My Little Tactics

Chapter Thirty Six: Earth.

The next day couldn’t come quick enough for one Twilight Sparkle, or at least that is how it appeared to Dustan as she was practically bouncing all over the place. He had explained to the mare the truth that where he was from wasn’t Equestria at all, might not even be the same universe at all, and honestly for a moment he thought the mare would explode when she suddenly started to vibrate then word vomit came out. A stream of sounds that he supposed were words came out of her mouth before he got annoyed.

It was Pat who solved things when he suggested that Twilight make a list of questions she wanted to ask and handed her a ballpoint pen and some paper, only to find she couldn’t use her magic. That was easily explained away in that she was empty on magic at the moment and instead took the pen in her hoof and looked around asking for where the ink well was before being told the nature of the ball point pen. The look on her face was that of someone finding the holy grail as she held up the pen and tried it out using her hoof to hold it.

After that she was given one of the guest rooms for her own use while Dustan got his own room back for his use. Sleep came rather peacefully that night for him, tension that he didn’t know he had seemed to fade from him as the next morning came too early when a knocking on his door was heard as Twilight told him to get up as breakfast was being made. Grumbling as he came out the bright fresh eyed look on Twilight’s face said she had gotten sleep but it was not something he honestly thought looked normal on her.

“Are you always so chipper in the mornings like this?” The human grumbled as he took to the stairs followed by Twilight.

Shaking her head the mare simply spoke up with a happy go lucky voice. “Normally no, but I have so many questions I want to ask, everything from what all these things are to what the world is like out there.”

Pat was already hard at work in the kitchen as they came down. “Still having a hard time waking up in the mornings?”

“Fifty fifty honestly. Some days are easier, some aren’t. This was one that wasn’t, mostly because I was having some really good sleep.” Looking over to see what was being cooked, he found pancakes, bacon, eggs, a juicer making some OJ, and a box that held some muffins along with a pot of freshly brewed coffee. “Twilight doesn’t eat meat, so-”

“She told me already and she is fine with just the pancakes and an extra muffin along with her OJ and coffee.” Looking over to where Twilight was sitting, a mug of steaming coffee with a content look on her face, he could see she was rather content with things. “That is her third cup this morning.”

“It’s going to be a long day, I can already tell.” Dustan groaned out.

Breakfast was rather enjoyable, Twilight even complemented it though was looking excitably at the two. “Go ahead Twilight, start asking, we both know you want to.”

At Patrick’s go ahead Twilight picked up the notepad showing she was still having mana issues. “Ahem. After thinking for a good while and finally sorting out the important questions from the small ones and ones that were identical to others I would ask, this is my first question. Why didn’t you tell anypony you weren’t from Equestria?”

Resting his head in his hands as that was the question he knew was coming. “My first encounter with you all involved running, screaming, and calling me a monster.”

“Ahh ok, true. But after that when we all got to know you, why didn’t you say anything?” She asked taking a sip of her coffee and looking like a job interviewer at the moment.

Sipping his own OJ, as Dustan himself wasn’t a coffee drinker, he set it down before telling her the honest truth. “It wouldn’t have mattered.” Seeing her confused face he scratched his head. “Knowing I am an alien, extra-dimensional being, whatever wouldn’t have changed the fact that it was likely I was never going to be able to come home. Plus I didn’t want to risk that knowledge somehow coming to cause harm to myself or those around me. Saying I am from an unknown part of Equestria was also just…easier.”

Twilight took a moment to take some notes before nodding. “Alright, I can easily understand all that.” Moving to the next question on her list she smiled. “You said humans don’t really know magic, but use technology. Can you show me some examples, I mean I get that some of the things here are fantastic, but it’s nothing that Equestria doesn’t have.”

Looking to Pat who smiled with him they both got up and went into the living room. “Twilight, meet Television.”

Turning it on caused the unicorn to jump as the images on screen appeared causing her to look on in awe. “Twilight, that is just one show that was recorded an unknown amount of time ago, though we could easily find out, and is being broadcasted and re-broadcasted to every home with a television or TV for short. Every home in this country has a TV with very few exceptions.”

