Chapters “Hey John, I need spaghetti noodles!” came the sound of an angry voice through a speaker.
Soon as those words were said, the person in question groaned: “Hey boss, both spaghetti and noodles are the same thing…” he quickly muttered under his breath in an annoyed tone.
It was Sunday, and there was the usual rush of hungry customers coming in, and as usual, he was being used as the stand-in cook, since the main cook was sick... Again.
Work in a restaurant could be tough, or at least John thought as much.
He quickly took the “spaghetti noodles” out to the ravenous customers, quickly returning inside to avoid it all. Just wanting it to be over with.
“Aww, poor John can’t handle it?” cooed Michael, one of his co-workers before adding ”Maybe you should just go home, you know you can’t do shit here.”
John felt the sting of his words, as he knew them to be true, he had worked at this dead end job for over a year, and never managed to do anything correctly, he always wondered why he hadn‘t been fired yet, he wasn't allowed much time to rethink his life choices when the angry voice returned with a vengeance.
“The noodles are cold! Hurry up and heat them up!”
He stifled a scream, and begrudgingly, left to attend to his boss’ demands.
~~~~~
“Alright boss, I’m off” John told his boss as he partook in a phone call, in response, he just waved his hand at him, not really paying attention, he took the action as a sign to finally go home, or rather, as not being 'send home' just to be brought back in a third time.
“Ugh, this day was just terrible!” John screamed out loud as he walked out of the restaurant, not caring if any customers saw it Maybe I can save them from terrible food he thought with a satisfied grunt. Feeling slightly better, he began the walk home, but as luck would have it, he was promptly stopped by a certain voice calling for him.
“Hey, John!” He felt a sense of calmness envelop him at the sound of the voice, and he turned around to meet it, it came from a slender girl, calmly driving her car, passing by him, and quickly adding a “See you tomorrow!” before driving off.
John sighed wistfully while waving at the girl of his affections, quickly reminding himself of the slim chances with her, but he needed a reason to stay in the living hellhole that posed for a job, and she made a good argument.
The moment of euphoria now passed, he resumed his walk, but quickly halted as a car stopped next to him. The window rolled down to revealing the insulting man from earlier.
“You know, everyone knows that you like her, why don't you tr- Oh, wait..." he stopped suddenly and chuckled “You don’t have a chance in hell with her, just give her up, women like men like me, not some idiot like you who doesn’t even know how to drive, has no personality and has no friends,” he explained as if having read them off some script, probably having learned them down to a t beforehand.
John was ready to shoot an insult in retort, but stopped, unable to stand up to Michael -not that he could- he was right to a certain extent.
“Heh, later you fucking loser”
"You are a charmer, Michael," John sighed and made the short walk home go faster by speed walking, if only to leave the outside, away from the annoyances that the world seemed to be giving him. He made his way inside where he saw that neither his aunt or uncle were home, and quickly made his way into the kitchen to grab a quick bite to eat, then, he headed to his room with plate at hand, when his phone began suddenly ringing, startling him and making him drop everything.
“Really!?” He huffed and quickly reached into his pocket to check the caller before reluctantly answering it.
“Yes, hello?” He said barely containing his dread.
“John! You burned the Macaroni! You know full well that's forty bucks worth! That is coming out of your paycheck!” his boss roared, letting all his anger out without allowing John a moment to explain. All he could do was take it.
“Yes, I understand, goodbye,” He hanged up before finally snapping “FUCKING REALLY!?” He yelled to no one in particular, just wanting to vent his anger, before getting on bed with pitiful sigh.
“Well, at least my life can’t get any more complicated than this” he sighed in defeat.
He cleaned up the mess on the floor and decided to ditch eating, instead opting for turning in early, he jumped in bed, and felt himself being taken by sleep, his problems soon fading into the back of his mind.
Author's Note
Hello. If you are reading this, it means you actually went through that terrible first chapter WAY after I published it.
You can skip this if you'd like, I'll just be placing some tidbits about the chapter here. Yeah, it's okay.
Note 1:
I wanted to do that, to learn how to do such wonderfully written things.
And thus, my journey into pone writing began.
“JOHN!”
"Gah!"The sound of a loud beep reached John's ears, waking him up instantly, and much to his chagrin, he turned over, noticing the familiar beeping of his phone reaching his ears.
“Who the hell sends a text message at…” he stopped as he picked a glance at his phone looking at the time “3:30!? Ugh,” he complained, but chose to at least check the text, he had a very angry message to send back “I’m too tired to make this long” He took a gander at the message, but he found himself confused at its contents.
'You seem to be having a tough time,' read the message.
“No kidding. But wait, who send this?” he asked himself, checking the number but finding out that none was visible. "Private, figures," the thought of Michael playing a prank came to mind.
“Geez, can’t he wait till morning?” against his better judgement, he decided to humor him, thinking of a way to get him back.
'Yeah, this guy called Michael is a real dick,' he replied, not really knowing how to start, but feeling
'That’s not a very nice thing to say, you know?' came the replying text.
“You would say that,” John quickly muttered before replying. 'Well, he is, he makes fun of other people just to feel better about himself.'
It was a full minute till he got a reply 'Well, does he have a reason for doing so?'
'Are you trying to justify it?' he replied angrily, well, as angry as a text can be.
'No, no! I just feel that you are in need of help, which is the reason I’m contacting you, what he is doing isn‘t right, sure, but I think if you opened up a bit, ,' John was confused, was Michael trying to be friends with him? “Guess he is trying to apologize?” he asked himself before replying 'Ok, I'll bite, you can help me.'
“Great, I will be right there!” said the returning text which he read out loud just to make sure he read it right. “He is coming here? Tonight? Okay, that’s kind of creepy,” he thought, choosing to reply before he did something dumb, but was stopped shortt by a purple light appearing on the ceiling.
“OH SHIT, I KNEW THE ALIENS WOULD TAKE OVER,” he mouthed, a scream attempting to leave his body, but no words coming out, and without warning, passed out.
~~~~~
“Aaah!” John woke with a start, as sunlight went through his window, letting him know it was early morning. “Oh man, I need to stop drin- Oh, wait, I don’t drink… Maybe I should start doing that” He laughed at his own comment and attempted to get up, but as he did, he felt something soft, warn, and slightly hairy at his feet.
“What the hell is this?” he asked, timidly looking down, noticing something on the floor.
In a fit of panic, he lifted his feet off, and rushed himself to the wall, holding his legs in fear. And he awaited, hoping for the event to be part of his imagination. But to his horror, a groan came, and all while questioning his sanity, he saw a purple maned mini-horse getting up from the spot he had just stepped on.
“How the hell did Michael even manage to put this fucking horse in my house!?" John hissed, pointing at the confused looking animal in front of him, before quickly pushing the thought away and reaching his cell phone to make a call to animal control.
“For your information, I’m not a ”horse” but a pony, I understand that we both are both equines, but I consider us both a notable distinction nonetheless,” he heard a voice say, he looked at the pony, laughing it off, of course, as everyone knew, ponies didn't talk.
“I need to start drinking right now,” he muttered to himself before hearing someone clear their throat before looking up again and seeing the pony’s lips move.
“Please, don’t ignore me, it's rude. Now before we begin, I believe you may have some quest--”
“AAAAAH-” he began yelling before being promptly silenced by some purple light coming from the pony‘s horn… Wait, horn!?. “Oh God, oh God! It’s gonna kill me!” he thought in a fit of panic, his life flashing before his eyes, and the most random thought coming to mind. “Why didn’t I said yes at the party!? At least I wouldn’t have died a virgin!”
“Please, calm down!” the pony pleaded, releasing her 'grip' from his mouth, unfortunately, John's reaction was to begin screaming again, and running for the door, only to find out that it would not budge.
“Please! Please! Don’t hurt me! I will do almost anything you want!” he yelled before looking at the animal again.
“Huh?” he begin studying the pony and noticed that it was just sitting there, looking at him, patiently waiting. “You… Are not gonna hurt me?” he reluctantly asked and the pony shook its head. “Was that you just talking? Or was that me just going insane?” He chuckled nervously.
The purple pony took a deep breath before opening its mouth again. “Yes, I’m sorry to have scared you, I didn’t mean to, I now know that I should have given you more details, perhaps some sort of telepathic communication would have been better to have eased into this, can we start over?”
John gave the pony an awkward smile and a nod, awkwardly getting back on his bed and simply sitting there, not really paying the pony much attention, attempting to regain his thoughts. “There is a talking purple pony in my room, and- Ouch!” he hissed after he pinched himself. “And it’s not a dream," he took a deep breath, pushing some of the stress out. "I will just see what it wants, and get it over with”
He took a deep breath before asking what was the most prominent question in his mind “What are you?” she seemed amused at the question, but didn't say much of it.
“You mean to say 'Who' I am. Anyway, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I have been send by the ruler of my land to study how friendship works in this land, and in turn, perhaps, give some of my knowledge on the subject here as well,” she finished, allowing John to ask what he needed to ask.
'Friendship? Seriously?' he thought, baffled, but pushing the thought aside for the moment, he continued. "Eh... Why me?"
“Well… The ruler in my land chose to have somepony who had trouble forming friendships, and it was chosen at random, and you came up, and…” She stopped realizing what she had said. “Oh dear, that didn’t sound right, did it?” she finished awkwardly.
“Wait, so you chose me because I was one of the sorriest looking people you could find!?” he snapped not thinking of the consequences that might have brought him “Great, maybe you can put a rank on the 'sorry-o-meter' and put my face on it,” he added sarcastically.
“No, no, I came to study friendship by helping you!” she put her hoof on her face before adding “I know how that sounds, but I honestly want to help you mister, even if it‘s just an assignment!”
He felt a headache coming up but decided to ignore it. “Okay, I’m sorry, I’m just finding this whole situation difficult to grasp, we need to calm down, and it will be fine,” he collapsed on the bed frustrated, one last question coming to mind. “Let’s say I am believing all of this is happening, and I don't question it, and I let you study me as you said, if so how long do you plan on doing that?”
“A week at the very least, I need to get to know you, and since we are now technically roommates for the moment, we can talk about your world and mine, maybe get to know each other better!” she finished excitedly by doing a cute little 'clap' using her hooves.
He smiled a bit at her excitement, choosing to humor her. “I understand, OK, I’ll bite for now, and go figure, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is John Pennick, and, um it’s nice to make your acquaintance,” he said, reaching out and awkwardly shaking her hoof, noticing the strange fuzziness it had to it. 'I don’t trust her, but gaining her trust is the first step, maybe I’ll have the advantage if something goes wrong, ' he thought, as he begin making contingency plans to use just in case.
They both stared in silence for a minute before John broke it by clearing his throat and getting up. “I think I need a shower Ms. Sparkle, so if you will excuse me for a bit.”
"Of course, don't mind me!" she said, returning to her previous spot on the floor.
"Be right back, miss," he said as he clumsily grabbed a set of clothes.
“Uh, John?” she called reluctantly as he headed for the door.
“Yes, Ms. Sparkle?” he responded, barely glancing back to her.
“Call me Twilight,” she told him with a smile, calming John slightly, he returned the smile back, hoping to keep appearances as he made his way to the bath.
Author's Note
Notes 2
I fixed a ton of things when rewriting, but I couldn't change too much, so that's sad.
Without a second thought, John rushed into the restroom, closing the door as softly as he could possibly muster, trying his best to derail any suspicion on the pony, all while taking a bath to gather his thoughts.
“Ok, I have a talking horned purple pony that wishes to study me by showing how friendship can work on a pathetic human like me... Well, I was oddly specific but I got that so far, what else do I have?” he quickly recapped to himself. “Yeah, okay, I need this bath more than I thought,” realizing he was literally shaking, he decided upon a bath instead, laying down on the tub as the water filled it up, allowing the stress to melt away.
'Well, what am I going to do with her now?' he wondered, the conflicting thoughts of relaxation and stress making him feel uncomfortable as he thought of ideas.
“I can’t tell anyone, that’s for sure, they would think I’m crazy, and Twilight wouldn't let herself be seen by anyone else, especially if she tried to keep me quiet,” he reasoned.
Taking much longer than he expected, he made his way back to his room, where he could see Twilight from the part of the door he left partially open. 'Seems she is a reader,' he quickly noted as he saw one of her giant eye move left to right at a speedy pace. And a fast one at that he added.
“Uh, I’m back Twilight” he waved as he went into the room, but to his annoyance, found himself ignored. “Okay…..” with a smirk, he grabbed the door, and with slightly more force than he had planned, slammed it shut.
“BANG” The door went, making a louder noise than he wanted, making Twilight jump in surprise, her horn lighting up for a second. She turned to his direction, and gave him an unexpected glare.
“Spike! How many times ha-” she began spouting before being cut off by John's amused stare.
“Oh, sorry, force of habit“ she said apologetically, turning to the book that currently floated by her head, and putting a marker before closing it.
“Right…” John simply said, just waiting to get it over with. “Back to business, as they say. Twilight, what now?” he asked, sitting at the edge of his bed, awaiting for her response.
“Well, I will make a list of questions that I c-” She was cut off by a grumble coming from her stomach causing her to blush a bit. “I-I guess I’m a bit hungry, hold on a moment,” she giggled before composing herself and looking inside a bag she had put aside.
