Janon - The Resident "Wise" Guy

I woke up the same way I had this past week. With a Changeling snuggled up against me. That Changeling having been sent to supervise me for the princesses. That quickly didn't work out. In my eyes, it worked out flawlessly but I'll have to wait three more weeks to see what the princesses think. I mean she hasn’t once left my side even appearing in my dreams. So I’ll say it now she’s quite the supervisor. Come to think of it, my thoughts are interrupted by my alarm. Said alarm is played through headphones making it impossible to ignore. I reach out a hand and grab my phone, after solving three short addition problems it turns off. The creature in my embrace wiggles, that creature being Sable. She was not lying when she told Roger and the others where she’d be sleeping.

Sable looks up from my chest, her dusky blue eyes softly gazing at mine. “Do we have to get up? You’ve practically finished the rooms and it’s only been a few days. Take a break.”

I rest my hands on her back, “I’ll take a break once it’s finished, at this rate I’ll be finished today with time to spare.” I move one of my hands to her left ear scratching behind it. This earns a coo from Sable as she relaxes into my arms. “Plus that leaves time for us to simply relax in the new areas.”

“Fine, you win. But you must pay the cuddle tax once you’ve finished.” She says sliding off me and plopping beside me.

“Egh, people don’t like taxes. So it’s certainly not a tax, nevertheless, I shall pay it.” I say getting up from my bed and getting dressed. Sable was used to my daily routine now using the time to get herself instead of simply looking at me awkwardly.

“So, what’s the plan for the day?” She asks nuzzling my leg me having finished getting dressed.

“Same as always breakfast first. After that, we head back here and continue with the rooms.” I say buttoning up my Lazio Suit jacket. Like most days, I am wearing a pair of pants, a gray long-sleeve button-up polo shirt, a dark gray bowler hat, a belt, and my glasses. “You ready?” I fix the collar of my shirt.

“Yep, let’s head out I’m starving,” Sable says leading the way into my office and then into the hallway.

“Good, I’m so hungry I could eat a…” I catch myself before I let slip an awkward-to-explain idiom.

Sable looks back at me with a giggle, “Funny.”

“Yeah, don’t worry bout that,” I say as we walk to the kitchen.

We arrive at the kitchen and are immediately greeted by Sparky.

“Morning, Sir, Ma’am. How can I assist you this fine morning?” Sparky asks as we approach the order area.

“What do you want to try today Sable?” I ask it’s become a daily thing for each meal. Sable will just try something from the menu to see what she likes and dislikes.

“Pancakes?” Sable responds in a questioning tone not quite knowing what to expect.

“That sounds good. They’re flat round cakes made from batter. I think you would like them. They’re very similar to waffles and you enjoyed them.”

“Oh, waffles my love.” She says with a happy smile.”

“Hey, I thought that–”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” She interrupts with a playful glare. “You got a long way to go.”

“I’m glad we agree on that,” I say with a smirk.

“I hate to interrupt but pancake it is?” Sparky says in a soft tone.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry, Sparky.” Sable says in an apologetic tone

“It’s fine. Take a seat and we’ll have your food in a few moments.” Sparky says before disappearing into the kitchen.

“You heard the bot.” I head to the booth we’ve sat in every morning. Sable sits beside me lying down on her back looking up at me with a smile. “Okay cuddlebug,” I say with a chuckle placing a hand on her fuzzy chest chitin. She giggles at this leaning into my hand. I scratch her chitin with my hand causing her to begin cooing.

“Keep doing that.” she says with a dopey smile, “Oh that feels amazing,”

Unbothered by our cuddling Sparky says “Pancakes have arrived,” and places two plates of pancakes each stacked three high on the table.

I retract my hand and Sable sits up straight with an awkward cough.

“If I had emotions I would call that exchange very cute but due to Hammond falling short I currently lack those.”

“Hammond is actually going with my idea,” I say with a smile surprised Hammond seems to be okay with my idea.

“Yes, it seems he is.”

“What idea?” Sable asks with a mouth full of pancakes.

“I asked Hammond to give all of the robots here their own unique AI personalities.”

“That doesn’t seem like a good idea.” Sable quietly whispers. I recently showed her Terminator one through three so this reaction doesn’t surprise me.

“It’s not like they’d rebel, I treat them like people without them having emotions. This is just so they can actually become something more. Plus they already all have deactivation and reset codes so they aren’t truly a threat.”

“If you say so.” She’s not fully certain how to think but I can see in her eyes the level of trust she has in me. A trust I don’t fully believe I deserve.

“So what do you think of pancakes?” I ask beginning to eat mine.

