A Forbidden Doorway

“I could lift you up. I could show you what you wanna see, and take you where you wanna be.
You could be my luck.

Even if the sky is falling down, I know that we'll be safe and
sound.”

- Safe and Sound, Capital Cities

Darkness. Perpetually has the dark been portrayed as something malevolent or malefic in the eyes of many. But the stygian and the tenebrous are not ultimately things of pure vile and malice. Though it is rare to see, the absence of light can indeed be, in and of itself, an entity that is rather benevolent. Darkness should not be so often standardized or established as an infernal device, for in fact it can be just as divergent as another element of existence, time. Most think time is like a river that flows swift and sure in one direction. They are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm. There are many different ways that time is perceived. Some feel days are short, others think days are long, and then there are folk who feel as though the length of a day is somewhere in between short and long, to various degrees. The thought of darkness as something evil is just as much a staple as the thought that time only flows in one direction. They are cliche, stereotypical thoughts generated by a banal, nyctophobic society, a type of society which is more common than it needs to be. The true point of the matter is that, while one person may distinguish something one way, it does not necessarily mean that that is the only way that the entity in question may be discerned.

As Jack fell through the caliginous abyss he had fallen in once before, he felt as though time was slowed to a minuscule fraction of it's normal speed. He did not see any of his friends. He did not see anything for what felt like an hour or more, and he began to wonder what was transpiring. He wondered if he was returning to Equestria, or if he had simply entered a state of existence in which he resided in a pitch black plane of nothingness and emptiness. Just after those thoughts had passed through the recesses of his mental areas however, that was when he heard a voice. One that had become familiar to him. It was that voice that he grasped onto, his mind, body, and soul latching onto it for dear life, and in latching onto it unlocked the final lock that he had needed the key to. It was the voice of Lyra Heartstrings. Every syllable that she spoke resonated in his being, and brought him closer to where he wanted to be. The land he had given nearly everything else up for.

AAA

Jack shot up from the steps, his eyes opening as if a light switch had been pulled in his mind, and he breathed heavily, feeling lightheaded. He shook his head, trying to shake off every single tingle that was running through his body, and then quickly got to looking around, the first thing to enter his vision being the form of the pony who had helped him access Equestria once again. His vision cleared from the hazy state it had been in when he awoke, and he looked Lyra in the eyes, remaining silent. They both remained still for a quite spell before either of them made any discernible reaction to the long stare that they were sharing. Lyra was the first, her reaction being that of a slowly spreading scarlet veil across her cheeks. She swallowed hard, and spoke once more, her voice bringing all of sound back to Jack's hearing as she did. “A-Are you okay?” She couldn't help but worry about him, feeling as though she may have caused him to feel such a way.

Jack blinked for the first time since he woke up, and reached under his glasses to rub at his eyes. “Yeah... Yeah, I'm okay.” He stopped rubbing his eyes and pushed his glasses up on his nose before he looked at Lyra, and then Canterlot around them. I made it... I'm safe and sound in Equestria once again... “I'm way better than okay, in fact.” He slowly got to his feet, some of his bones cracking and stinging, as if he had been completely motionless for hours on end. He turned to Lyra once more, and couldn't help but crack a genuinely happy smile, which he rarely did. He slowly reached over to the top of her head, and pet her mane gently, it's very texture making the nerves upon his fingers dance with delight, knowing that it was the texture of a pony's mane. Lyra Heartstrings' mane. The pony in question blushed a bit more deeply than before at the fingers that had then begun to coddle her mane. Jack looked at her mane in what seemed like a trance. “Your mane is so beautiful...”

The mint green pony looked away shyly at the compliment. “Th-Thank you...” She didn't get compliments too often, especially not from another species. The only griffon she had met was rude and brash, and only insulted her. And yet before her stood a human, and he was complimenting her. She bit her lip for a second, and then vocalized once again. “I don't get compliments like that often.” More like never... She said in her mind, not wanting Jack to know that.

