Episode 1: The Soul Spectrum Dimension Chapter 1: The Technicolor Kingdom Part 4: Aggression

Aaron thrashed and screamed, “…AYAYADDA! WAYAYAYAAAYA! BWA! SALA MALA! SPIDERS! AHA AHHAYAA! LET ME GO! LET ME GO! You’ll never take my soul! You’ll never take it! It’s mine! You Willy Walla yadda yadda! You’re gonna Sala Makawaka! And I’ll Meyah your wallahh! WEYAYA! AND YOUR MONKEY TOO!

“Put me Down! Put me Down! Ahh!! Save me Mother! GEAHAHAAHHH! Save me Tom Cruise! BWAHH! HELP ME OPRAH! You’re going to kill me! Drop me alreadahahydadhah! This is the end of my life! I’m so sorry Mother! I should have never taken that candy bar from that little girl! And Now I have to suffer from death by giant rainbow ponies! I shoulda yadda ahaha! AHHH! WAHH!!! PUT ME DOWN!!

“But before you do, I must tell you. YOU’LL NEVER TAKE MY SPIRIT! YOU’RE NOT REAL TO ME! THIS IS A DREAM! HEAR MY WAR CRY! AAAAAAAAHHH! YOU DEMON SPAWNS! YOU WILLY NILLIES! YOU COMMUNISTS! YOU’RE THE WORK OF SWEDISH TERRORISTS! DROP ME AND LET ME FIGHT! AHHGAAHH! You can’t take me down! I have an exotic accent! You’ll never find anyone like me! You need me! I’m a master in cartoons that contain people with big eyes! But I’m not giving you anything!

“I hate your stupid grass! I hate your stupid clouds! You’re not nice ponies! Your evil demon doppelgangers of pregnant rainbow horses! Let me fight you!  I’ll burn you down with my viscous lens of solar rays! I’ll call the Green Lantern on you! YOU AND YOUR ZOMBIE LEADER! YOU AND YOUR ZOMBIE MOTHERS! And I’ll claw out your butt tattoos and eat all your apples and mix up your Laundry!”

“Ughh!” moaned Rainbow Dash, hauling the rope twenty feet in the air, “He’s been doing this for a whole hour now!”

“Well, just…uh…drop him gently, I guess. Maybe he’ll stop swinging at us and let us talk in friendlier speaking terms if we do as he says,” spoke Applejack unsurely, standing beneath the upside down human.

“Whatever you say,” replied Rainbow Dash, letting go of the lasso.

“AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” bellowed Aaron falling a full ten feet.

“I said drop him GENTLY!” yelled Applejack, catching Aaron on her back.

“Uuughhhh,”Aaron flopped onto the ground and held onto his stomach, gasping for air. They were standing in the middle of a field, where the sun was setting.

“Oops,” Rainbow Dash apologized, landing on the ground, “Sorry. You were kinda heavy.”

Aaron picked up a stick from the ground and waved it at them, “Back off! Back off, all of you!”

Applejack tried to reason, “Whoa, there Nelly! We’re not trying to hurt you.”

“Not trying to hurt me!? You freaking KIDNAPPED ME!” Aaron accused.

“No, we didn’t! We were protecting your flank you ungrateful punk!” intervened Rainbow Dash.

“Protecting my flank!? Protecting my flank! I DON’T HAVE A FLYING FLANK YOU STUPID...!”

Then Aaron tried to stand up but his ankles were still tightly bound by the lasso and he fell over.

Rainbow Dash bit down on the rope and mumbled “Get ready to run, AJ!”

-----

Twilight Sparkle led the way for the human and dragon.

It had taken a while to get moving after the incident with the broken door. Shortly after that, Garion had begun to cry. This worried her for only a minute, until she remembered that she could still potentially receive help from princess Celestia. Since then, he had looked strangely at peace, but not totally together. She decided to take him back to the library.

“It’s just too big to comprehend, okay?” he lamented, “It was only this afternoon that I didn’t believe in unicorns, dragons, or anything like this. Everything I knew about life was secure in a single dull main-frame. It was what it was. And I’ve been always anticipating a future I couldn’t see; using a frame of mind that I’ve known since I was a child. But now all of that’s gone; it’s torn all away. And I just don’t know what to look for now.”