“Fascinating. It’s like a play but you captured it and show it to everypony.” She was writing this down quickly having to sit down to do so though and glancing back up to the show, a comedy it looked like. “So this is being shown to thousands of pon-um people at once?”

Patrick looked to his friend for a moment before looking towards the pony. “Um, how many ponies are there in Equestria Twilight?”

Twilight looked like she had to think for a moment before remembering. “If I remember right, Equestria has something like fifteen million ponies.”

Face-palming at this Patrick sighed and looked at her. “Twilight, the United States of America, the country we are in now, has over three hundred million in population.”

The pen dropped from her hoof as her jaw went slack. “Th-three hundred million? So there are that many people who have the ability to see this if they choose to.” To his nod Twilight shakily picked up the pen to continue writing. “This must be the largest country in your world.”

Dustan was about to stop Pat but he was too late. “No. That would be China.”

“O-oh, and how big is China?” Twilight asked gulping as if afraid to hear the answer. “It can’t be that much larger right?”

“One moment and I can find out.” Pulling out his phone Twilight grew curious as he typed up the information he wanted to search for. “China has a population of one point four two billion.”

Twilight shakily put a hoof to her forehead. “If, if that is the largest country then how-”

Pat must have anticipated her question as he had already pulled up the information he wanted. “The world: Earth, currently has seven point seven billion people living in it.”

It was clear that the pony wanted to write that down but her hoof was shaking too bad. “Equis doesn’t even come close to that many beings. We don’t even know how many beings there are on our world!” She went to her notes and started to look through them, clearly that answer has reshaped the order of her questions. “Um, let’s see. You once said you don’t have any other species around your home, since I know that it’s a different world, is that still true.”

Nodding Dustan sat down nearby on the couch. “Yeah, humans are the only intelligent life on the planet. Well intelligent in that we can converse like this.”

“Ok, how long have humans existed?” The next question required some thought and much searching on the internet.

Pat eventually found an answer. “It’s believed we, as we currently are as a species, have existed for about three or two hundred thousand years or so. It is a bit hard to say exactly as much of our recorded history has only happened in the last few thousand years or so.”

“That is incredible. Pony history hasn’t been as well kept because of Discord. So the earliest bits of history come roughly a thousand years ago, most of anything older is either hard to read, illegible, or is so fragmented it can’t be stated with absolute certainty where in history is was recorded at.” Seems she has gotten over her shock of the population of the world and was back to being her chipper self. “May I ask what it is that you are using?”

She pointed her hoof to Patrick’s phone as he smiled. “Oh this is a Cellular Phone, a Cell phone or Cell for short. It is a human communication device that lets us talk to one another over distance.”

“What kind of distance? Like a telepathy spell or a message spell?” Twilight was in her element, learning all she could and enjoying every second.

It was adorable how eager she was that Dustan chuckled as he answered instead. “It’s more like Spike’s flame, how it can transport mail over long distance but ours is electronic and basically instant.”

“How instant are we talking about?” The unicorn asked as she was writing down notes once more. “Days, hours?”

“Milliseconds.” Pat told her. “I can talk to someone across the world right now provided they have coverage in that area to receive transmissions. What is more I can access the internet via my phone.”

“M-milliseconds!” The mare looked ready to swoon at how fast that was before it seemed a thought brought her back. “What is the internet?”

A few moments later Dustan was tucking Twilight into bed as she had fainted learning that basically all human information was nearly readily available at most fingertips. Coming back down to the living area Dustan was chuckling as he looked to Pat and asked him a simple question, one that he had to know.

“Did you plan that?” His friends knowing grin said it all. “That is cruel you know, telling her that. The idea of the internet is basically her idea of paradise.”

“I know and I had to tell her.” Sitting down and laughing with his friend Dustan looked to him with a question on his face. “Go ahead ask, I have nothing to hide.”

