A New World and The Journey Homeby colt alchemistChaptersBucking some apples, meeting the othersParties and DreamsImportant meeting, "Do you trust me?"Vincent and the portalThe strange new placeBucking some apples, meeting the othersI followed the cowgirl pony until we reached to what looks like a farm. A red barn with open fields with rows of crops while animals were grazing lazily in their pens. I really didn’t know what she meant by “buck some apples”? Should I be concerned? I don’t know. Anyway as we were walking, I couldn’t help but notice that she had a tattoo on her flank as well; but it was just three apples. Does every citizen in this world have a tattoo on their ass? “Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres” the pony exclaimed. “Cool. Hey, um….” I couldn’t remember the name. “Applejack” she turned around and answered, “You know, I never got your name. Mind telling me what it is?” “It’s Den” I introduced myself proudly. “Den? That sure is an interesting name” she complimented. “Really, I don’t think the purple unicorn thinks so,” I replied humorously. “You mean Twilight? I’m sure she didn’t mean anything buy it. She can be a little…….” “Yeah”. “Sorry, didn’t you want to ask something?” she reminds me. “Yeah, um…. My friends and I are kind of new here, and we don’t know a lot of things that go on. Like what is that tattoo on your flank?" I asked trying not to sound suspicious. “You mean Cutiemarks?” she asked. “Really, that’s what they’re actually called? I just thought that’s what only the purple one called them.” I thought to myself. “Do you not have them where you come from? I don’t see one on you” she pointed out. I noticed it too, that my flank had no strange tattoo on it. Was it considered “weird” to not have a tattoo on your ass in this world? “That certainly is weird” continued Applejack, “You’re a grown Pegasus and you still don’t have a Cutiemark…………” “I’m not grown, I’m still in my late teens” I interrupted. Sorry, it’s just that sometimes people mistake my age. Some of the think I’m 13, while others think I’m 30. It kind of gets annoying after a while, you know? “Oh, sorry about that”, she apologized while rubbing the back of her head, “Anyway, what kind of town has ponies that don’t have their marks?” “Mine” I answered. “Oh, well Cutiemarks is what we have that symbolizes what our special talents are,” she answered. “Really, what’s yours?” I asked. But then she just chuckled. “Isn’t it obvious?” she laughed and then pointed to her apple tattoos on her flank. I didn’t know what she was trying to get at. “Not really,” I said confused. This made her slightly surprised. “Seriously?” she asked. “Nope, you’re going to have to be more specific that just pointing to your flank” I responded, still confused. “Well, let me show you. Follow me.” she instructed. I followed her which led us towards a nearby apple tree full of red apples. She stopped in front of the tree and turned around, so that she was facing backwards towards the tree; still VERY lost, here. Then out of nowhere, she lifted up her hind legs and kicked the tree, followed by a loud BANG. Soon all of the apples fall into individual baskets that were lying by. She then smiled and crossed her right leg over her left with a proud smile. “Huh, so that’s what you meant by “buck some apples”. I said, now FINALLY understanding. “What else could I mean?” she asked. “Nothing, nothing...” I replied. “Well, why don’t you give it a try?” she offered, “There’s a nice big tree over there that could use some bucking”. She pointed behind me to the right and I noticed the big tree. The trunk was thick; the leaves were green, and full of apples. “Alright,” I approached the tree feeling confident, I figured out my own way on how to get those apples down. “Now, don’t feel upset if ya’ll don’t get it the first try”, Applejack somewhat comforted, “Not everypony is as strong as I am so if it takes a few times to-” “HAAAAAA!!” I spun around in the air one time and then…….. *Fwack* My hind right leg spin kicked the tree and knocked half of the apples on the ground in one go. Even some squirrels that were hiding in the tree fell to the ground. I stood up with a victorious smile, turning around to face A.J. “How’s that?” I asked confidently. Applejack just stood there with her jaw wide open, she looked really impressed, and why wouldn’t she? Whenever people witness my cool moves in a match, they can’t help but stare in awe. I may be young, but I’m a hell of a lot stronger than you think. “Whoa,” she exclaimed, “That….was impressive”. “Thank you,” I replied. “Just how strong are you?” she asked still amused. “Very. I can lift up to about 50 pounds. I guess it’s just a part of MY special talent”. I responded proudly. “And that is?” “To be an amazing fighter”. I answered with pride. “Seriously?” “Yeah, it’s my dream. Everyone’s got one, what’s yours?” “I’m already living it, working hard on the farm and making our famous apple cider,” she said with much pride and anticipation. “Cool, in case you didn’t notice, my dream is to become the greatest and youngest mixed martial artist out there!” “No, I noticed,” she replied in an unimpressed tone. This kind of made me worry a little. “Is something the matter?” I asked. “Well……” she replied while looking away nervously. “Well what? You can tell me”. She then looked up at me and asked, “Well…..let me ask you this, partner. How many fighters have you fought?” “Pffff……..To be honest, I don’t really know. I’ve fought so many opponents that I lost track. But I know it was a lot, though. And some of them even had to be sent to the emergency room to get their faces stitched. But don’t worry I never kill anyone, that’s not how I role. Unless it’s Mortal Kombat,” I finished trying to sound impressive. “Uh-huh. Sounds like to me that you’re some kind of brute who’s looking for nothing but trouble,” she replied with disapproval in her voice. This made me go down a little. It sounded like that she didn’t approve of my goals or my interests. “Is something the matter?” I asked. “Well, to be honest, I’m not much of a fan of random fighting. I’ll admit, I have been in some fights of my own. But that was because my friends were in some kind of danger” she stated, “But when you fight, it sounds like that you just bully others who are not as strong as you”. “Excuse me?” I asked, I was shocked that this small horse thinks that I fight because I want trouble. “Tell me, Den, why do you fight?” she questioned. “I have my reasons” I answered. Those are the same words I use whenever Vincent or someone else asks me that question. “And those reasons would be?” she asked sternly. “I can’t tell you”. “Why not?” “Well, why do you live your life on the farm when you have other opportunities?” I remarked. “Because, this place is my pride and joy; and I love doing what I do”. She replied, sternly. “Same here with me” I defended. “Yeah right, unlike you I have a reason to pursue my dream”. “So do I”. “What is it then?” “I-I can’t tell you. It’s personal,”. I finished. I actually do have reason why I fight. I just don’t want anyone to know, not even Vincent or Kira knows and I tend to keep it that way. “Oh, so it’s some kind of secret?” she asked while looking away. “I guess you could say that”. “Look. I know what it feels like to keep a secret” she comforted, then placing her hoof on my front left arm, “It’s hard. But if you hold onto it forever, then you could lose your closest friends. But you know, sometimes telling the truth is all that they need”. “But, I don’t know you that well” I replied. “Still, tell you what. When you feel comfortable about telling someone, you can tell me,” she said while giving me a slight smile. “Thanks, but I don’t think I’ll tell anyone”, I replied while taking my hoof away, nervously. “Maybe not yet, partner, but like I said, when you’re ready you can tell me,” she told me. She then full smiled at me, even though she’s known me for like, half a day, I was starting to get the feeling that she was beginning to trust me. “We should probably get back to work?” “Yeah”, I followed AJ to some more trees and did some more bucking. At least it’s a good exercise on my legs. