Beyond Infinity

"Hey man can I get a pack of Newports?"

I turned and said “Sure, lemme see your ID boss." Without glancing to see if they were digging through their wallet for it, I reached back for the cigarettes he wanted. I turned back to the guy glaring at me angrily. Inwardly I sighed; it had been this kind of day and I still had six hours to go.

"What, do I look fucking 19 to you?" The guy snarled. Truthfully I thought he was my age but I didn't say it to his face; 19 wouldn't have been far off.

"Sir, I'm just trying to do my job, I have to check ID if you appear under 27." I calmly replied. It takes a lot to phase me and this guy was nowhere near my breaking point.

"My ID's in the fucking car, are you really going to fucking make me go out there and get that shit, and hold up this fucking line? Don't be inconsiderate, I'll just tell you my birth date and we'll both be moving on." The guy said. I didn't bother to point out that there were children in line and that his swearing wasn't really helping his case, but I didn't push the point. I entered in his date without the ID and sold him the box. I was tired and still had so much more work to do. 'Tis the season I thought miserably. There were still shelves to be stocked and tagged, tags to be pulled and replaced, customers to help and I  had to make the store look clean on my own.

"Thanks, have a great fucking day you dumbass." The guy took his cigarettes and left. "Have a good evening sir!" I called out in response. The guy shot me the bird and angrily walked out of the store. Again, I inwardly sighed. It had been like this the past few weeks and it wasn't going to be any easier now that it was Christmas season. It also doesn't help that...

I immediately cut off my own thought and tried to put on a cheerful face. Faking emotions was becoming far too easy; I had the next customer in and out before I had even gotten my mind back to reality. I absentmindedly began tapping out a beat on the counter and smiled for the next customer. "Hi, how are you? Good! Do you have your card with you today..."

The day went on in a similar fashion. Every so often I would get a nice customer and every so often I'd get a terrible customer, such is the way of life. Of course, my job being pretty mindless, my thoughts often drifted into a dark place. It had only been a few days since I had dug the hole that now held my dog. Donut had been my friend for 7 years, and only one other person in my life could claim that. People have a sad tendency to come and go rather quickly in my life and sometimes I’m to blame. Sometimes I'm not, but the mind doesn't always work that way. When you get into that frame of mind, it's always your fault; it was always something you said, it was always something you did, it was always a promise you broke, it was always a mistake you made, it’s never someone else's. It’s always yours. I shook my head vigorously, trying to shake it all off.

Absentmindedly I stuck my hand into my pocket, I felt an odd lump and smiled without meaning too. You see, over the past year, I had developed a strange interest. That interest was in a children's television show, but not just any show, a show specifically for little girls.

This show is, of course, My Little Pony. Yep, I'm a brony.

I'm the only brony I know personally. I've met some online but other than random encounters with people wearing a t-shirt, I've never met anyone else. Not many of my friends know, and the ones that do think I'm a nutcase for it, but whatever. Reaching back into my pocket, I pulled out my blind-bag Twilight Sparkle. There were times when I really sympathized with her; she tried so hard to be perfect, to be the best, like no one ever was...

Ahem. Sorry, wrong show. Like I was saying, when Twilight planned something, it had to go EXACTLY as planned. Down to the line. If it didn't, I got stressed, I got worried, I wouldn't have as much fun as I would have otherwise. From what I had seen, Twilight was the exact same way. That being said though, I like Twilight and all, but my favorite pony was actually...

"DAVID!" my manager yelled across the store. Yep. That's me.

I sighed, put Twilight back in my pocket and walked over, it was close to the end of my shift and I was looking forward to being off. I was going to stop by the local guitar center and pick up some new strings for my new guitar, which my friend would be delivering to me sometime next week. I was really excited for her to visit; she hadn't seen my new house yet.

But of course, it's not next week yet. It's still this week, and the tone of voice my manager was employing suggested that there was more work to be done. "What's up Jackie?" I replied as I walked over. She had a look on her face that implied she was holding back some harsh words.

"Why are there no sales signs up on display?" she asked me a little too casually. I had been busy taking down sales signs from this week and hadn't gotten started on next weeks.

"I've been working on getting this weeks signs down and I've also been ringing customers; we've been pretty busy." I replied. It was a waste of my breath; she had been in the office the whole time and has already seen evidence of this on camera. My head was starting to really hurt, which meant I was crashing from my energy drink. I was not in any kind of mood to answer questions she already knew the answer to.

"David, we need those signs up; it's the holiday season and people are going to be asking us about what's on sale." She paused. "I need you to stay another 4 hours tonight."

"What???!?" I heard what she had said but I couldn't believe it. I was already pushing overtime as a part-time employee and this would mean a 12 hour day, another 8 hours tomorrow, and 6 hours early the following morning. I already felt horribly exhausted and I didn't think I had another 4 hours in me. "Jackie, I'm exhausted, and I'm already working tomorrow and monday morning. I need sleep."

"I don't care. We NEED those signs up as soon as possible and I've got other things I need to be doing. I can't be wasting my time with sales signs." she replied.

Now. In retrospect, I don't regret anything that has happened. The past several weeks have been among the most incredible of my life, in more ways than one. That being said, what happened next probably could have been avoided.

"Jackie, I'll be blunt with you. I'm tired. I need sleep. Have someone else do the signs; I'm off in 10 minutes and I want to go home." I tersely replied.

She sighed. "David, we've been having issues with you as it is. Your registers have closed low the past several days. You aren't carding for cigarettes. Do what I say or I can't be responsible for your job security."

I took a deep breath before responding. "I've already told you. Go check the tapes. I'm not stealing money. I'm carding anyone that looks under 27, just like the rule says. Don't question my judgement; I know what I'm doing. And right now, I'm going to finish what I was doing and going to bed." I turned to walk away.

