Chapter 3: A Stop at the Mall & Mr. Courtie's Magic Shop
Yes, I managed another chapter. I just realized that the chapters for this story will be VERY long.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. :)
And only the OC characters are mine, as always.
City Hall- Morning
Today was much more chaotic than usual. The building was packed with reporters running from person to person, asking for short interviews and information about Jacob Hanson. Cameras flashed at every corner as local politicians were being interviewed.
With all of this going on, Brett was sitting at his desk watching the local news. A woman news reporter was discussing the tragedy previous night, "…the explosion that killed twelve people, including Mayoral Candidate Jacob Hanson, is being blamed on a gas leak from the kitchen."
Brett took a sip of his coffee as he continued to watch and wait, until finally Drocsid's response was shown, "It is truly a tragedy to hear about such a loss. Jacob and I may have been on opposite sides of the political fence, but he was an upstanding citizen and a respectable man. I send out condolences to his friends and family."
Brett smiled demonically and laughed as he watched Drocsid walk away from the podium with the flashing of cameras lightig him up as he dissappeared from the camera's view.
"Amazing how much good press some pretty wording can get you." Brett let out a chuckle and leaned back against his chair and let out a sigh, "Bringing this world into chaos will be so easy."
Wilmont Mall- Late Morning
Carl and Ryan pulled into the mall parking lot. The mall was pretty packed since teenagers that had just been let out of school flooded it to hang out or go on massive shopping sprees that they had saved up for throughout the year. Even though it was packed, there was ample parking due to the sheer size of the lot. So both Ryan and Carl were able to find two spots right next to each other, even though they were a decent distance from the entrance. But that wasn't too much of a problem, after all some walking was healthy.
In Carl's car, Rarity and Twilight both pressed against the windows of the car to see the mall, eyes wide in excitement. The mall was very large, with grand, glass entrance that led directly to the food-court, where fast food joints lined the walls. There was a large carousel that was clearly visible through the glass entrance. It went around and around, little kids screaming in joy as the ride continued on, and on, and on in the same direction.
"Oh is this the mall?" Twilight asked excitedly.
"Yep." Carl replied as he turned the engine off.
"It looks simply splendid Carl." Rarity said as she pressed her face completely into the glass.
"You haven't seen anything yet, it's even better inside," Carl said as he opened the door, "let's just hope your spell worked out well Twilight. I'd hate to see people's faces if they saw you girls as ponies."
Twilight nodded, "I understand, and it will work. Trust me."
Carl got out of the car and Twilight followed behind him, as she was in the passenger seat. Carl then opened the back and let Rarity out.
Ryan was already out of his car, the four ponies that he took were standing around him, stretching a bit after sitting still in the car for so long. Ryan gestured for Carl to follow him so that they were a few feet away from the girls, as Ryan needed to talk to him. When Carl went over, Ryan leaned towards him and whispered. "Hey, do you think we should have all six of them come in with us? I mean, if we do that we might draw attention having a girl to guy ratio of 6:2."
Carl raised an eyebrow. "And that's a problem?"
Ryan put his hand to his head, "Look, it isn't a secret that we aren't exactly "ladies' men", and if we go into the mall with all of these girls. One of three possibilities will happen. One, someone working for Discord might recognize their traits. Two, it'll make us out to be pimps, which isn't bad at all, but the third possibility is more likely in that people would think that we're…." Ryan made a gesture as if to say Carl should be able to guess what the third thing was.
Carl raised an eyebrow, "That we're what?"
Ryan rolled his eyes and did a quick girly motion with his hand. Carl got the idea and his eyes widened.
"Oh fuck."
"Yeah," Ryan said.
"Shit, so what do we do?"
"I don't know."
"Ahem." They both turned around to see Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy looking up at them. Apparently, they felt like privacy wasn't a right anymore for these two boys and went over to eavesdrop on them. Actually, it was more of Rainbow Dash going over there and brining Fluttershy with her.
"We don't mind staying back." Rainbow Dash said.
"Are you sure?" Carl asked.
"Only if you don't mind, after all I'm not too comfortable being in such a big place with so many people." Fluttershy said.
"And I can't being around so many clothing stores," Rainbow Dash said, "it's just too girly for me."
Ryan looked at Carl. "I'll stay back with them." Ryan said, "You can bring James outside if you want, just tell him I can't go in because "Tara's" friend felt sick from walking around so much."
"Okay, fine." Carl said, "I just hope he doesn't know that we're bullshitting him."
Ryan shrugged and walked back to his car, "Come on you two. Let me introduce you to some of our music."
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy followed him. Carl sighed and looked at the four girls.
"Well great, now I'm stuck alone in a situation where I'm surrounded by girls." Carl groaned, realizing his and Ryan's plan didn't do anything but minimize the number of ponies who were walking into the mall. It was still a 4:1 ratio of girls to guys. Normally being surrounded by this many girls would make Carl ecstatic, but thinking in the terms that Ryan talked about earlier made him re-think his attitude towards it. After all, it was true that a guy not really known for being a "playa" would get the reputation of being gay if he was the only guy in a group of girls. But Carl didn't feel like thinking about what to do anymore, so he accepted it and decided to go with his motto of "fuck what society thinks" that he usually tried to follow.
"Hey Carl are you ready? I want to check out this mall!" Pinkie Pie said jumping up and down excitedly.
Carl nodded and let out a deep sigh and thought "Twilight your spell better have worked, otherwise we're screwed."
Food Court
James rested his head on the table of the table at the mall food-court as he tried to recover from the last bit of his hangover that he had. He was still seething at all of the praise his brother got over him, stirring the straw in his drink for no reason other than to relieve some of his stress. But it wasn't the hangover that made him stressed out. It was his brother and parents that were driving him up a wall.
"Oh Patrick is so smart, Patrick is so special, Patrick is Jesus Christ himself! What a crock of shit."
He listed his head and took a sip of the soda that he got from one of the fast food places that lined both sides of the food court. James looked at his phone and began to surf the web when he felt somebody tap him on the shoulder. He turned around to see Alex Franco standing behind him. Alex had short, curly blonde hair that was hidden under a white Dallas Cowboys hat that was on backwards. He had green eyes and a smiling face. He was generally an optimistic kid even though his life was far from perfect.
