Chapter One: Another dream

The bright sun that shone through the large window in my room illuminating the once dark space. It slowly crept up my soft bed and silky covers to awake me from my slumber, urging me to wake and begin the day. As it it rose higher into the sky it shone down into my room with more intensity trying desperately now to disturb my sleep, but to no avail.

For my mind was else where.

~~~~~

"GOOOOOOD MORNING C-*Static*! AND WELCOME TO!-" Wham! Crack!

The voice was abruptly cut off as I slammed my clenched hand against the old alarm clock. I heard the sound of brittle plastic cracking underneath my hands. I rolled over onto my side to take a good look at the cheap plastic clock. It had a slight crack on top of it which only seemed to widen with every blow it took from me every morning.

"Ugh... What time is it..." I said with a less than enthusiastic voice. I didn't even bother opening my eyes. The clock just responded by turning the radio on once more.

"We have some great tunes for you to listen to toda-" I slammed my fist onto the alarm clock again making sure to put in some extra force to silence the clock. Throughout the countless days I have woken up to the sound of the same DJ the little clock still remained functional even though any other clock may have been smashed into dust by my daily beating. That's why I stuck with this cheap thing. I have had it for a long time now and it hasn't done me wrong yet.

"Besides wake me up half an hour early everyday..."

I rolled out of my bed and onto the cold wood floor beneath me. Reluctantly I shuffled over to the bathroom door and began my morning rituals. I picked up a small plastic tooth brush and squeezed a pea sized amount of tooth paste from the aluminum tube onto my brush and methodically brushed my teeth. I rinsed my mouth after wards and stripped myself as I stepped into the shower. I pulled the hot water handle back all the way and waited for water to reach the shower head. But as usual the water didn't come even after a full minute.

"Ah great..." I said to myself. Neighbors must be using all the hot water again. I swear if I have to wait another minute for the water to come I am going to shoot myself in the foot. As if my neighbors were spying on me steaming hot water came bursting out of the shower head all at once and onto my face giving me a minor burn.

"HOLY...!"

I jumped back to avoid the scolding hot water and carefully reached around it trying to pull the cold water handle back just a bit. But I couldn't reach it. As tall as I was the water was coming out of the shower head too fast and too far for me to reach it without sustaining some burn.

"We are going to have to do this the hard way aren't we..." I said to myself. I quickly reached through the boiling water and grabbed the handle an pulled it back. I felt the burn of the water for a bit, but it eventually died down to a warm survivable temperature.

I took a good long shower like did every morning. The water was just so peaceful and comforting. Here I could think about the day ahead of me and not worry about a thing until I stepped out.

My life was not the best you see. I lived in a small one room apartment in the heart of the big city. In the morning I could always hear the sounds of everyday life going on outside. Here the city never slept, it was always busy, things were always happening.

My job sucked... I hated it so much. Even though I had been working at one of the more famous places in the city and I had a bunch of friends over there the job was just dull. But I had to pay the bill somehow. Life as a waiter was not bad, in fact I met a bunch of interesting people in my time as a waiter. I also learned how to keep up a conversation and how speak to people without babbling or rambling. But it always sucked when you got those neighborhood teens who though they were a divine gift from heaven.

My thoughts were stopped short as I heard a knocking coming from my front door.

"Hey! finish up already! We all need to shower you know!"

I just signed deeply and politely acknowledged the request by turning off the water in the shower. This must of satisfied the guy since I could hear him stomp down the hallway and slam his door shut.

"Geez, what got his tidies up in a bunch?"

The rest of my morning was uneventful. Same old same old. Put in contacts, get dressed, eat cereal, head out to work. Well actually school was the first thing on my list but I needed to stop by my place of work to tell the manager that I would be off again this month. As I stepped out onto the streets I let the cool breeze blow past me. I always enjoyed that feeling in the Windy City. Many of its residents complained about the cold but I for one actually enjoyed the breeze from the lake. With a plain old hoodie on with a backpack and pair of tattered jeans on I headed off down the street and towards my destination.

I enjoyed learning. In fact I loved learning. With every question I solved, a whole bunch of new questions came to take its place. I would just keep on finding answers to discover new question. It was a big world out there and I had already learned so much in my education so naturally I had many questions that I wanted answers to. Most I knew I couldn't solve even with all the geniuses in the world crammed into my head, but I had already accepted the challenge so I couldn't turn back even if I wanted to.

