Mind Over Matter

I have updated this chapter with newer edits. A thanks to BeardedRedMane for the edits.

Curse it! I can't remember a damn thing! Where I'm at or what caused me to be here, who I am, my family, my loved ones...none of it. I remember trying to use my psychic powers for something, and then nothing. I remember a bright flash of light overtaking me and then the next moment I'm in a large grassy field. Looking around to get my barings I noticed some buildings in the distance, I seemed to be on the outskirts of a small town.

To my luck it seemed that it rained the night before and I was able to get a pretty good look at my reflection in a puddle. I'm a light-skinned human with short black hair and brown eyes. I'm also kind of tall, around six feet to be exact; that is if my measurements are accurate. I'm wearing a pair of blue jeans and a black shirt with the band name Metallica on it! So my memories aren't completely shot, I can remember my taste in music but everything else.. seems to be missing.

Turning my attention back toward the town I tried to get a better look at it. Most of the buildings looked old fashioned... good another vague piece of my memory returning. Deciding that I needed some answers I headed closer to the town. A few minutes of walking and I noticed a shadow passing over me as I saw a blue streak fly overhead. Immediately I focused on bending the light around me to conceal my presence. I knew I couldn't stay like this for long but I had to see whether or not this thing was hostile.

A horse with wings? What was it called again? A Pegasus? I think that's about right. The realization hit me like a shit ton of bricks. Another memory floated to the surface that let me know that Pegasi weren't real in my world. I had to be dreaming or something. None of this could be real.

I took a moment to observe the absurdity in front of me. The first thing that I noticed was that its coat was an unnatural... well actually everything about it wasn't natural. It sported a cyan coat with a shaggy rainbow mane. On either side of its' flanks I could see an odd colored brand; a rainbow lightning bolt shooting from a cloud. If I didn't know any better I'd say I was going nuts...absolutely nuts.

I could feel the pressure in my nose start to rise. The splitting of the flesh in my nose wasn't a very pleasant experience nor was the feeling of the nerves in my head begging to tense up.  I couldn't keep myself invisible like this for much longer and I needed to find someplace to hide. Low and behold I managed to find a large tree that wasn't too far from where I was currently standing. From the looks of it, it had some low lying branches and would be easy to climb. My decision made I immediately ran over to it, climbed up the branches and let my mental grip on the light go.

The headache subsided after a few minutes and so did the nose-bleed. I continued to watch the Pegasus do its' thing as I wiped the blood from my nose onto my sleeve. I made sure I was pressed against the tree trunk where I wasn't too visible, so I couldn't be easily spotted. Peering around the leaves and branches of the tree at the Pegasus I continued to observe it.

“I know I'm not crazy. I know I saw a flash of light come from this direction.” The pegasus spoke. Oh my god, it can talk! Its' voice sounded raspy, but it was definitely female from what it sounded!

I really need to wake up from this dream. Maybe I'm still asleep with all of my memories intact, I thought. I slid myself up against the trunk of the tree, and adjusted myself to get comfortable on the branch I was sitting on. I tried to get into a

position I was content with but I ended up hitting my head on a nearby branch.

“DAMN IT!” I screamed as I lost my balance and tumbled out of the tree; landing on my back. “Damn it again!”

“Huh?” The Pegasus flew down toward my direction. “What was that?” She flew toward me until she was right behind me. “Um, hello?”

I shot up into a sitting position immediately and shouted; partly due to my having just fallen out of a tree, “Holy Jesus jumping Christ!” I turned to the Pegasus and she just gave me a stare. I noticed that up close, her eyes were huge and had a purple color to them. Violet maybe? Didn't matter to me. What mattered was that she scared the living daylights out of me.

“What...are you?” She asked pointing a hoof at me.

I didn't reply and kept giving her a blank stare. She began to look at me with an irritated expression and turned around to take off. “Okay, if you don't want to answer, that's fine. I'll just get more of my friends.”

“Wait!” I quickly exclaimed.

“Yeah?” I caught her attention as she proceeded to turn back to face me.

“To answer your question.” I paused. “I'm a human, but I have no clue how I got here. I barely even remember where I'm from. Hell, I'm still convinced this all is a dream...despite the pain of that fall...”

She narrowed her eyes at me and spoke, “Okay. Do you have a name, huumon?” The pegasus stressed the word human, as if it was very foreign to her.

“Wish I could remember.” I answered, rubbing the back of my head.

She cocked an eyebrow at me. “How'd ya forget your name?”

I just shrugged. There was no way of knowing what my name was...unless! A thought came to my mind and I patted myself around my waist, slipping my hands into my pockets. To my relief I felt a soft rectangular object in my pocket and pulled it out. A laminated piece of paper could be seen from a clear pocket on the back of the item. It had a picture of me that included a name, dates, and a bunch of numbers on it.

“It says on this...” I trailed off, “I guess my name is James Phillips.”

The Pegasus gave me a puzzled look. “What a weird name.”

“Oh yeah? And what's your name Mrs. Normal?” I replied as I put the items back into my pocket.

“Name's Rainbow Dash. Best flier in Equestria.” She answered pointing a hoof to herself.

It was my turn to raise a brow. I had to admit though, that name did sound pretty cool. And Equestria? Sounds like a pun.

“Your name is an interesting name to say the very least.” I stopped and thought for a moment and felt like I should try and take back those words. “Actually, I think that's quite a cool name.”

“It's a cool enough name for an awesome flier like me!” She boasted.

“I guess I just fed your ego a little.” I stated. “Aren't you the least bit concerned that someone out there might be better than you?”