"Hey man, what are you doing here?" Alex asked, sitting in a chair next to James.
"Not much," James yawned as he was still tired from the night before, "Just waiting on Ryan and Carl to talk to them for a few minutes before I have to go to my cousin's house."
"Yeah?" Alex asked and James nodded. Alex adjusted the hat on his head so the Cowboy's logo and brim was facing forward, "Cool, so how was the party?"
"Fantastic." James took a sip of his soda.
"So you got drunk?"
"That would be the understatement of the millennium."
Alex laughed a bit, "Were you doing that thing you always do when you're drunk? You know, singing Kiss songs?"
"I'm not really sure," James said, thinking back to the night before, "but either way it was pretty awesome."
"Ah, but how can you be sure if you don't remember?"
"To steal a quote from the "Hangover", if you don't remember, it was most likely because you had a fucking great time." James said before taking another sip of his soda. He chuckled a bit to hide his stress from Alex, who was usually good at knowing when someone wasn't being open about their emotions. Fortunately, he didn't seem to notice.
"I hear ya man, I hear ya."
Just then Carl, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie all went over to James and Alex. Of course, they only saw Carl and four human girls walking up to him, all with traits that matched their personalities. For instance, Applejack looked like the typical blonde southern girl with a cowboy hat and a brown, leather jacket. Rarity appeared to wear a very nice t-shirt with sparkles on it, and her hair was so nice that it seemed like she just got back from a hair stylist. Pinkie Pie had really huge, pink hair and an all-pink outfit. Now, this was what everyone saw except for Carl, who was hoping that the spell was working well.
Alex looked up at them and smiled, noticing the four girls with Carl.
"Oh shit, it looks like we've got a playa here." Alex walked over and shook Carl's hand. "What's up my man?"
"'Sup Alex. Not much, just showing my friends here around the mall."
"I can see that."
Twilight looked over at James and pointed her hoof at him, though to everyone else she was pointing a finger. "Hey, aren't you that boy that I met at the party last night?"
James began to think then nodded, "Yeah I….oh wait you're that girl that came up to us, what was your name again?"
"Tara."
"Yeah guys this is Tara, and these are her friends…" Carl was about to say their real names when he stopped himself. He gulped as he knew that he had to improvise some names off of the top of his head. The issue was that he was never the most creative person when it came to that so he just gave them girl names that started with the same letter as their actual names. "…this is Anna, Penelope, and….Raquel."
"Raquel, that's an interesting name." James said, looking at Rarity. Rarity gave him angry look.
"What wrong with my name?"
"Nothing, I just wouldn't have thought of you as a Raquel. You look more like a Bella or Alexandra or something that would come out of Victorian literature."
"Victorian Literature, what's that?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"A genre of books that's used predominantly to make High School students' lives hell and make college students feel enlightened." James said with a snarky smirk.
"So you're James, huh?" Applejack asked James, her southern drawl grabbed Alex's attention.
"Yeah, that's me. It's nice to meet you all. Oh and this, here, is Alex Franco. He's a friend of mine."
Alex gave a nod to them all "Nice to meet y'all." He said. Even though he's lived in New york since he was seven, he would occasionally fall into his southern way of speaking, especially after hearing someone with a southern accent speak, which, in this case, was Applejack. Alex then turned to Applejack herself and pointed at her.
"You're, Anna, right?" Alex asked, and Applejack nodded, "where are you from?"
"Pony…." She managed to get out before Carl stepped in quickly.
"Tennessee! She's from Tennessee."
"Oh cool," Alex said with a smile, "I'm actually from Texas." He pointed to his Cowboys hat to show her, which she looked at confused.
"Are you a Titans fan?" Alex asked.
"A what-tans fan?"
"Okay, I think that's enough time for introductions. James, do you want to head out to see Ryan."
James nodded. "Sure; hey Alex do you want to come out too?"
Alex shook his head. "Nah man I need to pick up my mom's dry-cleaning and get home." Alex stood up and adjusted the hat on his head so it was facing backwards again, "I'll talk to you guys later, and it was nice meeting you four girls."
He turned and smiled at Applejack, "Especially you."
Applejack blushed a bit and returned the smile. "And it was a pleasure to meet ya."
Carl bit his lip anxiously, as Alex walked away, all smiles.
"What the hell took you so long to get here?" James hissed at Carl.
"Sorry, I got side-tracked."
"And where the hell is Ryan again?"
"Back at the car," Carl said, "He's with two of Tara's friends that felt sick."
James looked at Carl in shock, "There are two more?"
Carl nodded and James just chuckled, "All right, I'm confused, but I'll go along with this."
Just like that, all six began to leave the food court.
Back in his car, Ryan was with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash listening to some of the music.
"Oh what's this music? It's so pretty." Fluttershy asked, resting her head against the back of her seat.
"It's just a song on my playlist."
"What's it called?"
"Um, it's "Forever Young" by Alphaville." Ryan said with a sigh, letting the music enter one ear and exit the other, leaving him with a feeling of bliss. He loved the way this song brought him to a place of peace and tranquility that most songs couldn't.
"Eh, it's all right, but do you have anything cooler?" Rainbow Dash asked. Ryan chuckled, thinking of how typical it was of her to act like that, which was why she won him over so much.
"Yeah hang on." He flipped through his playlist to find a song that he thought Rainbow Dash would like, and hoping that it wouldn't be too hardcore for Fluttershy.
Outside, Carl and James were heading over to Ryan and Carl's cars when they accidentally bumped into someone, knocking them over.
"Oh no, man I'm sorry." Carl reached down to help up the boy.
He looked like he was two to three years younger than Carl, James or Ryan. In reality, though, he was the same age. He had messy brown hair and sad-looking blue eyes. As Carl helped him up, the boy didn't even utter "oomph" when he got to his feet, he was that quiet.
"Kid you okay?" Carl asked. The boy didn't say anything. It was then that he knew who the quiet boy was. "Wait, aren't you Pete Reynolds, aren't you?"
The boy didn't answer; he just looked down at his feet and gave a small nod. It was well known that Pete Reynolds was the number one target for bullying, even more so than Ryan. People also spread rumors about him like crazy. You see, he used to be one of the most talkative and outgoing kids in school, but one day he just stopped and became quiet.