“You really have watched the series huh?” Obviously his friend had as he smiled and gave a nod. “How far?”

“I have finished it.” The designer told him as he relaxed.

“Oh so you are up to the current season?” Dustan smiled, happy to be able to share this with his friend only for Patrick to look at him a bit unsure.

Rubbing his arm for a moment and looking around it was clear Pat didn’t know how to say things. “Oh right, you don’t know.”

“Don’t know what?” The Ninja asked his friend.

Looking unsure of himself the blond man just came out and said it. “My Little Pony ended with season nine.”

Blinking for a moment there was only one thing to say. “Oh.”

Twilight was excited, they were going to get in this carriage they called a car and show her around the town. The windows were tinted enough that none would see her and as such it would allow her to see a bit into human culture that wasn’t just her asking questions or her watching TV now that she had recovered from her fainting spell. Speaking of spells she still couldn’t cast any, though she could feel her internal well of magic returning she just couldn’t seem to do anything.

Shaking her head of those thoughts she instead got into the seat and asked the one she now knows is named Patrick, or Pat as Dustan calls him, as he was the one who was driving. “So this is a gasoline fueled machine that propels itself forward using controlled explosions with said explosions moving pistons and acting almost like a steam engine in some aspects?”

“Pretty much more or less.” Her driver answered as she sat in the back of the car. “Please buckle up, rather not have an accident end your visit to this world by mistake.”

“Are these Car’s dangerous?” Twilight asked a bit hesitant now.

Luckily Dustan had the answer. “They can be. It’s kind of like magic, people can use them for good but if misused or used carelessly they can harm others.”

“Ok.” She told him while getting her notepad ready and the lovely invention of humans that was the pen.

Driving around provided so much information about humans, she saw that in many aspects they were just like ponies, they had marketplaces called grocery stores, pharmacies, various food establishments, places to work, places to buy specific items, and more. What set them apart were methods and what exactly was being sold or used. Fundamentally she understood that Dustan was an omnivore and indeed saw him eating meat on occasions, but hearing about all the kinds of meats when she asked that question was a bit…disturbing. She understood that there was no intelligent life on this world, not even most animals were all that intelligent compared to the Equestrian counterparts but learning that the foods they had came from various sources like cows, disturbed her. Cows on her world were sweet creatures, a bit scatterbrained and more prone to running off when spooked then ponies sure, but the long established treaty of bovine and equine have long kept them protected in exchange for their milk.

Speaking of food, Twilight eventually asked where all the food comes from only for her to hear about large farming areas dedicated to the practice but since this was a more population dense area it was more for living rather than dedicated to growing and as such other types of jobs were focused on here. She had then asked what it was that Patrick and Dustan did, well what Dustan had done before he arrived in Equis. Patrick explained that now he only worked as a hobby but he designed various graphics for companies, anything from logos to background designs for all kinds of products. Dustan was more of an oddball in that he did various jobs but no set profession as he had done everything from heavy labor to food service. Honestly hearing how humans had no Cutie Marks to guide them and seeing it action was fascinating as they did whatever in search of what made them happy or helped them live to how they wished and also a bit sad to those that couldn’t do either.

The next set of questions came via the asking of human’s medical situation and the answers she got were…mind boggling to say the least. Chemicals, radiation, gene manipulation, so far above Equestrian technology that she honestly couldn’t follow some of it but from the sound of things they got a good number of reactions similar to magic with how advanced they were. She pointed that to them at one point and Dustan had laughed and told her a quote from someone but he couldn’t remember who.

“’Any technology advanced enough will appear as magic to those not as advanced.’ Or something like that.” He explained and it was true.

Then she spotted something that set her mind ablaze, something hovering in the air sporting a disk atop of it and a metal tail with a cabin inside it for humans only to be told that was a helicopter. A type of flying machine that generated lift via the rotating blades atop of it and kept stable via another set of blades in the fin. The fact that humans would be able to make something that could not only spin that fast to look as a semi-solid disk but also to fly it was amazing. Then they told her of planes and her vision started to swim causing her to have to take deep breaths when prompted by Dustan this time to make it stop.

