The Whitetail Willow

by VintageCrispy

Rating: teen
Tags: Human, Sad, Romance
Length: 1939

When a human is magically transported to Equestria by the almighty Nightmare Moon, the one who calls himself Vintage will need to get home in time for the Arsenal game, or adjust to a new way of life and conflicting emotions.

Vintage, an avid Arsenal fan, is out in his local town on his way to see the new Star Trek film; when he is cornered by a bunch of bullies and is knocked unconscious.

When he wakes up under a willow tree in the Whitetail Woods, he has absolutely no idea where he is, or how he got here. What he does know, is that there is an Arsenal game, on what he presumed was today. He had to find his way back home and find out the results and see if Arsenal secured their place in the Champions League. All of this changed when he sighted a canary coloured pegasus in the distance.

He has two options: find a way home or adjust to new, and most unwelcome, conflicting emotions.

(I'm sorry this opens with short chapters, but they will get longer the more that I write.)

Credit to Recovery565 for Proof-reading!

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-05-19 07:50:03 UTC

Prologue

They say everyone has their own world. I say you can make that world whatever you want it to be.

I got off the bus I'd taken into town. It was a sunny day; unfortunately I chose this one to spend two hours shut away in a dark room staring at a big screen. I was wearing a dark plum purple t-shirt, dark blue jeans and my black jacket, my favourite ensemble. I started to head towards the cinema, with my satchel of drinks and sweets over my shoulder and my trademark headphones slung around my neck. As I passed the shops and banks in the town centre, I felt a cool breeze blow past me.

Strange, I thought to myself. I hadn't felt any wind all day, and the sky was too calm for the weather to change too dramatically. The breeze was welcome though, it made me feel somewhat at home. I walked slowly along the pavement towards the cinema, enjoying the warm and sunny weather before I locked myself away with a bunch of other Trekkies and watched what could only be a magnificent film.

I noticed a group of people huddled around the bottom of the steps leading up to the entrance. As I got closer, I realised they were the quote-unquote "popular kids" from my high school.

"Oh dear, here we go..." I grumbled under my breath as I approached the impending encounter with the notorious crowd. I tried my best to avoid the confrontation, but my best efforts were in vain.

"Hey, pony fag!" called the tallest in the mob of teenagers, having clearly spotted me walking past. I repeatedly reminded myself to keep my composure and keep walking, but there was almost no point. Three of the group crossed in front of me, and another two outflanked me. There was no avoiding it now.

"Can I help?" I asked, with a slight tone of sarcasm in my voice.

"No." replied a group member who, quite honestly looked like a manticore.

"Well then, if you'll excuse me, I've a Star Trek film to watc-"

"Oh, not only is he a pony-fag, he's a trekkie-fag as well!" called out another beastly looking gangster.

"There is only one thing worse than a pony-fag, and it's a trekkie-fag. Let's bash this bastard and move on!" called the ringleader.

"Oh shit.." I mumbled, with a quickly rising tone of panic. As the manticore-man went to strike me, everything went black. All I could remember was the same cool breeze blowing again.

***

Fluttershy stepped out of her bathroom, a small sky-blue towel wrapped around her head. She had quite a bit to be getting on with today. Angel needed a bath; she had to feed all of her animals and then head into Ponyville to restock on feed; she needed to visit Zecora to acquire a potion to cure Mr Chipmunk's rather serious case of animal-pox; she needed to be ready for her weekly spa visit with Rarity and then she needed to be on time for Pinkie's "Congratulations on mastering a new stunt" party for Rainbow Dash.

As she put the kettle on the stove to boil water for her morning strawberry tea, she put two slices of bread into the toaster and finished drying her hair. On her way to the laundry room to put away her towel, Angel bounces happily up to Fluttershy and shows her an open cookbook.

"Oh Angel Bunny, you know I can't keep spoiling you with these special meals. They are for treats." said Fluttershy, sweetly.

Angel Bunny stomped his left paw onto the ground with a soft, but audible, thump.

"Angel, I'm sorry but I can't make this fo-" Angel Bunny slapped Fluttershy around the face, not hard, but hard enough to get the message across. "Ok Angel Bunny, I'll make your special recipe..."

Angel shoved the book into Fluttershy's face before bouncing off happily into the garden. Looking over the recipe, Fluttershy put her towel to one side and then realised that she needed a few herbs from the garden for the recipe to be just right for her little saint. As she walked outside and started picking the herbs she needed, she heard a loud bang, followed by a blinding flash of light followed by somepony screaming. All of it came from the Whitetail Woods. She dropped the herbs instantly and took off towards the woods, her caring instincts taking over her better judgement with the smell of burnt toast drifting from her cottage.

When she arrived at the edge of the forest, she landed from her low hover and put all four hooves on the ground. She stared into the woods. The sun was still rising, she thought maybe she should turn back and get somepony else to help. No, this pony could be really hurt, I need to go help them. She took one step forwards into the wood, followed by another, then another, then another.

