Shades of Other Realities

It really didn't take long. It was four-thirty in the morning. Everyone was very tired after a sleepless night spent trying, successfully trying, to extract me from another world.

Extract. Just like Stephen king in His Dark Tower series. He called it extraction, too. The Parallels between the books and what had so unexpectedly happened to me could not but arise. They not should have.

To be honest, I somewhat underestimated the scale of the city.

It was smaller than the one I lived in, but it wasn't too small either. It was not far from the former gallery to the Apple farm.

In the morning it is quite cool, despite the summer season. The ground had cooled overnight. Cool, but far from cold. I was in simple house clothes and began to feel uncomfortable, although for the first time after the passage of the interspatial tunnel I was not up to clothes. Now that I was more or less recovered from my shock and able to reason, I noticed what I was wearing. And then I felt a little ashamed. However girls, apparently, my external kind of not too worried.

Yes, the clothes, like my body, had changed, but it was still the same outfit that I wouldn't show up on the street in. Except the store around the corner. And then, probably not.

It always seemed to me that everyone who passed me was looking at me for some reason, studying me. It was I who tried to ignore them, but I aroused their lively interest.

Naturally, it was not so. I was an ordinary teenager, millions of them, unremarkable and not stand out from the crowd. I merged with it, became a part of it, was a part in an intricate design. Though I wanted to think it wasn't. The reflections that covered my head there must leave me here. And I'll do anything for it. In this world, I want to think about something else.

As we approached the Apple farm, the sun began to rise. The Apple farm is a wide area enclosed by a low fence. And inside the plot was a two-story house painted bright red, a vegetable garden, a barn, a warehouse and, behind the house, against a background of wonderful hills covered with lush greenery, the main treasure – an Apple orchard. Dozens, if not more, of green trees bearing apples. Remarkable view. They can be admired and admired, I'm sure, such a spectacle will never get bored. Somewhere in my heart I envied Applejack – living in such a wonderful place must be a real pleasure. These are not concrete boxes overlooking other concrete boxes. This is real nature. The Apple family is very lucky with this wonderful piece of land.

Something inside me quivered with delight as we entered. After all, if up until now, I just realized that he was in another world, but now I was on familiar locations. Feelings are quite different. I again doubted the reality of what was happening around me, but only for a split second.

No, it's all true. Crystal clear reality.

"Well, Marco," I said excitedly. "Here you are on Muni."

I took a few steps toward the house. Beautiful, though not the newest, of course, the building with a nice weathervane in the form of an Apple pierced by an arrow on the roof. Looking up, I immediately thought of Cupid and his arrows piercing human hearts. I think he got into my heart. And the hit was very accurate. I fell in love with this place.

I'm sure the longer I'm here, the warmer I'll feel.

"It's beautiful," I said aloud. "It's wonderful here."

"Welcome to the farm of the Apple family." Applejack smiled kindly.

At that moment, my fatigue lifted as a hand. I didn't even think about staying up all night. All I thought about was how lucky I was. So unexpected, so unpredictable, but everything I could have dreamed of found me.

I guess I deserved it. I deserved what I got here. And what I have yet to receive. Being in this world was a great reward for me.

"She's beautiful," I said again.

"Yes, with a farm we are lucky." Applejack nodded and took off his hat.

"Well, it's beautiful," Twilight agreed. "Let's go inside. "We need to rest."

As we entered the spacious and well-kept room, I was immediately overwhelmed by a wave of fatigue and drowsiness. Here, in the house, it was very beautiful and cozy. There was a warm home atmosphere. Photos on the walls, a beautiful clock in the form of an Apple. It was exactly 4:30.

"Very cozy."

"Thank you," Applejack put a hand on my shoulder. "We're trying. I, Apple Bloom, and our Granny Smith. Even my brother helps sometimes."

There was no need to ask who it was. Applejack herself seemed to know that no explanation was needed.

I scanned the lower floor, the kitchen and living room. All very nice and cozy furnished.

