The Story of Nothing, the Story of My Life

Chapters

Chapter 1: Unsocial
Chapter 2: The Invention
Chapter 3: The Reasons I Don't Drink
[UPDATE] Condition of the Story

Chapter 1: Unsocial

Chapter 1- Unsocial

"Alright everybody, may I be the first to welcome you to Seaddle College! Enjoy your term!"

I slowly peeled my right cheek off of the window as my eyes drifted open. With my right arm, I wiped off a thick, warm line of drool hanging from my cheek. The window was fogged up from my breath, suggesting I had been out for quite a while.

Unconciously, I stretched my back and raised my hands up in the air. Realizing what I was doing, I shot my hands back into my pockets, where a phone silently sat. I stood up and pulled my large and heavy backpack up onto my back. Looking around, I realized that most everyone had already left or was leaving the bus except for one body. I walked down the aisle and towards the girl, and doing this gave me a better a look at her. She was fast asleep with her back to the window, one of her hands on her legs and the other hanging off the seat. She had long, vibrant, rainbow hair and a cyan jacket that had the word "Ponyville" on it, with jeans. On the back of her hands was her cutie mark, a cloud with a multi-colored lightning bolt coming from it. I lightly tapped one of her cyan sneakers, trying to wake her. Not to my surprise, she didn't budge. Noticing the bus driver getting a tiny bit annoyed, I squeezed her toes.

This gave proof to be efficient as she shot up and kicked with the reflexes usually reserved for war veterans. One of her wings shot out to her left side and the other behind. I jumped back from a cyan sneaker barreling towards my head and almost yelped as it almost skimmed my horn. I looked back at the girl and she seemed to have put the pieces together as to why a random stranger pinched her toes. The girl stared intently at me with striking magenta eyes. They were mesmerizing, I wanted to just stand there and stare into them, but I knew that that was an ultimate creep move. Realizing once again that time does not stop for my thought processes, I spoke up to the girl.

"Um, the bus has stopped. We're at the university," I stuttered. I turned back towards the front of the bus and walked down the aisle towards the door.

The bus driver, a heavy man with a gruff voice, repeated himself as I passed. "Welcome to Seaddle College, kiddo, have a nice term."

I muttered a 'thank you' before hopping off the bus and onto the sidewalk in front of the main dorm building. I heard a few heavy footsteps follow mine which I assumed was the rainbow-haired girl. It was a beautiful day, and most of the students had come outside to enjoy the good weather. There was a group of guys throwing a football back and forth, some couples were lying on blankets and looking up at the clouds, even a few of the more studious people were outside with their books. I walked up the main steps up to the doors and was greeted by a young lady carrying a clipboard.

"Hello, welcome to Seaddle College! Name and birthdate please?"

I quickly responded. "Alexander Reed. June 28, 1992."

She nodded and flipped through the pages on her clipboard until she came across the R section. After she verified my name and checked it off, she handed me a key with a blue grip on it.

"Your dorm is 4J, that's on the fourth floor. Enjoy your term!" She added.

"Thank you Ms. ..." I trailed off, realizing I hadn't gotten her name.

"Stuart. I'm Ms. Stuart, the school secretary."

"See you around," I called behind me as I walked into the main hall of the dorm building. There were a few groups of girls talking in circles, none of which noticed me walk in, which surprised me. Now, I don't mean that in a bad way, but at 6'4", when everybody seems to be half a foot shorter than you, you get used to being stared at. Honestly, I was glad nobody noticed me; I just wanted to get to my dorm and unpack, no socializing at all. I heard the girl from the bus talk to the secretary and I overheard her name: Rainbow Dash.

Fitting name, I suppose, with hair like that. I continued on to the end of the hall where the elevators were, and there stood another girl. She was somewhat tall, with a horn. Long purple hair fell in corkscrew down her back. It was obvious she spent some time on it. She had shining blue eyes and wore one of those short jackets in white and a purple skirt. She had her hand on her hip so I could clearly see her cutie mark, 3 diamonds. I walked over to her and gave the 'waiting for the elevator face'. I realized that she didn't have any bags with her. Before I could think of a reason as to why, she introduced herself

"Hello, I'm Rarity. Who are you?"

Mentally sighing and abandoning my strategy of not talking to anyone I answered "Alexander Reed" and didn't send back another question towards her.

However she picked up the ball, metaphorically speaking, and bounced it back towards me "What are you majoring in?"

"Computer programming," I answered again this time kicking the ball back, "And you?"

"Design," she happily responded seeming as if I had picked a point that I didn't have to respond to. But before she could get into the subject, someone else popped up.