Twilight gave a condescending look to Garion, “I imagine that anyone who would have this fall upon them would have reacted in the same way you did, if not much worse than that.” She looked at the sky that was slowly growing orange from the sun setting.

She continued, “Anyone could have fallen into my world today, and on any other day, but you did. That’s the way it happened. Don’t worry about why or what to do, because you’re here and I’m certainly glad to have met you,” and then she smiled.

Garion looked at her and thought whoa. That was certainly very uplifting, but not what he was used to hearing. It took him a few minutes to realize that he had been standing for a while, for when he saw the sadness in her violet eyes, that’s when he noticed the tears flowing from his, for how long he didn’t know.

It was seriously not what he was used to hearing.

To hear those words being said was one thing; to hear that being said from a mystical unicorn to an unimportant human like him was something else entirely. And it stung.

----

The unicorn walked with dignity under the pride of her objective. In order to create a spring celebration worth a thousand sequels, it would need to have the best attire.

Rarity was a high class unicorn with a crystalline white coat, a velvety blue-violet mane, and lots of makeup and sterilizing spells. She was a “fashionista” and her life passion was set as such.

She trotted intently alongside Fluttershy, who was helping her look for the perfect rainbow flowers and accents among her flower garden. As the yellow Pegasus fluttered around carrying the basket, she related a peculiar story that had occurred earlier that day.

“And he hit him?” asked Rarity.

“Yes! Really hard. But then they looked right at me and…well, I might have been just a little scared, but I protected my house and kept it secure so they wouldn’t get in,” iterated Fluttershy.

----

“…and Fluttershy is, as you already know, very easy to scare around other ponies. So be sure to be as friendly as possible,” instructed Twilight Sparkle, cantering over the bridge.

“What? I’m not a pony though,” said Garion, carrying the saddlebags for Twilight.

“Same thing,” said Spike.

“No, it’s not” Garion argued.

“Yes it is,” Spike lamely countered.

“Enough,” intervened Twilight Sparkle, “Aha, here’s Rarity and Fluttershy.”

----

The two ponies stood still in front of the boutique as Spike, Twilight Sparkle, and the human creature approached.

Rarity’s first typical impression on the human was its style of fashion. And then it was the human’s posterity within those clothes. She known ponies and other four legged creatures with clothes all her life, and even Spike the dragon who walks on two legs. But this human wore these clothes as if he was the reason for clothes; as if he was born to wear garments. It was indeed…civilized…in contrast to how Fluttershy described them. “Wow, Fluttershy. You never told me about their statuesque apparel.”

“I didn’t notice,” Fluttershy quietly muttered, standing behind Rarity, “Oh, thank goodness. This isn’t the violent one.”

“Violent one?” asked Garion, “What did Aaron do to you guys?”

“‘Ladies,’ if you please,” said Rarity, who walked up to Garion and tugged the sleeve of his jacket, “Tell me, kind sir. Do all humans in your world dress in style like you?”

Garion was wearing a grey hoodie and jeans.

“Yes?” he responded, ‘Well, that was awkward.' Then he asked, “But has anyone seen Aaron?”

Something that sounded like an air siren echoed in the distance. They all listened intently.

Suddenly a dust cloud came rushing in as Rainbow Dash ran into the scene with the end of a rope clamped in her mouth.

“Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!” screeched a loud, dirty man being drug across the ground, the rope lassoed around his ankles.

Applejack followed seconds after.

“Aaron!” exclaimed Garion, “What in the...!”

“Shut up and untie me, you idiot!” Aaron demanded.

Garion bent down and fangled with the bindings as quick as he could, thinking about turmoil and chaos, and when the ties finally gave way, Aaron stood up and punched him in the chest.

He stumbled back, “OW! What the heck was that for!?”

“Eek!” Fluttershy squeeled, “That one! That’s the violent one!”

“You’re dang RIGHT I’m the violent one! So you all better back off! None of you are stealing my soul tonight!”

“Aaron, what in the name of everything frozen in time are you talking about?” demanded Garion.

Aaron grabbed Garion by the shoulders and yelled, “You will never believe the things I’ve seen today!” He slapped him again.

