I awoke the next day feeling a little tired, yet at the same time, relaxed. Thankfully, it was a Sunday, so I didn’t have much work. I had to memorize a few lines for the show I was in, but nothing too difficult. Other than that, my day was going to be pretty empty. I tried to think of things to do, but nothing came to me.

“I’ll think of something later,” I said to myself. I sat up in bed and wiped my eyes out. They felt a little wet to me. I figured that I must have been crying a little during my sleep. And then I remembered my dream. Although, it wasn’t really a dream. Having Princess Luna visit me in my sleep was something I never expected. And she had said that she had spoken with Fluttershy in her dreams as well. I only hoped that Luna would visit my dreams again soon, and hopefully, that Celestia would listen to the offer Luna had in mind.

I got out of bed, went to the bathroom, got myself dressed, and made myself some breakfast. A simple bowl of cereal would be enough on this day. I sat down at my table and turned the TV on to the news. Nothing good was on the news, so I decided to flip through the channels to find something. I was lucky enough to find that My Little Pony was on. I decided I might as well watch it.

Yet, at the same time, I couldn’t bear to watch it. It just hurt too much to watch the ponies. The moment I saw Fluttershy, I started to cry. I turned off the TV and sat at the table in tears. After a minute of crying, I finished my breakfast and put the bowl in the sink. I grabbed my hoodie and headed outside. I needed to go on a parkour run.

Even though I was technically living in the city, I was only on the outskirts. The area I lived in had a good amount of places to do parkour. There were more than enough trees to use as well. I decided to go to my preferred spot in the area, which was a local skate park. Most of the time, I would find skaters there. But, the space was also used by other people that did parkour. And for a skate park, there was a good amount of trees.

I arrived to find the place being used by about twenty-or-so skaters. At this hour in the morning (10:30 a.m.), it was pretty common for that number of people to be there. I knew a few of the skaters in fact. I nodded my head to the ones I knew and ignored the ones I didn’t. I walked over to my preferred starting point in the park, threw my hood up, and went off on my run.

To start, I dove over two benches and finished with a classic parkour roll. I then ran over to the grind rails and hopped over a few of them. As I came to the skate ramps, I started to climb up the side of it. Once I reached the top, I slid down the ramp, gained some momentum, and used that momentum to climb back up on the other side.

From there, I hopped down and rolled my way over to a small collection of structures. They were each leveled differently, and it made for some good fun. There were large gaps in between most of them, which I would always conquer. I started hopping across the platforms with great ease, finishing off by jumping off a taller one and landing with a roll.

What came next was the most fun for me. I ran over to the area filled with trees. I climbed up the tallest one and started to run across the thick branches. I hopped my way from one tree to the next. I came to one branch and used it to swing around to another tree, landing with success. I hopped down from the mass of trees with another roll and continued running.

I kept going until I had reached the edge of the park. I looked behind me to see that I had conquered pretty much every piece of the park, which was something I didn’t normally do. I would usually take on one part of the park every day, but never the whole thing at once. It took me a moment to realize what I had actually done.

“Damn Matt. Never seen you run through the whole park like that. Respect,” one of the skaters said to me. I turned and smiled at him.

“I guess I wasn’t as focused on where I was as much as what I was doing,” I responded. “That felt good.” I felt like I had no energy left in me, but at the same time, I felt like I had all the energy I could ever need.

“Yeah, I bet. Next time you plan on doin that, let me know. I might wanna bet on how far… hey, where you goin?!” the skater shouted after me. I didn’t turn back to respond. I was already off for another run through the park.

I found myself at the entrance of the park once again after my sixth complete run through the entire park. Each time, I took different paths and used different tricks to get around. On about my third run, I had attracted an audience of about fifty skaters and parkour runners in total. I never imagined that I could do something like this. For me to run the park entirely once was astonishing, but the fact that I had done it six times was unbelievable.

As I stood at the entrance to the park, the audience behind me was cheering for me, asking for another run. I checked my phone to see that it was only about 1:30 in the afternoon. I pocketed my phone, turned to the audience, and bowed.

“Sorry ladies and gentlemen, but that’s all for today,” I said, now walking away. I could hear the displeased moans from everyone, but they quickly went back to doing their own stunts and tricks. I on the other hand needed a drink.

I found myself at one of the local bars. I sat at the counter and ordered a Rum and Cola. I quickly drank up the beverage and ordered another. And another and another and another. Before I knew it, I had gone through about eight drinks, and I didn’t have the slightest buzz. The bartender cut off my drinks when I finished the eighth one, but I desperately needed another.

“Come on, I’m literally begging for another. I’ll pay double for it,” I said, taking out the money.

“Sorry buddy, but I’m not gonna let you hurt yourself like this by drinking your troubles away,” he responded.

“What makes you think I’ve got troubles?” I asked.

“When a guy like you guzzles down eight Rum and Colas that quickly, and doesn’t get drunk from it, I know the guy’s got troubles. You are one of those guys.” I looked at the bartender with an unamused look. I ultimately gave up and decided to leave. Even as I walked out of the bar I didn’t feel any buzz from the alcohol now in my system. I was a little pissed by that.

At that point, it was only three o’clock, and I had little to nothing else to do. So, I figured I would just go for a walk. A nice, long walk.

Author's Notes:

Well, now you see how Matthew is dealing with everything as of the second day. He went boss on six different parkour runs and went through eight rum and colas. I've never had a full drink of that stuff, only a sip, and I loved it. I am looking forward to my first full one though. I have no idea if that stuff can really get you drunk, so if that seems like a problem in the story, let me know. But yeah, Matthew seems to be having a good day so far... kinda. And hey, he's still got a few more hours left in the day.