“It’s all good,I will eat later!” she said quickly closing the bag, and returning her attention to John. Noting the odd behavior, he decided to intervene.
“I’ll get you something to eat, you don‘t seem to have brought food of your own” he simply remarked, leaving the room before she had a chance to deny it. Until he realized something, returning to the room to ask “What do you eat?”
“You don’t have to do it, y-,” yet another grumble from her stomach interrupted her making her sigh in defeat. “Practically anything, except for meat, if I'm correct... Huh, odd, of course, we don't eat meat!” she haphazardly explained, looking confused. John tailored it to hunger, and with a shrug, left to get the food.
He made to the kitchen at a brisk pace, noticing the bulk on his pants as he went downstairs, he reached into his pocket, and took out his phone. “8:50!? Shit!” he shouted as he checked the time, realizing that he had no time to groom himself, give Twilight some house rules, and giving her food.
"Dammit!" choosing to do the two latter, he rushed to the kitchen, grabbing two apples and a cookie he had saved up for himself. "I guess no breakfast for John!" he mumbled before rushing upstairs, and giving Twilight the food.
“What’s wrong, John?” She asked eyeing him with concern.
“Work! Don’t go out! Secret agents might get you to study you! AH… Stay put!” He rambled before grabbing his hat and heading downstairs and out the front door.
“Have a nice day?” She replied looking blankly at the spot he had just been seconds before.
~~~~~
'Crap, crap, I’m gonna be late! I can’t afford to be late today! he thought while running, , and yet, to his luck, arriving with a minute to spare.
“Phew!”
“Almost late again, huh?” came the voice from one of his co-workers who chuckled from nearby, John didn't think much of him, but he liked him enough to be on speaking terms. “I thought you lived 5 minutes from here now?” he asked amused.
“Hey, Reuben… Shut up,” he said exasperated and embarrassed, as his acquaintance just laughed at his forgetfulness, he still wasn't used to his new place, even if he liked it more, habits were hard to break.
“Why do you look so tired anyway? I know you are usually late, but you never seem to care,” asked his co-worker.
Then it hit John: He had a freaking magical pony in his house and it had somehow slipped his mind during the run. 'How did I even manage that?' He thought face palming at his own stupidity. “I woke up late, sue me," he lied, just wanting the day to continue.
The rest of his day went by uneventfully, his thoughts caught between wanting to leave, and finding ways to deal with Twilight. 'as much as I don’t like it, she is staying there, and to be honest I don’t want to anger her, what if she is plotting something by hiding her true motives? Or what if she refuses to leave and ends up hurting me?' thoughts like this occupied his head, making him desperate to come up with something good.
“You are off tomorrow!“ his boss yelled from his office as John walked out of the kitchen getting his thoughts interrupted, but grimacing as he realized what that meant. 'Good, I guess, it may give me some time to talk with Twilight,' he thought as he waved his boss a half-assed bye.
I’ll be nice, that’s all I can do at this point. he thought for the umpteenth time that day as he made his way home. 'Home sweet home!' He thought sarcastically as he opened the door to his room and found his thoughts shift at what he saw when he opened the door.
'What.
Author's Note
Notes 3
Twilight wasn't having much luck getting her thoughts together, for some reason, she didn’t have a very concrete plan of what she was supposed to do in this strange world, this was very unlike her and she knew it, but she had to let the human know she was to be trusted before getting her act together, even if she had been a little desperate on her struggles, she was looking forward to it, and scaring him half to death was not on her to-do list.
“I think I need a shower Ms. Sparkle, so if you will excuse me for a bit,” he told her, as he went to a nearby drawer and taking out some clothes from it.
"Of course! Don't mind me!" she said in return, trying her best to avoid being a nuisance.
"Be right back, miss," he said, making his way to the door.
I need to show him he can trust me! she thought, and without noticing, letting the words out of her mouth. “Uh, John?” she asked before being able to stop herself.
“Yes, Ms. Sparkle?”
“Call me Twilight,” she simply said, giving him the best smile she could manage, earning her a smile in return from him before walking out of the room.
'That went better than expected' . she thought.'I think I've earned myself a little b- Oh no! I only brought one book!' she sighed sadly, shrugging. "Might as well read it now."
She remained in the book, caught in the words that brought upon knowledge that she might not yet possess, a world contained in its pages a w-SLAM! a world being interrupted by-
“Spike! How many times ha-” she stopped, coming to notice that what she was staring at was indeed, a human, and not in fact, a dragon in her library. "Sorry, force of habit!"
"Right..." looking disinterested, John quickly waved the event off, sitting down on the bed before talking.“Back to business, as they say. Twilight, what now?” he asked.
'That’s right, I need to begin my assignment,' she thought excitedly, preparing herself by reaching for a scroll and quill on her bag. “Well, I will make a list of questions that I c-” Growl she was cut by the sound of her stomach begging for food.. “I-I guess I’m a bit hungry” she said embarrassed by her stomach’s behavior. "Hold on a moment!"'Bad stomach!' she scolded it in jest, excusing herself for the moment, searching her bags for food
Of which, there was none.
'Spike forgot to pack my food… Uugh!' she thought angrily, thinking of how the baby dragon would be grounded for forgetting such an important thing.
“It’s all good, I will eat later!” she said nonchalantly, attempting to wave the issue away for the time being.
“I’ll get you something to eat, you don‘t seem to have brought food of your own” John simply said and walked out but quickly returned to ask. “What do you eat?”
“You don’t have to do it y-” She begin but was interrupted by her stomach growling once again. Traitor! She sighed in defeat. “Practically anything, except for meat, if I'm correct... Huh, odd, of course, we don't eat meat!” that was... Interesting. I guess I'm just hungry.
He nodded and left Twilight to her thoughts, but she didn’t have much time to think as a mere minute later, she saw John run into the room, hastily dropping a plate in front of her, but despite her best attempts, talking to him in while in his current state of panic proved fruitless as he ran out with a hat in hand.
“Have a nice day?” she replied to the long gone human before adding.“That was… Interesting” she giggled amused.
Maybe I should get my questions in order . She realized and took out a piece of parchment to take notes on how to approach John.
Maybe I should let him ask the questions first to better ease him into my own questions. She thought and wrote it down as step one while eating one of the apples. 'Good start Twilight, now, step 2,' she continued writing down different questions that would be good to ask, not too personal, but open enough to give her some insight on John. This way I can get to know him a bit better without having him get too nervous. as she checked the contents of her questionnaire for the fifth time, she had found out that a good number of hours had passed.
“Well, that had me entertained for a while,“ she noted, realizing that she didn't have much to do until John was home. “I think I should take a nap, I don’t have anything to do anyway.“ She said surprised, she had never been without work. “I guess once in a lifetime can’t hurt," she said, simply laying down on the floor, and without problem, passing out.
Minutes passed, as Twilight twitched, growing excitement for the assignment to begin, and before she knew it, her eyes opened, the sleepiness long gone.
Well, so much for that... Maybe I should inspect the room, I will be staying here for a while after all, and I still don‘t have much to do, maybe I‘ll find something about him as I look around... But, what if he is angry... No, I am simply doing research! And there is nothing wrong with that!” she finally reasoned.
She walked around looking at anything and everything that could be of interest. She decided to check the doors inside the room that seemed to lead to a closet, but quickly recoiled as she got closer.
“What is that smell!?” she busted out with a look of disgust on her face, regretfully returning to her previous sitting spot. I’m not getting close to that again! she thought, then noticed the rectangular window on top of the drawer.
"This reminds me of a movie theater... But smaller," right beside it, she noticed a smaller rectangular object with buttons, her curiosity having gotten the best of her, got her to press the bigger button on it.
The window flared to life showing different images of many different things, Twilight quickly jumped, not knowing what she was looking at BILLY MAYS HERE the screen began excitedly, making Twilight press the buttons, causing the window to change to something else SQUAREPANTS, SP- now growing desperate, she pressed all buttons and the window shut off and stopped making noises. “Oh! Thank Celestia!" she exclaimed relieved. "Not going to touch that again!” she muttered, nervously pushing the thing away.
Noticing a good number of other strange objects, she gulped, choosing to note it down to 'lesson learned, Dear Princess Celestia'. “I don’t have a death wish…”
Just then, her eye caught sight of a magazine sticking out of the edge of the bed. “Oh! Something new to read!” she said excitedly. “I wonder, what sort of literature does this world enjoy?” she opened the magazine and looked at it, curiously, the magazine only had pictures, using some common sense, she realized those were female, but unlike John, weren’t wearing any clothes.
“Hmm… A picture book?" she took a gander of the beings in it, noticing something strange. "These females are doing some strange poses,” she noticed. "Maybe some sort of open exercise? Sure would explain the lack of clothes."
Curious, she began copying the various poses as best as she could. “This is certainly strange” She said as laid on her front legs and raised her behind, instantly realizing what she was doing would get her a strong talking to, even from Pinky herself. How did I not see this? she thought with a blush and a groan.
Just as the door was opened by none other than John, who was now, obviously staring at the sight of her... Stuff, in full display
"J-John! H-hi!” She said awkwardly trying to break the ice, her cheeks as red as the apples she had eaten earlier that day.
Which wasn't helping by her staying the way she was.
With a quick notion, she composed herself and pushed the magazine away.
'Well, it certainly can’t get any worse than this,' she thought conflicted and added. 'Well, I'm sure HE got to learn something about me'.
Author's Note
Notes 4
DON'T JUDGE ME
What in the actual fuck!? John began thinking as his face turned scarlet at the sight in front of him, a sight he never expected to see in his entire life -or expected in any way for that matter- and yet, there it was.
"J-John! H-hi!” Twilight began sheepishly as she composed herself looking extremely embarrassed, her magic pushing a magazine John hadn't noticed earlier under his bed.
“A-ah yo-you” John began spouting at a loss of words. “TWILIGHT!?” he shrieked, not knowing how to deal with the situation at hand.
“You okay up there, John?” a male voice called from downstairs, making John regain his senses.
'Shit!' he thought, covering his mouth in instinct.“Yes, I’m ok, sorry.” he replied and quickly, made to close the door to his room.
“H-hey! It was your magazine, you know?” she began, in an attempt to defend herself.
“Well, no, I mean, yes! Well, kinda! Not really!” he retorted on his defense, as he was telling the truth, the magazine having come from a friend years before, and yet never given it back, he had brought it with him to his new place and just tossed it aside when he'd found it once more, finding it an useless addition when there was enough of that content online.
“I-I’m sorry” she began interrupting his thoughts. “I thought it was a book for exercises, yeah, it was dumb, I know! But they didn't have clothes on, and I figured that's because clothes got in the way, but you were coming in as I was about to stop a-and…” she huffed, just as tears of frustration and embarrassment began falling down her cheeks.
Shit. “No, Twilight, it-it’s alright” he began spouting not knowing how to handle it, feeling helpless and standing there just as the being from another universe cried on his floor. “Um... Twilight, it’s okay! Please, don’t cry! It’s okay, I’m over it! And it was my fault too, I think...” he began apologizing not really thinking about anything, but just attempting to calm her down.
“A-a-alright,” she hiccupped, attempting to stop her bawling, but only failing miserably.
'Geez, lady... Pony girl?' he thought, quickly waving it off to focus on the moment. “Here” John said handing her a towel nearby to get her to dry her tears.
“You good?” he asked after a minute, receiving a weak nod in return. “Phew,” he sighed and slumped back on the bed. “I'm sorry, let’s just try to forget this happened, please?” he pleaded, simply holding his forehead.
She stared at him and nodded once more, looking to the side afterwards.
“Do you want to get started on the proje-” he began, trying to shift the conversation into something else but quickly changed his mind. “You know what? Never mind, I think we had enough excitement for a day.”
“O-okay, I am going to lie down a bit if you don’t mind,” she said, laying down on the floor, facing away from him.
'Oh man, I can’t take it, curse my small bit of friendliness!' he thought, sighing at what he was about to do. “Hey Twilight?”
Barely managing to hear it himself, Twilight sighed softly. “Yes?” she managed, not even bothering to turn to meet him.
“I…” he began awkwardly, to which he quickly shook his head, his resolve on the task at hand. “I want you to lay down on my bed, I think it would be better than laying on the floor, especially for a young gi- I mean, mare? Like, um, yourself,” he finished lamely.
Her ears raised at his words, and slowly, she got on all hooves, turning around with a neutral stare, she scanned John for a few seconds before giving him a kind smile. “You are sweet, but I can’t let you do that.”
“Twilight, it took me quite some effort to ask you this, just get on the bed," he replied with a sour tone.
“Oh,” she muttered and giggled before saying. “Okay mister, I think I’ll take you up on that offer, then,” she replied, easily jumping on the bed, John grabbed a blanket from the closet and settled it down on the floor. “There we go, I’ll sleep on the floor while you stay here, ok?” he explained, quickly raising his hand before the argument came out of Twilight's mouth. “My room, my rules.” He said with a victorious grin on his face.
“Very well, you are the boss," she chuckled in defeat.
'Well, that should do it,' he noted. 'And I think she trusts me a bit more because of this, good job you stud, you,' he thought proudly.
