you actually read that whole book, did you?”

“Yeah. I didn’t wanna miss anything.”

“Oh Trip, sweetie, hasn’t anyone ever taught you how to skim?”

“What? That’s an option?” he paused. “Did you just call me sweetie? I’m not good with horse ages, but I’m pretty sure I’m older than you.”

“Your eyes are red. Are you sure all you’ve been doing is reading?”

“I’m not high, if that’s what you’re asking.” Trip looked into the distance, in thought. “What kind of stuff did you want to grow in that garden of yours?”

“Trip, you want to take a break and let me see what I can find?”

“Um. Yeah. If you don’t mind. I’m gonna be over here. Resting my eyes.”

“Alright. What do you want me to look up, exactly?”

Trip layed down on the floor and closed his eyes. “Going home. Leaving unwanted places. Making things right again. Making everyone happy. All of the above.”

“Got it!”

He sprang right back up. “What?” he yelled. “How?” He saw her, nose deep in a book he had never seen before..

“According to this, ‘The Elements of Harmony were designed to do whatever is right in the current situation, according to the will of the users’... that sounds good!” she looked up at Trip. “The bearers of the Elements live in Ponyville, I’m sure they can help us!”

“How did you find that so quickly? What book is that?” Trip fell back down onto the floor. “Why are you so much better than me at reading?”

“Look, we can take the train to Ponyville and be there in about an hour. I’m sure they’d be glad to help us.”

Trip looked towards the ceiling and covered his face. “How many Elements of Harmony are there?” he said, frustrated.

“Six. Honesty, Loyalty-”

“And there are six main characters. That’s right. That’s what happened in the first episode. I should have known. I have to interact with the main characters. This is as stupid as I thought.”

“Well, laying here isn’t gonna help get this done any faster. We better find out when that train is leaving.”

“Fine.” He stood up on his back two legs, and stumbled back onto four. “Fine. Let’s go to Pony Town. Town of the Ponies. Where everything’s wonderful all the time.”

Trip followed Rose to the entrance they left from. As they passed the guards, one of them asked “You two were in there for quite some time. You two weren’t doing anything inappropriate in there, were you?” Trip didn’t look at the guards face, but something told him that he was probably snickering. Trip tried to pick through all of the witty comebacks he could think of.

Yup. We looked up some books on Biology and we could hardly contain ourselves.

Yeah, now we need to get some books on parenting.

You know, this is a kid’s show. You should really be ashamed of yourself.

But before he could actually say any of them, Rose responded with a simple “He’s a slow reader, is all.”

“Okay then.” Trip could tell the guard didn’t buy it. “You two have a safe evening. And try to stay out of trouble while you’re here.” Trip felt as if that last part was directed at him.

“We will, thanks!” she responded cheerfully. She looked at Trip. “Now, we need to find out what time the train leaves.”

“So you can lead me to the train station, or a schedule?” Trip asked, with a hopeful look.

Her face turned to a pondering look. “...No.”

Trip sighed. “When will things actually start working out?”
They kept walking forward. Trip saw less and less of the town’s inhabitants out and about. A lot of shops were turning their lights off, presumably to close for the night. With the top of the sun just barely over the horizon, It was starting to feel more like dusk than it had before.
“So, what are we going to do? Just walk the streets until we find it, or somewhere to stay?” he looked at Rose. “Do you have a house?”
She considered this. “I think. But if not we could definitely... hey!” She pointed her hoof ahead of her. “There’s the station!”
Just as she said, in the distance, an idle train could be seen, with ticket booths leading to the entrance. Trip looked surprised. “That was surprisingly easy. How did you do that?”

Rose giggled. “I used my eyes. Duh!”
Trip furrowed his brow. “Did you just... did you just make a snarky comment at me?”
Rose trotted along, happy with herself. “How does it feel?”
Trip ran up to her. “We can’t just get on there! We don’t have tickets!”

She stopped with a surprised look of realization. “Oh. Yeah. So are we gonna buy some?”

“No! Of course not!”

“So then, what will we do?”

“We break the rules, like you’re supposed to.”

The Train

“I really don’t see why we couldn’t have just bought tickets,” Rose said, trying to find a comfortable position on the cold, metal ground. “We could have been riding first class right now.”

Trip was leaning against the wall, next to a huge pile of hay. “Well, I don’t see how we could have bought tickets, on account of me not having any money.” he retorted, matter of factly.

“But I have money!” Rose yelled.

Trip nearly fell off of the wall. “You do? How much?”

She put her hand to some unseen part of her body and pulled out a small pile of gold pieces. She looked at them for a second, and said “At least enough for two tickets. I know that for sure. And probably enough left to buy us dinner somewhere. Oh gosh, I’m so hungry. I haven’t eaten since this morning.” She looked up at Trip. “And I don’t think you have either. How are you not starving?”

“You learn to get over it after awhile. Besides, I have other things to worry about than food.”

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think anyone would mind if I had a little bit of this hay.” She walked over to the pile next to him and picked up a handful... a hoofful... ugh... of the yellow stuff.

Trip stuck his tongue out. “How can you eat that? That’s... oh yeah. That’s normal for you. My mistake.”

“What? Hay? Look, I know I probably shouldn’t be eating random food I find in the caboose of a train, but I don’t think it’s spoiled or anything. I’m not sure if hay even can spoil.” She grabbed another wad and held it in Trip’s direction. “You want some? It don’t think anyone’s poisoned it.” she giggled.

“No. I’m good. I’d rather... I’m on a strict no-hay diet.”

“Really? You don’t really look like you need a diet.”

“Well, hay messes with my regularity. You know. I have a delicate stomach.”

Rose didn’t know how to respond to that one. “Um... okay then. More for me, I guess.” She grabbed a few more handfuls and chowed down.

After she was done, Trip asked her “So, what’s with the whole gardening thing?”

She attempted to lay down on the train floor again. “What do you mean?”

“Well, when we first met, you said all you liked doing was taking walks.”

“Actually, when we first met, you screamed at me and said I was impossible.” She retorted.

“Okay, true, true. But when we talked for the first time, you made it sound like you never did anything ever. But then, all of a sudden you started gaining an interest in plants and stuff. Why is that?”

She deliberated that question. “I don’t know. I guess, since no one ever asked me to do anything before, I never felt like doing anything.”

Trip looked down at her. “That’s strange. Has anyone ever talked to you? Like, just carried out a normal conversation with someone?”

“You.”

“I mean, other than me? With people... ponies that you’ve seen all your life.”

“No. I don’t see why you keep asking that. I don’t really do anything. I’m just not important.”
Trip’s eyes went wide. “How can you say that just so, like, nonchalantly? How can you just be okay with the fact that you were born to do nothing?” he yelled. “You didn’t even have a name before I showed up! Didn’t you ever get angry about that?”

She jumped a little at his sudden change of tone. “Actually, I never really felt anger until you showed up, actually, now that I think about it.” She said this with only a hint of mild realization in her voice.

Trip stood up from the wall and began to walk in circles. “I don’t like that. You have no life, Rose. You’re just a background character. And you’re just completely content with that? If I were in your position, I’d get-” suddenly, the train bounced, throwing Trip onto his side, right in front of the bale of hay. His muscles screamed at him as he stood back up. He inhaled deeply. “Ow.”

“You should really stop getting so worked up about things. It’s not healthy.” she stretched her entire body. “Listen, I think we have about forty five minutes left on this ride. I’m gonna try and sleep. We can find somewhere to spend the night when we get there, too.”

“Sleep.” Trip absent mindedly repeated. “I forgot that’s something people can do. You do that. I’ll wake you up when I think we’re there.”
“You’re not going to try and sleep?” She said, curling up.
“We’ll miss our stop if we both do.” he said. He backed up against the wall and sat down,
so that his back was leaning up against the cold metal. Before long, he could hear quiet, cartoonish snoring coming from where Rose was laying.

Trip looked out of the opening in the ceiling. He saw the purple-blue night sky, but the moon was out of sight. He only saw a few stars. Eventually, he saw the tears in the sky, like the ones he saw when he first arrived. But they didn’t seem to be ripping in his general direction, so he wasn’t alarmed by them.

Technically, he thought to himself, I am sleeping right now. And I’m probably being fed through a tube. Assuming my body is still at the hospital. That’d be freaky, if my body disappeared from my hospital bed. God, Ren is probably freaking out right now. I wonder how long it’s been. What if I’ve been gone for months? Years? Oh god, this is not okay. No, I’ve only been here for less than a day. I’ve been gone for a day. Time should relatively equate. I wonder if she watched that new episode without me. Well, can I really say without me? What if she’s seen me? Seen me but didn’t notice me? No, I haven’t seen any of the main characters in that town. But we are headed to where the main characters live. We might get some screen time there. Especially if we’re going to be asking them for stuff. Would Ren recognize my voice? Would she... would she see a... facial sim... similar...

He had begun losing track of his thoughts. Everything around him was growing even darker than it had before. His eyelids felt like cement and he couldn’t keep his head straight. Eventually, his vision faded out to black.

He had no body. His physical form was gone, and around him, everything was white. White with cracks, like dried mud, revealing shades of silver. He turned his non-existent head and saw more of the nothingness. He expected to see something. Some kind of plant. Had he been there before? It seemed familiar, but empty.
He gave the mental command of moving his arm, but instead of seeing his arm, a giant black tentacle sprouted of the corner of his vision. He tried moving his fingers, and the tip of the tentacle wiggled accordingly.

He tried the same thing with his other hand, and another tentacle appeared. He experimented with them for a little bit, before he looked down to try and see the origin point of the appendages. He saw a small body shaped black lump with what looked like a yellow snake perched on its shoulders. Trip lowered his arms, and as he did the tentacles retracted into the lump.

The snake looked up at Trip’s general direction and scanned above it, as if it were looking for him but couldn’t see him. The snake moved its head so that its mouth was approximately where the lumps ear would be. It opened its mouth, and in Trip’s one ear, he heard a feminine voice say the phrase “Stable Condition”.

“Trip! Trip, wake up!” Rose was whispering loudly. “I think someone’s here!”

“Wh-what?” he muttered, rubbing his eyes. His hoof-hands were dripping wet with what seemed like sweat. “Sh-darn, did I fall asleep?”

“Yeah, but we gotta get out of here, I think the conductor knows we’re here!”

“What?” he got up on all fours, and realized he was laying in the hay pile.. “How?”

“I don’t know, but the train’s stopped, and from what I can tell, we’re not at Ponyville,” she started breathing heavily. “And I’m pretty sure I heard train doors being open and shut and I think whoever’s doing it is getting closer to us, and...”

Trip grabbed her by the shoulder. “No, listen, it’s gonna be fine.” He looked up. “You see that hole up there? Lift me up and I’ll...”

“What? No! You’re heavier than me! You lift me up, and then I’ll...”

“No, what I’m saying is I’ll stand on your back, lift myself up, and then I can lift you up. You’re lighter than me, you won’t be able to...”

“I won’t be able to hold your weight though!”

“Rose, I’m not lifting you up. I am not putting you in a position in which I have to hold any part of your body above my head.”

“What? What is that supposed to mean?”

“It would just be an awkward position and I don’t think either of-”

He was interrupted by the sound of metal clanging and hooves walking on the ground, and from not too far away. They both looked in the direction of the noise, then back at each other.

“Come on, Rose, we don’t have much time. Just stand here.”

“Fine. Fine. Just hurry.”

She stood still as he tried to maneuver himself onto her back. He had to keep his two back feet on her spinal area and his left front one on her neck. “Ow. Ow. OW. Hurry up! This really hurts!”

“Sorry!” He reached for the edge of the opening and just missed it. He pushed up with his left arm and stood up on his two back legs. He grabbed for the edge of the opening again, and missed it by less than an inch. He fell off of Rose as he came back down, causing a large CLANG to reverberate in the car.

The hoof sounds paused for a brief moment, and started moving again, definitely in their direction. “No, no, no...” Trip said under his breath.

Rose was rubbing her neck, and Trip tried climbing on her back again. “Hurry up! They heard us!” She whispered.

Right away he stood on his two back feet. He reached for the edge again, but this time, he fully extended his legs and leaped off of Rose’s back, and he firmly grasped the metal, despite his lack of fingers. He reached up with his other hoof-hand and started hoisting himself up. As he was, he felt two hooves push him up. Soon, the upper half of his body was completely outside of the train. He pushed himself up and out of the car.

He looked in the direction the footsteps were coming from, and instead of seeing a pony comically dressed up in a conductor’s outfit, he saw one dressed up like the guards in front of the Archive. He laid down flat on the top of the car and turned himself around so that he could reach his hoof into the opening. He felt Rose grab onto it, and he pulled her up to the point where she got a grip on the metal. She let go of him and pushed herself up.

“Quick, get down!” Trip whispered, spreading himself as flat as possible, soon followed by Rose doing the same thing. Soon, the sound of the metal door being opened could be heard below them. Trip stopped breathing, and he was fairly certain Rose did, too.

The guard seemed to take a longer time examining this one than he did the others. It sounded like he was moving the hay around for a while. But eventually, he let out a frustrated huff, left the train and slam the door shut.

“Is it safe now?” Rose whispered.

Trip paused. “Wait til the train starts moving again.”

“What?”

“It’s going to take a while before it gets back up to full speed.” he lifted his head slightly, and saw no sign of the guard. “We’ll get back in the train when we’re sure no one’s going to come back on.”

Rose paused. “What if we just got off right now?”

“What?”

“They might check the train again at the station. And Ponyville isn’t too far away, I think I can see some lights over there in the distance.”

Trip just responded with a stare. He lifted his head again and looked in all directions for the guard. Instead, he heard the train blew its whistle and started moving forward slowly.

“Rose, I like the way you think, sometimes.” Trip put his hoof-hands to his chest and allowed himself to roll off of the top of the car, and onto the ground with a loud THUD, which was thankfully covered by the sound of steam and pistons being turned. Soon, Rose jumped off and landed gracefully on her feet next to him.

“What was with that?” She asked as he was getting up.

“I didn’t want to be seen, just in case.” he said, brushing himself off.

“Okay, I guess... so-” the whistle blew again as the end of the train rolled past them and into the darkness. “So should we get going now?”

“Yes. Sounds lovely.”

The Dreaded Town

“So do you think the conductor saw us get on the train?”

“What?” The moon was setting, and the opposite end of the sky was fading from blue to orange. “Oh. Yeah, the conductor? I don’t know. I don’t think so. He would have gone straight to our car if he had.”

“Okay. Then how did he know we were on the train?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he heard us moving around in the car something?”

“Over all the sounds of the train? I don’t think he could have...”

“Look, I don’t know. But there’s something that I want to know, Rose.”

“Hmm?”

“When you were pushing me out of the train, were you um... putting your hooves in certain places for certain reasons?”

Rose gave him an offended look. “What are you trying to say?”

“Nothing, I’m just not sure if I’m, you know, that I’m attractive like this. You know, as one of you. And I don’t mind if you were attracted to me or anything, I mean I’d understand. But you just have to watch where your hands are-”

“You are going to stop talking. Now.”

“Okay, geez, fine.”

“But, speaking of grabbing-”

“Hey, I’ve been keeping my hands to myself. I mean hooves. Whatever.”

“Well, when you grabbed my hooves to pull me out, you grabbed really hard. I was afraid you were going to leave me bruises.”

“Oh.” Trip remained silent.

“What’s wrong?” Rose asked, concerned.

“Nothing. We’ve just been walking for a long time. Again. You have a really bad sense of distance, you know that?”

“Look, we’ll be there by sunrise. We’ll have plenty of time to find the Elements of Harmony.”

“Joy.”

Trip felt extremely uneasy, even more than he had in Canterlot. The town, to him, had the sensation of a war zone. Glances from the creatures that inhabited it were the bullets whizzing by him, some striking him directly. Each step was a potential step on a landmine. But he had to maintain a calm exterior. Which, of course, was hard to do since every nerve in his body was telling him to scream “Take cover!” and jump under something.

When in Rome, thought Trip. Slight smile. Good posture. And... make conversations without talking, apparently?

It was the strangest thing. As they walked by groups of the creatures, they would move their mouths as if they were talking to each other, but no words would come out.

Trip kept his eyes forward but leaned his head towards Rose. “What is going on with all of them?” He whispered.

