Denial, Acceptance, and Everything in Between

===============Denial, Acceptance, and Everything in Between===============

Well then, I guess it’s time for a new chapter! And to anyone who reads my other story, Secret Lightning, the hiatus will be over soon, I just wanted to get more chapters out for this story first, and also my life has been pretty busy right now. Also, just to let you know, that grey stallion will be showing up later, but things will get really interesting. Anyway, I figure I’ll write this while I’m waiting for Coal Buck to update with a new chapter, cause when he does, that’s my first priority. Seriously, I love that story. Anyway, I’ll shut up now.

==================Chapter 4: Catching Up==================

*beep*          *beep*    *beep*

“Guuurghh” John woke up slowly, his head feeling like there was a porcupine having a field day in there. He sat up slowly, attracting the attention of the purple shape in the corner of the room. Wait, the room? How the hell did he get back here?

“You’re awake!” the purple shape practically yelled, zipping into him and grabbing him in what he assumed was a hug that made him yell out in pain from his injuries. The purple shape, now identified to be a purple unicorn once his vision cleared, pulled back looking surprised. “Heh. Sorry. It’s not like we get too many humans around here.”

John was confused, to say the least. “Wait, you know what I am? How?”

Now it was explanation time. “Well, we did have one human here before you. His name was Coal.”

“Coal? Really?”

“Well, his real name was Colson. But when he came here he figured he would make a new name and life for himself.”

“Well, what happened to him? Can I talk to him?”

The purple unicorn looked very saddened by this question. “No, he had me send him back to his world a while ago. To this day, I’m not exactly sure why. But I know it had something to do with couple of my friends. They loved him. I mean, we all loved him, but they REALLY loved him. But then again…so did I. and after some little fight or something he came barging into my house and basically forced me to send him back. You…you don’t know how much I miss him. Everypony misses him. I mean, not everypony remembers him anymore, but my friends and I still do. Oh, and Scootaloo.”

John cocked an eyebrow. “Scootaloo?”

“Oh, right, you don’t know about this world. Well, Scootaloo is a little filly that Coal had adopted. Both her parents are gone, so she’s basically an orphan. Her surrogate mother disowned her after she broke some stuff trying to get her cutie mark. By the way, a cutie mark is...”

“Yeah, I know that much, Redheart told me. But please continue about Scootaloo.”

“Alright, well, since her surrogate mother kicked her out, she was wandering the streets one night when she ran into Coal. Long story short, he ended up adopting her. But since he left, she’s been more distraught than ever. She does have a home, the innkeeper that Coal made a deal with for Scootaloo to stay at her inn, has taken her in, but she just never seems…happy anymore, no matter what. In fact, none of us have been. As I said, we all loved Coal, and he’s helped out so much around town. He even did something similar to what you did last night, my friend Rarity’s ex-coltfriend was about to….you know, when he stepped in. Though Coal did do more damage to the attacker.”

“Really? That actually happened last night?”

She nodded “Yes, in fact, Vinyl is still here if you would like to say hi. I would suggest you do, she really wants to thank you.

"But first, let me see if I can’t do anything about your wounds, if I let her in here now, you’ll just end up getting hurt again.”

He nodded. This Vinyl mare must really be grateful if this purple one was going to hold her back.

“By the way, I’m Twilight. And I never got your name.” She idly asked, her horn lighting up

“I’m JhOOOn! HOLY SHIT THAT HURTS!!!” he yelled as his chest was suddenly on fire and being bombarded with sledgehammers. Or at least, that’s what it felt like. A second later, it was over, and he felt like he was never injured.

“Sorry about that, but if I told you what I was going to do, you would have refused.”

“NO, I would have braced myself!” he yelled defensively. Standing up, he found it was quite easy when you don’t feel like you took a cannonball to the chest.

“Well, sorry. Next time, I’ll tell you.”

Suddenly, something clicked inside John’s head. “Twilight, did you say this Coal person’s real name was Colson?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, it’s just that…..if what you’ve told me for a description is correct, I’ve seen him before, back on the human world.”

“REALLY?! Did you talk to him? What happened to him?”

“Well, when he went back, he got sent to a mental facility or something, and they basically brainwashed him that the whole thing never happened and that this world didn’t exist.”

“Oh, this explains why he never came back! Quick! Let’s try and go find him!”

“No, Twilight. This…this part isn’t going to be easy, but…..he’s dead.”

