Everything was swirling and nauseating when my eyes opened. I couldn’t move my body, or, at least, I couldn’t control it.
“Sedar?” I spoke; the word’s feeling like mud in my mouth.
A groan came from out of nowhere, and then the demon materialized in the air above me.
“Ugh…those dimension jumps are really starting to annoy the hell out of me.” He said. That’s when I noticed something odd.
“Why are you in wolf form?” I asked, my head still spinning.
Sedar looked puzzled as he looked down at his now animalistic body, his ears and snout moving along with its cold eyes. True, he ‘naturally’ looked slightly Lycan anyway, but he didn’t stay in animal form for long.
“I have no idea… do you think this is one of those animal dimensions?” he stared back at me.
I gave a shrug, well, tried to; my body was still numb, “I have no idea, what do I look like?”
His eyes flash in realization to not having noticed before. He went silent, his eyes darting all around, and finally he responded, “I think…that you’re a horse?”
I tried to get up, falling quickly. I then tried to grab a hold of the floor, but I couldn't grab anything, "Shit....no fingers." I mumbled as I looked down at the stumpy, round, replacements for my hands.
"Really hate it when I don't even have claws." I mumbled.
"Can't say the same." Sedar chuckled lightly.
Continuing my self-survey, I did indeed notice I looked like a horse, but smaller. I had short gray hairs covering my new legs, both front and behind. I even had a black tail with random white stripes, not too weird with my history.
‘Regal, any idea where we are?’ I thought.
No response.
‘Harmony? Deception?’ I asked, gaining no reply.
"I'm not sensing them, or the others." Sedar said, reading my mind.
"Damn...are the others here?" I asked, "Mirari! Zurc! Steve!" I called out, managing to get onto my four legs.
"Don't think they're here." Sedar replied. "Actually...."
The thought was already in my head, a slight bonus for having demons exist within me, "I don't remember anything about switching realities either." I spoke, finishing his thought.
I didn't like any of this, normally when I'd go into another dimension, I was the one causing it; and even if it wasn't me, I would at least retain my memory of the shift.
"The Key!" I exclaimed suddenly, "W-where is it?!" I stumbled around, looking at the floor, and then I fell.
The Key was both a cheat sheet and a guide to whichever universe I was in; in some cases it even allowed one to modify dimensions. The trouble that little device of chaos could, and has caused is ridiculous.
"Shit!" I exclaimed, "Shit, shit, shit!"
"Hey! Cool it!" Sedar said, moving in front of my face, the familiar smoke/shadow-shift affect trailing him.
"Just use the shadows to find it."
He had a point, using my attributes would be better than having a panic attack. So I stood on all fours, took a calming breath, and just focused on the coolness of the surrounding shadows.
…Nothing.
I felt my sanity start to slip ever so slightly, one thing that’s happened to me more times than I could ever blink. My powers would become bipolar in unfamiliar dimensions, sometimes causing me to have the abilities of a rookie Elementalist, other times they were completely void in a reality.
I tried everything; fire, water, air, earth, mirror, lightning, iron, nature, ice, nothing. I only got a slight effect from the neutral element before starting to feel completely drained.
“Well….that’s a bummer.” Sedar sighed, “No allies, memories, elements, Key, or Demons. We’re fucked my friend; defenseless yet again in another strange world.”
“Shut it, let’s just try and see if we can morph, otherwise we will be completely defenseless.”
He shrugged, only his upper torso was solid now; he was floating in a mist of shadows.
“Wait, how can you—” I started to ask.
A large sound erupted around us. Having been in enough situations to know that any unknown sound has a 99% chance of being something meant to kill me, I tensed up and tried to take a decent fighting stance.
It was only now that I noticed we were in a forest, and quite a colorful yet creepy one at that. The trees were all an over-the-top style with weirdly shaped branches in leaves, the floor seemed to be have been traveled on lightly, and I could hear faint sounds of animals and insects.
BAM!
Another sound came from a distance, I couldn’t tell from where though.
“Do you think it’s the Shades?” Sedar asked, we're back to back…..or as best as we could.
I shook my head, “They don’t use explosives and I don’t sense any Aura being used.”
“Pfft, I don’t think we can count on your patented creeper-sense, what with everything else going haywire.”
I started growling at him when a loud ‘POP!’ accompanied with a flash of colorful light came from our left. “There!” I exclaimed, starting to run towards it before I fell clumsily to the floor.
“Nice.” Sedar chuckled as I got back up and continued through the forest, slightly slower this time.
Not long after, we entered a clearing, and to my surprise there was a large tree in the center that reminded me of the tree those Cookie making elves live in, albeit with a more twisted, droopy, and tribal theme.