"Rarity! Your here already! I thought I was the first!" the girl I now knew as Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Rainbow, darling, the others were here an hour ago, there all upstairs on the 4th floor, where I assume your dorm is too. You're the last one." Rarity stated and offered out her hand with the palm up. Rainbow Dash grunted and placed a $1 bill in her hand. Rarity smirked and placed it in her white purse. Just then the elevator beeped to signal its arrival and Rarity and Rainbow Dash stepped in and I stepped in after them.

Rarity pressed four and asked, "What floor do you need to go to?"

"You're fine," I assured "I'm on four". She nodded and began chatting with Rainbow Dash who I noticed was carrying a cyan duffel bag, which reassured my thoughts, why didn't Rarity have any bags? Once the elevator beeped again to the fourth floor, I let the two girls step out first before I stepped out after them

and was assaulted by a wall of multicolored confetti.

"Welcome Rarity and Dashie!" A high voice called out.

'Dashie?'

A shorter earth girl ran up to the two and was dressed in, well, pink. She wore a pink jacket; similar to Rainbow Dash's except in color, a pink skirt and pink sneakers. I could see 3 ballons on the back of her hand. 3 more girls followed behind the pink one.

The first girl was about the same height as Rarity, also wielding a horn, and had long, straight purple hair that had a pink streak through it. She had deep purple eyes and wore a more feminine purple polo shirt with a lighter purple skirt, however longer than Rarity's. On her hand, which grasped a book was a pink spark.

The second girl, much taller than the other ones, however not taller than me, had long, blond hair that was tied back in a ponytail and she had these earthy green eyes. She wore a plaid button-down shirt with jeans. It was obvious by her physique that she did a lot of physical work.

The last girl was shorter than all of them and stood behind the other two and stared at me with sweet blue eyes. She shook slightly however, like she was scared. She had long pink hair that covered half of her face and fell down the back. She wore a yellow jacket like Rainbow Dash and the pink girl's and a pink skirt like the girl with the book. She didn't even look at Rainbow Dash and Rarity, she just stared at me.

I politely tried to slip by their friend gathering until a pink blur with crazy blue eyes jumped into my vision.

"Hiya! Who are you! I'm Pinkie Pie, and I love making new friends. I also love baking, and parties, and throwing parties for my friends..." Her words began to trail off as millions of syllables began to bounce around the inside of my skull. Thankfully someone stopped her from making me implode.

"Pinkie, stop you're making him uneasy" the girl with the book ordered. 'Pinkie', I suppose, stopped almost immediately and turned towards the source of the order.

Pinkie tilted her head and gave a pout "Aww Twilight, I was just talking to him" and she backed away. The girl with the book, 'Twilight' she was called, walked up to me

"I'm sorry, she can go off on a tangent sometimes. Who are you?" She asked politely.

Mentally sighing for the second time and reason, I answered the question again, "Alexander Reed".

"I'm Twilight Sparkle and this is Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Flutter-Fluttershy?" She pointed along the line until the 5th disappeared.

Rainbow Dash piped up "Uh here, she's behind me". Rainbow Dash pulled out the missing girl who fought her to stay hidden.

Twilight Sparkle questioned "Fluttershy? What's wrong with you?" Fluttershy squirmed and finally got behind Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash tried to reason with her but she couldn't get anything out of her except squeaks. Twilight Sparkle apologized "Sorry, she's kind of shy. Anyways, if there is anything you need, I'm down in 4T-"

"Twilight!" Rarity interrupted.

"What?" Twilight Sparkle asked clueless.

"Gah! Nevermind, I'll tell you later!"

Twilight Sparkle shrugged, waved and smiled "Bye"

She walked away and I did to in the opposite direction towards dorm 4J. However I heard the sound of wheels and turned my head towards the source. Being wheeled in from the elevator was a large load of bags on a cart. My mouth fell open, who would even need that many bags? Of course the one who claimed the cart was none other than Rarity, wow. I turned around and headed back towards my dorm. Once I had found 4J placed conveniently between 4H and 4L with 4K across the hall. I walked in and found my duffel bag on my new bed.

The dorm was nicer than most standard colleges. One bedroom, one bathroom of course, it's suited to fit one person, but it also had a living room area with a kitchen and a desk, all in the same room. It was nice, I was glad to call it home.

I zipped open the duffel bag on my bed inside were a large amount of clothes and a carefully placed cardboard box. I tore open the box and wrapped in an excessive amount of bubble wrap was the Xbox I so carefully brought. I placed my backpack on the bed and opened it up. It held most of my more personal belongings. I zipped open the backpack next and brought out a silver and gray controller and a sleek black headset. The movers had brought in the bigger things like the TV and had plugged it into the wall already. I hooked the Xbox and controller up and logged on. I popped in one of my more favorite games, Halo if you're curious, and went to the multiplayer menu. I logged on the fastest server I could find and began a match.