Jack snapped out of his trance at her last words, and blushed a bit before quickly pocketing his hand. “S-Sorry, did I say that out loud? ...Let's forget that I did.” He looked away just as Lyra had before, taking a deep breath to calm himself, before his gaze returned to her direction, and he quickly changed the subject before things got even more awkward than they already were. “So, what were we talking about before I passed out? How long was I out, by the way?”

Lyra didn't feel offended by his dismissal of his compliment, for she was able to tell that he had only dismissed it because he was just as shy as her. She raised a brow to the latter of his questions. “You weren't really passed out, from what I saw. You lied down on the steps for only a few seconds, I... I said your name, and then you woke up.” She speculated just how long those seconds had been to him. “As for what we were talking about, well... We hadn't really been talking about anything.” She looked away shyly, still thinking that things were her fault.

The darkly dressed human felt a little bad. He hadn't even had an actual conversation with her before he passed out. “I apologize for that. Since you know my name, how about you tell me yours?” He knew he had to keep at least some guise that he didn't know nearly everything about Equestria. He looked forward and saw a sign that he was able to read surprisingly. It was a post with multiple arrows upon it that pointed to different parts of the city. He could just make out the arrow that read 'Library'. A notion thrust itself into his mind, and he couldn't ignore it. “How about we wal- er, trot to the Library, and on the way, you can ask me whatever you like?”

“My name is Lyra, Lyra Heartstrings.” She nodded to his offer of walking soon after she had told him her name, and as soon as she did, she saw a smile return to his mouth once more. He began to walk, and she watched as his legs carried himself forward, no need to use his hands, just like she had read about. She trotted alongside him, and thought of all the things she could ask him, before deciding on one that had been in her head ever since Jack had spoken at the trial. “The land you come from... The one with other humans. Is... Is it really as bad as you said it was?” She never read anything in her studies about humans being as unkind as he had said they were.

Jack inhaled sharply at her question, but let the air out slowly before he answered. “Well... I'm probably not the best person to ask that question. I have my own reasons for viewing my land the way I do, experiences that I would much rather destroy my memories of rather than keep. My life in my land had quite a lot of bad moments. I guess it's just my mindset though... I focus on the bad more than the good. I'm sure there was probably just as many good moments in my life as there was bad ones, but with the way I am, I take every bad moment as worse than normal. ...At least, that's what Reagan, one of my friends, told me. Not sure if I believe him...”

Lyra trotted along next to him in silence for a couple of minutes. I can't help but feel bad for him, he really seems to have had a hard life where he comes from. She let her eyes wander up and down his body, analyzing it's structure before changing the subject of their discussion. “Well... Tell me about your friends. You did not mention much of what they were like during the trial besides saying that they were some of the good humans.” She hoped that learning about Jack's friends would allow her to learn more about humans as a whole. Well, the benevolent humans anyways. “What are they like, and what do you usually do together?”

Jack continued to follow the pink wooden signs that appeared every now and then, slowly leading Lyra and himself towards the Canterlot library. “The guys? Well...” He'd never been asked to describe his friends before, and he had to figure out how to explain them to her in ways she would understand, her not being a human and all. “We'll start with Reagan, the guy I just mentioned. He's a heck of a lawyer back in our land, he always won every single case he ever accepted, and he made sure that justice was dealt swiftly and honourably. That's just one side of him, though. The other side, well... Tell me Lyra, do you know what a drunkard is?”

Lyra was in awe as she listened to Jack explain the sober side of Reagan. She didn't expect Jack to be friends with a lawyer, especially not one as good as he spoke of. At his last words, she raised a brow. She was confused as to why he was asking if she knew what a drunkard was. Does he not think there is alcohol in Equestria? ...Then again, I was thinking there wasn't any alcohol in his land. She shook her head with a smile at how silly she was being. “Of course I know what a drunkard is. One of my best friends is one. She owns the oldest bar in Ponyville.” She snickered, thinking about the pony she spoke of and how crazy she got sometimes.