“Well that looks promising.” Sedar said, slightly surprised.
Another flash and more noise came from the tree-house, its glassless windows lighting up. I thought I heard voices inside it.
As I rushed towards the house, Sedar floating lazily near me, the wooden door burst open and a black shape bolted outside; the mask that adorned the door flying off.
“Why you! Get back here!” I heard a female voice exclaim, right before a blue shape darted after the first one. I wasn’t sure if I was seeing things, but I swear that a rainbow was trailing the blue shape.
“You get ‘em Dash!” came another voice, this one a higher pitch.
“Ohh, please do! Please keep that thing away from my hair!” another new voice chimed in.
I looked above to see what the black and blue objects were, but I slightly froze once I saw blue wings. On a horse. A blue horse with wings and rainbow colored hair. Actually…..it looked like a pony.
“N-no….” I stuttered.
“Gimme a break will ya?” the blue, winged, rainbow pony exclaimed back towards the door, “I’m trying to catch it, what do you think I want to do, give it a hug?”
“Well… um….a hug could be what it wants.” A different, softer voice said; I’d barely heard it at all.
The flying pony grumbled and continued its mad dash for the black object. I couldn’t tell what it was, it was too blurred. But I could definitely tell that it was holding something; there was a slight glimmer here and there when it tried to avoid the blue pony.
“We must stop this blurring foe. But where it comes from I do not know!” an accented voice said, appearing in front of the door as a black and white pony…..or…. a zebra?
“Quick, Rainbow Dash, lure it over here!” a purple pony yelled, following the zebra out the door.
“You got it Twi!” the flying pony responded, spinning around the object in a colorful whirlwind until it made a dash for the purple pony.
In an instance, the purple pony’s forehead glowed, and a bright stream of energy shot out and hit the black object.
It wasn’t until a fraction of a second later that I realized the damn thing was headed right towards me.
After the flash of the impact, I shook the unconscious thing off of me. It was about my size, or at least the blue pony’s size. It looked like a black fox with red teeth, a snake like tail with black fur on the sides, and long, bat-like wings.
I didn’t recognize the damn thing, but it felt eerily familiar, not in form but in energy.
“Hey Sedar...” I began dizzily.
He nodded, “That for sure feels Aurical.” He confirmed my suspicion; this thing must’ve followed, or even pulled, me into this dimension.
I was going to ask him another question when he suddenly materialized his hind legs and stood next to me.
“Whoa, are you okay?” the flying pony landed next to my uncomfortably laid out body.
As I struggled to my feet—hooves I guess, I replied, “Yeah, I’ve been hit a lot harder.”
“Good to know.” She eyed us suspiciously, “You’re not from around here, are you? Most of the local ponies tend stay out of the Everfree forest.” Her gaze lingered on Sedar, her body taking what looked like a defensive stance. He just glared back.
“Well, not exactly.” I said, though it sounded more like a question.
She looked like she was going to do something, but the two that were outside appeared; I also noted that there were more figures leaving the cottage.
“That creature caused quite some trouble.” The zebra sighed, “I am glad it did not turn my home into rubble!”
“Yeah Zecora,” the purple pony was standing right next to her, It was only now that I noted the horn on its head and the wings on its back, “But what is it and where did it come from?”
“I don’t care,” the blue pony cut in, “But that thing tried to take your crown, so It’s probably up to no good.” She steadily moved past Sedar and towards the creature’s mouth and pulled out a golden tiara with a purple gemstone in it, something I hadn’t noticed before, “Here” She tossed it to her.
A light-purple light enveloped the tiara in midair, the creatures slobber dripping off of it, “Thanks,” she replied hesitantly, it was only now that she noticed us.
As the other figures joined us, one of them spoke, "Did you catch it?" It came from a white pony with a horn and shiny purple hair.
"Yes." Replied the purple pony, "Though it sort of crashed into him." She nudged her muzzle in my direction.
"Oh thank goodness! I just had my hair done today and—” she looked at me now, “You poor darling, your hair!" the white one exclaimed, "I couldn't imagine having to deal with a face-to-face collision with that!" She pointed to the creature.
As she did, a yellow figure with pink hair popped its head from behind, and once seeing the sleeping beast, it fainted.
“Uh oh!” a pink pony bounced into my view, “Fluttershy fainted!” she giggled, “I can’t blame her though, that sure was exciting.”
I was just stunned at what I was seeing, there was no way that this could actually be happening. True, I’ve been into other dimensions that had connections to pop culture, but the odds of ending up here?
