What do you want out of life? It’s a question that many people are asked at different points of their lives. Whereas there are some that know from the very center of their soul, the smallest fiber of their being even, what they want to do but for most of us, this question is one we don’t take too seriously. The question has even gone to a point for many where it’s, dare I say, rhetorical since many don’t think that far ahead, no matter the age. Yet, usually life will have a way to show you what you want and how to obtain it, no matter how strange its methods are. This is the situation that I have found myself in, but that will come at a later time, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to come into my tale in the very middle, would you?
The story starts as many do, in a city, a little one in this case. In this city, many know there is a quiet bar, one with an enticing atmosphere that can even rival most clubs in the big cities, an atmosphere as warm and inviting as their special winter hard cider, that one could swear warmed your very soul with each sip. The atmosphere was not because of any fancy named drinks or even by the regular patrons, however, but by one enchanting woman in particular: her hair was an earthy auburn that flowed elegantly, to her shoulders and rested playfully on her shoulders almost taunting you to talk to the owner, her eyes were as pure blue as the sky that floated over the mountains to the west, and her skin was as pure as milk. Now, before any of you jump to conclusions, I am not her. I was the one person in the bar that would stare at said beauty and never even attempt to speak to her.
I was the text book definition of the term wallflower. Though I was a young man, just turning 23 a few days back, I didn’t care for crowds. My auburn hair was brown as dirt or dark as mud, if it got wet, my eyes were brown as coarse horse fur and were accented by a pair of well-worn glassed that were visibly past their usefulness and my skin partially baked by the sun into a farmers tan from my job of walking dogs for a local kennel. I sat at my usual booth well away from the crowds of people busily talking and cheering amongst themselves, giving myself a usual pep talk that was almost routine by now.
“You can do it today.” I mumbled to myself, punctuating it with heavy breaths. “You can talk to her this time. Just get up and go.”
As usual, after this I got up and began walking to the bar only to immediately turn and walk out the door of the bar. Yep, so far this night was ending just like any other, but this time I decided to break away from my usual ritual of heading straight back home with my tail between my legs and went a way that I knew was a longer walk so I wouldn’t face the people walking down the strangely busy street, besides, I could cut through a grassy meadow, a thing that slowly became rarer and rarer for people to claim in the present day. So, I began my walk, a walk that inadvertently lead to something I couldn’t have seen coming.
The path cut through houses that were either empty or filled with their sleeping residents, all except one. An old woman sat outside with a rabbit with her which was strangely calm. As I looked at it, the rabbit then turned to me and approached with something shiny in its mouth that almost seemed to glow in the pale moonlight. I just watched in awe as the hare came closer and close in my direction, never once even hinting that it would flee. When it went to my feet it sat as though waiting for me. In a daze of confusion my hand wandered to the rabbit and it set the object into my hand before going back in its own pace to the old woman. The old woman just smiled at me and stared at me with her milky white eyes, causing me to step back in surprise. She wordlessly pointed to her hand and I looked at what the rabbit placed in my hand. It was a silver pendant that was shaped like a shield with a picture on it but before I could look any closer a loud sound made me jump before I felt a hard blow on my side making me fall to the ground and roll a few times, and once it was done, I could only feel what felt like warmth slowly leaking from my body.
I force my head to look to my side after the world around me began to slow down and the color drained. All I saw was a liquid that slowly slid away from my hand which still held the tiny pendant. Then, almost like a dimming slideshow it disappeared followed shortly by the last of my vision.
After that, I’m not sure how much time had passed when I felt a nice cooling breeze lap at my unconscious frame but eventually my I opened my eyes and as my vision focused, a new world was unveiled to me, at least that’s what it seemed. Instead of waking up in a street, or a room or anything, I was lying in grass and surrounded by trees. I gazed in awe at the scenery around me dumbstruck that there was a place like this actually existed somewhere; I mean sure there were still rainforests but nowhere near where I lived. As I looked at the grass around me my eyes began focusing on something else—hooves, or what appeared to be such.