I won't bore you with the details of the match but one thing I will tell you about was the other players. Some were your standard jerk, video game obsessed, way to serious, morons but there was another voice that seemed like it had an echo to it. It was a higher voice, not as high as Pinkie Pie as I had heard in the hallway, but high so it seemed definitely female, which took me by surprise. Now don't give me that sexist look just yet, that's not what I mean, but she wasn't the slightest bit competitive, and she was GOOD. The echo however kept bothering until she laughed so hard I could hear it from the other room. I set down my controller and put my ear up to the wall that separated me and 4H and listened in. That might have been the weirdest thing I had ever done, but it proved to be worth it as the voice of the lead player in the game and the voice from 4H matched up perfectly. They both said the same thing at the same time, they definitely matched. I knocked on the wall and heard her get up.

She walked over to the wall and sputtered "Hello?"

I answered with a question assumed by most to be creepy if answered in the affirmative "Are you playing Halo multiplayer right now?"

"Yeah, I am? Who is this?"

"Binary7" I responded with my Xbox gamertag.

"Hey you're playing with me and...heh, you kinda stink" She giggled.

"Yeah, yeah. Hey, wait one second." I took my ear off the wall and walked into the hall and knocked on the door of 4H. I heard more footsteps as she answered the door.

The girl dominating the game was about Rainbow Dash's height and had wings too, she had blond hair that fell behind her. She wore a normal tank top and some shorts and on the back of her hand were some bubbles. What I found interesting was her eyes. One eye, her left eye, was focused on me while the other drifted off.

"Binary7?" She asked.

I nodded and said "Actually it's Alexander Reed, nice to meet you". I held out my hand for a handshake and she took it but didn't let go, instead she dragged me inside.

"Hi I'm Ditzy Doo, weird that we ended up on the same server right? I mean were just one wall away!" She gestured to the wall as she spoke. "Here, want to play here so I can beat you in person" She smirked but happily.

I shook my head "Nah, I got to get going, it was nice meeting you though Miss Doo!"

I was walking out when she said "You can just call me Ditzy".

I smiled back and walked back to my dorm. I sat down and realized what I had done. I mentally swore, 'How had I shown my hands around her, she could've seen! Then she would tell the entire school and I'll be a laughing stock!' I sat my head down on my desk and sighed, whatever. I checked the school website and went on to the available class list, trying to find some classes that start on Monday. I found a few technology classes and one specifically for computer programming. Great, now I had a few classes to get term started. I picked up my laptop and walked to my bed, eventually falling asleep to the sounds of Netflix, seemingly blank back hands at the keyboard.

Chapter 2: The Invention

I woke up to Celestia's sun shining in my face as it did most mornings. I stumbled out of bed without even noticing the laptop that was on top of me. As it fell to ground, my reflexes kicked in and I mustered enough sense the raise my foot up so the laptop didn't fall as far down. This strategy worked but I didn't think of the repercussions. I winced in pain as I sacrificed the feeling in my foot for the next 30 minutes in return for giving the laptop a softer landing. I tried not to scream because I knew that my new neighbors would not appreciate being woken up to the sounds of my pain. Setting the laptop on the bed again, I then gripped my foot, bit my lip and did a little hoppy dance as I tried not to swear at the top of my lungs.

After recovering enough to walk again, I walked into the main room and into the bathroom. My brown hair was up in clumps, and a fair toned, brown eyed face stared back at me. I grabbed my toothbrush and began my normal morning procedure. I pulled a towel out of my duffel bag and took a much needed hot shower.

After I had finished my shower, my stomach growled right on cue. I pulled a plastic bag out of my duffel bag that banged whenever I moved. I went to the kitchen and opened up the bag which contained cooking supplies. I pulled out a pan, opened the fridge and said

"Crap"

Of course, the fridge was empty, I had just moved in and hadn't bought groceries. Well I guess that meant I knew what I was going to do today. I pulled my phone out of its charger and walked out into the hallway. There were some more students arriving, classes started on Monday so you were allowed to arrive pretty much until Sunday and it was Friday. I walked to the elevator and pressed the down button. The elevator immediately opened and I stepped inside and pressed 1.

The doors were closing by the time I heard a familiar voice say "Wait! Keep the doors open!" I pressed the open button and who came into my vision but none other than Ditzy Doo, the video game master.

"Ditzy!" I greeted her as she entered the elevator and the doors closed behind her, "What'cha doin'?"

She giggled, "I forgot to get groceries for my dorm."

I laughed "Don't worry, I have to as well". She giggled again.

An idea must've popped into her head and she suggested "Hey, me and some of my friends were going to play cloud wars later, you want to join?"

I smiled halfheartedly "Remember? Horn, no wings".

She giggled "Of course, sometimes I'm such a featherbrain, but we should totally hang out sometime soon."

"Definitely," I reassured her.

