The ponies and him

Hello.

I'm Rick. I'm 21 years old. I'm a normal person, with a normal life, an university student, future psychologist, or that I wish. And I have normal friends, normal relationships, or that's what I thought. I was foolish to had thought that, but I can’t expect the unexpected

Let me tell why.

It all started when I was a kid 12 year ago. I had eight years. One of the things I loved doing was having a good time with my friends, do athletics, or run, and mock girls. A normal boy, right? But the there is a lonely memory that it's alive inside of me. A dream I thought it will never affect. But, oh boy, I was wrong.

I shiver whenever a glimpse of that dream comes out. Maybe because of destiny, or just cruel, but lovely, coincidence.

Nevertheless, that dream is special for me because it was one of the most vivid thing I have dreamed my whole life.  That is one of the reasons. And also because of… a creature, an adorable, out of reality, dreamlike, with swollen-like tubes as limbs, big eyes almost occupying almost its whole head… one.

What I’m trying to say is I dreamed with… ponies. At least, that the most similar animal I can come with.

How could I dream that? I don´t know, but I can tell you.

Like every dream, the usual person doesn’t remember when and where a dreams starts and end. In my case is different, that’s something I’ve learned with experience. I’ll tell it later.

I was inside a room, an almost-cubic one, which was connected to other rooms. What made it special for a kid was that in the room I was in was an arcade room. And there were four arcade rooms surrounding mine. It was something I knew in that moment. Don’t ask me how.

The first thing I noticed was I felt an ambient of happiness, silliness and playfulness, but it was dimly lit, making it difficult to see, but it was a detail I don't know why I paid it attention.  But even with such detail, I was shocked to have at the reach of my hand so many games to enjoy.  There were also kids everywhere. Well, a few kids were in there, but they were everywhere. Playing, jumping, running. Being happy. I didn't do anything as the excitement overwhelmed me. Shooter games, arcade games, racing games, any games a kid would have loved to have were there, waiting for me.

It was a dream come true.

But as I admired the arcades, I noticed a girl just a tiny shorter than me. She had a pink long straight hair, neatly brushed, part of it landing on her shoulder and the other way pointing to the floor. She also had a very white skin, a clean one with no visible marks or bruises, her skin matching with her yellow sweater with long sleeves covering her hands, accompanied. Also, she was holding a fluffy, foamy, white baby rabbit, a genuinely cute one.

What really caught my attention from that girl was how she reacted to everything, from the lights appearing and disappearing from the arcades, to the movements of the other kids playing around. It was like she had an extreme shyness or was scared of everything she saw moving or showed signs of being alive. I noticed her passing by me, taking care of where she was stepping, always with her head down, seeing the floor as she walked. It looked like she was playing the floor is lava. I stared at her for a moment. She raised her head and looked to me, but then she lowered her head, seeing the floor again and went to a nearby door, opened it and left the place, all meanwhile others kids were running between us, playing without a caress for the world.

I watched her leave, but I didn't do anything. I was already watching all the games my vision would capture, and one of them was catching my attention. A Pac-Man game.

…

After hours playing it, and getting bored by eating yellow points and get scared by ghosts, I went to the door the yellow-sweater girl previously opened, and as I did it, I saw in front of me games’ lights flashing crazy, more frantically than before. I was amazed by those lights. I closed my distance to them and observed they came from a game I wasn't interested in. I made a quick trail as I saw every game, every one of them as boring as watching paint dry, the only thing interesting from them were their lights.

With every arcade game checked, I passed through the door that led to a different room, but just as I was opening, a girl stopped me from moving, grabbing me by my shoulders. She had a pink fluffy hair and smile on her face, a bright and white one. She was wearing a blue shirt, a bright pink watch, a girly one, and a short skirt.

She talked to me in a way I was uncomfortable, as if I were an old friend, or, to add another example, like her best friend. "Hi!" She smiled even more, her white and big teeth showing up.

"Hi...?" I answered with an insecurity in my voice, trying to see if she greeted the wrong person,

"How are you feeling? Are you feeling right? Because I'm feeling right, so right and good that it was like that time I was playing in a museum, a closed one, with so muuuch things to play with, like a squishy loudy dinosaur looking at me as if he was scared! We just stared between each other with open eyes, screaming ‘Ah!’, and we just screamed along—”

My mind stopped for a moment and I unconsciously reacted. “Stop.”