“I think I’m good, trust me, I already slept most of the day away,” said Twilight turning to face him. “And if you don't mind me asking, John, how do you occupy your time off?”
“Oh, well…” he began, caught by surprise by the question. “Well, I usually just watch some TV to pass the time.” he told her, causing her to give him a questioning look.
'Oh, yeah, duh!' “This is a TV.” He explained while grabbing the remote causing Twilight to flinch. Well that’s not the reaction I expected.. "Something the matter?"
"Ah, ha, ha... No, sorry, just a bit jumpy with excitement, I guess! Ahaha..." she said with a nervous tone.
"Uh huh... Odd," then turned on the TV, leaving it on a child-friendly channel. 'I think I’ll leave it here, wouldn’t want her to lose her innocence with our other shows,' he thought as he returned to his seat on the floor.
The pair watched TV for some time, all the while, Twilight's nervous stare simply grew into astonishment, causing John to chuckle a bit as she watched and analyzed 'Spongebob'.
“But, wait, that’s just highly illogical, how can there be beaches with water underwater , and how can the talking sponge drown in water while in water itself, this leaves me baffled!" she continued, leaving John in hysterics at her piquing of a children's cartoon.
“What’s so funny mister?” she finally said, noticing John literally rolling on the floor in laughter.
“Well, let's just say you aren't really the most logical thing, 'Ms. Magical Pony,'” He said pointing directly at her horn.
“I suppose you have a point," she answered, then inexplicably, releasing a sigh.
“What’s up with you?” John asked, seeing her obvious discomfort. “You seemed so good at pulling yourself together that I thought you wouldn’t be the whining kind.”
Twilight simplyshot him a glance that disappeared as soon as it had appeared leaving a face that John could only be described as boredom. “Sorry, I just find this.” She began pointing at the screen “A bit overwhelming for me at the moment, I usually spend my time reading a book or making progress in my magical studies, this is a bit new to me, I mean, we have movies where I come from, but nothing like... This! ” she said giving John a long face, something that could be considered rude if he decided to ask with her having a 'horse face' and all.
Simply said, he would not ask that.
“How about this… Since it’s my day off tomorrow, I’ll go get you some books from the library, would that be okay with you?” he said with a grunt, it was his day off and he was gonna have to spend it on getting books. 'I'm a genius, ugh,
“Really!?” Twilight asked excitedly.
“Yes Twilight.” he assured her, showing her by setting his alarms. 'Early, of course, might as well deal with this fast.'
“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!” she exclaimed a bit too excitedly before calming down. “Sorry, I’m just excited to finally be able to read some of your world’s books,” she added, clapping with her hooves once again.
“Ugh.” John shuddered.
“What?”
“Nothing.” Why am I finding that clapping -or is it 'clopping'?- of hers cute? John asked himself before shaking himself from his stupor and turning back to Twilight. “It’s nothing, I’ll be going to bed now, so if you don’t mind. He said turning off the lights and laying down on the blanket.
“Oh, goodnight then…” Twilight said confused at his behavior, settling on the bed.
Oh man, that darn 'clopping' just won’t leave my head! he kept thinking, but was quickly forgotten as sleep overtook him.
Author's Note
Notes 5
Like the previous ones, I wrote this in a day and posted it soon after, needless to say, there were a lot of things wrong in this one, but I tried to keep it on the lower end this time around.
Twilight Sparkle was having the time of her life, she was with her friends on a picnic and she was smiling through it all.
Any day with her friends was a reason to smile.
Pinky was quickly eating away at the sweets with gusto leaving crumbs on her snout... And on the white mare next to her “ ! Slow down dear, the food won’t go away you know?” Rar told her with an annoyed look.
“The food can go away!? I can’t let that happen because if the food goes away we won‘t have more food and if we don‘t have more food this won‘t be a picnic anymore and instead it will the a lie because it isn‘t really a picnic!“ Pinky blurted out looking shocked and began eating faster, causing Rar to roll her eyes.
“Ah' don’t think you should even bother, Rare.” Applejack said with a smirk.
Twilight just laughed at the exchange and looked around searching for ...shy who had been silent during the exchange, as usual, and Rainbow was up on a cloud not far from there, napping, everything was peaceful, and she wouldn’t want it any other way.
“Twilight!” Came a voice from behind her ruining the calm mood, she quickly turned her head to find her faithful assistant Spike running towards her.
“Oh, what is it Spike?” Asked Twilight with a quizzical look on her face.
“DON’T, STOP ME NOW! I’M HAVING SUCH A GOOD TIME, I’M HAVING A BALL!” Said Spike leaving Twilight utterly confused at her assistants random outburst.
~~~~~
“WOAH!” Twilight cried out loud, rolling to the side and falling, the expected pain that is usually associated with hitting the floor to come, but oddly, it never did.
“Ugh…” a pained groan reached her ears. 'Where is the groan coming from?' she wondered, noticing what she was now sitting on.
“BEFF DA FUK OFF FEE!” came a muffled call, making her quickly jump on the bed, now noticing that she had fallen on John.
“What the hell Twilight!?” John hissed at her angrily, quickly getting on his feet.
“I-I’m sorry, I fell off the bed, I was having an… Odd dream.” She said finishing awkwardly, vaguely remembering Spike with an odd voice. "What is that?” Twilight asked, noticing John's phone, unleashing the music for the pair to hear.
“Oh, that’s called a cell phone, it can do things,” John bluntly answered as he stopped the voice on the cell phone.
“O-Ok” Twilight said. slightly hurt by his outburst.
“Oh, look, sorry, I’m not a morning person, it also doesn’t help that I had a 200 pound pony land on me, not that I'm saying you are fat or anything!” John explained with a pained look in his face. “Look, my back is killing me, and...”
As John continued his rambles, Twilight looked down at the floor, a feeling of guilt washing over her. A feeling that she wanted to get rid of by helping him. “I’ll make you feel better!"
"Excuse me?" John asked with discomfort, making Twilight roll her eyes.
"Just lay face-down and I’ll do the rest!” she said with a smile, and with some hesitance, John agreed with a nod.
Looking through her head she made a few choice words to tell him as she slowly put a hoof on his back to 'ease' him into it, a good advice she had gotten from... Her shy friend, was to let the patient feel at ease. “Don’t worry, I will make your pain go away.”
This poor choice of words caused John to turn his face and look at her in horror.
Just as quickly as he looked, Twilight was pushed aside as John quickly got up. “IMGONNAGOTOTHELIBRARYTOGETYOUBOOKSOKDONTDOANYTHINGKTHANKSBYE” John said rapidly, a blur now gone, leaving Twilight in a confused mess.
"... Did I say something wrong?"
John ran as fast as his feet could take him, making his way out to the street, and finally, stopping when he turned a corner and felt himself breathing at a ragged pace, his mind constantly going back to what had just happened.
“Just lay face-down and I’ll do the rest!” Twilight said with a smile.
John nodded reluctantly, but allowed himself some optimism. 'It can't be that bad, right?' and laid facedown on the bed, which soon led to the feel of Twilight’s hoof touching his back softly, the unexpected words reaching his ears.
“Don’t worry, I will make your pain go away,” John shivered at the way the words had been said, reminding him a lot of the way people say them in “one of those videos” as the person there tried to “relieve their pain”.
At that moment, he had turned to meet her, noticing her glowing horn, and at that very frame of second, noticing Twilight's face giving him a look that he would only ever see in his nightmares.
That’s all he needed to grab everything and bolt out the door trying to get as far away from Twilight as he possibly could.
In hindsight, he possibly, and more than likely might have been slightly overreacting to the situation, and his nerves might have been playing with him, maybe she was just blinking at the moment he turned.
'Now I need to apologize to her,' he thought as he neared the library, but quickly dismissed the idea, he would get a free pass with the books he was taking to her.
John searched the library for a while, coming into contact with books that he would never touch otherwise, until finally coming to the conclusion that taking books about things like 'physics' might not be the best course of action -especially for a pony whose main method of 'technology' might be magic and whose rules might be infinitively different to his own- and instead opting for some simpler books that he himself could read through.
He quickly made his way to the 'fiction' section, memories of school days coming to mind as he picked a couple books, as well as an extra book for himself. Taking the books back, he checked them out and was on his way to leave... That is until he came into contact with a certain familiar face.
“Oh, hey John!” called out the girl in front of him, approaching him at a fast rate.
He looked at her for a few seconds before replying “Hi” 'I win prize for most unoriginal way to begin a conversation.'
“I didn’t know you read,” she commented, noting the pile of books inside John's bag.
“I do, um, once in a while,” he said, trying to add to the conversation.
“So, what do you like to read?“ she asked with curiosity.
“Ah, just stuff.“ John replied nonchalantly, attempting to hide the books, specifically a book he brought for himself.
They stood there for a few seconds awkwardly smiling at each other before she broke the conversation. “Well… See ya later!” She said leaving him standing by himself.
'Smooth move Casanova,' he thought, both in frustration and relief, leaving the library with mixed feelings.
After an uneventful trip back, he made his way inside his home and into the room, a feeling of dread seeping into him for no real reason. Shrugging it off, he closed the door and looked at the room, it looked… Clean -except the area with his electronics, curiously- surprised, he turned to Twilight, who simply laid on the bed, asleep, a peaceful look on her face. John couldn't help but bring out a smile.
“Twilight, you didn’t have to do this,” he muttered under his breath, putting the books down closely for her to read later.
'She obviously did this to try to apologize, maybe she isn’t as bad as I thought, and I have to admit, she looks so innocent when she sleeps,' He thought looking at Twilight as he laid back on the empty spot in the bed with a pair of headphones, the idea of apologizing in return strongly ingrained into his head at that moment.
Author's Note
Notes 6
The girl in this case now being my ex... Insert no girlfriend memes and whatnot here.
Twilight opened her eyes to an interesting sight.
John was laying down on the bed with his eyes closed, not saying anything, earplugs of some sort in his ears, she quickly deduced it was a type of sound emitting object by the way he bopped his head in rhythm, and took a note of it for later.
Then, her sight fell uponthe books that sat right beside her, the temptation of grabbing one was strong in her, but decided against it, waiting for John to notice her first, wanting to apologize for the earlier event.
“So, you are awake,” John said simply, catching her by surprise, he removed his headphones, and began mouthing something, keeping it at the inaudible level, as if he was fighting to say something.
“I’m sorry John.” Twilight quickly began, quickly noting that it had to do with the morning’s incident. “I should have t-” John raised his hand at that moment, stopping her in her tracks.
“I’m the one who is sorry, I overreacted and would like to let you try again, please?” before she could reply, he laid down on his back, giving her the thumbs-up.
"O-okay," she said, slowly approaching him, and as before, putting a hoof over his back, this time around not saying anything to repeat the morning events.
Her horn began to, and she lowered it to his back, causing John to flinch a bit at the touch of her magic. “That kinda tickled.” John explained giving a sheepish grin.
“Some ponies tend to feel that way.” Twilight replied without thinking, focusing on the spell. “Done! This was very basic first-aid but you should feel a bit better, while I was at it, I also removed some of the stress on your muscles.”
John got on his feet and moved his body, twisting it one way or another and gave Twilight an astonished look. “That’s some first-aid! This is better than painkillers!” he added happily.
"It's no problem, I'm just glad I was of help," she replied bashfully.
"And well, thank you for cleaning my room as well, I mean, how did you even throw the trash away?" John asked with curiosity.
“I, well, kind of just burned it in a way, made it disappear completely, you can say, and I have to say, this is the first real smile I get from you.” Twilight said with a slightly mocking tone.
“Of course I’m happy! You didn’t only fix my back, but cleaned my room, and trust me, I didn‘t want to do that!” he said while looking around, and then stared at a single spot, his pupils dilating as if something terribly done had been done. This can’t be good… Twilight thought, as she realized what might be next to come.
~~~~~
John just stared in shock at what was in front of him, or rather, what was not. “My… My…” John began.
“Y-your what, John?” Twilight asked timidly.
“My money, the green paper that I had left in that very corner,” he said while pointing at the place in question.
Twilight began shivering a bit, but quickly seemed to have found her ground and said with a determined face. “I’m sorry, I thought it was trash, I shouldn’t have thrown it away…" She apologized, and John relaxed a bit, or at least he would have if she hadn’t added. “It’s just money thought, it can be replaced with some old fashioned work..” the wording simply made something in John snap.
“Oh, I see, so $200 dollars isn’t much to a pony, in fact, seems you don't really care about money much, do you? Probably because your job isn‘t quite as difficult as mine I bet!” he then walked to her and asked. “May I?” he asked, pointing at Twilight's bag, getting a weak go-ahead.
John wasn’t a cruel person, but he wasn’t going to let the comment go, and rummaged trough the bag’s contents till he found a book, the one he had seen Twilight read the day before, she just stared, looking terrified and twitched as he looked it over. PERFECT. John thought as his eye gave a small twitch of his own, and moved over to his drawer.
“Hey Twilight, this wouldn’t happen to be your favorite book, would it?” John asked giving Twilight an odd smile.
“N-n-no, but it belongs to the town's library, and I haven‘t finished reading it, actually.” Twilight replied shivering a bit.