No one really knows why, so naturally ideas spread from student to student about possible reasons.
"Pete, are you okay?"
Pete nodded again and slowly started to walk by the group when Pinkie Pie stepped into his path with a big smile on her face.
"Oh dear God no." Carl said, "Pink….er I mean Penelope what are you doing?"
Pinkie didn't even seem to notice Carl's question as she was too determined to introduce herself to Pete. "Hi what's your name?"
Pete stopped and looked up at the mare, but what he saw was a girl with really big, pink hair and large, expressive blue eyes. As his eye caught Pinkie's, his expression seemed to relax and he seemed to perk up a bit.
"I'm…I'm Pete." He said with a shy smile, his eyes averted soon as he said it.
"Nice to meet you I'm Penelope!" she said. Carl mentally had a "success kid" moment at the fact that she remembered her assigned name, as he felt that if anyone forgot to use their fake name, it would be her. What he didn't see was Pete suddenly smiling more than he had in a long time. It still wasn't a lot, but it was a significant improvement.
"Hi," he said quietly before biting his lip anxiously at the fact that he was having a conversation with someone, "listen I need to go now, but I'd like to talk to you sometime."
With that, he walked away. "Okie dokey, see you later Petey-weety!" Pinkie said happily in her usual peppy voice. Pete just gave her a quick smile before heading off in a somewhat happier mood than he was earlier.
James' mouth hung open, "How did she do that? No one can get that kid to talk or smile."
Carl shrugged, "She just knows how to connect with people." James nodded, accepting the explanation.
Twilight walked over to Carl and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to see her.
"Carl, can we get back to Ryan and the others?" she asked, "I need to check James for something."
"For what?"
"I'll show you soon, but can we please go back to your house so we don't have to worry about people hearing us?" she asked. Carl nodded, though he was still confused. With that, the group continued on its trek back to Ryan's car. They didn't notice as, behind them, Lawrence and two of his cronies, Sean and Lance, began to surround Pete.
Meanwhile, in Ryan's truck, some of the most badass lyrics were being blared:
"A-ah-ahh-ah, ah-ah-ahh-ah
We come from the land of the ice and snow
from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands
To fight the horde and sing and cry, Valhalla, I am coming
On we sweep with, with threshing oar
Our only goal will be the western shore!"
Yes, they were listening to the 2011 cover of "Immigrant Song" by Karen O., Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross from "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" (Reznor and Ross didn't deserve their Oscar in 2011 but I love their version of this song, and it helped give me motivation to make this story. I just love music mixed with film.).
Ryan and Rainbow Dash were both wearing pairs of sunglasses and singing along with the song. Even Fluttershy was enjoying the music, which was surprising as Ryan didn't see her as someone who'd like heavy metal.
Either way, Ryan found himself having the time of his life with the cyan mare that he secretly was in love with. She was completely owning this song and looked like a complete badass in her sunglasses, Ryan kept imagining the words "deal with it" appearing under her face like the meme that he had seen so often.
"This song is AWESOME! Ryan you've got to let me take this back to Equestria so I can do my flying routines to it!" she said, lowering her glasses slightly so her red eyes looked into Ryan's frames.
"Hey! Not only do I want you to use this song when you fly, I want to see you do a sonic rainboom to it!"
"I will!" she shouted happily over the blaring music just before she began to do an air-guitar type movement.
"I actually like this song a lot, even if it is a wee bit loud." Fluttershy said before her eyes opening, "Oh I hope I didn't insult your taste in music Ryan."
"Not at all Fluttershy!" Ryan said. They kept singing as they heard a knock at the window. Ryan turned to see Carl, James and the four girls. Carl had an expression that screamed "are you kidding me?"
Ryan turned the music down and lowered the window, "Sorry man, couldn't resist. I just had to break out this masterpiece, even if it is a cover."
Carl rolled his eyes as James looked into the car at the two girls.
"Hey, I'm James, what are your names?" James asked. Before Carl could answer, Rainbow Dash spoke up with a big smile on her face,
"Oh, I'm Louise and this is Thelma. It's very nice to meet you James."
James began to chuckle and Carl looked at Ryan, who just smiled at him and whispered. "Sorry man, I couldn't help it, you know I'm a movie freak."
"Oh really? I would have never guessed you were a movie freak by the fact that you're playing a cover song from a David Fincher film and gave two mares the names Thelma and Louise." Carl quietly hissed.
Just then, Carl heard a noise behind him. He turned to see Lawrence shove Pete to the ground as Lance and Sean laughed like a couple of hyenas.
"Oh shit." He said, watching as Pete was laying on his back. As the poor boy tried to get back up, Lawrence raised his foot, and brought it down onto his back, laying him out on the pavement. Pete was even quiet when he was getting beat up. He didn't utter a scream, he just cried silently.
Everyone was frozen; they didn't know what to do. Finally Ryan, being the loyal person that he was, jumped out of his truck and ran over to the scene.
"Hey! Lawrence! You piece of shit!"
Lawrence turned away from the smaller, helpless boy and to Ryan. He had an evil smile.
"You stay out of this Ryan; you aren't scheduled for another beating until Tuesday." Lawrence sneered.
"I'd say that you should pick on someone your own size, but that would require finding a fucking sumo wrestler." Ryan hissed, "Leave Pete alone."
"And why should I?" he asked as he took a step towards Ryan, who started to look nervous, "Are you going to stop me? Please, when we saw each other at the party yesterday it didn't end so well or you did it? How is your eye by the way?""
Ryan put his hand up to his more recently bruised eye and rubbed it, "Never better. You'd be surprised how much of a chick magnet a black eye is."
"Oh is that why all of those girls are over there with you?" Lawrence asked and Ryan nodded.
Lawrence let out a laugh, "Man, I thought it was because you were a faggot."
Ryan bit his lip angrily and Lawrence gave his own, sadistic smile.
"Okay then; here's your chance to impress them, hit me and save the poor defenseless Pete from my wrath. Come on; do it." He said, leaning towards Ryan with a smug smile. Ryan didn't move, too afraid of the consequences of a fight. He was in no way a pacifist, but he never could bring himself to try to physically hurt someone. He would if Pete was being beaten at the moment, but right now it was just him and he'd only physically hurt someone else if they were going after someone else in that moment.
