Cure for Pain

“Hey, Bryan.” Hannah said over at her friend Bryan’s apartment. “Do you ever miss them?”

Bryan and Hannah had been playing video games alone ever since their friends Coleton and Walker went missing. There had been searches upon searches for them, but no trace was found. After the searches were shut down, Bryan and Hannah had been hanging out without their cynical friend Walker and their hyper friend Coleton. It wasn’t the same.

“Of course I do, Hannah.” Bryan said. “They were our friends, after all.” Hannah simply sighed. “Correction, Bryan. They ARE our friends. I’m sure they’re out there somewhere.” Bryan looked at her. “And we’re here playing video games. We’re good friends, aren’t we?”

Tensions between them had been rising. They were running out of things to do, and most of their days were spent playing Zelda. They were racking their brains for something to do. “I know.” Hannah said, standing up. “You wanna go to a different dimension? They issued that transporter to me a couple of weeks ago, and we still haven’t tried a lot of places.”

Bryan set the controller down. “That sounds ideal, actually. Where do you want to go?” Hannah stood up and input some code into the command center. “I was thinking that we could go to the Equestria dimension. The alternate reality theorem states that there is a dimension for every possibility, so there has to be one for Equestria, right? Why didn’t I think of this before?”

Bryan got into the transporter and waited for the commands to be put in by Hannah. She and Brian sat in the transporter, waiting for the familiar feeling of dimension transport.

“Hey, Hannah?” Bryan said as they were between the seemingly infinite amount of dimensions. “Yeah, Bryan?” Hannah responded.

“Isn’t this just like the TARDIS, but for space and not time?” Hannah sighed. “Your Doctor Who references are getting a bit annoying, Bryan.”

Bryan grinned. “But I like them. Doctor Who references are cool. So are bowties.” Hannah heaved another sigh.

“Dude, CCR are OBVIOUSLY better than The Doors!" Coleton said to me as we walked to the Cake's bakery. "Have you HEARD ‘Bad Moon Rising?’ Or ‘Fortunate Son?’ Or ‘Have you Ever Seen the Rain’?”

“Have YOU heard ‘L’America?’ Or ‘Riders on the Storm?’ Or ‘The End?” I responded. I would have continued the argument from there, but with this type of thing, Coleton and I could fight all day. For someone who crash landed into the ground a couple of weeks ago, he certainly wasn’t hurt mentally.

Things had become better for the both of us. I finally raised enough money to get a decent apartment by the library. Coleton had moved in with Dash, got a job teaching flight at the local flight school, and shared payments on the house fifty fifty. Things were good.

“COLETON! WALKER!” I heard from behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see a fatigued Derpy running towards us. “Oh hey, Derpy. What’s up?”

“Come… Quick!” She panted. “Town Square!” She said before she flew off to join the rest of the crowd around the main podium. I ran and Coleton flew to the square to see a large crowd. I wish I could fly over it like Coleton, but I had to nudge myself to the center. What I saw, I almost couldn’t believe.

“Alright, everybody! No reason to panic!” Mayor Mare said to everyone through a microphone. Behind her were two humans, a guy and a girl. I looked at Coleton, and he had the same white face as I. These humans were unmistakable. One with ginger hair and a Nirvana shirt, the other with blonde hair, glasses, and a “The Angels Have the Phonebox” shirt. I knew these people.

“BRYAN! HANNAH!” I yelled, running up to the podium and looking rather stupid doing so. “What’s up? What are you doing here?” It slipped my mind that I was not my human self, but rather a unicorn. That might have looked a bit strange in hindsight.

“Wait, you know these two?” Asked Mayor Mare. “Yeah, I do. They were my best friends back on Earth.” Hannah and Bryan took an apprehensive step back. “Do we know you?” Bryan said in a shaky voice.

