Chapters Chapter 1: Magic Problems
A typical, peaceful night in Ponyville. Our story begins with the Pegasus of Kindness herself and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Fluttershy has her hooves full today, as she has again taken on the responsibility of foal-sitting the Crusaders. "Come on...come on..." Sweetie Belle chants as she attempts to use magic. Her horn sparks a bit, but it quickly dies out. "Uuuugh!" she groans as she collapses to the floor in frustration.
Apple Bloom pats her on the back, but it hardly helps. "Ah don't worry Sweetie Belle. You'll get it right!"
Meanwhile, Scootaloo is staring out the window out of boredom. "Why can't we just go crusading again?"
Apple Bloom looks up at her like she just said something stupid...wait, she did. "Y'all wanna be chased by a mutant chicken again?" That shut her up.
"Girls, I'm home..!" Comes the soft voice of Fluttershy as she enters the door. When she spots the Crusaders, they are all sitting there with the most bored looks on their faces. "O-Oh...Sorry if I'm bothering you...I..um..I went to the library and borrowed this magic book. I thought maybe it could..um..help you with your magic?"
Sweetie Belle's face lights up at this and she quickly bounces around Fluttershy. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you!"
Fluttershy giggles at her excitement and gives her the book. "Twilight says its for beginners, so you should be able to do at least one of them."
Sweetie Belle thanks her again and gets to reading with her friends on either side of her. Fluttershy smiles and trots into another room. "Oh! How about that one!" Scootaloo says and points a hoof to a spell in the book. A simple teleportation spell.
"That sounds easy!" Sweetie says as she looks over at an apple sitting on a table. She then points her horn at it, closes her eyes, and concentrates as hard as she can. Her horn begins to spark once more as the magic starts building and building up inside Sweetie.
Not noticing what Sweetie is doing, Fluttershy enters the room again and trots in front of her. "Girls, would you like anything to...eat..?" She ends her sentence with widened eyes while the Crusaders all look up to see Fluttershy, and this causes Sweetie to lose concentration and fire off early. Without warning, the spell grows to twice its power.
"Fluttershy watch out!!!" the three fillies yell at her, but its too late.
"Oh my...!" BOOM. The entire room fills with smoke and the sound can be heard throughout Ponyville. Nearly everything gets knocked or flipped over, the Crusaders included. By the time the smoke cleared the only thing left untouched is, surprisingly, the apple. Sweetie Belle sits there staring at the apple in shock. "...I think I missed..."
Ponyville Library
Twilight was sitting by her desk in the library's upper floor as usual, reading through a book and occasionally taking down notes. Also as usual, Spike the Dragon was lazily curled up in his bed and snoring up a storm. Though that still didn't seem to phase the bookworm somehow. Seems she's already lost in her studies. That is until she hears a loud and repetitive banging on the front door. She ignores it at first, but when the sounds persists she looks to Spike...but sighs when she remembers that he's sleeping. "Guess I'll have to get it..."
She puts down the quill she was using and makes her way down the stairs. She yawns a bit, then opens the door to reveal the three fillies. "Girls?? What are you two doing out at this time of night? I thought Fluttershy was taking care of you.."
Sweetie Belle cringes while Scootaloo rolls her eyes at her. "Fluttershy disappeared." she says.
When Twilight just stares at them, Apple Bloom clarifies. "Sweetie Belle was practicin' her magic and tried usin' a teleport spell on an apple but Fluttershy stood in front of 'er. The spell got really really really big 'n powerful 'n stuff and it hit Fluttershy and she disappeared!" She breaths out after saying it all on one breath.
Twilight looks between the three of them before stopping on Sweetie Belle. "Now..hold on a second. There is no need to panic. Fluttershy couldn't have been gotten very far if it was just a simple teleportation spell. Though...I am wondering why it might have grown like that...Come on. Let's go look for her." Sweetie nods sadly and they all go out to search for Fluttershy.
Fluttershy's Place
"Fluuuutershyyyyy!" Apple Bloom calls out to her while peeking inside the chicken coop.