I was slightly gawking when I realized that something was happening.
“It moved!” the rainbow one shouted.
And in an instant, the fox-thing bolted towards the unicorn with the crown. Somehow finding some of my strength, I dashed in front of her and talked the thing as hard as I could, getting knocked down yet again in the process.
Much to everyone’s surprise, mine especially, the creature burst into a black mist after running into me. I heard Sedar growl once he saw once happened, and he had good reason to.
“What was that?” the unicorn exclaimed, looking down at me cautiously. I couldn’t help but feel all of the others start staring at me.
“Nothing good.” Sedar answered, the others changing their gaze from me to him, “Angel, I think it’s best we leave.”
As he walked towards me, the blue Pegasus zipped in front of his path, “Oh, I don’t think so! I’m not letting some weird wolf near my friends and this new pony after what just happened.”
Sedar leaned in close to her and growled, his sharp teeth showing; the Pegasus didn’t look like she was going to back down.
“Rainbow Dash!” the purple unicorn yelled as she helped me up, “If this stallion just about risked his life for me, we can be assured that he and his friend can be trusted, especially if they know something about why that thing tried to steal my Element of Harmony.”
The Pegasus groaned and stepped away from Sedar, who now had a cocky smile on.
As Sedar made his way next to me, the unicorn turned to me, the other ponies surrounding her, except the zebra that was helping the yellow one onto its fe—hooves.
Her big eyes looked right into mine as she spoke in her soft voice, “I know you don’t know us, but if you have any idea what this thing was, the information would be really helpful.”
I sighed. Believe it or not, I did know who they were. And, now, I didn’t know what to do. If I told them, there could be consequences to this reality, but if I didn’t….
“I can’t tell you right now.” I said, “But…”
Sedar read my thoughts and mentally told me, ‘Don’t. We’re already tampering things as is.’
I shrugged off his worry, ‘Well you noticed it too, that thing doesn’t belong here, like us, so if we don’t do something, a lot worse could come by.’
I felt him ready himself to argue but I quickly said, “I think I should talk to Princess Celestia.”
That made her give me a quizzical look, and she was silent for a minute, “I’ll have to see if it’s possible, but… it’s a start.”
“Okay.” I sighed.
I knew that whatever happened from this point on was going to get complicated, but what could I do? With my history, I only hoped that this universe held true to what I know about it.
‘As long as my bad luck doesn’t follow me here, we’d be fine.’ I thought, ‘Because it sure as hell won’t be good for anyone if my issues mixed with My Little Pony.’
Chapter 01 - In Equestria
I followed the gang of ponies and Zecora out of the Everfree forest and into another clearing, there was a clear path going through these less-creepy trees, and I could just barely make out a town farther up the path. The scenery was just amazing, just about every color I could visibly see was beautifully placed around my line of sight.
But regardless, the idea of being surrounded by the Mane 6 hadn’t entirely settled in my mind yet.
I heard Sedar’s chuckle in my mind, ‘Didn’t this fad pass by a few, I don’t know thousand years ago?’ he asked sarcastically.
I trotted along without a sign of being bothered, ‘I guess it did, but it makes sense that as a universe, things here are still relevant.’ I wasn’t entirely sure whether or not that was true. After being pulled into my crazy hellhole of a life, I didn’t really stay too connected with shows. Actually, I kind of ended any contact with society for a long while after that.
I was behind them by a few feet, and I noticed both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash glancing back at us, though at different times and with separate kinds of looks. Pinkie Pie was bouncing around them in circles until she hopped over next to me.
“So what was your name?” she asked in midair, her hair bouncing along with her movements, “Where are you from? Why do you have a wolf-friend? Is today your birthday?” she continued without giving me time to answer, or even keep steady eye-contact with her.
“Pinkie.” Twilight said sternly, having turned around, “He already said he’d talk with Princess Celestia, and that’s when he’ll talk.”
“Oh, alright.” Pinkie responded, landing on the ground and sulking lightly, “How’d you know about Princess Celestia?” she asked silently.
“Oh from—” I stopped myself, saying that I knew her from a T.V. show was probably going to get them against me, or at least think I was crazy; did they even have television here?
Rainbow Dash jumped at my hesitation, “From?” she questioned.
I shook my head, “It’s not important, but I can at least tell you my name. You can call me Angel.” I saw Fluttershy’s head peak up slightly at the mention of my name.
“Just Angel?” Dash returned. It was obvious she was highly suspicious of us.
I was going to answer ‘yes’, but as I opened my mouth, I felt Sedar push words through me mentally, and, “Angel Shadow.” came out instead.
