Denial, Acceptance, and Everything in Between

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

Well, last chapter went over better than I had figured it would. To anyone who was upset by the loss of Coal, I am so sorry, I am using this chapter to patch up a hole made by multiverse theory when Coal Buck and I did the collab chapter. But think of it this way: it’s all the more reason for John to stay in Ponyville. also, I think this chapter I shall add the first of a few run-ins with that grey stallion, and maybe have John explain the concept of guns to Twilight. Yeah, it may get interesting. I just hope I can write well enough to make it interesting. Also, uh, I will eventually restart work on Secret Lightning, it’s just that I have the biggest case of writer’s block on that story right now. But maybe after this chapter I will be mentally unclogged enough to make another chapter for it. Also, I’m going to try to wrap up the whole “Coal’s dead” part of the story fairly quickly, don’t ask me why, other than it makes me feel really bad to have killed Coal Buck’s character, I will make something else involving him happen eventually, but for now, I have a story of my own to tell. That is all for now.

===================Chapter 5: Standoff===================

John had no time to prepare before the reaction to what he had said came. Each pony reacted in her own way, no two were the same. The cyan Pegasus with the rainbow mane, who had been hovering, plummeted to the ground and curled in a ball, crying softly. The pink one, her hair appeared to deflate and go straight, and she just sat there, tears dripping down her face. The orange one, basically fell sideways, and appeared to be paralyzed with shock, not saying or doing anything, short of breathing. The white one lay down on the floor, tears making a decent sized puddle on the floor, and the yellow one, well, she disappeared upstairs. After a few minutes, they all calmed down considerably, and they introduced themselves. The orange earth pony was known as Applejack, the pink one was Pinkie Pie, the White unicorn was Rarity, and the cyan Pegasus was Rainbow Dash.

The yellow one that was still upstairs, was known as Fluttershy. After a while, her friends all convinced her to come back down. She came back and sat down, but for some reason was unable to look at John. But he supposed he could understand this, considering he had just told all of them that their friend, no, the person they all loved, was dead.

It was getting late by that point, so Twilight suggested that they all stay at the library overnight. They all seemed pretty tired, so they all agreed. Twilight got out sleeping bags for all of them (John had no idea ponies had sleeping bags), but insisted that he and Vinyl stay in the guest bedroom. There was only one bed, and he had told Vinyl to take the bed, and he would have the floor, but she would have none of it.

In the end, he ended up taking the bed, with her in a sleeping bag on the floor, plus a couple pillows from the bed, he insisted. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he fell into a deep, restful sleep.

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He was awoken suddenly, in the middle of the night, by a light squeak and a couple of light hoofsteps on wood. His brain would normally tell him to ignore it, but his soldier’s sense was screaming. So, before he was even fully awake, he had whipped his gun out from under his pillow, chambered a round, and flicked off the safety, and was standing next to the bed pointing it at the source of the noise while his eyes woke up and adjusted fully.

What he saw made him seriously contemplate pulling the trigger.

Standing right next to Vinyl, in the middle of the floor, was the same grey unicorn stallion from the other night. He was frozen, staring at John with that deer-in-the-headlights look.

John was the first one to break the silence, teasing the stallion, as if DARING him to give him a reason to let loose a couple rounds. “You’ve got a lot of nerve coming here after what happened.”

The stallion snorted. “A lot more than you think, creature. And if you’ll recall, I hurt you pretty bad last time.” He retorted in a low voice, making sure not to wake anyone else.

“Haha, yes.” John replied in the same tone and volume, “But last time I was already injured from my trip to this world. As you can see, I’m all better now. And, this thing I have pointed at your head? Yeah, I don’t think we need to get into specifics, but just know that all it would take is for me to pull this trigger, and you’d be dead before you hit the floor.”

The stallion had no response. He hadn’t figured on this creature having the upper hand, being fully healed and having some kind of weapon that could kill him. He had just figured on sneaking in past everypony, binding Vinyl in a sound-proof bubble spell, and floating her back to his place. This complicated things.

“Now.” Said John, motioning towards the floor with his gun. “Sit. You and I are going to have a little talk about your thing for Vinyl.”

The stallion shook his head. “You may have me cornered right now, but that doesn’t mean I answer to you. I still have magic, after all.”

John put that smile back on his face. It was an almost evil grin, one that conveyed “Oh, you just done fucked up”

“Really? You think magic’s going to help you at this point? In case you haven’t noticed, I have you backed in a corner with a loaded .45 in your face. You may not know what a .45 is, but trust me, this thing can do some serious damage. And also, think about it: how did you get in here? You’re not a Pegasus, so I’m assuming you snuck in through the front door. And if you did, you would have seen the six other ponies sleeping downstairs. All I have to do is make enough noise to wake them. So I really don’t think you’re in any position to try anything. But you know what? Go ahead. I dare you. Give me a reason to break open a can of whoop-ass over your head. I mean it, go ahead.” He said in a low, quiet, yet very sinister tone that said that he was not fucking around.

The stallion narrowed his eyes, and his horn lit up. It quickly went out though, he was too distracted by the screaming.

John wasn’t easily affected by loud noises, but the sound caught his attention, and he turned his head a little to see exactly where it was coming from. In the sliver of his peripheral vision, he saw Vinyl standing a good distance from where she had been sleeping, almost pressed against the back wall, screaming her head off, staring wide-eyed at the grey stallion.