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ We were in the middle of repairing Twilight’s roof, and when I realized that I needed to hammer in a few nails for the supports, I couldn’t. Mostly because I now have freaking hooves for hands, how am I supposed to pick it up. I noticed that Kira, standing next to me, was having the same problem. She looked at me with a confused expression. We both turned to Twilight who was using some kind of telekinesis to hammer in the nails. And the little lizard, whose name I can’t remember, was hammering with his claws. I felt lost. I looked next to Kira, and it looked like she found an easy way out. She picked up the hammer with her mouth and started to hammer in some nails with it. Her head kept waving up and down, repeatedly until she couldn’t hammer in anymore. When she finished, she dropped the tool and raised her head. And it was spinning round and round. “Oww, my neck,” she moaned. It looked like she was about to have a headache, or maybe throw up; even her eyes were spinning a bit. “Are you going to help us or just stand there?” joked Twilight. “Uh, sure,” I responded. I did what Kira did and picked up a hammer with my mouth. And, Man was it irritating. Who knew that hammering with your mouth turned out to be more difficult than to do it with your hand? I banged in a nail about 3 or 4 times until it was in the wood. I looked up at Twilight who seemed confused. “Why aren’t you using your magic?” she asked and lifted one of her brows. “My what?” I asked, still trying to recover from the pain in my neck. “You’re magic, that ability that all unicorns can do,” she answered suspiciously. I had to make an excuse. “Oh…Uh…I’m….a…..” I started while rubbing behind my head nervously. “He’s a slow learner!” Kira saved, “A VERY slow learner”. “Yeah, uh, where we’re from, magic is limited and only a very few can perform it. It’s like, a jewel for us” I lied. I knew it wasn’t good, but I had to come up with something. “Oh, ok” she replied and got back to work. I let a small sigh of relief; I didn’t know that ALL unicorns could use magic. “Thanks for the save” I whispered to Kira. “No sweat, how long do we have to keep this act up?” she asked. “Until we can gain her trust, and until we can find that damn book that brought us here.” I answered. “I hope we find it soon. I want to go home, where I can use a hammer with my hands.” she whispered, complaining. “Don’t worry, once we get to know her better, maybe we can ask her about the book. She seems smart.” I replied. “Well then, I guess it’s time to get to know each other better.” she replied confidently. “What do you mean?” I asked. “Hey, Twilight!” she shouted happily. Twilight swiftly turned her head around and faced the two of us still working on the supports below. “No need to shout, I’m right here,” she laughed. “Seriously,” replied the little purple and green lizard that was covering his ears. “Sorry. Look, Vincent and I are new to this town, and we don’t know a lot of peop… I mean ponies here” she saved, “And seeing how you’re the first one we’ve seen, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?” “I’d love to” she answered as she stepped back onto the ground using the extra wood as a ladder. I was actually not looking forward to this. Here’s the thing: I’m not really good at socializing with other people I’m not familiar with. Unless they’re my friends, aunt, teachers, hell even if they’re bullies I know I’ll talk. It’s hard for me to talk to new people. But why should I? I’ve already got friends; shouldn’t Den and Kira be enough? I’ve known them long enough to know that they’re both good people, we’ve been friends for years. But with new people, it’s sometimes hard for me to make small talk. I’ll admit, when I talked to Twilight for the first time, I felt uneasy. Despite the fact that she’s just… a unicorn. She’s also someone I’ve never talked to before. So yeah, I have trouble talking to new people. She approached me and Kira in her library. “Ever since I was a filly, one of my favorite things to do was learn. I love reading books and learning new spells. I also love being with my friends, and helping others,” she answered happily, “Although I wasn’t too excited about coming here at first”. “Then why did you come?” asked Kira. “The princess sent me here to check on the decorations on the Summer Sun Celebration. But when Nightmare Moon attacked, everything was a disaster. But luckily, this is where I met my new friends, and once we discovered the magic of friendship we defeated Nightmare Moon”. I felt more lost than before. Princess, Nightmare Moon, Summer Sun? We both decided to just go with it, seeing how we didn’t want to look suspicious. “Now, I live my days happily here. Learning the lessons of friendship and writing to the princess,”. She finished. “Wow, that sounds interesting. I wish I had a life like that.” Kira complimented. “And I like eating gems!” the little lizard butted in. “Gems?” Kira laughed, “Doesn’t that hurt?” “No way, why would it. They’re delicious” as he said his small stomach began to rumble, “Great, now I’m hungry”. We all let out a short laugh and Twilight focused her attention back to us. “So, what do you two like to do?” she asked. “I love to paint” Kira answered first, “I could go a whole day doing nothing but painting”. “Wow, you’re an artistic pony? I know someone who’s like that” she smiled. “I hope someday to become a great artist, and make paintings that everyone will enjoy,” she replied with glee. So far it seems that she made a good impression on Twilight. “Well, you never know. Maybe it will come true,” she complimented. She then turned her heads towards me. It was my turn to leave an impression. I guess I have to make small talk again. “So, Vincent” she started, “What do you like to do; reading, writing, cooking, theater?” I had to keep it simple, if I told her about my motorcycle interests she would probably question me about what it is. It could get me and my friends exposed and probably cause a riot. The key word being “Probably”. “I like to listen to music” I answered calmly. “Oh, you’re a music lover. What kind of music do you like?” “Um……rock” i said trying to keep it simple. “Rock n’ Roll, that’s interesting. We have music like that here”. I let out a small sigh of relief knowing that I didn’t blow our cover. But, since when do ponies like to listen to rock music? “Is there, a specific type of rock you like to listen to?” she asked. “Either heavy metal or punk rock” I answered. Twilight tilted her head a little, looking confused. She looked like she hadn’t heard either type of music before. Kira looked at me nervously; did I blow my cover by mentioning music that they probably don’t know of? “You don’t talk a lot, do you?” she finally said. “What?” “Well don’t get mad at me for saying this, but you seem very taciturn, Vincent. Even when you came here to pick up your roof breaking friend, you didn’t say much. Acting all calm and all; is something the matter?” she asked concerned. Actually, something was bothering me. I just realized something awful a moment ago, but I’d rather not tell you about it now. “It’s….It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it” I answered, “Let’s just finish the roof”. I continued to hammer in some nails with my mouth, when I couldn’t help but overhear Twilight and Kira talking. “Is he always like this?” asked Twilight. “Not all the time” Kira replied trying to sound normal. “Not all the time?” she asked, confused. “Well, he can be a little moody. But when he’s like this, well……” “Well what?” “It either means he’s bored, or something is troubling him. But he doesn’t like to talk about it”. “Oh, I see. I hope you don’t mind me asking this, but are you two dating?” Twilight asked. “What? No.” Kira laughed. To be honest, I’m glad she said we’re not dating. Because I think we’re better off as friends. When I heard Kira reply, it sounded a little funny. I think we’re great as friends, right? After a few more hours, the roof was finally finished and we felt exhausted. Kira was lying on the couch and I was lying on the floor; too tired and lazy to find a proper place to rest.We were both sweaty. “Finally, the roof is done,” I said to myself. “So….now what do we do?” asked Kira. No one said anything for a while, I guess everyone was too tired from all the work. That is, until Twilight finally broke the silence. “I have an idea” she started, “Why don’t I take you to meet my other friends?” “Really?” asked Kira. “Yeah, the day isn’t over yet. We still have a while before the moon rises,” she said. Kira and I looked at each other and exchanged looks. I shrugged my shoulders giving the “I guess so,” gesture. She then looked up at Twilight. “We’d love to meet them” responded Kira in a positive voice. “Great, follow me,” instructed Twilight happily. Pretty soon me, Kira, Twilight, and the little lizard all walked out of the door and wandered in the village. Kira and I were following close behind. My head was down. “What’s wrong?” asked Kira. “N-nothing” I replied. “You were thinking about her again, weren’t you?” she asked, worried. Yeah it was true; I kept thinking about my sick mother. But, how could I not? If your mom was sick in the hospital, and you were sent to another dimension without knowing whether or not she’ll make it, what else would you think about? It really hurts. “Was it that noticeable?” I asked, shamefully. “Everything will be fine,” she replied trying to cheer me up, “I’m sure she’s still healthy.” “Yeah, maybe,” I retorted. “I worry about you, Vincent. Ever since she was sent to the ER you’ve been wondering if she's still alive,” she cooed. “It’s not natural for someone to be sick that long, I can’t even remember how long it’s been?” “Some diseases are like that. Some of them could last up to many years” I doubt that. Even though Kira was a close friend to us, her math was always a little off. “Doubtful” I responded. “You can just check on her once we get back”. “That is, IF we get back”. “Don’t say that. It’s like you said before, once we gain Twilight’s trust, we can ask her and see what she knows. And once we find out how to get back, you can go and visit her. I’ll even go with you if you want”, she offered. “Y-yeah, I