A few seconds later Sean laughed, "Yo man he's too much of a pussy!"
Lawrence smiled, looking over as Carl and the other started over to them. "Well if you won't fight me, I hope you don't mind if I take the reins on this."
Lawrence grabbed Ryan by the collar, reared his right hand back and punched Ryan in the nose, causing him to fall to the pavement.
"Ryan!" he heard a familiar, raspy female voice shout out. Ryan felt Lawrence kick him in the side, right where his ribs were. Ryan rolled over onto his other side, clutching his hurt rib-cage. Lawrence brought his fist into his stomach, causing him to lurch in pain. Everyone's attention was on the fight, that they didn't notice a cyan mare climb out of the car through the open widow.
"Get up!" Lawrence demanded, "Get up you pussy!"
"Hey you leave him alone!"
All of a sudden, Ryan saw a flash of blue with rainbow streaks smash into Lawrence at near supersonic speed, sending him flying about fifteen feet into the side of a pick-up truck. The glass in the side door shattered and fell around Lawrence. Luckily the car alarm on the truck didn't go off. Regardless, Sean and Lance looked at Rainbow Dash in astonishment.
Now to Carl and Ryan, it didn't look un-natural to see Rainbow Dash fly at such a speed, but to James and the others, it looked like a teenage girl sprinted at an impossible quickness and sucker punching Lawrence so hard that he flew into the truck.
Sean and Lance turned and ran off in the other direction, towards Lawrence's car to head off.
"Yeah you'd better run!" Rainbow Dash spat before turning her attention to the bleeding Ryan. Ryan looked up at the mare, whose face showed great concern for his well-being. "Ryan are you okay?"
Without hesitation, Ryan hugged Rainbow Dash and kissed her on the top of her head, "Thank you Dashie! Thank you!" He didn't realize how intimate the situation got until he already did it, but he was so happy that someone, or in this case somepony, stood up for him that he didn't care. He was usually sable to handle himself and stay stoic when being beaten up, but he was so emotionally touched by what she did for him, her loyalty, that he couldn't hold back.
Rainbow Dash was stunned to say the least, and her blushing face attested to that. But she pretended to brush it off as just his reaction to being helped so she just chuckled. "He-he, no problem Ryan. But you don't have to be so affectionate."
"I'm just happy someone finally stood up for me." He whispered to her so no one else heard it. After all, he really didn't want James or Carl to be insulted even though Ryan did feel that they played the bystander too much when he got the shit kicked out of him.
"Why did you call her Dashie?" James asked, "I thought her name was Louise."
"It is," Ryan said as he broke the hug and wiped from blood off of his nose, "Dashie is her nickname. After all, you saw how fast she was." Ryan said before winking at Rainbow Dash, who blushed at the compliment.
James nodded, accepting the reason, but in his mind he was still confused over Ryan's reaction. And he wasn't the only one. Carl was shocked, not only at how far Rainbow Dash managed to smash Lawrence, but how Ryan reacted to it. Was he that thankful for her loyalty, or was it something more? It certainly got him thinking, even if for only a few seconds.
In fact, only one who wasn't taken aback by Ryan's reaction was Applejack, and that was because of what Ryan told her the night before. So she decided to change the topic to Pete, who was now lying on the ground with a bloody nose of his own.
"Uh Pinkie," she said lowly so that no one could hear her real name, "why don't ya go see if that kid is okay." Applejack said, pointing to Pete.
"Oh! Okay!" she said happily before bouncing over to Pete.
Yes, she bounced, and James was now even more confused. "What drugs is that girl on….and where can I get some?"
Carl tapped James on the shoulder and motioned for him to go over to Ryan. Both boys did so and helped their friend up. Meanwhile, Pinkie was standing by a frightened looking Pete.
"Hey there, are you okay? It wasn't nice what those meany-weenies did to you. Do you need a hand?"
Pete was frozen for a second before some tears began to flow down his cheeks. He stood up and bolted off, leaving a very confused Pinkie.
"Hey wait!" she shouted, but Pete kept running.
"What was that all about?" Rarity asked, walking over to Pinkie.
Pinkie shrugged, "I guess he was late for something."
While all of this was happening, Twilight and Applejack were staring at the three boys, Twilight rubbed her chin with her hoof as she pondered.
"Um Twilight, what are ya thinking about?" Applejack asked, realizing that Twilight had her violet eyes on James.
"Just a hunch, like I did with Ryan." She walked over to James and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Huh?" James asked, turning around to see Twilight, or Tara as he thought.
"Hey Tara, what's up?"
"James, can you hold still for a moment?"
James nodded and Twilight leaned her head into James' heart, making him jump back. Twilight looked up at him with an annoyed expression.
"Wh-what are you doing?" James stammered.
"Stay still I need to see something."
"What can you see by pressing your head into my chest?" James asked in a freaked out tone.
"More than you think, now if I may." She leaned forward again and did the same thing she did with Ryan the night before. After a few seconds of James looking down at Twilight in confusion, she stepped back, smiled at him, and walked over to Carl. She tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around to see her.
"Twi….er I mean Tara, what's up?" Twilight motioned for Carl to bend down to her level .He did. And what James saw was both of them kneeling, just in case there was any more confusion on how the spell works).
"What is it?" Carl asked.
Twilight smiled and whispered into Carl's ear. "Your friend James is the Element of Kindness."
Carl was in shock as the words left Twilight's mouth. He turned to see James talking with Ryan and Rainbow Dash.
"Should we tell him now?"
Twilight shook her head, "We should probably show him what we really look like first so he doesn't think that we're crazy. Let's take him back to your house."
Carl nodded when Fluttershy spoke up, "If you…um…don't mind me asking. If your friend a "brony" too?"
Carl shook his head, "I seriously doubt it. If he is, he never told us. But I guess he'll learn to be one, especially with you as his partner Fluttershy."
Fluttershy backed up a bit shyly when Carl looked at her, "Do you want to talk to him now?"
She shook her head and Carl nodded. He then let out a sigh and walked over to James. "James, listen can you come over to my house now?"