Jack hummed at her quick affirmation of knowing what a drunkard was. As she spoke of having a best friend who was one, and owned a bar in Ponyville, he had a pretty good idea of who it could have been. “Huh... Well anyways, yeah. Reagan has another side to him, his drunk side. He likes to drink a lot whenever he's not on the job, because when he's drunk he doesn't think so much about things, and his mind can relax. Again, that's something he told me. Other than that, well, he looks out for me and our other friends whenever he can. It's kinda like he's our dad, in a way.” Jack thought it was rather funny that he would say such a thing, because Reagan always insisted that they don't call him dad.

“Then you have Shay, who's... Do you have stoners in Equestria, too? Actually, never mind that question. Basically, all you need to know about Shay is that he eats a lot, uses plants for more than decoration and food, and most of what he says sounds like he's a priest of some weird made up religion about whales in space.” He chuckled to himself at his description of Shay, because it was simple and yet spot on. “But really, he's a cool guy who just wants to make everybody happy and have fun. He told me once that his dream is to somehow make everyone in the world smile, and let me tell you, I've seen him make even the meanest looking guys crack a smile.”

The mint green pony at Jack's side listened on to his descriptions of his friends, smiling as she watched him move his hands around as he was explaining things. She thought he looked like a stand-up comedian almost. She thought that the way Jack thought of Reagan as a father figure was rather nice, and she could relate in a way, because of her group of friends, Time Turner was the father figure. As she listened to him explain Shay, she was confused at first, because indeed she had never heard of a 'stoner' before. But as Jack went on with his explanation, she understood that whatever a stoner was, it couldn't be that bad of a thing. Jack's friends sounded rather nice so far, and she hoped she'd get to meet them someday. “Is there anypony else?”

Jack nodded to her, looking back to the path in front of them as he spoke. “Last but not least, there's Jacob, who...” His mouth dropped at just what he was witnessing before his very eyes. “...is walking out of the library right now with the princess of the night.” Lyra looked forward quickly at his words, and undeniably saw another human in front of her, along with Princess Luna. Jack's jaw was not the only one that had dropped at that point. Jack began to jog up towards the two, and Lyra followed, curious as ever. “Jacob, by Celestia's beard, is that really you?”

Jacob's day had continued right where it had left off when he told Jack and his friends about his dream. He, like Jack, had passed out on the way to the library with Luna. Luna had the castle doctor take a look at him, and made the doctor promise to mention Jacob to her sister, not knowing of the trial for Jack. After the doctor, to the best of his abilities, pronounced that Jacob was perfectly okay, the pair continued towards the library, talking of video games and the like all the while. Luna had read up on some of the legends about humans. Jacob disproved and explained ones that she asked him about, and answered every other question she had asked him.

Some of Luna's questions were similar to the ones Lyra had asked Jack, except more quizzical in nature, Luna wanting to learn everything she could about humans as quickly as possible. He himself had been looking at some books about Equestria, grabbing one and checking it out under Luna's name. As the tall shaggy haired human was walking out of the library, the last thing he expected to see or hear was Jack coming towards him. “Broski!” He caught his friend in a brotherly hug, and ruffled his hair a little. “It's good to see ya!” He set his goth friend down, who quickly fixed his hair the way he always did when it got out of shape, which made Jacob chuckle.

It was Luna's turn to be both confused and surprised. “I did not expect to see another of your kind so soon, Jacob.” She looked Jack over once, only needing to do so one time to get all the information she needed. The dark clothing, the long hair, the glasses and pale skin, it all was very familiar to her from words she had heard not very long before. “Hm... You are Jack, are you not? Jacob told me of you. Tell me, why do you say my sister has a beard?” She had to hold back a snicker at the words, trying to remain at least slightly formal. The thought of her sister with a beard was one that she found rather amusing, and she would definitely use it in a prank sometime.