suppose you’re right”, I replied. She then smiled at me, knowing that I was still going with the plan. This is one of the things that make Kira a great person to us. No matter what situation or problem you’re in, she’s always there to back you up and be the voice of reason. That’s what I like about her. But then again, she does have her flaws. “We should hurry up, we’re falling behind” she said. We caught up to Twilight and the lizard and we both ended up standing in front of a house that looked like an carousel. “A carousel house?” I asked. “This is where Rarity lives,” exclaimed the little lizard. Though judging from his tone, he seemed oddly excited for some reason. “I can’t wait for you two meet her. Follow me,” said Twilight. We followed them both inside the strange white and purple house and, once we went inside, it was covered with fabric and dresses. I was afraid this was going to be one of those fashion stores where they sell beauty products and dresses; the boring stores. We looked around and saw that there were dresses everywhere, but they were either hung or on pony mannequins. Yeah, I don’t know either. We also saw one of those stands things where there were like three mirrors behind it. Shouldn’t one be enough? “Your friend lives here?” I asked Twilight. “Yeah, Rarity’s a fashion designer-” “And a really talented one if you ask me!” the little lizard interrupted. “I’m not really into fashion. What do you think Kira?” I looked over and noticed that Kira was just jaw dropped and eyes widened as she was staring at some nearby dresses on pony mannequins. One of them was white with blue swivels on it, and another was red with bright blue sparkling gems. Another dress looked liked it was old fashion and just full of colors, like a rainbow. there were also purple gems at the collar and even some feathers on the back. “Just look at this!” she squealed, “I’ve never seen anything so stylish in my life. Everything is so artistic; the colors, the design, the patterns. Magnificent!” I could feel a sweat drop appear on the side of my head. I really didn’t know how to respond. “I’m glad you think so” a voice called, it sounded rather elegant and feminine. We all looked to see that a white unicorn with a purple swirly mane and tail has appeared in the room. I also noticed that her tattoo consisted of three diamonds. And it seemed that right when she appeared, it looked like that the little lizard guy had hearts floating over his head. “Hi, Rarity,” called Twilight. “Hello, Twilight,” she responded as the white mare approached us. “I ran into some new ponies in town and I was just showing them around” she said, “Meet Vincent and Kira”. “Nice to meet you Vincent-eehhhhhh!” she squealed. “What?” I asked. “Oh my, just look at your mane!” she exclaimed. I looked up and saw my messy and untidy mane. “What about it?” I asked. “It’s- it’s so…….. disorganized!” she replied. “So?” “SO?! I’ve never seen a mane so messy or…spikey, in my life! Doesn’t it bother you that it’s slightly in your eyes?” she yelled dramatically. “Huh?” I replied while raising a confused eyebrow. “Is that your actual hairstyle, or is that your bed-head? No offense, darling, but it’s just…I can’t even describe it than I already have!” “Uh, lady, is there something wrong with you?” “No, I cannot let this slide. You are in some desperate need of help. Not to worry, Rarity is here!” Before I could object, she started shoving into another room with a small smile on her face. “Hey! Hey, hey, hey, hey! What are you doing, I don’t feel comfortable with this! I don’t like that look on your face!” *One Fashion Abduction Later* I came out wearing some kind of suit made for ponies and my hair now all silky and tied in the back. I did not approve of this at all. I walked out and saw that Twilight, the lizard, and Kira were still there waiting for me. Their reactions were priceless; the lizard guy was on the floor laughing, Twilight’s jaw was dropped, and Kira was just surprised. “Oh my god, you look so cute!” Kira laughed. “I feel violated,” I responded. “There,” said the unicorn who abducted me, “Doesn’t that feel much better?” “I think I prefer my mane in a mess” I said as I untied my hair and took off the uncomfortable suit. But, when I was about to un-tie my hair, I realized that I couldn’t do it, damn hooves. “I got it,” said Twilight. She then used her magic to untie the band that kept my hair back. When she did, it went straight back to its untidy and spikey self; where it was touching the back of my neck and the bangs were in my eyes, just the way I like it. “Thanks,” I said to Twilight. “Hey, it was so perfect before. I don’t see why you like it when it’s in your face?” the white unicorn whined. “Is she always like this?” I whispered to Twilight. “Sort of; she was like this when I first met her” she answered. “Isn’t abducting another pony to accessorize their entire body against the law here?” I asked Twilight. All she did was gave me the “I dunno” shrug. I noticed that the little lizard was getting up off of the ground, panting from all of the laughing he did. It wasn’t that funny. Then Kira stepped in. “Miss, Rarity was it?” Kira asked. “Correct”. “I just want to ask, did you make all of these dresses?” Kira asked with still a lot of amazement. “Indeed I did. Every dress you see in here was created by me,” she responded elegantly. “Really? I just love the designs you did for all of these dresses” Kira complimented, “It’s so original, so artistic!” “Seriously? It seems I’m not the only one with an eye for fashion and decor!” “Well, I’m not really a dressmaker, or whatever you call them. But anyway, I’m an artist and seeing your dresses, it just", she paused, "They’re like paintings that you can wear. We don’t get these kinds of clothes where we come from. To me, our dresses are all dull and mostly only one color. But these dresses, there so", she paused again, "Invigorating!” Kira exclaimed happily. “I’ve never heard anypony say that about my dresses before,” Rarity responded happily. “I think your dresses are amazing too, Rarity,” butted in the little lizard. But it seemed she didn’t hear him. He just sat down and pouted, something tells me that he has a thing with this white mare. The both of them continued to talk fashion and dresses for a while, and I grew bored easily. “Do you think we could go?” I asked Twilight, growing bored of all of this. “I suppose” she responded. Both Kira and Rarity turned and looked at us, and gave us disappointed faces. Then Kira looked back and looked at Rarity. “OH! Excuse me, um…..?” “Oh, I’m Kira” she responded. “Right, Kira. You said you’re an artist? What kind of things have you painted?” the white mare asked. “Anything really,” she responded, “I’ve painted environments and animals”. “How would you like to help and design a new dress I’m working on?” she asked. I looked at Kira and her eyes suddenly lit up and grew a huge smile on her face, and she even squealed. She turned to me. “Vincent, can I stay and help Rarity? Please, please, please???” she pleaded while jumping up and down. She was acting like those little kids who were begging their parents for a lollipop. “Fine by me,” I responded. She then lead out a loud cheery giggle and ran over and hugged me; nearly choking me. “Thank you!” she yelled cheeringly. “Trouble……breathing” I spoke. “Oh, sorry,” she said and then released and followed Rarity into another room. “I have a feeling that this is the start of a beautiful friendship,” I heard Rarity said. The remaining three of us went outside and started walking towards some other houses near the woods. “Some friend you got there,” I said to Twilight. “Yeah, well, Rarity is definitely the stylish type. And I’d say she’s the most mature out of my friends,” she responded. “And she’s so Beautiful” the little lizard spoke softly. “Yeah, nothing says mature and beautiful like abducting others against their own will and give them make-overs,” I joked. “What are you saying?” spoke the little lizard in a suspicious tone. “It’s just sarcasm. Didn’t mean anything by it….Sorry, I keep forgetting your name”. “It’s Spike. S-P-I-K-E,” he responded. “Ok. So, Twilight, where to next?” I asked. “Well I was thinking that we could head over to-" Before she could finish, I saw a quick pink blur just zip past me. I only had a millisecond before it zoomed by, to get a clear visual of the fast object. “Did anyone else see that?” I asked. “HIII-ya!” “Gahh!” I yelled and jumped back. Out of nowhere, some pink pony just randomly appeared out of nowhere and was in my face. When I fell to the ground, I got a better view. It looked like a normal pony, the one that doesn’t have any horns or wings. Although, I don’t think “normal” is the right word. It also had bright blue eyes, fluffy pink mane and tail, and had a trio of balloons on its flank. I got up, and before I could ask who this crazy pony was, well- “Omygosh! I’ve never seen you here before? Are you new? You must be new cuz I’ve never seen you here before? I love your mane; it’s all messy like mine. Only mine is poofy and yours is spikey. If you’re new, then that means you must be lonely. And if you’re lonely, then that means that you have no friends. And one