'Town? Libraries? So they have villages and libraries over there as well, of course,' he thought and filed it for later, he would ask about her world soon enough.
“What would happen if I did…” John began opening his drawer, grabbing something and closing it. “Well… This!” he finished as he pulled out a lighter and lighted it.
Twilight’s face looked horrified, and the stomach churning in his guy brought shame to him. 'She needs to learn,' John thought on his defense, and pulled the book closer to the flame.
“Don’t do it!” Twilight snapped as loud as she could muster without being heard outside and her horn began to glow.
“Ah, ah, ah!” John warned her moving the lighter closer to the book. “We wouldn’t want an accident, now would we?”
Twilight just stared and her horn stopped glowing, her face seemed to be switching moods, for a moment she looked mad, then another moment she looked desperate, it was rather cute, and if he had seen her faces before properly meeting her, he would have thought she came from a cartoon, a very girly cartoon for that matter.
“Ok! I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Twilight blurted with falling tears that seemed more befitting of a child trying to get her favorite toy back, which in a way could be compared to this situation. “I understand what you are doing, I promise I will ask before throwing stuff away!” Then said way too loudly."Please don't hurt it!"
John couldn’t help but burst out laughing at her last line, she was obviously exaggerating, but he quickly felt it was due to her love of books, and finally felt the guilt sink in, but being down two-hundred bucks helped ease that pain a little, Twilight just stared angrily, at him and he put the lighter in his pocket, he had made his point.
“I think we are even now,” John said smirking and handing her the book. “For all that is worth, I’m sorry, and I promise I won’t do that again.” She quickly snatched it with her magic and hid it behind her.
Twilight simply stared, a pout on her face. “Yes, we are even,” and wiped her tears.
“You sure cry a lot don’t you,” he said, and patted her head a bit causing Twilight to flinch, the odd thing was that he had also flinched at the contact. “Oh, I’m sorry," he said with regret.
“No, that's okay.“ she replied, but he was already lost in his thoughts.
'Did I just pat her head? We’ve only known each other for less than two days and I’m touching her willingly? Wait, I just went through her stuff and didn’t mind, and I even got her books, what is wrong with me? I barely know her! Why do I feel so comfortable with someo-pony I barely know! And why does she…?'
He looked at his book, noticing it was still early, attempting to avoid the topic, he pushed the books he'd brought to her, grabbing his own to read.
“Go ahead and read, that’s what I brought the books for," he said with a somewhat unstable tone.
“Very well,” she replied, a look clearly showing she had more to say, thankfully, she didn't say anything, moving towards the nearest book. Good choice, he thought as she got up on the bed, grabbed a book with her magic, and inspecting it, after a few seconds, she opened the book, and simply, made to read it, entering into s sort of trance.
Nothing interesting happened that day as they both kept to themselves, with only Twilight taking her time to read the book, something that he noticed and found odd, but didn't comment on.
"Sorry," Twilight groaned. "But may I use the restroom?"
"Um, sure, go ahead," he simply said -he didn’t really want to know how she used the restroom and he had no plans to ask- he tried to concentrate on his book. but his thoughts kept going back to his strange roommate, his mind currently analyzing her.
She was an obvious nerd, that’s for sure, but she also had some charisma to her nerdiness, that he had never seen on anyone else.
Later that night, as John lay on his makeshift bed, he began thinking of a way to combine those two attributes into one word.
Author's Note
Notes 7
Nerdtastic?
John thought as he made his way to work, he had tried to come up with a word he could use to describe Twilight's quirks.
“Ok, no, that‘s just stupid,” he said out loud, scratching the word on his mental list. "It doesn't roll off the tongue well either... Um..."
“You talking to yourself again?” said a voice from besides him, bringing forth an exasperated sigh.
"Hey, Michael," he responded, not even bothering to turn to look at him.
“Geez, here I thought you were crazy before,” Michael replied and then added. “You need to get out of that house man, come on, I will take you to drink, or maybe you are just in need of a booty call? A strip joint sounds up your alley, what do you say?"
“Michael, I said no, I think I made myself clear before, besides, I don‘t even drink," he replied mechanically. He’d had the same conversation before, making it easier to refuse.
“Of course you don‘t,” Michael shrugged and walked ahead.
Yeah, you keep walking away you condescending prick! John thought grudgingly at his co-worker ahead.
~~~~~
Twilight had just finished her breakfast, smiling happily at the feeling of fullness that fell on her afterwards.
That happiness did not last, as the reminder of a project she had yet to set-out to do, came to mind, and that -for Princess Celestia’s number one student- was simply unforgivable.
She rested on his bed, a parchment idly floating by, a quill resting against her ear as she thought of John; behavioral patterns, and other such details she'd noticed.
'Something to prevent the... Incidents from yesterday repeating themselves,' she thought hopeful.
“The subject can be assertive, however, he is also rather closed in ways,” she began writing as notes. “Subject can be kind, but said kindness comes in spurts, looking as if it were being held back... Further observations need to be done,” she wrote down emphasizing the ''further' part.
She remained thoughtful for a full minute, thinking of something that stood out the most.
"Aha! The subject also has trouble expressing emotions, reason behind this is still not fully understood," she noted, her quill furiously writing down as she spoke.
“And...” Twilight stopped, a revelation coming to her, and quickly, fueling her mind at the different possibilities behind it.
“Oh John…” she said sadly, putting both parchment and quill down. “Maybe I can do something to help him... He is a friend after a-, Huh?” she stopped, noticing what she had said.
'Friend?' she thought, wondering about the first time she'd steamed him enough to think of him as one. 'Not that it's unheard of, I mean, he has flaws... I have flaws,' the reminder of the previous day's events told her he could be nice, after all.
And yet...The reminder of her mentor came to mind; 'there are creatures who can use other's emotions to use against them, however, the idea of John being such a person was simply ridiculous in her mind.
"Yeah, there is no way... He could have hurt me, and... A friend doesn't hurt other friends, right?" she argued, nodding to herself in agreement.
Twilight smiled as she finished writing her notes, and quickly, began on a 'schedule' of sorts, helped by the room's clock, an easy task for one of the most organized ponies in the world. 'And I'm not a bad singer to boot... Although, that's irrelevant at the moment,' she noted.
“There! Now all I have to do is wait!” she smiled satisfied, reaching for one of the books to keep herself occupied as she waited.
“Now if only I could actually read them without effort," she sighed, trying to read the book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“For the last time, I don’t know what to call it!” Reuben responded angrily for the third time.
“Well excuuuse me,” John replied frustrated, he was still thinking about what word could describe Twilight, he had given up at the point and was asking his cooking partner for something to help him.
“You know the word for people who keep asking questions?” Reuben asked.
“Well, I guess it could be they are curious?” John answered with a smirk.
“Those people can also be called annoying," Reuben spouted stoically.
“Point taken," John noted, checking his phone. “Whelp! Time for me to go.” John said waving Reuben goodbye and leaving the grill area.
“Alright, see ya tomorrow, John, and don’t forget to pay me, got it?”
John groaned at the mention of money. He had made a bet that he wouldn’t burn himself on his first day on the job... He had failed miserably.
John made his way to the front passing Michael by, and he was stopped.
“What if I have a word you can use, would you let me meet her?” Michael said.
“Wait, what? What are you talking about?” John asked confused.
“You obviously met a girl, right?” John looked at him surprised at his observation, even if he was only half-right.
“Sure,” John replied with a sly smile, he knew Twilight would never agree. 'Perfect.'
~~~~~
An hour later, he had made his way home, a peaceful, normal -to an extent, thinking of his current situation- day overall
“Hey Twilight, I’m home.” he greeted Twilight as he entered the room, noticing her with a book... A book she had been reading the time before. “Hey Twilight, um..." he began, attempting to lay the question easily. "How come you are still reading the same book?”
Twilight looked up and smiled awkwardly at him. “Hey John, and… That’s a funny story… I can’t really read it when there are words I don’t understand well… I get frustrated and try to find a way to figure it out, I found a few but… I‘m not doing so well…” She finished with sheepish grin.
John couldn’t help but smile at the struggling pony. “You are right, I didn’t think of that.” John moved into his drawer and drew a book to take to Twilight.
“What is this?” She asked reading the title. “Oh! Thanks John!” Twilight replied looking at the dictionary. “Maybe I should have asked for this yesterday.”
John looked down as she said that and remembered the night before, something that Twilight seemed to notice, her ears drooping down.
“I’m sorry," both began. "No, wait," the continued. "I was saying that..." they laughed at the final point, shaking their heads in amusement.
“Ladies first?” John motioned, for her to continue.
“Thank you...I’m sorry for the way I reacted yesterday,” Twilight apologized.
“I’m sorry too,” John copied.
“Friends?” she asked, extending her hoof towards John.
“…” 'Are we friends?' John thought as he stretched his hand, fingers and hoof interlocking in an awkward 'hand'shake of sorts.
“I don’t think it can hurt to at least try,” John replied with a smirk.
“Great! That’s step 1!” Twilight exclaimed, taking out a scroll and highlighting a line.
“W-what?” John said as he looked at Twilight’s schedule. “You had this talk scheduled!?” John began and fell his jaw fall.
“Yep! It makes it easy to keep track of things,” Twilight giggled.
“I have to say..." He began having second thoughts but let it out. "You are quite eh... Adorkable, Twilight.” John said, blushing at the words he spouted.
“I am what…? Twilight asked, a similar blush on her face as well.
“Don’t make me say it again,” he replied, covering his face from the sight. 'That was harder than I thought.'
“Oh, well, t-thank you… Is… Is that word a portmanteau of dork and adorable…?” Twilight asked her blush becoming increasingly more noticeable.
“Yes, it is, don’t remind me.” John thought trying to recover from his embarrassment, but was mentally thanking Michael for his help, as much as he hated it.
"Now, now, it's okay, here!" Twilight moved to him and put her legs around him in form of a hug.
John hesitantly moved his arms around her and did the same.
“Huh... This feels… Nice,” he exclaimed awkwardly..
“Hugs usually do silly,” Twilight said mockingly.
"Right..." they stayed like that for a few seconds, simply enjoying each others company.
'I... I could get used to this.
Author's Note
Notes 8
I had planned to have Twilight use a shape-shifting spell to become a human and go to John's work to meet Michael, however, the more I thought about it, the dumber I thought it was.
This is also where I wondered whether I should ship them or not... Decisions, decisions.
John woke up with a groan, having spend most of the previous night up, he wasn't too happy to be awake as early as he was.
“Geez.” John whined as he looked outside, the harsh morning light temporarily blinding him, after nursing his eyes, he looked up to see Twilight looking down at him from the bed, a book floating besides her.
“Good morning.” Twilight greeted him.
“How are you up so early?” John asked, looking at his phone and noticing it wasn’t even nine am yet.
“Because I’m not a bum.” Twilight replied smugly. She seemed to have picked up some words from the dictionary.
“Oh come on, you know you had fun,” he replied with a wink. Despite the lack of context, John felt she wouldn't take it too hard, despite it, Twilight blushed a bit and rolled her eyes.
“Taking this out of context aren’t we?”
“Yep, but to derail this train, wasn't tonight fun?”
“Except for that one incident.” Twilight said giggling at the moments from the previous night.
~~~~~
The telling of life events was the main course that night.
Twilight had told John about her early life in Canterlot, her painful early years being picked on, the day her life changed when she hatched Spike’s egg and begin taking care of the dragon and also became her ruler’s main apprentice, and how she became more interested on her studies than on having friends thinking it was more important, all except for her brother who was her only friend, John, however, noticed her struggling remembering at points, which brought questions to him, but didn't argue.
John just heard in marvel, processing everything, he realized Twilight didn’t have many good years in her early life.'I guess we aren’t so different after all,' stopping her story, she motioned John to go, which he complied by telling his own.
His explanation was bare-bones at best, but Twilight listened intently as he retold everything up to his middle school years.
“You are an easy pony to impress, you know?” John teased while Twilight rolled her eyes at his comment.
"I could say the same to you," Twilight then continued telling her own story; things about how she was tasked with organizing the Summer celebration, how her life changed, he became particularly interested in the fact that she became a sort of religious figure after a certain event alongside her friends.
Speaking of friends, she had being talking more about her friends than anything else, how they were there for her and how they had fun, but while she spoke highly of them, she didn't say nothing more than their names, alongside some of the most famous deeds, one of their being from a certain rainbow maned pegasus.
“Okay, can I interrupt and say that this rainbow pony sounds like the coolest pony ever!?” John said with excitement when she got to the part with the “Sonic Rainboom.”
“She gets that a lot,” Twilight replied dryly.
She finished by telling him of the latest event in her life, which was her brother's wedding with a princess, along something about changelings.
“Changelings? You mean those creatures that feed off love? Don't you mean succubus?
Twilight shook her head. "No, succubus are creatures that feed on more than just love, you could say they practically kill their victim."
"Oh" John simply said in astonishment. 'Damn, these ponies are hardcore,' hethought with a grin.
“How about you?” Twilight began. “What happened to you after…” she looked at the notes she was keeping. “Middle School?”
John flinched at this question, and to keep from replying, he grabbed the book he had been reading and put it in front of his face, trying to pass it f as reading.