“Hmm.” she said, looking around, totally ruining Trip’s attempt at discretion. “Something important must be going on.”

“Important? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, if something important goes on, and you’re not a part of it, you’re just supposed to go do your own thing. But you’re not supposed to interact with the important thing.”

“Who the h- makes these rules, anyway? Actually, no, how do you just know them?”

Rose contemplated that for a second. “I don’t know. It’s just something you kind of pick up after a while.”

Trip lowered his head in anguish. “I think what really upsets me about this, is that you aren’t getting upset about this.”

She tapped his chin. “Come on now, we’re not here to complain about my lifestyle, right? We’re here to get you back to Maryland. Where everything is wonderful all the time, right?” she giggled at that.

“Technically, that’s here. I said that about this place.” Trip said, lifting his head slightly. “Just tell me if you see the uh, Elements of Symphony, or whatever they’re called.

“I think that might be some of them, over there.” Rose said, pointing in the direction of three of particular horses. Trip looked and had a combined feeling of dread and relief as he saw them. But he even welcomed the grief, because it was how he felt when Renee forced him to watch the show. Feeling it almost gave him the sensation of sitting down on the couch with her, just enjoying her presence and drowning out the voices of the characters that at one point, were separated from him with a screen. Now, the only thing that separated him and them was a couple hundred yards.

The three that were there were the purple one, the yellow one and the orange one. They were discussing something, but nothing that looked extremely important. They didn’t have looks of urgency, or fear drawn onto their faces. It was probably safe to interrupt them. Even so, he was going to wait until they came to him.

“Alright, the purple one’s a brainiac, so I’ll probably have my best bet from her. The orange one is from Texas, so probably not much going on up-” he paused.

Rose looked at him. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s no such thing as Texas here. How does she...” he shook his head. “Never mind. And the yellow one... I think she’s afraid of everything or something. Especially strangers.” he turned his head to Rose. “Especially strangers, right?”

Rose shrugged.

“Well, either way, the purple one is still the best bet. I’ll just direct my questions at her.”

“Don’t you know their names? It seems kind of rude to call them by their color.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I know their names. I’m just trying not to admit to myself that I do.” Trip looked back at them and saw that they were walking in the opposite direction of him. “No, no! This way, little horsies...”

They kept their course. Trip started walking around the corner of the building. “Where are you going?” asked Rose.

“I’m just gonna make it so that I just kinda ‘bump into them’, you know? If I just run up to them, they’ll get scared or offended. Skittish, I think they call it. No, I have to be real friendly and casual about it. Try to strike up a conversation, make myself seem normal. Then behind the scenes I reveal my most dark secret. That’s how these things work.”

“You know, you keep saying that. That you know how we’re supposed to do things.” She gave him a condescending look. “I don’t think that any of the ways you’ve suggested to do things has worked once.”

Trip looked away. “Yeah, true, but that’s only because I haven’t been thinking like a cartoon in the right ways. But no, really, this is more of a social thing than anything. Trust me, okay?”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Okay, I’ll trust you, again, but that doesn’t mean I expect this to work.”

Trip smiled. “That’s all I ask. You wait here. Make some more small talk. Try to blend in.”

Rose laughed a little. “I do it better than you ever could.”

He walked along the backs of the buildings. Occasionally, one of them would come out the backdoors, but he’d just smile and nod and continue on. None of them seemed to mind he was there. Eventually, all that separated him and the three was a single building. They were standing still and talking again. He inched his way around to the other side of the house.

He kept his distance. He was still good at blocking out the character’s voices. He tried tuning in, but found they were talking about something he didn’t even care about. He was here about his problems, not theirs.

“Excuse me, ma’ams?” Trip said. No response. He tried again, a little louder. “Ladies?”

The purple one kept talking, with the other two listening intently. Trip had to rely on desperate measures.
“Excuse me. Excuse me! Twilight Sparkle?” Trip called out. The words tasted funny in his mouth. He was pretty sure that that was the first time he had actually said the names of one of the characters. The purple horse didn’t so much pause while speaking. He took a step closer.

The landmine went off.

Suddenly, a flash of white. Trip went blind for a second. He had lost his physical form again, he was in the void. He tried flailing his limbs to get traction, to get moving, but he was petrified. He looked ahead of him and three horse shaped auras appeared, all of which were a light blue. But they were moving. No, they were spinning. No, Trip was spinning. He was floating, every way was up. He saw dozens more of the horse shaped auras, except almost all of them were a dark orange.

Then the colors ran together. Trip’s vision smeared until everything was a mix of white, orange and blue, which somehow combined into a horrid black shade that surrounded Trip. He could feel it, the black brushing up against his skin, encasing him and eventually crushing him.

Trip opened his eyes. He was laying down on the ground, shivering. He put his shaking front limbs in front his face. Still hooves.

“Trip? Trip, are you okay?” said a familiar voice.

“J-just peach-chy.” he stuttered.

“What happened? Where did you come from?”

“H-h... now-where.”

“Oh my goodness, you look awful! Get up, get up, come on.” He felt hooves on his shoulders lift him up.

“Tha-anks.” he spat out.

“Trip, were you swimming or something? The ground here is all wet.”

“Sw-weat.” he responded.

“Are you sure? There’s a lot-”

“SWEAT.”

“Okay, okay come on, let’s get you to a nurse.”

He managed to get back up on all fours, but no part of him wanted to hold up all of his weight. His front left leg was especially a challenge. Any time he put pressure on it, his body would dip, making his head coming an inch away from smacking his head into the ground.

Somehow, Rose knew exactly where to go. She was able to steer him with an actual sense of direction. They were at an infirmary tent within a matter of minutes.

“How d-did you know how to g-get here?” Trip asked.

“I don’t know. It just seemed like a place a doctor would be. Hold on.” Rose left for a second and came back with a white pony, wearing a nursing cap.

“What are his symptoms?” She asked, as she and Rose helped walk him to a bed.

“He randomly appeared out of nowhere, is sweating a lot, and he’s shaking.”

“...interesting.”

Trip focused again and found himself in a bed. The nurse and Rose exchanged some more words and the nurse left.

“Trip, what happened?” Rose said, after a long silence.

“Hey Rose, you wanna see a magic trick?”

“Trip, are you okay?” she asked, concerned.

“A-la-ka-ZAM.” Trip stuck his arms out in front of him, as if he were casting a spell. “I’m in two hospital beds at the same time.” He fell back so his head was resting on the pillow, and laughed silently to himself. Rose left the room.

“Also, I think he might be hallucinating, or he may be seeing double, or something.” he heard from outside the room.

“I’m FINE.” Trip called out. “It was a JOKE. You never hear of humor around here?”

Trip heard some quiet discussion again. Rose, the nurse, and... a third one. “Who’s there?” he yelled. “What’s wrong?” A purple horse walked in. A purple horse with similarly multi-toned hair. Trip jumped to the far side of the bed. “Stay back! What did you do to me?”

She seemed confused by the gesture. “I didn’t do anything. But we need to get something clear.”

Trip relaxed back into the center of the bed. “Okay. Okay. I need to talk to you, too.”

“Well, I just wanted to you to know that I’m going to need you to stay away from me and my friends.”

That shocked Trip. “What? No, I don’t think you understand.” He tried putting on a smile. “I have a problem, which, I think only you and your friends can-”

“Well, I’m really sorry to hear that, but we can’t.” she interrupted.

“What? No, really. I’m in a really bad way, and I need some powerful... magic. Yeah. And you and your friends-”

“Look, I’d really like to, but we really don’t have time. We have a lot of important things we need to-”

“What? Can’t you just put them off until later? You are really the only ones that can help-”

“As much as I’d like to help you, we need to stick to the schedule.”

“Schedule? What schedule?”

“Um... Well, it’s kind of hard to describe. We just need to do important things in a very specific order, and always on time.”

“...like a script.” He muttered, defeated by the realization.

“Yeah! Kinda like that, if you wanna look at it that way.” She looked at a clock in the room. “Oh! Look, I might be able to help you when we’re done, but that probably won’t be for a while. I’ll try and talk to you later, okay?”

“Yeah. Fine.”

“Okay. Good! Bye!” She walked cheerily out of the room.

Trip laid in the bed, staring directly in front of him. Rose walked in. “What did she want?”

Trip didn’t respond.

“Trip, are you okay?”

“I hate the word ‘important’.”

“What?”

Trip looked up at her. “Nothing.” He swung his bottom legs out of the bed and got on all fours. “We have to wait here until they’re done with their... business. I guess we have to find something to occupy our time until then.” Trip left the room, and Rose followed.

An Opportunity Arises

Rose had meandered about until she had found a flower shop. It was like Trip’s nightmare. Not only was he in a world which he didn’t want to be in, that world that seemed to want to destroy him. And just to make it worse, he was forced to listen to discussions on fertilizers. And seeds. And watering. Trip would have considered this torture even as a human. Not having fingers to put in in his ears only made the situation more frustrating. He had to settle with just tuning them out.

“So, is this your um... friend?” One of them asked Rose. Trip tuned back in as they all laughed.

“Yes, I would say we’re friends.” she responded, oblivious.

“Yes. Just. Friends.” Trip interjected. It was the first he had spoken to them since he had been standing there. His voice was much deeper and intimidating than he had meant for it to come out. The gaggle of flower sellers were a little jarred by this.

The same one spoke up. “Oh, okay. Sorry, I was just joking around. I didn’t mean anything by it-”

“Oh, ignore him. He’s just a little bit cranky. We walked here all the way from Canterlot, he didn’t get much sleep last night.”

“Canterlot? You walked?”

“Oh, yes. We didn’t have train tickets, so we had to...”

And just like that, Trip left the conversation again. He looked away from the group and looked into the street. More of them walking. Talking. Shopping. It depressed him. How many of these ponies even had names? He knew some of them did. His sister would point out some of the recurring background characters. Apparently the writers gave some of those ones names. But even the ones that had names, how many had what could be called a life once the camera was off of them?

Trip, you are waxing existential about cartoon horses. He told himself. Stop it.

But it was hard not to. What else was there to distract himself with? He was not going to talk about flowers. He was keeping whatever little dignity he had left. He scanned the crowd to see if he saw any of the mentioned recurring background characters. It was hard to, on account of him mostly ignoring his sister whenever she talked about those kind of things. He did see something strange, however.

There was one of them standing in the midst of all the commotion. It was wearing a hat and some sort of trench coat, designed specifically for a pony's body. For Trip, this strange figure stood out to him as the most obvious creature in the vicinity, but none of the other residents even seemed to notice him. Their eyes would slide right past him, and the only time any one of them interfered was when a younger one accidentally walked straight into him, not looking.

“Oh, sorry mister!” It had said, and continued walking around him.

Trip turned his body towards the creature, and it smiled at him as he did.

“What kind of cutie mark is that, if you don’t mind me asking?” One of the flower shop owners asked. Trip looked back, annoyed.

“Oh, this old thing? It’s a birth defect, actually.”

The shop owner gave him a perplexed look. “You were born with your cutie mark?”

“What? Oh, no. The skin in that area is just... you know, defected. It’s supposed to be a fish. I’m a fisherman. Fisherpony. Yar. It’s just messed up.”

She turned her head and looked at his side again. “I... I think I can see how that’s supposed to be a fish, I suppose. You should really get it checked out by a doctor.”

“I’ve seen enough doctors, thanks.” He nodded and turned back to the hat-wearing pony. “I’ll be back in a second, ladies.”

As he walked into the crowd, he heard behind him “I can see why you two are just friends.” followed by a chorus of hushed laughter.

He confronted the mysterious pony. It snickered at him and said “You aren’t from around here, are you kid?”

“No. How can you tell?” Trip responded, intrigued.

“Your cutie mark is one clue. Your use of the word ‘man’ is another.”

Trip went wide eyed and looked around. He leaned close to the pony and asked “You know what people are?”

“I have... a vague idea.” It’s smile had vanished, replaced by a look of solemness. “But I also know that it’s not good to know too much, you know?”

“How did you find out?” Trip asked intently.

“I know a place.” It’s smile came back. “You go there and you learn things. Usually, small things, but usually even the small things are pretty big. You get me?”

Trip shook his head slowly. “Not really. I’m not fluent in riddles. Where is this place?”

The pony snickered again. “I can take you. But not now. A little later.”
Trip groaned. “Why? Why is it always later with you people?”
“Hey, calm down. I can only take up groups of four. And you’re only the third one I got, so you’re gonna have to wait until I can-”

“No! Wait a second. Just wait.” Trip ran back to the group, where Rose was still chattering along. “Rose, you need to come with me right now. I think I’ve found something important.”

Rose rolled her eyes and laughed. “He’s always doing this.” She turned to him. “Let me guess, you know how something ‘needs to be done’, right?”

Trip’s face went flat. “No, I just think I’ve found an opportunity to solve my little problem that might not present itself again ever. And I need you to be there with me, okay?”

Rose smiled. “Okay, okay, fine.” she looked back at the shop owners. “It was nice talking to you. I’ll be back... whenever!” They all exchanged laughs and Rose walked away with him. “So, what is this little ‘opportunity’ you’ve-” she stopped dead in her tracks as her eyes fell upon the trench coat wearing pony. Her face sagged in discomfort. “Oh. Um, who is this?”

The pony smiled. “Name’s Stickler, sweetheart.” He stuck out his front hoof.

“Um, please,” she laughed nervously. “Don’t call me sweetheart.”

The pony snickered. “No, no. My name is Stickler Sweetheart.” he put his hoof down and looked at Trip. “This your mare friend?”

“If you mean girlfriend, no. She’s just a friend.”

“Aw. Such a waste. You comin’ along with him, lady?”

Rose looked at Trip, with a pleading ‘don’t make me go anywhere with this pony’ look in her eyes. “I don’t know, am I?”

He tried to show her that he understood she wasn’t comfortable. “Yeah. But we aren’t going to be able to go wherever you’re taking us very long. We have to be back here to meet someone.”

Stickler nodded. “I getchya, I getchya. You shouldn’t be there for more than an hour or so. Two hours, tops. The longest part is the trek up there.”

Trip looked back at Rose. “Two hours? Can it be so bad?”

Rose shook her head with an awkward smile.

“Alright. Meet me by the edge of the Everfree Forest in twenty minutes. I gotta go alert the other two volunteers.” with that, Stickler walked off, still evading the attention of all of the town’s residents.

Trip looked at Rose, who still seemed nervous. “Stickler Sweetheart kinda seems like a girl’s name, doesn’t it?” he laughed at his own joke awkwardly.

“Trip, whenever someone says ‘Can it be so bad?’, I feel like that’s when things will go bad.”

“No, listen. Everything’s gonna be fine. Two hours. And then you can go back to talking with your new friends.”

“What about you?” Rose asked. “What does this have to do with getting you back to Maryland?”

“Oh. Um, this guy knew about things about Maryland that no one else here would know. So something tells me he might know something about getting back.”

Rose looked at him, still not entirely convinced. “I don’t like his coat. It’s creepy.”

Trip nodded. “Where I come from, he’d strike me as the kind of guy who’d give candy to youngins.”

“He doesn’t seem nice enough to do that.”

“Yeah. You go say bye to your friends. I’ll meet you at the edge of the forest.”

Rose gave him an ‘Oh really?’ look. “You really think you can find the forest yourself?”

“Oh.” Trip laughed slightly. “I guess I’ll wait for you, then.”

Trip and Rose came up to the edge of the dense forest. Trip assumed by color shift from light to dark, and by Rose’s natural uneasiness that this forest wasn’t seen as a cool get-together place for all the local residents.

“I don’t like this,” whispered Rose. “I mentioned ‘a forest’ to the girls at the shop, and they all went quiet. That’s never a good sign!”

“Listen, if he tries any funny business, we’ll hightail it outta there.” He evaluated the words he said. “And by that, I mean run away. Don’t put your tail up high, that might send him the wrong message.”

“Hey there, kiddies!” Stickler’s voice came from the distance. “I got your new friends here!”

As he came into sight, they saw that he was leading two other ponies, who seemed just as nervous. There was a small light blue one, with a round face and lime green hair. That one really seemed the more frantic of the two. She tripped every other step he took. The other one was much larger, all white but with black hair, with a more angular head. While there was definitely fear in his eyes, he definitely held himself together better than the other one.

