Veil

I sat there, in the train, for a long time. Twilight was going on about all her favourite books or something; not my favourite conversation topic. So I just sat, listening on and off, staring out the window at the cartoony trees passing by.

They were so serene; I love the vibrant colours they all have; all shades of green… makes me wonder about home, and how whenever I sleep, I travel back inter-dimensionally. That fact keeps me awake. I wish I had something to perk me up; an energy drink or something. I don’t drink coffee; can’t stand the bitter taste.

I guess I just have to rough it out; staying awake the whole trip. It will be difficult, but I believe that playing computer games all night, without any nourishment of any kind is relatively good training. I’m just worried about boredom, and how that will probably make sleep look like a great thing to do.

“… and that is how I saved the town with my friends.” I snapped back; Twilight must have been talking for a good hour; not bad effort in my books. I usually can’t keep a decent conversation for more than a few minutes; I always run out of things to talk about

“That’s awesome Twi. Hey, what are you doing on this train anyway?”

“Just travelling to Canterlot; I need to speak with Princess Celestia. I can’t really talk about it; a private matter.” I understood perfectly. I think she knew I would be here. But the question is, does she know about the note?  If she does, then there is no point in hiding it. Worth a shot, I guess.

I pulled the piece of paper from my pocket and held it firmly in my hand. I thought it over… what if she wants the note? What then?

I exhaled and placed the paper on the table at our train booth; right next to 2 empty cups of tea and a dirty napkin. Her eyes widened.

“The note… so you do have it. I had my doubts, but at least it’s in good hands.”

That raised more questions than it had answered them. So I decided to start from the beginning.

“Twi, what exactly IS this note? And why did Smile try to kill me for it?”

“I really shouldn’t tell you… I think Princess Celestia would love to talk to you about it, though.”

Well that didn’t help at all. I really just wish that someone would answer some damned questions I have; I’m starting to get restless. Literally and figuratively; it’s almost midnight and I haven’t closed my eyes. The closest I got to a break was when I went into nearly a trance-like state. And still, it wasn’t enough. I needed something to perk me up, and I don’t think I will find it here on this train car.

I took a stand, and took the note off the table. Back into my pocket it goes.

“Hey, before you go, do you want me to fix your guitar? It’s missing a string.”

I know how to fix guitars; I’ve had so many broken strings I’ve lost count. Restringing has nearly become something I commonly do; that and buying new guitar picks. Seriously; guitar picks. Lose them every time.

“That would be great… thanks.”

I pulled out the spare pack of strings and pulled out the silver E string. Twilights horn flashed and then, all of a sudden, the guitar was stringed and in tune. Maybe she knows her stuff, or maybe magic is just about the greatest asset a musician could wish for.

I pulled out the red pick and plucked the new string with it. Sounds fine… much better than what it used to be. I mean, I’m good but I’m no miracle worker when it comes to maintenance.

I thanked her, and began to walk to the end of the train cart. I didn’t know what I’d find in the next train, but I hoped to god it was food and maybe some drinks; to keep me awake.

The door to the next cart opened as I pulled, as expected. But what wasn’t expected was the party popper going off in my face. That gave me a heart attack. And to top it off, I fell backwards ripping the tablecloth off one of the tables a pony was sitting at, landing hard on my back. Lucky I was holding my guitar in front of me; I could have landed on in and caused some serious damage. To me and the guitar.

Well… let’s assess the situation right now. I’m on my back, on a train car, with a tablecloth with white polka dots draped over the top of me, after getting jump-scared by a damned party popper set off by the one and only Pinkie Pie. I knew she would pop up eventually, but not literally ‘popping’ up. Damn she is good at making an entrance.

“WELCOME TO THE PARTY! I’M-“

“Yes. You’re Pinkie Pie, and I’m just passing through… unless you have something to keep me awake during the trip… then I’d be happy to stick around.”

I could nearly swear I heard music by The Living Tombstones… sounds awesome. Something you can listen to easily, and enjoy listening to at the same time.

“WAIT RIIIIIGHT HERE.”

She hurried off deep into the heart of the train cart. I couldn’t see past the ponies, it was another packed function. I think I know where all the ponies were going in the square before I met Smile… were they ALL coming to the train? That would explain a little, but not a lot. I still don’t know WHY they are here or why they are going to Canterlot.

All of a sudden, she was back from the jungle of a crowd, brining tidings of chocolate and fizzy drinks. My favourite. I downed the family sized chocolate bar fast; and the drink went down faster. This won’t have any major repercussions in the future; I can almost guarantee that.