"Stop?"

"Yeah..., just, let me answer your question." I waited a moment to call my mind and answer. "I'm feeling... good, I guess. “After I said that, a wider smile appeared on her face and she let my shoulder free.

"That's fantastic!" Her fluffy hair bounced. It bounced.

I was getting teased, but I just stood there, seeing her, trying to seek inside my head where did I know her.

"Well," she said, "I have a meeting, I hope to see you later!" And she ran past me, leaving me a astonished by the sudden move. I stood there a while, but I forgot about her quickly in order to keep my enjoyment running. I was inside a every child’s dream, where fun was my first priority, second priority and third priority. Amazing, eh?

…

After such event, which was still in my mind, I saw a game it caught my attention, it was called "Space Invaders". I remembered it, my pupils getting bigger by the excitement. I played it with my brother all the time, usually skipping someday classes just to rise my score, wanting to beat my brother.  He would always win in score, but he cheated, I knew it. I was playing it as I felt an arising emotion, making me feel a need to play more and more. The sensation to keep my attention to the game was filling my head as I played it more and more. It was like… I don’t want to say it, but it was a drug.

I was playing it with wide eyes, staring every movement of the aliens while destroying them. Maybe I had fun with it for hours, or just a few minutes, I don`t know, but I didn't care. I was viciously playing it. As the scored raised slowly but steady, I heard a voice at my right side. "Can I play? It seems really fun.” I almost didn’t catch her by the surrounding noise of the arcade.

"Sure!" I said with a playful voice. The idea of competence raised my humor more than it was by just playing.

"I think I can beat you. Wait, I know I'll beat you, so be prepared to give me a little of resistance, ha ha!" she said with an arrogant voice, but innocent, at the same time. She stood beside me and played by my side

I was always seeing the screen as she was always laughing, a laugh that warmed me up, when I lost against her. The only thing I cared in that moment was that I wanted to play.

…

We played mindlessly. We enjoyed every bit of it as laughs had gone through the air. I stopped playing after I don't know how long. I had to stop before I got mad with her as she was always winning me in score She's even better than my brother.

I turned around to say I wanted to play another game, and I would win.

But I didn't. When I turned around, I saw… a… it’s strange to explain it, but it wasn’t human, for sure… The only animal that it can be as close as the animal I was seeing would be a pony, but, in truth, a cartoonish one, with its legs simplified to inflated balloons, a body with the same property as before, and its head had big eyes, oddly proportionated to its body… It was strange.

And I was playing with a pony.

A talking pony.

My mind was shocked seeing her as she... smiled to me. I think she immediately caught my expression. "…Why are you looking at me with that face?" she asked with a little concerned voice. I was still shocked as I watched her.

After a moment, I, or my visual sense, realized how she truly was, at least aside the anatomical part. She had a light blue coat, with big rose eyes, and what most was noticeable from her was her mane, her multi-colored mane. A rainbow. She seemed worried I stared at her blankly.  There was an awkward silence as I tried to see if this was normal, or real, even if I dreaming, but she broke the silence.

"You know...," she said, maybe wanting to get me out of the state I was, "I want to meet some of my friends that are here. Do you want to accompany me?" I saw her eyes for three seconds and answered with a whisper, "Sure, if you want.”

She grinned. "Great! Come with me!" She touched my hand with her hoof. I felt her hoof touching my hand. It was odd.

"Okay..." I said, still thinking if this was… normal. She trotted to a door that was steps behind her and opened it with her hoof. I don’t know how she did it, but she did it. I started following her, and as I was trying to see the new place adorned with pink, she ran into two girls that were relatively near us. As I stood in the middle of the room, I noticed those girls, and the pony, were waving to me come with them to be with them. When I looked to them, I recognized those girls. One was the shy girl, she was still holding her rabbit, and the other girl was the pinky girl, with the same smile that did to me when she said goodbye.

But then I woke up. Or that's the last scene I remember.

Anyway, carrying on with the dream’s topic…

Well... how do I say it...?