“W-we should go to bed now, it is late after all!”
“John, you know that-” she stopped mid-sentence as she looked at the book’s title. “A dummy’s guide to pickup lines?”
John quickly realized his mistake and hid the book, but the damage had already been done.
~~~~~
Twilight had just spend her time laughing at John’s awkward face, being reminded of the book, she quickly shook it off and gave him a mocking nudge.
"Don't be silly, you know I was simply jesting," Twilight said in defense.
"Yeah, yeah..."'At least she forgot to ask me,' John thought in relief.
"Come over here," Twilight just stood on her hind legs, her forelegs wide open, ready for a forgiveness hug.
“Using your most powerful weapon from the get-go? You don’t play around Twilight,” he told her playfully as the pair hugged for the second time.
"Yep! Now, shouldn't you be going to work?" she pointed out, bringing the conversation to a halt.
"Oh, that's truth... Well, I think I'll do just that... I'll catch ya later, Twilight" he said as he grabbed his clothes and changed, leaving for work afterwards.
~~~~~
“Dude, I thought you said you were gonna let me meet her.” Michael said with an angry tone in his voice, bringing the topic to John for the seventh time.
“And she doesn’t want to, I told you already, so you eh… Are out of luck!” John finished awkwardly, trying to end the topic there and then.
Michael just stared at him with narrowed eyes, and with a scoff, walked away, fuming.
I’m so fucked. John thought nervously while getting back to work, but seeing him angry made the act worth it.
For the next few hours, he found himself working much more diligently, that is until a gruff voice called from behind him. “Hey John, can I talk to you?” the voiced asked.
“Yes?” John asked turning around.
"Come to my office," he simply said, and John confusedly followed.
"Yes? What's the matter?" he asked as they reached the place; nothing more than a small cubicle, cramped and uncomfortable, stacks of papers hanging haphazardly placed around, John guessed it did the job.
“I am grateful for your services, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to let you go,” his boss said reluctantly.
“W-what?” John asked confused.“Why!?” he continued with anger.
“I just feel that we cannot afford to have you as of this moment, I‘m sorry," he replied with a stern face, the tone in his telling him all that he needed.
“I-” John began, a rant coming, but stopped. He couldn’t bring himself to answer him, even to defend himself, he knew that he was basically saying ‘You are not doing a good job, you are fired.’
“Goodbye John.” his boss said simply pointing him out. "I'm sorry."
"No, you are not," he said, giving him one last look before walking out.'This day just went from good to horribly bad in a minute,' John thought angrily while simply tossing the apron he was wearing on the floor, alongside his hat, and on his way out, tossing a drink off of someone's hands.
All the while, Michael stared from the place, a devilishly smile on his face.
~~~~~
Meanwhile, at John's place, Twilight happily wrote a page, the sheer size of the contents she had taken notes of, simply detailing actual details, right as she was about to finish a segment, John stormed in through the door, not much of a warning to be given for poor Twilight, who simply jumped in surprise.
“J-John?” she asked in worry. “What’s wrong?”
John simply stood there and breathed deeply, then exhaled, letting himself fall on the empty side of the bed, bouncing Twilight's various items astray, but managing to keep them intact with a flash of magic.
“Why do bad things happen to me, Twi? Oh I know, that‘s because I suck,” he began, and despite the possible seriousness of the situation, Twilight couldn't help but notice the shortening of her name, raising a brow.
John actually seemed to notice this and said. “Sorry, I meant Twilight, I had a long day.”
“I don't mind, but that's not the point, what happened?” Twilight asked putting a hoof on his shoulder.
“I was fired from my job,” Twilight held a gasp and allowed him to continue. "Figures, I mean, this didn't used to happen, it's all ever since that d-" he stopped abruptly making Twilight suspicious.
“John? Where you about to say 'day?" Twilight asked.
“It’s nothing Twilight, don’t worry!” he snapped out of nowhere, making Twilight both confused and fearful.
“I just want to help," he assured him, hopeful that he would talk."I mean, I always feel better when I talk."
“There is nothing you can do, nothing anyone, or 'anypony' can do, it all happened b-because…” he began, suddenly tearing up.
“John, it’s ok, you don’t have to force yourself!” she said, backing down to the other edge of the bed.
John just stared at her, looking into her eyes asshe stared back, understanding in both of their faces.
“Bear with me.“ he then sighed in defeat and began. “It happened 5 years ago…” John started, delving deep into memories that he would rather have forgotten.
~~~~~
"This suuucks!" John said as he attempted to finish an especially difficult Geometry problem for his homework, he didn’t have a liking to it, but he had to finish it or he would fail the semester, then again, he should have been doing his homework instead of playing videogames earlier that day.
As if. John thought mocking his own ‘noble’ intents
“Hey, John!” he heard a voice speak, and he knew what would happen next.
“Hey John, come oooon!” his big sister called again, she was being her playfully annoying self again, which meant she needed something, and unfortunately for John, he could never resist his siblings’ requests.
“Frankie, I know you know that I know that you want something since you are interrupting me, so,"he sighed as he closed his book."What do you want?"
“I need you to come with me, I need to go to the bank real fast!” John looked at his phone and noticed it was 10:30 PM. “Isn’t it a bit late, besides, why do Ihave to go?”
“Because you love me and you wouldn’t want anything to happen to your big sis, would you? You are my bodyguard! Also, I don't like driving alone... Come on, you'll be fiiine!” Frankie assured him, John just shrugged, she used that same line every time and it always worked, no point in arguing.
He took his jacket and the pair walked out to the car as they both made their way to the bank straight to the ATM, everything was going just fine, however, it was not to be, as suddenly, there was a loud knock in the passenger‘s seat.
“Get out!” A man yelled pointing his gun at John. “Or the kid gets it!”
Frankie got out slowly, quickly followed by John who was held at gunpoint as soon as he got out.
“Now, give me the money!” the man begin desperately, Frankie walking to him with the money at hand.
“Please, just leave him, I beg you, don’t hurt him.” Frankie began calmly trying to soothe the criminal.
“F-Frankie, be careful…” John muttered his voice trembling in fear. 'Why didn’t I tell her no, this wouldn’t be happening if I hadn’t said yes!'
“Shut up!” The man hit John with the side of his gun interrupting his thoughts and nearly knocking him out.
“…top! … up…” he could hear the voices but couldn’t make them up, feeling the guy softening his grip, he managed an accidental elbow hit, causing him to release him as he doubled-up in pain.
“Run!” Frankie ordered John, and he was being pulled away when he heard the guy yell.
“YOU FUCKING KID!” He felt Frankie move behind him as soon as he heard the voice and heard one soul breaking scream before everything went to hell.
“JOHN!”
~~~~~
John couldn’t control the tears, he had been crying throughout the story, but by now, he was sobbing uncontrollably.
“She jumped in front and took the bullet, she died in my arms… I felt her slip away, my own sister, I broke there, I wanted to die as well, I would have if the cops hadn’t arrived and shot the fucker!”
“You never mentioned a sister before,“ Twilight told him on a soft tone.
“Of course I didn’t, I wanted to avoid telling you about this after all…“
Twilight just sat there looking shocked, she had been holding any emotions as she processed everything she had just heard.
“I lost her! I promised to protect her and I failed, and she is dead!” he cried out as low as he could manage to.
Twilight seemed to be struggling to talk but did anyway. “Is that why you…?
“Yes Twilight! I couldn’t bring myself to be closer to anyone, I didn‘t want to lose anyone else who was important to me, I don’t want to hurt anymore!”
He stopped talking, he had been slapped by none other than Twilight Sparkle, the intelligent pony, the element of harmony, it wouldn't have been so bad, butt the thing was that the slap had been given by a pony, and John had just been hit by her front hoof causing him to yelp in pain.
Twilight just stared in shock, realizing what she had just done and feeling awful about it, it was something she would never do, in fact, she had picked it up from the book she was currently reading and felt the method could be useful... However, she was starting to regret it.
“Aargh! Twilight! Damn it!” he held his cheek cursing at his pain.
“I'm sorry, still, I will not let you do this, you don’t have to blame yourself for this, she gave her life for you! Is this what you want her to see? What would she say to you now John?” Twilight was in the verge of tears as well, she was angry that he would feel guilty over something he could not possibly have expected, and she wanted him to feel better, she wanted to help him move on.
“What do you know!?” He retaliated in return.
Trying to contain herself from saying something she would regret, she replied. “Come here John, I want to show you something.” She laid him down on the bed and soon, she laid next to him and enveloped him in a hug.
He laid there staring into her eyes and Twilight stared back knowing what she should do.
“This won’t hurt, okay, John?” she began to concentrate and felt the magic build in her horn, and after a moment, she touched John’s forehead concentrating on her memories.
...
He was looking at what appeared to be another unicorn in front of him, he seemed to be playing with him, he felt happy, then he felt his own lips move and said “I love you BBBFF.”
“I love you too, Twily.” the unicorn replied giving John a hug, or rather what seemed to be a younger Twilight.
The scene changed and showed the colt teaching Twilight how to fly a kite, then to both of them playing on what seemed to be a fort, then once again to him saying goodbye to the colt as Twilight flew away somewhere.
The scenery changed again, this time, he was at what seemed to be a castle courtyard, he was standing looking at the same unicorn, the only difference being that he was older, this time, however, his feelings were the polar opposite.
'How could he do this! I'm his sister, and he never told me about this!?' he heard Twilight's angry thoughts, right before the scene dissolved once again, this time showing Twilight running through what seemed to be a cavern, a strange darkened pony figure to the side.
'No! I can't let that evil queen marry him, if she did... I would lose him forever!' at that point he noticed an increase in speed in her step right before the scene dissolved one last time.
They were back at the courtyard, this time, however, it only focused on a single spot; Twilight's brother standing over her, giving a warm smile.
“Twilight! None of this would have been possible without you little sis.” He thanked Twilight before saying.“Love you Twily.”
“Love you too BBBFF.” Twilight replied, and they proceeded to hug each other, ending the moment with the unicorn leaving on a chariot, making him feel an overwhelming happiness that could only belong to Twilight.
Everything went to a blur ,and his own memories of Frankie began on his mind, he remembered how she taught him how to play videogames, how they rode their bikes together in the park, how they would have silly food fights, and finally, how after any fight, they made up, and how they always apologized the same way:
“I love ya sis.”
“I love you too, Johnny-boy.”
And then they gave each other a big hug.
...
He felt himself return to his senses, the tears, the crushing feeling of lost was back as well, but the first thing he saw was Twilight who was looking straight into his eyes, he felt himself slip into a serene calm.
Was that her memories of her brother? She felt… Happy, extremely, and she seemed to love him as much as I loved Frankie, and the way she reacted when she thought she would lose him...'
“Was that your brother, ‘Twily‘?” he asked as calmly as he could manage.
“Yes, it was, my BBBFF,” She replied with a sad smile.
“Your what?” asked John curiously.
“My Big Brother Best Friend Forever.” she replied before adding. “And was that your sister, ’Johnny-boy‘?”
He chuckled a bit at this and replied. "Yes, and I guess you could say Frankie was my BSBFF."
Neither spoke afterwards, instead, they laid there, just staring into each other’s eyes, John still laid there long after his tears had dried, he was simply comfortable looking at Twilight, and he couldn’t help but think how much she made him think of his big sister, he felt the need to protect her, to be with her, to make her happy.
The bond they had created grew strong, the pair had grown closer on a lever neither had thought would be achieved.
Author's Note
Notes 9
Hopefully, the fixed edition can better project what I intended.
John woke up content.
Despite the events of the day before, it had been the first time in years he had gotten a full night’s sleep, he opened his eyes to findthe young purple mare sleeping at his side, bringing a smile to his face.
He simply laid there, just looking at her sleeping shape noticing the details on her face; the rounded snout that stood for her mouth, her slow and even breathing, her lavender mane and the part of her mane he once thought was just highlights, which he soon realized were actually part of her mane.
“How much longer are you going to be staring?” asked Twilight with her eyes still closed.
“As long as you stay here on bed, Twily,.” John replied with a mocking tone.
Twilight tried to break the embrace they were currently in, only to find out John was keeping a tight grip on her.
“Let me go, Johnny,” she asked with a smile on her face.
“I didn’t hear a please,” John once again mocked
Twilight laid there with her brow furrowed and reluctantly gave a comeback.
“I could just kiss you right now, you know?" she finished with a slight blush, obviously regretting what she had just said..
The understanding, followed by horror on John’s face did enough, and he broke the hug and pushed himself to the opposite edge of the bed, the look of terror still on his face.
“John?” Twilight began once enough time had passed.
“Yeah?”
“We are to never speak of this.”
“Speak of what?” added John, doing a zipping motion across his lips.
Both of them did an instant double-take before busting into a long winded laugh, it quickly came to a stop as a realization came to John's mind.
“I got paid yesterday.” he realized that in his rage, he had forgotten his paycheck.
“Will you be okay getting it?” Twilight asked with concern.
“Yeah, I will. They can't really do much more to get to me... Besides, I have you to cheer me up if it were to happen, right?" he gave Twilight a quick glance but he felt uncertainty in his gut, mistrusting his own words, he shook the feeling away and made his way to his old job, hopefully for the last time.