“Will you STOP hitting me!”

“I’m just making sure that you’re not under some kind of spell. Quick, we’ve got to get out of here, fast,” he whispered to Garion.

“Well first, you’ve got to calm down! And at least act normal if you can’t be normal! These ‘ponies’ have been giving their hospitality for us since we’ve been here, and you’ve been acting like a jerk this whole time.”

“A jerk!?”

“Yeah! First, you just leave and walk into who knows where and-”

“I was almost eaten by flesh hungry, fanged cottonwood today!”

“Uh…”

“Also, the ponies!” Aaron lamented.

“Aaron! Even if we wanted to get out, we couldn’t!” Garion asserted.

“What!? WHY?”

“Because! Well…you see… The door…”

“WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DOOR?”

Garion hesitated at first, unsure about the outcome that could result, but then Twilight stepped in.

“It’s not his fault. I kind of, um…broke it. It’s in pieces.”

Aaron looked at the purple unicorn. She stood right beside Garion, and appeared to have grown slightly comfortable with him. Aaron then switched his glance to Garion.

“SON OF A-” he began to exclaim, but then realized his repeating mistake, “-beautiful lady.”

Aaron’s trust in the ponies had been ultimately shattered during his escapade in the forest; that being, because of the terrifying demonic pony that had supposedly been attempting to take his life. He now believed that the ponies couldn’t be trusted, because their world apparently consisted of disturbing problems at every intersection. He also began to think that the whole ‘innocent and childish’ atmosphere that these ponies portrayed was just a mask that they wore to hide the monsters that they really were inside.

He decided that if he wanted to sneak past the ponies’ evil plans, then he had to keep them from suspecting that he was on to them. It would be hard to convince Garion that they were evil though, since he had been with them the whole time. There was nothing he could really do at his advantage right now, anyway. He would have to wait for a time when he and Garion could be alone. Till then, he needed to play cool.

Garion raised his eyebrow in confusion, stepping away slowly, “Um, ok? Anyway, I don’t know how but, we’ll get this problem fixed…somehow. Don’t you worry! Just PLEASE keep calm for now. This is a cartoon, after all; crazy things are bound to happen at random moments. They always resolve themselves in the end.”

“Except for the episodes that leave you stupid in the end,” said Aaron, “And besides, this isn’t a cartoon on television, you know,” Aaron spoke, his eye slightly twitching.

“Well, yeah. I know but… Wait, or is it?” Garion by instinct looked up at the sky, imagining an invisible camera looking down on them and showing them on television in the reality world, like he used to think when he was a little kid. All he saw was the same green Pegasus pushing the same cloud across the sky.

“Yeah… I’m sure it will sort itself out, like you said,” said Aaron, who was desperately trying to not sound conspicuous. Fluttershy and Rarity seemed aware of something strange, though, and they exchanged glances. “But in the meantime could you, Twilight by any chance be able to turn ourselves back to our original sizes, please?”

“Oh, yeah! That’s right!” said Garion, “We’re together now, Twilight.”

“Well, yeah… But,” said Twilight.

“What?” asked Garion.

“Well… I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?!” snapped Aaron.

“It’s too risky!” she reasoned.

“What ‘the hey did you do to them, Twi’?” asked Applejack.

“I thought you said that Aaron and I had to be together so that you didn’t expel all your magic from far reaching distances” said Garion.

“And I SAID that it was too unpredictable; that you shrunk from a spell that was originally intended to mildly shock you-” explained twilight.

“You were trying to shock us!?” interjected Aaron.

“At the time, yes! But I didn’t see what you really were at first!”

“So you just shot at us?!” Aaron exclaimed.

“I’m sorry! I know I shouldn’t have, I just heard everybody else in panic and I just reacted!”

Spike returned from apparently having left a few moments ago, now being interested in the strange conversation. Fluttershy and Rarity exchanged glances several times, slowly inching closer to Twilight Sparkle with questionable expressions.

“But we didn’t even do anything!” exclaimed Aaron.

“It’s alright Aaron. They don’t mean any harm,” Garion reasoned.

“YOU ARE AN IDIOT!” Aaron shouted.

The other ponies gasped.

