Insanity Is Its Own Reward Written by: TheOrdinaryBrony Edited: by Daedalus & Crystal Secret Part One: Eve
My dorm's familiar surroundings appear before me as I awake to the obnoxious and repetitive sound of my alarm clock going off. For the past year I have gotten used to the nonsensical, dull and repetitive routine of a college student here at the University of Maressachusetts. I have lived a rather quiet, undisturbed life here without an annoying room mate, plenty of friends and the ability to pursue my dream of becoming a psychiatrist.
I rise to the early morning sun as its rays stream in through the large arch window. I begin my usual morning routine as I prepare for the day ahead. After breakfast, I pack my saddlebag according to my timetable and I head off to my first class.
Out in the hallway, there are already other ponies on their way to their first class. I don't recognize any of them as I pass them in a hurry. I've only got ten minutes to get to my class and it's held in a building on the West side of campus.
As I hurry down a flight of stairs, a deep voices calls out to me.
"Hey! Eve!"
I turn to the direction of the voice and find that it's one of the patrol guards.
"Yeah?" I ask the guard.
"I just wanted to inform you that you`ll be getting a new room today," he says.
[i]A new room mate? No, no, no. My life has been fine without one. Perhaps he knows more about them.[/i]
"Would you happen to know anything else about them?" I ask.
"Other than the fact that he's a stallion and that he's majoring in ancient and modern magic." He replies.
"Ok then, thanks for telling me anyway."
"You better going. You're going to be late for your lesson."
I hurry down the remaining stairs and exit through the glass sliding doors. Even after a whole year, the campus still is as beautiful as I remember it on my first day. The Maressachusetts campus is a large and expansive area, dotted with various trees scattered across the grounds. It's the height of Spring and the flowers are in full bloom.
Ornate buildings surrounding the centre of campus, the building I`m headed to is huge and made entirely of glass. A large glass statue of our fair ruler Princess Celestia stands proudly at the entrance. I trot towards it leisurely and pass ponies sitting around studying, some of the ponies seemed relaxed as they socialise in their free period. There is even a pony under a tree, strumming away on his acoustic guitar. I trot along, humming to the pony's soothing tune.
When I reach my class, I go up the glass steps and to this day, I am still astonished by the weight the glass can hold. I enter the glass building with pride, I have come a long way to be in this classroom and I will always be proud of that fact. I walk down the glass hallways and past several glass cases that conceal ancient books on psychology. I eventually reach the room where my lecture is being held. I take a seat in one of the glass desks and wait for the lesson to begin.
The lesson goes by rather quickly; it was on the negative and positive symptoms of schizophrenia which is a topic I am quite familiar with, having studied before.
As I stand outside my dorm, I`m pulling out my keys and it suddenly hits me like a pile of bricks that I have a new roommate. I had completely forgotten all about him!
[i]Maybe's an alright guy? Nothing to worry about right? But wait what if he's a complete weirdo? Oh no, I wouldn't be able to live with somepony like that? Or what if my room is a mess or he if went through my stuff? [/i]
In my panic my hooves shake violently as my stomach begins to churn. My heart races and I try to calm myself down.
[i]Eve, everything is going to be just fine. He's just a pony? What could go wrong? [/i]
I take a deep breath before inserting the key into the hole and turning it. As I open the door, the room appears to be its same tidy self. All except for my desk, which is occupied by a red coated stallion with a cuitemark that resembles a runic circle, his mane looks like he has done it in years and he just sits there drawing something.
With a loud slam the door shuts behind me, causing the stallion to turn his attention towards me, he stares at me for a moment with his dark blue eyes but dismisses me quickly, returning back to his work. For some reason, his horn is glowing a bright red which suggests the idea that he's studying.
When I trot over to him, I start to think that spending the next six years with him might not be so bad. A friendly introduction would be a good way to form a somewhat acquaintance with this peculiar stallion. I lightly tap his shoulder with my hoof, but he just ignores me.
I clear my throat. "I`m Evening Star, but you can just call me Eve."
I pause, waiting for a response.
"What's your name?"
Instead of giving an answer the stallion just continues to write.
"What are you working on?"
That got his attention. He stops writing for a moment and shows me my desk, I look over to see his work. He hasn't been using any parchment, instead, he's been writing on my desk. Carved into the wood are various incantations, written in black marker. My blood boils but I try to keep my anger in, so I just breathe deeply.
"I`m trying to create a spell that changes a pony's eye colour, it should be rather simple but every time I cast it upon somepony, my horn either fizzes out or I get disastrous results. Once I made another stallion temporarily blind for a week, that's why I transferred here." He says tapping my desk. "Oh, and by the way, I hope you don't mind that I wrote on your desk." He points to my window. "And your window, I ran out of parchment." He finishes before continuing to write on my desk.
I silently stomp my hoof on the floor, this guy's got some nerve! Writing on my desk like its parchment! Maybe he'll listen to the voice of reason.
"Hey, I've got some extra parchment in my saddlebag. If you want you can have some." I offer, trying to be as friendly and polite as possible.
"Nah, I wouldn't want to be a bother." He replies.
[i]A bother? A bother? You're writing on my desk you idiot, on my desk! There is no way I`ll be able live with him for the next six years. Wait. What will he write on when there's no room left on my desk?[/i]
My eyes widen at the thought.
[i]What if he begins to write on my walls? Oh no, no way! I don't want to see incantation all over my, well, I guess they're now our walls but either way I refuse to have my walls look like crap! [/i]
"Oh, yeah. You asked for my name, it's Red. My last name doesn't really matter though." He says, still writing more incantations.
Well, it's obvious now that this stallion, I mean Red is not about to stop writing on my desk. So it's beyond saving. I just hope he doesn't write on the walls because that is really pushing it.
I climb up to the top of my bunk bed; I pull out my notes from my lesson and decide to study. It would help me keep my mind off my new room mate.
"Hey Eve, you mind helping me out over here?"
I climb down and walk over to him. "Yeah, what's up?"
"What's your colour preference?"
"What?" I ask confused.
"What's your colour preference?"
"Um...orange I guess."
"Orange. Ok."
"Now, what's your blood type?"
"Hmm?"
"What's your blood type Eve?"
"Ok Red, what's going on?" I ask, concerned.
"I need to know what your blood type is for the spell to work."
I gulp. "You're not going to use me for a guinea pig or anything right?"
He laughs mischievously. "I was hoping you would, but if you don't want to I can just find somepony else with the same blood type." He says.
"That would be preferable; I'm a type A positive."
He doesn't say anything but instead just scribbles something else on the desk.
"Alright." He says.
I climb back up onto my bed. Every so often I check on Red, but he seems to be doing the same thing as before, other than his occasional muttering.
I let out a long sight
How could the school possibly put him in a dorm with me? I usually don't mind meeting a new pony every now and then, actually I love meeting new ponies. But this one seems a bit off. I just hope that he'll eventually change his studying habits because if I see one letter on my wall I'm going to flip.