James looked at Carl and shook his head, "Na man I can't. I only thought this whole mall thing would be a quick catch-up. I have to go see Caroline and then go to work."
"Oh that's right, with Mr. Courtie right?" Carl asked. James nodded. "I still can't believe that out of all of us, you're the one to work in a magic shop. I mean, you don't even believe in God."
"I'm an agnostic Carl, not an atheist. I don't say if there is or isn't a God because no one knows. And I know magic doesn't exist either, it's just a good part-time job to have. Besides, it reminds me of a simpler time in my life."
"Well, can we stop by tonight and bring you back to my house, it's important."
James nodded; knowing that every moment spent away from his patronizing parents and "goody-goody" brother was the next best moment in his life.
City Hall- Later
The entire building was still in shock about Jacob Hanson's death. But now that his bullshit condolences speech was given, Mayor Drocsid was all smiles. He now had one of his own running against him so that he would intentionally fail and Drocsid would be elected for another two years.
"Let's see, I have complete control over the city government, police force, anarchist gangs, I am all set."
He sat back against his chair when the door to his room burst open and Brett came in, dragging Lawrence behind him. Also there was Sean and Lance, both of whom had worried expressions on their faces. Mayor Drocsid looked up at Brett.
"What happened here?"
"Lawrence here was attacked by a girl." Brett hissed.
"In my defense, she was fast as fuck." Lawrence complained.
"Shut up." Brett growled before he looked back up at the Mayor. "Sir I think they're here."
Drocsid raised an eyebrow, "Who?"
"The Elements." He said. "Lawrence told me that the girl that attacked him had rainbow colored hair."
"And a blue t-shirt!" Sean said. Brett shot Sean an angry look and Sean quickly shut his mouth. Brett turned back to Drocsid.
"Sir, we need to find out where they are."
Drocsid nodded and Lawrence began to laugh. Brett threw Lawrence against the wall, causing him to stop his fit of giggles.
"Boy, you'd better have a good reason for laughing."
"I don't know where that girl was from, but she saved a little pussy that I pick on all of the time."
"And who would that be?" Drocsid asked as he slowly walked over to Lawrence.
Lawrence gave him a sly smirk.
Caroline's House- Later
When James finally got to Caroline's house, he noticed that there was a strange black BMW in the driveway. He's been going to her house long enough to know that it was the doctor's went up to the door and knocked. Caroline's mother answered and smiled.
"Hi James."
"Hello Aunt Christie. Can I come in?"
"Sure, but Caroline is with the doctor now, so you'll have to wait a few minutes, if that's all right with you."
James nodded as he walked into the house and sat at the small table in the kitchen, waiting for the doctor to be done with Caroline. After about twenty minutes, the doctor same out with his supplies, he was a middle-aged man glasses and a grey beard. He looked over at James, who had gotten up to greet him.
"Hello Doctor Bernstein, how is she doing?"
Dr. Bernstein didn't answer immediately, he just sighed. James took a step closer with a desperate look in his eye, "How is she?"
"I'm sorry, I can only talk to her parents." He said before walking over to Aunt Christie. James sighed and walked into Caroline's room to see his cousin leaning over the side of the bed making gagging noises.
"Caroline?" James asked. Caroline looked up at him. Her eyes were red and a little bit cloudy with tears. Her face was pale and she was covered in sweat. She was also wearing her Fluttershy t-shirt.
"James, oh no I'm sorry I forgot to take this shirt off before my chemo. Now there's all vomit over it."
"Don't worry about it; you can't help it. Besides, it's just a t-shirt. I care more about the sweet girl who's wearing the shirt."
Caroline smiled and James walked over to her side of the bed and sat down next to her, placing his hand onto her shoulder.
"I just feel bad that I'm doing this to poor Fluttershy." She said with a small chuckle, looking down at her shirt.
"It's okay, I'm sure she'll forgive you." James said with a small chuckle of his own as he looked down into his cousin's sad eyes.
"James, I have a question."
"What's that?"
"What happens when you die?"
James was floored by this, and his face showed it. Caroline took note of James' silence and sighed, "I'm not in denial about my cancer; I know I could die and I've accepted that as much as I could."
"Don't talk like that Caroline." James said while trying to hold his tears back. Caroline looked up at him, her own tears rolling down her cheeks, before she looked away towards the opposite wall of the room.
"I think that when you die, you get to go to the one place that makes you the happiest."
"Like heaven?"
"Not exactly," she said, "Well, I mean, yes heaven but also you'd have your own personal heaven. A place where all of the people and things you love will be, whether they ever existed on Earth or not."
"So what did you have in mind?" James said, still not really enjoying this conversation about death that he was having with his cancer-ridden cousin, but happy that he could comfort her in some way.
"When I die, I want to go to Equestria and live out my afterlife there."
James gave a small chuckle, "That's an interesting wish. But why Equestria?"
"I have a lot of free time to read fan-fictions online. There is no genre I like better than the human in Equestria story because they give me the chance to imagine what it would be like to meet characters that I never could in real life, but that I've always wished to. That I could only possibly meet in death, after God judged me."
"So your own personal heaven is Equestria?"
"Yes." She said with a small smile as he began to imagine it, "I mean, there's no suffering, no corruption, and everypony is so innocent and kind to one another. Why do you think I watch the show so much?" She said with a small sniffle. "I watch it to forget my suffering for a short time and imagine myself in that land of peace, happiness, and innocence that this world will never have. Besides you and my parents, watching the show is the only thing that keeps me sane."
James didn't say anything else as he mulled over the extremely deep statement that Caroline just made. He wanted to cry himself, but when he heard her vomiting again into the trashcan, he realized that he had to be the strong one. He helped her to her bathroom and held her head over the toilet as the chemo "healed" her.
Eventually, she stopped and James helped her back to bed. He talked with her for a little bit longer before he said good-bye and started out to wait for his aunt to give him a lift to work.
As he exited the bedroom, he saw Dr. Bernstein and Aunt Christie sitting next to each other at the kitchen table. The Doctor was whispering to her about something that James couldn't make out. But he knew that it couldn't be good, because Aunt Christie was sobbing uncontrollably.