My work place was on the way to my school so I popped in to say hi to the boss before I headed off. I walked up to my place of work and walked in through the front door. There were students here already probably getting a quick bite to eat before heading of too.

"Hey dood?! What to you so long? You're late!"

I turned to face the familiar voice and spoke.

"Hey Isaac, what's happening my man?" I said as I greeted my friend with a complicated series of handshakes and fist bumps.

"Nothin' much dood, Francescas's doesn' get much costumers at this time." He said pointing to the two tables full at the moment. "Hey dood, Its a Monday. Sholdn' you be off to school dood?" Isaac said as he lifted a brow.

"That's what I came here for Isaac. Where is the boss? I need to tell-" Suddenly the back door swung open letting the cool air roll into the restaurant. A young woman stepped out and walked towards us, her sleek jet black hair gracefully swaying as she made her way over to us.

"Hey Aaron!" She said to me smiling. She looked over to Isaac and let out a sarcastic sigh. "Hey there Sticks." She said as she punched Isaac on the shoulder. It was barely even a punch to begin with but Isaac put his hand up to his shoulder and began to rub the spot where she had punched him.

"Dood! You punch way to hard! I could feel that one hit my bones girl!" He said with a light laugh.

I snickered a bit.

"Isaac, that's because you are just skin and bones. Look at yourself!"

He glared at me for a bit before speaking to me with a little venom in his words.

"Hey dood! Lay off! I don't make much here, I ain't as healthy as you with all your veg'tables and whatever!" Isaac said flailing his arms around his head.

"Now boys. Let's not get worked up about this okay? I just want to finish this shift and get back home where it nice an quiet."

Both Isaac and I rolled our eyes and agreed that that was what we wanted to do.

"Yeah I guess." Isaac said. "Although mister gudytewshooz over here would rather go to school than hang with us at Francesca's."

I just looked over to my friend as she began to speak.

"Aw come on Aaron! You doing another lecture? Why can't you stay with us longer?"

I blinked in surprise.

"How did you know?"

"I attended yours last week remember?" She said,

"Yeah! That was the week we got swamped with all the tourists dood! I like almost passed out runnin' around like I was high on somethin' fierce!" Isaac said again crossing his arms over his chest.

"Oh yeah." I just said flatly. I vaguely remembered my last student lecture. It had been on advanced story structure, character development and world building. Dam thing took me an entire hour and I was shaking so violently up on stage that I might of caused the dias I was on to collapse on itself. In the crowd of writers that sat and listened I remembered seeing her eyes staring at me as she listened to every word I said. She was eyeing every movement I made, analyzing it carefully to pick out every piece of information she possibly could.  I came back as Isaac snapped his thin fingers in front of my face.

"Dood! Focus! You gonna be late to work again or somethin'?"

I bit my lip. This would be the 7th time this month. The boss would kill me. More importantly... Katherine would-

"Aww Aaron! You said that would be the last time if I went to listen to your lecture! Please stay here with me- erm, us?" Katherine said as she stuck out her lower lip and eyed me with her deep brown eyes.

"Shiz dood! Katherine is going to doze right through that num skull of yours!" Isaac said pointing at Katherine's face. "You have no chance of resisting the stare dood!"

"Please Aaron?" She said once more as she eyed me and stuck out her lip even more. For Christ's sake, she knew I couldn't take two seconds of that before caving in. I turned away from her gaze. I had some really important things to do today.

"No! I mean, no... I have some important things I have to do today. Finals are in a few weeks and I need to really step up my game if I want graduate top of my class again."

Seeing that her attacks to my heart were useless she quickly changed her expression to one of sadness and slowly waked away. Seeing this Isaac just walked up to me and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Don't fall for it dood.She really digs you dood. You're so lucky." He said with a snicker. Just then I saw a small flash in the corner of my vision. The next moment a silver spoon came out and hit Isaac square in the back of the head.

This caught him by surprise as he almost tripped over the chair in front of him. Isaac put his hand up to the back of his head and rubbed trying to ease the pain. He looked behind him and laughed weakly.

I slowly peered over Isaac's shoulder to see Katherine standing there just smiling innocently at us. When she saw me she turned around and slipped through the kitchen doors.

"Holy shiz dood. Looks like someone doesn't like me talking about her feelings..!- AHCK! What the hell Katherine!?"

This time it was a fork.