“Right. Whatever.” Rainbow Dash huffed and merged back with her friends.
Rarity said, “Um, Isn’t that name a little too… ominous?”
I shrugged my shoulders, “You’d…be surprised.” I nervously chuckled and tried my best to sound casual about it.
‘You dick.’ I thought to Sedar as I turned to him, ‘As-is, we’re not on very good terms with them, next time just tell them that they’re in a T.V. show, jackass!’
He grinned, ‘You’re the one that’s a fan, not me.’
I ignored his comment and moved closer to the group, “Look, I’m sorry if any of you are suspicious of me.” It was addressed to all of them, but my eyes rested on Rainbow Dash the longest, “But I promise I can help you, and once I’m done, I’ll be on my way.”
“If we can help you.” Sedar cut in right after me.
“Good.” Rainbow Dash replied, crossing her arms, “The faster the better, those damn things interrupted my flight practice.”
My ears raised at the comment, “Wait, things? I thought there was just the one?”
“Nope!” Pinkie Pie suddenly popped up in front of me, “Two of those nasty fox-bats appeared at the Princess’ castle and took Twilights crown! We went after that one while my good friend Applejack and our Dragon friend Spike helped stop the other one in the castle!”
“And we must hurry.” Twilight said afterwards, “There’s no telling what kind or trouble those things could have caused while we were away.”
“I sure hope everypony’s okay.” I heard as a whisper, it had to be Fluttershy.
“I’m sure there is no need to fret Fluttershy, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are at the castle too, that creature is sure to have been caught by n—.” Twilight said but was interrupted by a screech.
“Oh my!” Rarity shouted, she was looking right past me.
“W-what?” I screamed looking in all directions for another surprise to pop up.
“Y-y-your…” she stuttered, pointing her right hoof at me.
“Omigosh!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, jumping back into my view, “Your flank!”
I was confused for a moment, then I turned my neck to see what they were so concerned about.
I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, not counting that I was in an equine body fully set with a tail and hooves. There was only my new gray figure.
“I don’t see anything.” I responded, looking back at them slightly confused.
“Well, duh!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, “That’s the problem, you idiot. You don’t have a Cutie Mark!”
‘Crap!’ I thought as I quickly looked back. Right above my leg, where I assumed a Cutie Mark would go, was just empty, gray fur.
“But how can that be?” Twilight shook her head, “You’re obviously not a colt, and I just don’t know how a pony can’t...” she trailed off, “Wait, you’re not a pony, are you?”
I saw the glimmer of what she was realizing in her eyes, a sight that was quickly replaced with the blues of the sky once Rainbow Dash shoved me onto the floor.
“N-not a pony? Then w-what is he?” Fluttershy silently spoke, I glanced to my right to see her quickly hide behind Zecora.
“I knew something was up!” Rainbow Dash shouted out, her rough hooves keeping me down, “What are you, some mutant changeling?”
“Hey!” Sedar yelled at her, “Get the hell off of him!” he tried to come towards us, but Pinkie bounced form out of nowhere and knocked him onto the floor.
Right before he could get back on his paws, with the violent desire to tear out Pinkie’s throat, Twilight screamed. “Stop!”
Everyone froze immediately, all except Sedar; who would have torn Pinkie to shreds, had I not mentally held him back from doing so the last second.
“Rainbow Dash, get off of him!” Twilight yelled again, “He’s not a changeling, he’s a human!”
Rainbow Dash jumped off me and flew into the air, “Wait, what?! You mean he’s…”
“Yes! He’s from another world!” Twilight replied.
“Whoa! What!” Pinkie exclaimed, “Really, a human? I didn’t expect that humans would look like ponies at all!”
I rolled over and stood on my hooves, “Normally I don’t look like a pony, but…there are some complications with my situation.”
“But why’s a human in Equestria in the first place?” Twilight asked, “We have the only means of traveling here back at the castle.”
“There are a lot of ways into a world.” I sighed.
A worried look appeared in Twilight’s eyes, “Does this mean that there’s another portal into Equestria?”
“I...I really can’t explain.” I started, “I can’t be certain about anything, not until I speak with Celestia, I think she could help me figure out all of this,”
Twilight’s ears twitched, “How do you know about Princess Celestia? The only human that could possibly know about anything about this world is Sunset Shimmer. Do you know her?”
I sighed, “I’m not from that world, I’m from another one.”
I could feel the tension, the confusion, and the fear spreading through the ponies. I had to calm them down, get them to listen to me and explain that I didn’t belong, or even know why I was here. Things were going to get very complicated and ugly if this situation didn’t settle down.