Huh? My mind tried to patch up everything happening in a daze. I followed the hooves to find, what looked like the legs of a horse. No, smaller than a horse. My mind blurted while looking at the light brown fur covering them, which reminded me of my slightly tanned skin which, I remember, made me laugh a little.
“Well, no sense in thinking about it here. I might as well look for a town, or at least someone who knows where I am.” My voice rang out weakly and unenergized.
I got up and noticed that I was a lot shorter than I remember myself being. Thinking this was a bit odd, I looked down at my feet to see those hooves once more. Okay, how much did I have to drink? I thought stretching out with a few pops until I felt something move, or rather spasm, on my back. My eyes darted to the side and saw something with feathers. Wings and hooves? Don’t remember ever having a dream like this!
Ignoring my nagging brain’s comment my body continued with a natural focus-- find civilization. Once more the wings on my back began to act on their own, spreading out to full wingspan and resting back at my sides. The feeling that this brought with it came with something new, an urge that I never knew of before, I felt restless and part of my mind seemed to urge me to do that again, to do that more! Unable to suppress the growing passion I started concentrating on the feeling the wings brought me until I felt a flap. After a bit I could feel myself move the wings more until I was moving, albeit at a slow pace but at least I might see better.
No matter where I looked, or how far ahead I flew, everything seemed the same—forest. I hovered where I was for a bit and let loose a sigh. Great, not only do I seem to be in a forest, but it seems I’m also in the only forest not touched by mankind. My head hung a bit before I thought I heard voices in the distance.
“Come on Fluttershy, at least try racing me one, I need some competition.” came a loud voice in a close distance.
“Oh, oh no, I couldn’t. Y-you see, I think Angel has been in a bit of a mood today so I think I should go back home.” chimed in a smaller, meek voice.
“Come on! I’ll even give you a head start.”
“Well, I don’t know…”
“Please?”
“Well…o-okay, if you insist.”
My wings pulled in as I silently slipped in the direction of the voices, keeping my ears perked for the tiniest twang of sound. I scanned my surroundings side to side until I spotted the very sight I was looking for, civilization! The pace of my movement nearly went into a full-fledged gallop until my ear twitched at another sound that rang through the air, but this time, it was a lot closer than the previous two.
“Yaaaaa!”
The sound was a sharp scream but as I surveyed my immediate are I didn’t see anything so, with no other place to look I tuned my eyes to the skies just in time to see a light yellow, almost cream, rear end of a pony with a light pink tail come crashing toward me. Huh… was all I could think before once more feeling what I take it boxers experience right as they get knocked out and once more was taken into the painful squeeze of unconsciousness.
This time as I stirred it wasn’t a calming wind that roused me but the groaning of my aching body. A moan of pain abandoned my mouth as my mind slowly rose out of the mire of darkness. My eyelids painfully rose to the sight of a light yellow pony, almost cream, with a light pink mane.
“O-oh, are you awake now?” she mutter in an almost inaudible voice.
I felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head, a talking pony?! I mean, granted, that might not be the weirdest thing my mind threw together after some hard cider but at least I can explain why I used a super bouncy ball to beat a giant spider, a talking pony? Not so much. I that was when my mind slapped me back to where I was and I saw the pony looking at me with a bit of a red face.
“U-um…are you okay? Should I get the doctor again?” she innocently stammered.
That’s when I remembered the pain I felt again. Damn it’s like someone dropped a television on me. I winced a bit and looked into her eyes to see a bit of worry reflected in her blue eyes, to which my body switched to the natural “tough acting mode” that must be embedded into all of us men.
“Y-yea, I’m fine.” I replied through the clenched teeth of a faux smile. “No worries, a little rest seems to have been all I needed.” When I turned to my side to get out of the bed, I slammed onto the linoleum floor of the hospital with another wretched groan.