He didn't listen; rather he just waited for the two to stop talking. He didn't want to hear the bad news and decided that sometimes denial was the best way to feel optimistic in this fucked up world.
He began to think about what Caroline said earlier and let out a huge sigh just before tears fell from his eyes, now being able to somewhat let his guard down. But he still didn't sob, he was stronger than that.
Why is it that the kindest of humanity suffer the most? They always lose and the dirt bags always win. All he could do was pray to God, if there was a God, that if Caroline passed away, she would find peace in her own personal paradise.
He prayed that she would find Equestria, a land that James also wished he could be in.
A place that he felt was unnattainable to both him and Caroline, in both life and death.
And that's when he sobbed.
Carl's House- Night
Ryan and Carl were about to leave for Mr. Courtie's magic shop as it was quite late. Lauren was cleaning the kitchen as Anna and Lisa were asleep in their beds. Carl and Ryan were in Carl's room with the girls, who were extra quiet now since Lauren was still awake downstairs.
Since the mall the seven of them had just hung out and talked about what was going to happen. All that the girls knew was that Discord was planning to get stronger and overtake Earth and Equestria, and that there were six elements, three of which were obviously Carl, Ryan and James. After that, they just talked a bit.
But Carl noticed something else. Ryan and Rainbow Dash were not with the rest of them. Instead, they sat on Carl's bed and talked. He still was confused about Ryan's behavior earlier, and their current behavior was not helping his confusion.
Applejack was the only one who knew how Ryan felt, and she was nervous for him. She knew he didn't want anyone to know about his feelings, especially Rainbow Dash, but at the same time it seemed like he couldn't help but be near her every chance he got.
Carl also noticed that Ryan's personality seemed different. Ever since Rainbow Dash helped him with Lawrence earlier that day, Ryan seemed to be in a great mood.
"You acted so surprised when I did that," Rainbow Dash chuckled, "you should know that I don't let anypony mess with my friends."
"I knew that," Ryan said with a smile, "I just really appreciate it."
Rainbow Dash gave him a small smile back.
Carl sighed and turned his attention back to the girls.
"So what's the plan then?" Twilight asked.
"We're going to pick James up from work and bring him back here." Carl said.
"Oh where does he work?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"He works at Mr. Courtie's Magic Shop in the village." Carl said, "Actually, a fun fact is that I used to work there."
"But I thought you said magic didn't exist here." Fluttershy said quietly.
"It doesn't, we have faux magic that's used to entertain people."
"What do you mean? Do other people know that it isn't real?" Twilight asked and Carl nodded.
"Except for really young kids, yes they do. Trust me, I know." Carl said with a sigh that seemed to show how he was remembering something dark from his past. Carl didn't think any of the girls noticed but Twilight too note and remembered his reaction, as she would ask him about it later when they would talk about his father.
Carl looked at his watch, "Oh crap, Ryan we have to get going!"
Ryan looked over at Carl and gave his friend a small nod before he stood up.
"Okay, girls listen to me I'm going to go get my youngest sister to watch you."
"What? Don't that go against the idea of being "incognito"?" Applejack asked with concern.
"Trust me she won't tell a soul, especially if you tell her not to talk. She practically worships you six as much as me and Ryan do."
They nodded and Carl left the room. He tip-toed down the hall to Anna's room and opened the door. Just as quietly, he went over to the side of her bed and tapped her on the shoulder. She opened her eye and looked at Carl,
"Carl? What do you want?"
"I need you to come with me.""
Anna sighed, "Ugh, what for?"
"I'll show you, come on lazy bones, get up."
Anna buried her face into her pillow and groaned, "Fine."
She sat up and both her and David left her room and went over to his own. Just before they got there, Carl leaned towards Anna and whispered, "Listen, you don't freak you at what you see and don't tell anyone else about it? Understand?"
Anna rolled her eyes, "Yeah, of course."
Carl nodded and opened the door to his room. When she saw the mane six, she didn't scream, she didn't shout, she just smiled.
"Cool the mane six are here!" she said excitedly.
Carl was flabbergasted; he didn't know how she could be so calm about seeing six cartoon ponies standing in front of her. She did show excitement in her voice, but she didn't show any expression of shock or complete amazement. Carl didn't get this until he remembered that she was young and still probably thought stuff like this was possible.
Hell, she probably thought all cartoon characters existed and we were following them around during their adventures, like spies. Ah we were all at that age, weren't we?
She walked over to the six ponies with a smile. She introduced herself to them and they did the same to her. Carl looked to Ryan.
"You ready?"
"Yeah let's…" Ryan started when they heard the "ehem" of someone clearing their throat come from behind them. They turned to see Lisa looking at them, arms crossed and eyes angry.
"What's going on in here Carl?" she asked before looking at the ponies, who were now looking back at her, "I see you've summoned the mane six and didn't tell me. I don't appreciate that."
Carl was about to protest but then he thought of something sadistic.
"Well this worked out perfectly." Carl said with a smile, "You want to spend time with them, right?"
She rolled her eyes and nodded in a matter-of-fact way. Carl gave her an evil smile, "Well then, I want you to watch them with Anna until we get back home.""
"What? How long will that be?"
"Long." Carl said with a grin before walking away with Ryan, "and if I find out that you went to bed while you were supposed to be watching them, or if you tell anyone about them being here, including Mom, I'll tell mom who broke the computer last month."
Lisa clenched her teeth in frustration before storming into her brother's room.
Rainbow Dash watched as Ryan go with a smile before turning around to see Applejack giving her a look.
"What?" she asked.
"Why are ya and Ryan acting so chummy?" she asked.
"Um, maybe because we're friends and have the same element?"
"Are ya sure that's it?"
Rainbow Dash nodded and Applejack sighed and gave a small shrug, "Whatever ya say."
As she walked off to join the others, Rainbow Dash looked down and shook her head, "Why do I feel the need to be close to Ryan?"
She didn't understand it much and decided to think about it later.
Meanwhile, with Lisa and Anna, all of the other ponies were talking to them about girly stuff that they couldn't with Ryan or Carl, such as clothes.