The elevator beeped and we stepped out into the main hall and then out into the sunlight. I still had my hands in my pockets, not forgetting what I may or may not have done last night. Despite her bubbly personality, she was one of the nicest people I had met at this school; I knew that we were going to become good friends.

An idea popped into my head as we walked together to the grocery store. What if there was a way to allow me to be up in the clouds. Leonardo da Vinci's 2nd model flying machine drawn in 1488. If I could recreate that machine, then maybe I could fly with the pegasi, heh that rhymed.

"Hey Ditzy," I began "Do you think you could help me with something later?"

"Uh, depends when."

"After the cloud wars game" I notified.

"Yeah, that'd work, what are you working on?"

I smiled mischievously, "You'll see".

The rest of the walk was pretty uneventful, Ditzy flew overhead telling me all about the classes she was taking, and turns out we had a few together. Once we finally made it to the nearest grocery store we both headed towards dairy first and then to the other items on my internal list.

All the time we were doing this I was calculating what we would need to build da Vinci's model. The paper for the wings had to be light enough to keep me airborne, but thick enough not to tear. Maybe some specialized fabric would do the trick, but they wouldn't sell it in stores.

I turned to Ditzy again who was following behind "Hey, do you know anyone that can manufacture special fabric?"

She paused and thought for a second, tilting her head as she did so. Finally, she spoke "What about Rarity? She's always making material for her dresses and a special fabric would be a breeze to her, I'm sure of it".

"Rarity, I've met her before, we talked yesterday, she's a design major, right?" I asked

"Yup that's the one!" She responded happily.

Nodding silently I went back to my calculating. I picked up not only some groceries, Ditzy did the same for her trolley, but along the way I also picked up some building supplies. As deep in my deep thought as I was, I was still conscious enough to, whenever I needed to get an item, I snatched it without lingering for a second. I was taking several precautions to make sure she didn't see the backs of my blank hands. We proceeded to checkout when we were done and they scanned our items.

Once we paid, we headed out and simultaneously, both mine and Ditzy's stomach’s growled. We both laughed and I offered "Hey, want to come over to my dorm, I'll treat you. Besides I can explain what I plan to do with these materials".

We walked back to the dorm and I sat down the materials. I brought out a pan with eggs and peppers, mushrooms and some other stuff and I prepared some omelets. While I did all this I explained my idea to Ditzy who thought it was brilliant.

"I'm assuming you've heard of Leonardo da Vinci's flying machines before, correct?" I asked. Ditzy nodded in response. "Great, well his second model, designed all the way back in 1488 may just prove to be a brilliant model. The paper that da Vinci used might not work now so we need something that will hold better, that's why I need the special fabric from Rarity. The wooden pipes are used to connect all of the pieces together with the levers and pulleys to make it turn". Ditzy listened in amazement as I explained the concept. "Now, although these wings may work in the air, taking off could be a problem sometimes. There is no mechanism to get me off the ground, so I need to jump from a large height to get started, the roof could work, but once I'm in the air, I can be up there for a while, since I can't get tired because the wings aren't actually muscles. What do you think?" I finished as I set her plate down on the counter. She stared at me and comprehended all of it.

After a few seconds and a bite of the omelet she spoke "This sounds awesome! It could really work!" She talked with a small bit of food in her mouth. We talked about what we could do with the wings, a horned and winged human. After Ditzy had finished and checked the time, she hurried to the door, not wanting to be late for her game. I wished her luck and told her to report back here when she was ready to work and she was off.

It set in that I had no idea what dorm Rarity was in besides that she was on this floor. Ditzy was off, so who else could I ask that knew Rarity. It hit me eventually, of course, Twilight Sparkle, the young lady I saw with the other 5. Now what dorm did she say? 4...L was it? No, T! It was T! I walked out into the hall and down to the last dorm of the hall, 4T. I knocked on the door and I heard scattered voices, suggesting there were several people in the room.

Twilight Sparkle opened the door however and seemed surprised I'd stop by so quickly. "Hey, Alexander do you need anything?"

"Just Alex is fine and I know this might seem like a weird question but do you know where Rarity is? I need a favor" I asked.

Twilight Sparkle explained "Actually, she's in here. Rarity! Can you come here" She called over her shoulder.

Rarity walked over and stood in the doorway next to Twilight Sparkle. "Yes, what do you need to ask?" Rarity questioned.

"Hey, Ditzy Doo sent me to you; I need some special fabric, something light but thick and especially aerodynamic." I asked "Do you have anything like that I can use for a project of mine?"

Rarity thought for a second, possibly going through a mental inventory check, or wondering whether or not she should trust me with her supplies. "Yes I do, but what is it for?" She asked.

"A little invention I'm working on, please I really need this fabric" I pleaded.