Twilight just stood there for a second, processing what he just said. Then it hit her: Coal was dead. She sat back quite violently. Her face…her face took on a look that conveyed a lot more sadness than John thought was equine-ly possible.

John figured he’d better get the rest of his explanation in before she broke down. “I did know him from the human world. He…he was my friend. He always talked about this world, and how he wished he could go back, but that he was stuck on earth. Hell, I just thought he was crazy. But now that I’m here, I guess he was telling the truth. And…the morning I ended up here, before I went to work, I read in the paper, that…they…they found him dead in his room, with a gun in his hand.”

That was more than too much for Twilight. The next thing John knew, she was curled up in a ball on the floor, wailing loudly, her tears making a large puddle on the floor. There was only one thing John could think to do. He sat down next to her, and pulled her into his lap, embracing her. For a long time, the two of them just sat there, crying, holding each other. Yes, even John was crying.

After a little while Nurse Redheart walked in.

“Twilight? John? What’s…what’s going on?”

John looked up at her, his eyes pleading her ‘please, just give us some privacy’

She nodded and walked quietly out. After a few minutes, Twilight found herself able to talk.

“Th…thank y…you. I…I just…he…”

“Shh, it’s okay, Twilight. Think about it this way: from what he told me, he made a stupid decision, and regretted it with all his life. He said he would rather die than desert you all. I think…I think he was attempting to find his way back here. But I don’t think he succeeded.”

This seemed to calm Twilight a little “Yeah, *sniff* I guess it is good to know he only wanted to get back to us. But…I should have never let him go!”

“Hey, hey, it wasn’t your fault. It could never be your fault. He was hurting and not thinking clearly. There was nothing you could have done about it.”

“*sniff* Thanks.”

It was then that a large, and I mean large, alabaster unicorn-no, not a unicorn, she had wings, what the hell?-walked in. She looked quite surprised at the scene in front of her.

“Twilight, might I ask what is going on here?”

Twilight jumped in surprise. “P..princess! What are you doing here?”

“I just stopped by to thank this human for taking care of one of my little ponies last night. You know, it reminds me of another human who did an identical deed a while ago.”

“Princess…John here just told me…Coal’s dead.”

The Princess hung her head, a single tear dripping from her face onto the floor. “Well then, it seems Ponyville has lost a dear friend. I shall return to Canterlot, and arrange for a memorial ceremony. I shall leave you alone for now. We can talk later. Farewell, my faithful student.” With that, she turned and exited the hospital room.

After a few minutes, Twilight turned herself in John’s embrace and looked up at him. “I think…I think I’m ok now. Thank you though.”

He released her gently, making sure not to drop her. She jumped down and stood in front of him. “So, are you ready to meet Vinyl?”

“I…I guess"

“Okay then, let me just go fetch her.” She disappeared from the room, leaving John to his own thoughts. Did he really want to stay here? Well, he may not have a choice. And with Colson dead, his only friend….there wasn’t much to go back to. And even if he could, how would he go back? He was blown up, and most likely dead on Earth.

He didn’t have any more time to think, however, because a blue and white blur slammed into him at high speed, knocking him over. He looked at his chest, and sure enough, it was the same white mare from last night. Same blue striped mane and everything. As soon as he got his bearings back, he realized that the blue and white mass clinging to his chest was talking. Well, not exactly talking, more like yelling “THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU” over and over again.

Slowly, John returned the hug, though not with quite the bonecrushing force this mare had him in. Seriously, he could have sworn his spine was snapped in two. After what was actually about a minute and a half, but felt like an eternity, she slackened, and he released her. She jumped onto the floor, and sat down in front of him, while he struggled to get back into an upright position. Once he did, she started peppering him with questions.

“So, what’s your name?”

“John. John Connor.”

“Hmm, that name sounds familiar. Anyway, I’m Vinyl Scratch, but you may have heard of me as DJ PON-3”

“No, I haven’t, I’m….I’m a little new to this world. I’m not even entirely sure how I got here in the first place.”

“Well, that reminds me, what exactly are you? I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like you before. I mean, Twilight tells me that there was one other creature like you a while ago, but I just moved to Ponyville recently, so I never saw him.”

John’s face drooped a little at the mention of the other human. Vinyl noted this, and decided to ask. “What’s wrong? Did I say something wrong?”

John, not wanting to upset her, put a smile, (If a fake one), on his face. “No, it’s...it’s nothing, don’t let it worry you. Anyway, I am a human, or at least that is what my species is called.”

