The Mental Maunderings of a Mad Man

“Ask and ye shall receive…” I mouth the words without ever actually speaking as a walk out the school doors and immediately encounter yet another Alicorn. Well, no, this one seems to be nothing more than a normal unicorn… I blink a few and question my sanity after that thought enters my mind.I stroll off of the school campus and cross the street without bothering to even glance either way as I go. A random car skids to a halt and allows my progress across the street to continue unimpeded. The violent swears and threats drifting through the air from the disgruntled driver fall upon deaf ears as I step over the curb and near my destination.

I slowly advance towards the unsuspecting unicorn; she’s preoccupied with gawking at her surroundings and doesn’t even notice me.

“Twilight Sparkle?” I guess, her description matches what Celestia said, vaguely but still.

“Oh,” my words shake her back to reality and she nods her head in my direction. “Yes, that would be me,” she sighs softly and turns to face me, “Princess Celestia has been here I assume.”

“Her and her sister both have.” I explain to her and hold up my necklaces as proof. “They gave me these before they left.”

“Hmm,” Twilight frowns, “I knew Celestia was here, mainly because I was the one who sent her here, but I didn’t know that Luna had been here too.”

“Yeah, I think she just came here to have a smoke in peace.” I reply.

“Oh,” Twilight ponders this bit of information and paws, hooves I guess, at the gravel beneath her. “So anyway I just wanted to see the world that I had created and sent Celest-”

“Created?” I interrupt her.

“Yes,” she nods vigorously to prove her point, “this world didn’t exist until the moment I sent Celestia here.” she adds a small ‘duh’ in as if this were knowledge I obviously should have known prior to today.

“Uh,” I raise my hands in confusion and try to sort out words, “Celestia came here not even two hours ago and I’ve been here for seventeen years, this country has been her for three hundred years, my people have existed for thousands of years, and this planet is millions and maybe even billions of years old!” I cry out in exasperation. “How can you claim to have created by accident only a few short hours ago?” I plead for an answer.

“Well,” she tilts her head curiously, “my math might have been off and in that case what you claim may be true.” She smiles suddenly as though she’s pleased with her logic. “So there is a possibility, albeit a very minor one, that this world is in fact as old as you believe it to be.” I stare at her in disbelief. “What?” she questions me with more than a little confusion mixed in her voice, “It’s just a possibility.”

“Still,” I sigh, “the knowledge that a purple unicorn with a star tattoo on her hips might have created the world I live in, well,” I laugh despite myself, “Can’t be any weirder than some of those crackpots “religions” that exist.”

“Such as?” she inquires politely.

“Devils, demons, various deities, hovering blobs of pasta, and chaos divas.” I wave the question off as I’d rather not delve into a theological conversation; the one I’m in currently is bewildering enough. “So…” I look at my feet and scratch my head absentmindedly.

“Would you like to go get some lunch?” Twilight offers.

“Sure,” I accept with a slight giggle, “why not.”

“Are there any good Chineighse restaurants around here? Twilight asks as we walk further from the school and into the student parking lot.

“Yeah,” I answer ignoring the odd pronunciation, “one of the best around.” We come to a small blue Chevrolet and I unlock the doors without ever looking away from the alien trotting alongside me, her shoulders only come to my waist and her head only to the bottom of my chest making her quite smaller in stature than either of the sibling royalty. “I’ll drive,” I tell her after helping her into the passenger seat, “Just sit still and try not to fall.” I instruct her as the engine purrs to life.

“What a fascinating carriage.” Twilight remarks as I pull away from the school and drive into town. “What powers it?”

“For one,” I say without taking my eyes off the road ahead, “It’s a car not a carriage.”

“Isn’t “Car” just a shortened version of carriage?” she comments.

“Sure,” I roll my head on my shoulders and look at her, “Why not. Anyway this car, carriage, motorized automobile, whatever you’d call it, is powered by an internal combustion engine which burns a flammable liquid and forces the wheels to turn via a complicated set of… things under the car. I don’t know much more past that, I’m not a car guy I just drive them.”

“Ah!” Twilight’s horn glimmers and a scroll and quill appear on the dash of the car on which she begins furiously scribbling notes in some hieroglyphic style language. “How interesting… I wonder if it could be improved any?”