When they had come back to Patrick’s home for lunch Twilight’s mind couldn’t stop running. ‘No wonder I was told that Dustan was smarter then he looked when the princess told me he solved a Minotaur problem. At the time he said all his people had that kind of knowledge and honestly the princesses thought it was him being humble. If nothing else we have no clue what kind of information Dustan himself holds, let alone his people. Our technology isn’t sufficient enough to even try to tap into it let alone for him to apply it at times.’

Thoughts aside, she had a wonderful lunch and then the real treat began. Patrick hooked up a device he called a laptop to the television saying it would act as a bigger display for what was to come, and then she was allowed to look up information on the famed internet. So many questions, the average run speed of a human, the average level of education, math problems, science, anything that popped into her mind she asked Patrick to work his technological magic to ask this information database. It felt like she had just got started when he had stopped and told her it was time to get dinner prepared.

“What, but, we just got started!” The mage from another world whined.

“Yeah, several hours ago Twilight.” Dustan told her looking amused at her if she guessed the look on his face right.

Looking up to the time via a clock on the wall she could indeed see that it as they said and time for dinner. Blushing as she realized this she sheepishly offered to help to which none of them accepted saying that she was the guest and didn’t need to help. She accepted this but felt like it was just like when she offered to help Spike and he said it was fine. Instead she went back to her room to try experimenting with her magic as by this point her reserves were basically back to normal. It took until dinner was ready that she realized why it was she couldn’t use magic and rushed down to tell them.

“EARTH DOESN’T HAVE MAGIC!” She exclaimed to them only for them to look back to each other.

Then as they looked back to her Dustan simply said. “Yeah, I told you didn’t I?”

Looking at Twilight as she exclaimed that and as he reminded her that humans didn’t really use magic he smiled. “I am an exception remember, we have some legends and things, or more accurately books marked fiction, games, stories, and more so legends might not be entirely accurate.”

Breathing heavily for a moment the pony shook her head before lighting up her horn. “No you don’t understand, well let me rephrase this.” She calmed down and looked to a fork on the table. “Earth has magic but it’s such a weak harmonic field that it’s basically nonexistent.” Her magic started to slowly form around the fork as it then started to lift up. “I have to exert a lot more force in order for this to work. Umm let me find a comparison. Rainbow Dash likes to wear weights when she is doing stamina training; this is like wearing magical weights with how it feels. Magic can still be done but I need more force to do so.”

Blinking for a moment as he saw that then lifted up a hand and generated a flame she looked at him as if in disbelief. “I am not really having much of an issue.”

Dustan swore he could see the gears in her head turning before the metaphorical light bulb turned on. “OH, that is because you use neutral type magic.” Lifting up her notepad in her magic now and the pen she started to draw. “Your magic comes internally remember, so you aren’t reliant on outside forces like Harmonic and Chaotic magic is.”

“Yeah, I remember, it makes Neutral magic the weakest as everything has to come from…ahh.” The human understood though it looks like Pat was lost. Looking over to him he chuckled. “I use neutral magic, I generate all of the magic. Twilight uses Harmonic magic, meaning she combines her magic with the magic in the air. Part her and part the world.” That seemed to make things click within his mind as he then gave a nod.

“This makes so much more sense, why the music of harmony doesn’t affect you, why you are naturally adept at Neutral magic, why your species leans towards technology.” She smiled and was writing rapidly. “Because no magical forces were exerting themselves against you, you either had to develop magic yourself which would be incredibly hard or use tools to advance your way. Like most things your species took the path of least resistance and went the route of technology. Because of this your bodies more and more evolved for higher brain functions rather than to be attuned to magic, which is why the music of harmony can’t grip you as you have a higher magical resistance then those of Equis.”

Looking at her as he ran a hand through his hair he gave her a smile. “I had always wondered about that last one. Figured it was related to me not being from Equis which is right, I just couldn’t figure out any more than that.”