However, when the smaller one got a sight of Rose, She gathered herself, straightened out her posture, and put on a confident smile.

“Alright. We all ready?” said Stickler.

“Yeah.” said Trip.

“I guess...” said Rose.

The white one nodded.

“Indeed I am,” said the blue one, with a hoaky French accent that was definitely male.

“Alright,” said Stickler, as he reached into his trench coat and pulled out what looked like
a bundle of rope. As he unwound it, Trip saw that it was actually five ropes, all conjoined at one end to meet in a center. At the other end of all the ropes were loops, very much resembling nooses. “I’m gonna need you all to wear these. Don’t want anyone getting lost.” Without hesitation, he slipped one of the loops over his hat and around his neck. Everyone else looked at each other. “C’mon, we don’t got all day! Hurry it up!” he yelled.

The white one recoiled from the yelling and slipped his loop around his neck reflexively. The blue one cautiously put his on as well. Rose looked at Trip, scared. Trip looked back at her, unsure, shrugged, and put on his loop. Rose timidly followed suit.

“Alright, alright. Thank you. And just to let you know, you can take those off any time you want, but I wouldn’t consider it if I were you. Wouldn’t want to be left to the mercy of the Forest, if you know what I mean.” he snickered at this. The blue and white one gulped.

The Forest

The rope had allowed for about 15 feet between them. Stickler had taken to the front, keeping everyone else’s lines taught. The loops weren’t tight enough to the point to cause choking as long as they kept a decent pace.

Trip kept by the Rose and the other two. They all seemed terrified of the forest. Trip wasn’t at ease, but he knew that the forest possibly had worse in store for them. And if Stickler was trucking along with no fear, they probably had nothing to worry about yet.

“So, uh, what are your names?” said the white one. His voice was low, but bright. “I’m Ivory Octaves. You can call my Ivy. Or Octy.”

“I’m Rose Entrance.” said Rose. “And this is Trip.”

“Just Trip?” Said Octaves. “That’s quite a short name.”

“I know!” she agreed. “That’s what I said. He has something weird about names.”

“You know, I’m right here.” Trip interjected. “I can talk for myself.”

“Oh! So now you wanna be social.” Rose smirked. “He’s not very comfortable with talking to other ponies.”

“No, I can, I just don’t want to.” Trip muttered.

Octaves turned to the blue one, who still had his head low to the ground, scared witless. “And you are?”

Once he caught on that Octaves was talking to him, he stood up straight and put a cocky smile on his face. “Bonjour,” he said. “My name is Jacques Amour. I am very pleased to make all of your acquaintances.”

Trip groaned. “Tell me something, Jack, do you speak like that all the time?”

Jacques looked confused. “I don’t see what you mean?”

“Never mind.” Trip looked forward again. “So, what brings you two here?”

Jacques and Octaves both began talking at the same time.

“Well, it all-” said Jacques.

“I had come to-” said Ivory.

They looked at each other, and Jacques nodded at Octaves. “Well,” the white pony began. “I came to Ponyville for a concert. I’m a pianist, see.”

Trip chuckled a little. Octaves gave him an odd look. “No, no, continue.” Trip insisted.

“Anyway, I had been practicing for this concert for a while, even staying up late to make sure I didn’t mess up on the sections I was having trouble with. So when the concert came around, I was somewhat on edge. I was about to walk up on stage, and one of the guards said I wasn’t allowed on. I told them I played the piano for the orchestra, and he told me there was no piano. I told him that was nonsense, that I ought to know there was a piano in the orchestra I toured with! I finally ended up pushing my way past him, and...” he paused.

“And what?” asked Rose, fascinated. “What happened then?”

“I don’t really know how to explain what happened then.” He rubbed his forehead. “It’s kind of blurry to me now, but I remember blacking out, and waking up in the town center, shaking and covered in sweat.”
Trip and Rose exchanged looks of surprise. “How long ago was that?” asked Rose.

“A few weeks ago. After I had gotten up and tried making my way back to the concert, Stickler Sweetheart found me, and he seemed to know something had just happened to me. So he told me he could ‘show me what I needed to know’.”

“He used those same words with me,” said Jacques. “I came here a few months ago. Just where I ended up in my many-a travels. I come to this town, make friendly with the residents, you know, and eventually, one day, they all forget who I am. I had been in this town three days and they had somehow forgotten about me! So I try and talk to this girl I had been getting really comfortable with, you know, a real beauté blanche, and I get within twenty metres of her, and the same exact thing happened to me as did to Ivory. I somehow ended up on the complete other side of the town, shaking on the ground.” He turned at Trip and Rose. “I’m guessing you two had similar experiences?”

“I did.” said Trip. “I tried asking for some help from people who couldn’t help me, and I blacked out and teleported somewhere else.”

“Hmm. And you, miss?” Jacques leaned towards Rose.

“Oh, I haven’t had anything like that happen to me, no. I’m with him.”

“Oh!” Jacques turned away. “I didn’t know that you two were together.”

“We’re NOT together!” Trip yelled. “I don’t see why people keep saying that!”

“Oh?” Jacques turned back and eyed Rose. “So you are not currently in a romance?” he lifted one brow.

Rose giggled. “No, not currently.”

Trip stepped in between the two of them. “Nothing is going to happen here as long I’m tied to the two of you.”

“Oh? Trip, I didn’t think you’d be jealous if you weren’t involved with her.” Jacques said, hintingly.

“I’m not jealous, I just don’t want to have to watch the two of you ‘get involved’.”

“Trip, he’s just being nice.” Rose said.

“Well, no, I must admit, you do catch my fancy, Ms. Entrance.” Jacques took a step forward, showing an elegantly crafted heart symbol on his side. “As you see, I am a lover at heart. It is my natural tendency to try and win the hearts of the female persuasion.” he fell back into the line and looked at Rose. “And the rose is a symbol of romance as well, in most cases. I am just naturally drawn to you, Ms. Entrance. But if your friend here wishes for me to keep my distance, I shall!” he put his hoof over his chest, swearing. “Je le jure!”

“Oh thank you!” She responded. She looked back at Trip. “Looks like someone here knows how to treat a lady.”

“Look, do you want me to start hitting on Octy?” Trip said, waving his hoof-hand at the white pony. “Just so that no one is left out of this flirting equation?”

“Um, I’d really prefer you didn’t.” Said Ivory.

“You kids,” said Stickler from ahead. “This is gonna be an interesting journey, considering how we’re not even halfway there.”

“Ugh. I’m so tired of walking everywhere. Don’t some of you guys have wings? Why couldn’t I have wings?”

“Trip, none of us have wings.” said Rose. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Yes, I just meant some of your kind in general. Like, pegasuses and stuff.”

“Trip, I’m a unicorn, not a pegasus.”

“I know! I just meant, ugh, God dammit...” Everyone in the group stopped, even Trip, who was now wide-eyed. Everyone else was looking at him as if he had just spoken gibberish. “How did I just-”

“Things get a little weird when you start getting to the place we’re going.” said Stickler, still far ahead of everyone else.

Ivory looked at him strangely. “You told us we weren’t even halfway, though.”

Stickler nodded. “Yeah, but this place has got a big blast radius. It’ll only get worse from here.” He continued walking, forcing everyone else to trudge on as well.

“Worse? More like fucking awesome!” Trip said, smiling from ear to ear. Everyone else in the group was turning their heads away uncomfortably.

“Euh, Monsieur! How much longer would you say, until we reach this place?” Jacques called, rubbing his hoof on the back of his head. “I don’t know exactly what it is, but something about this predicament, makes me feel, euh, not so good.”

“Well that’s one hell of a problem you got there, lover boy.” Trip said, patting his hoof-hand on Jacques’ shoulder.

“Euh, please-” Jacques said, brushing Trip’s hoof off of him. “I’m fine. Don’t... don’t touch me.”

Trip noticed the entire group was starting to inch away from him. “Guys, the hell’s the problem?” He asked. “Is it the cussing?”

Rose responded. “I don’t know, something about you right now... I just feel like something bad’s gonna happen.”

“Well, I don’t think you have to worry about it, okay?” Trip said, catching up with the group, inserting himself with them. “I’ll stop cussing if it fucking bothers you so much. I mean, sorry. I’ll stop. Seriously.”

That didn’t seem to calm any of them down immediately, but soon, all three of them were calm enough to the point where they stopped trotting tightly together in what seemed like a defense against Trip. Stickler just kept moving along, ignoring all of them.

After what felt to Trip like an eternity, Stickler finally stopped in front of a dense cluster of trees forming an almost perfect circle around something that was casting a bright white light. He took the loop off of his neck, carefully making sure it didn’t move his hat as he did. He looked at the group he was leading, and gestured to them to do the same. They all followed suit.

“Alright. Lover Boy, Piano Man, you follow me first. Girlie and Potty Mouth, you hang tight.” he said, squeezing himself between two of the trees. Jacques and Ivory looked at each other and headed in after him, one after another.

After a second of silence, Rose looked at Trip. “What do you think is in there?”

Trip looked at the cluster of trees that revealed nothing. “I don’t know. But I think it’s pretty fu...” He stopped his own swear for once, and continued “...messed up that he can’t remember our names.”

“Trip, what if he’s hurting them?” Rose asked, folding in on herself.

He paused. “I hadn’t thought of that.” He took a step towards the trees. “I’m gonna look. If I run away screaming, that means we have to get out of here. Got it?”

She nodded. “I think I can remember that.”

Trip walked between the two trees and poked his head through.

He saw Stickler standing off to one side, and Ivory and Jacques standing in front of a tree, completely entranced by it for some reason. At first, Trip was confused, but as he kept his eyes on the tree, it changed before him. It’s bark wasn’t the same shade as all the other trees as he thought, it was black. And it had black leaves. It wasn’t a tree, it was the silhouette of a tree. And it was surrounded by an aura of white, and Jacques and Ivory were dipping their front hooves into the blankness cautiously.

“You starting to see clearer now?” Asked Stickler, who hadn’t seen Trip.

“I... I think.” said Ivory. “I see... names. Faust? Who’s that?”

“Just keep still, it’ll all become clear eventually.” Stickler nodded.

“What... the... fuck?” Trip mouthed to himself. Suddenly, the aura surrounding the tree expanded, swallowing the two ponies, and just barely missing Stickler. Soon the light from the aura was so bright that Trip had to look away. He still heard screams, muffled, but echoing. He tried looking back and saw two blue, blurry shapes of horses floating around in the white, contorting until they no longer resembled any living thing. Stickler, who was now covering his face with his front leg, looked over at Trip.

“What are you doing!?” he yelled.

Trip backed out of the trees as fast as he could and bumped into Rose. He turned himself around, and as she came into his sight, he told her, “Run.”

But as soon as his feet started moving, he was frozen. He turned his head and saw Stickler, with his hat in hoof, revealing a horn on his head, that was glowing. “You two,” he said through gritted teeth, “need to leave.”

Trip opened his eyes, and instead of seeing the dark colored trees of the forest, he saw the bright green. “Rose?” he called out, getting a mouthfull of grass. He sat up and spit out a few blades. “Rose?”

“I’m over here!” he heard from the distance.

He started running towards her voice. “Why did he have us walk all the way into the woods if he could teleport us?” he cried frantically. “I don’t know if we should run away, or run back, or what, it’s like my whole brain is-” he stopped as he saw Rose standing in front of two ponies dressed the same as the guards from the Royal Archive.

“Trip,” she said, smiling nervously “These gentlecolts say that Princess Celestia is requesting our presence at The Royal Castle. Isn’t that something?”

The Ride Back

“So, you can’t talk to us at all?” Trip asked the two guards sitting between him and Rose, dangling his hoof-hands outside of the edge of the carriage. “You guys are like, the embodiment of hospitality.” He sunk back into his seat. He looked at the guards, still staring straight ahead of them, stern looks on their faces. Trip looked to the sky beside him. He really should have been freaking out at the fact that he was in a pegasi-drawn carriage, but really, it wasn’t even the strangest thing he had seen that day. But he was sure Stickler knew what to do about Jacques and Ivory. What happened to them probably wasn’t any worse than what they had already experienced.
He looked at the guards again.“What if I tried jumping out of the carriage? You know, stood up, stretched my arms out, and just let myself fall back? I don’t have wings. I could fall to my... demise. Would you try and talk me out of it?” He looked at the guard next to him hopefully. He was still looking forward, diligent as ever. “What about your boys driving the cart? They’re transport, not guards, right?” No response. “Rose, you got them to talk before, how’d you do that?”

Trip couldn’t see her directly from where he was sitting, but he could tell she wasn’t happy.

“C’mon, don’t tell me you’re not talking to me, too!” Trip whined. “This ride is going to be boring if nobody other than me is talking. Or, nopony, or something.”

“Okay, fine.” Rose said defiantly. “Then please, discuss with me why The Princess is requesting us to arrive at the Royal Castle?” She leaned so he wasn’t being blocked by the two guards. “I trust that it isn’t because of a crime you committed, because you told me in confidence that you’d never hurt a fly.”

“Actually,” he responded flatly. “When we were in the forest, I swatted at a fly. I think I got its wing. Celestia probably felt a disturbance in the force.”

“Or maybe it had something to do with Sweetheart.” she said, realizing. “What did he do to them that made you run away?”

“Nothing,” Trip lied. “It seems more likely that it had to do with Jacques. You heard his accent, right? They’re all criminals, you know.”

Rose laughed a little, uncomfortably. “There’s no need to be jealous, Trip. Besides, you had nothing to worry about. He was too much of a prettypony for me.”

Trip laughed. “I’m not jealous! He was just a creep!” The two of them laughed together for a while. “You know, this would be a good moment to look back on and laugh about later, if it weren’t for the fact we’re being arrested, basically.”

“Yeah, you’ll have plenty of great stories for when you go back to Maryland.”

Trip stopped laughing. He didn’t even realize, but he couldn’t remember if this was the first time he had laughed since he had been cursed. Cursed? Yeah, cursed. He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to be happy as long as he was here. He wanted out. But he didn’t have to be miserable, did he? Laughter was an okay thing.

“Trip, are you okay?”

“I think. I think I’m okay for now. I just... I know it’s weird, but I forgot about Maryland for a second. When you said it, I just, you know, wave of memories.” He motioned around his head, as if a wave of air was passing by him.

Rose tilted her head. “Memories of what?”

“Um, nothing.” Trip said as he sat back into his seat.

No one spoke for a while, but Rose finally asked. “Was it something about your mom?”

An awful feeling welled up in Trip’s gut and he could feel his face going numb. His eyes weren’t crying, but they were definitely moistening. Thankfully, he was good at stopping himself from crying. But still, the question hit him like an unexpected splash of water to the face. He was suddenly aware of all of his nerve endings and couldn’t find a comfortable position to sit in.

He hadn’t gotten like that in a long time. Normally, when people had asked about his mom, he was able to keep a level head. But something about the situation, the laughing, or the way Rose asked, it just penetrated him in some wound that hadn’t healed. He had thought he had covered all of them, too.

After he didn’t respond, Rose said sheepishly “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s... it’s fine. It wasn’t about my mom. It was... my sister.”

“Oh.” She paused. “Was... was it a good memory?”

“Yeah, kinda, I guess. She just always talked about how she wanted to come here. Well, not always. Once or twice. She said she’d like to talk to some people- err, ponies that live here. The purple one. Her. She always said she was the most like her, that she was her favorite. And I was just thinking, now I get to tell her that I met her, and that she wasn’t exactly nice to me. That’ll probably really, like, shock her, you know?”

“Do they know who the Elements of Harmony are, where you come from?”

“Well, some do. We listen, well, not me, well, sort of me, my sister makes me listen, to the things they do. You know, the ‘important stuff’. Some of them really go crazy about it to, draw pictures, or make up their own terrible stories, called fan fiction. My sister also makes me read those all the time.”

“They’re terrible?”

“Oh yeah. I’ve never read one I liked. But I think it’s mostly the subject matter, not the writing.”

“Do you not like your sister?”

“What? No! I just don’t like how she has this ability to make me indulge in the things she likes and I don’t. I love my sister. If you knew me a while ago, you’d know.”

“Well, isn’t it important to share experiences with your siblings?”

“Rose, you don’t have parents. How do you know this?”

“I thought it was something everypony knew!”