Scootaloo face-hoofs at this. "Apple Bloom. She would have came out already if she was in there." she says as checks a squirrel's home in a tree. The squirrel gets annoyed at her and throws an acorn at her. "Ow!"
Twilight comes back from behind Fluttershy's house and shakes her head. "I couldn't find her back there either..." A little white bunny, clearly Angel, comes out from the Everfree Forest. When they spot him he shakes his head and shrugs, signalling that he couldn't find her either.
Sweetie Belle starts panicking again. "What if I really screwed up!? What if she got sent to someplace bad?? What if she's scared and in danger?! What if she-"
Apple Bloom covers her mouth with a hoof. "Sweetie Belle this is Fluttershy we're talkin' about! If she was in danger she'd be able to handle herself."
Sweetie Belle nods and sniffles. "O-Okay..." she says sadly.
Twilight looks up at the sky. "...Come on girls. Its getting late. You can stay at the library, and we'll keep looking tomorrow when everypony else is awake." The three fillies nod and follow her back to the library.
Chris' thoughts are in italics.
A simple city in California
Its a normal day. Clear skies, perfect temperature...Nice day to go out and exercise or somethi-...wait never mind. We find a boy still stuck in his house. His name is Chris. He is about five foot nine, has brown hair and eyes, average weight, wearing jeans and a black Nirvana shirt. He lives alone since his parents moved away and let him keep the old house. Lucky him. He is currently sitting on the living room couch, watching something on the television. "...I wonder if I should go out somewhere..."
Chris is a college student. Eighteen years old, currently on summer vacation and with a part-time job at the nearest fast-food place. Unfortunately, the lack of school and need to get up early every single day has made him a bit lazier than usual. Other than working three days a week, he really has nothing better to do than goof off.
"Mrrow..."
Chris turns off the TV and looks down at his cat, who just meowed at him. An adult black cat named Belle. She was given to Chris by his mother. "...Why is it that you're always hungry?"
"Mrrrroooow."
"...Well I guess I wouldn't mind some food myself...Alright, come on." He stands up and heads off into the kitchen with Belle following close behind, eager to get some food.
Upon entering the kitchen Chris grabs the container of cat food and picks up the bowl from the ground, then sets them both on the counter. Naturally, Belle jumps up to follow her bowl. "Jeez. No patience with you cats. Hang on a sec..." He opens up the container and starts pouring the food into the bowl as he covers it so Belle can't get to it yet. After filling the bowl he finally puts it back on the floor so the cat can eat. "Brat." He puts the cat food away, then opens the fridge to get himself some leftover pizza. The moment he gets the pizza out in the open, something pushes him from behind and he nearly falls over.
"Gah! ...Damn it Sam!" He turns around to glare at the large Golden Retriever that nearly knocked him off his feet...but easily settles down at his cute face. "Ugh..I hate it when you do that." He gives the dog a little beef from his pizza. "You're a spoiled brat too, ya know? ...Huh??" Suddenly there is a loud banging from the roof and the sound of something rolling off the side and into the backyard. Sam starts to bark at the noise and the scent of something new outside. "The hell was that?" Sam rushes to the door and starts scratching at it. "Hey, back up Sammy.." He moves over to the door and peeks outside. There is a bright light shining from above that obviously isn't from the sun, plus there is something laying on the ground. Whatever is, its not moving.
"Sam, quiet," he whispers to the dog. He stops barking and Chris slowly opens the door as the light dies out. "Stay." He tells Sam. He quietly goes outside and makes his way over to the object laying on the ground. Once he gets close enough, he gasps at what he sees. Its no object, but an animal. A small horse with a yellow coat and a long pink mane and tail. Upon further inspection, its also bruised a bit from rolling and falling off the roof. A very familiar looking creature for Chris. "Wha...What the hell..??"