“Yeah, exactly.” She then pointed to him with her hoof and smiled. “It also explains your increased abilities beyond what a human can do. Because you are developing your magic, your body is more energized with your mana allowing you to go even higher then what should be possible just physically, it also explains the time at Vinyl’s concert when she connected you to the music of harmony that time and why it hit you so hard.”

Wincing at that, it still hurt him to remember that. “Yeah, it was like once it was allowed in, it rushed in and just filled up everything. I couldn’t escape it, I was forced to sing and relive memories I didn’t wish to be brought back up.”

Patrick had been silent while they had magically nerded out but now it seemed like he couldn’t hold back his own curiosity. “Oh, what did you sing and what memories?”

Gulping a bit past the lump in his throat Dustan looked down at his plate of food, Tacos one of his favorites. “’Suteki Da Ne’ and the memories were of Sarah.”

Instantly two arms wrapped around him and gave him a hug. “Dude, I am so sorry.”

Hearing his best friend, being home, those memories all coming back, it was too much for him and he couldn’t help but let out his tears and pain once more in a howl of emotional pain.

“He is resting now.” Patrick told her as she looked on in worry as she was washing up the plates from dinner while she let Dustan’s friend take care of him.

Looking over to him as she set down another plate from her magic she couldn’t help but ask. “Why did he react like that?”

The blond human was about to sit down at the table but instead went to the coffee maker and started up a new batch. “We are going to need this as it’s a long story. Let’s start with some base work before we get to Sarah though.” She could tell this was going to be a very serious talk so she took up a seat and looked at him. “Dustan’s self esteem isn’t the greatest. He views basically anyone around him as more valuable then himself. More wanted, and more needed then what he is which isn’t true but he believes it. I won’t lie; I didn’t help him with that growing up as I was his bully for so long. Dustan is a selfless soul regardless of what his self esteem is like though. He will fight for others with a strength that I can only describe as heroic. I was the strongest person in our middle school, because of that strength and other issues that I rather not share as I don’t know you that well, let’s just say I acted out and enforced my will on others. He saw that one day and tackled me to the ground and he was stronger than me.” Chuckling some the blond smiled at the memory. “Not just by a little bit either; I couldn’t move at all and couldn’t do anything till Dustan himself allowed me to.”

Twilight herself could vouch for that type of strength for sure. She had watched him work with others, do work himself that he didn’t have to, heard about what he had done in Manehatten as well as other deeds. ‘Discord himself even commented on his heroic nature.’

“Truth is, he is a great guy that should be the one to have anything he wants not me. You needed someone to help you, Dustan was there, needed someone to help move or watch your home for a day or so, he did it. Didn’t even ask for compensation most of the time.” Laughing suddenly as the pot of coffee was ready and he poured two mugs of it. “That isn’t to say he is perfect, I am sure you have noticed when he is irritated that he has quite the foul mouth on him.”

She winced at that one, though she had not experienced it too often she did see it pop up. “Yeah, I have heard a few accounts of that.”

“The issues got worse with Sarah, though again let me emphasis this.” Taking a sip before he continued Pat added a bit of cream to his coffee as well as a tiny bit of sugar. “Because his self esteem is what it is, he doesn’t think people can show him any kind of affection, mostly because he doesn’t think he does anything that would make others take notice or of value to make them want to give him affection. So when people do so it stumps and mystifies him or he completely misses it and misinterprets it as something else. Sarah basically had to hit him over the head with it.” Then she witnessed the human blanch visibly as if struck. “Fuck, poor choice of words.”

“So Dustan had a special somepony, I mean somehuman before?” This was news to Twilight for sure.

Nodding and reaching into his pants the human pulled out a folded piece of leather, which did make Twilight’s skin creep a bit but inside were pictures. “Here.”

Inside was a picture of the three of them sitting around a table with pizza on it each smiling. Dustan was clearly there though younger looking, as was Patrick. Next to Dustan leaning on him though was a shorter looking female with blond hair that was of a different color then Patrick’s own sandy blond so much so that it looked as if her hair was made of strands of thin gold woven into strands of hair instead.