“Whoa! Dude, that is NOT an okay thing to say to him,” said Rainbow Dash, stepping in between them, “He’s just trying to be keep everypony calm-”

“Shut up, flying demon!”

“WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME!!?” Rainbow raised her hoof as if in a fist.

“Aaron! How dare you talk to my friend like that!” scolded Twilight angrily. So far she was beginning to consider this to be one of the rudest people she had ever tried to help.

“Shut up, evil-shrinking demon!” Aaron persisted.

“AARON!” Garion bellowed, grabbing him by the shoulder and trying to pull him out of the group.

But Aaron pushed him off and swung at him. “SHUT UP! YOU MONEY BLOWING DEMON!!!” Aaron screamed, hitting Garion in the stomach. A black wisp of smoke generated from the impact, which drifted above and floated off into the darkening sky above. Suddenly Aaron felt terrified…of himself, and quickly pulled his arm back.

Purple light surrounded Aaron’s vision, and suddenly he felt himself being lifted in the air. Within two seconds, he found himself staring face to face with two enormous azure eyes, “Pardon me, but that form of indecency is absolutely intolerable!”

“Indecency? That orange one lassoed me!”

“You punched me in the ear!” bursted Applejack.

“I don’t know how things are run in your world, but if you are going to be looking for any help from us, then either you must change your unmannered ways NOW or I’ll have to teach you myself how to behave like a civilized being,” Rarity pressed.

“Fine…”

“Yes ma’am, if you will.”

“Yes ma’am,” he gritted between his teeth, feeling like swallowing buckets of slime. “Now, can you please put me down?”

Rarity gently lowered Aaron to the ground, and released the magic from around him, “Now first, apologize to my dear friend Rainbow Dash, and then to your friend as well.”

“He’s not my friend,” Aaron claimed, warily keeping his tone low.

There was an awkward silence for about 3 seconds before Spike the dragon spoke out and said, “I’m just going to go back to the library and put away the left over books,” and he ran off.

“Now Aaron, I’m sure that you’re a little upset,” Rarity began, “but-”

“No, I’m way beyond being upset,” Aaron interrupted.

Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle helped Garion off the ground. The human gained a bruise on his shoulder, but it hid itself underneath his shirt.

“Are you alright?” Twilight asked. So far she had grown to like him, and wasn’t sure how he and Aaron were going to get along now.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Garion said, dusting the dirt off his jacket, “I’m used to it. I barely know him anyway.”

“I have a room in my library that you can stay in tonight, if you want,” she offered kindly.

“Thank you, I really appreciate it,” he said. In times like these, it was always best for him to not say much, because he had unstable emotional problems and right now, he was feeling VERY emotional.

Even still, he felt warm seeing how much Twilight cared enough that she was willing to let him stay around...

Aaron was feeling no better. He knew what he had done, and regretted doing it with all his heart, but now he had to face the consequences. It became agonizingly difficult to ignore the terrifying determination of Rarity’s stare. Aaron figured that the longer he waited to do something, the worse it was going to be for him. So he shyly approached Rainbow Dash, looking down and uttered bluntly, “I’m sorry. Can you forgive me for my gosh-awful attitude today?”

“Yeah sure, I guess,” was all Rainbow Dash said, looking away. “There have been times where I have acted selfishly as well. Don’t worry about it.”

Another awkward silence followed. Aaron wasn’t willing to look at anyone else directly, especially Garion.

“Oh my, it is getting very late,” Rarity ignited, breaking the silence for him, “I see that you…um…” Rarity began.

“My name’s Garion,” said the human.

“Thank you, Garion. I see that Twilight has offered you a place to stay, but what about Aaron?”

“All I have is one extra bed,” Twilight informed.

“Well we won’t have you sleeping on the floor now will we, Aaron? Is anypony going to volunteer to hospitalize Aaron for the night?” Rarity asked, directing her attention to the rest of the group.

Rainbow Dash was suddenly absent, seemingly to have sneaked off somewhere.

Fluttershy hid behind Twilight Sparkle.