Damn was I wrong. After like a minute of mingling with the guests, I had the severe urge to vomit. I rushed to the window, opened it, and hurled a projectile of browny-fizzy stuff outside. I don’t think anyone noticed though… I would HOPE not, because I have a chance to start anew in this alternate reality, and I don’t want to get a bad reputation in my first few days.

I closed the window and turned around. All the ponies were still partying away, having fun at what seems to be Gummi’s after after birthday party… although I haven’t seen the little guy yet, I would assume he is somewhere in between the dancing hooves.

I was going to crash any moment; the drink and chocolate gave me a little energy, but not enough to really keep me up until we get somewhere I can sleep without worrying. I mean, if I sleep on the train, and I wake up in my world, and I come back, am I on the train still? Or am I on the tracks in the middle of nowhere?

I made my way to the next cart. I was disoriented, but I could see there were beds. They look so nice, but I can’t sleep here; somepony might own one of the beds. I haven’t got the right.

Next car… storage. Nice. I placed my guitar down on the ground. I didn’t want it sliding off a wall or something during the night because of the train’s movement, that could wake everypony. I sat down in between the wall of the train cart and some boxes and closed my eyes.

I didn’t want to go back.

My hand was bloodied from the shattered glass from the cup which was now pieced on the floor next to me. I had everything; my guitar, my picks, the note… all but the strings in their packet. Instead they were on the guitar; Twilight’s doing.

The room was lit only but my roommate’s alarm clock’s flashing LED lights. The time was 5:00pm, and I assumed it was Friday. It always seems to be Friday.

My roommate was out, which wasn’t unusual for him; he is always out of school doing ‘sport’. But then, that doesn’t explain why the boarding house was still quiet. It’s a Friday evening and there are no sounds of people playing the latest mainstream games with each other? Unlikely. In fact, that is a completely ridiculous circumstance.

I rolled over onto my side. I was in pain; my head, my hand and my chest. What happened to my chest? I began to crawl to my swivel chair; to get a hold of it and lift myself up onto it. I succeeded.

My glanced to where the pain was coming from; right about the second rib from the bottom of the ribcage. Something was obviously sticking out from my shirt; it looked spikey and bloody. Could be a rib itself, I mean, it hurts like it could be.

I lifted my 2 layers of shirts and was taken aback from just how much damage there was. I was wondering where the rest of the glass went; I was absolutely sure that a few shards on the ground and in my hand wasn’t enough.

I reached for the pliers on my desk and could nearly feel the chunk of glass cutting though a few layers. The pain was terrible, but the blood I was losing was the least of my worries. I mean, a hunk of glass in my chest… that is a problem.

Pliers in hand, I placed their jaws on the glass and clamped down. This was going to hurt. I pulled outwards and the glass broke in half. But not after cutting through more of me.

“GAAH! FUCK!”

My eyes started to tear up. I wasn’t prepared for that kind of pain. Proof of this is when I fell off my chair sideways… rookie move using a swivel chair for medical purposes. But still, a chair is a chair, and I’m not one to argue with petty things like that.

I propped myself back up onto the chair and dabbed off some of the blood with my hand-towel. Time to finish the job. Wait… where are the pliers? No time; I’m bleeding badly here.

I grabbed the shard sticking out of me with both hands and pulled away again.

“FUCK!”

Profanities. Damn are they common when you are in pain… I mean really I have more decency than that, but it REALLY HURT. And now I have bloodied hands and a hunk of glass to prove it.

I’m still bleeding though. That is a problem. I stood, staggered and limped to the cupboard. I opened it up and took out a generic black tee. I then proceeded to rip in half vertically and wrap it around my chest. It will slow the bleeding, I think, until I find something to actually stop the bleeding. Or at least until the blood seals the wound after time, that would be easier and solve my problem.

Situation assessment mega happy fun time mode:

I’m back in my world, which I regret deeply. I hate it here.

I’m in a severe amount of pain.

I still have the note.

What is this note?

I sat back down on the chair and swivelled around until I was facing my desk. I took out the note and placed it down on the desk in front of me.

‘Smile’

Yep. Even from this angle it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Damn I wish someone could help me out here in this situation, but I’m not in Ponyland; not in Equestria. The one place I have friends... Friends… Connor.

I started up my netbook. Not the loan one; my original one had been fixed early this morning by the I.T Technicians at school. It still had all my work on it, all my music, all my videos… and not a single video wasn’t MLP FIM related.

Derpy loading screen, CTRL+ALT+DEL, *PASSWORD*, enter computer mode. I opened windows media player and put on Alex. S’ Party With Pinkie while simultaneously opening Skype so I could chat to my good ole’ pal Connor.

Skype flashed to life after a 5 minute wait; typical school issued computers. They don’t even have any decent graphics drivers; just GMA 3150. That won’t even render a gif, but strangely enough, it loads movies in high definition nearly instantly.