“You look so happy here.” She commented wondering why Dustan had the reaction he did.

“We were.” Pat pulled the picture back and smiled. “Dustan and Sarah were dating, they were on their way to being married for sure as they both just fit together. They eventually moved in and were happy. Then robbers came to their home, tied him up and gave Sarah an injury that led to some brain damage. It changed her personality, she went from a sweet confident girl, to a confident bitch of a woman who would rather tear someone down then give them kind words. Dustan always blamed himself for it, he had spent every dime he had and worked more jobs than ever to pay for her treatments. She never thanked him, she never paid him back, she never acknowledged his efforts at all. Instead, she berated him, belittled, tore him down emotionally, and then when she was done with him, kicked him out to the streets. He had been living on them for who knows how long when Sarah called me saying she needed more room in her home and to come get his ‘junk’ that he had left behind. I didn’t even know he wasn’t living with her at the time, she basically bragged to me over the phone how she saw him living in an alleyway on Third Street.”

The mare couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but at the same time it made so much sense now, things were falling together in so many ways. Twilight had seen so many mares giving him signals but he ignored them, she always understood intellectually that no doubt he might not see them as signals given the body type difference. Now though, she knew even if he did see them he wouldn’t think they were for him or would think them as something else. It all came back to this and now she couldn’t help but see each of those smiles and kind words, confusion and other emotions play out in predicted ways whenever a situation like that arose.

“I quickly went out and found him, he looked.” Pat choked up at that. “I have never seen him look that bad, there was no hope in his eyes, no love, nothing but pain and self loathing. His eyes were empty as if he couldn’t see the world or bear to be a part of it.” The blond man was holding one of his forearms with the other as it was shaking now. “He had a razor in his hand looking at it and I knew instantly what he was planning to do with it. If I had come even minutes later.” He never finished that thought but the Canterlot born mare easy knew what he meant. Bringing his hands to his head to hold it up she could see tears in his eyes. “We were family, forged of friendship, them of love. If Sarah saw who she would become, she would either beat the ever living shit out of that Sarah, or she would take her own life so someone like her wouldn’t become that person. Especially on seeing how she treated Dustan. I am betting the former though.” He chuckled at that and closed his eyes.

After the ending to the tale though it was clear that the emotional drain had tried out the host of the home and so they called it a night.

“So why are you taking grass samples again from the backyard?” Pat asked the formerly fictional mare as he looked at her placing it in a weird box then writing down something off the front display.

“Well it turns out the place we came out to was an alleyway seeing as Dustan was born there.” Twilight told him as she continued to write down things.

“Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that.” The designer mused as he remembered. Dustan’s mom had thought it was a false labor and had gone on a walk, only for it to be real and ended up giving birth in the alleyway before the ambulance had found her when someone finally called. “I had almost forgotten about ‘Alleyway Dust’.”

Seems Dustan had chosen that moment to come outside as he groaned at hearing that. “Please don’t bring up that nickname again. Took me years to grow away from it.”

“Dude, your parents named you after someone from one hundred b.c. who was supposedly a brave warrior who got tried for treason and then sentenced to death. Would you rather me call you something like ‘dust in the wind’ or something?” The grin on his face must have been infectious as his friend was likewise grinning.

“Sorry to answer your earlier question.” Twilight interrupted. “I am getting coordinates for here instead of the alleyway that way with proper tuning and more it’s possible that transport between dimensions is a bit more stable for us. Which if I am judging things right, is the reason for the fourth set of numbers. There is X, Y, and Z normally, which I understood. The fourth I never did until we came here, which means it stands for D, Dimension.”

For a moment there what she said went over his head, but not for the reasons of simple coordinates, instead it was what she said at the start. “Wait, us?” Looking over to Dustan he simply asked. “Aren’t you staying here?”

All heads now looked towards the displaced human as his brows were furred. “I…am not sure.”