“Okay, well, it’s not like I don’t. I mean, I could very easily just not watch any of the things she wants me to watch, or do any of that. But I made a promise to. So I can’t just, like, go back on that.”

“Oh. Okay, I think I get it.” Another pause. “You haven’t said anything about your dad, how is he?”

“My dad? An idiot. He never really grew up. I’m the only adult in my house. But he pays the bills, so it’s good to keep him around.”

“What do you mean he never grew up?”

“Oh, he still does childish things. Well, actually, no, I lied. He’s kind of grown up recently. He’s been a kid as long as I can remember before, though.”

“Oh. Well, sometimes it is hard for some-”

“Would you two like to sit together?”

It was the guard Trip was sitting next to. He had his head straightforward.

“Excuse me, sir?” said Rose.

“If you would like to sit next to each other for the remainder of the trip, we would be willing to allow that to happen.”

“Oh, so now you can talk to us?” Trip asked.

“Princess Celestia gave us orders to make sure that your journey to the Royal Castle was comfortable. If you two wish to hold this conversation while sitting next to each other, you can do so, if you feel this will make your journey more comfortable.” said the guard, still looking forward.

“Orders? For comfort? For us being arrested?” Trip said, confused.

The guard turned his head and looked Trip dead in the eye. “If you were being arrested, do you think we would have let you sit in the same carriage as us?”

A look of realization came over Trip’s face. “Oh. Yeah. Wow. I didn’t even... Um, yeah. Rose, do you want to sit together?”

“I don’t see why not.” She responded. The guards got out of their seat and Rose slid herself over to Trip. The guards sat back down in the spots that had just been made available.

“If there is anything else, within reason,” the one guard said, looking directly at Trip. “that will help this journey be more comfortable for either of you, please, ask.”

“Well, I have a question,” Trip said, trying not to ruffle their feathers anymore than he already was. “If we aren’t being arrested, what does the princess want with us? And why does she care about our comfort?”

“Trip, the Princess is known for her kindness and her hospitality. Even you should know that.” said Rose.

“Yes.” the guard agreed. “And as for why you were being summoned, Her Royal
Highness didn’t inform us as to a reason why, so we know just as much as you do about that.”

“Great. I’m betting beheaded. She just wants to do it herself.” Trip joked. The guards didn’t find it funny, and the glares on their faces made it apparent as they leaned towards him. “I’m kidding, okay? I’m sure your lovely princess wants us with our heads on our shoulders.”

The guards still seemed agitated. “Trip,” Rose said “Ponies around here don’t like it when you make fun of the Princess, especially not her royal guards.”

Trip looked at the extremely offended ponies, trying to seem unintimidated. He wasn’t sure if it worked. “Alright, alright. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult the princess.” he said, trying to sound half sincere, half nonchalant.

The guards let up and sat back in their seats, but still looking agitated. “Yes,” one of them muttered. “It is a wonder that Princess Celestia would be treating you with such kindness. She must have never met you.”

“Oh no, me and the princess? We go way back!” Trip joked. “She lent me a five bucks one time so I could buy a hat that I really wanted.” He became sarcastically worried. “Oh! That must be why she wants to see me! She wants her money back! Thaaaaaaaaaaat’s it!”

Rose gave him the most perplexed look. “She gave you five what?”

“Five dollars.” Trip said, confused that that was the part she was questioning. "Err, wait, no bits. They're called bits here."

“No, you said five bucks. How did that give you a hat?”

“Yes,” said one of the guards. “Please inform us of how the Princess kicking you five times allowed you to purchase a hat.”

“What? No, I meant, like, five-” Trip stopped himself. He brought his hoof-hoof hand up to his forehead, and found that he had used entirely too much force to do so. He smacked himself in the face and yelped “Ow!”

Rose’s front legs jumped to grab him. “Are you-” she stopped herself, and started to laugh. “What was that?” she asked.

“I tried facepalming, and it turns out that hooves are really hard.” He said, rubbing his face.

“You tried what?” Rose asked, laughing even harder now.

“Face... nothing. It’s a cultural thing. You wouldn’t get it.” Trip said, smiling slightly.

“You say that about a lot of things. Maryland must be a very strange place.”

“To some, it is.” Trip looked out to the sky again, and then down to the ground, seeing the tops of the darkly shaded trees of the forest they had just exited. In some spaces where the trees weren’t as densely packed, he could see movement, probably animals. Something black and furry, something else red and feathery, and something else yellow and scaley.
How come we didn’t run into any of those? Trip thought. He looked into the distance of the sky, and saw a rip forming between some clouds. Should I be worried about that?

The guards flying the carriage had to be at least somewhat skilled at their job, he reasoned. They could probably maneuver their way around the tears if it had to come to that, and besides, they were a far distance away from each other.
He leaned and asked one of the guards. “How much longer til we get there?”

The guards looked at each other and exchanged some hushed words. “About twenty minutes.” One of them said.

Trip looked at Rose. “Where have I heard that before?”

A Feast

The Castle was large. He knew it was going to be large, of course, but he couldn’t have possibly prepared himself for how small it made him feel.The ceilings reached so high he wondered if the Castle had an atmosphere. But he discarded the question. Even though it was probably possible in this world, the writers probably wouldn’t have thought of such a thing, because the kids in the audience probably don’t even know what an atmosphere is, or how it works.

The walls were lined with stained glass windows. Of course. He didn’t expect anything else. Royalty meant having stained glass windows. That was going to be the first thing he asked the princess. Why she felt the need to have stained glass windows. No, he was going to compliment her on them first. He would say, ‘Those are some lovely stained glass windows you got there. Why do you have them?' That would throw her off. If she was mad, something like that would stop her from being mad for a second. Then he would ask about why she had summoned the two of them, and she would be so delighted someone gave her a compliment that she wouldn’t be upset that he was being so upfront. Cause being royalty and all, she probably never received any real, genuine compliments, but only the ones that people would give her to get in her good graces. Although, isn’t that exactly what he was trying to do himself?

“You know, not many ponies get invited in here by the Princess herself. We’re really lucky.” Rose said, her eyes wandering all over the room, taking it all in.

“That is, unless we’re in some kind of trouble.” Trip responded, nervously looking into the ground. “That wouldn’t be good. Not at all. Cause I mean, like, we might have been framed for something. It was probably Stickler. Yeah, he did this. That guy’s no good. I could tell when I first saw him. Aw, sh-, why did I ever think it was a good idea to go with him anywhere?” He started pacing, muttering to himself.

Rose furrowed her brow and walked in front of him. “Trip, are you okay? You’re rambling.”

He bumped into her. “What?” His eyes drilled into hers, nervous, as the rest of his body shivered. “Rambling? That’s not... Are you sure it’s rambling? Sometimes I just talk kinda fast when I get nervous. And why shouldn’t I be nervous? We’re gonna talk to the f- princess! And what happens if I make a bad impression? I could be... I don’t know, exiled or something. Do they do exilings here?”

“Trip, it’s going to be fine.” She used her forelimbs to try and calm him down. “Celestia wanted us comfortable. If we were being punished for something, I don’t think she’d care about that kind of thing.”

“Yeah, well, where I come from, we have this thing called ‘last meals’.” He said, backing away from her comforting gesture. “And also, if we aren't being punished, what reason would she possibly have for bringing us here?”

She considered this for a moment. “My mind keeps going back to the three we met at the forest. I feel like Stickler just isn’t the most trustworthy of ponies.” She looked at Trip, who was slowly curling in on himself as he stood. “Trip, I really don’t think you’re okay.”

He stared at her as he started rocking back and forth. “I don’t think so either. It’s been... how long? Two days since...?”

“Since what?” Rose asked, confused.

He bit his lip and looked down. “It was the train!” he blurted out. “It wasn’t the conductor that looked in our car at the train, it was one of the guards!” He looked back up at her. She was startled, not by the confession itself, but by the suddenness of it. “I lied to you because I had no idea what he was doing there. So I didn’t want to worry you about it. I'm sorry. I’m so sorry. This is all because of me. This is all my fault.” His head started shaking.

“I... what?” she asked, baffled. “You mean we’ve been followed since we’ve been on the train?” she asked.

He nodded.

She opened her mouth, trying to find something to say in response, but she couldn’t. She just sat there, giving him an unbelieving look.

“If you’re mad, I understand. I lied to you. I’ve been-”

“But you don’t know why he followed you?”

“-lying... what?” he stopped. “I... no, I really don’t.”

“Hmm. That is strange.” she said, casually, but still somewhat confused.

“You’re not concerned with the fact that I lied to you?” Trip yelled, putting his front legs up.

“Well, you lied to me about the guard, which I guess I’m a little upset about, but you already told me you haven’t done anything bad. And I trust you on that.”

Trip lowered his forelimbs to the ground in defeat. “Really?”

“Yes. Really. I know now you’re mean, but not evil. I don’t think you could commit any type of serious crime.” she smiled.

“Uh, thanks... I guess. That’s a compliment I don’t think I’ve ever gotten before. If that is a compliment. You know what? I’m just going to-”

“Excuse me?” came a voice from across the room. They looked at the source of the voice, yet another guard. “Your presence is requested in The Royal Dining Room.”

“The... what?” Trip asked, confused.

“Why the dining room?” Rose followed.

“Princess Celestia says she won’t discuss matters with her two guests until they’ve received a proper meal.”

“A proper meal?” Trip asked, almost offended. “Does she think we’re homeless or something? It’s not like we’ve been eating scraps.”

“Actually,” the guard replied, somewhat matter-of-factly. “She claims that you haven’t eaten anything.”

He became amazed. “How the h- does she know that?”

“Well, it is true about you, Trip.” Rose admitted. “You haven’t eaten anything since I first met you.”

“Yeah, and another thing,” Trip continued. “You’ve told her our names, right? Just to let her know we’re not nobodies? I’m Philip Stern, my friends call me Trip. You can call me Phil, cause we’re only casual acquaintances at this point. But I’ll let you know when it’s cool for you to call me Trip. I just gotta get a level of comfort before I can-”

“And I’m Rose Entrance.” she interrupted, pleasantly. “You can call me Rose.”

“Yes,” said the guard, a little flustered by the verbal attack that had just been inflicted on him.. “I’ll let her know your names as soon as I can, if she doesn’t already know them. But for now, if you could please follow me into The Royal Dining room.”

Trip had never seen so much green in one place. There was a table, which could have easily seated upwards of fifty people, or ponies, rather, and almost the entirety of it was filled with various fruits and vegetables, from carrots to cantaloupe, from broccoli to bananas, and even fruits he wasn’t sure actually existed or not. One particular delectable that drew his eye was what seemed to be a pineapple that had what appeared to be octopus tentacles sprouting from the bottom of it.

But as soon as Trip saw that particular... fruit? He realized, there wasn’t a single scrap of meat on the table.

Of course there isn’t, he thought, horses are herbivores. They can’t digest meat, or something. It’s like a sin to them. If anyone tries to cook or prepare something like chicken, they’d be regarded as a monster, and everyone would go to their house in the middle of the night and they’d string him and walk him to the town center, everyone cheering ‘Behead the Chicken Killer!’, and by the time they got there, they’d...

“Wow! That’s a lot of food!” said Rose, interrupting his thought process. “Does she expect us to eat all of it?” she asked the guard.

“Her direct orders were for you to eat as much as you’d like, or until you don’t feel hungry anymore.”

“Why?” Trip asked. “She just throws to random strangers a feast? Aren’t there more important matters to worry about? Like the Chicken Killer?”

“The... who?” asked the guard, shocked.

“Oh. Nothing. It’s an inside joke where I come from. But seriously, why is she doing this for us? Is the food poisoned? Or is there one poisoned item on this table, and she’s just testing to see if fate is on our side today?”

The guard stared at him, probably wondering why he was assigned to take care of this basket case. “Her reasoning was something along the lines of...’Growing ponies are more reasonable and well tempered on a full stomach then when they’re hungry,’ or something similar.”

“How does she know so much about us?” Trip asked.

“She knew you’d ask that. She said she’d answer any questions after you’ve eaten something.”

“Well, okay then.” said Rose, as she walked up to the table and immediately sat in one of the chairs. “Hmm... I wonder if they have... yes!” she reached into the center of the table and picked up a small bowl, filled with lettuce, tomatoes, and other various salad ingredients. “This is exactly what I was looking for!” she proceeded to grab a fork and chow down into the leafy concoction.

“Please, feel free to have anything on the table.” said the guard as he walked out. “I’ll check back with you two a few minutes.”

“Trip, you should really try some of this salad. It’s amazing.” Rose managed to say with a mouth full of lettuce.

“I’m... not really hungry.”

She swallowed the green leaves and gave him the most thoroughly unconvinced look she had managed to give him yet. “Okay, first off, I know that’s a lie. I’ve never heard of anypony who could go two days without eating and not even be a little hungry. And secondly, don’t you think it’d be rude to not eat something? If you’re so worried about getting on the Princess’s bad side, I would be a gracious guest. I hear she likes banishing ponies who are rude guests.”

Trip looked at her with wide eyes. “Please don’t tell me that right now.” he said, as he pulled a chair and sat down.

“Trip, I’m joking. You’re not the only one who can make jokes.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He looked directly in front of him and saw a bowl of carrots. “I... I guess I’ll have some of these.” He dragged the bowl towards him and stared at it. The little orange sticks sat there idly, mocking him with their perfect shading and lack of texture.

[at us, Trip. He could imagine them saying. We’re perfect food for ponies. So that means we’re perfect for you.

But I’m not a pony, he thought back. I’m a human. I’m just... kind of in between species right now.
Yeah, sure. Take a bite of us and see if you still think that. Once you give in to pony food, who knows what other facets of their lifestyle you’ll adapt to?

No, you’re just carrots. I’ve eaten carrots before. Nothing’s wrong with carrots.

But we are carrots grown by them. Maybe they have better vegetable growers than humans. Take a bite, find out for yourself.

I will.

Go ahead.

Watch me.

We’re waiting.

Trip, what are you doing?

He looked up. That last one definitely didn’t take place in his head. Rose had finished her salad bowl, and was now beginning work on a basket full of apples. She was currently holding one, and giving Trip a confused look. “Are you talking to the carrots?”

“What? No, carrots can’t talk, Rose.” he waved his hoof-hand at her, dismissing the notion.

“No, they can’t, but you seem to be trying to get them to. Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I’m not trying to talk to carrots. That’s absurd.”

“Okay, if you insist.” She giggled and resumed eating her apple.

He picked a single orange stick and stared at it. Alright, just you me now, carrot. He dropped his bottom jaw and slowly brought it to his mouth. As he was doing this, he immediately wished he hadn’t placed himself in front of a bowl of food so phallic. But he continued anyway. He slid the carrot between his front teeth and brought his jaw down on it, hard. Half to make sure he could bite through the carrot with his relatively new mouth, half out of revenge against it.

The job was half done now. Now he need to chew it and swallow. Tasting was an option, too. But as hard as he tried, he couldn’t mash the carrot into a swallowable paste. The teeth in the front of his mouth could only chop them up. How did ponies deal with this?

He turned to Rose, about to ask her how to chew his food. He stopped, because he had a suspicion she would only criticize him for talking with his mouth full. So he just watched her as she chewed. He noticed that while he would only use the front part of his mouth, she would use the back, like a human would. That meant...

He mimicked her motion. He had a back set of teeth! Why hadn’t he noticed before? Using his tongue, he slid the chopped carrot bits to the back of his mouth, right where he felt his teeth. As he did, he sensed the taste of the carrots.

Just like human carrots. Maybe a little sweeter. But not necessarily better.

He used his tongue to move the mashed carrot to the back of his throat, and let it slide down his esophagus. As it slid down, he guided it along with his muscles. It hit his stomach, and immediately, he realized how hungry he really was.

He chomped down the rest of the carrot and grabbed another few. Before he realized it, he had devoured the entire bowl in a matter of seconds. He wasn’t satisfied. He reached to the next container closest to him. Mushrooms. He had never had plain mushrooms before. But he liked them on pizza, so they must be good by themselves, right? Not requiring as much chewing, he gulped down six instantly.

He wanted more. He hadn’t eaten in almost three days and he had just began to feel it. Within minutes, he had consumed a whole plate of corn, several stalks of broccoli and asparagus, two entire bunches of grapes, three tomatoes, two pears, and what he assumed was the cut up entirety of a watermelon.

