As the warm rays of the sun began to creep in through his bedroom window, Ryou let out a tiny hiss of irritation before reluctingly opening his eyes. He pushed himself upright into a seated position, looking around his room suspisciously as if making sure that it was in fact his room and not part of some elaborate ruse.

Breathing heavily, Ryou put his face into his hands and rubbed it feverently, trying to will away the last residue images from his latest nightmare.

"T'was just another dream..." He mumbled tiredly to himself, but even to him it had felt so extremely real. It had been the same nightmare he had been having irregularly since his first day at Canterlot High, and as much as Ryou told himself over and over again that they were just nightmares, it didn't make it any easier.

Even as he tried desperatly to push those thoughts out of his head, Ryou could still see flashes of it. He could still see the hellish consuming flames, still hear that demonic, yet strangely familiar sounding laughter. But worse of all were the screams. Oh dear god, the screams. And those blood red, slited eyes that seemed to burn with the very fires of Hell itself, and whatever dark monstrosity they belonged to...

Figuring that it wouldn't do him any good to dwell on night terrors, Ryou at last let out a rather long and shaky breath, temporarily getting it out of his system. Glancing at the window and seeing the bright spring day that awaited him outside, Ryou couldn't help but smile.

After his regular morning routine, Ryou found himself in the kitchen, preparing a rather simple breakfast of two fried eggs for himself. As the familiar smell began to find its way to his nose, Ryou's gaze wandered to the calender he had hung in the kitchen. Seeing that it was now friday, the boy found it was hard to believe that he had already been in America for more than a week.

Time had passed rather fast, and during that time Ryou's father hadn't visited or called him even once. However, the white-haired boy was used to this and chose not to dwell on it anymore than he had to. Instead, his thought went out to his new school as well as his new friends.

Indeed, the colourful group conscisting of seven girls were the only real friends he had made during his time in Canterlot City so far, and Ryou conscidered himself blessed to be able to call them friends. Not to say that the other residents or his fellow students were unfriendly, far from it. In fact, with the exception of a select few individuals, everyone in the city whom he had met seemed quite pleasant.

But ever since the day they together spent playing Sunset's new game, Ryou had found himself hanging around the Rainbooms quite alot, at least mostly in school. And the girls hadn't seemed to mind at all, practically dragging him over to their table every lunchbreak, almost as if welcoming him into their little clique. In fact, he had even started meeting up with all of them on his way to school in the mornings, as there was a specific place where all of their paths intertwined.

Once he had finished his two eggs and after a minute or two of getting himself in order, Ryou grabbed his school bag and eagerly headed towards the front door, ready to meet up with his friends. As he made his way over, he glanced by the window, enjoying the natrual light that filled the house through the cleaned and replaced windows.

He also made a safety check of his person and was happy to find that the millenium ring still hung from his neck. Despite his wariness for thieves, ever since he showed it to the girls he'd started to wear his most priced possession more openly. Ryou had only recieved a warning from Applejack to look out for a twin-pair of swindlers named Flim and Flam.

The naming conventions in America sure were odd.

But much to his astonishment and lowkey worry, he also found a small, yet sharp knife in his pocket. Ryou sometimes tended to find himself with one knife or another in his pockets. For some unknown reason it didn't bother him as much as it probably should. After the first few times it was more annoying than anything, espescially that one time where he was seized by security at an convention for having a dagger he didn't even remember owning.

Placing the knife on the coffee table, Ryou pushed the whole thing out of his mind and headed towards the door once more, at last ready to go. His pale hand was quite literally on the doorknob when he felt a familiar vibration in his right pocket accompanied by the familiar beat of "They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard!".

He stopped in his tracks on glanced down at his pocket, wondering if he should just let it go to voicemail. Letting out a small sigh, he hastily brought his phone up to his ear without looking at the caller's number and answered.

"Hello?"

As the evening sun was was casting it's orange light upon Canterlot City, Twilight Sparkle was making her way home from one of her daily visits to the local library, one of her favourite reads in her arms. It was one of those things that, even after learning of the wonders of friendship at CHS, she prefered to do by herself. There was nothing quite like some alone-time reading after a dull school day.

She was passing through the Canterlot Park, which was largely empty during this time of day, except for the odd elderly couple. Her gaze kept wandering over the different things meant for children that were now completely empty and silent, such as the jungle gym, the teeter and the slide. It made for quite the odd, yet appealing image, espescially with the evening light. She almost wished that she had her camera on her.