Since I was a kid, or even before, say my parents I have been always dreaming. I would create entire worlds in my mind in just few seconds. They were mostly fantastic worlds. Worlds were I would go in adventures with the people that resided there. From old, rusty guys with swords and shields, to women practitioner of magic. As I advanced in age, and as puberty hit, I would dream about other worlds, more complex ones, but always fantasy, fantasy worlds. I would create I had a friendship with a teenager of said world I was dreaming and I would go in quests with her. I would dream to sci-fi worlds where technology ruled everywhere to old villages lost in time.  I would create worlds within worlds, I'd travel to space and surround planets, carefully land on them and search for lost civilisations.

They were good dreams, if you ask me. They seemed to be simple, but, for me, they were relaxing.

Well, as I was in my last year of high school, I would dream alternate realities about television series I was fan of at that moment, or anything I was watching in the TV, or about my own life, creating a total separated world, where mostly anything could happen if I just started to think about that.

And it is something I still do, I say. An activity that my friends don't really... comprehend, or enjoy.

"Hey... Rick, are you daydreaming?" said my friend who was at my side. We were walking through a wide corridor located in our university, just after we took a class. I didn't answer for a moment, but my head started to move erratically. He grabbed me from my shoulders and shook me.

“Stop it! I’m awake, I’m awake!”

“Were you dreaming about that girl?”

"No! What? Which girl? I—there’s wasn't any girl. What made you think that?” I said and he released me.

"I was only asking, I wasn't thinking anything. I didn’t led you to think that, did I?" He mischievously smiled..

I suspected he was just mocking me, so I let it pass, keeping myself shut.

We walked down the corridor and I saw him led his gaze to a girl who was approaching us and  he brushed his hair with his hand. I thought I recognized the girl, but I was interrupted before I confirmed it. "Well... I have to go, so...4 o’clock, in the evening?" He moved his shirt, checked his cell phone and smelled his breath.

"Yeah," I said at the same time he greeted the girl. I waved my hand to him, leaving the wide corridor and leading to the front door of the building.  I thought about what he did, leaving me alone to talk to another girl,  that he was a wannabe Casanova, but I know he isn’t like that. And he isn’t really good with girls…

We’ve known since high school. I've been with him since we were in high school. He is a little... eccentric. He is also someone that I can rest on, as he can rest on me, figuratively. It's mutual. He also helped me to choose what career I wanted to study, and he really helped me to discover one of my passions: Psychology. He’s my best friend. His name’s Christopher.

While I was walking down the corridor, I hung my head, looking in my imaginary catalogue of activities what to do since I had all the day for me:  no tests, no works, no study and no part-jobs I had to do.  "What can I do?” I whispered as I saw my shoes. Sport shoes. I stopped in my tracks and I recalled something from my first day here. I vowed to myself that I would be with sportswear. And that was the case. I think I also vowed that I would bring a pillow to be more comfortable, but at least I haven’t done it…yet.

I guessed I could use the sportswear for what I was created. I recalled that the campus had a stadium, so I reached the front door and started to jog to the stadium to warm up a little.

When I arrived to the stadium I observed people with different physical complex working out. They were jogging, running, jumping and throwing objects that I can't remember how they were called. They were doing athletics, that’s for sure. They all were minding their own business, so, without thinking it twice, I started to jog at a quicker pace, doing the same that some runners were doing.

As I jogged on the last track, I felt, somehow, I should go to my right side. It felt as an instinct. I did it, trusting my hunch, and in just a second after I saw a girl running at a mad pace. If I had not moved, we would crashed. Thinking, I tried to calm myself from what could had happened.

I was a little shocked to see how she was running, how fast she was, and how effortless she seemed it to be. I watched her in wonder, and as she finished, she lowered her running pace until she was jogging. I saw her leading to me. She was wearing a sports shirt, tight shorts, and, from what I could see, spikes, but what most attracted me is she had her hair dyed like a rainbow.

"You shouldn't be here," she stoically said, her rushed breath taking its toll to talk.

"Why?" I asked, noticing her rushed breaths, and her not-so-friendly posture.