She contemplated again and said "Sure, but only if I can see it when it's done".

I smiled "Thank you Rarity, no problem. Where's the fabric?"

"In my dorm, I'll go run and get it, you two just stay here". She walked past me and out into the hallway, towards the direction of her dorm.

Twilight Sparkle still seemed interested in what I was doing however "What exactly is it that you’re building?" She asked. I mentally sighed, not wanting people to be nosy about my project. However, knowing I had no choice, I answered the question

"Basically, it's a set of mechanical wings, designed off of Leonardo da Vinci's 2nd model from 1488, I'm replacing the paper for fabric, that's why I need it".

Twilight Sparkle's eyes lit up at this "Really? That is so cool! Can I try it when it's done? I've always wanted to fly! How does it work?"

Relishing in the fact that I could talk about something I actually did find interesting I elaborated "Well, since winged humans like Ditzy's bones are lighter, they have smaller wings that can easily keep up that weight. However, horned and earth humans have denser bones so we need larger wings to be able to fly, which is why this model's wingspan is a third larger than the average wing. Another setback is that the model has no way for me to boost of the ground so I'm going to have to jump from a high point like the roof. There is a series of pulleys and levers that operate the back-feather portion so I can turn. These will probably be activated by me pushing or retracting my arms". Before I could finish my analysis of the model, Rarity came back holding a roll of black fabric.

"This should work, darling, feel free to see me if you need any more help" She waved and walked back inside the dorm.

I signaled that I had to leave and said "Tell Rarity I said thanks, it was a pleasure talking to you Twilight Sparkle."

I was walking away when she followed up with "Just Twilight is fine, bye Alex" she waved to me and went back inside her dorm although I swear I thought I heard the door delay closing.

I walked back into my dorm and glanced at the clock. 3 o'clock, I still had some time before Ditzy came back. I opened my laptop which still sat on my bed after its assault on my foot, and opened up some diagrams, photos and actual schematics of da Vinci's model. The layout was fairly simple; it was kind of like a human rib cage. One central pipe went up the back like a spine and several others branched off from it. There was some ways, I realized, to make the model compact for easier carrying, which was convenient. The insides of the tubes were hollow although I knew we were going to have to seal some opening holes up so that we wouldn't have any aerodynamic problems. Inside the pipes would be the pulleys and levers that control the tail feathers connected to the armband. What we were building was indeed da Vinci's model, just a little modernized. The clock rang 4 o'clock and I knew that Ditzy would show up any time. I laid out all the materials, gently the fabric, and set up my laptop on a diagram.

As predicted, within a few minutes, Ditzy showed up. She knocked on my door and called "Alex?"

I opened the door and gestured her towards the living area where everything was set up. "Ready to work?" I asked.

"Absolutely!" She picked up the black fabric and felt it, then quickly nodding "This is definitely going to work". I showed her the model of it and explained how the pipes acted as a backbone with the levers and pulleys as blood vessels inside. We laid out the pipes in the correct formation and spread the black fabric over in the correct areas. It was really starting to look like the genuine model. We started connecting the fabric to the frame and lifted it up.

“It’s looking good,” Ditzy said as I tested gently how the fabric would hold up.

“Very,” I agreed. This was perhaps the most fun thing I had ever done, especially with Ditzy there.

The clock banged midnight and we decided that it would probably be wise to go to bed. We waved goodbye and she went back to her dorm. I quickly changed into better sleeping clothes and collapsed onto my bed, asleep before I even touched the pillow.

Chapter 3: The Reasons I Don't Drink

Once again Celestia's sun became a nuisance to my sleep as it woke me up early on a Saturday morning. I walked into the kitchen, now that I had the groceries, I could finally cook my own breakfast. I cracked open two eggs and scrambled them just like I made for my parents on Saturday mornings back at home. Oh crap! I had just realized, I had forgot to tell them that I arrived OK. I picked up my cell from it's charger and called my parents from Trottingham. Nobody picked up; I was just left the voicemail.

I began my voicemail, "Hey Mom and Dad, I just wanted to let you know I got here safely, got my dorm, and even already made some friends. Talk to you later, love you, bye." I hung up the phone. Shrugging I looked over the progress me and Ditzy had made with the model. It was almost done with the primary structure, all we had left was the pulleys and the tail feathers which were going to take more time, along with strapping a harness on to it and getting it to compress. I finished my breakfast and messed around with the pulleys, seeing how I would make the controls work. What I thought would work well was a dual armband, you know, one armband connecting me on the left and one armband connecting me on the right. The controls were fairly simple, extending the left arm and retracting the right would make the wings turn left, doing the opposite of left arm in and right arm out would make the wings turn right. Retracting both would cause the set to go down; pushing both out would go up. The final setting was to twist the two; this would slow down the model, making for better landings.