Twilight bounced up at that and looked at him “What do you mean? I mean I can understand that this is your world, but what about everypony back at Luminary Castle?”

“What about your mom and dad here? You called them this morning and they are coming over tonight for a dinner together.” Pat looked at Twilight and told her. “We will get to introducing you during that, sorry you can’t come out to greet them.”

“No problem.” She told him before looking back to him. “But still, what are you going to do.”

Closing his eyes Dustan told them. “Twilight, how long would it take you to make the teleporter manageable for casual use between our worlds?”

“Well if I focus on it, weeks, but I can’t devote that much attention to it. Instead it will likely take months on end, maybe a year. However I do have some revisions to do when we get back, so we can still visit just expect it to be when we have for sure down time as the drain on my mana was just so…oh no.” Twilight who was smiling before now was looking on in horror. “We can’t go back.”

All eyes were now on her. “What do you mean you can’t go back?” The designer asked now as she looked horrified still.

“I am a Harmonic mage, I amplify my power through harmony magic. If I was completely drained coming from Equestria, full of magic-” The mage’s thought was finished for her by an equally horrified looking Dustan.

“Then with Earth’s weaker field, you don’t have enough power to get us back!” She weakly nodded before her legs gave out from under her. Coming up to hug her, Dustan wrapped his arms around her. “Twilight, we will think of something. I know we will. For now just focus on the things you can do.”

Nodding and slowly getting up. “Y-yeah. Just…I think I need some time alone to think and make sure my formulas are right.”

With that she trotted off to the guest room with Dustan about to stop her but Pat stopped him by putting his hand on his shoulder. “Let her go, she needs time to get her thoughts together. Instead, I want to talk to you about a few things. Mostly I want to tell you about what I have been up to. I have been thinking about what you have gone through and there is something I should tell you.”

Dustan looked at his friend and Pat’s serious face must have worked on him as he gave a nod and came inside. “Ok, what has been up? Must be pretty serious to give me that look.” The displaced human remarked as he took a seat in front of the TV with his friend sitting to the side.

Grabbing some water as this would be a bit of a tale Patrick looked down at his hands as he came back. “I was…devastated after you vanished. I count you as my brother and in some ways my moral compass as well. When you vanished, I woke up with a hangover, not even aware you were gone. Those that I had been partying with at the time were all bitching and complaining so at the time I didn’t know you were gone. The next night I went out to drink with them again and realized I had not seen you during that time, figuring I must have missed you or something or you slipped in and out when I was out of it. The next day the same thing, though by this point the con was wrapping up and I was getting worried.”

“Hey man you couldn’t have-” Dustan didn’t get to finish as Pat slammed his hand on the table.

“WRONG!” Pat must have startled himself as he sighed and rubbed at his hand. “Wrong. I had been getting shit faced and didn’t bother to notice. If I had been sober I would have noticed, but I kept chalking it up to the booze and after effects thinking it was normal. The last day of the con I had people searching for you, intercom being called, everything. When it was over and you still had not come back, I called the cops.”

“They wouldn’t have found anything, you know that.” Though he was trying to be comforting it didn’t work.

Instead Pat gritted his teeth for a moment. “At the time I had no clue, so when nothing came up, they told me if I had called sooner that it might have helped as the first twenty four hours are the most critical. Three days, I had missed that mark by so much that all they could do is chalk you up and write you up as missing persons report and that was all. Your parents were destroyed but didn’t blame me. I wanted them to though. Sarah heard about it and didn’t seem to care about it at all and said she had not heard from you. I didn’t take it well. For about three months I stopped working, started drinking more and more to forget, but that just reminded me that drinking got me that way in the first place. I had met a girl during that time at the bars and while I hate her now, I am also thankful to her. She was a gold-digger using my savings and investments I had up to that point to help fuel both of our addictions.”

“Pat, I…I’m sorry.” While the designer did smile at his friends words he sighed at the same time.