Twilight did, however, stop in her tracks once she saw that there was actually someone sitting by themselves in one of the swingset's swings. Even more shocking was that the one occupying the swing was a rather familiar blob of white. Indeed, Ryou was sitting on the swing, idly swinging back and forth slightly, his cloudy gaze fixed on the ground.

Now, Twilight and the other girls had quickly noticed that Ryou had seemed to be in a bit of a funk earlier that very day, when they'd all met on their way to school. Almost as if a cloud had been hanging over him the whole day. After school he had swiftly excused himself from the group and headed off on his own.

Glad to now finally get a chance to talk to her friend, Twilight began to approach him, raised her hand and called out, "Hey, Ryou!"

The white-haired boy's whipped up so fast that Twilight wouldn't have been surprised if he'd gotten whiplash. His eyes seemed to clear up as he looked at the bespesctacled girl in surprise. "Oh, Twilight... Hi."

"You just kind of disappeared after school today." Twilight remarked as a form of greeting, arms crossed as she now stood right infront of him. Though there was clear worry in her voice, Ryou's behaviour having been on her mind for almost the entire day. The boy whom she was adressing looked guilty at that, his eyes once again going cloudy.

"Sorry that I've been sort of aloof today, it's just..." It seemed as if he struggled to find the right words, though still sounding unfittingly calm as he looked straight ahead. "... There's been a lot on my mind lately."

"I thought you looked kind of down. Did something happen?" Twilight asked with genuine concern, taking a seat at the swing next to Ryou. Said boy immediately became visibly disenheartened by her inquiry, his gaze lowering to the ground.

"Nothing all that important." He said while not facing her, though Twilight got the sinking feeling that it was just that. "This morning my father called me for the first time since I got here."

"Oh..." Twilight didn't really know how to take that, espescially from what little she and the others had heard in reference to Ryou's father before. "Isn't that a good thing?"

Ryou gave her a joyless smile. "Not particularly... Father told me that he'll be away on his work a bit longer than he'd first thought."

"Oh." The damned noice once again left her lips. "But you've only been here for about a week. I'm sure your dad'll make his way down sooner or later." She offered optimistically, but Ryou only shook his head.

"He told me that he can't make it. Apparently he and his team has made quite the discovery which will take up much of his time." Ryou now sounded oddly calm and detached, much like he'd sounded back when Sunset'd asked him if he lived by himself.

"Ryou..." Twilight murmured, concern for her friend audible in her voice as she gazed at him.

"But he said that he's marked his calendar, so he'll be able to spend Christmas day with me." Ryou's voice now sounded both hopeful and disbelieving at the same time.

"I... I'm so sorry to hear that." Twilight didn't know what else she could really say in this situation. She was rather new to the whole friendship-thing herself, after all, and her friend's current predicament went beyond anything she knew how to fix.

Ryou seemed to appreciate her meek words nonetheless, giving Twilight a sad smile while looking at her with tired eyes. "Don't be. Father's always been a bit... fickle with his time. Really, I should've gotten used to this sort of thing by now."

Twilight couldn't believe what she was hearing, gaping at the white-haired boy. The guy was making it sound as if it was his fault for wanting his own dad to visit him in a new country, for crying out loud!

"No, you shouldn't!" The bespectacled girl exclaimed heatedly, not really knowing what came over her. Seeing how Ryou looked at her with wide and surprised eyes, Twilight blushed as she seemingly retreated into herself, embarrassed of her outburst. "I-I just meant-"

She desperatly tried to think of a more tactful way to voice her opinions on Ryou's father, but she stopped once Ryou held up a hand, asking for her silence. His chocolate brown eyes were looking at her in understanding and gratitude, but Twilight could also see a sense of resignation. It saddened her greatly.

"Really, Twilight. Thank you, but I'll be alright, I promise." His voice was as soft and kind as ever, but even though Twilight had only known Ryou for a little more than a week, she could tell that the quandary stilled weighed down upon him.

A silence then reigned between them for a while, Ryou looking down in silent contemplation whilst twiddling the millenium ring around in his fingers and Twilight not really knowing what to say. The two of them merely sat there on the swings for some time, deep in thought.

Fortunatly, they were saved from further silence by Ryou taking note of the book in Twilight's lap. More specifically, the title.

"Is that 'The Silmarillion' I spy?" He inquired sounding both curious and optimistic.

"Y-yeah, it's one of my favourites." Twilight responded, having been caught a bit off-guard by the question. It wasn't often someone asked her about her reading materials, let alone sounding as intrigued as Ryou did. "You know Tolkien?"

"Do I know Tolkien?" Ryou repeated with mock outrage, visibly cheering up quite a bit. "Of course I do, he's one of my all time favourite authors!"