She chortled at the statement. “You're funny, James. Everypony knows that I'm the best!”

“Every...pony?” Didn't she mean everybody?

“Yeah. Everypony. What is there something wrong with that?”

“No, it's just you said everypony instead of everybody.” I scratched my head in confusion.

“What does...everybadi mean?” she questioned sounding off the word

I let out a sigh. “Actually, I'm not exactly sure. I can't really remember a whole lot since that bright light brought me here.”

Rainbow Dash tapped her chin with a fore hoof. “So that means...you were that flash of light I saw earlier?”

“I guess?”

There was a bit of silence before Rainbow Dash spoke up again.

“By the way, other than you I've never seen a human before. What exactly is a human? What do they eat?” She got closer to my face, peering into my eyes with her eyebrows furrowed.

I hummed in thought for a second. “I'll explain to you as best I can.” I gathered my thoughts for a quick moment, trying to remember as many details as possible, “A human is a bipedal creature, meaning I walk on two legs. I eat meat and plants, so basically a human is an omnivore.”

Rainbow Dash was a little curious about the eating meat part, and she continued to give me a glare. “Do you eat ponies?”

“FUCK NO!” I responded loudly, with a hint of annoyance in my voice.

“You didn't have to yell, I'm right here you know.” She said, rubbing her ears with her hooves to ease the ringing that resonated. “What is that word?”

“What word?”

“What is...'fuck'?”

I think these creatures are a little too innocent be cursing if they've never even heard of the words before. I thought as she asked the question. “I-It's a very bad word...” I stuttered, “so please don't say it. I shouldn't have said it at all,” I answered.

“Uh alright... that's okay, I guess.” Dash shrugged.

“Is there anymore...ponies around here I should know about?” I asked as I got to my feet, stretching out my arms and letting out a yawn.

“Lot's of them! I should probably introduce you to my best friends first. Then maybe I can give you a tour and maybe we can hang out later today after.” Rainbow Dash seemed enthusiastic about this. I would at least expect her to attack me, or call the police, being as I was a strange creature she had never seen before; then again, she might have seen weirder things than just little ol' me.

“What's happening later today?” I responded to the ending of her statement.

“I'm going camping with some friends. We're also going to tell ghost stories, and stuff.” She put a hoof on my shoulder.

“It'll be fun. You should totally join us.” she said while giving a smile.

“Okay... but you barely know me and you want me to join you on some sort of camping trip? Don't you think that would be the tiniest bit unsafe?” I gave Dash a deadpan stare.

“Don't worry, everypony will know you after I'm done introducing you to them.”

I sighed and after a little more chatting we started to head towards the town she called Ponyville. And oh man, just when I thought this experience couldn't get any weirder than it already was, Rainbow Dash kept staring at me the entire time.

“Is there something I can help you with?” I asked tilting my head to glance over at her.

“Well...I was wondering what you're able to do. You know, being human and all.” She said sounded curious as to any abilities I might have, so I decided to tell her about some of my mental abilities.

“Well for one, I can fly.” I answered.

She beamed at this statement. Seriously she barely knows me and she acts like we've known each other for ages.

“What? But you don't even have wings! Can you really do that? I totally wanna see!”

“Okay, sheesh. I've gotta let you know now that my psychic abilities are limited during flight.” I did a few stretches and rubbed my temples.

“What do you mean you're limited?”

"The most I'll be able to do while in flight is levitate and throw objects. That and I can manipulate elements such as electricity." I explained. "If I wanted to go faster and add power then I would have to focus on increasing my stamina, speed, and strength. So basically it's a one thing or the other situation.” I pondered for a moment before realizing something. “Come to think of it, increasing my physical attributes while I'm flying is a lot easier than putting my focus onto an external object

during flight.”

Dash stared at me with a puzzled look. Was she even paying attention?

“I just want to see you fly.” She said dryly, managing a bored expression on her face. "I don't care about all that fancy-smancy nerd talk.

“Okay then, here it goes.” I gave a small groan, and I closed my eyes for a brief moment. I then started to focus my energies on myself. Flight wasn't very strenuous, so I didn't suffer any nose-bleeds or headaches. After a few moments I was in the air. By the time I was about five feet off the ground I folded my arms, and grinned. “Like what you see?”

“Whoa! You really are able to make yourself fly without wings! So these powers of yours must be magic, right? This is so awesome!” Rainbow Dash started zipping around with energy. She stopped right in front of me with a smile on her face.

“I'll race you to Ponyville!”

“Uh...sure?” I replied with an awkward stare. Really? A race already?

“I hope you can keep up with me. I'm the fastest flier here in Equestria, and no pony has been able to beat me yet!” She sounded really confident in her abilities.

I could see where Dash got her confidence. From the way she was zipping around, she really could fly fast. She didn't seem hot headed, or arrogant, just she was genuinely confident in herself. At least, this is what I could gather from all her boasting. I could say that she's just being arrogant but I didn't know too much about her; so making a judgment this early wouldn't exactly be fair.

“You ready, James?”

I nodded with a grin. “Am I ever.” I thought for a moment after my response. “Wait, where's the finish line?”

“We'll end it at the entrance to Ponyville. That way we don't start too much of a panic.” Dash answered.

I stared off in the distance and made a quick estimate about how far it was. “That's about a two mile race.” I replied, “Seems legit.”

“I guess so.”

We both took a starting position and readied ourselves for our little race to the town.

"Three" I said as I steadied myself.

"Two" Dash herself tensing every muscle in her body.

"One."