The small horse, or pony, whines a bit in her unconscious state and Chris quickly snaps out of his shock. "W-Wait. Its hurt. Should I help it..?" He cautiously kneels down by the pony and checks it over for more serious injuries. "...This is not a normal horse..." He gently picks up the pony and starts carrying it back inside. "Lighter than I expected." He uses his foot to open the door again and to gently brush is dog aside, then brings the pony in and to the living room where he lays her on the couch, making sure her head is on a pillow. "This CAN'T be real..." He grabs a wing and spreads it out, quickly noticing that it is in fact attached. "...Its impossible. But it looks like...Ugh. This is too weird. I need a shower...Sam!" Sam comes almost as soon as he's called. He's a good dog. "Stay here and watch this...pony. Can ya do that for me boy?" He licks his chin as if to say yes, then sits down and watches as his owner walks off down the hall.
While Chris is in the bathroom, Sam takes his opportunity to check out the pony. He paws at her a bit, then starts to sniff her. She seems to smell like nature...and a lot of different animals. Rabbits, squirrels, deer, birds, and even bears. All of these scents really bothers Sam's nose and he sneezes. After stopping to stare at the pony for a minute, he finally leans forward and licks her face. The yellow pony makes a quiet squeak and curls up a little before eventually opening her eyes. "...Eep!" she squeaks and jumps a bit before diving her head under the pillow. After a short moment however she finally peeks out from under the pillow to see nothing but the large dog in front of her. "O-Oh..a dog..?" She begins to reach out a hoof to pet Sam but he backs away, a bit hesitant to let a stranger pet him. Even more so considering its a talking pony. She smiles sweetly and continues to hold out her hoof while speaking in the softest and kindest voice you could ever hear. "Its alright boy. I'm not going to hurt you." He cautiously sniffs her hoof, searching for any sign of a threat. When the pony is sure its okay, she begins to pet him. "Good dog." After a few more moments she drops her hoof and looks around the room. "...Where am I...? Girls?? Angel? Hello??"
"...Uh..." She squeals and nearly jumps right off the couch at the sound of the human's voice standing at the hallway, now clean and fully dressed. She once again dives under the pillow to hide, but sneaks a peak from underneath to see who it is...and hides again when she sees the strange creature. "Oh my gosh..! I-I'm so sorry please don't eat me..."
Whoa...This is just weird... "H-Hey its okay. I don't eat...uh, pony..?" She barely lifts the pillow to see again and looks up at the human who now has a worried and confused look on his face. "Are you...okay?" She nods silently and he sighs in relief. "Well, that's good." I probably already know this but...I need to start small talk or something... "So...You have a name?" She nods. "...Would you tell me?"
She slowly comes out from under the pillow, but keeps most of her face hidden behind her flowing pink mane. "I-I'm Flutte..." she says timidly.
Chris cleans out his ear. "I didn't quite catch that."
"Fluttershy..."
"Uhm..once more."
She takes a breath and quickly speaks her name. "I'm Fluttershy."
He leans against the wall and scratches his head. "I knew it..." he quietly mutters to himself. Fluttershy looks at him quizzically, but he just waves his hand to dismiss it. "N-Nevermind....So...I see you've met Sam already."
She finally puts down the pillow and turns to the dog again and smiles. "Y-Yes I have. Is he yours..?" she asks him as she begins scratching Sam's ear. Chris nods and he walks around the couch to sit on the other side of Fluttershy. "Yep. Sam, or Sammy. Samuel Jacks-...Nevermind." He leans down to pet Sam, and Sam licks his face.
Fluttershy giggles a bit at this, but she stops to look over at Chris questioningly. "W-What kind of creature are you..? Um..if you don't mind me asking..."
He resists the urge to simply cave in and hug her as he answers. "Well I'm a human. Sort of a...hairless, tall, slightly more intelligent monkey. I'm uh...guessing you don't have humans where you're from." She shakes her head timidly and he scratches his head once more. "Yeah I didn't think so. Chris leans against the wall and scratches his head in thought. I've always been so blunt about things but...there's no doubt this is Fluttershy. If I mess this up bad I'm headed straight to hell... "Well...Guess I should introduce myself. Name's Chris. Welcome to...well, my house I guess."