The yellow pony bolted up with a look of concern before cautiously trotting c loser to me. My legs wobbled trying to stand me up as if they were trying to support the world itself but eventually, they succeeded in their goal sending a relieved drop of sweat racing down my face. I flashed her another false smile to try to ease her tension but, if anything, an even more worried look shadowed her face. Before either of us could say anything about how I was feeling, I heard the familiar click of a door causing both of our eyes to jump to the origin of the noise. The sight I then saw, however shocked me a bit more than seeing one pony, with wings nonetheless, standing in a room with me.
The sanitary looking white door slowly opened to reveal a much taller mare whose coat was pure white and whose mane seemed to sparkle and blow from some unforeseen force. Though both of these things would have been enough to set anyone in awe, there was one thing that stood out above all else—a pure white horn that was just over one foot long. My eyes were shot open as I observed the beautiful mare gracefully glance in my direction as she entered the room, which apparently was the sign for my legs to completely give out, causing me to, once more fall to the ground with a tired groan.
“P-Princess?” the shy pony gave a quick bow. “What are you doing here?”
“I called her over, Fluttershy.” came a voice with a very matter-of-fact tone with a hint of sing-song. I looked to the sound of the voice to see a purple pony with a dark mane and tail, both with a single pink stripe running their lengths. Upon closer inspection I then saw that this one also had a horn, though much smaller than the other one.
“Twilight, why are you here?”
This time instead of letting the purple pony answer, the white mare gave a smile that could even warm the polar iced capes and looked at the yellow one that I now know as Fluttershy.
“My faithful student had told me of this injured stallion and about a peculiar cutie mark.” She said with a voice that showed kindness of a mother and sophistication of a goddess. “I have come to inspect this cutie mark myself and to check on how my little ponies are doing.”
I just groaned in response as I saw her gaze float to me. My ribs and side forbade anything but those and air to escape my lungs. That was when the beautiful unicorn trotted to me and looked to the back of me, curious as to what she was looking at my eyes lazily lofted to my rear where I saw a slightly familiar design, a shield with a butterfly on it. Once my eyes focused on this, the events of the night before flashed through my mind, from the pendant to the crash. My vision began shaking as I felt the searing hot sensation of a tear cutting its way down my cheek.
After what seemed like an eternity, I broke myself away from the image and back to the two mares that were waiting for me. Both of them met my gaze and a I could sense a pang of pain in their eyes, to which I responded by wiping my face against one of my new legs and trying once more to give a smile fit for a car salesman.
“Sorry, it’s nothing.” I said keeping eye contact while fighting the ache that the memory gave me. “Just a bit of a bad dream, I guess.” My eyes then focused on the one Fluttershy referred to as a princess with a raised eyebrow. “What did you call this? A cutie mark?”
The brilliant unicorn just nodded and gave a smile. The warmth in her eyes soon melted away any pain the memory gave and almost wiped away the images themselves.
“Yes, my little pony, that is your cutie mark. It shows everypony your talent.”
Her words caused me to glance once more at the image on my flank, thinking of what both she and it meant.
“So…” I began; my mind slowly trying to process information that it was given. “My talent is to protect butterflies?”
This caused a lighthearted laugh from the gentle mare before she looked at me once more.
“No, my little pony, I believe the meaning is different than that.”
My glance of confusion was still answered with her warm, patient gaze. Not knowing what to do, my eyes focused instead on the other two ponies in the room that were now engaged in friendly conversation. That’s when my eyes saw the image on the yellow one’s flank.
“A butterfly?”
This brought the attention of the ponies and the princess to me. I looked at the princess and then at the yellow pony, who was softly glancing in my direction.
“Yes, little one, that is what your cutie mark means.” the yellow pony’s eyes quickly went to the princess as her face began to go a bit red but the princess continued before she could speak. “You are here to protect our dear Fluttershy, the bearer of the element of Kindness.”
That was when bothe my gaze, and the yellow pony’s gaze met.
That is how I got here and now you’re caught up but how did I get here? Can I go back? Well, I guess that is something that we both need to find out.
END OF INTRO