"Well, first-” She pointed me with her hand, "-I almost tripped because of you, almost crashing you, and second: at this hours the athletic club trains, so... yeah, you shouldn't be here.” She said with rushed breaths. She wasn’t happy, at all.

I did the first thing that came to my mind, apologize. "I'm sorry and I didn't really know you were training, It's just... I didn't know that. It's my first time here, in this track." I didn't want someone to yell at me or be angry at me. Not that day, or any day.

I think something moved inside her head with what I said. She smiled, as if she achieved something, and asked, "Have you ever run... before?"

"I...-what?" I mumbled out, not prepared for that question.

"Well, have you ever run before?" she asked me again.

"Yes, when I was—"

"Great, you know something..." she interrupted me, seeing me with a thoughtful face, as if she were analyzing me. I don’t know if it’s me, but it’s hard to know what she’s thinking by just seeing her. Then, she asked me, "Can... you, like, come at this same hour, the next Friday?" Her voice was calmer and I could notice a trace of… arrogance in her voice.

"...Yeah, I think I can..." I said as I considered to go or not.

"Cool. I'm training right now, I’ll see you that day, OK?" she said and immediately a click sounded from her watch, making her run again. From what I could take from what I was seeing, she was maximizing her energy with long, strong strides. She seemed to be very comfortable running. With she stopping me dead track from my jog, and feeling I was getting cold, I claimed the day as ended for training.

I leaved the track and went to my home, not before stretching on the way home.

…

I was in front of a door. A wooden door, nicely painted with cheap paint. It was located on the third floor of a residential building. I delicately opened the door and it revealed my department. I wouldn't call it the most pleasant place nor the worst, but it’s my place.

It’s the typical student apartment: It has a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room. In my bedroom they are the usual things: a bed, a nightstand, and a wardrobe where I keep my clothes and my study books since it's the place I always keep important things. I usually keep the books I must study under my bed, so I mostly keep clothes in my wardrobe. In my bathroom, there is a shower, a sink and a toilet. Nothing too marvelous to have, I guess. In my kitchen there is an oven, a sink, a cooler and a refrigerator. It is just… a common kitchen. The living room has a table, two chairs and a musical instrument: a cello. It was by the side of the table. I could see it from where I stood.

It's an instrument I love to play. None other instruments has taught me the value of art and music like the cello. I love to play it, it makes me feel at ease, it makes me feel better, and it makes me feel I have nothing to worry about. The cello gives me something to do in my life, besides studying, of course. Every time I play it—not only play in the sense of playing a note, but to authentically play it, to feel the emotion of every note within its scale, to search through the harmony and change the timbre of the tone to adequate it to the passage, to notice those little details pair with everything, to feel the bow match the intensity and passion of the piece's dynamic...  I feel the world around me goes somewhere else and the only reason to live is to play.

I walked to the living room, put the bag I was carrying on the table which it had my books, grabbed the cello and started to play it mindlessly as the night arrived, feeling four strings fit under my fingers. I closed my eyes and played suites that I had already learned through time, dedication and passion.

…

I played it not caring about the time it took to play it. I put the cello besides the chair and got up, noticing the strain in my wrist. I stretched my hand and my arms. While I was doing it, I noticed through my window the night. It was a beautiful night, cleared from any nocturnal cloud.  The stars were shining a white glitter, distinguishing themselves from the artificial lights of our satellites. It was unusual at season of the year, making it more noticeable. I could recognize some constellations from where I was, like Virgo’s and Leo's.

I felt exhausted, not knowing if it was by the cello or the arrival of the night. I verified my watch and it eleven and a half, late for what I’m used to. Knowing myself that I’m a morning person, I go to bed earlier than the usual person, not allowing myself that kind of convenience. It’s good when you are in classes or something alike, but when you want to rest…ugh…

I looked the cello, loosened the bow’s crin, put the bow on the stand and moved to my bedroom. The bed was calling my name, and so I did its. I got off my clothes and embraced the tight and sweet mattress of the bed.

o0o

"We shall tell him, sister. I have to tell him."

"No. We aren't sure if he wants, or if he is the one who has to do it."

"But Celestia, sister, we ne-"

"No. We have to wait."

"Your kingdom will fall, sister. Even worse than now. If we don't do anyth-"

"Just wait."