“Well, ok then…anyway, I can’t thank you enough for last night. Honestly, if you hadn’t shown up when you did, he might have *shudder* done some things.”

John reached over and pulled the white mare into a hug. It wasn’t hard, considering the fact that ponies are quite a bit smaller than humans. “Hey, don’t let yourself get freaked out about that. All that matters is that it didn’t happen. And if you ever see him, make sure you come find me, I don’t think I’m going to be leaving this world anytime soon.”

“Th…thanks, John. And I will. By the way, since you are new to this world, do you know where you are staying tonight? Since Twilight fixed you up, I heard Redheart say that you would be discharged today.”

“I…that is a very good question, I hadn’t thought that far yet.”

Twilight piped up. “You can stay with me for now, in the library. Besides, I need your help in breaking to news to my friends.”

John nodded. “Sure, I’d love to help. I know it’s not going to be easy.”

Vinyl looked over at him “I don’t know what’s going on, but do you suppose maybe I could hang around for a little while? I…I’m not sure I want to go out alone for a little while.”

John and Twillight shared a chuckle. She had taken a liking to him, and they both knew it. “Sure, Vinyl” Twilight said. Vinyl’s face lit up immediately. “Great!”

At that moment, Nurse Redheart walked in. “Well, John, since Twilight here healed your injuries, I guess you are free to go.”

John stood to his full height, and looked down at the pony in front of him. “Alright, thank you, Nurse. and thank you for taking care of me.”

She giggled. “It was no problem at all, John.” And walked out of the room.

After john put the rest of his clothes on, also checking his gun to make sure there was still no chambered round, and that the safety was on, he put it into its holster. Twilight took notice of this. “John, what is that thing, anyway?”

John sighed. He knew this would come up eventually, but he was NOT explaining guns now. “I’ll explain later, Twilight, for now let’s just get out of here.”

She nodded, and all three of them walked out of the room.

The walk to the library was semi-uneventful, the three of them chatting lightly to fill the silence. John did get some strange looks from the ponies in the town, but no one said anything. He did see, however, crouching behind some trash and stuff in an alley, that same grey stallion from the night before, watching them. Twilight and Vinyl may not have noticed, but in John’s line of work, you couldn’t afford to miss much, so he saw. He quickly turned to the pony and made a slashing motion across his throat with his finger. The grey unicorn paled, as much as a grey pony could, and disappeared behind the junk in the alley.

They reached the library, and John was amazed. It looked so small outside, yet was positively huge inside. It reminded him of a car he used to drive, but the human world was quite fuzzy in his mind at this point, so he couldn’t remember what kind of car it was.

Twilight told both John and Vinyl to sit on the couch, while she took care of something really quick. A minute later, she was back. “Okay, my friends should all be here soon.” True to her word, a sky blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail came crashing through the door. Next, a pastel yellow Pegasus with a pastel pink mane and tail made her way carefully and quietly into the room, speaking in a light, airy voice that seemed VERY familiar to John. Then came a white unicorn with a dark blue, almost purple mane, a pink earth pony with a pink mane (who bounced in, by the way), and an orange earth pony with a blond mane. They all gathered in the main lobby of the library, and Twilight called for John.

“Alright John, the gang’s all here.”

He stood up and walked out into the lobby, to an audience of gasps. He could swear he heard a few “Another one?”s, and a few other statements, but nothing bad.

“Girls, this is John. And he has some very important news. It involves Coal.”

Suddenly, all eyes were on him. In fact, a few of them scooted closer to him.

“Well, John?” Twilight pushed. John shot her a look that said “Gee, thanks.”

“Alright, well, this isn’t going to be easy for me, and definitely not going to be easy for any of you, so I’ll just say it. Coal is…Coal is dead.”

There was pure silence in the entire room as what he just said sunk in. Seriously, you could hear a mosquito sneeze, it was so quiet.

Then, all at once, their eyes started to water. John looked up, realizing what he had basically just done, and one thought crossed his mind.

Oh shit.

=======================END CHAPTER 4=======================

well, sorry to leave it on a cliffhanger like that, if you could even count that as a cliffhanger. by the way, this chapter and quite a bit of this story does damage control after the bonus chapter that Coal Buck of "My Second Life" and my other story, Secret Lightning shared, in which Coal ends up returning to earth, and attempts suicide after a while. in the other version, he was stopped, but this is an alternate, "What if?" story, so yeah.