I sighed. This would take a while. “Hannah, Bryan, It’s Walker. We came here a couple of weeks ago in a reality transporter and decided to stay. There’s Coleton up there, if you want to see him.” I pointed my hoof up to the brownish yellow pegasus, who waved in response. “If you need any more proof, there’s a snare drum on my ass…” I showed them my cutie mark… “and there’s a guitar on Coleton’s.” Coleton turned around, showing his cutie mark. “So… you believe us?”

What a way to introduce yourself. I left them speechless. “Coleton, come down here!” I motioned. He flew down beside me. “What’s up guys?” He asked.

“I can’t believe it.” Bryan and Hannah said in unison. “It’s really you two.” We hugged and exchanged pleasantries before we realized we were in front of every citizen in Ponyville and their mother in the middle of the Town Square. “Come with me to my apartment.” I said. “We’ll explain.”

Back in my room, which was adorned with a lot of posters, of both rock bands in Equestria and posters of bands on Earth (which I painted myself), we were finally given the chance to talk in solitude.

“So…” Coleton finally said. “What’s up?” Hannah looked like she was about to explode. “’What’s up’? YOU LEFT FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH WITHOUT TELLING US ANYTHING?! HOW HEARTLESS!” Needless to say, Coleton pointed the blame all (rightfully so) at me. “Walker told me time stopped in the dimension we left!”

I put my hooves up defensively. “I thought it did, dude!” A horrifying thought popped up in my mind. “Wait…” I said, my voice shaky. “Time isn’t stopped on Earth?” Hannah shook her head. “We haven’t been at our jobs for the past month, dude.” I said. Coleton groaned. “We are SO fucked…”

After seeing the honest misunderstanding, Hannah calmed down. “Sorry about that. So can we crash here tonight? We could have some fun like old times, and you could go back to Earth tomorrow!”

“Yeah, about that.” I started. “We’re staying.” Bryan and Hannah’s reaction was hard to read. It was a mix between confusion, anger, and… an unidentifiable emotion. “What?” Bryan said, breaking the awkward silence.

I shrugged. “It’s just better here. In just about every sense of the word. People are nicer, the scenery is more appealing, and if you take into account everything we’ve been through, It’s just like Earth. It’s Earth 2.0 with the updates being more fun, people are changed into ponies, and a better outlook on everything.”

“And plus…” Coleton started. “We have responsibilities and loved ones here.” The looks of confusion on Bryan and Hannah gave Coleton the impression that he needed to explain further. “I teach at the local flight school, Walker works at the local music store, and…”

I saw what he was going to say, and spared him the trouble of saying it. “We have girlfriends. Well, marefriends, if you want to be technical.”

Dammit, I hate that look of confusion. It makes you feel like an idiot. “I’m dating Octavia, and Coleton’s dating Dash.” I said, hoping to clarify what I said. The look on Bryan and Hannah’s face was not confusion anymore, but rather… disgust.

“Why…” Hannah said in a rather harsh voice. “are you two dating ponies?” I sighed at this response. I knew someone was going to say it. “Well… we aren’t humans anymore.” Coleton replied. “We’re ponies. What are we supposed to do? And besides, Dash and I are getting along perfectly, and so are Walker and Octavia.”

I nodded in agreement. “I hope you understand our decision to stay. If so, you guys can crash here tonight.”

They shook their heads. “Well, we don’t, but we weren’t planning on staying anyway.” Bryan said. “We were just planning on visiting. Don’t worry, we’ll tell everyone where you are.”

And they were gone as quickly as they came. I guess it was a nice thing to see them again, but it was under such weird circumstances, I wasn’t able to truly enjoy it. “Well…” Coleton started. “At least everyone will know where we are now.”

I look at him, a quizzical smile on my face. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” He laughed, laying down on the couch. “I have no idea.”

Coleton suddenly sat up. “We’ve made a huge mistake.” I looked at him, confused. “What would that be?”

“We should have gone back with them. We could have gotten a battery for Twilight’s transport device, and we could have used it whenever we like."

I sank down in my chair. “……………..shit.”