Within seconds, the other ponies downstairs were awake and up the stairs into the guest bedroom. What they saw was quite confusing for them. John was standing there, having backed a grey unicorn stallion into a corner of the room staring him down, holding a strange piece of metal at him like it was a weapon. On the opposite side of the room, was Vinyl, screaming her head off, a hoof pointing at the grey stallion John had cornered.

Fluttershy immediately took flight and flew over to Vinyl. After a few seconds of comforting, she finally got the white unicorn mare to calm down enough to stop screaming and breathe. Then Twilight asked her. “What’s wrong, Vinyl? And who is this colt?”

“He…he’s the one who…who John saved me from the other night. He…he tried to…” she couldn’t talk anymore, she was crying too hard. They all understood, they had heard, and knew something like that must be very traumatic. Fluttershy did her best to comfort her, but it was going to take a while before she calmed down again.

“So!” Rainbow Dash cut in, pointing a hoof at the grey stallion, (Still unnamed, btw) “YOU’RE the one that tried to have his way with Vinyl!”

“We don’ take too kindly to your type around here, iff’n ya couldn’t guess” Applejack added

“Yeah! Big mean, meany-pants ponies don’t get any sympathy from us!” Pinkie pie interjected, her hair now deflated, and a very pissed off look on her face. In fact, they all had a similar look on their faces, even Fluttershy.

“You big meanie!” Pinkie Pie yelled. “I have half a mind to come over there and hoof-smack you so hard, you’d swear you kissed a freight train!”

That one caught John off guard a little. They have freight trains in this world? His question was answered by Rarity, however.

“Umm, Pinkie, darling, what on earth is a freight train?”

“What? What are you talking about Rarity?”

Rarity rolled her eyes and scoffed “Never mind, we’re getting distracted.”

Indeed, they were. While they were all distracted by Pinkie Pie’s train statement, that they didn’t notice the grey stallion trying to sneak away from them.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Twilight cried, encasing the stallion in a glowing purple bubble that hovered slightly off the ground. But he wasn’t done yet. His horn fired up again, and the bubble started to quiver a little. He was fighting it. Suddenly, there was a flash, and the bubble disappeared, but the remaining energy propelled the stallion so forcefully towards the outside wall that he went straight through it, leaving a pony-shaped hole.

John could have sworn he heard Pinkie mutter “What a tool.” But that was only a speculation on his part. He would have laughed at the comical hole in the wall, if he wasn’t in shock over what just happened, but he recovered quickly.

He was about to ask what just happened, when another winged unicorn, this one dark purple, flew through the hole in the wall, the grey stallion in the grip of her magic.

“Twilight, I was just passing by inspecting my night sky, care to tell me why I found this pony airborne out of this building? And a pony-shaped hole in the wall?”

“Well, Princess Luna, I think Princess Celestia told you about that night John saved Vinyl from an attacker? Well, this pony IS the attacker. He tried sneaking in here when we were asleep. We’re…not quite sure how he got in here, but John here woke up and prevented him from doing anything.”

The purple Princess pony, seriously, how many are there? turned to the pony still hovering in front of her, still surrounded by a blue glow. “Oh really? Is that so, young colt?”

The stallion shook his head violently. “No, Princess! I was just walking, minding my own business, when I get dragged in through the front door, and propelled through the wall here. I have no idea what these mares are saying.”

Luna shot him a look that said “Really? You’re really gonna try that with me?”

“Well, it would seem your story is severely flawed, and besides, I don’t think Princess Celestia’s personal protégé would have a reason to lie about this kind of thing. So you, young colt, are bucked. We depart for Canterlot for your court appointment straight away.” He hung his head. It was over, and he knew it.

“Farewell, Twilight Sparkle, we shall meet again.” The Princess stated before turning and leaving through the same hole she entered through, flying off into the night sky before disappearing in a blue flash. Pinkie Pie, seemingly the one to get the last word, waved energetically out at the grey stallion. “Bye, meanie-pants!” She called out.

“That’s it” sighed john, flicking the safety back on on his gun, “It’s over.”

Vinyl shook her head. “I doubt it.” She said between shivers, “I have a feeling we’ll be seeing him again soon.”

John smiled “well, next time we’ll have to be ready.”

Everyone nodded, but realized they were still very tired. It was the middle of the night, after all. So, after Twilight fixed the hole in the wall (now John had time to giggle over the comedic look), they all went back to bed. John having unchambered the round in his gun and slipping it back under his pillow, crawled back into bed. He was about to fall asleep again, when he was suddenly aware of a white and blue shape in front of his vision again (he was laying on his side). He re-opened his eyes, and saw Vinyl standing in front of him, looking at him rather curiously, and blushing a little.

Seeing he was still awake, she decided to ask him. “I, I don’t want to…do you think…maybe I could…share the…you know, the…”

John chuckled. “Sure, Vinyl, hop up.”

She did just that, curling up into a ball behind him, snuggling against his back. She was asleep almost immediately. John chuckled. This definitely wasn’t a hallucination anymore, and even if it was, he didn’t want it to stop.

===============END CHAPTER 5===============

Well, let it be known, this is not the end of the unnamed grey stallion! Also, if anyone would like to give him a name (at least try to be appropriate, I don’t want to see people suggesting I call him “dickface” or something like that-you know who you are), I would appreciate it. Pop a comment with a name suggestion, and I’ll choose the best one, and credit you for it! Also, this is not the end of the “Coal” subject. also, there is a hidden fourth wall breach in there, try and find it, hee hee!. And yeah, that’s about all I can think of for now, so I think I’ll treat you guys with an early one today