Dude, Where are my Headphones?

I came back to consciousness without opening my eyes. I could still feel that light cool breeze from earlier, and again it was welcomed. I slowly opened my eyes, expecting to see the mob standing over me, ready to go again. What I saw was quite the opposite. Trees, lots of trees. I was clearly in a forest of some sorts.

Those bastards must've dumped me here. I thought to myself, slowly getting my bearings. I stood up, and began looking around my vicinity. I was standing in a clearing, with the centre being a large willow tree. Running my fingers along the bark, one thought called out in my mind, and caused me great pain.

"Dude, where the actual fuck are my headphones?" I called out to the forest, as if I was expecting a reply. When I got none, I slammed my fist into the willow. I felt naked without my headphones, like a part of me was missing. I slowly exhaled, trying to regain my composure. Luckily, I wasn't as exposed as I imagined myself to be. I was still wearing my dark plum shirt, but my jeans were now denim shorts, and I had no shoes. After another quick visual sweep of my surroundings, I reached to my satchel to get a drink. It wasn't there.

"FUCK," I screamed out loudly, now extremely angry, "THOSE LYING, THIEVING SCUM!" If I hadn't been in the middle of a forest clearing under a willow tree, I would've tried to calm myself down. After venting my fury, I decided the best thing to do would be to try and find a way out of the forest. Stepping out from under the shade of the tree, I felt the warmth of the sun shine onto my skin. The weather was extremely pleasant, probably the nicest that I have ever felt in my life. The same went with the air; it was fresh, fresher than I have ever had the delight of breathing. I took a deep breath, and started walking out of the clearing. The soft grass between my toes felt heavenly, and as I approached the edge of the clearing I slowly started to run. It was a sublime moment. Running at top speed through the forest, with the fresh air blowing and gorgeous sun shining through the leaves, I felt great. I was jumping over tree roots and putting newborn footprints into the previously untouched dirt as if I didn't have a care in the world.

I could do this all day! I thought to myself, happily running through the woods. It was almost as if I were in heaven, just the simple action of running was enough to wipe away all of my worries, about where I was; about my headphones and even about the football game that is sure to start soon.

WAIT WHAT? simply remembering about the football game made me lose track of where I was putting my feet and I tripped over a rather extrusive tree root, and fell over a bush onto a beaten dirt path. I didn't fall unconscious again, but my head hurt like I'd just had someone smack me over the head with an anvil. I slowly started to gather my bearings, and was looking down both ends of the dirt road I'd unceremoniously fallen onto. After standing back up straight I put my hand to my head. I felt a searing pain on my forehead, and withdrew my hand in nothing flat. Looking at my hand, I saw it was red with blood. I swore under my breath, deciding that overexerting myself with rage was not the best thing to be doing. I mentally tossed a coin and chose a direction in which to head down the beaten path.

My journey down the pathway didn't last too long before something interesting happened. I saw something in the horizon, it was only a blur but I didn't know whether it was because of it's distance or because my head was bleeding and hurt like hell anyway. I carried on my route towards it, and eventually more and more of it's features became apparent. It was canary yellow, with a pink... something; it had legs and it was walking towards me. My eyes opened wide with realisation when I noticed something. This canary yellow and pink thing that was walking towards me, was a pony. More specifically, this pony was Fluttershy. I didn't know whether to be shocked or excited. I thought I was hallucinating, so I kept walking forwards. I decided to humour myself, and I called out to the pony.

"Hello?" I called towards the trick my mind was playing on itself. Fluttershy, or whatever it actually was, screamed. I froze still, I didn't know what to do. She started backing away slowly, calling out to anyone, or anypony that may be out there.

"Help! Anypony, help me!" She tripped over her own hooves, and fell onto her flank. I was so tempted to run towards her and help her, but when another pony ran out of the forest answering her calls to help I turned and ran off of the beaten path. The same cool breeze that i had felt many times before was blowing again; but this time it wasn't welcome. It felt more like a hindrance than an encouragement, and all I wanted now was to be at home.

"Hey you! Come back here!" a familiar voice called. I recognised the voice from somewhere, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I kept running, further and further into the woods. The same voice kept calling me over and over again, each time becoming more and more familiar. When purple lasers started flying past me, it finally hit me. That voice was Twilight Sparkle.

"ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?" I shouted out, completely at a loss as to what was happening. I hoped that if one of those beams hit me, it would send me home rather than kill me. I wanted out, I didn't know whether I was hallucinating, or whether it was actually real. Either way, I wanted it to stop. It's funny, every single Brony out there has a part, if not every part, of them wanting to come and live in Equestria; but when it comes down to it, it's not as fun as people make it out to be. On that thought, I tripped on another tree root and fell flat on my stomach. I rolled over, everything going hazy, and saw two blurs running towards me, one yellow and one purple.