This interested most of them, except for Rainbow Dash, who hated talking about clothes. Besides, no matter how hard she tried and told herself that she'd stop thinking about Ryan, she couldn't. How kind he was to her, how much he seemed to care about her, how much he seemed to worship her. No guy ever treated her with such respect unless they were little colts who thought she was awesome because of her sonic rainboom and fastest flyer in Equestria title.
Nopony guy ever given her these feelings of being appreciated.
She didn't know that a few miles away, Ryan was thinking about her in the same way.
Ryan's Car
"So can you please tell me why you're so attached to Rainbow Dash?" Carl asked as Ryan drove down the road. Carl was never the most diligent person, especially with school work, but he was keen on finding and answer to this question.
"What are you talking about she's the same element as me," Ryan said, "besides, she's my favorite out of the mane six. You've known that for months."
Carl rolled his eyes and leaned forward to look at Ryan's face from a closer distance. It was clear that he was blushing like crazy. Two and two came togther in Carl's mind and his jaw dropped.
"Oh my God you love her."
"No…shu….shut up." Ryan stuttered nervously, like a kid who had just been caught being aroused during class.
"Dude, she's a cartoon pony, you can't be in love with her, it's un-natural." Carl said, conveneintly forgetting the similar feelings that he had for Twilight the night before.
"You think I don't know that? Why do you think it's so hard for me to admit that I love her. I don't know why but I do. When I look into her eyes, I just…." Ryan sighed before continuing, "When I watched the show, I'd become depressed because when it ended I was reminded that she was just fiction. And now that she's here, living and breathing, with those beautiful eyes…I can't help but feel...love for her."
Carl shook his head in an unapproving way.
"Dude, seek help." Carl said flatly as Ryan just brushed him off. Carl then sighed, "Look, I have a suggestion. Write a poem about her and see if that'll make you feel better. I mean, if you can't be with her…"
Ryan took his eyes off of the road and looked at Carl with a hopeful expression, but Carl didn't sugar coat what he was saying, "…and you can't." Ryan's face fell back to its serious state as Carl continued, "You at least will have a way to vent your feelings."
Ryan sighed, "Fine."
"There you go, and besides, you've got to understand the chance that she has the same feelings for you is like a million to one." Carl turned his attention back to outside, watching as they went past the local park, now pitch-black with the exception of the soccer field, which has a game going on and the huge, towering lights overhead to illuminate the field.
He was so transfixed that he didn't hear Ryan say, "Then there's still a chance."
Carl's Room
"So you're saying that my brother is the Element of Magic?" Lisa asked in shock as she talked with Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were sitting next to Anna and talking to her about animals, parties and clothes. Actually, scratch that, Pinkie Pie was talking while Fluttershy mostly listened.
Lisa laughed, "I think you've got him confused with someone else."
"No, he's the one, trust me." Twilight said.
"But, he's so incompetent and, well, ordinary."
Twilight chuckled at Lisa's obvious attempts to put down her brother. "Well, sometimes the more ordinary people seem, the greater destiny they have."
Lisa nodded before she turned to Rainbow Dash and pointed, "And you, is it true?"
Rainbow Dash looked at Lisa with confusion, "Is what true?"
"That you like…mares."
"Well of course I like mares, I'm friends with a bunch of them." Rainbow Dash scoffed but Lisa chuckled.
"No I don't mean like friends I mean are you….attracted to them?"
Rainbow Dash's mouth dropped open in shock as she heard muffled laughter coming from Applejack and Rarity. Twilight just looked surprised.
"Wait….what? I'm not into mares! Who says that!"
"The internet," Lisa laughed, "and a lot of bronys too."
"But...but Carl and Ryan never mentioned that." Rainbow Dash said as her facee turned red in both anger and pure embarrassment. Applejack and Rarity were now on the verge of tears from laughing so hard.
"Oh my, that is simply uproarious." Rarity said through her giggles.
"Oh my, that's just great." Applejack laughed, face red from laughing so much.
"Why do they think that?" Rainbow Dash asked Lisa.
"Let's see," Lisa began, putting her hand to her chin, "your mane is the same colors as the flag for the gay community, your mane is styled in a more masculine way, your voice is raspier than most mares and you are into more boyish things, like sports."
Rainbow Dash was now on the verge of tears. Lisa was smiling demonically. normally she would have been much more respectable to these six characters, after all she loved MLP as well. But Carl had put her into a bad mood by blackmailing her into staying up, and when Lisa was in a bad mood, no one was safe from her wrath. Applejack and Rarity laughed, not noticing how upset Rainbow Dash was.
Twilight went over to her, "Rainbow Dash are you okay?"
Rainbow Dash nodded, "I'm fine, I mean I know I'm not gay."
"An' how do we know ya ain't lying?" Applejack asked mockingly, still oblivuous to the fact that she was taking it too far.
"Well, you're the element of honesty, you tell me."
"You could be lying to yourself." Lisa teased, also not realizing how she was taking it too far.
"I am not!"
"How do you know?" Lisa asked, leaning down to Rainbow Dash's level.
"BECAUSE RYAN IS A GUY AND I LIKE HIM!" she shouted before her eyes shot open in fear, realizing what she just said. Tears began to fill her eyes and she burst out of the room and into the bathroom across the hall. Luckily Lauren was in her bedroom at this point, watching television and unknowing of all that was happening just down the hall.
Rainbow Dash shut the door and began to sob, her back pressed against the door and her head buried in her hooves.
"I'm a freak…." Rainbow Dash sniffed, "I'm a freak."
Back in Carl's room, there was pure silence. Anna shot Lisa a dirty look before she got up to go after Rainbow Dash, along with most of the other girls. Twilight started to the door, but looked back angrily at Lisa, "You took it way to far Lisa."
Lisa looked down, feeling terrible about what she did.
After she left, only Applejack, Rarity and Lisa remained in the room, also feeling bad about how they acted.
Especially Applejack, who was now conflicted between keeping her promise to Ryan to not tell Rainbow Dash about his feelings, and breaking it to tell Rainbow Dash so she felt better.
Mr. Courtie's Magic Shop
James was busy sweeping up the floor of the shop before it closed for the night. He was exhausted and every inch of his body was screaming at him to go home and sleep, but his mind remembered his parents and promptly said "fuck that" before egging him on to continue to find tasks.