“I guess you really were hungry, huh?” came a voice from beside him. Rose was staring at him, just barely having finished her basket of apples, with only one or two left.

“Yeah... I guess I was.” Trip said, holding back a belch. Which was odd, because usually only soda ever made him burp.

“Are you full? I don’t think I’ve ever seen somepony eat as much as you have that quickly as that!”

He looked down at her basket, and the few apples that remained in it. “Are you gonna finish those?” he asked, politely.

Celestia's Tale

The guard began leading them through the giant doorway.

She was standing, only a few feet from them. She was much larger than any pony Trip had seen yet. She had a very warm aura to her, almost motherly. “Are these the two troublemakers?” she asked jokingly. “And have they had something to eat?”

“Yes, the two ponies you requested, Rose Entrance and Phil Stern are fed. Phil already seems to be in a more stable mood than before.”
“Please, call me Trip.” Trip said, putting on his best smile.

“Very good.” Said the Princess. “Now, if you could, please?”

The guard nodded and turned around. Once he had left the room and the door closed behind him, Celestia lowered her head to the two in front of her.

“Now, I bet you have a lot of questions about-”

“Yes. Very much.” Trip stopped himself. “But, I’m trying to think of the best order to ask them all in.” he pondered for a second. “Yes. Okay, why did you think to feed us?”

He looked over at Rose. Her expression was one of total shock and disbelief.

“Rose, it’s alright.” said the Princess. “He’s just a little nervous.”

“But...” she was so offended she couldn't conjure up the exact words. “He interrupted you! The Princess!” she turned to Trip. “That is the most rude thing I could ever think of! You’d be lucky if she didn’t have you arrested right now!”

“Rose, it’s alright. I was basically done with my sentence anyway.”

She still wasn’t satisfied with the answer. Rose stared at Trip, fuming with anger.

“But, to answer your question Trip, it is very important for a growing young man to eat a healthy diet. And from the information I’ve gathered, you haven’t been doing well on that front. You must have been famished.”

“Famished? Information?” Trip paused. “Man?” he took a step towards the princess. “Can you say that word? I thought you didn’t know what that was?”

She smiled and nodded. “I know quite a bit about you, and where you come from, Trip.”

Trip could only stare at her. “How?”

“Because,” she said. “I’ve been there myself.”

Trip’s eyes widened. “What? When? How?”

It happened right after the Grand Galloping Gala. I had just sent the girls home. You know, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pink- yes. Them. Anyway, I was reflecting upon the events of the night as I was walking home, and I noticed something strange. There was nopony out. The streets were empty. Granted, it was late, and lots of ponies had probably gone to bed at that point, but usually, there was at least a few walking around, maybe some shops open. Nothing. No stores were open, and when I looked in the windows, there wasn’t anypony in them, either. I was completely alone. It was a very strange feeling.

And what was even stranger, was the fact that I seemed to be getting nowhere, or, rather, where I was going didn’t seem to be related to where I was ending up. Well, by that, I mean, I was trying to get back to the Castle, and for some reason, no matter which way I went, I ended up somewhere completely different. Eventually, I ended up right at the gates of the castle, but as I walked through them, I ended up in a random part of the town again. I was completely frustrated and confused. I ended up trying to knock on doors to get somepony to help me, but no one did. It was the most bizarre thing.

I ended up walking for what felt like hours. This worried me even more, because I was supposed to rise the sun, but I was finding myself too weak to conjure up the magic to do so. And I was also worried about what happened to everypony. Then, I saw him.

A completely black stallion, walking away. He had just turned a corner. I ran after him, but by the time I had come around that corner, he had completely vanished. I started walking in the direction I thought he was going to be, and of course, I ended up somewhere completely different. I felt like a tourist in my own town. Looking back on it, I really should have tried flying, but it didn’t occur to me at the time for some reason.

I continued walking, and I knew that the sun should have been risen. But nopony was awake to see it, so I didn’t feel so bad about that. It was about that time I noticed the tears. You’ve seen them, I’ll bet? Yes. No, I don’t know exactly what they are. But they started happening very frequently. Mostly in the sky. I had a very close encounter with a few on the ground, though. I wasn’t sure what would have happened if had fallen into one, but I wasn’t particularly interested in finding out.

Soon, I became exhausted. I tried continuing on, but my fatigue was getting to me, from all the walking and running. So I laid down. I figured, if anypony found me, that was at least somepony who hadn’t disappeared!

I laid down and closed my eyes. It’s not very royal for one to sleep in the streets, I know, but I really didn’t care at the time. Part of me was convinced that I was just having some bizarre dream and that if I went to sleep, I’d wake up in my bed.

After a few minutes, I heard something. I jerked back awake, and saw him again. The black stallion, standing only a few feet away from me. I stood up and ordered him to tell me what was going on. I don’t know what came over me. I should have been asking him kindly, he could have been just as scared as me, but something in me thought that he had something to do with the whole situation. He didn’t answer. I tried focusing my vision- it was all blurry from when I went to sleep- and I saw that his eyes, and saw, they were completely blank. And he didn’t have a cutie mark. And he was very big. I’m not sure if he changed size between the first time I saw him and the second, but he was much bigger than the average pony. Not as big as me, though. But still bigger than most.

Anyway- he wasn’t affected by me yelling at him, even after I repeated the order in the Royal Canterlot Voice. You see, long ago, my sister and- oh, alright. I tried using the Voice on him, and he wasn’t phased at all. In fact, I think he smiled at it. I probably imagined that, though. But I took a step towards him, and between us, one of those tears appeared. I jumped back from it, but I could still see him, through the tear. He was even clearer to me then, somehow. He walked towards me, not falling, not affected by the tear at all. Then, somehow, he was right in front of me. He grabbed me by my horn, and dragged me back into the tear. I tried fighting back, but somehow he was stronger than me, and was unaffected by my magic. He backed himself into the tear and could somehow walk through it as if it wasn’t there, but once my hooves came past the edge, I could tell I was going to fall through.
Then, my entire body was only being held by the stallion by my horn. He looked me in the eye, and gave me a smile. And what was strange about that, was that it wasn’t an evil smile, but a genuinely happy, pleased with himself smile. And then he let go of me. It was around then I blacked out.

I woke up, in a place completely devoid of color. There were trees, everywhere. But they were all black. And the roots- yes! I thought you would know what that place was. Well, I remember it distinctly. Did you see the dog there? Well, when I was there, there was a dog, a greyhound, if I recall correctly. A red greyhound. It was very friendly. I wanted to pet it, but moving any part of my part body was extremely difficult. Of course it was, and you probably know why- yes. They were on every one of my hooves. But even moving my head was difficult.

Then, one of the trees, a huge one, with a lot of leaves started moving towards me. The roots reached out towards me and surrounded me. I felt my bones moving. It felt so strange. But then I passed out.

I woke up, and my vision was blurry. I tried moving different parts of my body, but nothing moved how I remembered it did. I had things at the end of my hooves- yes. At first I thought they were strange, but I did eventually realize they were useful for holding things. When I came to, I walked out of the alleyway I had woken up in. And everypony- or, should I say everybody? Everybody stared at me as I did. Yes- I was walking on all fours. I quickly picked up on the fact that I should have been walking on two legs. Then everybody moved on.

I was worried. Everyone was wearing clothes. I couldn’t tell if I was right away, so I had to ask a man. He laughed. I was apparently wearing a ‘shirt’ and ‘shorts’, but no shoes. He also told me that my hair looked huge. It’s strange- I could have looked down at myself to see, but something just kept me from doing that. Like I was afraid to see what I was. Isn’t that a silly idea?

Hmm. I suppose. I tried walking around, and I definitely angered some ponies- err, people. I was used to ponies leaving room for me to walk between them, so I ended up running into a lot of people. One woman threatened me, and one man even pushed me. Thankfully, other people intervened before he could get too violent.

I had been walking up and down the same block for nearly an hour. I was afraid to cross the street. The big vehicles- yes, cars- moved so fast and looked so much bigger than me... but I did cross the street. People stopped their cars very quickly for me. A few of them ran into each other. One of the people in the cars got out and made me stay there. He was very angry at me.

Soon, your version of the Royal Guard showed up. The police. I tried explaining my situation to them, that I was from Canterlot, and I had no idea where I was, and most of them just became confused. But one laughed. He said ‘This isn’t My Little Pony, ma’am.’ He then explained how his kids watched the show, and that Canterlot was something from that. I asked him to tell me more. He reluctantly took me back to his station and explained it to me.

The name? Sin-Sea-Nat-Tea? Did I pronounce that right? Oh, alright.

I was very confused to learn that I was part of a children’s program. Even more confused when I realized I shouldn’t exist, that I was merely a work of fiction. But the man said he would allow me to sleep at the station that night, and that he would try his hardest to find out what had happened to me.

I went to sleep in a cell. It was quite different from the Castle, I can assure you that. He kept giving me water and other little snacks, because he didn’t want me to feel like a prisoner. He even got me a pillow and let me borrow one of his jackets for a blanket. I did get to sleep, eventually.

I had a dream, where lots of things were explained to me. It was like I was sitting in a dark room somewhere, as neither a human or as a pony, and there was a voice that was explaining many things to me without actually saying anything out loud. The “voice” told me there was many worlds, that sometime people in worlds create other, less defined worlds, in the form of books, plays and “TV shows”. And that I was a part of one of those worlds, that was created by the world I was in at the time. It told me I didn’t have to feel bad because I was fiction, that I was real to many people. It told me what ‘people’ were, and that I was one at that moment. I did find comfort in these words, or lack of words. It also told me that sometimes, beings can slip between worlds under the right conditions.

Well, I didn’t understand many of the things it said about that, but one important part was that a being could only travel to another world fully if there had been enough damage to that being’s soul. That a being could only travel between worlds if it had experienced a great amount of pain.

I came very close to losing my sister. I also have to make sure all of Equestria will maintains harmony. I’ve seen many valiant, friendly, and smart ponies come and go. So, I’m not a stranger to pain and heartbreak. And since you’re here, you must be familiar with it yourself, Trip. Is that so?

Trip's Tale

Trip thought to himself about the question Celestia just asked him. He went back in his mind, to when he was asked a very similar question. How did he answer it then? He opened his mouth.

Well, gee, where do I begin?

Well, first off, my parent’s decision to get married was possibly one of the worst they could have made. My mom’s family has all these health problems. Cancer’s the big one, but things like bad eyesight, asthma, all the little stuff is in there, too. My dad’s side, though, is the one with all the mental problems. ADD, alcoholism, autism, you name it. I probably have a relative with it. On my dad’s side, that is.

So, yeah. That was a great combination they had going. And then they had me. Which was another bad idea in itself.

I was always pretty behind. I was the last kid in my class to learn how to read, I almost just didn’t get math. I had two friends, and apparently, that was enough. And none of this was helped by mom, you know, passing.

My dad was definitely hit hardest, I think. Failing child, new baby, dying wife. But thank god he was rich, or else he might have actually had to deal with all of that on his own, and had a complete mental break before it was all over.

My other doctors said I had something like shell shock from being there when she... passed. I don’t remember if she was at the hospital at this point, or if she was at home. It was late. Later than I usually ever stayed up. She said that staying up late was something big boys do. She kept on telling me that she loved me. You know that’s not something that’s going to calm a kid who just barely grasps the concept of death. She kept on saying, I love you, I love your father, and I love Renee. Like, if nothing else stuck, that had to.

Then she stopped talking. I grabbed her hand. I tried to keep talking to her. You know how terrifying it is to feel someone’s hand go cold? I held so tight to her hand that I might have broken her hand, or at least left a bruise. I really think I could have. As if I could keep her there.

But yeah, I got over it after a while. What else can you do? That’s why I don’t think I had PTSD or anything. I mean, yeah, it was heartbreaking and everything, but I was too young to have any kind of permanent scars. I had to move on. I had school to fail.

So there I was, child of the year. And then Renee started coming up, and she was so much better than the original model. She advanced in her classes exactly as quickly as she was supposed to. She even learned how to play flute in third grade. Who learns how to play flute in third grade? In third grade, I was just learning how to eat paste.

But no, I was never jealous of her. I was truly amazed by her. How couldn’t you be, right? I’m there, reading eighth grade level books, and she’s in second grade, reading that same book almost as fast as I am, sometimes even faster! Just... if that’s not something special, what is, you know?

I guess you could say I was protective of her. For the three years we went we were at the same school, I spent every lunch and recess with her. She thought it was cute, or endearing or something, a lot of other people thought it was creepy. I was the Big Brother. That nickname stuck with me for a long time. Big Brother. Sometimes Brother. It was pretty funny when we had to read 1984 for English class. ‘Wait, this book is about Trip?’. Heh. I was the unstoppable force. No boy could get to her, no girl would dare talk about her behind her back. I’m sure I intimidated some teachers even.

But you know what you can’t protect your sister from?

The fact she got it, too, really pissed me off. We looked at the ancestry on my mom’s side, it was supposed to skip every other generation. But it’s like it stumbled over my mom or something and accidentally got some of itself on Ren.

So, there, we had a girl whose condition just never got better, and her dad, who never really got over his wife. Yeah, my dad was just sort of sitting on his grief, not really doing anything about it. And then when the very real possibility of losing his daughter came along, he couldn’t take it anymore. He started ‘taking to the bottle’, as some called it.

Every time we got a letter, or bill, or phone call from the hospital, he’d have to take the news with a beer in his hand. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he was always a pretty heavy drinker, but now, he just... he was trying to medicate himself, really. Take three bottles to stop feeling. And it worked. That’s what really pissed me off.

We never got good news about Ren. We always got calls about how her condition was only getting worse, about how the surgery that might have been able to helper was no longer possible due to some growth in that area, or something. And he never got upset about any of it. He would listen to the message on the machine, take a drink, and call some friends over to watch the game. Or cartoons. He loved his fucking- oh, sorry, he loved his cartoons.

But even after a while, his friends started getting creeped out by him. No one didn’t know about Ren at that point, and everyone knew he was just awful at coping. So once his friends stopped coming over, he tried ‘bonding’ with me. Ugh.

Hanging out with him was awful, and part of it was just because of the smell. He always smelled of some sort of alcohol, most often his stupid imported beers. And his constant gas problems didn’t help, either. The whole house, the entire house smelled like him after a while. I couldn’t stand it. I wanted out.

I joined track, cause their meetings usually lasted pretty late, and I learned, if he was alone for long enough, he’d be gone by the time I got home, and be back by the time I went to sleep.

Track was really good for me. I felt like I was getting something done. Running, putting everything behind me was really therapeutic, I think. I was really good, too. I wasn’t too good at long distance, but I could sprint really well.

And visiting hours for the hospital were only about halfway done by the time practice was over. So run, visit Ren, go home. That was my schedule for a good couple of months. But then... ugh. There was one night, I remember so clearly. I almost never forgave him for it.

Well, my dad didn’t always go out. Sometimes he got drunk at home. And one night when he was all but passed out on the couch, we got this really long call from the hospital, basically saying that Ren had a 40% chance of survival. And I looked at him, and I said, my exact words were, ‘Well, what do you think about that, dad?’.

And he looks back at me, and he shrugs, he fucking shrugs it off, and says ‘It’ll be fine.’. How can you even say that? Your kid is dying from a fuck- sorry, sorry. But your kid is dying of a brain tumor and you don’t even act concerned? That’s... there’s just no excuse for that.

I tried staying away from home as much as possible after that. Just seeing him made me angry. My school had wrestling practice starting up right around that time, luckily for me. And wrestling practice started just over an hour and a half after track practice ended. It was so perfect. So then, my schedule became run, see Ren, fight, go home, sleep. There were times where I wouldn’t see my dad’s actual face for weeks on end. It was perfect.

Ren... she kept getting worse. Dad would stop listening to the messages the hospital left for us after a while. That became my job. And then I had to go visit her, right after hearing about how badly her body was treating her. And I had to look at her, smile, and say how healthy she looked. Well, I mean, you can’t just go up to a dying girl and say ‘Hey, you look awful! I wonder how long you have now?’. No, I’m not an asshole. Sorry, sorry.