The only one left was Rarity and Applejack, the latter inattentively kicking the dirt with her hoof. “What? Oh, no. I have to be going back to the farm now to make sure that the sweet apple juicin’ has made through without any problems. I was supposed to be there to help ‘em out earlier, but the time got pulled away from me, so now I have to make up before tomorrow comes. I’m sorry, but I don’t have the time, or the space to accommodate somepony else right now, Aaron. But…uh…good luck.” And with that, she turned homeward and began to venture back.

Rarity looked around but there was nopony else to turn to, “Don’t fear, Aaron. If nopony else will spare any room for you, I will. Just follow me,” she insisted, walking to her boutique.

Aaron, who was looking pretty down right about now, looked to Garion and Twilight in confusion.

Twilight silently urged him forward, so Aaron awkwardly trailed after Rarity into the boutique, who closed the door behind them.

By this time the night had fully taken over and the small glow of several lanterns came to life around the canvas tents within the background. The starlight above sung silently upon the remaining company.

“Well… sigh… I guess it’s goodnight, Fluttershy. Hey, what’s that basket for?” asked Twilight Sparkle.

“Oh? These are Rarity’s flowers. But she…uh…left.” Fluttershy answered feebly, holding the basket on her back.

“Oh. Well, good night then,” Twilight Sparkle added, taking Garion with her into the night.

“Okay,” Fluttershy said, now alone by herself.

Garion digressed from his conscionable surroundings and fell captive to a faint trance, overtaken by the wonder of the world he was walking in.

For a moment, he wasn’t able to tell the difference between dream and reality; here he was walking under a foreign night, surrounded by unicorns and other magical wonders. The rivers and streams around him gleamed with blue-white starlight, and fireflies laughed and danced like animated constellations within the sleepy shadows of the trees. Twilight Sparkle may have been taking him through small within the town.

As he watched himself follow the image of the lavender ‘Alicorn’ in front of him, thoughts about his life on Earth prodded at his mind. He didn’t want to think about those thoughts right now, because they were cold, desolate things to think about. Still, a nagging question that he had been trying to ignore ever since his arrival wouldn’t leave his conscience no matter how hard he tried.

Why was he here?

That same morning he had been preparing for an interview that would have pointed him to the college he wanted to go. He had drunk coffee, used internet, and was getting started on living life on his own. How such a grown up, mundane world could disappear within seconds…

He never would have imagined that this ordinary day would be his last few moment on Earth, and everything he thought about life would be changed forever.

He would never see his family again. The way of life as he knew it was over.

The vision of the town he was walking in gave way to the large tree house that was the Golden Oak library. Twilight casually glanced back to see if he was still there.

“Are you going to be all right?” she asked.

“yeah…” he responded subconsciously, too phased out to be capable of much interaction. He did make note of the possibility that he may have been crying again, though.

The problem that he was encountering right now was that even as great as this world seemed, he felt like he had just brought something into it that wasn’t meant to be there. Aaron had gotten very reckless, the same way that Garion had gotten reckless when he bought that stupid firework.

He felt like he had just lost a friend, whom he didn’t even know that much. They had always minded each other’s business but never truly got to know each other. Aaron was undeniably acting like a total jerk, but Garion shouldn’t have left the conversation one-sided. They had both walked into this world together, and despite the kindness they received, he had already shown the ponies that humans don’t get along before the day had finished.

It burned, and he hated it. It was not what he wanted.

If he was going to live in a better land, he wanted to make sure he didn’t ruin it with his incompetence and carelessness. He decided that in the morning he would talk to Aaron…

Twilight Sparkle opened the door to the library and turned the lights on. The idea of electronic lights in a medieval landscape only made more sense to Garion, considering innocence and childlike qualities of this world and of course, it was a cartoon.

Spike stood on a ladder against the wall, putting books onto shelves.

Twilight’s belly growled and seemed unnecessarily loud to Garion, and she said “Well I’m hungry… How about you? You’ve been here since this afternoon and so much has been going on that we didn’t even bother to feed ourselves.”

“Yes, thanks,” he replied. In actuality, he was too anxious to be relaxing or eating, but he could feel his own stomach grumbling and hurting for food. He had fasted since that morning. If only he had brought a bag of Takis along with him or…

Then he remembered…something that he had brought along with him.

Twilight Sparkle raised her hoof towards one of the doors on the side walls and said, “Your bed is in there, so make yourself at home while I go fetch something.” Then she turned to her right and cantered down a stairwell that led beneath the tree.

