"It's been a weird fuckin' day," sighed Christian as he sat on his small bed.

The sun was setting outside the curtained window. He went over to it and looked out. There was no one outside. No one. Despite it being nowhere near midnight, the entire area was deserted.

He began to think about the human race in general and if it was doomed. His thoughts were immediately dissipated, though he wasn't sure why.

"Ah, can't be too bad here," he said as the bed began to heat. "Huh, guess that's another perk," he added.

It wasn't long before Christian Collins had fallen asleep.

It was eleven minutes past midnight.

Brendan Retmore refused to sleep. He was trying to focus, but he couldn't. Every time he attempted to pull his thoughts together, something scattered them. It was pissing him off, but every time he tried to speak his anger, his brain wouldn't let him. It took all he had in him not to let it enrage him further.

He had had anger issues on Earth. Not often, but sometimes he couldn't help himself. He would lash out. Since coming to this place, he was having much more success keeping his emotions under control. It was a benefit he couldn't deny.

He peered out the window. There was no one out there, as he had expected. He pressed his face to the glass, trying to see as much of the area outside as he could. He still didn't see anyone.

He turned to the door and, very cautiously, turned the knob. He assumed that humans were the only ones to have houses with doorknobs. He poked his head outside. There was not another soul in sight. His heart began to race as he stepped outside, closing the door quietly behind him.

A little voice inside his head came to life. Go back inside, it told him.

No, Brendan responded mentally. I gotta find Christian.

Go back inside, the voice repeated.

I'm not doing it.

Go!

No!

GO!

NO!

The voice continued to persist, but Brendan did his best to ignore it and walked over to the next house. This house had no sign in the front. He walked to the next one. No sign. He inspected two more houses before he finally found one with a sign in front of the door bearing the number 1.

He walked up to it. Slowly he opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind him. He saw a large TV, several bottles of drinks he was pretty sure didn't contain alcohol, and a few other luxury items. But the kicker was the black Apple iPhone X sitting on the small table in the kitchen. Something only the human world could produce.

He assumed he had found D'Angelo's home, as he could imagine this was what a young college student would want. He climbed the stairs carefully, quietly, and as he reached the top, the voice in his head intensified. He covered his ears, trying to shut it out, but to no avail. He couldn't go on. He stumbled back down the steps, back out of the house, back into his own, and the voice finally stopped.

He sat down, breathing heavily. Something had held him back. He had been so close...

He tried to imagine how he could erase the voice from his head, but as usual, something scattered his thoughts. He growled. He was never able to fully focus on his thoughts. Apparently everyone was supposed to get what they wanted here, yet the thing he wanted most was the thing he never got.

Brendan sighed as he climbed the stairs and entered the small room where his bed was. He flopped onto it, and felt himself getting drowsy as it started to heat up. He wanted to say he didn't care about it, but he'd be lying. It felt comfortable as hell. Eventually, Brendan was asleep, his mind absent from reality.

Celestia was relieved, but also worried. she had managed to steer Brendan back into his home, but it had required intense magic. The other two relinquished their minds easily, but Brendan was clearly different. She needed to figure out a way to get Brendan to be as compliant as the others. She decided to visit him.

Rather than walking to his dwelling, she simply teleported there. She knew he was asleep, but she couldn't wait. She decided to wake him up using her magic rather than knocking on the door, knowing that it would most likely scare him to death if she did. She heard him coming down the stairs, and after waiting a moment, finally knocked.

Brendan had no idea what woke him up, but when his path to the coffeemaker was interrupted by a knock on the door, he began to have an idea.

He didn't bother walking over to it. "Come in," he said, fiddling with the different options on the brewing machine.

Celestia, in all her glory, entered. Brendan turned around. He was surprised to see that regardless of the fact that it was midnight, she looked perfectly fresh. He, on the other hand, looked like shit. He scratched his head. "Yeah?" he said.

"I hope you don't mind me stopping by so late," she said. "But I believe you should know I can see everything you do."

Brendan stopped moving. He figured she would know, but there had to be a certain reason she was telling him that she knew not long after it happened.

"I understand that in your world, deviation from expectations are much more common and rarely disciplined," she said. Brendan grabbed his full coffee cup and took a sip.

"However," Celestia continued, "I intend for things to be a little bit different here. If my instructions were correctly followed, the pony who escorted you here made you aware that you shall not be out at or past midnight, correct?"

Brendan sighed. "Yeah, they said that."

"Wonderful. So please do tell me what exactly made you decide to do it anyway."

Brendan was beginning to fear this celestial being more and more every second, but he did his best to conceal it. "I don't know," he replied. "I just wanted to find Christian, so that's what I went to do."

"Well," said Celestia. "I'm afraid that once this time of night comes around, I can't allow you to do that. However, you will be granted an opportunity to speak with him soon."

"When?"

"I will be sure to inform you when. Now, may I see that cup of coffee?"

Brendan was taken aback by this. "You want some? Sure." He handed it to her.

She took a small sip, then handed it back. "Thank you," she said. "I wish you a good night." She left.

Brendan took a decent-size sip of the coffee himself, and sighed. It was much better than the shit coffee machine that Taco Bell had put in the kitchen for employees pulling the night shift.

He drained the coffee and was about to look out the window but stopped. His brain felt woozy, but he automatically knew he shouldn't do that. He walked upstairs and returned to his bed, falling back asleep.

Author's Note

Chapter 4 yall. Sorry for the wait, finding a proofreader/editor to help me with this has been rough. Hope yall enjoy this though, I did my best on it.

Peace.