thing I can’t stand is seeing other ponies without any friends. Not to worry, I’ll be your friend, and I’ll even throw you a huge welcome party! I’m Pinkie Pie,”. “I’m leaving,” I responded and started walking away from her, not wanting to be bothered. But then she reappeared in front of my face. “Nice to meet you leaving!” she exclaimed. “How did……what the……” I looked back to wear she was before, then back to wear she is now. Trying to figure out how she popped up in front of me in the blink of an eye. “It’s just one of the things that Pinkie does,” Twilight answered. I was still looking back at where the pink pony was standing before, still couldn’t believe of how quickly she transported. Seriously, it was like i was staring at her outline at where she was originally standing. “That’s not possible,” I added. “Anything is possible, leaving,” responded Pinkie happily. “My name’s not leaving, Its Vincent, I was being facetious,” I told her. “Really, that’s such a fun name, Vinny!” “Don’t call me that”. “I gotta go now, got's to go plan for your party!” she yelled with excitement. And she just zipped off to somewhere else. I barely know her and already I find her extremely annoying. “What the hell just happened?” I asked. “You just got a preview of what Pinkie Pie is like,” answered Spike smiling. “If that’s just her greeting, I’d hate to see her in a real conversation,” I said. “Don’t worry, she grows on you from time” said Twilight, “Now, I was thinking that, since you already met Pinkie Pie, I think it’s time you met Fluttershy”. “Fluttershy?” I asked. “Yeah, she’s really nice and great to be around. I think you’ll like her, Vinny,” Twilight teased. “I said not to call me that!” I demanded. We started walking to the outside of the village until we reached what looked like a small cottage. There was a little bridge, bird houses hung all around, animals everywhere, the roof was covered with green plant life, the walls looked like it was made out of old wood, and there was even a stone path leading to the door. It was actually kind of peaceful. We walked across the little bridge that was there and made our way to the door. She knocked at the door about three times and waited for a response. The door then opened, and approached a small Pegasus. It’s fur was yellow, had a long light pink mane and tail in which some of the mane was covering her face, and had a trio of butterflies on her flank; butterfly tattoos is at least something common in my world. To be honest, when I first saw her at the door, I didn’t know what to think. She just looked really, frail and innocent. I really can’t say. “Oh, Hello Twilight and hello Spike,” she said. Not to mention that voice, it was so soft. She then looked at me and then suddenly went all quiet, odd. “W-who’s this Twilight?” she asked. “This is Vincent, he’s new in town,” Twilight introduced me, “Vincent, meet Fluttershy.” “Hello,” I said. “H-hello, Vincent,” She whispered. “Uh, what?” “Hello,” “What?” “Hi,” It seemed the more I asked the more she got quieter. To the point where I really couldn’t hear a word she was saying. “Fluttershy isn’t really good with new ponies,” explained Twilight. Me and her both; though what was I going to expect from someone named “Fluttershy”? “I know the feeling,” I muttered. I tilted my head and looked in the slightly open door, I was curious. There were animals crawling and flying everywhere, it looked like a pet shop. Is she a pet shop owner? “Whoa, that’s a lot of animals. Are they all yours?” I asked her. “Well, I wouldn’t say they’re all mine. Sometimes I just take care of the animals that need me in my cottage,” she replied, this time clearer. “But, don’t animals need to look after themselves?” I asked, confused. “Why would they do that?” she gasped. “Yeah, why would they, do animals in your kingdom fend for themselves?” asked Twilight. This was seriously weird, is letting animals take care of themselves illegal in this world? Does everypony have to help small animals run their lives? What happened to the natural order? Well, I guess I would’ve expected much from a place inhabited by small horses. “Yes,” I answered. “Seriously?” asked Spike. “Well, you know. Different land, different laws,” I lied, unsure if i said the right thing. “Huh, the laws there must be really confusing,” added Twilight. “In a way...” I said. “Oh, I hope the animals there are alright. Having them take care of themselves must be really hard,” said Fluttershy. “I think they know what they’re doing” I said, “Plus, not every animal is as small or innocent like the ones you have here.” “What do you mean, what kinds of animals do you have? If you don’t mind me asking.” “Don’t mind at all,” I started, “We have a whole lot of animals; like tigers, crocodiles, polar bears, snakes, great white sharks”. “We have some of those creatures here” she said, “But, what’s a great white shark?” “Just a really big fish with lots of teeth that will practically eat anything that’s above it. They mostly eat large fish and seals.” I answered simply but something told me that I gave out too many facts; because she was crouching on the ground quivering. Oops. “They sound…really scary,” she whimpered, “Do they attack ponies?” “Unless you swim right above it and move like a seal; other than that, not so much. But it’s hard to tell, they’ll practically devour anything that’s in the water,” I answered, again I felt like I spoke too vividly. She even let out a frightened squeal. Again, oops. “I-I don’t think I’ll go swimming anymore,” she muttered, “It was nice to meet you, Vincent, bye.” With that, she zipped back inside her home and shut the door. “Smooth,” I said to myself. I looked at Twilight and Spike and saw that they both gave me confused and shocked looks. “What?” “You really shouldn’t scare others like that, Vincent. That wasn’t very nice”. Twilight said, firmly. “I was just describing what sharks are and what they do where I’m from. Is it a sin to tell the truth?” I asked. “Of course not, but maybe next time you could be a little more gentle on how you describe your different creatures”. “Well, sorry for describing an animal that can’t even hurt you unless you’re in the ocean,” I remarked. We all looked up at the sun and saw that it was starting to go down, I felt really tired for the day. “We should head back,” said Twilight. “Alright.” We walked away from Fluttershy’s house and started to make out way back to Twilight’s house. I felt so done for the day, with the working and the walking and such. All I really wanted to do now was find a comfy place for me to just sleep… Parties and Dreams I felt so done for the day as we were walking back to Twilight’s house from the long day. The sun was setting and the weather was starting to get slightly chilly, all I wanted to do was just get some sleep. I still needed to get Twilight’s trust so I can ask her about the book. I don’t know how she would react when she finds out my friends and I aren’t ponies. I could tell we were both tired, none of us has said anything for the past three minutes as we walked back. Twilight and Spike had been walking next to me and never said a single word. The silence was starting to kill me. “So…” she finally said, “Did you like meeting my friends today?” “Yeah, it was alright,” I replied, nonchalantly. “Where did you say you were from again?” “Out of town,” I replied. “Oh, I see,” she said the silence starting up again. “Riveting conversation,” Spike said, breaking the awkward silence. “I see you’re still carrying on that taciturn trait.” pointed out Twilight. “Sorry, I’m just a little tired, been walk-trotting all day,” I replied honestly. “Well, doesn’t mean we can’t have a friendly conversation,” she suggested flashing a smile. “Yeah, I suppose.” I didn’t know if she wanted me to come up with a random topic to discuss or something. “Hey, Vincent,” she started. “Yeah?” I replied. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, where’s your cutiemark?” “My what?” I asked confused. “Your cutiemark?” she asked again, and pointed to my blank flank. I completely forgot that every equine in this village had some sort of tattoo on their flanks. I had to come up with an excuse. “Oh, uh, we don’t usually get marks where I’m from,” I lied. “Really? That’s weird, because you should have your cutiemarks by now. Come to think of it, I didn’t notice any of your friends having marks either,” she pointed out. I was on thin ice; well not really, all I had to do was just come up with another excuse. “OH, cutiemarks. I thought you said…mutie clarks!”. Mutie Clarks, Seriously? Man, I’m a terrible liar. It’s not like I know any Clark’s who are mute anyway. “OKay” Twilight said unconvinced. “You know, I have a faded memory and I tend to forget important stuff easily,” I fibbed. “Really, but you remembered my name?” she said. “Oh,well, uh, I didn’t remember the lizards name at first,” I replied, nervously. “Dragon,” corrected Spike. “Whatever, the point is I have a bad memory. So, maybe you could remind me, on the importance of cutiemarks?