“Very well, good luck ‘Johnny-boy’.” Twilight giggled at the nickname flustering John at the mention of the awkward choice of a nickname, but he couldn’t be mad at her, he couldn’t anymore, especially at something this silly.
“Alright Twily, don’t break anything, you hear?” Twilight was about to argue but John dashed out before she could start."If I'm not here, I win!"
"Come back, you coward!" she called from the room, a small gasp of surprise still audible from outside the room.
“I am such a bad influence on her.” John spoke out loud giving a quick chuckle as he got out of the house. Such a great day!
...
It was pouring outside.
“Nice try, 'Mother Nature', too bad that my perfect climate involves rain,” John called out to the skies, mocking nature itself, not even the the planet’s constant climate changes would sour his mood.
Not too long after, he made his way into the restaurant and directly to the main office, but stopped once he noticed Michael, his head popping into the small cubicle office, talking loudly.
“… Come on, Dad, I need the money bad, I need to go to Isaac’s.”
'Dad? Did he just call his own boss Dad?' John waited there for a while, until Michael went back inside and John made his move to pick up his check, he ignored his boss and simply did what he had to do. 'No need to do more than I have to' He thought annoyed.
As he was about to make his way out, everything fell into place.
'I was fired because of Michael… Since I didn’t introduce him to Twilight, he told his ‘daddy’ to fire me,' the ridiculeosness of it all made him falter, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made.
"You son of a..." he cursed, retracing his steps but this time made his way to the kitchen where Michael was cooking.
“You got me fired, you made you daddy fire me,” John started, not wanting to beat around the bush.
“Heh, I don’t know what you are talking about, get out of here, punk,” Michael half-laughed.
“She didn’t want to meet you, what do you want me to say?” At this, Michael turned and simply replied.
“I don’t give a shit about your bitch.”
John stood in shock, but that shock was quickly replaced by anger, Michael simply turned his back to him while John went through a mass of emotions on the spot. He took a deep breath, and relaxed.
"Hey, Michael?" he called.
“Now what do you wa-” his words were interrupted by John’s fist connecting with his jaw, and Michael fell to the floor thanks to the force of the punch, he stared at John dumbfounded not believing what had just happened.
“You can call insult me, you can hurt me, you can even get me fired!” he felt the clichéd words come out of his mouth, but he felt they fit the situation nicely. “But you never, EVER, insult her!"
Michael just sat there taking everything, not expecting the sad excuse of a man to fight back in any way, and for the first time in his 'great' life, he felt fear at the person towering over him.
“Keep your fucking job,” and with this, John walked out of the restaurant for the last time, he was never going back there anyway.
As soon as he made his way outside, someone followed and stopped him on his tracks.
“John?” a voice called. He knew that voice.
“What is it, Dana?” he replied, his partially forgotten feelings resurfacing once again, his crush quickly catching up to him. Odd, I have never called her directly by her name, he'd realized, mostly referring to her as 'Miss'.
“I saw what you did, and honestly, it wasn’t okay,” she told him with obvious disapproval in her voice.
“I know.” He didn’t have an excuse for it, but he wasn’t going to apologize either.
“I can forgive you in one condition,” John turned to look at her and saw she was fidgeting , that was unusual enough to gain John’s attention, not that anything she did before hadn’t done that.
“Shoot," he said confident, he was gonna play along.
“You take me out to dinner this Sunday!” she replied with a coy smile.
'Maybe I was being too harsh, I can visit this place from time to time,' John thought as her words sank in.
~~~~~
“…Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight finished the report as she finished most of her letters to the Princess, it was a long report as she took notice of the over forty packs of scroll, she imagined having to cut it down to avoid Spike the displeasure of sending that many scrolls.
'Or maybe I will let that be his punishment,' she thought amusingly, oddly enough, she was okay with it. 'John really is a bad influence in me.'
She moved to her satchel and inserted the scrolls, but she got that guilty feeling as soon as she did, she knew she had told him on the first day, he had obviously forgotten, but they had gotten so close that she didn’t want to remind him of it.
She fell her ears droop as her sadness took hold, but she quickly subdued herself, she needed to be strong for the both of them, she knew this had to happen, John probably knew about it to a certain extent as well.
“Tomorrow, I will make it a fun day for both of us,” she thought this and felt a knot in her stomach, she was having troble accepting the fact.
“That I will have to say goodbye…”
Twilight Vs. Video Games.
Twilight Vs. Video Games.
"Me being here helped him... How am I going to break it to him that I do need to go back?"
Twilight was mentally preparing herself for what had to be done, she didn’t know how to tell him and the growing concern was not helping, she realized that John more than likely had unconsciously forgotten about it, making it far more difficult for her. Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by the door busting open I feel sorry for the poor door. Thought Twilight already knowing who the person attacking the defenseless door was.
“Coward,” Twilight began continuing their earlier banter, attempting to relieve some of the stress.
“I would reply to your comment if something amazing hadn’t happened today!” John replied with glee.
“You just did,” Twilight jested, bringing the glare she expected. “But what has you so happy?”
John quickly recovered and his happy smile came back. “Well, you'll find out that I actually have a date with the girl I liked for a while now.”
“That’s great! Congratulations, John!” Twilight replied with honest happiness on her face.
“I have the date this Sunday at six PM, I can’t wait!” John gave a very womanly squeal that Twilight could have mocked, but she was too busy thinking about the time she had to be ready to leave. The 19th hour of the seventh day the words had come from the Princess herself. That meant she had to leave as John was out enjoying his date.
'And here I thought this day was bad enough,' Twilight thought in despair.
“Hey, John?” Twilight began, John noticing the way she called him.
“What’s wrong? What’s bugging you?” he asked concerned.
“Uh… I… I have… “ she gave a brief pause. “I want to hang out with you!” she finished loudly making John flinch.
“Uh, sure. I was gonna go look for a job, but I think I can handle a weekend without one.” He eyed Twilight suspiciously. 'Well, if something was really the matter, she would have told me already,' right then, a crazy idea to cheer her up came to him.
“Hey, Twilight, wanna try something out? It’s called “videogames.” John told the already questioning Twilight.
For the next few minutes, John was busy connecting his now dusty console, leaving Twilight to look at the games he had put in front of her.
“So… You put these cases on that black box and you can use this remote to 'play'?” she asked holding the controller and a case with her magic.
"Well, actually, you use what is inside those cases, but that's not a bad guess,” John replied with a chuckle, he was gonna have a fun time with this.
On Twilight's mind, she struggled, staring at the “remote” blankly, attempting her best to figure it out, she pressed the buttons and moved the sticks carefully, trying not to break the fragile looking object, her hooves would not be able to hold it, so her magic would have to do.
“You ready, Twi?” John called breaking her concentration, the remote lightly falling on her legs.
“About as much as I can be, I will try my best to understand this,” she answered with a bit of excitement, it might have been a way to attempt to cheer her up, regardless, she was interested in the technology, and if she figured it out, she would have an extra subject for her report, she was actually looking forward to it.
She picked up the remote and watched the TV flare to life with different images across it, and after a few minutes, John began explaining the controls and what each did.
“Good, now, press X to attack.” Twilight pressed the button with her magic and saw the boy in the screen swing the sword, from there, she slowly made her way through the buttons on screen instructions, learning the patterns and how to best use each to its fullest extent, soon after, she was nimble enough to avoid asking every minute for help.
“You… Are better than I expected, Twilight,” John noticed, watching in awe, Twilight chuckled at his praise, feeling a bit of pride in herself, soon, she was lost in the game’s world, she had dismissed John who had gone to get food, and instead, she spend the following hours having adventures with the characters Donald and Goofy, she was hit a few times, but her clever use of customization helped her survive.
“This isn't so hard.” Twilight thought giving a smug smile.
~~~~~
John made his way back home with a cheerful step, a box of jelly donuts in hand, he found everything to be too quiet as he arrived at the room, the sound of the static from the TV barely audible from behind it. With some concern, he opened the door slowly, poking his head in, noticing the game over words on the screen, and Twilight breathing heavily, with a nervous glance, he made his way in, and closed the door, approaching her carefully.
“So, you finally lost, Twi?” John asked with a hint of a smile, he didn’t want her to get angry.
“What am I doing wrong? This is the 30th time I lose!” Twilight asked with irritation.
“Hold on…” he made his way to the light switch and turned the lights on.
Twilight hissed and caused John to turn in surprise, he was more surprised by what he was witnessing: Her combed mane was now a mess of hairs going every other way, her left eye was twitching in an awfully disturbing manner, not to mention her magical grip in the remote was quivering as the remote was shaking slightly as she tried to keep her magic from crushing it.
He grabbed the controller and looked at the screen coming to a realization; her in-game character was far under leveled.
“I… Think that's enough about games, Twi…” He warned her.
Twilight sat looking at the screen, her breathing increasing in pace, he had to intervene.
He tried to keep a smile but inside he was sweating, the thoughts of what could happen with the mare in such a state, so he decided to approach her with the food in the box.
“Twilight… Here, we should eat something, I can make you some tea or something for you to enjoy this, see? Donuts, yum?”
Twilight’s eyes seemed unfocused but one of her eyes seemed to inspect the food with interest, till a grumble came from her stomach breaking her out of the trance she was in.
“I-I guess I am a bit hungry…” she resigned moving away from the TV and as soon as she did,John turned off the PS2, disconnected it, and tossed it into the closet where Twilight would never dare to go, all of this while Twilight stared with narrowed eyes.
“What was that for?” she asked in an out of place whine.
“I think videogames are something you should keep away from,” he warned and explained how she had acted and why she should never touch it ever again, this was something obviously not meant for her.
“Oh no, not again, last time that happened was because I didn’t send a letter to the Princess, I thought I knew better.” Twilight let out an exasperated sigh and her ears fell slightly.
"I think we need another way to hang out, huh?" John searched his head trying to find something that they could be a part of, he came across a variety of ideas, but only one stuck out at the time, he didn’t like it, but it was the only thing he knew for certain that Twilight would enjoy. 'Screw the consequences!'
He gave Twilight a hug and he felt her nuzzle his shoulder still a bit shaken by her ‘crazy state of mind‘ just minutes ago, still, this was as good a time as any.
“Hey Twi, what would you say to a trip outside tomorrow?”
She slowly undid the hug and stared at him, her eyes seemed to widen in excitement at the idea, but that soon faded and her eyes showed dissaproval, at this John just gave her an all knowing smile, one that simply said:
"Don't you worry; I got this."
Author's Note
Notes 11
It did not work too well, now that I see it.
And even though I don't like the title of this one, I can't change it, it was blatantly obvious what I was doing so it stays.
“Be careful, it hurts!” Twilight moaned angrily."Hold on!"
She shifted around, placing herself in different positions, trying to find the most comfortable way to put herself, she had never thought that she would find herself in that sort of situation, much less so on a different world.
“Let me see.” John groaned, grabbing Twilight‘s hind legs, trying to place her into a better position.
“Stop, hold on!” she groaned loudly moving them herself but not making much progress.
“Quiet!” Not too loud! You’ll wake up my aunt and uncle!” John hushed. Twilight sighed, cursing her luck for having John's family be home that one day, despite it all, her excitement to do something different helped ease the annoyance that she was currently going through.
It didn't make matter much less awkward, however.
“Arrgh!” Twilight groaned into a pillow promptly grabbed by her magic.
“Maybe I should find a bigger bag,” responded John with an amusing tone.
They had spend the better part of the past half-hour trying to fit Twilight in one of his traveling bags, this had been John’s ’master plan’ she tried to fit in different positions but some body part always stuck out, and some were just uncomfortable in more ways than one, John threw the bag aside next to a first he had tried using, it laid there, 'wounded' by Twilight’s horn that had torn a hole through it.
“You think so?” She replied with a deadpan look.
"Quiet, you, you still owe me thirty bucks for the first one."
After a few minutes, John came back with a bigger bag, this one seemed much larger, seemingly able to fit her and some extras, something that Twilight was ready to deny at the first opportunity.
“Alright Twi, get in here,” John motioned, and she did as told, making her way inside much more easily and finding a good way to sit. Not soon after, she was being picked up by John and moved downstairs.
“… the car, can I?” she heard John speak and made her body as stiff as possible in order to avoid the outside look of a bag moving by itself.
After what seemed like forever, John moved and made his way outside causing her to breathe in relief. She heard another door open and fell herself be laid on a soft area and soon after, the bag was opened.
“Ok Twilight, it’s your turn.” She nodded in response and set upa spell she had agreed to do that morning, a basic camouflague, but just enough to keep her hidden from outside eyes. Now John sat in the seat ahead with his hands on the wheel, looking reluctant.
“What’s the matter John?” she asked in a hushed tone.
“I didn’t think I was going to do this again.” He gulped.
John wasn’t too keen on driving, he knew how to, the problem was that he was afraid to, after an incident years before, that involved -interestingly enough- pigs and other sort of farm animals, he had sworn off driving, going as far as lying to anyone who asked if he did, not that many asked.
“Alright! I am ready!” John spoke and looked back at the verily visible Twilight, he recalled the lessons and slowly, backed off the driveway and out to what was to him, a kill-zone, full of other cars that had the potential of severely mangling him, but more importantly, Twilight.