~~~~~

I shakily stuck my keys into the deadbolt and feebly turned it. It was a little frigidity, but eventually the deadbolt slid open with a dull thud.

This must of been the most exhausting days in my schooling so far. My mind was winding down as I had just given another couple of student lectures. I didn't know if it was an honor since my professors must have a lot of faith in me, or maybe they were lazy bums who didn't have to break a sweat by making me do almost all of the lectures. Most of my classmates hated me. I was the top of my class as usual. I think it might of been my attitude while teaching. This was like the 8th time this month and I wasn't as enthusiastic as I was before on my first lecture...

I threw my heavy messenger bag in the corner of my room narrowly missing my room lamp. I wasn't even hungry at this point. I was just tired. I walked over to my bed and without even giving it a second thought I kicked off my shoes and plopped down into my bed. I pulled the covers over myself and slowly dozed of...

~~~~~

"Hey! Hey! Wake up sleepy head!"

I slowly rolled over and faced the voice. I opened my eyes to the blinding light coming from my window. I blocked the sun out with my arm and looked at my new company. Opening my eyes I saw a small light brown pegasus smiling at me.

"Yeah your awake! Mom needs you down stairs! We let you sleep all day because you looked a lot tired! But now that your awake you look all gooder again!"

I patted the little colt on the top of the head and sat up on my soft bed.

"Alright Rustic. I'll be down in a second." I said smiling at the colt. "And you know 'gooder' isn't a word Silver."

With that Rustic Silver smiled at me and ran down the hallway and down the steps. Gradually I pulled myself up and out of my bed. I stepped out onto my carpet floor and stretched out my wings and looked out my window. The sun was already high in the skies over Canterlot. Ponies of all colors and sizes were already bustling around on the streets below.

Slowly I made my way from my windows to my desk on the other side of the room and picked up my glasses with a hoof and placed them on my face. I looked at myself in the mirror. My other self.

"These things are really nice." I said while adjusting my glasses. "To bad I can't afford them to be made of pure silver like these."

With that I slowly walked out of my room and down the hallway. I looked around the main room of my house. Being in one of the more renowned families in Canterlot of house was naturally adorned with many expensive things. Many of which were broken be a certain filly and colt.

"Speaking of which where are they?" I said to myself. I was uninterrupted by a squeaky voice coming from my door.

"Hey there AJ!" Said a young filly.

I turned around to see a little brown pegasus with a silver mane and pink highlights walk into my room and take a look around.

"Hey there Hope, what are you doing up here?" I said.

The filly just smiled at me and handed me a finely drawn picture of five pegasi flying over the castles of Canterlot. Even though my little sister may have been only eight she was an amazing artist. I bet she takes after my mother who was one of the main artisans of the two princesses. I had no doubt that her cutie mark would be art related.

"Wow Hope! This looks really nice! I bet I know who each of these ponies are." I pointed a hoof to two of the larger pegasi in the picture. There were one on each side of a group of three smaller pegasi.

"Those must be Mom and Dad."

"Yep!"

I pointed two the two smaller pegasi next to them.

"That must be Rustic and you."

"Yeah!"

But when I looked at the pegasus in the middle he had his wings stretched out to amazing lengths. So much so that they were encompassing the entire family.

"And that's-"

"That's you AJ!" Hope said as she cut me off in the middle of my sentence. "Do you like it?"

I laughed a bit at her enthusiasm and spoke to her.

"Come on Hope. I told you to stop calling me that."

"Well aren't you named after Daddy?"

"Yes."

"And isn't his name Athanix?"

"Well yes, but-"

"That makes you Athanix junior!"

"Yeah Hope, but..-"

"AJ is much easier to say then Atha-a-a-a.." The little brown pegasus was stumbling with her words again.

I signed a bit and patted my little sister on the head.

"Athanix. Ah-tha-niks." I said slowly making sure to sound out each syllable carefully.

"AJ!" She said with a big smile on her face. They were just so stubborn sometimes. I do wonder how my parents put with this. I never got to do anything fun when it was just me. I pouted a bit, but remembering who I was speaking to I smiled again. Can't go ruining other people's days with my emotions now can I? Then I heard a soft feminine voice come from behind us just right down the hall.

"Now Hope. It Athanix doesn't want you to call him that then you should respect that okay? He is your big brother and you will only ever have one big brother." My mother had just stepped out of her room. She must of been listening to our conversation waiting for the perfect time to jump in.

"Now come along Hope. Lets go do some painting." My mother said as she guided my little sister down the steps with a wing. "Athanix!" She called up to me. "Your Dad needs you in his his office! He said he needed to talk to you about something! Make sure you knock first, he might be busy!"

My heart sank.

'Oh dear Celestia. What does he want now...' I thought to myself. My mother looked back up our steps and spoke to me again.

"You better get going AJ!" She said with a smile.

I facehooved. I was about to say something to counter my mom but I stopped myself. I couldn't just burn my mom like that. She just looked at me and gave a satisfied nod.

"Good boy. Let's keep it like that." She said with a mischievous smile.

Oh gosh. Sometimes I hated it when my mom joked around with me, but she's my mom. I couldn't ask for anything more in the world. And besides, how cool is it that you got to joke around with your mom like that?

Slowly I walked down the steps and down into the main room. The marble floor must of been waxed recently because the moment I stepped down on the glossy floor I slipped and fell back on my haunches. Believe me I tried standing back up again, but I slipped every time.

I let out another deep sigh as I lifted myself up off the floor with my wings. I knew I would be pounded to a pulp by my parents if they saw me flying in the house. With all the fine, expensive, fragile things in the house one rouge gust of air would topple any pot, tilt paintings, or like last time, bring down the main chandelier. So I carefully made my way down the hallway and to my Dad's office.

Normally I didn't even need to go in there. Most of the time we weren't allowed in there when my father was 'working'. He was a full time author and almost all of his week was spent in that office working on a new story or something. I didn't even want to know the reason he would need me. Then the thought struck me.

'Oh no. Am I in trouble or something? Had I done something wrong?! Do they know something that I don't?!? My heart skipped a beat.

'Do they know about my deepest darkest secret...?'

I swallowed the remaining moisture in my mouth and approached the large tinted glass door. Slowly I put a hoof on the silver door knob. I had almost opened the doors but remembered what my mother had taught me. Always knock, especially when someone is busy.

I pulled my hoof back and gently tapped on the glass door.

"Can I come in?"

Suddenly from behind the door it sounded like the office was being attacked by a small tornado. I could hear things flying around the place and wooden furniture being moved everywhere. Then it all stopped as I heard somepony step up to the door and open it.

"Hey there AJ! Your just the pony I needed to talk to!"

I laughed a bit to myself.

"Not you too Dad! Silver is the only one not calling me that now!" I said taking a seat next to my dad's desk. My dad slowly walked over to his large swivel chair and sat back into it slowly spinning it so that it faced the back window that gave him an entire view of the city of Canterlot.

"Well Athanix. Silver really looks up to you and respects you as a brother. You should be proud of yourself." My dad said.

I guess that was true. Silver always liked to hang around with me in the house. And to be perfectly honest I loved his company. He was one of the souls in my life I could really call my brother.

Just then my father spun around on his chair and pressed his hooves together in front of his face.

"Do you want to know why I brought you to my office Athanix?"

I didn't say a word. It was always like this when I was talking seriously to my dad. I didn't know about him but every time he tried to have a serious conversation with me, whether he was angry or not, he always seemed to be mad about the subject. Even if you knew he wasn't mad about anything he always just sounded like he was about to yell at you for some reason.

My dad broke the silence.

"Well do you?"

"Uh..."

"Well I'll tell you!" He said as he eyeballed me. He ducked down under his desk and grabbed a small stack of papers with his mouth. He set them on the table and spread them out on the desk.

"Do you know what this is?"

"Uh......"

"Come on! Don't tell me you don't recognize your own handy work!"

I looked down and read some of the pieces of paper. Lone behold these were some of the papers from one of my manuscripts. One of my longer well thought out ones too.

"This stuff is pure gold Athanix! Your story structure is so advanced! Your characters are so three dimensional! And everything in your world building falls perfectly into place! It's amazing that you write like this even though you have never been taught any of it! You must of gotten a little bit from your old man." He said as he elbowed me.

"Eheheh, yeah Dad..." Little did he know that I did go to school...

"Come on son. You need discuss some of these things with me. Spend some quality time, you know!"

I sighed a bit and accepted my dad's offer.

It's not like I was going to say no.