Jack turned his head slowly in a nervous shambling way to Luna as she addressed him, gulping as he did so. I totally forgot she was standing there! His eyes were wide as he looked back into hers, her flowing mane that resembled the night sky in his peripheral vision. He took a deep breath, and quickly got down on one knee, getting in the stance a knight gave to his king or queen. “I am indeed the one known as Jack, your majesty. As for my words of your sister having a beard, it was merely an expression of surprise, and I apologize if it angered you in any way.” He was being just as formal as he had been in his trial, if not more. “It is an honour to meet you.”

Luna smiled at Jack's formalities, a little surprised at them, but pleasantly so. Her horn lit up with magic, and she made him stand up straight once again with a few simple magical sparkles around his body. “While it is quite nice to know that you respect me so highly, the formalities are not necessary, Jack. But thank you, none the less. It is an honour to meet you as well.” She turned back to Jacob with a smile. “Well, I won't take up any more of your time, I learned quite a great deal from what you've told me. If I have any further questions, I will send a letter to you. Have fun, you three. So long as it doesn't mean getting into trouble. Now if you will excuse me, I am off to rest before it is time for my duties to begin.”

Lyra couldn't help but look at Jacob in wonderment, his height a sight to behold to her. She didn't know humans could be so tall. She looked between the two humans, comparing them and noting their differences. Her mind was ablaze with all of the information she had learned about humans and all of the information she was learning in so short an amount of time about them. She looked Jacob in the eyes. “My name is Lyra. And your name is Jacob? ...I didn't know humans had such strange names. Hm...” She placed a hoof on her chin as she trotted around the two. “This is so interesting, and not to mention exciting! I'd studied about humans before, but to meet not only one, but two! That's an opportunity I've only ever dreamed of.”

She smiled widely at the two, who looked at her in much the same way she was looking at them, and stopped in her tracks, beginning to blush. “Oh, um, sorry, I got a little carried away there, didn't I?” She laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. I've got to keep a hold of myself, I'm getting a bit too excited about this, and I don't want to give them the impression that I'm a weirdo. ...Even though that's what a lot of ponies think about me. She remembered being made fun of by other ponies when she was younger for writing stories about meeting humans, and believing they were real. If they could see me now! They would be the weirdos!

Jacob smiled back at the mint green pony, and waved at her, making her watch his fingers in awe. “Yeah, that's me, Jacob. You can call me Jake, if you want.” He looked to Jack with a smirk, and Jack rolled his eyes, knowing exactly what Jacob was thinking. It's funny that Jack would meet his favourite background pony first. It makes me wonder where Vinyl is. Actually, that makes me think of something else, too! “Hey, broski, you know where Shay and Reagan are?” He thought back to the dreams that the two had spoke of, and realized that they could literally be anywhere.

Jack had been thinking the same thing, but he thought a bit differently than Jacob. “Wherever they are, they're most likely close to each other. Those dudes are never far behind each other, know what I mean?” Jack then remembered something Lyra had told him just minutes before. “...But I think I have an idea of where we can find them.” He quickly turned to Lyra, who looked back at him. “Lyra, you said you have a friend who's a drunkard back in Ponyville, right? What's her name?” Jack was hoping his deductive reasoning would once again help him out just like it had in the past when he played L.A. Noire with Jacob.

Lyra at first raised a brow, confused as to where Jack was going with his reasoning, but decided to go with it. He had surprised her thus far, she didn't think he was going to stop. “Her name is Berry Punch.” She wondered just what her light plum coloured friend was doing in that moment, but shrugged that thought off, knowing that it was most likely what she was always doing: drinking. She often pondered just how Berry owned a bar when she drank more than she sold. Time Turner always told her it was part of the way that Berry knew how to play the game when it came to buying and selling, but Lyra wasn't too sure about that.

Jack turned to Jacob, snapping his fingers on his left hand and pointing at Jacob between the snaps. “Jacob, remember what Reagan's dream was about? Remember the details he had said about the maiden he spoke of. Doesn't that sound a lot like Berry Punch? Think about it, she's a drunkard, and she owns a bar, plus, I'm guessing that through Reagan's drunken eyes, she looked pretty damn hot, too. You know, it's the Female Bartender Effect I told you about, where a female acquires circumstantial hotness due to her location?” He hoped that Jacob would pick up on his implications.