Garion examined the room he was in. On the ceiling was a large sun painting, which looked down upon the table in the center of the room. The table itself held a wooden horsehead statue and was supposed to also contain Garion’s book that Twilight had set there. The book wasn’t there now.

The human scanned the room intently, desperate to find it. When it didn’t appear visibly available, he just took the fact that it may have been taken.

“Hey, Spike,” he called to the dragon, who was now dusting the shelves, “Do you know what happened to the book that was lying on this table at all?”

“Oh, yes! I put it in the ‘B’ section over there,” Spike replied, pointing a clawed finger to one of the bookshelves in the corner.

Garion walked over, and searched in the third row from the bottom, “Business studies…Biology… yes, here it is!” he pulled it out and put it back in his coat pocket.

Twilight Sparkle came back in with two bags of chips, “Here you go, chow down on this. I need to talk to you about tomorrow.”

She ‘handed’ a bag of 3D/2D potato chips to Garion using her levitation magic. Garion took the bag and feebly lifted a yellow circle, taking his first experience in eating cartoon food. It was actually pretty good and rich with texture for what appeared to have little detail.

“Alright Garion, I think that it’s important that tomorrow we make a visit to Princess Celestia,” announced Twilight Sparkle, setting her own bag on the table, “But the thing is, I don’t know how we’re going to do it. How am I just going to walk right up to her with a random human from an alternate dimension?”

“The same way I just walked to you?” asked Garion.

“Ha ha ha. No, we're not repeating what happened last time,” she responded.

Spike approached with a quill and parchment in his hand, “Maybe I could write a letter to her about it? Then you both can arrange a meeting time. That way, it won’t be so sudden.”

“That’s a great idea Spike. Tell her that I have come across two creatures who have lost their way into our world, and really need help finding their way back,” she related.

Spike quickly wrote the document out as fast as he could.

“Wait a minute. How in the world are you going to get this to the princess before tomorrow?” Garion asked, before Spike released a short spurt of emerald flame onto the scroll, disintegrating it. The ashes automatically flew straight out of the nearest open window, “You destroyed it?” he asked, ultimately confused.

“No. I magically teleported it to Celestia,” Spike explained.

“Oh, so you’re like the town fax machine or something? Or can everybody else here do that too?” Garion commented.

“No, just me. I use it to help Twilight write her reports to the princess. But I can only send things to Princess Celestia…I don’t know why.”

“Okay…well that’s odd, but still cool. Anyway, you can just talk to Celestia anytime you feel like it?” Garion asked, directing his attention to Twilight Sparkle now.

“Of course I can. She was my mentor,” Twilight acknowledged.

“Of course; How silly of me.”

“But I’m assuming that I’ll have to bring Aaron along as well. After what he did today, I don’t know how. He might insult her or something.”

“Please don’t think so negatively of him,” Garion pleaded, “It’s not like someone would just automatically be respectful after an incident like today. Plus, it sounded like he REALLY had a scare about something within those woods. He said I would never believe the things he saw today. I think that I was supposed to take him seriously, or side on his behalf, but I didn’t. Because of that he got singled out, and didn’t feel secure enough to care anymore.”

“Maybe, but it doesn’t give him the right to hit you or talk to my friends like that,” said Twilight.

“I know, but I’m just asking you to give him another chance and a little bit of time to adjust before you judge him completely. Again, our whole world was removed from our lives today!”

Twilight put her bag down, “I wasn’t going to shun him or anything like that. I understand completely how it feels like. But even when I had to step into another universe in a completely different body, I still had to be as nice as I could to the surrounding humans around me.” Twilight took another chip from her bag, “Of course, at that time I had a way to get back, and I was also sort of prepared for the transition anyway.”

She suddenly stood up and looked at him intently, her deep violet eyes glistening before him. They were truly beautiful eyes, and of the course the moment was entirely awkward, but nevertheless, he felt strangely secure by looking at them. “I’m glad that you’re still deciding to stand up for him. Like you said, it’s going to take a little time before either one of you gets used to this land. But that’s why I’m feeling tedious about bringing Aaron straight to the princess at such an inconvenient time.”