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t find it strange I had no clear clue what those tattoos were. “Okay then,” she started, “Well Cutiemarks are basically the marks we get on our flanks that reveal what our special talents are. So if you have something like, a hammer for example, then it could mean you’re good at construction.” Geez, your talent could just be revealed on what your tattoo is telling you? That’s just bizarre. Ever heard of a profile or a resume, but still, the idea of a tattoo representing who you are is kind of interesting. “Oh, right, now I remember. Thanks,” I said, trying to sound convincing. “No problem.” “Boy, socially awkward and short term memory. You’re really something, Vincent,” Spike joked. “Spike” hissed Twilight. “It’s fine, I’m usually not used to being around new, ponies,” I admitted with a slight laugh. “It’ll be fine. I wasn’t used to this place at first, but then I made a lot of friends here and I got used to living here. I think you’ll like it.” she said supportively. I gave her a small smile back as a reply. We finally made it back to Twilight’s house where Kira, Den, Applejack and Rarity were all waiting for us. Along with two other little fillies, who looked like younger versions of Applejack and Rarity. Although one of them had yellow fur, red mane and tail and a pink bow; the other had white fur with a light purple mane with a pink swirl in the mane and tail. Neither of them had marks; looks like we’re not the only ones who didn’t have a cutie mark. “Yo! What up, Vin?” Den said, greeting us. “Just got back from murdering my legs,” I replied jokingly, referring to the long walk and walks we’ve been having today. “How was the apple thing?” I asked. “The apple bucking? I’ll admit, it was quite the workout, we made some pretty good progress,” he boasted proudly. “Good progress, ya’ll only got half the apples in the first basketm” Applejack corrected him. “The point is I feel stronger, ready for my next match!” “How can you be ready to fight if you can’t even control your wings?” playfully mocking him. “Pfff, no way can a couple of unstable wings can keep me down!” he yelled as he started to hover in mid-air. We were amazed at how fast he was learning how to fly already. “Hey, it looks like you’re at least getting the hang of it.” No sooner as I had said those words, Den shot straight up into the air like a rocket, zipping past the clouds leaving a hole in them. I could hear him shouting as he blasted off. “Or maybe not,” I corrected myself, watching my friend careened through the open sky like a wayward missile. We waited awhile but Den still hadn’t come back down. We all beginning to worry, sharing concerned and confused looks as we searched the skies. “This is going to take a while,” Spike said, finally speaking up. “So anyway, what’s your name?” I asked the yellow filly. “I’m Applebloom, Applejacks sister,” she introduced herself. “I can see the resemblance,” I responded, which made her smile before she returned to looking up at the sky. “Sheesh, how long is he going to be stuck up there?” she asked. “I have no idea, it’s like Spike said, it may take while just for him to come back down,” Twilight answered. “I just hope he doesn’t crash into my roof again.” “Well that’s Den for you, he’s completely unpredictable,” I stated flatly. “And unstable,” added Kira. “But he did help out a lot on the farm, I’ll give him that,” admitted Applejack. “Yeah, and he’s really strong. His dream sounds so amazing. Hey, maybe we could get our cutiemarks in mixed martial arts! Whatever that is.” Applebloom said, her eyes growing rounder at the next crusade. “Uh-uh. No sister of mine is going to go running off and fighting others who are twice their size for the fun of it,” snorted Applejack. “What? Then how come he gets to?” she whined. “Because he has his reasons,” Applejack answered. Funny, those are the exact same words Den tell me whenever I ask him that question. “Ooh, before we forget”, Rarity interuppted. “Kira, would you like to show everyone the design you came up with for the dress?” “Oh right!” Pulling out a large sheet of paper, she unrolled it and it revealed a picture of a dress. I’m not good at describing clothes so I’ll do my best. It was slim and looked silky. The collar was made of tulip petals but the entire dress had a dark violet colour to it, with minute sparkles woven in. Bloomed lotus flowers covered the body in varying blues, reds, and greens. A tiara was drawn above the dress weaved out of rose thorns with a large rose as the center piece. Looping wind sigils on the dress gave off the impression that the wind was blowing by. Definitely looks like something Kira would paint. “What do you think? It’s the new dress we’re working on,” she chirped happily. “We’ve been working on this design all day, and I think it’s going to turn out great once it’s fully complete” added Kira. “Isn’t it just, magnificent?” Rarity asked cheerfully. “Well, Kira, you were right. You certainly do have an artistic eye,” complemented Rarity. “Thank you,” Kira bashfully replied, her own cheeks becoming rosy. “Looks like it’s another masterpiece yet to come true,” I answered with a smile. “You really think so? I put a lot of thought into this design,” Kira said like a child who got their parents approval. “Of course, everything you paint is beautiful”. That last complement seemed to really make Kira smile, along with Rarity; I looked down and noticed the other filly standing next to them patiently. “So who’s the mini-Rarity?” I asked. “This is my sister, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said, nodding to her little sister. “I helped out too. It’s really nice to meet you, I’ve heard a lot about you from Kira. Isn’t she the nicest pony you’ve ever met?” she squeaked at a mile a minute. For a moment there, I felt like my ears were about to bleed. That filly has one hell of a squeaky voice. “How adorable,” I said nonchalantly, trying to rub out the ringing in my ears. “Isn’t she?” asked Kira she said innocently. “So, what does that note say?” Spike brought up. “Oh, right, let’s take a look.” Twilight and I walked up to the door to read the note attached to it. Twilight lifted it off with her telekinetic powers and began to read it aloud. “Come to SugarCube Corner for a sweet surprise,” she read aloud. That’s got to be the briefest note I’ve ever heard in my life. Well, other than the suicide message from the movie “IT”, this was reassuring. “What does that mean?” Kira asked. “Oh, ya’ll will see soon enough,” Applejack chortled. A loud thoom turned our attention to a nearby tree to see Den tangled up in the branches. “Hey, Den! You alright over there?” I asked. “I’m fine, never better” he muttered darkly, his eyes rolling around in his skull. “You sure about that, sugarcube?” asked Applejack. “Yeah, just losing large amounts of blood from a life threatening fall, don’t worry I’ll be dead in a few minutes.” “Well can you manage to save some life left, we just got invited to this place called SugarCube Corner,” said Kira. “SugarCube what now?” he asked as he raised his head as his eyes refocused on us. “I don’t know, man. It’s just some weird invite,” I clarified watching him trying to wiggle out of the branches. A little creak was heard followed by a loud snap and Den fell face first to the ground. Applejack and Applebloom went over and helped him up. “So are you coming?” “Eh, why not,” he answered while rubbing the back of his head with a hoof. “Look on the bright side,” started Twilight. “At least he didn’t crash into my roof again”. “Or anyone’s roof,” I added. “Yeah. Anyway, we should head on over there.” “Lead the way.” I was walking behind her while Spike rode on her back like a cowboy would on a horse, funny in it’s own way. Kira and Rarity were walking beside each other talking about dresses and paintings with Sweetie Belle jumping in here and there. Applejack and Applebloom were helping Den walk in a straight line, he kept wobbling to the left and his eyes were still spinning like a top. Finally we came to a stop out in front of what I could only describe as some kind of life size gingerbread house. The roof, the doors, the walls and even the windows had candy themes. Odder still was that no lights were on, it looked rather deserted. I was assuming this was SugarCube Corner, it certainly lived up to its name. “Here we are,” Twilight said as Spike hopped off her back. “Of course it is,” I spoke. “What?” “Nothing, it’s just that it was kind of predictable to find out a place called SugarCube corner turned out to look like THAT,” I pointed my hoof at Peewee’s (second) Playhouse. “Well yeah, what did you expect?” “Whoa, cool. A candy house!” exclaimed Kira, “Can we eat it?” “I’m afraid the building itself isn’t edible darling,” chuckled Rarity. “Dang it,” whined Kira. “But don’t worry, there’s plenty of sweets inside,” said Rarity. “Good enough for me,” said Kira giving a toothsome smile. Den finally managed to fix his eyes and spotted the gingerbread house and focused in on it. “Oh we’re here?” he asked. “Sure are. Ready to go in?” asked AJ. “Sure, I’m starving,” answered Den “Then let’s go in,” said Twilight. We walked straight into pitch black darkness, the smell of sweets tickling my nose. “Is it always this dark in here?” I asked aloud, an eerie chill crawling up my spine as we stood in complete