I could hear yet more students coming in to their dorms. I supposed the 4th floor was specifically for our year, anyways I got a little off topic there, next time me and Ditzy meet up to work on the model, the inner pulleys and levers were next on the list. Speaking of Ditzy, I heard a thump from her dorm, like she fell or something. I opened the door to the hallway and was greeted by another wall of confetti for the second time this week.

I jumped backwards and landed hard on my rump. I laid back and groaned. I heard a terrifyingly familiar high voice say

"Why does everybody do that?"

I screamed and scooted backwards towards the kitchen as fast as I could, there was no Twilight Sparkle to save my hide this time, and this girl was certainly going to be the death of me.

A girl, still dressed in pink by the way, walked into the apartment and stood over me with a smile, she spoke a mile a minute but I think I understood most of it until my ears started to bleed, joking, that didn't happen, I only wish it did. Pinkie Pie babbled for what seemed like eternity, "Hi! Remember me? I'm Pinkie Pie, and tonight at 8:00 I'm throwing a PARTY! It would be awesome if you could make it; I'm asking everybody else in the entire building! Can't wait to see you there, bye!" And with a pink blur and a miniature tornado, Pinkie Pie and the confetti were gone. I guess that explained the loud thump from Ditzy's room. A party, eh? For the entire starting class? I really had planned on not going until Ditzy ran into my apartment.

"Did you get invited to Pinkie's party? I can't wait, I'm so excited! Can't you?" I knew I couldn't upset Ditzy if she was looking forward to this so much.

I meekly responded with "Yeah! Can't...wait!" All that was going through my head was, 'I'm going to die! It's a deathtrap!'

With Ditzy so excited I knew I couldn't refuse. She eventually ran happily back to her dorm to do some stuff for Monday's classes. Now, I don't know if you know but I don't drink alcohol, it befuddles our vision and sense, and I was going to need all of my sense and sanity if I was ever going to face Pinkie Pie. So whenever me and my friends went out to a bar, which wasn't too often but it did happen, I was usually the designated driver. While my friends had beer chugging contests, I sat back and sipped my soda.

Sighing, I pulled some clothes out of my duffel bag; I really needed to unpack that, and got into them. If everyone in the building was invited, then Twilight Sparkle and her other friends would also be there. She'd probably ask about the wings.

I walked over to my computer which was now on my desk after my "accident" and checked my email. Nothing really big on news, just spam, a YouTube update, and, oh what's this?

The subject line read "Angler Pool Headset Project Shut Down!" Instantly my stomach dropped along with every other internal organ. The Angler Pool project was a virtual reality gaming headset that was going to be the absolute step up in gaming. It was set to come out in around a year, but now it was cancelled? The rest of the email explained how one of their tests went wrong with the headset and the subject had a seizure and died, so his family sued the Angler Pool Company for millions of dollars and now they weren't allowed to make the headset, plus they didn't even have the funds anymore.

Damn, I was really excited for this. Not only was it virtual reality, every true gamer's dream, but it was a full dive virtual reality. Full dive was a real step up from your average gaming; it really felt like you were in that world, completely lifelike. Full dive was quite dangerous though, emotions were relayed through the game which sometimes gave subjects memory failure, amnesia. Also there was always the risk of an absolute mental breakdown, where the subject’s brain could be overwhelmed and fried. It was scary but this was the first time that someone had died or was even really injured, game developers were pretty cautious.

Sadly, now the console would never be released and every gamer would be devastated.

I weakly closed the laptop and sighed, Ditzy was a gamer too so it would seem logical to think that she also knew what the Angler Pool project WAS. I wondered if she would be as upset as I was.

I sat down on the couch so I could get some video game time in before my execution. I brought my laptop with its mouse over and played a few rounds of Team Fortress 2. With a few "Wave goodbye to your head, wanker"s I finally closed down the laptop and looked at the clock. My jaw dropped, it was 7:45. Oh man do video games make the time pass. I thought about putting on gloves this time, after I had almost revealed my disgraceful mark to Ditzy, but after many years of having to cover it, you got pretty good at it. It all had to do with bending the hand certain ways if you DID have to take your hand out from its cover. I walked out into the hallway and knocked on Ditzy's door. I heard footsteps approaching and the swung open to reveal Ditzy Doo in a yellow skirt and a gray shirt.

She spoke but I didn't hear anything, I was mesmerized by her beauty. She tilted her head, which made her go all wall-eyed. I stuttered "Sorry, what?"

She giggled and restated "Let's go then, shall we?"

"We shall," I laughed along with her as we walked towards the lift. The party was in one of the frat houses, and by the way, I didn't plan to enter any of them in the first place, frats are not my sort of thing. One of the guy frats had been so gracious to offer us the building, which was fairly large to be honest. It was 8:12 when we got there and were most certainly not the first ones to arrive. Music was blasting, you could probably here the bass a mile away, and there was cheering from inside.