*CONNOR IS ONLINE*

Brilliant… but how do I start this conversation out? Oh, yeah, I went to Equestria today. What are you up to? Somehow I don’t think that will work out the way I hope. Maybe getting someone else’s view on this… lying is the answer.

In real life, face to face, I can’t lie to save my skin. But when it comes to the INTERNET, I am nearly as charismatic as Fancy Pants from Canterlot. It’s like… levelling your speech skill to 100 and having it degrade over time because of a constant de-buff from being around people.

‘Hey Connor. I have a friend, and he is well… sick in the head. He keeps dreaming about faraway lands and a piece of paper with the word Smile written across it. And to top it off, one of the antagonists in his dreams is also called Smile and is constantly trying to steal the note like some kind of villain. Any idea on what this could possibly mean?’

I didn’t expect him to answer. Only to go offline or something relative.

While waiting for the message, I decided to revise some of the episodes of MLP FIM; look for Smile. I couldn’t find him anywhere. And then, it was 9:00pm.

Where is time going these days?

‘Hey Bro. sorry I haven’t messaged you; I was eating dinner.’

Who the crap eats for three hours?

‘Yeah, no worries… but how long does it usually take you to eat food? Damn.’

‘… Long story. Anyway, I think the note has something to do with his name. Like it’s a piece of him or something and he needs it back. Smile, I mean.’

That makes sense… in an odd way. If it was a piece of him, how did it get onto my desk under a bottle of happy pills? I mean, if he were serious about keeping it, he wouldn’t have just let it go easily. Someone must have taken it from him or he lost it. My only conclusion.

‘Cheers, Connor.’

‘But what if he were to change the name of the note? Would it become his?’

I looked down at the note on the desk. ‘Smile’ What if I were to change it to my name? What does it do? What would alter?

If Smile was willing to kill me for it, I think that it must be worth a shot.

‘Thanks again, Connor.’

I eased back in the swivel chair an opened up the desk’s top drawer. I hoard pencils; I lose then nearly constantly, just like my guitar picks. I took one of around 20 pencils with erasers on the end and closed the drawer again. I could hear them all sliding and banging around in there.

It was sharp. Around a 1 in 5 chance of a pencil being pulled from my desk being sharp. They are either dull or unused.

I looked at the note again.

‘Smile’

I flipped around the pencil in my hand; made the drawing end the eraser. And began to rub out all traces of where his name had been written.

It was gone. A blank piece of paper now staring back at me. It wouldn’t be for long, though…

I flipped the pencil again and wrote my name. My handwriting, as always, was terrible. I’m too used to a keyboard and all the joy it brings. Making writing easy for as long as I can remember.

I had written my name in his place.

And it was strangely satisfying… like a weight was off my mind.

But the paper was still there, just a piece of paper to me. Now it just had a different scribbled name on it. Nothing had changed. There was no new owner; there was no piece that made me complete... just a piece of paper.

I was sad. I don’t know why, but writing my name… letting me know who I am… might be the piece of me I was looking for all along.

But then, that sounds cliché and I refuse to accept it.

I retrieved my wallet from the second drawer and I pulled out its contents; $25 Australian. Just enough to get some more pills and return to the other world.

I couldn’t wait; I was up and out of the house in under a minute. A new record.

I was over the road shortly after, and in the Pharmacists shortly after that. I got a bottle of pills with my fake prescription and paid with a discount because I go to school just over the road and have ‘mental health issues’.

I stepped out of the Pharmacists and staggered a bit; I’m still in pain from the broken glass after all and moving around isn’t helping that at all. There was no one around, so I lifted my shirt subtly and checked how my makeshift bandage was holding out.

It was soaked with blood, and my wound wasn’t giving me a break; literally dribbling out the bottom of the torn shirt-bandage.

God damn it… I have to keep together until I get back to the house and take the pills. I’ll be fine in the other world; I always am.

I nearly fell through the front door, and I did stagger a little and trip over a skateboard left lying around by one of the self-proclaimed ‘skaters’. So you know how to ride a board. Please do tell me how much you know about them. They make me angry, but I hide it… I hide it well.

Getting up those stairs was like climbing Everest. What with the blood loss and pure hate of skaters.

I stumbled through the door of my room and took my roommates glass. I filled it with water from the tap and opened up the bottle of pills. New tactic: pour them all into the water and chug the water. It’s a plan.

I emptied the bottle into the glass and tilted my head back with the glass. It was quickly emptied by my superior drinking abilities.

No mistakes this time. I put the glass back on his table quickly, took my guitar, my picks…and my note.

I lay down in the bed and closed my eyes.

I was going back again, and this time I was going to get some answers.