Besides, he had to wait for Carl and Ryan regardless, might as well be overly productive. He was working when he heard footsteps behind him followed by a kind, old voice.
"You know if you keep sweeping this long every night you'll leave me with nothing but a stick and I'll have to buy a new broom."
James chuckled and turned to see the gentle, old face of Mr. Courtie giving him a smile, "I know sir, I just felt like there should be no dust on the floor."
James put the broom against the wall and walked over to the back of the store to grab his street clothes. It was so annoying how Mr. Courtie had him wear a uniform for such a small proprietorship, but he never questioned it. After all, he really liked Mr. Courtie, even if he was a bit eccentric.
"I know that's not the only reason you do that, come on. Tell me the truth James."
James too his uniform vest off and threw on his brown t-shirt. "The truth is that, I'm fine."
"You know I can tell when you're lying."
"How, does your "magic" help you with that?" James said with a snarky smile.
Mr. Courtie just chuckled in response, "Ah mocking my profession I see. I expect nothing less from you."
"Glad to see I've left a mark." James said, shutting his locker and starting towards the front to wait for Carl and Ryan. "Anyway, I'm going to wait here until Carl and Ryan pick me up."
Mr. Courtie nodded, but his face showed a quick flash of remorse, before he went back to the storage room. James waited for another few minutes when the bright headlights of Ryan's car flashed brightly into his eyes, temporarily blinding him until the car was turned off.
A few seconds later, Carl and Ryan walked into the store and James glared at them. "You know you two dicks should flash the headlights into my eyes, I could go blind."
"Oh that would be a shame." Ryan said sarcastically.
"So are you ready to head out?" Carl asked. James wiped his nose on his sleeve and nodded.
"Yeah let's bounce," he turned towards the back of the store, "See you tomorrow Mr. Courtie!"
"See you James!" Mr. Courtie shouted back.
Carl sighed, feeling like he should probably say hello to Mr. Courtie, even if he really hadn't spoken to him in years. He turned to Ryan and James.
"Hang on you two I'm going to say hi. I'll be right back." With that, he walked towards the back of the store. He passed all sorts of magical objects which woke a sense of nostalgia from the depths of his soul. He finally went into the storage room to see Mr. Courtie sitting at his desk, writing some stuff down on a piece of paper. Carl cleared his throat, which caused the elderly man to turn around and smile.
"Carl!" he quickly got up and ran over to Carl, wrapping his arms around him in a tight bear-hug. "Oh it's so good to see you my boy!"
"You too Mr. Courtie." He said as the hug was broken. Mr. Courtie smiled and looked him over.
"My lord you've grown."
"Well it has been five years since I've worked here." He said, "But I mean you see me passing by."
"Yes but I haven't gotten this good of a look at you in years."
Carl chuckled as Mr. Courtie snapped his fingers, just then remembering something. "Oh, hang on! I've got something to show you."
With that, he walked over to a table and picked up a black disc, which he brought over to Carl.
"What's that?" asked Carl.
Mr. Courtie smiled, "Just watch." He closed his eyes and seemed to be concentrating with great intensity until a blue aura began to emit itself from the disc.
Carl was stunned at the sight, but he didn't show it and just shrugged.
"So how are you doing that?" he asked flatly.
Mr. Courtie gave Carl his typical grin "Magic, what else?"
Carl rolled his eyes and shook his head, "Mr. Courtie, you know that I'm seventeen, you don't have to keep this charade up anymore."
"Ah but it isn't a charade Carl! It's real! Magic is real you just have to have faith in it."
Carl was now getting furious and he hissed, "I had faith in it five years ago and what the hell did that accomplish?" Mr. Courtie's expression fell from a smile into an almost depressed look. Carl turned and started to walk out, not turning around even as Mr. Courtie began to call after him. He didn't care, he was seething. How dare this man try to tell him that bullshit idea that magic existed. I mean, he knew that Twilight and Rarity could use magic sinc they were unicorns, but as far as humans on Earth? Eh….no, just no.
Carl made his way to the front of the store. "Come on guys let's get going."
Carl then noticed that Ryan was staring at something that was hanging up on the wall, some sort of poster. James was standing near him, looking annoyed.
"What are you two doing?"
James rolled his eyes and pointed to Ryan, "Ask Mr. Inquisitive over here." Carl walked over to Ryan and looked at what he was looking at. When he saw it, his jaw dropped.
It was a picture of two, animated unicorns that clearly were from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. One unicorn was Twilight, but the other was one that none of the boys recognized. It had a light blue coat and white mane. Its cutie mark appeared to be a magic wand with a yellow spark coming off of it. But something was strange about it, it looked almost too well drawn to be fan-art, and that's saying something considering all of the brilliant fan-art that existed.
Ryan looked over at Mr. Courtie, who had just appeared in the room.
"Mr. Courtie, where did you get this My Little Pony picture from?"
Mr. Courtie suddenly looked nervous.
"I just got it online."
"Who is that pony there?" Carl asked, pointing to the blue one.
"Oh Celestia knows I have no idea."
This grabbed all three boys' attention, even James, who was until then trying to hide the fact that he knew about the show.
"Don't you mean Lord knows?" Carl said, taking a step towards Mr. Courtie, whose eyes darted beck and forth for a second when Carl was right in his face, "Are you a brony?"
"No." Mr. Courtie said with a sigh.
"Then why do you have this picture?" Carl asked.
Mr. Courtie looked at Carl and sighed, "I think it's time I told you the truth Carl."
Carl looked at Mr. Courtie when the old man looked back, "Carl you're the Element of Magic."
Carl was shocked. Not at the fact that he was an element since he already knew that, but because Mr. Courtie knew.
"Yeah I know, but how….how do you know?" Carl stuttered and Mr. Courtie pointed to the picture.
"That unicorn in that picture is named Bright Illusion, he's Twilight's Uncle," Mr. Courtie sighed, "and he owns this shop."
"Wait! I thought you owned this shop." James asked, clearly confused as hell.
Mr. Courtie looked at James and gave him a small nod, "Exactly."
Well there it is. Again, don't expect chapters to be up quickly as I have schoolwork to do. Organic Chemistry and a 200-level spanish class can be quite trying.
Anyway, thanks for reading and don't forget to review. :)
Go Giants!