Ditzy hurried her pace and exclaimed "Come on, this is gonna be great!" I hurried after her into the loud, crowded building. I dug my hands deeper into my pockets; I'm not a people person to begin with so this certainly was not my cup of tea. Once we were inside I could see Pinkie Pie, thankfully she didn't see me, behind the DJ table with the...well, DJ. The DJ had blue and white hair and wore purple sunglasses. She looked like someone that definitely partied a lot. I lost sight of Ditzy in the crowd and shrunk back on my own into a corner to find that it was already inhabited.

"Alex! What are you doing here-well I assume Pinkie really did invite the entire new class, but I didn't think that you'd really turn up", Twilight Sparkle grinned, beside Twilight stood a very meekly looking girl with long pink hair.

"Hi Twilight, Hi Fluttershy" I acknowledged. Twilight grin grew while Fluttershy whimpered and tried to blend in with the wall.

Twilight sighed, "What's wrong Fluttershy? Why are you being so weird lately? I mean ever since Thursday you've been acting, well I didn't think this was possible but, shyer." I was curious to this as well, as far as I knew, me and Fluttershy had never met before I arrived at Senheattle College, but something always threw her off when I was around. Fluttershy whispered something into Twilight's ear and Twilight's eyes widened in response.

"Oh! OK, Fluttershy," Twilight reassured her. She then turned back to me "Well, I'll talk to you later then Alex, see ya!" She waved and she and Fluttershy made their way through the crowd. I idled around a bit and then stumbled into the kitchen where my jaw almost hit the floor. In the middle of the kitchen was none other than Rainbow Dash, chugging an Adios Mother F**ker, with a crowd watching.

Near the counter was Applejack, deeply sighing. I could hear her murmuring "And I'm the one who has to take her home, oh Celestia." I stumbled back out of the kitchen, feeling disturbed and walked back into the large, main room. I was about to walk around the corner when I heard to people taking softly, in comparison to the volume of the music, that is.

"Well Fluttershy, you're going to have to say something to him eventually," It was clearly Twilight Sparkle's voice again. I recoiled immediately and internally lectured myself, it isn't right to eavesdrop.

But then again...

"I know Twilight but...but..." This voice was new; I'd never heard the soft and sweet voice of Fluttershy before.

"Just talk to him, Fluttershy, what could go wrong?" Twilight reassured her. I pulled away from the clearly personal conversation and walked back towards where I'd come from. Suddenly I heard a few footsteps and something bumped into my back, and I turned around. It was Fluttershy, looking down nervously but had her mouth open, like she was trying to say something.

"Hi Fluttershy, you alright?" I asked her.

She twitched a bit, like she wanted truly for me to walk away and to leave her when she still had a shred of dignity. I heard a quick "Hello," and Fluttershy looked at the ground again.

"Some party, eh?" I said to her.

"I don't really care for parties that much, unless you do, oh please don't get upset!" She stammered.

I chuckled a bit "Don't worry so much, Fluttershy. Yeah, I don't really enjoy parties that much; I'm not much of what you'd call a 'people person'."

Fluttershy looked relieved and timidly suggested "Do you want to go outside and get some air?"

"Ah, most definitely. Come on" I walked towards the door and stepped out onto the porch, Fluttershy followed. It was much quieter out on the porch, you could still hear most of the music and the occasional cheer but we could still talk at a normal voice level.

"So, what are you majoring in, Fluttershy?" I asked her.

"Medicine," she practically whispered "I hope to become a vet. What about you?"

"Computer programming, it's one of the only things I can find remotely interesting"

"Why's that?"

I sighed, "Nothing else seems to come naturally to me." This was partially a lie. I chose computer programming because it makes good money; I wasn’t good at anything, that's it.

"Well, that's because you found your special talent, what your cutie mark is. Like, for instance, mine is butterflies because they were the first animals I realized I could understand. What's your cutie mark?"

Mentally, I was yelling 'Shit!' but externally I smiled, hands still in my pockets, and said "Binary code," trying very hard not to break eye contact and look like I was lying.

"Alex-I-"

"Wait did you hear that?" I asked.

"Hear what?" Fluttershy questioned.

"Shh, shh, listen" I whispered.

There were sounds coming from one of the upstairs bedrooms that didn't sound, nice. It was mocking.

"You retard! You're pathetic!"

Both Fluttershy and my eyes shot open wide.

"That's not nice," Fluttershy scolded.

"Let's go see what's happening" I stated and I marched back inside, Fluttershy sheepishly trailing behind me. We walked to the source of the noise and yet again we heard more mocking.

"Why don't you go die!" Some guy yelled.