“They’re really good. It’s like waffles just less crunchy.”

“Want to try French Toast tomorrow? It’s similar to this, it’s bread soaked in egg.”

“Sounds interesting if it’s half as good as all the other food I’ve had here I’m sure to like it.”

We continue eating in silence neither one of us finding anything to talk about. I remember something I noticed when she laid on my lap earlier. “The holes in your legs have closed.”

“Pardon? They what?” She asks somehow not realizing it until just now. Lifting an arm and looking at it with a slightly surprised expression. “Woah, I stopped feeding off your love after that first morning and that was only a little this is something unexpected.”

“You better not turn into some weird bug-deer thing,” I say in a teasing tone.

“Har-har.” She laughs, “But still this means I’m getting less malnourished and more powerful.”

“Interesting that means our acquaintanceship is giving you energy without you needing to feed off me. That shows changelings can simply give love and not need to feed.”

“Acquaintanceship? I thought we were friends?” The changeling at my side says with a mock pout.

“I didn’t know how’d you react to me saying the power of our friendship is giving you energy.”

“Oh, yeah. That sounds really cheesy. Still didn’t answer my question.”

“I’d say friends with benefits,” I answer with a smirk.

“What type of benefits?” Sable asks with a sultry smile scotting closer.

“Ear scratches, cuddles, bath, little things,” I respond not acknowledging her antiques

“Thought so.” She smirks having finished her pancakes.

“You ready to head out?” I ask finishing my final bite.

“Yep, now I get to watch you work for the next like I don’t know five hours.”

“It’s not that bad. You get your own room after this.”

“I’m still sleeping in your bed.” She remarks as if it wasn’t already apparent.

“I know plus after I finish the new rooms we get a cuddle couch.”

She perks up at this. “How can I help.”

“Knew that’d get your attention. Simple just watch my back.”

“Sounds easy enough. Let’s get going.” She says jumping up from the booth.

“Your dishes,” I say having to remind her this daily.

“Oh right,” Sable trots back with a sheepish smile grabbing her plate and setting it on the counter, me following suit.

“Now we’re ready.”

The walk back to my room isn’t a long one least doesn’t feel like one. I open the door to my office and Sable enters the room.

“Okay, this shouldn’t take that long at all. Heck, I’m literally going to be the only person working on it today that’s how little is left to be done.”

“What’s left to be done?” Sable asks her head tilted sideways.

“Just some wiring to the electrics and testing the plumping. Besides that nothing else. As I said not much.” I open the door to what is going to be her room. Inside currently is just a bed, TV, and a dresser closet combo. Under the bed is a rug figured she’d like it. Come to think of it this is the first time she’s gotten to see it.

“This is nice.” She says walking around the room. “You got me a magic screen?”

“No, it’s a Television. Think of it like my monitor but only for watching things. Granted I could always get you a console and hook it up to the it so you can play games. But that’s up to y–”

“Do it, if it means more time with you doing things you enjoy do it,” Sable says not letting me finish my sentence. Her eyes have that look again, I don’t know how to explain it. It’s a warm look but one filled with some type of longing,

“Alright, a fuck ton of consoles incoming.” I say before snapping my fingers, “I summon two boxes full of consoles.” Just like requested two boxes of console appear on the floor. I walk to the boxes and open them. Inside I see an Xbox 360 through Series X, Playstations 1 through 5 even the PSP and PS Vista, I also spot a few Nintendo consoles, WII U, Switch, and all four DS generations. In the other box, I see the classics, N64, Gamecube, Atari, Saga Genesis, NES, and a few others I don’t immediately recognize.

“Bit overkill don’t you think?” Sable says flatly looking down at the boxes with curiosity. “So what are these?”

“I am so glad you asked,” I say with a nerdy smile fixing my glasses with a finger and putting my hands together.

“I sense I’ve made a mistake,” Sable says taking a step back.

What follows is a one-hour lesson on video consoles.

“So you’re telling me it went from the Atari two-six hundred with five hundred and twenty-three games to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X with thousands of games?”

“Yep, over the course of only forty or so years.”

“Impressive. So which one are you going to set up first?”

“Probably the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. They’re the latest ones so they’d have the newest games. If you like it I’ll see about getting a PC for you as well.”

“Nice. I’ll give it a shot.”

Reaching into the box I grab the Xbox and Playstation and set them horizontally next to the Sony RDR-VX555.

“What’s that?” Sable asks pointing a hoof at the machine.