"Where did you say your family went?" I asked.

"To visit Golden Delicious, a relative of ours." I said I wanted to invite my friends over for a sleepover and I wasn't going.

"They agreed?"

"Granny grumbled at first, but then she told me not to go."

So everything was calculated in advance. Everything was prepared for my extraction from my world. But here is one thing in detail it looked me excessively successful.

"How is it that your family left the day your portal started?"

"Actually, I persuaded them to go today. Yesterday, that is. The day we planned to bring you here."

"Understand."

I paused, gathering my thoughts.

"Thank you," I managed to say. Applejack smiled and patted me on the shoulder.

I turned to the girls.

"Thank you. For everything you've done for me."

"No,thank you," Sunset Shimmer said.

"Me? But for what?"

"For the feelings you gave us. You came into our lives so suddenly. When we didn't expect anything like this. At first we thought you were strange. But then we realized. We realized you weren't weird at all. No. You love. Love truly and love with all your heart. You never betrayed your feelings for us."

"We appreciate that," Rainbow Dash added.

"And we want to thank you in return," Rarity said.

Here we go again. Those tears again. Again I can't help myself. That shot to the heart again. Again an exact hit.

"Girls... I love you."

I said it again. He said it again, as he had said so often before. Only before I spoke, but no one heard me and could not answer. That's what I thought, at least.

I often repeated, I often whispered it, looking at the very photo that I set on my desktop as Wallpaper. He repeated it, sometimes looking out of the window, when the twilight fell on the world and hid many of its flaws from the eyes.

Repeated, sighing. Tremulously whispered. No one else could hear it. No one else should have heard. It was personal. It was ours. Ours and ours alone.

"We love you, too, you know that," Rarity said softly, laying her hand on my cheek. "And always will love."

"Stay here with us," Twilight added.

"Yeah... I'll stay with you."

I had nothing more to say. All that was needed had already been said. Remained only gentle and warm feelings. A sense of love, a sense of harmony, peace and comfort. Gentle embrace. We clung to each other again. As real and very close friends. And I was in the center and I felt all the tenderness coming from these lovely girls.

With no girl in my world would I be so happy as here with them. No girl would have given me as much love and tenderness as Sunset Shimmer, as Rarity. Like Twilight Sparkle, like Rainbow Dash. Like every one of them. No matter how much time has passed, no matter how many times I have not had time to grow, to change, but it would always remain an immutable truth. The most important truth, against which there is not a single argument.

Wish everyone in my world find its love, but my-she here is, here. Next to me. She hugs me tenderly. And I gently cling to her. And I'm happy. Really happy.

I guess I'm really overworked. Because the eyes began to stick together. A strong desire to sleep. Yes, we all need sleep. I've spent so much emotional energy in the last couple of hours that my body needs to rest. And he shouldn't have resisted. On a new day I will come out full of energy. Into the new world of which I am to be a part.

So what happens then? Twilight promised we'd talk about it, but after a good night's sleep. So, come what may. I am ready to fall into the arms of sleep, to go to the realm of Morpheus.

"And you," I began.

"It would be strange if we went to sleep at Applejack's and came back at five in the morning," Pinkie Pie laughed wearily. The girl's energy charge was almost spent. And it seemed that it would last for a month or more.

We went to the second floor of the house, where the Applejack and Applebloom rooms were located.

In Applejack's room, sleeping bags were already spread out. It was big, much bigger than my cubicle inside the concrete box. No, I loved my room, of course, but I couldn't compare it. And comparison was strongly not in favor of my homes.

In General, typical post-Soviet buildings never differed in spaciousness. In the house in which I lived, all the rooms were narrow squares in which you can not really turn around. But we were used to it, so the square didn't bother us much.

I knew my room was small. But didn't think much of it. Now that I was in Applejack's room, I realized it was even smaller than I'd thought.

"My room," Applejack said. She took off her hat and threw it on the bed, and sat down after it.