Fluttershy takes a second to look around again at the, to her, a very odd house with strange things. "W-Where exactly am I..? Am I...near Ponyville?"
"Uh..." Chris sighs and leans back in his seat in thought. "I'm afraid not. Their isn't any place here called that either. Doesn't exist." Fluttershy's eyes widen in shock and she looks as if she is about to cry. Chris' eyes widen as well when he realizes he just said something stupid, then he facepalms. "Crap...I'm sorry..." I get the feeling there will be at least one emotional breakdown with her...Faust forgive me in advanced.
Fluttershy's sniffling interrupts his thoughts. "I-I want to go home...This place feels weird...Wh-What happened to me..?"
Chris looks at her sadly. "I don't...I don't know..." He hesitantly reaches a hand out and gently pats her on the back. "From what I'm seeing, something kicked you from Equestria and sent you here..."
Fluttershy wipes away a few stray tears and looks off out the window. "I-I was foal-sitting...a stray magic spell hit me. But...How could such a small filly do something like this...!" She suddenly sits up and looks to Chris again. "Do you know a spell to send me home?! ..." Shortly after her outburst, she sits back down again and hides her face. "I-I'm sorry..."
He gives her a slightly surprised look, but then frowns. "Well...That's the thing now. Magic doesn't exist in this world. I'm sorry but...I have no idea how to get you home..."
That did it. Fluttershy's heart just sank upon hearing the bad news and the tears began streaming down her face. "B-But...Angel...and my friends...The Elements...I...I can't be...stuck. What..What about all the poor animals?! They need me...I can't abandon them, I just can't..!"
Chris winces a bit and even tears up a bit himself. Every brony knows that making this particular pony cry is a god-tier no-no. Seeing her cry on a television is...slightly unsettling for Chris. Seeing it happen with her right next to him on the couch is heartbreaking. "Ohh...Come here now." He scoots closer to her and puts an arm around her. She covers her face in her hooves and sobs as Chris uses his other hand to pet her mane. "Hush now, quiet now...Erm...Everything will be okay. The other ponies. They are your best friends aren't they?" She uncovers her face and stops crying to nod and look up at him. "Well then you can be darn sure they're going to find a way to get you back. You may be stuck here for now, but not forever."
Fluttershy sniffles again and looks away from him. "B-But what if something happens..? What if something comes up and I'm not there to help?? W-What i-if-"
"Oi. Worrying about what may or may not even happen ain't gonna help." Fluttershy silently stares at him in shock. "Now I'm not gonna say everything is going to be perfect, seeing as how I'm generally a big pessimist, but I'm pretty sure your pals will do whatever they can to get you home before such things happen. You need to make the most of the situation. I'll even help you...if you want me to."
She manages to snap out of it long enough to respond. "R-Really..?"
He nods. "Absolutely. I may be blunt and pessimistic but I can't exactly turn you away without feeling guilty the rest of my life, and all things considered...I'd be shunned."
"...Th-Thank you... I'm sorry to cause so much trouble..." she says as she finally manages to wipe away her tears.
He waves his hand to dismiss the idea. "Please, you're hardly causing me trouble. I'm just too nice sometimes, I swear." She smiles a little at that. "Aaah there we go. For once in my life I managed to make someone feel better!" he says as he starts to grin as well.
She finally giggles softly and goes back to half-hiding behind her mane. "U-Um...If you don't mind me asking...How did you know I'm from Equestria?"
Well...That sure stopped Chris' grin cold. "I forgot about that..." He stays silent for a moment as he looks out the window. "Hm...Its actually getting late. If its okay with you, I will explain how I know in the morning..?"
Fluttershy looks outside as well but nervously answers him. "W-Well..okay..." She has pretty good reason to be nervous. She appears in another world, and the first human she meets knew exactly where she came from? Suspicious, but he has been so nice to her already and helped cheer her up so he couldn't be all bad, right?