At this, he decided to focus and relax himself, he drove around for a bit trying to find a place for them to go. Twilight spend her time quietly looking outside, her eyes inspecting everything and anything, she had even brought some parchment with her and wrote down her thoughts on the area.
“There are so many things here, but aren't there forests in your world? Most things seem to be human-made.” she noticed. He looked outside and mentally agreed with her, there was mostly buildings for small business, and other such places could be seen, trees were there, but it wasn’t what Twilight had asked for.
“I have a place in mind, but it will be a while, would that be okay, ma'am?” he told Twilight before parking on a nearby area and quickly setting up the GPS to a spot outside of town that he had a hunch Twilight would enjoy.
"I don't mind, I'm enjoying the sights," taking her words as confirmation, he drove off.
He felt himself relax the longer he continued, and soon, felt comfortable enough to strike an actual conversation with Twilight.
“Hey, Twilight.”
“Yeah?” she asked, looking up from a piece of scroll on the seat.
“What is that mark on your flank? I know you told me what it was called, but you didn’t really explain what it did.”
Twilight looked ready to give a full explanation, and from the looks of it, she was not going to skip anything.
“A cutie mark is a mark that a pony gets when he or she finds their special talent, this talent could have anything to do with anything, whether that is playing an instrument, bucking apples, racing and many things! In my case, the Cutie Mark I have shows that my one special talent is magic and its many uses.”
John took a moment to absorb everything and then asked something without thinking.
“You think I would have one of those in your world?” Twilight was about to reply but John intervened. “Never mind."
She looked at him with concern but didn’t force the issue.
An hour later, John made a pit stop at what any normal person would call an ‘out of nowhere gas station‘, he knew of it, though, being a place he had been to numerous times before. As soon as John made his way inside he, noticed a familiar face.
“Well, well, if it isn’t M. Night himself,” the guy managing the store simply turned and looked at him with anger at his racist remark, but soon it was replaced with a smile.
“John? Is that really you? It has been long!” he moved from behind the counter and gave him a hug.
“Long time no see, Abjit,John replied, content at seeing an old friend.
“Where have you been? I haven't seen you in years!” he asked this time with a pained look.
“I know, I know, it has been a long time, hasn’t it?” John replied apologetically, memories flashing in his mind.
“Where is Frankie? Is she not with you?” Abjit asked giving the car a look.
John flinched at the question, but felt compelled to answer the question. “She… Passed away 5 years ago.” John replied, turning Abjit’s smile into a frown.
“Oh, I am so sorry, it must have been hard for you,” he said, looking down sadly.
"Thank you, I appreciate it," John replied content.
Abjit gave John another hug and made his way back to the counter to attend him. “Alright, what do you need, just keep in mind that it isn’t free Johnny.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way Abjit," both laughed, and after paying for the gas, buying a few snacks, and bidding his old friend farewell, he made his way back to his vehicle.
“Sure took you a while, everything alright?” she asked with a worried expression on her face.
“Yeah, everything is fine Twilight,” he replied unconvinced in his own answer.
~~~~~
After another hour of driving, they finally reached a clearing he knew well, he stopped in the empty parking area and looked at the back seats to find Twilight asleep, not to mention unbuckled. How did I forget that? John thought and decided he would make her do it on the way back.
“Hey Twi, wake up," he called, she slowly opened her eyes and gave what John could easily put in his mental top ten cutest yawns ever, the top 5 currently occupying 4 of Twilight’s yawns so far, the list was very one sided by that point.
“We are here?” she asked still half-asleep.
“Yes Twi, we are here," he laughed. Without warning, he grabbed her and pulled her out onto the floor.
“Is this safe, John?” she asked worriedly.
“Yes, it is, no one really comes here anymore. Come on.”
He begin walking with Twilight following closely behind. John grinned as they walked.Enjoying the walk as they traded banter back and forth. It hadn't even been ten minutes when they finally made it to an overlooking cliff.
“This place is beautiful!” Twilight exclaimed in amazement, she ran to edge and looked upon the open area, there were trees as far as the eye could see.
“Yeah, it is, haven't been here in five years, actually,” Twilight turned to him with a knowing face, she moved towards John, and gave him a hug that he graciously accepted.
“So, you used to come here a lot?”
“Yeah…With Frankie, we came here every weekend..” he walked to the edge and stood there, thinking of the words he needed to get off his chest, he knew they would be pointless in retrospect, but he felt that he needed to say what he had to. 'Who knows? Maybe she'll hear.Stranger things have happened this week,' he thought, looking back to Twilight.
"Something the matter?"
"You could say that."
"Huh?" he turned without answering, looking at the beautiful scenery once more.
“Hey Frankie, can you believe that it has been five years? I can’t. You know? It was hard without you, I had a horrible time trusting people, I felt that if I got close to anyone, I would be hurt again, of course, not anymore, I found someone, or rather, somepony to trust.”
He motioned Twilight to move closer to him and continued.
“This is Twilight Sparkle, and she is a pony, I know, but you guys would have been great friends, can you believe that it took someoe from another dimension to get me back on track? I sure am pathetic, huh?”
John felt a sharp pain on his foot and instantly looked at Twilight who was currently glaring at him.
“I will have none of that, you hear?” She said with a serious tone on her voice.
“Let me finish... Ouch. See? She keeps me in line!” he half-laughed, and as he continued, he felt the tears slowly forming in his eyes. “I miss you sis… I really do, there is not a single day that you are not on my mind. I love you," by that point, he was sobbing, allowing himself the luxury in the open area.
He managed to calm down soon after, with a tired groan, he laid back on the ground, looking at the now setting sun, Twilight followed suit and laid down beside him, he tried to relax, but for some reason there were other thoughts popping up in his mind
He laid there thinking about everything , he thought of the ‘bad’ treatment he was supposedly given, the lack of friends, the manner which he felt sorry for himself; It all had been brought by himself, and he had finally realized it. At this point, he felt content, finally realizing what he had done. He was now ready to move on, and perhaps, make friends.
'Except for Michael, he is still a dick, ' he thought amuzed.
“Thank you, John,” John fell Twilight's nuzzle met his cheek.
“What was that for?” John asked flustered.
“My way of saying thanks for bringing me here, of course," she replied.
They laid there for a few minutes before John spoke again.
“Hey Twilight? Do you think I would have a cutie mark in your world?” John repeated his early question with some concern, he didn’t know why he was asking, but felt that he needed to get that off his chest.
“Of course, John, everyone gets it at some point, even you would have," she replied looking a bit distant, but hearing the words were enough for John.
“Hey, Twi, you sure you ok? You’ve been sounding serious the whole trip," he asked her but only received a nod in response, once again he didn't ask, there was no point in ruining the moment.
They spend the next half an hour laying down on the grass watching the sunset, but soon, the chilly wind begin to hit them causing each to shiver in return, and so, they made their way back to the car.
~~~~~
Twilight was utterly crushed, she had spent most of the night awake, struggling over the decision.
She had felt the worst while at the cliff, but she had managed to hide her hurt from John with difficulty, to her luck, John was far too busy with his own feelings to notice hers.
'I... I can't, I just can't tell him... At least... Not directly,' carefully getting out of bed, she walked to the restroom with parchment and quill on mouth, and with a heavy heart, began the letter.
“Dear John.
I didn’t have the courage to tell you, and I am sorry, but by the time you read this, I will be gone, I will have returned to my world, we both knew this was going to happen and I ask that you don‘t do anything drastic, instead, cherish your new found values, know that you have helped me grow as well and I will miss you, and that I love you, Johnny-boy.
Your dear new sister-of-sorts.
Twilight ‘Twili’ Sparkle.”
Tears were falling as she finished the letter, she didn’t have the courage to write more and decided it was all she needed, she put the note on her satchel for later, and afterwards, went to bed cuddling up to John with the same thought she’d had for the past few days.
“I’m sorry…”
Author's Note
Notes 12
Anyway, almost done reading, good job!
It was early morning, but John was already up and about, he was fancying himself up in ways he didn't even think he could.
“I feel like I could just explode!… Somehow… I am not good with hyperboles…” he spoke excitedly to the silent Twilight.
“Yeah,” she replied and he turned to look at Twilight with a smirk.
“Twi, smile! Come on! Give me a smile!” she forced a weak smile and he promptly moved close with his phone and took a picture of them both.
Twilight blinked in surprise and looked as if she had gone blind, but quickly recovered and glared at John.
“You know, that’s not very nice,” she said lamely.
“You know, your lack of excitement is killing my mood.” he replied with an exaggerated whine.
This only made Twilight roll her eyes and she stared at him, he seemed to radiate some happy intoxicating happiness that might have caused her to smile, if not given the circumstances.
“What are you looking at? Like what you see? Do I look ‘20% cooler‘?” Twilight couldn’t help but laugh at the horrible Rainbow Dash-ish pun.
"That was cheap and you know it."
“There we go.” he moved over to hug her and soon returned to his previous grooming back in the restroom.
'Oh John, if you only knew,' She moved over to his wallet and put the note on a spot he would probably not check while on his date at the very least.
'It is done,' she finally thought in defeat.
As John combed his hair, he couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming burst of happiness fill his body, it lay there dormant for a while, but it wasn’t till the closeness of the coming activity hit him straight in the face in the shape of an early morning text from Dana.
“I cant wa8 2 see u 2day, looking forward 2 see what u have planned 4 me,” he had ignored the atrocious grammar and misuse of numbers if only because it was her, still, he couldn’t help but shudder
'Everyone has flaws in some way, I can bear it.'
Despite his excitement, what really had him worried was Twilight; she had been acting weird since the trip the day before, but he felt no need to ask, he expected it to be some personal struggle, or even an Equestria issue. Brrrr… He felt himself shiver as he thought of the world’s name, he had no idea what it was about it, but it brought him goosebumps for some reason.
“John?” Twilight asked from the room, interrupting his thoughts.
“What is it Twi?” he asked opening the door to hear her better.
“Are you… Happy now?” her voice trembled as she said it.
“… Yes,” he felt the hesitation in his answer but placed it to the suddenness of the question.
“That’s… Good to hear,” he heard the sadness in her voice and made his way to the room, just to arrive to see Twilight with drooping ears and tears falling down her face.
“Twilight…?” his heart sank at the sight, the mare silently bawled her eyes out, he had been lucky not a soul was there, but his mind was still set on Twilight, her crying coming from anguish that she obviously kept to herself, he didn’t waste a second and made his move and embraced her, letting her face rest on his chest, her now audible sobs becoming muffled, and minutes later, became silent.
“Twilight, you know you can tell me anything.” he consoled her.
“I-I don’t know…” she replied miserably.
“I can cancel if you want, you know what? I am gonna call her a-” he was stopped by Twilight’s hoof gently brushing his hand and turned to see her disapproving look.
“Don’t do that, I will be fine, we… Can talk when you are back.” she finished looking away as she said it.
“If you say so, I’ll trust you on this, but if you need anything, call this number, it’s the number of the restaurant I’m taking her.” After leaving the number dialed on his phone and letting her practice on her own for a bit, he felt satisfied enough to let it go for the moment.
“Good, now excuse me, I need to finish getting ready," he went back to the restroom trying to get himself back on track, he still had the nagging feeling but he would have to ignore it for the time being.
Hours later, he was ready, he wore a tuxedo his uncle had let him borrow sans the tie. He was getting his stuff ready and turned to leave when Twilight called him back
“Hey John.”
“Yes, Twily?” he replied and turned to her.
“Have fun, I love you, and goodbye.” he felt an urge to stay, an urge that was telling him not to go, as if it was the last time he would see her.
'It will be fine,' uncertainty filled his thoughts despite his reassuring.
“I love you too, Twilight, and thanks.” both approached each other and hugged one last time before John made his way outside the house and into the car, then into the street, and finally, out of Twilight’s visual reach.
“Goodbye…” she felt the finality of the moment hit her and succumbed to the bed’s minor comfort hoping to get some sleep before her leaving. She got no rest as her thoughts kept going back to him, she opened her eyes and looked around, the room she had spend most of her stay was now a very familiar sign, she remembered how they had first met, the doubt John had when she explained her visit, the embarrassing moment she had gone through when her curiosity got the best of her, and the most vivid memory; yesterday’s ‘Twilight bagging’.
“It’s only been a week and I already feel the waves of nostalgia.” she spoke sourly and decided to get out of bed.
She inspected the room, she examined everything trying to keep it in mind, she looked at the bed that was his, then hers, and finally, was shared by both (to her sudden realization), she analyzed the close relationship they now shared, she felt as close to him as she was with Shining Armor himself, but she couldn‘t figure out how they hit it off so well, how even the least likely choice for roommates could give her such bliss, could another human have given her the same happiness she had felt?
'Probably,' she thought in response. But that doesn’t change the good times we had.' .
“And now, I am leaving him behind,” any hope of seeing him again now gone, she stared at the phone John had left and unlocked it with her magic, she looked at the it and noticed the photograph of them he had taken was now on the phone, she stared at the picture smiling sadly and decided to silently wait, the picture providing a sort of awkward company in the otherwise lifeless room.