~~~~~

"So that's why I did that so when he finally meets up with our secondary character-" I was cut off.

"-everything is already set into motion! Genius my boy. I don't know where you come up with this stuff."

I laughed feebly.

"Eh, yeah Dad. I do get out a lot. Sometimes it just comes to me." It was true, I did like to fly around Equestria. Little did he know that is where I didn't get most of my inspiration for my stories.

"It almost like you experienced all this for yourself! This human character you made is really interesting!"

"Yeah yeah Dad. Glad you like it." I have been sitting in this chair for hours just talking to my dad about my story. He was so fascinated by the idea of these "humans" I have written about. I looked at the grandfather clock standing tall in the corner of the room. The minute had just passed over the twelve on the clock. That was soon followed by nine low rings from its brass bells.

"Wow nine o'clock already? Well you should head of to bed now. You seem a little tired."

"Thanks Dad." I smiled and gradually made my way to the door make sure to give extra care to shut the door quietly. As soon as the door was closed I made a break for my room on the second floor. I was so tired at this point. When I finally made it to my room I ducked under the silky covers and rested my head on a pillow.

The shades of my window were drawn back and the only light in the room was coming from a small candle sitting on a small table beside my bed. I slowly I took of my silver rimmed glasses and set them on the table and with one huff I blew out the candle and fell asleep...

~~~~~

"GOOOOOOD MORNING CHICAGO! AND WELCOME TO!-" Wham! Crack!

I slammed my little plastic clock again. I had barley shut my eyes when the DJ came on. Reluctantly I sat up on my small bed. My back ached a bit as I stretched. I sighed,

"That figures... I don't get much sleep anyway..."

~~~~~

Author's Notes: This is going to be fun. I have a lot of plans for this! I know self inserts are frowned upon, but in my defense this was written way before I had any idea of that... :)

Comments, suggestions and opinions are welcome! As always I am open to critique, I take it all to heart!

~Athanix,

   Peace.