Chris stands up and stretches a bit. "Hmm..There's no way I'm making you sleep on a couch so..." Let's see...Its probably best I don't give her my bed. She'd find out about things the hard way. Guess she can have my parent's old room. Hope Belle doesn't mind sharing. "Got a spare room for ya right down the hall." She nods and follows Chris down the hall to the bedroom where she pretty much falls asleep the very moment she hits the bed. "Heh...Night, Fluttershy."
Chris heads off to his bedroom and plops onto his bed, with Sam not too far behind. Chris gets up again and grabs a Fluttershy plushie off his desk. "Man..who would have ever thought this was possible...I feel almost as nervous as she does. I just know I'll screw this up somehow..." He plops onto the bed once more right next to his dog and slowly falls into a worry filled sleep.
Chapter 3: Multi-Verse Thingy
~The Next Day~
Fluttershy's ear twitches slightly at a distant sound. She curls up into a ball, before eventually waking up. "H-Huh..? Oh, that's right..." she says to herself, now remembering that she is still in that other world. She takes a moment to look around the room. A simple room. Empty of a majority of its original belongings, courtesy of Chris' parents. Eventually, her gaze comes to rest on a ball of black fur resting on the bed. "Um...G-Good Morning..?"
The ball of fur, formerly known as Belle the Cat, lifts up her head to look at Fluttershy. "Mrrooow."
She smiles and scratches Belle's ears. "Such a cute kitty....?" Her ear twitches at the distant noise she had heard before. She carefully climbs off the bed and looks around. Realizing it is coming from outside the room, she makes her way into the hall. She looks down at the end of the hall where the source is; a door that is open a small bit. She yawns sleepily and makes her way down the hall and peeks inside. The noise is much louder now that she's closer. Sounds like...poor quality sound effects of something hitting the ground, as well as an occasional low-quality voice saying 'yes', some banging noises, and some squeaks. She pushes the door open a bit more until she can see Chris sitting on his bed. He is holding a small, gray controller and pushing certain buttons. He's also talking to himself quietly, and he has a pair of headphones on his head.
"Stop...freaking blocking...Let me shoot the ball...Yes!" He quietly cheers for himself until he finally sees Fluttershy standing at the door with a confused look on her face. "Oh..!" He pushes a button on the controller and pulls his headphones down. He obviously has his music up too high, as now him and Fluttershy can clearly hear the music coming out of it. He quickly reaches down and pushes a button on a CD player on the other side of him, then looks back up at her. "Uh..hey. You're up early..." He glances at a digital clock on the TV. "...Early-ish."
She yawns and hides half her face again. "D-Did you sleep well..?" she says timidly.
He shakes his head. "I didn't sleep. Couldn't sleep actually. I stayed up all night playing video games." he says as he holds up the controller for him to see. "I keep forgetting how fun NBA Jam really is...Erm, sorry. You probably have no idea what I'm even talking about..."
She enters the room and looks up at the television screen. "W-We do have games in Equestria, but nothing like this..."
With her attention diverted away from him, he reaches behind him for his Fluttershy plushie and stuffs it behind his pillow. "Really now? We have those too, though they're pretty much outdated. We've evolved the world of video games so much that we even have gaming consoles that can be put right inside our homes. This is one of the older consoles though, but its right up there as one of the best. The Super Nintendo." He points down at the grey system on the floor.
"W-Wow...Your world is so advanced..." She giggles to herself. "Twilight would love to see this world."
"Heh..I bet she would." He puts the controller down, gets up, turns the console off, then stretches his arms and legs. "Ooooookay. How about some breakfast? I can make pancakes."
She smiles a bit and nods. "O-Okay.." She moves aside to let him leave first, then quietly follows him down the hall and into the kitchen. The looks around the house as she goes, taking in all the sights and strange devices here and there. "S-So..um..I-If you don't mind..can you tell me how you know about Equestria now? I mean...if you want to..."
"..." He silently gets out the pancake mix and starts cooking. "That...might be difficult. I'd have to explain other things beforehand. I suppose I can skip to the point for now and give deeper details later...Is that okay?" She nods nervously and he continues. "Well...Imagine there is a...let's say a story...Imagine there is a story you really like. That lots of people really like. Like..Daring Do for instance. Everyone knows Daring Do is a fictional character, right?" She nods. "Well imagine if that character suddenly came into your world and fell off your roof."