Jacob put his hand to his chin, holding it between his thumb and index finger. He thought about it few a little bit, and then his face was one of surprise. “Jackbro, are you suggesting that Reagan and maybe even Shay are both in Ponyville?” He hummed in thought.“I remember seeing the way to the Train Station from the Castle while me and Luna were heading here from it, there should be a train there to Ponyville.” He then remembered the book in his hand. “Oh yeah! Here ya go, broski.” He held it out to his goth friend. “It's a book about all the creatures in Equestria, I figured you would want to read something like that, considering your love of lore.”

Jack took the book from Jacob carefully, and looked at it in an almost awe-inspired way. It held at least three hundred pages, which were bound in a thick orange cloth hardcover, midnight black letters engraved upon it, reading, 'Encyclopaedia of Equestrian Creatures: Edition VII'. He opened it to observe that the pages were cloth as well, all information carefully inked upon them. They seemed to glow a light blue almost, and he wondered why until he read some of the fine print, where he saw 'Waterproof Enchantment by Tome Binder'. Jack swallowed hard and looked back to his friend. “Jacob, I don't know what to say. ...Thank you.”

Lyra was the first to break him out of his trance. “Well, come on, we don't want to miss our chance to catch a train to Ponyville!” She smiled at the thought of heading back home, but at the same time, she was smiling at the exciting chance to meet even more humans. This is so awesome! She could barely keep her zeal internal, a squee being released from her throat as she continued to smile. Normally she would have blushed at making such a cute sound in front of the two, but she was filled with too much fervour to care in that moment.

Jacob snickered a little at the blush that Jack had upon his cheeks at Lyra's squee, knowing his friend found it much cuter than he did. He cleared his throat. “Alrighty, follow me.” He began to lead them through Canterlot without much trouble, surprising Lyra a bit, but not Jack. Jacob was always good at finding his way somewhere, Jack knew that from experience. It was one of the reasons he knew it would be good to have Jacob around whilst they travelled the Equestrian landscape. Jack felt a little constricted whilst they walked the roads, however.

Jack, unlike Jacob, did not like to follow direct paths to the places he needed to go. He had a wanderlust that was typical of someone like him who played role-playing games so much. Sure, he had to admit that following the more solid path did get him to places faster, but at the same time he would say that it let him discover less, that there are more experiences to be found on the paths less travelled. It did not bother him too much, it was just that he couldn't help but feel he had an itch he couldn't scratch as the different roads and shops in Canterlot sparked his interest.

Before Jack knew it, they were at the train station once more. Looking around at it reminded him of the first pony he met. Just as that thought crossed his mind, his eyes then stopped, widening. The very pony in question, Daisy Axel II, was trotting straight up to them, her conductor hat on her head, just like it had been when he first met her. She nodded with a smile. “Arvo, I figured I might see you again.” She hummed at seeing how nervous Jack seemed, looking away from her. “Now look, I just want you ta know I don't hold any bad feelings toward ya. I just want to wish ya good luck on your adventures. Oh, and don't be afraid to list me as one of your mates when getting a train ticket, that'll usually get you a grouse discount.”

Jack was a little surprised at how kind Daisy was being to them, and a little confuse by some of the Aussie Slang she seemed to be using. Really, he'd only been nervous because he thought she was going to make fun of the way he'd cried in front of her. “Wow... Th-Thanks, Daisy.” He smiled a little. “You're a good pony. Good luck to you too.” He scratched the back of his head, looking over at Lyra and Jacob, who both smiled at him and nodded. “Hey, er, we were hoping that we could catch a ride to Ponyville, are there any trains in the station that are heading there right now?” He hoped they wouldn't have to wait too long.