She even got me watching this show. Something kiddy, about ponies. Whatever, I didn’t care. It was just more time where she was happy and looking at a screen, and not how scared I was for her. I held her hand the entire time she’d watch it. I tried not to hold on too tight, but it just ended up happening after a while. She got bruises after a while. It just sucked, like, everything I did hurt her somehow.

It was right after she started suffering from ‘rapid weight loss’ that they kicked me out of track. I got light headed whenever I ran for too long, and I passed out like twice during a race. And then I got kicked out of wrestling. They said I lost too much weight. ‘I could barely lift a grape, let alone hold someone down’ were coach’s exact words. He was a fan of stupid metaphors.

So I started applying for jobs. I got one at McDonalds, ‘cause it was easy and I could take a late shift. I worked the fryer. They tried putting me on the register, but I was too slow and the job was too stressful for me. No, really. People yelled at me all the time when I was on it, for the whole two days I was on it. It was so stressful my hair started falling out. Seriously. I’d take off the hat and there would be little clumps of hair, just in my hat.

No, but when I was on fryer it happened a lot less.

Hold on, I’m getting to it.

Yeah, it happened when I got laid off because someone was spitting in the fries or something, and management heard one thing about someone finding a hair in their burger, and they thought that someone was ritually pulling their hair and putting it in people’s burgers. Which makes no sense if you think about it, cause that would hurt after a while.

But yeah. After that, I just kinda gave up. I mean, once you get fired from McDonald’s, where do you go from there?

I slept a lot. Not much else I could do. I stayed with Ren longer. I stayed in my room, as far away from my dad as I could. I answered the phone when it rang and had long talks with telemarketers and short talks with doctors.

We got a call from a doctor saying that Ren was scheduled for a really risky surgery. And in he basically said that if it wasn’t successful, she had almost no chance of surviving. Cheery words, right? Well, dad... I expected dad to have some sort of reaction. You know, ‘I may be a drunk f- sorry, but even I know this is bad.’ But not even that. I told him, I was almost in tears at this point, and he said, you know what he said? He said ‘It’ll probably be fine.’ Who says that? Who says that about their daughter dying?

It just pissed me off to no end. Like, I just felt as if nothing could get to him. Like, he had to know how I felt. I was losing the most important person in my life a second time, and he could have probably said something similar, but he was feeling nowhere the amount of hurt that I was. It just wasn’t fair.

So I tried to make him feel it. It was really stupid, I know, but I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time. I never was.

I waited 'til he was definitely asleep. Or when I thought he was. I ran the bath 'til it was almost full, got in, a lot of the water came out, but you know, I didn’t care at that point. I wasn’t gonna have to clean it up.

No, my dad lets his beard grow and I’m baby faced. So I had to get a knife from the kitchen. I just... applied pressure, closed my eyes, and tried to go to sleep. I blacked out, and I had the most peaceful sleep I had had in months at that point. But of course, heh, nothing really works out how I want it to, anyway.

I woke up in an ambulance, to doctors applying pressure to my arms, with a mask on. I was wearing the mask. Yeah. My first thought was, ‘I wonder if I’ll be put in the same room as Ren?’. But they don’t put ER injury patients and long term cancer patients in the same wing even, I don’t think.

Then I had to go through a lot of therapy. Most of it group therapy. You meet some of the most terrifying kids in Suicidal Teen Group Therapy. And no one talks in those sessions, either. Actually, either you talk non stop, or you don’t talk, cause you think you have nothing important to say. I really didn’t have anything important to say, though. I didn’t have problems like the rest of these kids, I was just angry at my dad.

Yeah, I guess.

But I think the individual therapy sessions actually did really help. I had two main ones, a Dr. Miner, or Valerie, as she let her patients call her. She’s the one that figured out I have bipolar personality disorder. and a Dr. Grant, who I had for maybe two sessions, but supplied me with most of the medication I started on.

Currently, I’m on this new experimental stuff, I only have to take it every two to three days. And it works just fine for me. I’m pretty mellowed out most of the time.

Oh, yeah. I was in there for... five days, I wanna say? But when I got out, the first thing that I did was visit Renee. She was still alive, I knew that much.

Yeah, amazingly. The first thing ever to go right with her. After that, her recovery felt like nothing. She was home before the end of the year, in time for a late Christmas, where amazingly, dad wasn’t drowning himself with egg nog or Christmas Ale. His Christmas present to us was joining AA.

Then he talked to me in private about how he was the one that called the ambulance. Apparently, he never actually slept when he got drunk. Well, no, he’d sleep, but he had insomnia or something. He just stayed up drunk in his bed. He heard the water running and then noticed I left the knife drawer open. He busted the door down and called the ambulance. He also told me that Renee didn’t know about it and that she didn’t have to if I didn’t want her to.

No, I never did. Why ruin something good? No need to make her worry about things that didn’t matter.

Well, maybe when she gets older. I just- oh, no, I didn’t even notice. We can pick up here around next time? Yeah, my dad will handle the check.

No, I got my license last week! It makes everything so much easier. Yeah. Alright. Well, I’ll see you next week.

Trip cleared his thoughts and closed his mouth before any noise could come out. He looked up at the Princess. “Not really.” he said. “My life’s pretty run of the mill.”

We just met, no need to spill my life story right now. He thought.

She looked surprised at this. “Are you sure? You seemed like you were about to say something.”

“No, I was just... remembering. Trying to see if there was anything particularly painful or anything. Couldn’t really think of anything out of the ordinary.”

“Hmm.” she thought for a moment. “Well, the voice did say there were a number of ways, and that pain was just one of the most surefire ways.”

“Yeah. I guess I’m just unlucky.”

“Well, until we figure out the reason for you being here, you’re welcome to stay as guests in the Royal Castle. We’ve already prepared a room for you two.”

“Wait,” said Trip, hastily. “‘Til we figure out the reason? Why is that important?”

“Oh!” she gasped. “I almost forgot to tell you the most important part! Recognizing the pain of banishing Luna was what allowed me to wake up back in the streets of Canterlot.”

“What? You mean, you needed some sort of... ultimatum?”

“Yes,” she smiled. “I suppose you could call it that.”

Trip lowered his head. “Oh.”

“We’ll work on it tomorrow. Right now, you both must be very tired. I’ll have one of the guards show you to the room prepared for you.”

Trip laughed slightly. “Separate beds, right?” he said, jokingly.

The Princess stared back at them blankly. “Um, yes...” she said, long and drawn out. The door opened behind them. Trip and Rose looked back, and saw a guard, sticking his head through the crack in the door, nodding. “Yes,” continued the Princess. “You will definitely be sleeping in two separate beds tonight. We have planned that out accordingly, and ahead of time.”

Trip rolled his eyes.

Restless

“Aren’t horses supposed to be able to sleep standing up?” asked Trip as he kicked the sheets around on his bed.

On the other side of the room, from her own bed, Rose responded drowsily “If you want to try it, go ahead.”

Trip tossed his body so he was facing the other way. “C’mon, don’t tell me your tired already.” he whined.

“Trip, I spent most of my day walking through a forest. And then I had a very filling meal. I am telling you, I am very tired.”

Trip kicked his back legs in an attempt to find a comfortable position in the sheets. “Well, so did I, but I can’t close my eyes. I’m too wired.”

She groaned. “Well, maybe if you try closing your eyes and not talking, you’ll fall asleep eventually.”

He turned his head around on the pillow. “I’m afraid of what happens when I go to sleep. What happens if I meet that voice?”

“Then you talk to it, it tells you things, and stuff happens.” she said, her voice muffled by her talking face down into the pillow. “Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. You should try going to sleep to see if it happens.”

He turned his body so it was facing the same way as his head. “Rose, what’s the most painful thing you’ve felt?” he asked.

“Actually,” she perked up a bit. “There was one time I accidentally got kicked in the head.”

“Really?” Trip asked, turning towards her. “How’d that happen?”

“Oh, I think he meant to kick this carriage or something, and I walked right between him and it, or something. I don’t remember much of what happened right after that.”

“Huh.” Trip sat up and turned the pillow over and layed back down on it. “Mine would probably have to be... this time I passed out while running a race.”

She yawned. “You ran races?”

He fluffed his pillow again. “Yeah. I ran track. And I was really good, too. I won us a lot of races. But after a lot of weeks, they had to kick me out cause I wasn’t taking care of myself, or something. But one of the last races I ran, I was really tired, I didn’t get a lot of sleep the night before, cause... well, I just didn’t get a lot of sleep for some reason, I don’t really remember. And I didn’t have anything to eat for breakfast. That day, I didn’t have anything to eat for breakfast that day. So, I ran, and I started seeing these black dots in my vision. Eventually, everything blacked out, but not before I lost control of my legs and I face planted into the concrete. How I didn’t have a broken nose when I woke up, I’ll never know. Or even just a whole broken face. I got really lucky. But I walked it off. I was good after a while.”

He paused to pull the sheets back onto his body, and he heard soft, rhythmic breathing. The kind he had heard from Rose when she was asleep on the train.

“Rose,” he turned his head again. “Rose, don’t go to sleep. Don’t leave me alone. Rose.”

The breathing was halted for a second. “Trip? Trip what are you doing to those poor carrots?”

“Rose, I’m not talking to carrots. I mean, I’m not doing anything to carrots. You were dreaming.”

“Well, if I was dreaming, why did you stop me?”

He rolled over so that he was laying on his front. “Cause I’m bored and I think I might have restless leg syndrome.”

“Well, we’ll get one of Celestia’s doctors to mix up a potion for it. In the morning.” she pulled the pillow over her head, definitively ending the conversation between the two of them.

Trip kicked his legs around some more. He felt no ounce of sleep run through his eyes or any other part of his body. He felt like he could have ran a mile. Maybe two miles. He was definitely sure of the mile. Maybe if he ran a mile and tried to go another mile, he’d pass out or become tired enough to the point where he could fall asleep.

He looked at his hoof-hands. They were green. A pale, dark green. How did he never notice this before? He thought back to Celestia’s story. She said she never thought to look down and see if she was dressed.

Is this just something that happens when you switch worlds? he thought to himself. Do you just accept the body that you’re in and don’t think to look down? Or are you so afraid of what you’ve become that subconsciously you don’t even think to look down at yourself? Wait, I looked at my hands when I first came here. Didn’t I notice their color then? Why didn’t Rose tell me I’m the color of Kermit the Frog? Can that happen? Wouldn’t I blend into the background of trees and grass and stuff? And wouldn’t that make it hard for the viewers at home to see me? Oh wait, they can’t see me, I can’t get in the way of the important stuff. Wait, then how did I get into the palace? Isn’t the princess important? Geez, I wonder how Ren’s doing right now. Dad can’t be too good either. At least they have each other for support right now. Ugh, my nose is probably broken. I’m gonna need plastic surgery for that. I don’t want a nose job. Do ponies get snout jobs? That white one probably has at one point. Is it morning yet?

He rolled over and looked out the window. The sky was still a dark blue with the occasional specks of white. He kicked his legs out of frustration, causing the sheets and blankets to fly off of his bed and onto the floor. He stretched out his body in resignation. “You’ve got to be f- kidding me.” he muttered to himself. He rolled himself off of the bed and landed with a soft splat. The ground was cold and unforgiving, but surprisingly, he found more comfort in it’s solidness than on the bed’s squishy frame. But the air was still cold around him. He rolled around so he was facing the other way, and used his back legs to push him towards where the blankets laid on ground.

He grabbed one of the edges of the blanket and rolled himself all up in it. The blanket protected him from the cold and the occasional bump in the floor, while the floor itself gave enough support and restriction that moving wasn’t as available an option.

Soon, he could feel his thoughts and heart rate slowing down. His eyelids actually managed to start to feel heavy. Darkness swelled around him.

He awoke, still as a quadruped. There was no sky around him, just blankness, with gray colored cracks that existed in the air beyond what he could reach. He looked down, and his feet were all encased by some black material that ran down from his legs and into the root of a tree that was entirely black in itself. Attempting to move was interesting, because all of his motions were incredibly slowed, but once he told his muscles to move in a certain direction, they would continue to move in that direction if he didn’t actively stop them. It was what he imagined being an astronaut in space would have felt like.

He moved his front foot, and it was eventually up in the air near his face, still floating somewhat. He moved all four of his legs, and his body spun around, the black matter around his legs moving along with him like puppet strings. Eventually, he was completely upside down. He laughed at the improbability of the situation and attempted to turn himself around. By awkwardly flailing his legs and head, he turned around and faced the other direction. The matter connection his legs to the tree had become tangled in itself in the process, slightly, restricting his movement.

While attempting to untangle himself, Trip looked up, and saw the upside-down image of a yellow snake, slithering along on of the roots of the tree.

It was making strange, guttural noises that sounded like it was in agony. Trip looked closer and saw that it was trying to rub up against the trunk of the tree, but every time it did, it recoiled back and made another noise.

Trip waved his legs to get closer to the creature. At first, it didn’t notice his presence there, but as he had to work harder to get closer, he started breathing heavier, and that’s when the reptile noticed him. It jerked its head in his direction, and froze. Trip tried to stop moving to, but against his will, he continued to float in the direction of the creature. As he got closer, it started backing away, until the point where it could back away no further, but Trip kept creeping closer and closer.

It lashed out at Trip, and hit him in the neck, without biting him. The strike was somewhat powerful, but instead of causing him pain, it only cause Trip to freeze in midair.

Trip nodded as a sign of gratitude. The snake nodded back as a sign of recognition.

The snake went back to its business of rubbing itself against the tree. Now that he was closer, he could see a transparent yellow film being shed from the snake’s skin. But it wasn’t all the way off. The skin was still connected on the lower half of its body. The excess skin had only been shed to the point where there was an open wound on the snake’s side. The snake would rub its body against the bark of the tree, and when it grazed the open wound, it would let out a pained sound and back away from the tree.

Trip tilted his head in confusion. He tried stretching out his neck to assist the creature in some way, but as he did, it hissed in anger. Trip jerked his head back. The snake calmly went back to its futile attempt at shedding itself. Trip continued to watch, silently, for a few minutes.

Eventually, after grazing against its wound so many times, the snake turned to the tree and hissed at it. It struck the bark with its teeth bared, and ended up chipping one of its teeth. It let out a high pitched whine that Trip wasn’t completely sure was possible for snakes to make.

The snake turned its head towards Trip and bared its tooth at him. Trip’s eyes fell directly on the single fang, and the snake turned away in what seemed like embarrassment.

It looked at its own wound, and then the bark, contemplatively. It then turned its head, so the opposite side was facing the bark now. It started rubbing its opposite side against the bark, now able to get the entire length of its body. Unfortunately, only half of the skin on the reptile’s body was able to peel off, still leaving the skin around the area of the wound attached to itself. The creature looked down at the area, and collapsed in complete resignation. It’s head and lengths of its body were hanging off of roots of the tree and into the nothingness.

For a long time, it just stood there. Trip pushed his head forward to inch closer towards the snake. By the time he was close enough to be able to touch it with his nose, the snake started slithering forward, heading for an eternal fall. Trip felt as if he should have done something, but as he stretched out his neck to try and grab the creature using his teeth, he found that he couldn’t reach far enough to do so.

Trip’s eyes opened slowly. He was still encased in the blankets. It was still nighttime. He was still on the floor. He was still a pony. But he felt different.

The Downswing

Gravity oppressed him. His yellow blankets constricted him. But it wasn’t like he tried to escape, anyway. He laid there, flatly, unmoving. His eyelids were heavy. But they wouldn’t close. Soon his eyes dried out. He didn’t care. His nerves and his thoughts were shut off to any sort of feeling. But his bones yelled at him, telling him to roll over or shift positions on the floor, cause the hard floor was growing uncomfortable beneath his back. He ignored the order. He just didn’t care about his pain or discomfort. He didn’t want to move. He wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do.

He stared at the ceiling, unable to tell what his body was doing to him. He felt like he was going to vomit, cry, or if his head was going to jerk and smash itself into the stone underneath him. He knew this feeling. He really didn’t expect for him to get it while in the land of ponies and perfect feelings, though. He could have sworn everyone was happy all the time here. But, he decided, that probably didn’t include him.