Twilight must’ve felt the same, because she took a deep breath and spoke, “This is all very confusing, I think we really do need go talk to the Princesses.”
“Yes.” Zecora agreed, “We really must speak to the royalty of the sun and the moon. I have a feeling that if not, we’ll encounter great trouble soon.”
The group of ponies all gathered in front of me, Fluttershy the slowest moving and Pinkie eying me in an intrigued and suspicious way.
Sedar moved over to my right, eying me angrily, and then turning to look at Pinkie Pie, ‘Lucky bitch.’ He assertively thought, fully allowing me to hear it.
“I think it’s best if I teleport all of us to the castle, it’ll take too long to get to Ponyville and fly there with the balloon.” Twilight said.
“Wait, could you even handle that?” Rarity chimed in, “You haven’t exactly tested your new magic on that caliber.”
“Well it’s worth a shot.” Twilight exhaled, “OK everypony, gather up, this could be rough.”
As I moved closer to the group; Fluttershy still hiding alongside Zecora in a semi-hunched position, I stopped next to Rarity, who lightly coughed and addressed me, “Um... I don’t mean to be rude to you or your…friend there, but I rather not get my coat dirty.” My eyebrows rose, then I looked at my body yet again; it was covered in mud and dirt.
“Okay.” I replied as I shrugged, “No offense taken.”
She moved to the far left of the group, next to Rainbow Dash, following her was Fluttershy and then Zecora, Pinkie Pie then zipped in front of me from my left, “I’m keeping an eye on you.” She said menacingly.
“Um...” I just blinked back; I wasn’t sure how to reply.
“Or would it be ‘keeping my eyes on you’? I’m not sure how easy it would be to look where I’m going with one eye and see where you’re going with the other.” She rambled.
“I’ll…keep that in mind.” I held back a chuckle.
“I’d rather just tear your eyes out.” Sedar mumbled as she stood looking towards Twilight, but Pinkie didn’t notice; she was still lost in thought.
“Is everypony ready?” Twilight asked, standing in front of the semi-circle of ponies.
We all nodded, but I was certain I heard a faint “No.” from Fluttershy.
“Okay,” Twilight’s now slobber-free crown floated out of her bag, a pink glow surrounding it, “This should help teleporting us there.” She said as it landed on her head.
She came closer to the group, her horn starting to glow. All of her focus placed on the spell she was trying to cast.
Almost instantly, a bright, warm, flash enveloped me. I felt weightless and numb all over.
The next thing I felt was solid ground, but I had managed to keep my balance. I looked around and only saw that Zecora and Sedar were on the ground.
“Oh my, that was quite a thrill.” Zecora commented as she stood up, “But I think my legs prefer it when I move from place to place by will.”
Sedar just grunted and ruffled his fur as he got on his paws.
“Twilight!” I heard a scream from behind us.
“Spike!” Twilight responded as I turned around, I saw a scruffy Spike running down a set of ebony-like stairs; I noticed Applejack at the top of the steps, her hat was all torn up and her hair was in shambles.
“Well, howdy!” Applejack exclaimed as she leaped down the stairs, landing right as Spike hugged Twilight, “Did ya’ll manage to catch that strange critter?”
“No, not exactly.” Twilight answered, looking in my direction.
“Well who’s this new face? Don’t recon I’ve seen you in Ponyville before. ”
“Well that’s because he’s from another world!” Pinkie Pie suddenly said, “Like from where Twilight went to go get her crown back, but not the same world! Also he might know more about those flying things and why they’re here in the first place.”
“Okay…” Applejack started, but she froze once she saw Sedar, the glow of fear in her eyes, “W-what’s a wolf doin’ here?” she asked nervously.
“He’s with him.” Rainbow Dash pointed at me, and without resent said, “I don’t like either of them.”
Applejack kept a nervous eye on Sedar as Twilight spoke, “Spike, where are the Princesses?”
“Oh!” he stepped back, “They’re checking out the damage the creature did to the library; apparently it got away with a book.”
“The library?!” Twilight exclaimed.
At the same time, I yelled, “It got away?!”
Spike glanced at the both of us, “Yes…to both?”
“C’mon everypony, let’s go!” Twilight called back as she bolted up the stairs.
We all stood there for a second, until Pinkie Pie dashed after her, saying, “Race ya!” to Rainbow Dash.
“Oh no you don’t!” Rainbow Dash said bolting towards her.
The other ponies followed suit, all in varying degrees of speed.
I glanced at Sedar, and we both bolted in the direction that they were headed.
As I entered the majestic castle, I couldn’t help but let out a laugh as a thought passed my mind, ‘I’m in Equestria!’
