MLP: The Portal

Chapter 20: Late Night Talk

Alex sat up with a start, huffing a bit. He looked around at his dark surroundings, hardly any light in the living room. He rubbed his forehead a bit and cleared his throat, coming down from his shock.

"Hmm… Alex? Is that you?" Rainbow Dash, who had been sleeping on the pull-out couch bed, rose her sleepy head up a little bit, looking over her shoulder.

"Yeah…yeah it's me. Morning." Alex said quietly, with an apparent exhaustion in his voice.

"When did you get back?" She asked, sitting up a little bit. Alex cleared his throat again.

"Uh…" He paused to check the time; 3:12 am. "Like an hour and a half ago. Fluttershy and Rarity took the bed, so I just came out here." Alex explained as he began to stand, walking to the kitchen to get some water.

"Oh…are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm alright, I just had a nightmare." Alex answered simply, gulping down a water bottle. Rainbow Dash sat up fully, and frowned a bit.

"A nightmare? A nightmare about what?" She asked.

"Eh, don't worry about it. It's not worth talking about." Alex said.

"Okay…you can talk to me, you know, right?" Rainbow Dash asked slowly.

"I'm okay." He said, trying to dismiss it. However, Rainbow Dash didn't drop it so easy.

"You'd be asleep right now if you were 'alright'. What's going on?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking at him. Alex turned to her and their eyes met. He sighed.

"This work schedule is really rough on me sometimes, and when my sleep schedule is bad, I usually have nightmares of some kind." Alex explained.

"What kind of nightmares?"

"Eh, it really depends, I guess. Sometimes it has to do with monsters, other times it's traumatic events, and every once in awhile, I have sleep paralysis, where I'm conscious but I can't move my body at all." Alex listed off. Rainbow Dash's frown deepened.

"Gosh, that sounds awful. Which…which one did you have just now?" Rainbow Dash asked carefully. Alex came back around, sitting up where he had been sleeping on the couch.

"Sleep paralysis and monster, both of them." He answered, drinking more water.

"Yeesh, are you sure you're okay?" Rainbow Dash asked again.

"I will be. I just need some time to calm down again, then I can go back to sleep." Alex said with a nod, doing his best to be reassuring. In truth, he didn't know how long that would take him.

"Okay. I'll stay up with you." Rainbow Dash said.

"No, that's okay, you don't have to do that. It's late, or early, you should go to sleep." Alex said.

"And so should you, but I wanna make sure you're okay first." Rainbow Dash said. Alex paused, and then nodded.

"Okay."

"Let's just talk for a bit. How was work?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It was quiet really. Not a lot of people showed up. There was one guy whose hand was cut up from a broken beer bottle." Alex said.

"Ouch. How does that happen?"

"I don't know. Maybe he got in a fight. It's also possible he just accidentally set it down too hard or hit it against something and it shattered. Either way, he was bleeding pretty badly, and dealing with drunk people is always a struggle." Alex said, rolling his eyes a bit.

"Did you get him taken care of?"

"Yeah, I brought him in and helped clean up the bleeding, and then another guy got his hand wrapped up." Alex nodded.

"Nice. What's your favorite part about working in a hospital?" She asked. Alex hummed.

"Just helping people really. Like, the guy with the hand, most people don't know what to do in that situation, but we did, so we were able to fix him up. Stuff like that feels good, and people are usually appreciative." Alex said with a small smile.

"That's awesome. Is that why you chose to work there?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yep." Alex nodded.

"I'm not very good with first aid stuff." Rainbow Dash chuckled a bit.

"It's not that hard to learn. I could teach you." Alex offered.

"I could learn," Rainbow Dash giggled softly. "You never know when it could come in handy." She said.

"Exactly. Whenever you go back to that Equestrian place, you can pass it on." Alex said with a chuckled.

"Heheh, you know it's Equestria, not Equestrian, right? Equestria." Rainbow Dash corrected him.

"Yeah I know, I just call it that to mess with you." Alex said with a bit of a chuckle.

"Jerk." She said. He chuckled a little more.

"I know right? What's Equestria like? Tell me." Alex asked. Rainbow Dash adjusted how she was sitting.

"You wanna know? I thought you didn't believe us." She said. Alex simply shrugged.

"Still, tell me anyways." He urged her. Rainbow Dash nodded.

"It's a big place. Me and my friends usually meet up in Ponyville, which is where all of us either live or work. Twilight's castle is right next to it too."