The door opened quietly above him, as if whoever was trying to open it didn’t want to wake those inside. Trip didn’t turn his head to see who it was, but after a second of no movement, he started feeling the vibrations of someone walking towards where he was laying. Whoever it was, they stopped just before they entered his field of vision. He heard a short sigh being expelled and felt two appendages pick him up near his neck and the small of his back. The ground underneath him fell as he saw the ceiling come closer to him, and then start moving as he moved. Then he felt the soft embrace of the bed.

“How did he even manage to do that?” said a voice he had never heard before. He leaned his head towards whoever it was that was talking. He saw a large dark blue mare standing before him. She jumped back slightly as she saw his movement. “Oh!” she said in what seemed like an attempted whisper. “You’re awake! I didn’t even notice.”

“What’re you doing here?” Trip asked. His throat was dry.

“My sister, Celestia, said we had two new guests in the castle. I wanted to check in on you.”

“While we were sleeping?”

The mare looked away in embarrassment. “Oh, well, I’m a bit of a night owl, as you may have guessed. That’s a metaphor, by the way. It means I’m active mostly-”

“Yeah. I know.” Trip snapped. “I know what it means.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. It just didn’t occur to me that normal ponies are asleep at this time. I didn’t mean to wake you.” She looked at how he was wound in the sheets. “Why are you wrapped like this? With no legs and just a head, you look a bit like a-”

“I’m not a pony.” he interrupted. “And I was awake when you came in.”

The mare looked confused at this. “You’re... then what are you?” she asked, sounding somewhat concerned.

“I’m... nothing. Nothing important.”

She placed her hoof on approximately where his shoulder was. “That’s not true. Don’t think you’re not important. My sister requested you be sent here, and she said it was of the utmost importance that you get to the palace.”

Trip turned his head slightly towards Rose’s bed. “What about her?” he asked. “She was just an afterthought. She’s only here because she happened to be near me at the time I showed up. She’s not important. No one cares about her.”

“Well, obviously, you do. You’ve stuck with her this long.”

No response from Trip on that one. He let his head fall onto the bed. “I’m not a pony.” was all he had to say after a few moments of silence.

“Well, you sure look like one to me.” the mare responded.

“I’m not. Just trust me on that one, okay? I look like one, but I’m not one on the inside.”

She tilted her head. “Then what would you say you are on the inside?”

“Hurting.” he said before he could think of a proper response.

“Oh, you’re in pain?” Asked the mare, concerned. “I could go get you something for it, if you-”

“No!” Trip said, a little too loudly. For a second, he was sure he heard Rose waking up. It turned out just to be her turning in her sleep. The older mare didn’t seem to notice, though. “I mean, I’m fine. I mean, I’m tired. I should really get to sleep.”

“Okay, my little... um, what should I call you, then?”

Trip paused for a moment. “You’re Celestia’s little sister, right?”

“I am her sister, yes.”

“Trip. I’m Trip.”

“Trip.” she said, smiling. “Have pleasant dreams, Trip.” she turned and walked silently out of the room.

Yeah, sure pleasant. Nightmares about snakes.

He stared at the ceiling, hoping that he might find comfort in the bed he was placed in. Amazingly, he found a feeling in safety the bed. He felt as if the bed was a boat in the middle of a stormy sea, and that if he were to fall off the side, he might-

No, that was stupid. He felt like he was in a bed and he didn’t want to get out of it. Trip was never good with metaphors. Or anything language involved. Or anything in general.

Oh God. They’re going to want me to do stuff. I have to interact with them. No... he buried his face in the sheets underneath him and closed his eyes. He let out a low whine.

“Trip?” came a hushed, tired voice from the other side of the room. “Are you okay?”

He hesitated as he tried deciding what words he wanted to push out of his throat. “I... I don’t know. I don’t think... I don’t know.” his voice was quavering.

“Trip,” said Rose, sounding a little more concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m a... I’m a little... I don’t...” he was practically gasping in between phrases. He heard the sound of hooves against the floor that started moving closer.

“It’s okay, what’s wrong?” she asked. She was standing right next to the bed now, from what he could hear.

“Nothing’s... I’m...” he couldn’t even get himself to form words. He felt as useless as he had ever felt before.

She shushed. him. “It’s okay.” Confusion lined the phrase, but she still seemed genuine when she said it. “I’m here. You’re gonna be fine.”

He swallowed. The inside of his throat stuck to itself. Breathing became impossible and he had to gasp to get any air in at all. His mouth opened.

“I’m... afraid.” he said, before going into another gasping fit.

“It’s okay. What are you afraid of?” he felt a hoof touching his shoulder.

His breathing calmed down. “Rose,” he said. “You’re not my sister. You’re not my mom. You’re obviously not my dad.”

She laughed slightly, awkwardly. “Well, I would hope not.”

“Then why...” a loose hiccup. “Why do I care about you? At all?”

Silence echoed throughout the room for a while. “You don’t need to be in someone’s family to care about them.”

His breathing started acting up again, for some reason.

“What are you afraid of?”

“I’m... I’m afraid of what’s gonna happen if I get out of this bed.” He said. That was true. But Rose didn’t respond. He could feel that she wasn’t satisfied with the answer. “I’m afraid that no matter what happens, no matter who helps, no matter what I do, I’m just gonna be stuck here, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

She still didn’t respond. She knew that he wasn’t telling the whole truth. “I’m afraid that when I go back, things might get worse. My dad will start up again, my sister will get sick again. And I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I’ve already gone as far as I can go. I have no control over anything now. It’s all gonna come undone.”

She still didn’t fucking respond. Her silent treatment was killing him. “I’m afraid that we’re gonna end up just like our parents,” he said, a little bit louder. “Renee is gonna die, and I’m gonna end up a slob who can’t get his life together, only I’ll have no friends to leave me when I go too far.” he felt some freedom in his sheets. He brought his arms up to his head. “And you... you’re gonna end up nothing. You’re just gonna be this memory I can’t let go of, but to everyone else, you were just someone who stood in the background to take up space.”

There was no response. Not even an echo from the acoustics of the room.

“I’m afraid...” he said. “I’m afraid that everything will go wrong and I’ll be left behind in the mess, and I’ll have missed my chance to say my last words. I don’t want my last words to be ‘Oh shit, bye everyone, have fun living your life while I’m left back here.’” he looked up. He saw only darkness. “Rose?” he called out.

Silence was the only thing that called back. But there were words in that silence. They said something to the effect of She’s not here, Trip.

Trip looked around. He was nowhere. Literally. “Are you the voice?” he asked.

The Silence responded again. Yes. Honestly, you weren’t supposed to know about me, but I guess Celestia got really excited about me.

“What happened to all of them?”

Oh, the ponies? What do you care?

“You’re right. I don’t.”

Trip, oh, Trip. Haven’t you learned anything? Of course you do. Don’t try and lie to me. I’m an Omnipresent Disembodied Voice. You cared about the one, the girl.

“Rose.” he muttered under his breath.

Yes! See? Some of this is sticking on a conscious level! This may have all been worth it!

“You don’t sound very fancy for an all-knowing voice.” Trip observed.

Yeah, well, this is just how you’re interpreting me. I’m speaking how you would speak.

“Oh. Well, what was that about, ‘This was all worth it?’”

Right. See, sometimes, there are cracks in the universe. People who have cracks in them themselves slip through these sometime. And they don’t come back until those cracks have been healed, or that person is at least aware those cracks are there.

“So I’m cracked? Aren’t there other people who have it worse than me, that have it worse off? Why didn’t you send them instead of me?”

You see, that’s one thing I thought you’d learn on your own. Just because other people might be feeling more pain than you, doesn’t make your pain any less genuine. You just happened to be in the right place at the right time is all.

“Pain?”

Don’t pretend like you don’t know what pain is. That’s what sent you through the cracks in the first place. You don’t feel the pain you should. It just collapses your foundation after a while.

“What do you mean? I feel pain just fine.”

Hmm. Yes, Trip, tell me how you feel about your mother. Her dying that is.

“Um, you know, it was sad, but I had to move on.”

Yes, but you moved on way too fast. You miss her, don’t you?

“Of course! I’d be a dick if I didn’t!”

But you don’t feel sad about her being gone, do you?

“I...”

Yeah, that’s what I thought. You know what most normal kids would do? They’d be sad about it.

“...no, I just...”

No, if you don’t stop allowing things to happen as they come, eventually you’re gonna lose control and it’s all gonna get away from you. There. That’s the moral of your story. You were supposed to figure it out for yourself, but obviously we’re gonna be here all day if I just have to give you metaphoric hints.

“Geez, okay. But what if things have already gotten away from me?”

Well, you ride the wave. You don’t try and stop a tsunami with a bath and knife.

“...okay.”

Now, we’re gonna do a test run, alright?

“What do you mean?”

I’m gonna take something away from you, you're never gonna see it again, and you’re not gonna stop yourself from feeling whatever you want to feel, alright?

“What? What are you gonna take away?”

Oh, don’t worry. Everything is gonna be the exact same as it was before the crash.

"Well, then what’s gonna be gone?”

You’ll realize when you wake up. In the hospital.

“Am I gonna pass out again?”

Well, yes, you are. Why, did you have something planned out?

“Well, I was just gonna as’sthe deal with the snake was?”

Oh. Ha. The snake. Let me ask you, what exactly is a snake?

“Um, it’s a reptile?”

No no no. A snake is nothing more than a little man with no hands.

Trip felt his consciousness slipping away from him as he tried to understand the strange passage the voice had just told him.

Of Reptiles

The rushing of blood to his head was what woke him up. His eyes jerked open and he saw that he was once again in the white void, connected by his four legs to a silhouette of a world tree, upside down, and watching a yellow snake on the verge of plummeting to its death in a bottomless vacuum of despair.

At first, he just watched the snake slither down, down, down, without any thought. But as more of the snakes top half was sinking than its bottom hanging loosely onto the root, Trip felt a sense of worry. Something in him said that this snake was important. Keep the snake. Snake good. Dead snake bad.

Trip stretched out his neck. Even though he was positive, judging by the distance, that he wouldn't be able to, he managed to wrap his mouth around the tip of the snake’s tail. He bit his teeth down upon it as forcefully, yet at the same time as gingerly as he could, but it somehow managed to begin slipping right out of his mouth. So, against all his better judgement, he forced his jaw down before it managed to completely escape his bite and reared his neck back as hard as he could. He could feel the weight of the snake shifting back onto the root just as it jerked its tail out from between his teeth and wrapped around the root, clinging for dear life.

The snake turned back at him and let out a horrible screeching noise. It lifted its head and turned back towards Trip, angrily. It lashed at him, but halfway, it stopped, and lowered itself until it was just drooping one end of itself over the other end of the branch.

It sat there limply, showing no signs or intent of moving. Trip stretched out his neck again, and was barely able to rub his nose against the skin of the neck, just far enough away from the wound so that it wouldn’t hurt the creature. He had no idea what he planned for this action to achieve, but it made him feel like he was comforting the snake in some way. The snake raised its head, and its eyes locked with Trip’s. It opened its mouth and let out something that sounded a little like a sigh, and turned its head towards the trunk of the tree.

It began rubbing it’s head against the bark. It worked its way down, until it reached its midsection, where the wound was located. As the trunk of the tree grazed the wound, the snake reflexively swayed its head in the opposite direction, but stopped itself before it pushed itself away again. It pushed forward, against the bark, hissing and screeching, but it continued forward, or at least tried to. It was like the wound was a hook or something, snagging the snake in one position.

The noise almost became too much for Trip. He tried moving his legs to cover his ears, but the roots held him firmly in place. After a while, he realized it wasn’t the high pitch or the volume of the snake’s cry, but the pitifulness of it. He couldn’t help it in anyway, and the more he couldn’t the more he wanted to.

All at once, the snake burst forward, releasing itself from the snag. The snake’s scream had reached a high of loudness and pitch, and bright red blood had begun pouring from where the the scar tissue once was. The snake rested for a minute, breathing heavily, it’s head bobbing up and down. It then began to rub the rest of its body against the trunk of the tree.

Slowly, the excess skin peeled off, and as it did, the snake slowly changed color. Its pale yellow scales slowly faded into a vibrant green, and the wound was healed to nothing more than a yellow scar. As the last bit of transparent yellow skin came off and fell into the void below, it turned around at Trip, and gave him what he assumed was a snake’s equivalent of a smile. As it’s mouth was open, a new tooth slid out of its gums, replacing the old, broken one.

It jumped forward at Trip, but in a definitely non-threatening way. It wrapped itself around his neck, and nuzzled its head against him. Trip had never been a fan of snakes, but he was appreciative of the gesture. The snake felt warm against him, which he thought was odd, because he was pretty sure snakes were cold-blooded.

The snake unwinded itself from him, and tapped him on the forehead with its nose, which seemed to kick gravity back on for him. and Trip smacked his head against one of the roots of the tree. He grunted in pain. He brought his legs up to his head to rub it, and realized he was completely unchained. As he put pressure on his scalp, he decided that a grunt wasn’t enough. He let out a long, deep moan. The snake tilted his head at him. Trip took this as a gesture of wanting more. He let out a long, throaty scream. As he pushed the air out of his lungs, the pain in his head managed to go away, just a little bit.

Once he was completely done, he looked to the snake for affirmation. The snake looked back at him, opened its mouth, and let out a shriek of its own. Trip shrugged, and screamed along with the creature. They screamed for a long time, only stopping to take breaths every now and then. The snake didn’t have to take nearly as many as Trip, though. He rationalized it as reptiles having larger lung capacity.

Soon, Trip’s throat was so dry and sore from screaming, he had to stop. The snake carried out its last bit of breath, and then ceased. It looked at him. He looked at it. It darted forward and rubbed its nose against his forehead, then darted back.

Trip shuffled his feet awkwardly. He wasn’t sure what exactly just happened, but he had the feeling that was somewhat proud of it. How many people got to say they participated in a shout off with a giant reptile? He laughed at the idea, the chuckle getting caught in his desert of a throat. The snake gave what felt like a smile. They stared at each other for awhile, Trip not being able to think of what to say, the snake not being able to talk for itself.
Eventually, the snake became somewhat hectic, constantly looking at and away from Trip. It looked into his eyes, then away. It looked back, and opened its mouth, then closed it halfway, as if it were unsure, then opened it all the way back up.

“Trip,” it said. The voice was feminine, but deep. Adult, weakened, just before the point of giving up. One he hadn’t heard in a long time. One he tried to forget. But he recognized it as soon as it came out of the snake’s mouth. Against his will and better judgement, tears began to well up in his eyes. At first, he tried to stop them. “Trip,” it said again. This time, he didn’t hold back. He let the tears roll down his face liberally at the sound of the snake. “I love you.” said the voice again. Trip choked on a sob. “I love you, I love Renee, I love your father. Tell them that. Tell them I said that.” Trip bit his lip and nodded, even though he knew there was no use in responding. This wasn’t the real thing, it was only a playback. But he gasped for air and nodded even harder. He instinctively stuck out his hoof-hand and tried to grab, but couldn’t find anything to hold onto. He ended up just hitting his hoof-hand against the bark of the tree until it started hurting, too.
“Trip,” the voice said again. “I love you.” It paused, waiting for a response. It continued as if he had said something, even though he didn’t. “You’re going to be fine. You’re strong. You’re the strongest boy in the world. I love you.” He waited for more, even though he knew there wasn’t going to be any. Silence was all that was left.

He couldn’t handle it any longer. He lowered his head to the ground and put his hands over his head. Or his hooves. Whatever. He sniveled and cried like some sort of blithering idiot, or hungry infant until there was nothing left in him. Snot ran out of his nose like a fountain, and almost every part of his face was wet from tears. His entire body shook. This was a sensation he was not familiar with at all. He wanted to say something, like ‘I’m sorry,’ or ‘Come Back,’ but he didn’t dare open his mouth.

After what felt like hours of crying, his throat was dry, his eyes were sore, and his entire body ached. He lifted his head up from his hands, and saw the snake still standing exactly where it had been. The snake lowered itself to him, and rubbed its nose against his forehead, yet again.

Trip stood and gave a solemn nod to the snake, which the snake returned. It then slithered from its root and wrapped itself around Trip’s neck and midsection loosely, giving him a herp hug. The leaned itself away from him so that they were face to face, tilted its head, and opened its mouth again.“That’s a rather interesting cutie mark you have there, sir.” It was a masculine voice, very deep, very official sounding.