The room was decorated so nice and cozy so and the whole house. A large bed in the corner of the bass guitar and amplifiers for guitar. There were three photographs on the shelves. One shows Applejack with his younger sister. On the second - Applejack with their girlfriends on the beach. And another one of Applejack at some concert with a guy holding a guitar in his hands. I didn't ask who it was yet.

On the wall was a poster of a musician holding an acoustic guitar. According to the inscription on the poster I realized who it was. Without that, I probably wouldn't have guessed.

Take me home, country roads, I sang, looking at the poster.

Applejack stared at me.

"You know that song?"

"Of course," I approached the poster. "He's a country music legend – John Denver."

"It's a great song," Applejack said.

"Yeah."

To the place I belong, Applejack suddenly sang.

West Virginia, mountain mama, I said.

Take me home, country roads.

I surprised myself. I didn't usually sing when I was at risk of being overheard. I've always found my own voice unbearably awful. It got to the point that even in class I was afraid to read aloud or tell anything.

But now I was not afraid, not shy. I just let myself go. Though sang only two lines.

"The sleepover at Applejack's is open!" Rainbow Dash said, plopping down on her sleeping bag.

"Only the night has passed," Rarity said, looking out the window. There the sun was already rising above the horizon.

• Not the essence," Rainbow stretched. "I still can't believe we did it."

"Turned out," Twilight yawned. "Everything turned out wonderful."

I was a little surprised, but everyone seemed to fit in the room.

From the window there was a beautiful view of the green hills and the Apple orchard below them. There were many Apple trees. So much I, living in the city, never saw in my life. And where could I have seen? In the yard of another concrete box?

I imagined Applejack sitting by the window, enjoying the view, playing a beautiful tune on his guitar.

For the first time the question arose, if I stayed here, where would I live? How and with whom. But the questions to ask yet does not make sense: Twilight Sparkle promised to discuss it later.

I yawned too, looking out the window. August, morning. Favorite girls nearby. I plopped down in my seat against the wall, feeling very sleepy. What I've been through lately has been a real shock. It's really hard to digest, but I did it. Perhaps because in my fantasies I had already outlined everything and was internally ready. But, in any case, the shock and the shock will definitely have an impact. My English teacher, a native speaker from the United States, spoke about the so-called cultural shock faced by everyone who leaves for another country. I did not even go to another country, but to a whole other reality.

Applejack set her alarm for ten o'clock in the morning. So we had five hours to sleep.

I wanted to ask the girls about school, but then I remembered that August was summer vacation. The issue was dropped by itself.

"Good night," Sunset Shimmer said. "Good morning, actually."

"Sleepover at Applejack's! Hold on..." Pinkie asked. "If it's night, what do you call it?"

The girls laughed, then lay down without changing. Only Twilight sparkle took off the robe of the mad scientist now looked like a normal girl-nerd in every school. Without a mad plan to enslave humanity. And without glasses, it was gone.

I closed my eyes. All that I had experienced passed before my mind's eye. First my typical day, then my usual evening. And the most atypical continuation of this evening.

An earthquake, a portal that opened right into my room. Twilight Sparkle, who came for me. Go through the portal. My arrival in this world. Meet with the characters that I love. Twilight's Explanation. Feelings, closeness, warmth. How I first saw the Apple farm live. My feelings when I entered the house. Just the beginning, and already so much just remarkable. So what's next for me?

I used to sleep with my dakimakura in my arms. But now didn't even notice her absence.

Suddenly I remembered what song of the band Fall Out Boy was listening to when I returned on the first of September 2017 from school in my world. It was a track called Champion.

And I'm back with a madness
I'm a champion of the people who don't believe in champions
I got nothing but dreams inside
I got nothing but dreams

I listened to this song very often. I have so many memories of her. And not just with this song, but a bunch of others. Recently, music has become an integral part of me. And without music I could not imagine long evenings in the company of thoughts and reflections.

I was going into a dream world. Left tired, but satisfied and happy.

My last thought before I fell asleep was that I hadn't seen Guy Ritchie's movie.