"Castle, huh? She some kind of princess?" Alex asked in a half-joking manner.

"Yes, she's the princess of friendship. Remember how we were telling you about how we solve friendship problems?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I recall, yeah."

"That's why. Twilight kind oversees that stuff, as do we."

"Oh okay. So you live in Ponyville in Equestria?"

"No, I live nearby, in Cloudsdale. It's a city of clouds in the sky."

"Sounds fancy. How do you get up there?" Alex asked.

"I fly."

"You fly." Alex repeated.

"There's different kinds of ponies in Equestria. For example, Fluttershy and I are both pegasi, so we have wings. Rarity is a unicorn, so she has magic. Our friends Pinkie Pie and Applejack are both earth ponies, so they don't have wings or horns." Rainbow Dash explained.

"Oh. Alrighty… So, like, earth ponies couldn't get up to Cloudsdale?"

"Well, Twilight has a spell that can give wings to unicorns or earth ponies, so she could get you up that way." Rainbow Dash answered.

"So, this Twilight is a unicorn then." Alex said. Rainbow Dash shook her head.

"No. She used to be, but when she became a princess, she got wings, so she's an alicorn now. She has both a horn and wings."

"Oh, that's different. I've never heard of that before." Alex said with a thoughtful hum.

"Yeah. There's only like five alicorns, and Twilight's one of them. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are two others, and they rule over Equestria." Rainbow Dash continued.

"Oh, it's a monarchy. Interesting. A pony kingdom." Alex said with a chuckle.

"Uhuh. Let's see… What else do you wanna know?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Well, I guess while we're on the subject, maybe you can tell me the full story of how you three got here? Where is Equestria?"

"Are you sure you wanna know all that? It's not exactly what we've been letting on about it." Rainbow Dash said.

"I know, that's why I'm asking. I'd like to get the unaltered version of events." Alex said. Rainbow Dash nodded.

"The truth is: Equestria is on a totally different planet. This place of…humans, we don't have humans where we're from. When we got here, we had no idea what we were, and we're still not really sure, to be honest with ya.

"Our friends Twilight and Starlight were working on a 'long-distance' teleportation spell for our friendship missions, and right as they were about test it out on myself and the others, it was interrupted, and I guess they accidentally sent us a lot further, because we ended up in the forest not far from here." Rainbow Dash recounted the events.

"You were in the forest? And you ran here." Alex said.

"We needed a place for shelter for the night, because it was raining and we didn't have any clothes, and it was really cold." She explained, shivering just from the thought of it.

"I see, and that's why you broke into my house. And it was empty at the time too."

"Yeah… We're really sorry. We know we've been really weighing you down, money-wise. There's just…we don't have anywhere else to go." Rainbow Dash said, saddening a bit. Alex quickly caught this.

"Hey, don't stress over it too much. It really isn't that bad. I mean, so what if things are a little tight for a bit? Money can be regained, but who would I be to kick out someone with no other options?" Alex said. Rainbow Dash nodded.

"We really can't thank you enough. I can't thank you enough. There's gotta be a way to repay you for all of this."

"Don't worry about all that," Alex waved it off. "So, if Twilight and Starlight were the ones that got you here, how come they haven't been able to get you back yet?" He asked.

"I have absolutely no idea. You'll have to ask them when they get here." Rainbow Dash said.

"I think I will. They're gonna get a piece of my mind." Alex said with a small chuckle. Rainbow Dash smiled.

"When they get here, then you'll see. We can show you Equestria, and you'll see that it is a real place, a really nice place." Rainbow Dash said.

"Mhmm. Still waiting to be proven wrong there." Alex said.

"Oh, you will be." She said in reply. Alex chuckled.

"Haha, yeah. Well, I'm gonna try and go back to sleep now. Thank you for staying up with me. I really do appreciate it." Alex said sincerely, even smiling at her. She smiled back and nodded.

"You're welcome. Goodnight." Rainbow Dash said, offering her arms out. This caught Alex off guard, and his eyebrows rose a bit. Immediately, she wanted to take it back.

However, Alex got up and rested his knee on the bed, leaning towards her and accepting her hug. They hugged briefly, but it was a warm hug. He let her go, and sat again, smiling awkwardly.

"Goodnight, Rainbow." He said before lying as he was in bed, turning away from her.

Rainbow Dash, lost in her own thoughts, stared at him a bit before going to sleep too…