"..." She stares at him for a while, trying to take in what he just said. "Y-You mean...I'm a fictional character in a book..??" She frowns at the idea, and looks almost sad.
"Well..Not quite a book. That's where the extra details come in." He serves the pancakes on a couple plates at the table. "Let's eat first, then I'll explain more."
They spend the next half hour eating, and Fluttershy even offered to feed Sam and Belle. Chris was more than happy to let her, and had plenty of fun just watching her interact with his pets. This is probably the last thing I should be thinking about...but holy crap this is really awesome! A while later, after cleaning the dishes and everything, Fluttershy and Chris take a seat on the couch and Chris goes back into explaining things.
"Now...here in this world, you and Equestria are very famous. We have a thing called television. It lets you see things that are being recorded from..just about anywhere. Some of it is animated. Cartoons. That is all fictional stuff...or at least until you got here. There is a show in this world called My Little Pony. For years and years it has been called a stupid show made for the sole purpose of selling toy ponies to little girls. Then the series was recreated in the year twenty-ten....Or maybe it was twenty-nine. I forget. Anyways. A few years ago, a brilliant woman named Lauren Faust created a whole new world in her mind and it very quickly became a hit with the world. Especially grown men, like myself. Bronies, we're called. But that's beside the point. This show is about all the big, important stuff that happened to you and your friends, starting with the day Twilight Sparkle moved into Ponyville. It doesn't show anything between, of course. Or any private moments or whatever. It was made for a young audience after all. Pretty much about you and your five friends learning about friendship and stuff like that. The thing is, everyone believes it is just a genius fictional show created by a woman with an amazing imagination...but apparently there's more too it. I could try to explain the multi-verse theory or whatever its called but I don't know much about that..."
Fluttershy had been entirely silent through the explanation. Mainly out of shock. Mouth and eyes wide open, sweating...yeah, she's a bit freaked out by this. "Y-You mean I'm...fake..?"
"...? N-No. No no! Crap I should have expected that." He pinches the bridge of his nose. "Don't let your mind go down that path alright? It'll only make you sad again. This world only believes you to be fake. Clearly you're real though, since you're here right now."
"O-Oh..." She looks down in thought and frowns. "W-What was that about the..m-multi-verse..? I think I've heard Twilight talking about it once or twice but I never understood it..."
He cringes a bit. "Aaand this is where I start to feel stupid...I know next to nothing about it. I do know that it involves a theory that any world has a parallel or something, and that there are an infinite amount of alternate dimensions, or universes, or worlds..whatever you wanna call it. I suppose anything that could have happened has actually happened in a parallel world. Like maybe there's a parallel to Equestria where you and your friends never defeated Nightmare Moon or something. Plus with infinite amounts of worlds I suppose Equestria is likely to be one of them..." He smiles a bit. "Hey. I actually explained that pretty well."
You can just see the swirls in Fluttershy's eyes. "I-I'm so confused..." she says as she scratches her head.
"Uh...Long and short of it, Equestria is a different world entirely and it just happens to be a work of fiction in this world..." he says as he spaces out for a moment before face-palming. "I should have just said that instead of explaining alternate universes..."
"T-That is easier to understand...So h-how do I get back home..?" She looks up at Chris again with a half hopeful face that he might know a way.
However her hopes are dashed when he shakes his head. "I'm afraid I really have no idea. This has never happened before in this world." He watches Fluttershy look down again. Thinking she was about to tear up again, he speaks fast. "O-Oh but that doesn't mean I won't look for ways..! Plus like I said yesterday, your friends will also be searching for ways to bring you back! They will probably have even better luck with that since your world has magic when we don't."
She looks up at him again. "Y-You really think so..?"
He nods. "Absolutely. I swear on my life, you will make it back home. I don't know when or how, but I will make sure it happens.