darkness. “No, but I have a feeling...” Twilight sang. “A feeling of what?” I asked. It wasn’t until all 9 of us were inside and Applebloom shut the door behind us, when it happened. A light switched on and a bunch of ponies shouted- “SURPRISE!!!!” It all caught us off guard. “Aaahh!” it felt like my heart was trying to claw its way out my chest. Kira, Den, and I dropped to the floor. Twilight, Rarity and Applejack helped us up as the party began to go into full swing. Ponies were laughing, talking, and dancing with one another with streamers and noise makers and loud music playing. “Hi-Ya, Vinny! Were you surprised, were ya? Were ya!?” Pinkie asked, popping out of thin air. “Oh, it’s you again,” I sighed. “Yeah its me. Did ya like the surprise? I got every pony in Ponyville to show up and helped me throw you a surprise welcome party!” she exclaimed while blowing a noise maker horn, right in front of my ears. “OW! Do you have to blow that horn right in front of me?” “Oops, sorry,” she laughed and backed up and blew to the horn again. “That’s…better, I guess,” I replied. Don’t know if she would take it seriously. “Well, I thought you did another job well done, Pinkie,” complimented Twilight, “It seems you’ve really outdone yourself once again”. “Yay, Party!” shouted Applebloom. “C’mon, I see Scootaloo over there!” yelled Sweetie. “Fillies,” laughed Rarity as she watched her sister disappear into the crowd. “Well, they are just kids,” Kira said sweetly. “You’ll never see me act like tha- OOOOOO, CUPCAKES!” squealed Kira, and she ran towards them like a hungry child. “Kira, wait!” shouted Rarity as she chased after her. “Whoa, some party we got going on here,” Den said as he took in the food and music. “Well that’s Pinkie Pie for ya,” replied AJ. “Um, hello,” a soft voice called out. We all looked to our left and noticed that Fluttershy was standing right next to us. “Um, are you one of the new ponies in the town, if you don’t mind me asking that is?” she timidly asked Den. “I guess you can say that. The name’s Den, what’s yours?” he asked. “Oh um, I’m Fluttershy,” she whimpered. Though to be fair, it was more difficult to hear her with all the noise going on. “Uh, what?” asked Den. “This is Fluttershy” Applejack answered, “And as you can tell she’s-” “Shy? No Kidding, I had no idea,” replied Den sarcastically. “Is there a problem?” Fluttershy asked. “No not at all. It’s just that, you sound like such a tough and durable fighting machine. I bet all you do for fun is fight wild animals am I right?” teased Den. “Why, why would I do that?” she asked. “Because you’re the most lethal pony here, how about you me have a little brawl, what do you say?” he teased some more. “Den,” hissed AJ, her eyes narrowing to slits. A blue bolt shot out in front followed by a familiar messy rainbow mane and tail, wearing a pissed expression. “Hey, leave her alone,” scolded Rainbow Dash. “Oh, it’s you. Have you badgered any other innocents today?” Den asked casually. “I don’t know, crashed into anypony else’s roofs lately?” she snapped back aggressively. “No, but I did crash into a tree just a few minutes ago.” “Serves you right. Why the hay are you picking on Fluttershy!” “Picking on her? I was just messing with her, cool your jets.” “My what?” “You, you were?” the timid Pegasus asked. “Yeah, I didn’t mean anything by it. Can’t you take a joke?” he asked. “Well, um…” “Aw c’mon, It’s not like you actually fight wild animals would ya?” “I would never, I love animals”. “Well then that’s fine. I was just messing, nothing serious. No hard feelings?” he asked, still smiling. Fluttershy went quiet for a while until she finally looked up and gave a small smile and nodded “Yes.” “You see, we’re all good now. We’re here to party right? So let’s get it started!” he exclaimed. “I agree, let’s party!” exclaimed Pinkie as she zoomed off to somewhere else. “You sure do have a sick sense of humor, picking on Fluttershy like that,” retorted Dash. “It was a joke. Ever heard of forgive and forget?” “I may be able to forgive, but I never forget,” she hissed. “Oh, I’m counting on it,” Den replied. Rainbow Dash just huffed and flew off to another part of the party. Den and Applejack began to walk off to somewhere else. “Geez, what a hot-head,” commented Den. “Well, Rainbow is still ticked at ya for crashing into Twi’s roof like that,” said AJ. “C’mon, I said I was sorry. Do I have to write an apology letter too?” Soon they mingeled with the crowd, until we couldn’t hear their conversation anymore. “That Den certainly is obnoxious,” spoke Twilight. “Yeah, he’s an animal, but he knows when to admit he made a mistake,” I said, “Plus, it’s not like that Rainbow Dash is any better. Does she always hold a grudge for a long time?” “You’d be surprised,” she replied dryly. “Surprised in a good way?” “Never mind, c’mon, let’s just enjoy the party,” she said. “Sure”. The party went on for a while. Loud music played while games were being enjoyed. It seemed my friends were finally having fun. Kira was just stuffing her face full with every sweet she could grab a hold of, as Rarity and I just laughed at her silliness. I couldn’t help it. A record was playing lively music and everyone was dancing in a circle in the middle of the floor. Twilight was doing some really awkward dance, thrashing her arms around like a dying tuna on a beach. Den and Spike were trying to bob for apples. Den came out with two apples in his mouth and spit them out. Then he went back in while Spike was still trying to get some, and Den came out with two more apples in his mouth, Pinkie declared him the winner for getting the last two out. He shot his arms up in the air in a victory pose with winning smile on his face, and then Applejack gave him a victory hug. Towards the end of the party, I stepped outside to get some fresh air. Leaning up against the side of the building to rest, watching as the sun dipped over the horizon and the moon began to rise up. I could stare at the sky for hours. A sudden snap pricked my ears, turning my head I was face to face with Twilight. “What are you doing out here, the party is still going on inside.” “I don’t know, I guess I’m just tired.” Not like it was any of her business anyway. “You weren’t doing much you know,” she said with a small frown on her face. “I know but like I said before, I’m not used to being around a lot of peop-ponies. It just makes me feel, uncomfortable,” I said. If I had my I-Pod and headphones I’d listen to my music all night long. “Oh, well you shouldn’t feel uncomfortable, Vincent. It’s always nice to make new friends. You’re probably just not used to this place yet, kind of like how I was when I first moved here.” “Probably, why did you move here again?” I asked. “Like I said, the princess sent me to check up on preparations for the Summer Sun celebration. Then Nightmare Moon came and was about put Equestria into eternal night”. “Cool,” I said, however this seemed to struck a nerve with her. “Cool?” she asked suspicious. “Yeah, it’s cool” I said. “What? Why would you think eternal night would be ‘cool’?” she asked surprised. “I don’t know, I kind of like the night. It’s always so peaceful and quiet, not a lot of,” I paused, “ponies, come out during the night to make a lot of noise. I actually wouldn’t mind being in the dark forever. The sun would never come and shine in my eyes in the morning, and I wouldn’t be able to go to school to deal with a bunch of zombies. Besides, I like sleeping”. “That’s ridiculous!” she snapped. “Is something wrong?” “Um, yeah! How could you think it’s ‘cool’ to live at night for all eternity?” she scolded. “I’m pretty sure I just explained why.” “I get that, but WHY would you think that? It’s not good to sleep forever, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to live, and how would you find your way through the dark? The sun would never rise up again and Nightmare Moon would take over, that’s just horrible!” she ranted. “It was just my opinion. You don’t need to complain about it and in case you haven’t noticed, this Nightmare thing isn’t even around. So why would you need to worry about something that doesn’t even exist. Or at least not anymore, not to mention that everyone is entitled to their own opinion” I retorted. “You’re right, sorry,” she sighed, “It’s just that, you’re the first pony I’ve met to actually say they prefer to live in the eternal night rather than day”. “No problem, besides, look how beautiful the moon is,” I pointed. We all looked up and noticed the full moon and how it was shining down on the village, and the stars twinkling around it. “Yeah, Princess Luna’s moon definitely is stunning” said Twilight. “Hmm?” Who’s Princess Luna? Probably best to ask her about it later. “Hey, Twilight” “Yeah?” “Do you trust me?” I asked. Twilight went silent for a while. “Oh um…well, I just met you, and uh, well, mmhhmm.” “No?” “Well, why do you want to know if I trust you?” she asked. “Curious,” I replied, deciding to keep it simple. “Oh, then -” Before she could finish, the door opened up and ponies began walking out. My only thought was, Did Pinkie seriously invite every pony in this town? Anyway, the last few stragglers came out was the group followed by my