I backed up a few steps and kicked the door at the knob, screwing up the lock and swinging open the door. I then barged inside.

"What in Tartarus is going on in here?!" I yelled. Inside the room were two guys, both with short hair, one blond, one brown, both shorter than me. I also saw who the two were yelling at, a young lady with blond hair, a gray shirt, and a yellow skirt, Ditzy. This made me furious, so much bottled rage burst to the surface.

The blond haired boy yelled "Get out!" and threw a left punch at me. Without even paying any attention, I parried to the right, causing him to stumble. Then I kicked out his left leg, and as he was falling I grabbed the back of his head, I was still looking straight ahead by the way, and slammed it, face first, into the door frame. He gave a shaky yelp and crumpled to the ground. The second guy, confident, but a little hesitant pulled up his fists. My horn lit up and I appeared behind him, fortunately, he was a little slow and couldn't react fast enough as I grabbed his shoulders and teleported again.

Outside the window.

I dropped him and teleported back inside as he fell with a 'thump' into the bushes. My rage died inside me and my hands clenched and unclenched, and I shook my head, trying to get out the angry feelings. I cautiously turned back around to Ditzy and I was assaulted with a hug.

"Oh, Alex, thank you!" She cried into my shoulder "They threatened to hurt me and then" her voice suddenly became much quieter "rape me". She cried even harder as I patted her back. I noticed that she had a nasty bruise on her right cheek, the bastards had hit her.

I held her close against my chest and whispered, "It's okay, it's okay." It was a few minutes until Ditzy had finally calmed down enough pry herself off my chest. I realized that Fluttershy was still standing in the doorway, meekly. I also realized that there was an unconscious asshole in front of the doorframe, and another in the bushes. I decided to leave them alone; maybe when they woke up they would realize that they're assholes that just got beaten up by one guy.

Fluttershy shakily said "Are you okay, Ditzy?"

"Y-yeah, I'm okay, Fluttershy."

I walked both of the girls downstairs and Ditzy cheered up a bit. She drank a little bit, not too much, but enough to make her wobble a bit. And at about midnight, we all walked out of the building and back to the dorms. Ditzy leaned on me a bit as we walked back, more like wobbled for her.

As we were leaving, I swear that I heard the faintest trace of "Alright, Pinkie, yer gonna have to grab her legs, there."

I helped Ditzy all the way back to the dorms. She had leaned her head on my shoulder for a lot of the walk. It made me blush, luckily Ditzy couldn't notice. As we were heading back I brought up a topic that we hadn't brought up for a bit, the wings.

"Hey Ditzy, do you think that you could come over tomorrow so we can work on the wings, it's the last day before term starts." I asked.

"Yeah, I'd love to!" She grinned.

"Great" I approved. We walked back into the dorms with everyone else, luckily not as drunk as some of them, not mentioning any names *cough* Rainbow Dash *cough*. I unlocked and opened her dorm for her, then led her to her bedroom.

"See you tomorrow, Ditzy, good night," I waved.

"G'night," she echoed.

I walked back into my dorm and sat down on the bed. Some night eh? That is why I don't drink, because you end up as one of those drunks that blacked put back at the house. I hopped into some sleeping pants and a t-shirt and I fell asleep in minutes, contently dreaming.

[UPDATE] Condition of the Story

Okay, I'm sure some of you may have noticed the 'On Hiatus' tag on this story. Yes, I'm shutting it down for now. You want to know why? It has nothing to do with the feedback it was given, in fact I was surprised it got as big as it did, even if my definition of "big" is only 35 likes.

The reason I am putting this story off for the time being is because I need time to fix my biggest flaw in this story. Planning. I barely planned anything from the very beginning, I have been winging it this entire time. That is why the storyline may look a bit inconsistent, because I never thought of what was going to happening in the story. Whenever I sat down to write a chapter I just poured in any ideas that came to my head, and never thought of what would be affected in the next or prior chapters.

If any of you have been on my user page, you may have noticed that I have 2 stories. That other story has been cancelled by me recently because I didn't think through what was going to happen.

I don't know how to write a story.

I didn't add nearly as much emotion, support, or even filler to the story because that is my next big flaw. I don't know how to use emotion in a story, or details or filler. I'm not a good author, I find it funny that some people claim I am. I'm not. A good author would actually incorporate the elements to a good story into theirs.

So for now, I have to revisit the previous chapters, rewrite them and get my crap together. Yes, this means the storyline may shift. Yes, this means I won't get to chapter 4 for a little while. This does not mean I will even get to chapter 4, because I may just give up like I do quite often. But currently, my worries reside in the condition of this story's readers. I really hope you all will stay with this story until it's close.

So farewell for now, and on the off chance I can actually pull this story back up from the grave I have already dug it, I hope to see you all in future chapters.

Sayonara.