"David, either stay and put out the sales signs, or you're fired." I slowly turned around and Jackie was wearing a sort-of triumphant smile. I slowly turned back around. "I knew you'd see things my way," she finished.

This is probably where I should have kept my mouth shut, but let's face it; you've all wished you could say this to your boss at least once.

"Jackie, take those sales signs and shove them up your old crusty vagina. I quit." I took off my name tag, threw it on the counter, and walked out the store. "I've had enough." I said as I walked out.

It was a cold winter day outside. I walked over to my car and immediately turned the heat up to the max. Second thing I did was blast the radio. First song that played was a real thrashy song; it fit my mood perfectly. "Awesome, at least something goes right." I muttered. I drove out of the parking lot and floored it. The guitar store was the opposite direction but I didn't care. I just wanted to go home and take a nap. I'd worry about my guitar and my job situation later. There weren't too many cars on the road so it was relatively easy to weave in and out of the lanes at top speed.

Sadly, this also made it easy for the undercover cop to tail me and pull me over.

Can you tell I'm having a bad day? I'll skip that dialogue for you. If you've never gotten a speeding ticket, it's basically always the same: "Do you know how fast you were going son?" "Sorry officer, it won't happen again." "License and registration." "K" "K, here's your stuff back, here's your ticket, sign here, pay the ticket or come to court, kthxbai." Nothing really interesting, although I admit I was fighting back tears most of the rest of the way home. I couldn't take this anymore. Something needed to happen for me. Something nice. Something good.

After a few minutes I got home. I first sent a text to my friend Laura, who I mentioned earlier. If anyone would be willing to listen to me bitch about how my day had gone, it would be her. Then I attempted to regain my composure. It would not be good to walk into my house screaming about how much life was starting to suck. I turned off the car, and went to get out, when I noticed something was off. Then I realized what it was.

"God fucking dammit" I thought to myself. Apparently, I had been driving most of the ride home with a cracked windshield. How did I miss that? How am I going to pay for it without a job? Again, I had to stop and regain my composure, because the shit was starting to pile up and this was another item on the "Last thing I need to happen" list that I could check off.

I walked into the house. Everyone was casually eating dinner. “Hey, David’s home! How was your day?” asked my dad.

“Ehhhh. I don’t really want to talk about it, can I just head upstairs? It’s been a long day.” I despondently replied.

My parents shared a quick glance, but replied, “Sure, we’ll be here if you want to talk.”

“Thanks. G’night guys.”

I trudged up the stairs, looking forward to sleep’s sweet release. It had been one helluva day. I shut the door to my room, and without looking I went to fall into my bed. I would have just stopped moving however I landed and fallen asleep. Although, it may have been a good idea to look where I was going. Had I been paying attention, I would have seen the small orange horse sitting comfortably on my bed.

“AHHHHHHHHHHH!” It screamed, immediately leaping from my bed onto my desk.

My eyes snapped wide open and I immediately looked for the source of the noise. “Holy shit!” I yelled just as loudly, recoiling in shock. But then I took a closer look, and I saw the creature for what it really was.

“YOU ALMOST CRUSHED ME! WHAT’S YOUR PROB...MMFFFMFPHHHF” its speech muffled by my hand. I had to think fast, and hey, it might not have been pleasant for her, but I didn’t want my parents to see or hear her.

“David, what was that?” my mom called upstairs.

I quickly made the universal “Shhhh!” sign with my mouth, and the filly calmed down somewhat. “Nothing mom! Just stepped on my phone charger. Sorry for swearing!” I looked back to the filly. “I’m going to take my hand away. Don’t yell, don’t scream. I’m a friendly guy but I need to know what the hell is going on and how you got here. Do you think you can explain that to me?”

The filly nervously nodded. I gave a warm smile. “Good. My name is David.” I took, my hand away and offered to shake. She nervously backed away, and I sighed. "Perfect"... I thought. I had been hoping for something to happen, I get it, and she doesn’t like me. That would be how this goes. Although I was pretty sure I knew the answer, I had to ask: “Will you tell me your name at least?”

She shook her purple mane out of her eyes and said “I’m Scootaloo.”

My heart began to soar. I mentioned earlier that I could somewhat relate to Twilight, but Scootaloo had always been my favorite character on the show, for a multitude of reasons. And now she was in my house! How did this even happen? What was going on? My mind was starting to hurt just thinking about what this meant. I opened my mouth to ask her something, but then her eyes got wide and she squealed.

“WHAT’S THAT DASHIE MODEL YOU HAVE?” she screeched, hopping onto my bed and heading towards my dresser. I turned, and noticed she was trying to reach for my blind-bag dashie toy.

“Whoa whoa whoa, easy!” I said. “Please keep it down, we’ll play with the toy in a minute, but I need to figure out what’s going on.” I rubbed my temples, thinking. She was obviously not worried about where she was right now. That was good at least. Getting her to trust me would be a whole different ball game. But it was a start. “Look Scootaloo, I don’t know why you’re here, but let’s figure out as much as we can about this whole thing. You probably want to know where you are, for example.”

She turned to me. “Yeah that might be a good idea. Who are you, where am I, and why am I here?” she asked.

“My name is David. I’m what’s known as a human,” I began.

“A human? You mean those things Lyra is always talking about?” Scootaloo asked quickly.

I chuckled. “Yeah, I’m one of those. As far as where you are, just know you’re safe here. As far as why you’re here?” I paused. “I...I don’t know. Maybe if you tell me how you got here, I might be able to explain.” I was still trying to wrap my head around all of this. But the more I knew, the easier it would be.

Scootaloo thought for a moment, then responded, “I’m not sure how I ended up HERE...but maybe I can tell you what I was doing before I got here?”

“Sure, that would be fine.” I replied.