“But wouldn’t she understand if he messed? If you understood me so well, and you trust her judgment enough that you are turning to her for help, then what is the issue? Apparently you already know her personally… And she being your mentor, well…she doesn’t seem like a cruel princess,” he expressed.

“She isn’t at all… I guess I’m just over reacting a little bit too much…” Twilight deemed.

Suddenly, Spike belched and a scroll appeared out of the flames, falling to the floor.

“What the?” Garion uttered.

Spike picked up the scroll and unrolled it.

“Well, what did she say, Spike?” Twilight Sparkle requested.

“Well, she seems to want to meet you at the castle as is convenient, with both of you two ‘creatures’ who are here,” he said.

“Ok, so she’s expecting us. Now what do we do?” asked Garion.

“Now, we get some sleep. We’ll catch the train tomorrow.”

Spike took the dishes and carried them to the kitchen.

Twilight ushered Garion to his room. It was a tiny alcove about ten square feet from Garion’s current size. There was also a wooden frame bed with thick, blue comforters, and a nightstand beside it. A circular window was set within the wall that the bed stood against. It was cozy in Garion’s opinion.

“It’s not much, but I hope it’s enough,” She said.

“It’s more than enough. Thank you, Twilight.” He said, setting his book on the nightstand.

“No problem. Maybe tomorrow on the train we can spend more time getting to know each other,” Twilight Offered.

“That would be…nice. I would like that…a lot.” he answered moodily, staring at the bed. Suddenly he wasn’t feeling so secure anymore. He knew why.

Noticing that he appeared distraught, Twilight Sparkle asked, “What wrong?”

Garion continued looking at the bed for a few moments, but then turned his gaze to Twilight Sparkle, “I don’t know…I guess I’m just…afraid, is all.”

“Afraid of what?”

“Afraid of going to sleep… and possibly waking up in my world,” he answered solemnly.

Twilight was perplexed by this odd answer, “Now what on Earth makes you think that’s going to happen?”

“Well, I don’t know. I can believe that I’m not dreaming all I want, but nothing has been confirmed. Nothing has explained why I got here in the first place. I could just as easily wind up in my world now as I did when I entered.”

“The truth is, I don’t want to go. I want to stay, for as long as I can. I’ve never had close friends who ever cared like you did today… And I just met you. I don’t want to disappear without any warnings,” he spoke quietly.

Garion didn’t remember what led to the next moment, but it involved a hug from Twilight.

When she pulled away she said, “That’s all I can give you right now.” She understood him. He wanted to live here and didn’t want to go back. “Have hope. I’m not going anywhere,” and that was all she said before she left the room.

Garion found himself very tired, and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to stay awake forever. There wasn’t anything left to do, so he simply got under the blankets, and flipped off the switch on the side table lamp. He felt to make sure that his book was still where he left it. Then, he felt his phone in his pocket, and he took that out too so that he didn’t roll on it in the middle of his sleep.

That was when he remembered that it was still on and charging. He unlocked it and saw the wallpaper that showed a picture of a glorious sunset above a football stadium, the one he took during his senior year in high school marching band. It was one of the most beautiful works in nature that he had ever seen. It had happened so recently too.

Garion went to his contacts. Silently, he stared at the names for a while undecidedly. Eventually he relented, and he finally selected one.

It buzzed softly several times before a female voice sounded on the other end, “Hi. Sorry I didn’t get your call. Please leave your message, and your number and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks.”

A half second followed.

“At the tone, please record your message. When you are finished recording hang up or press one for more options.”

A beep proceeded afterwards.

Garion sighed and responded, “Hi mom... I’m just calling to let you know… you won’t be seeing me for a while… I don’t know how long. But…‘sigh’…if it happens that you never see me again, just know that…I’m happy now. Thank you so much for being such a great mom, I can’t tell you that enough. I also can’t tell you where I am right now, because you would never believe me. Just leave it at that.

“But don’t worry about me. I’m fine…I’m happy, truly happy. Just please give me a call back to let me know you got this message. Please. I love you.”

When he finished, he locked his phone, and set it on top of the book.

He then laid back onto his pillows, closed his eyes, and let the haunting cast of night take him away.