~~~~~
“Are you gonna order or what?” Dana asked looking annoyed, a waiter standing by his side waiting for his order.
“Huh? What? Oh, just give me what she is having,"e returned the menu to the waiter and returned to his thoughts, his “perfect date” was becoming anything but.
In fact, it seemed to be heading straight into disaster zone, but in truth, John couldn’t focus on it, Twilight occupied his thoughts every step of the way, he felt guilty for leaving her to deal with her seeming depression alone.
“John! What’s the matter?” John turned to see Dana but saw no worry in her features, instead he saw annoyance, and hint of boredom.
“Eh, I am sorry, I’m having some family issues at the moment, didn’t mean to ignore you.” he quickly explained and moved to “questions to ask on your first date 101”.
“So, want to tell me about yourself?” he asked awkwardly.
“Not, really,” she replied bluntly.
'Well… Okay… This isn’t going well.'
His thoughts were interrupted by their waiter placing the dinner on the table and noticed the bottle another brought. He looked at it and had a vague idea of what it would have been. The waiter served them a glass each and left them to their food.
“Oh boy, maybe I should have just ordered juice or something,” he heard a sigh and looked at Dana who was staring disapprovingly at him. His brow raised asking for an answer.
“Seriously? Come on. Drink it, it’s good.” she motioned him to drink and took her own glass to her mouth.
“I don’t drink, I have a thing against alcoholic beverages,” he remembered, or technically ‘tried’ to remember the time he had gone out for drinks, but after waking up in his front yard with only a shirt and his underpants, he didn't really have a keen affliction to the stuff.
“Besides, I drive, remember?” He added in his defense.
“John, stop being a wuss and drink it,” he could place it, but from that moment, Dana seemed less radiant than before.
“Excuse me, but whatever I enjoy or DON’T enjoy is my problem, not yours.” he responded coldly and winced as the last word left his mouth. 'Crap.' .
She stared at him for a few seconds seemingly unimpressed before replying. “Here I thought you were a fresh breath of air, you are rude to me and a you won't even drink, I guess that moment with Michael was a one off,she shrugged and took another shot from her glass.
"You seem different than before," he stated causing a beautiful grin to appear on the girl's face.
"You mean the 'nice' me? Sorry, but I like keeping appearances with others, something I thought you would notice," he stared at her trying to picture when she had acted nice, he remembered Michael's warning. Girls like her only like guys like me.
Then, it clicked.
‘You can’t judge a book by its cover.’ He felt the saying appropriate at the moment. "Damn it."
"What? Got something to say?" Dana wondered, taking another gulp from her glass.
“I… Think we are done here,” he sighed and he got out of his seat ready to excuse himself, he abruptly took out his wallet, the force of the act forcing a folded paper to fly out of it.
“What’s this?” He bended down and picked up the small parchment, he sat back down and opened it to read the small message that was written, in fact, he read it again, and then again, and again, allowing the message to sink in.
“No… NO!” the last word coming out loud enough for everyone on the restaurant to hear, causing them to turn towards the source of the voice.
“Yes, you blew it, no point in feeling sorry for yourself,” he turned to her and felt angry, not at her really, but at himself for not having figured out what Twilight had been going through.
'i have to get home!'
“Here is the money, pay for the dinner and call a cab, I’m outta here.” he placed all of the money he had taken to use for the date but felt no regret in doing it, ignoring the girl’s obvious anger he got out of his seat, his thoughts were only focused on Twilight, he was thinking about their conversation just a week before as he bolted out of the restaurant
“Let’s say I am believing all of this is happening, and I don't question it, and I let you study me as you said, if so how long do you plan on doing that?” came the voice of his own memory, he heard the cynicism in his voice and held back the urge to punch his one week younger version.
“A week at the very least, I need to get to know you, and since we are now technically roommates for the moment, we can talk about your world and mine, maybe get to know each other better!” the memory Twilight finished with an excited clap.
'She told me about it, she really did, and now she is doing what she said she’d do…' he made his way to the car and quickly started it, the timer flashed showing momentarily inaccurate numbers before the timer showed. six fifty pm. There was only one thought in his mind as he drove home.
I’m not going to make it in time…
~~~~~
He reached his home 20 minutes later, after speeding through pretty much every red light, he would have to deal with his uncle’s rage and a high amount of bills later.
He got off the car and walked towards the front door, he slowly opened it and made his way inside, he looked around at what was his living room, it was empty as usual, but felt the place strangely uncomfortable and made his way to the stairs cautiously climbing each step, soon, he was in the small hallway leading to his room and he stared at the door.
The door led to a place where he spend most of his time, a haven, where he could escape reality, but also live in a very different one, he had never been so happy to have been a social outcast before he met the purple mare. He chuckled at the thought and how bad of an example that might be for others.
'Don’t leave your room! You are guaranteed to make a pony friend if you don’t.' without the right context that might have been a bad thing to say out loud.
His mind came back to the issue at hand, starting with his fear of what he might find -or rather, not find inside- after this, he would probably move out of the house.
He opened the door and, relief watched over his body like a warm blanket.
Twilight was sitting on their bed looking miserable, she might have been an illusion caused by the stressof losing her, but even if that were the case, he was happy.
“Twilight,” he began as he sat on the edge of the bed.
“John…” he was happy to hear her voice, but illusion or not, he was not going to let her be miserable.
“I thought you would have been gone by now,” he simply stated. 'So much for making her feel better.'
“I thought so too, but the Princess hasn’t opened the portal. Delay, I suppose,” she deadpanned. “What about your date?“ she added soon after.
“Eh, she was a bitch.“ he finished nonchalantly.
They laid in silence for a few seconds but John had many things in mind and broke it
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked Twilight with some anger spilling in his voice. John felt wrong for asking, but felt justified to ask due to her lack ot dismissal.
“I didn’t have the heart to tell you, besides, wouldn’t you have tried to stop me?” she said with a serious face but tears were already falling down her cheeks and around her snout.
“Yes, I would probably have, and I would have succeeded,” he gave a dark laugh, he knew she would not dare hurt him, and even if that were the case, he could have come up with a good if desperate plan.
“What is stopping you now?” she asked with simple look of curiosity.
He stared into the roof for a while and weighted his choices.
'I could try to stop her, but what would that accomplish, she would never forgive me if I made her stay. But…. There is another option…'
He turned his eyes back to Twilight with an answer already in his brain.
“I won’t.”
“See!? I knew y-… Wait, what?” she asked in obvious surprise.
“I won’t stop you, but, I am doing something.” he stopped waiting for Twilight to ask.
“And what is that?”
“I’m coming with you,” he finished grinning as to how easily the words came out of his mouth.
He felt the odd comfort of his wish, he had been happier in a week than he had been lately, sure, his sister was a part of most of those times, but she was gone, and there was no one besides his uncle who would care nearly as much for him, he was being selfish by escaping from the world, but he didn't care, his relationship with the purple mare was great, granted it had a rocky start, but it was great nonetheless.
“John, what about…?” she was stopped by John reaching into Twilight’s satchel and grabbed a piece of parchment, he took the decoratory pen from the tux’s pocket and began writing.
“What are you doing?” she asked with annoyance whilst fixing her satchel.
Minutes later he showed Twilight the finished note and she gasped obviously finding its contents inappropriate.
“John, you can’t be serious,” John’s stare told her otherwise. “What about your parents?” she asked, the concern in her voice clearly showing through.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t ask.” he replied giving her a sad smile. ”I never had a father, he left us when I was born, as for my mother…”
~~~~~
It had been 2 days since Frankie had died, John had not gone to school or spoken to anyone, not even the police who still required his statement, his mom not wanting to let it go any longer, took him to the station where they both waited for someone.
“It’s okay son, I am here for you,” she was still depressed, it had been only 1 day since the funeral after all, and she still didn’t know the details of her death, she was reluctant, but she needed to know.
“Good afternoon, Ms. Pennick, we will get this out of the way fast, I don’t want you to keep you longer than I should.” the cop who had arrived stated frankly, and looked at John.
“Son, I understand that you must have gone through a lot, but I need to hear about what you saw.” he began, the words obviously directed to him.
John looked at the cop with tears in his eyes, he took a deep breath knowing that there was no point in delaying and told him what he had recounted himself countless times since it happened.
“I went out with my…” he choked a bit as he thought of her name “…sister at around 10:30 PM, we drove to the bank in order to pick some money she needed, as we made our way there, we were… Assaulted by a man, he grabbed me and told my sister to give him the money, as I warned her, I was hit on the side of the head, the rest is a bit of a blur, but when I came to, I hit the man with my elbow, Frankie took me and ran then I heard a gunshot… And she fell… And… I held her… And she died… She died in my hands…”
John was sobbing uncontrollably as the cop wrote his report, he expected the cold, professional attitude from him, but his mom held a horrified look on her face.
“You got her killed…” she began, her voice merely a whisper, her face turning from shock, to anger.
“SMACK” the sound of the slap reverberated across the station and the cop held a disapproving look in his face.
“Mom…?” John held his cheek trying to ease the pain and looked into his mom’s eyes. They showed no remorse.
“You got her killed… You are no son of mine,” she was quickly subdued and after some strict talking to from the cops, they made their way back home.
But the damage was done.
~~~~~
“She still blames me to this day, she didn‘t help my case either, at least till you made me see otherwise,” he patted Twilight’s head with a sad smile.
“Your life hasn’t been easy at all,” she stated sadly and nuzzled John’s shoulder.
“So, what do you say, Twi?“ he asked with the best puppy dog eyes he could muster.
Twilight closed her eyes trying to find a reason to deny it, he would have had a good life even if she left, he had in fact changed, but she knew what she wanted, and as much of a selfish wish it was, he was being selfish with her. After a few minutes deep in thought, she finally opened her eyes and stared at John who had changed and now wore a plain t-shirt and jeans, he also had a backpack filled with what she assumed to be more clothes of his.
“You are really serious about this, aren't you?“ she asked with wonder as to how someone would give up the world they had lived in for their entire life.
“Of course, I like to think that it’s a blank slate for me, besides, you‘ll be there,” he gave her an honest smile and she jumped to give him a hug, her eyes quivering trying to hold back the tears.
“Thank you John, I still feel bad, but if you really want to I-” suddenly, a white light appeared in the room and hovered in place before becoming the shape of a door, both John and Twilight broke the hug and stared at it.
He turned at his old room to give it a quick look and smiled.
Goodbye, old friend. he chuckled at the idea of having an inanimate object as a friend, but he could only chalk it up due to what he was sure was madness by this point.
“Are you really sure of t-WOAH!” she stopped as John picked her up on his shoulders, real or not, he had made his mind.
John reluctantly stepped into the portal and closed his eyes before lamely replying.
“Nope, but hey! Isn't life an adventure?"
"... That was lame."
"Hush, you."
And with those final words, the pair made their way inside, and the portal closed, and no sound was heard on the now lonely room.
Author's Note
Notes 14
Aaaand this marks the end of the original story, in retrospect, it was nothing special, it was (is) rushed as all hell, it's overly dramatic and silly at points, and it was a pain to re-read. I put a little extra effort which was none at all, but hey! There you go.
Thankfully, I do get better.
John's uncle was beginning to worry.
His nephew hadn’t made a sound for the whole day, what if he had finally given up to his bad memories? Or what if the date had gone badly, either way, he had to talk to him, and he made his way upstairs to his room.
“What the?” he saw the door was open and rushed his way in, as expected, he found no one there, but his eyes quickly moved to a note on his pillow, and John's phone that was left charging onthe same spot.
He walked towards the bed and sat down, he could only guess what was written in the note, but he had a few ideas.
He opened it and some money fell on his lap, he ignored it and read the letter.
‘Hello uncle, by the time you read this, I will be gone, don’t worry, I am fine, I left because I needed a fresh start, and the only way to do it was to follow my sister.’
He stopped reading the note and begin panicking. 'Frankie? Did he really go kill himself? No, no, no!' he tried to calm down and took a deep breath before going back to the note.
‘Don’t be alarmed, as I said I am fine, to answer your question, unlock my phone, but I warn you, you may be surprised.’
Confused, he unlocked the phone and gasped.
“What the hell is this?” he threw the phone aside and went back to the letter and kept reading.
‘Do not look for me, because you won't find me, I thank you for letting me stay and I give you all of my saved up money, hoping that it is enough to repay some of your kindness.
His hold on the letter began to waver as he realized he would never see John again, he forced himself to keep reading.
‘I realize that this is a selfish thing to do, but I think it will be for the best, my only regret would be not getting to know you better, but know that even if that was the case, I love you, and I thank you for everything you have done for me.
Your loving nephew, John Pennick.’
He tossed the letter aside and made his way downstairs yelling at his wife to call the police as soon as possible, minutes later, the door smacked close and no other sound was heard
Meanwhile upstairs, the phone laid damaged on the floor, showing the image of John and his strange purple friend, it stayed on for a few seconds longer before the screen went dark, and then, showed no more.
Author's Note
I hope you all enjoyed this story!A New Day, A New World is the sequel.
Notes 14
This was HELL to edit, specially considering it was confusing before. Still, I did my best to make it more readable and to even add some details for the next story, so yay!
gg me