"Mine too!" Twilight quickly found that Ryou's enthusiasm was as usual very contagious, the subject of said enthusiasm being her favourite fantasy-author did help, of course. "Did you first read his work when you were living back in England?"

"Got it in one." The white haired boy confirmed with a smile. "I picked up 'The Hobbit' one day at a local book sale and got completely sucked in. In fact, it was my interest in Tolkien's legendarium that got me into RPGs like Monster World in the first place."

That made sense to Twilight. "I can definetly see that. From what you've told me about Monster World and that display you showed us, it must be like acting out a story right in Middle-Earth! What's your favourite of his work?" The scholarly girl didn't really know what kind of enthusiasm came over her, maybe it was partly relief of not having to sit there in silence anymore.

"It's hard to pick a favourite, as I really love all of them." Ryou pondered for a bit, a hand on his chin. "But I think I would have to pick 'The Children of Húrin'. There's something really appealing of the tragic fate of Túrin Turambar, and the ending is quite melancholic, which is a nice bit of contrast compared to some of his other work. And you, Twilight?"

"I think that I'd have to pick 'The Silmarillion'." She held said book in her arms as if it were an infant. "It's a great look into the deeper cosmology and history of Tolkien's world, and it reads as if it were some kind of religious text, with some beautiful passages and imagery."

"You've definetly got a point there." After Ryou's words they both went silent for a while, but it was now a much more pleasant silence then earlier.

"I should probably head home now." Ryou's soft voice broke the silence as he locked eyes with Twilight. "I need to cook up some supper for myself, and I still have to finish the last parts of Mr. Doodle's assignement."

The girl gave her friend a kind smile, "You do that, Ryou. It was nice getting a chance to talk with you like this."

He returned her smile, "Same to you." The white-haired boy rose up from the swing he had been occupying and began his trek home, "I'll see you around, Twilight."

"Yeah, you to." She returned, but just as Ryou had taken his first steps she called out, "Wait!" The boy did just that, turning around and looking down at her questioningly. Twilight blushed lightly, before gathering up her courage and told him. "Just so you know, me and the girls, we're all there for you if you ever want to talk about... y'know, stuff."

She finished off rather awkwardly, avoiding his gaze and thinking that she had just overstepped some kind of boundary. The silence she got in response didn't help.

After a few seconds of unbearable silence, Twilight gathered up all of her courage and looked up, expecting to see a scandalized Ryou, or no Ryou at all.

She was surprised once she saw that the boy was still there and didn't look the least bit scandalized at her brazen speech. If anything, he just looked rather shocked... but almost in some sort of good way. It may have been a trick of the light, but Twilight could've sworn she saw wetness gathering in the corners of Ryou's eyes.

"Um... you alright there?" This seemed to snap the boy out of his funk, hastily rubbing his eyes and tilting his head slightly, as if not wanting Twilight to see something on his face. Once he was done doing this, he lowered his hand and fully faced Twilight, showing her a truly grateful face.

"Y-yes, I'm fine." Ryou hastily assured her, his smile still in place but now accompanied by a light blush. "Thank you, Twilight. I... I'm glad to have the privelege of calling you and the others my friends."

Twilight didn't really know how to take such a compliment, having never really heard such a sincere and moving confession before. But as she was thinking of how to best respond to it in the most earnest and sincere way possible, Ryou gave her one of his usual bows and began to head home, "Goodbye, Twilight. Thank you for the talk."

"Y-yeah, you too!" She somewhat stumbled over her speech as she waved goodbye to her friend who was slowly but surely walking outside of her sight. Even though she couldn't see him anymore, Twilight's thoughts still heavily lingered on Ryou and what she had learned about him today.

On one hand, it was cool to find another real Tolkien-fan in Canterlot City, one which seemed to have the same passion and knowledge about the subject as herself. Her friends knowledge was pretty limited to the movie trilogy.

But on the other hand, it was clear that Ryou had some real issues with his father, and it probably wasn't going away anytime soon. It made her sad, to think that the kind boy she and the others had gotten to know throughout the week was going through some unpleasant things.

Still, that only made her more determined to help Ryou. Principal Celestia had started by giving her the mission to help Ryou adjust to his new surroundings, and that was exactly what she planned to do.

Ryou was her friend, and friends help other friends. It was one of the many things she had learned throughout her time at CHS, and it was a lesson she hoped that Ryou would understand as well.

Yes, Twilight had a really good feeling about Ryou Bakura.

Author's Note

His time
is at hand...

Brace yourselves