“We’ve kind of supped the internal combustion engine up as much as we can, now we’re just about ready to ditch it entirely for a hydrogen model or some such thing.” I tell her as the car slides into a parking space right in front of the Chinaland restaurant.

“And how does that function?” twilight pesters me as I get out of the car.

“Haven’t the slightest.” I reply as I open her door for her. Together we walk into the quaint, oriental themed building and are greeted by neither a waitress nor shouts forbidding a small, brightly colored horse to enter the establishment. “What do you like?” I ask Twilight as we come to the counter.

“Thick noodles with rice and vegetables,” she answers, “But no meat.” I nod and order her dish as well as a plate of General Tso’s with extra spice for me. The owner doesn’t even bat an eyelash as I pay him and walk over to a window table with my equine companion.

We sit down and I begin to fiddle with a packet of soy sauce out of habit. “So can I expect more of you guys showing up or what?” I ask after the waiter sets down twilight’s water and my Soda.

“Well…” Twilight stares at her hoof and seems determined not to answer my query.

“Well?” I mimic.

“Well, there’s a chance that my potential creation and entrance of the world will lead to spontaneous rifts in which ponies and possibly even objects will appear for a brief time, surely never longer than an hour, and then return to Equestria.” A new waiter brings our food out and sets the plates in front of us in the wrong order, I quickly swap them around as he turns to leave and I glare down at my meal. “Oh this looks delicious.” Twilight says with a wide grin as she levitates a fork and begins eating. I swallow and lift my own silverware off the cold marble of the table and spear a round hunk of spice soaked, wok fried chicken.

“That’s why I always eat here,” I tell Twilight as I bite into the crunchy outside and then the soft, chewy innards, “because it’s so very… good.”

“Hey now,” Twilight wipes her sauce covered lips on a hovering napkin and looks me in the eyes, she has such vivid, such soft lavender irises. “Why do you seem so upset?”

“Oh Goddess!” I laugh and set my head down on the table. “I’ve been visited by two Celestial deities and a unicorn who claims to have created everything I know one accident, how could I not be… I don’t know, upset, confused, irritated, angry?” My arm shifts until my eyes and Twilight’s are are gazing into one another’s once again. “Am I wrong to be… emotional, I suppose? Am I wrong to be conflicted about all this knowledge that has been imparted on me so recently?”

“I guess not…” Twilight murmurs in almost a whisper.

“That’s what I thought.” I retort through a mouthful of spicy chicken.

We sit there for countless moments as a quarter of an hour drowns away around us. We eat silently and so many things run through my mind that I forget the time entirely.

“I have to get back soon.” I tell Twilight as she finishes the last of her noodles, my plate lies scraped clean next to me already.

“I’ll be heading back soon as well.” Twilight remarks sullenly.

I leave a generous tip and we leave Chinaland to return to my school. It isn’t until halfway back that my rudeness to Twilight becomes apparent to me. Out of the corner of my eye I see her leaning against the window and trying, but failing, to refrain from weeping. I see the pitiful trails those tears left as they dibbled down from those magnificent lavender eyes. I smile bitter-sweetly and reach over to comfort my otherworldly passenger. Her head lifts from its somber resting place and once again her eyes meet mine as my fingers run through her silky smooth hair.

“I’m sorry Twilight,” I admit to the both of us, “I didn’t realize how much this would affect you, I didn’t realize just how much it would affect both of us. I’m not mad at you or anything; I’m just confused is all.” Her lips spread into a grin and she leans over towards me.

“I’m sorry too,” she says as a final tear rolls down her cheek, “I never thought about how such a thing could be taken by someone who’s always known a different truth.” She smiles wholeheartedly at me and I can’t help but feel better. “So will you be Ok?”

“Yeah,” I pat her one the shoulder as we turn in to the school parking lot, “I’ll be just fine. Besides, I couldn’t ask for a better creator than someone, somepony I suppose, as kind and creative as you.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Twilight replies but even as I look back to her she’s gone just as she said she’d be when her hour was up.

“I’m glad too.” I mouth as I park my car and head inside.

So many emotions and thoughts swirl around within me as I return twelve minutes late for Carpentry class that I don’t even notice the purple bracelet wrapped snugly around my wrist or the lavender pendant hanging off of it.

‘Such a strange day… what could possibly happen next?’