Daisy grinned with a small chuckle. “You're tinny you got here when you did, this ripper girl right behind me is heading there in five minutes! She's one of our best, as well, she'll give you a ride that'll be totally ace!” She turned to look at the train behind her as she spoke, beaming all the while. “She's got the newest public model of the axles me family is known for, providing a quick and smooth ride like no other train can give ya.” She then turned back to the humans and pony behind her. “Course, she won't give ya as good a ride as the train I conduct, but maybe one day you'll get to ride Sheila if you're tinny enough.” She smirked at them. “Go ahead and get on, I'll mark you down as passengers. All you gotta do if you're asked is say your names.”

Jack silently told Jacob and Lyra to head on into the train with a wave of his hand, and after they were inside, he walked forward a little and knelled down, wrapping his arms around Daisy once again, just like he had that very morning. “Thank you, Daisy. I'll never forget this.” He took his arms from around her with a blush, and quickly hurried into the train, waving goodbye to the conductor pony, who also had a blush on her own cheeks. She smiled and waved back, before she saw him slip away further into the train.

While searching for an empty compartment in the train, Jacob looked at Jack with a sly face, which made Jack grumble in peevish embarrassment. Lyra chuckled a little at Jack's grumbling, but at the same time, felt a little envious. She wanted a hug from Jack too, but she knew she had to keep such feelings and thoughts to herself. She didn't want to embarrass herself or seem strange. Little did she know, Jack was wondering something similar, wanting to know what it would be like to hug Lyra. He as well did not want to weird her out or perturb himself. They were both shaken out of their thoughts by Jacob's voice. “Found one!”

All three of them looked into the compartment as Jacob opened the doors. It looked rather comfortable and pleasant, the window curtains a rose red, as well as the beds and pillows, whilst the walls were a calming dove white. The only problem was, there was only two beds. Jacob looked at Jack once more, and Jack rolled his eyes. “Ugh, stop looking at me like that, Jacob...” Little did Jack, let alone Lyra or Jacob, know what was to transpire on their train ride to Ponyville.

AAA

It was after midnight as the train made it's way to Ponyville. The three had gotten snacks from the vendor that travelled to each of the open compartments every couple of hours with bits that Luna had given to Jacob. They talked about various subjects, like video games, which Lyra did not know much about since she had not played too many. But as the night began to go on, the two humans fell asleep, Jacob stretched out across his bed, and Jack scrunched up on his bed to give Lyra the rest of it's room. Jack had fallen asleep after Jacob, reading the book he had gotten from him.

Lyra yawned as she looked at the two, feeling rather tired herself. She looked at the pillow that Jack had given her, one of the two that his bed had, and thought it looked pretty inviting in that moment. She blinked slowly, clenching her eyes tightly and trying to fight off her urge to sleep just a little bit longer. She crawled as well as a pony could up to look at the page that Jack's book had been left open at, seeing a picture of a Griffon. She put the bookmark on the page before she closed it for him and set it on the fold out table next to the bed.

It was then that she looked at Jack, finally able to admire his features without him thinking she was strange. She noted his thin but slightly wide lips, and how the slope of his nose suck out a bit further than Jacob's did, thought Jack's nose was a bit smaller. But what he attention was quickly drawn to, was his hands, which had long nimble looking fingers that gripped different parts of the bed, almost as if Jack was afraid he was going to float away. She chuckled a little under her breath at the thought. She looked at his eyes to make sure they were closed, and then over at Jacob to make sure of the same thing, before she quickly gave Jack's shoulder a nuzzle.

Just as she was turning back around to lie down, she heard Jack mumble something in his sleep, before his arms slowly wrapped around her waist, making her cheeks turn a deep scarlet as she gasped quietly. She felt him start to pull her close, and she let herself go a little limp so he could do it easier. She was soon lying next to him, her head next to his on the pillow, his arms snugly around her. One of his hands rubbed her stomach, whilst the other merely rested on her chest. The whole while, she breathed a little heavily, extremely embarrassed. Nopony's ever held me like this before... She swallowed hard, keeping her gulp silent, but then slowly started to relax, enjoying how it felt lying next to his sleeping form, safe in his arms.

...And I like it.