friends: Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Applejack, Applebloom, Spike, Kira, and Den; who was wobbling while holding a cup of punch in his right hoof. “You alright there partner?” laughed Applejack. “Where’s the leak ma’am?” Den muttered in a deep voice. “You do know that that’s non-alcoholic, right?” pointed out Kira. “Don’t care, too tired to argue” responded Den. “Oh yeah that reminds me, where are we going to sleep tonight?” asked Kira. “Huh, didn’t really think of that,” the realization now dawning on me. “I’m sure there’s a hotel near here that you and your friends can check into,” suggested Twilight. “We didn’t really bring any money. Sort of forgot.” I said. “Sort of?” “Not to worry, I’m sure I’ve got room for Den to sleep at Sweet Apple Acres,” said Applejack. “Fine by me,” Den responded, still sounding tired. “And Kira, you may stay at Carousel Boutique if you wish,” offered Rarity. “Thanks, Rarity.” “Yay, Kira’s sleeping over!” chirped Sweetie Belle. “Ok, so where am I going to crash tonight?” I asked myself. “It’s alright, you can stay at my place for the night, I have a spare bed. Maybe now, you can catch up on your sleeping,” she smiled. “Thanks. Alright then, I guess it’s settled,” I said, satisfied. “Good night, Vincent,” Kira said and went over to hug me goodbye, “See you tomorrow”. “Good night everypony,” signed off Rarity as she, Kira, and Sweetie trotted off and we waved goodbye. “We better head on home now,” suggested Applejack. “Sure, night everyone!” yelled Den as they were all heading back to their farm. We waved goodbye to each other and made our way back to Twilight’s house. I still didn’t get a clear answer out of her. How am I supposed to ask her about the book now? Twilight’s Library We were inside Twilight’s home, upstairs in her room. Just like the downstairs, bookshelves lined the walls. Twilight’s bed sat next to her window, roughly a wooden box with a mattress on top. Blue blankets decorated with stars. She was just setting out the spare bed across from hers, just a few feet splitting the beds apart. It was blander and more looked like a board than her own, but it was better than nothing. Off to the side was a small basket with a pillow and covers inside of it. “You have a dog?” I asked, pointing a hoof at the little basket. “What, oh no,” she laughed, “That’s where Spike sleeps”. “You calling me a dog?” asked Spike defensively. “Down boy, heal,” I teased while petting his head. “Why I otta,” he growled. “Relax, I’m just kidding, geez. Why are all of you so uptight?” “Spike, do you think you could meet me downstairs, I need your help with something?” Twilight asked. Spike huffed and started walking downstairs, I looked back at Twilight and she just finished the bed. “The bed is all set,” she said. “What are you working on?” I asked curiously. “Nothing much, I just need to send a letter,” she answered. “You can go ahead and get ready for bed. I’m probably going to be up for a while.” “Cool, goodnight”. “Night”. As she was trotting downstairs with a candle, I climbed onto the bed and slid under the covers. Even though it was a spare bed, it was still soft and cozy. I turned to sleep on my left side, and once my head touched the pillow I was out like a light. ______________________________________________________________________________ My eyes shot open and I noticed that I was floating in a big, empty, violet, open space. I wasn’t floating, I could feel the ground underneath my hooves Objects floated around me. Clocks, gears, a TV, music notes, skulls, motorcycle parts, black electric guitars, amps, headphones and my I-Pod. I looked around and noticed that I was totally alone; no Twilight, or Applejack, or Kira, or Den. No one. “What the hell is going on here?” I asked myself. “You are in a dream,” a rather feminine and royal voice said. I looked around to see who spoke but I couldn’t see anyone. All I saw was the violet emptiness wavering in front of my eyes. “Up here,” said the voice again. I looked up and saw the source. It was a pony, like the others, but this one was different. Dark blue fur, flowing blue mane and tail, it’s mark was a crescent moon with black splatter around it, wore blue clear glass slippers, and had both a horn and wings. It looked so, surreal. “Who are you?” I asked. She floated down until she was at eye level with me. “I am Princess Luna,” she introduced. Princess Luna? So, this is the princess that Twilight was talking about, the one who owns their moon or something? “Princess Luna?” I asked, confused. “That is correct. My duties are to raise the moon when the day has come to an end,” she answered in a somewhat echoing voice. “So wait, let me get something clear. This is a dream that I’m in?” I asked. “Correct young one,” she answered. “Oh great,” I sighed, “Are you like the Freddie Krueger of this world?” “Excuse me? I do not know of this ‘Freddie Kruger’ you speak of,” she responded. “Well if I’m dreaming right now, lost in a strange dream and now I’ve just come across this unknown, dark-looking creature that’s giving me weird vibes. Does that mean you’re going to kill me?” “Why would I do that? When I enter pony’s dreams, it is only so I can talk to them,” she answered. “So you CAN enter my dreams, but you’re not going to kill me?” “Where are you going with this?” This conversation was getting us nowhere. I guess my curiosity got the better of me. “Never mind, it’s nothing” I said, a little embarrassed that I asked a lot of questions. “You are forgiven. Now then, please, tell me your name,” she asked. “Vincent Chambers,” I responded. The dark winged unicorn went silent for a minute. “Uh, what?” “Vincent Chambers? Then my sister was right, that name sounds too unreal for any pony to have,” she said. “What?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “She has told me that some new ponies that have arrived here have very unusual names and have bizarre actions. Who knew you’d be one of them.” “Wait, how do you know that?” “Are you not one of them?” “What are you talking about?” “Not important, but I must warn you. That the troubles you have now are nothing when compared to what’s going to happen.” “What? Can someone please explain what is going on?” A sudden wind came down turning violently into a hurricane. All the objects floating were vanishing with the wind, all I could see was Luna getting blown away. “Farewell!” she yelled as she disappeared into the void. My eyes shot open, I was still resting in the spare bed but I could feel my whole body shaking. I slowly sat up and looked out the window. The sun was shining through the glass, burning away any sleep from me. I blocked the sun’s rays with my hoof, but I still couldn’t shield my eyes. I stretched out my limbs, letting out a yawn, and crawled out of bed. I stood up and began to walk downstairs. When I got to the bottom, I saw Twilight and Spike sitting at a table with little cups filled with coffee and a plate filled with muffins. “Oh, good morning, Vincent,” said Twilight, happily. “Morning,” I replied. “Did you sleep well?” she asked. I didn’t know if I should tell her about the weird dream I had. I didn’t know how she would react, so I didn’t mention it. “Yeah,” was all I said. “Well, grab a muffin,” said Spike as he swallowed some gems and continued to put more in his mouth. “Doesn’t it feel weird to eat gems?” I asked while taking a muffin, “How do they taste?” “Delicious,” he muttered, while he was still chewing. “Spike, don’t talk with your mouth full,” scolding the young dragon. Spike’s child-like behavior made me let out a slight chuckle as I took a bite out my muffin. “I think I’m going to get some fresh air, be right back” I spoke after I swallowed. “Ok, hurry back” said Twilight as she waved goodbye. I waved back and walked out the door. I finished my muffin and started walking about; it looked very bright and sunny today, it was kind of annoying of how bright the sun was. I felt like it was blinding me. I continued walking and spotting some ponies nearby, talking and walking past me. It was kind of funny, for some reason, these ponies remind me very much of how people act, I don’t know why. “Hey fool!” yelled a voice. I turned to the left and noticed both Den and Kira standing next to a large pony statue in the middle of town. “Good morning!” yelled Kira. I walked over to where they were standing to greet them. I stopped in front of them and was about to chat. “Hey, how did you guys sleep?” I asked. “Pretty good, Applejack had a spare bed for me,” answered Den, “Then again, it was in the barn”. Kira and I let out a small laugh at Den’s inefficient sleeping area. “Sounds comfortable,” I said sarcastically. “Hey, you try sleeping at night with the constant sound of mooing and barking,” he retorted. “Right, how did you sleep, Kira?” I asked. “Pretty good, I guess” she answered, “Rarity didn’t actually have a spare bed, so we had to share her own. And I couldn’t take Sweetie Belle’s small bed”. “Oh, you and Rarity had to share a bed” Den said foolishly, “getting it one, were you?” “Shut up,” Kira said punching his arm. I decided that it was time that I asked them about the dream I had, seeing how I’m telling people who I can trust, at least people