A burning sense of curiosity welled up within him. He had completely forgot he was still one of them. He didn’t want to look, but he had to know. He tried to guess what it would be, first. A running shoe? A wrestling leotard? A spatula? A big, red F-?

As he turned his head, he considered the placement of such things. Why did they have to be... there? Why couldn’t they be on the midsection or something? It was such an awkward placement. If someone had an important part of their personality sewn onto the asspocket of their jeans, you’d get yelled at every time you wanted to look at it.

A hand. He saw a hand print, black. That was even more awkward, actually. It looked as if someone had smacked him so hard... there... that the skin had actually died and was beginning to decay. And that wasn’t an image he wanted people to have of him. That he like getting smacked... there.

He looked back up. He noticed more tree silhouettes. There were hundreds of them, all floating around in different directions, but at least five of them were definitely heading in Trip's direction. The one that naturally caught his eye was one that towered above all the rest, and had the most leaves out of any of the ones he saw. The snake slithered off of him and back onto the root of the tree. He looked back and saw the roots of the tree practically lash out at him, and grab him. They wrapped around his midsection, his neck, his legs, as if they were trying to find the best angle to grab him from. But they eventually got ahold of the bottoms of his feet, and started spreading from there.

He felt bones shifting, rearranging, and growing. Soon, the roots spread over his entire body, and started creeping up past his eyes and blocking his vision. The last thing he saw was the snake, smiling, and waving the end of its tail, as if it were saying goodbye.Trip gathered his thoughts managed to say one thing.

Thank you.

Somewhere Else Entirely

Trip awoke to darkness. Pitch black. At first, he thought he might have died. But he somehow managed to think back long enough to remember what had happened. He had just gotten in a car crash. He had heard his father and his sister talking to a nurse. He was in a coma, that’s what happened. But maybe he never woke up from that coma. Maybe he died. He was in the afterlife now. Trip was dead.

He opened his eyes. Relief rushed over him. At least if he was dead, the afterlife had sights to see, even though everything came to him extremely blurry. He could only tell he was laying on his back. He tried moving his body. Attempting to move his right arm yielded no results. Right leg, same thing. Even trying to move his eyes to see what was around him was impossible.

Maybe he was paralyzed. The crash had broken his spine, rendering him incapable of moving any part of his body. He was doomed to spend the rest of his life at the mercy of breathing machines and be fed through a tube until the day his brain could be implanted into a robot body. Trip curled his tongue in agony.

Wait, he could move his tongue! He flicked it to the left, to the right, touched the back of his mouth, the edge of his teeth. He had complete control over his tongue. Whatever part of his spine responsible for his tongue must have not been broken. Maybe he could use it to communicate with the outside world. He had read about a guy who got paralyzed everywhere except for his left eyelid, and used it to speak Morse code. That guy ended up writing a novel. Trip could write a novel. With his tongue.

He pressed his tongue between his lips, and he tasted the fresh air. There was a slight breeze. Trip became confused. A breeze, in a hospital room? He brushed it off as someone leaving the window open. He’d turn his head to look, but there was the whole ‘paralyzed’ issue. And even if he could, he would only be able to see a swarm of colors.

He recoiled his tongue back into his mouth. As he did, his lips pressed down on themselves. He spread them apart. He puckered them. That’s two things he had control of now. Tongue and lips. But no jaw. He still had the chance of getting to first base. With all those girls who wanted to make out with paralyzed teenagers. Trip was sure there was a small demographic of women who wanted to do that. He could use his tongue to make a classified ad later, but for now, he was preoccupied. What else could he move?

After what seemed like an hour, he discovered that he could flared his nostrils. He could raise his eyebrows, blink, and tense the back of his neck. He was working on trying to move his jaw when his vision cleared up the smallest amount. Now he could differentiate the colors that he saw before him. Above him, was blue. A very bright blue. As he remembered, the ceilings at the hospital were blue, but very pale. Maybe they had repainted them since he last visited?

He wanted to ask someone this question. He was very surprised that he hadn't seen or heard a nurse walk into his room in all this time he had been here. Normally, nurses were very attentive to their patients. One stopped by the room at least every half hour, from what he recalled. Maybe he hadn't been there as long as he had thought. He tried calling out, saying anything, but he could barely force anything out of his throat. And it didn't help that he couldn't move his cheek muscles or open his jaw.

A soft "Uh." was all he could muster. "Uh uhuhuh uuuuuuuuuuuuuuh." He propped his head up to see if anyone had heard him, but he couldn't hold the position for very long. His shoulders gave out and his neck became sore. As the back of his head hit the ground below him, he realized that he now had control of his shoulders, but they were definitely malformed in the crash.

"Hey!" a voice came somewhere else in the room. "Who are you?" It was a girl's voice, not a nurse's. Did a patient's daughter or little sister walk into his room?

"Uh uh uh?" he responded.

"Um, those aren't words." the voice said, laughing a little bit. "Would you like to try that again?"

"Uh uh uh uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh."

The voice giggled. "You're silly." it said.

The voice sounded a little familiar, but Trip was certain he had never heard it before. But there was something or someone it reminded him of. "Uh uh uh." he said again. "Uh uh uh Iiiip."

"Oh? What was that? That almost sounded like a word. Try again, I'm sure you'll get it."

"Ip. Rip. Triiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip." he managed to choke.

"Trip? Trip over what?"

"Trip. I'm Trip. I am Trip."

As he said this, he regained all sensation. He was aware of his arms, his legs, his torso, everything. He sat up so quickly that he propelled himself forward. His hands landed in front of him, and instead of feeling the familiar touch of hospital sheets or a mattress, he felt grass. He thought maybe his hands were deceiving him, but his eyes could tell whatever he was touching was green. He rubbed his hands back and forth, reaffirming the strangeness of the situation. He was outside. At first he thought he might have been thrown out of his car. But then he remembered that it was nighttime when he crashed. Maybe he had been knocked out and he was just waking up from the crash now? No, someone would have called the hospital before daybreak. And besides, he didn't feel injured at all. In fact, he felt somewhat rejuvenated.

"Trip is your name?" Said the voice.

Trip looked at the source of the voice. It was a girl, maybe about 6 years old. He couldn't make out any part of her face, but he did see a messy mop of red hair on the top of her head. Well, it wasn't messy, but it was unkempt. He could tell she had a darker shade of skin, that she might have been of middle-eastern descent. With red hair? Maybe it was dyed?

"Y... yes. That's my name." he responded. He tried to focus his eyes on her, but he couldn't.

"Why? Are you really clumsy or something?" she said.

Trip could help but chuckle slightly at this. He regained his thought track. "Where am I?" He asked.

The girl made a motion with her head. "Huh. You know, I don't really know. I don't think I've ever been here, myself. How did you get here?"

"I got in a car crash. At least, I'm pretty sure I did."

"A carcrash?" She pronounced it as one word. "What's a carcrash? Is it like a boat?"

"What? No, I mean, I was in an accident."

"An accident? What kind of an accident?"

Trip squinted his eyes at the girl. Are all six year-olds this naive? "A traffic accident."

"Oh no!" She moved her hands near her face. "Was anypony hurt?"

"Well, I thought I was. I mean, I remember hearing my bones break, and the glass..." He stopped and looked up at her in confusion. "What did you just say?"

"You heard your bones break?” She sounded scared. “Are you alright?"

"No, wait," he leaned closer to the girl. "What did you just ask?"

She paused, as if his question confused her. "Are you alright?"

"No." shook his head and waved his hands in front of his face. "I mean, yes, I'm alright. But what I mean is, what did you ask before that?"

The girl sounded intimidated. "I asked if anypony else was hurt."

"There! What... what is that?"

"What is what?"

"That word you used!"

"What are you talking about, mister?"

"What was that word you just-" A shock of pain came to Trip's eyes. He closed them and covered them with his hands, and cried out in agony.

"Are you okay?" the girl said.

Trip cried out again. "Yeah, I'm- gah!" He lowered his hands from his face. As he opened them, the brightness and clearness of the world he saw before him almost knocked him back down on his back. Everything was... solid. Everything was a solid color. Things had outlines. Shadows were areas of slightly darker color. The world before him was... animated. There was no other way to describe it. "What the...?"

He looked over to the girl. At first, he didn't notice anything strange about her, but then, his eyes started registering what he was truly seeing. It wasn't a girl he had been talking to, it was a horse. A gray horse with a red mane that could talk. And a horn. A horn, for goodness sake.

He leaned back. "What ARE you?" Trip screamed at it.

The horse recoiled in fear. "What?"

Trip pushed himself back with his hands. "What are you? How are you talking right now?"

"Mister, you're scaring me..."

"You are a f..." Trip tried to conjure up a swear word, but couldn't quite form his mouth around it. "You are a talking horse! How is that f... How is that possible?"

The horse put its hooves over its head. "What?" It's voice was quivering.

"You are not possible! What the h... What ARE you?"

"I'm no different than you!" It yelled, starting to cry.

"That's a f... ugh! That's a lie if I've ever heard one! I'm not a f-talking horse!"

It closed its eyes and screamed. "Well you sure look like one to me!"

Trip was about to yell something back, but he stopped himself. The horse continued to sob its strange horse-tears. He looked down at his hands. What he saw weren't hands. What he saw were two tube-looking devices that came to a curved end.

Somewhere Else Entirely

At 11:47 PM, in room 3-1105 of St. George’s hospital, coma patient Phillip Nathaniel Stern III’s eyes opened for the first time in approximately three days. Directly following this, he jerked his body into an upright position in his bed, tugging on the IV that was implanted in his right arm, which tore the needle out from his skin. He grabbed the area where the needle was, that was currently bleeding, and called out for a nurse.

A rather surprised night shift nurse, Agatha Seacole, was the one who flew into his room as he cried out. Once two steps into the doorway, she stopped dead in her tracks upon seeing him sitting up. She had been completely stunned that the patient had awoken. None of the doctors were expecting any independent body functions, let alone full muscle and motor control, for at least another few days. But she ignored that and applied pressure to his newly formed wound and told him to do the same as she went to go get bandages.

When she returned, she found him looking to the right side of the bed, as if he saw someone there, despite the fact he was the only one in the room. Seacole ignored this and continued to reinsert the IV and applied the bandages. When she was done with that, she asked him what he was looking at, and he had only replied only with “I didn’t get to say goodbye.” When questioned about this, he replied with, “Never mind. She didn’t...” and seemed unable to finish the thought. Upon Seacole asking who ‘she’ was, he told her that he couldn’t answer.

The next day, Phillip, referred to as ‘Trip’ by his friends, was visited by his father and sister. When they saw him, they were both washed over with a sense of relief. But his reaction of seeing them was entirely different; his response was to cry, something very uncharacteristic of him, according to his relatives.

The doctors came and informed him that a concussion, several broken ribs, a broken right arm and right left leg, and two severely fractured hands were the only surprisingly few injuries Trip had received from his car crash. No severe or permanent brain damage had been dealt to him as far as the doctors could see. The doctors didn't have to tell Trip or his family that he was extremely lucky to be in as good of condition that he was in. But later reports from his sister, Renee Elody Stern, said that she had seen a change in Trip, that she could have sworn had to do with his brain being messed up in the crash.

Before his accident, Trip was often characterized as being ‘unfeeling and short-tempered’ by his peers, and ‘distant’ by his family members. After his crash, he had reportedly became more compassionate and considerate of others. He had actually become socially interested in his peers for the first time in what many believed was years. Many were put off by this. He became slightly more open, and would often try interacting with his classmates and peers in situations where he would normally isolate himself. He wasn’t the most talkative or friendly of his classmates, but compared to before, he was a social butterfly.

But the strangest change, according to his sister, was his reaction to one of her favorite (and one of Trip’s absolute least favorite) shows, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. According to Renee, before his accident, he would always complain when being made to watch it and would always have a surly disposition while watching.
After his accident, however, he made no complaints about watching the show, and while watching, seemed almost to be apathetic, and even occasionally accepting. However, when his sister would ask what he thought about the characters, or the story, he wouldn't be able to give a response, citing that he ‘ wasn't paying attention’ to the show. Renee claims that was something that hadn't changed. When asked why not, he would respond “I was looking for some... thing.” When asked what it is that he was looking for, he couldn't respond.

After months of healing and physical therapy, Trip had only two desires after his last session. For his first, he asked for his father to drive him to a Flower Shop. His father was confused by this request, but carried it out anyway. They drove to Ann's Flower Shop, where Trip ran inside and bought a single red rose. He then requested for his father to drive to the cemetery where his mother was buried. His father outwardly expressed slight confusion but agreed, and inwardly expressed a sort of relief.

Trip asked to visit the grave alone.

“Hey, mom. I bought this for you.” he laid the rose down on the bright green grass. “I’m pretty sure the rose is a mourning symbol. If not, I know for sure it's a symbol of love, and that should be close enough.” he paused. “Yeah, I know, it’s a little late, but I've got to get around to this whole mourning thing sooner or later. The pain’s a little numb, but it’s still there. I’m dealing with it little by little, mostly in the form of dreams and crying. Geez, how come no one ever told me crying hurt?” he paused again.

“Well, when they ask, I tell them I had dreams about you. Which, I kinda did, I guess. At the end there. So I guess it counts." Silence. "What? No! Well, cause I don’t think anyone would believe me if I said that. And secondly, whoever would would think I was a pansy-ass b... oh, heh, sorry.” he covered his mouth slightly. “Yeah. Dreamt about freakin’... ponies? No, I think I’ll keep that to myself. Yes, I’m certain it was a dream. Just a non-medication-inspired dream. Yeah, but I don’t blame them. You don’t think a kid in a coma would have to worry about mood swings.”

The wind rustled some of the trees around him. “Yes. A dream. No, I don’t miss any one. And even if I did, I could see them all on TV. Actually, I’d see them weather I missed them or not. Ren’s got me watching every episode. You should really talk to her about that.” he laughed, then looked slightly confused. “Yes, all of them.” he paused for a second, thinking. “Okay, well, maybe not all of them, but...” his feet shuffled as he rubbed the back of his head.

“God, mom, why you gotta do that? No, it’s just... well, if someone found you in the desert, and you asked them for water, and instead they just lead you to where they thought water was, you’d still be at least a little thankful even if the place they ended up taking you had no water and your canteen was full all along. Does that make sense?” he paused.

“Well, I never was one for writing metaphors, anyway. But to answer your question, do I miss...?” he looked away. “I miss you.” he said, hopefully. “Okay, fine. To answer your question honestly, I don’t know. There’s still a part of my brain that’s trying to convince me that none of it really happened. There’s a part that’s trying to hold onto as much of it as possible. I don't know why. I still watch the show and I don't feel a connectedness to any of the characters or what happens to them. But the world, I guess, the world they live in, I kind of care about.

But then, there’s this one, really small part of me, that I’m trying to listen to the most, that telks me that it doesn't really matter whether or not it’s real, cause that I’m here now and all that matters is that I need to go forward. But it’s hard to, you know? Cause, like, apparently, I’m not the only person this has happened to? People with cracks, I mean, I can't be the only one.

And also, my mind, for some reason I can't grasp, keeps going back to physics class. Newton's... first, I think? I don’t really remember, I was never one for Science. But you know the one. for every action, equal opposite reaction, yeah, that one. Something gets pushed, it pushes back. Something goes in, something replaces it. Did I push someone here while I went there? It's kind of scary to think about. But I guess I’ll never know.”

He knelt down and placed his hand on the cold ground below him. “There are just some things I’ll never know, I guess. But I'm really fine with that. Cause that’s how it’s supposed to work, right? No one could know everything there is to know in their universe. They’d go crazy. Err, I mean the universe. There’s only one. Probably. Guess I wouldn’t know.” he lifted his hand back up, and saw he had left a perfect, inch deep, five-fingered hand print in the dirt.

“Oh, whoops. Sorry. Don’t know my own strength.” he stood back up on his two legs. “I gotta go. Dad’s waiting for me. But I’ll try to make this more common of a thing. It was nice.” he turned around and started walking away. But as he did, he stopped mid step and swiveled his head back around. “Actually...” he said. he walked back to the spot and picked the rose back up, tore off a single petal off, placed it in his pocket and set the rose back down. He turned halfway around, and then looked at the ground. He laughed. “Oh, shut up. It’s not like that.” He turned fully around and walked away.