Shaking his head he leaned back in the chair. “Not your fault man. It’s my own. When I noticed that she was starting to get into more addictive substances and using my money to fuel it, I kicked her ass out. Her parting words were ‘What the hell?! I thought you were just like me!’ and for the first time in a while I realize I was a step away from being her. I went stone cold after that and it sucked. Went to meetings, stopped going to them because they wanted me to accept that I had a disease and needed a higher power to overcome it. I get that sort of thing can help others, but I didn’t want to go that route. I accepted instead that I had a problem, one that might have lead to my brother vanishing and likely dying. That isn’t to say I didn’t go on a spiritual journey though, went through trying to find myself with various religions for a few months till I got with this one girl who was a spiritual healer.”

That honestly surprised Dustan or at least it seemed to seeing as his mouth was open and his eyes were wide. “You are religious now?”

“Pfft fuck no, annnnnd yes.” Pat said chuckling lightly. “I will explain that latter part later. It was during this time I had given up. Jenny, the girl I was with at the time, knew I had been having nightmares and had been trying to solve them for a while. Around this point you had been missing for just over a year, maybe by a month. She got me this dream catcher that she said she got from a guy who gave off some ‘weird vibes’ and said it would help my mind settle.”

Shivering a bit the cloak wearing human just leaned back and looked up. “I don’t think I will be buying much if anything from anyone giving off weird vibes. I already learned the hard way what can come of that.”

“No kidding.” That got his friend’s attention now as Pat smiled. “Seems she wasn’t lying, though I thought it was just a coincidence for a while. You see the first and only night I hung that thing up, I found myself in a dream where I was watching you but unable to move or speak. You had on a more detailed version of your cosplay outfit as well as a pack, two swords at your right hip, and an axe through a loop on your left. Did I mention you were fighting against first a zombie summoner, Sans from Undertale, and then Demyx from Organization XIII?”

That caused a fluttering of a cloak as Dustan stood straight up. “Wait, you said you dreamed that?!”

Smiling and nodding. “Yeah.” Sipping from the glass of water the sandy blond waved him down. “The summoner fucked you up and I screamed, or I tried to but my throat made no noise. Then this Lunchables reject that I later found out is named Discord heals you. Anyways after the third fight with you struggling, more and more I felt some kind of energy fill me. Whereas before I couldn’t move, I now found my feet going forward step by step as I realize I am in my old cosplay costume of Kamina from the con we went to together. Each step I took drained some of the energy so I knew my time was running out, or at least the time in what I thought was a dream. So I decided that if this is a dream I am going to be that hype man that gives the hero his motivational speech to make him kick ass. So I gave you a Dragon Ball Z Abridged quote.”

His brother by friendship’s eyes had been going wider and wider that whole time. “So that means-”

“Yeah, that seems to have been real for both of us.” Sighing and chuckling. “I managed to watch you beat his ass before waking up. After hearing your story I realized the same thing you just did though. Kinda wished I kept that dream catcher now as when I woke up I started to cry and Jenny trashed it. She was a good girl and I miss her, but our views didn’t line up. We are still friends but she moved off across the world with someone. She gave me one final gift though.”

“What was that?” Tilting his head as he asked, Pat couldn’t help but find it slightly hilarious that his friend had a similar tick to anime characters in that regards.

Chuckling a bit and grinning the designer merely said. “She wished me the best of luck but said I should make my own luck. Believe if my friend is alive that I should do so with all my heart. If I believe good fortune is on my way, I should do so. Then gave me a lottery ticket.”

“Wait, you don’t mean?” Dustan said as he started to laugh at that.

“Yeah, two days later I became a multi-millionaire.” Pat laughed with him.

Author's Notes:

Sometimes its not about telling the same story over again, but telling it from a different point of view. I hope Pat's point of view helped fill in some blank spots a lot of you had. I hoped Nerdy inquisitive Twilight filled your hearts with the emotions that causes one to squee, and I hope you are all enjoying the Earth Mini-arc. It won't last much longer mind you, one more chapter in fact. Tune in next chapter to see the conclusion and I hope you all enjoy.