“Oh, that? It’s a wonderful invention that can play both DVDs and VHS tapes. Great machine it is.” That means I can hit her with the Titanic and Interstellar double whammy. Two tear-jerking movies back to back. That’d be too evil. “Hopefully I have enough cables.” I shrug “Fuck it.” Summoning a box of cables, HDMI, USB, all sorts.

The next thirty or so minutes are spent with me quietly cussing to myself as I fiddle with the wiring of the machines before they finally work. As a wise man once said, a computer is only as smart as the person using it, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to be outmatched by two gaming consoles. “Aha,” I say as I figure out all the wiring.

Sable perks up from her bed, “Got it all figured out?”

“Yep, now I have to deal with our bathrooms,” I say opening the door on the right side of her room. It leads to a hallway which turns at a 90-degree angle. On the exterior of the corner is her bathroom. Walking inside I quickly turn on the faucet, it works, and I turn it off. I then walk to the toilet and flush it, it flushes, I turn on the tub, it works, and I turn it off, the tub works shower works. “Okay done with your bathroom.”

“That was fast.” She says expecting it to take a solid twenty or so minutes.

“As I said, quick test nothing more.”

“What’s next?’

“Just got to check on my bathroom and then we’re done,” I say as I speed walk to my bathroom through the living area and into my hallway, then into my bathroom. Quickly going through the list, turn on the faucet, it works, turn it off, flush toilet, it flushes, turn on the tub, it works, turn it off, if the tub works then so does the shower. “That’s it,” I answer after about five minutes. I walk back into the living area and find Sable who’s made herself at home on the cuddle couch. It’s just a regular L-sofa but knowing her it’s going to be used mostly for cuddling.

“You, me couch now,” Sable says looking up at me as I enter the room.

Not one to argue with the mare I plop on the couch and Sable climbs on top of me resting her chest on mine, her head beside mine. I wrap my arms around her back and pull her close. It’s a very comfortable position so comfortable we both end up falling asleep. Typically I’d cast a spell sealing my dreams from Luna’s power so she wouldn’t find out I was sleeping with my observer but due to this unscheduled slumber, I did not.

Luna’s perspective

It has been a week since I assigned Sable to Janon and I haven’t heard a word from her. Perhaps Janon was lying about his intentions and killed her when she arrived. I don’t know but I do know one thing. For the first time since I assigned her to him, I can enter his dreams. Now was the time to get some answers. Even better let me get my Sister and Cadence, oh, and Twilight as well we can have introductions now so we can focus solely on the main points of our meeting when it comes.

I exit the dreamscape and teleport to my sister. “Tia, I can enter Janon’s dreams once more. Now is the perfect time for introductions.”

Celestia purses her lips, “Well day court is going rather slow today, I’ve only had one or two ponies show up. I see no reason I can’t join you.” the white alicorn turns to her assistant, Raven Inkwell, and speaks, “Raven, tell the guards to close day court early for lunch, I have a meeting in the dreamscape.”

“Your majestry are you sure that’s the wisest idea?” Raven asks with a raised brow.

“Yes, this meeting is with the human. Plus day court is going slow today just tell those who show up to wait till after lunch.” Celestia responds in a soft tone.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Raven says walking away. Luna and Celestia teleport in a flash of light directly into the Golden Oak Library.

“Twilight,” Luna says not seeing the mare.

“Luna?” A confused Twilight shouts emerging from her basement. “Princess Celestia? What’s going on here?”

“My prized student, we’re having a meeting with the Human, in the dream realm,” Celestia says looking down at her student with a smile.

“Janon? Did something happen?”

“No, we’re just checking up on him. A surprise visit to say.” Luna ponders with a smile.

“Oh, good. I was worried something went wrong.”

“What could have gone wrong?” Celestia asks only knowing a little about this human.

“Well he lives in the Everfree for starters and he made a deal with Discord and apparently has friends in very high places.”

“That is new knowledge. Did you know this sister?”

“No, he mentioned living in an underground facility but never said where.”

“Well then, let’s get Cadence and then meet this Janon,” Celestia says to them.

“I don’t have any plans for the day,” Twilight says trotting up to the pair.

“Good, they’d likely get disrupted,” Luna says teleporting them into the dreamscape of Cadence.

“Cadence,” Luna says to the pink alicorn as she approaches, “Ready to meet Janon?”

“Sure, Shinning Armor is training the crystal guards so I decided to take a nap. Free time isn’t it wonderful.”

“Yes, it is,” Celestia says with a nod nuzzling Cadence as she approaches. “Well, Lulu, let’s meet this Janon.”

“Yes, Tia let’s,” Luna replies and, they disappear in a flash of light.