in pony bodies. “Hey guys, did you have any strange dreams last night?” I asked. They both turned their attention towards me with puzzled faces. “Now that you mentioned it, I did have some strange dream last night,” pointed out Kira. “Yeah, so did I,” added Den. “Really, was it with this big blue winged unicorn with a-“ “Moon tattoo,” Kira and Den both answered at the same time. We all exchanged looks; it was weird that we all had the same dream last night. What could it mean? “Seriously weird,” I said. “What do you think it means?” asked Kira. “I have no idea, but i-“ “Hey!” We all turned around and saw Twilight trotting towards us, she looked worried for a minute. “Twilight, what’s wrong?” I asked. “Vincent, I’d like you to know that I sent a letter to the princess last night before I went to bed,” she started. “So?” “So I told her about meeting you and how glad I was making friends with you and your friends, even though you were a bit strange at first,” she said with a smile. “Again, so?” I asked. “SO, I just got a letter back from her. She told me to gather my friends and catch a train to Canterlot. And also, she told me to bring you and your friends along as well”. “So, your princess wants to meet us?” “Well, one of them. C’mon, let’s gather every pony, buy tickets, and head on over to Canterlot,” she finished as she trotted back to her house. “One of them? So there are two princesses?” I asked myself. “Two?” asked Kira. “Yeah, didn’t the winged unicorn from our dream refer to herself as a princess?” asked Den. “I don’t know?” replied Kira. “Well then, I guess we better follow Twilight”. Important meeting, "Do you trust me?"We were all waiting at the train station just outside of Ponyville. And by “we” I meant all of us: Me, Kira, Den, Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, AJ, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy. We were all in a big group clutching our tickets. We were just on the platform waiting for the train, and I was starting to grow impatient. I was just about to walk away so I didn’t die of boredom when I heard a certain whistle. Kira, Den, and I looked to our left and noticed that a train was just pulling in. When it did pull into the station, I was not impressed. The train itself looked old fashioned and all too bright and vivid. All the cars, including the engine, consisted of bright pink, blue, and yellow. Even the trains here looked especially girly. “What?” I asked, un-amused. “You have got to be kidding me,” complained Den. “Didn’t see this coming,” added Kira. “Why are you guys acting so surprised?” asked Twilight, “You’re acting like you haven’t seen the trains here before.” “We took a different train here. One that wasn’t…..THIS,” I replied while gesturing to the crayon box train. “You guys don’t get out much, do you?” asked Rainbow Dash. I shrugged my shoulders, giving her an “eh” gesture. We turned our attention back to the train and waited for everypony to get off. Once it was all clear, we boarded in the second to last car. The pink one. Ughh. We all got in the car, and it was actually kind of roomy inside. It looked like any other passenger car, despite its cookie-like appearance on the outside. There were comfy seats and large windows and two rows of seats, one for each side I guess. Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and I sat on the left side of the car while Kira, Den, Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack sat on the right. I was sitting next to a window with Twilight sitting next to me. Once we were all in, the conductor yelled “All Aboard!” and the whistle went off and the train started moving. We’ve been on the train for nearly 25 minutes already. I was starting to forget where we were going, and I was even more bored now. All I did was look out the window and watch as the scenery pass by. I could hear my friends talking and laughing on the other side. At least they’re all getting along. Especially seeing how Den and Rainbow Dash are now somewhat separated. “So where are we going again, Hogwarts?” asked Den. “What, no? I told you, I sent a letter to the princess telling her about you guys and all of the sudden she wants me to bring you to her,” Twilight answered. “How did you send a letter to her?” I asked, seeing how there was no email in this world. “Through Spike.” “The little lizard?” “He’s a dragon!” she corrected, irritated that I still couldn’t get his species right. “Seriously, how many times do we have to tell you?” asked Spike who also seemed irritated. “Ok, ok, sorry geez. But that still doesn’t explain-“ “His flames can teleport letters to the princess,” interrupted Twilight. “I thought you might ask that, seeing how you ask so many questions.” “Right.” Another 25 minutes later, I was resting my head on my hoof and leaning on the glass window with my eyes half open. We’ve been on this train for almost an hour now. Twilight was on the other side of the car discussing something with her friends while Kira decided to come over and sit across from me. “You ok, Vin?” Kira asked, “You look a little… dead.” “I’m just really bored. We’ve been on this train for an hour and there’s nothing to do,” I replied, sounding tired. “Well, we could talk about that thing we discussed earlier,” she suggested. “The really weird dream with that moon pony.” “Yeah, I suppose,” I said, sounding a bit interested. “So what happened when you first saw her?” “At first, I didn’t know how to respond when I was in the violet void. Especially with all these weird objects floating about, like paint cans and brushes, blank canvas, colored pencils, water colors, and cupcakes. But that could be just from the dozens of sweets I had last night,” she said with a slight laugh. Weird, something like that happened in my dream too, where my personal interests were floating around. “And then what?” I asked. “Then that moon princess came, and she said that her name was Luna. She then warned me, that the issues we had were nothing when compared to what was in store. And then she was blown away by some gust,” she concluded. That’s freaky, because that’s exactly what happened to me in my dream. Those were even the same words. “Same here. Anything else?” I asked. “Well, at one point, she asked me my name. I told her, and she seemed disturbed; saying that my name was far too human,” Kira said, worried. Same with me. “Do you think she knows?” Kira whispered so that no one would hear us. “I don’t know,” I whispered back. “But that’s exactly what happened in my dream. And I bet $10 that’s happened to Den too.” “Well, don’t you remember? Twilight said that she sent a letter to the princess. Do you think Twilight knows about us and told Luna?” “I don’t know, and I’m hoping not.” “Well, Luna did say that her ‘sister’ told her that our names sounded bizarre. And, before we got here, Twilight did say that she sent a letter to the princess. Do you think it’s possible that Luna and Twilight are related?” I was putting the pieces together in my head, and it seemed very likely. Luna saying that her ‘sister’ was suspicious, and then after that Twilight telling us she sent a letter to the princess telling her something about us. It is possible. Although I feel like I’m forgetting one important detail for some reason. “I wonder,” I said aloud. Just then, the train came to a complete stop, shaking us. “What’s going on,” I asked, feeling a little jumped from the sudden stop. “We’re here,” responded Twilight happily. “About time,” I said. “I was about to die of boredom.” “Very unlikely.” We departed from the train and walked onto the platform. When we looked past it, we saw this huge, fancy and delicate looking metropolis. We walked out of the station and into the entrance of the place. “Welcome to Canterlot,” Twilight announced proudly. “Whoa,” gasped Den. “Is this like the capital?” I asked. “Hope it’s not like the capital of Panem,” added Kira. “The princess’s castle is just up ahead, follow me,” instructed Twilight. Still thinking about the whole ‘Luna and Twilight’s letter’ thing, I started to look around as we walked through this Canterlot. All the residents were dressed in fancy clothes, the buildings were huge and had royal décor, and the whole place looked like a glamorous utopia filled with snobby rich ponies. Only one thing comes to mind when I think of fancy and sophisticated places: BORING. We all stopped in front of a pair of huge golden painted doors. They had to be about 15 feet tall. There were also guards in front of the door. They had white fur and were covered with golden armor. Security must be tight here. “Hello, sirs,” Twilight called. “We’re here to see the princess.” “Yes, Miss Sparkle,” they responded, and they opened the doors behind them, leading to a giant staircase inside. Twilight turned around and faced us. “Are you ready to meet the princess?” asked Twilight. I looked behind and all of her friends gave a confident nod, while we had our own responses. “I’m ready,” replied Kira, excited. “I suppose,” I spoke unsure. “Eh, what the hell” replied Den in a dismissive tone. We all entered the castle and walked up the staircase and began walking through this long hallway. We walked until we reached another set of large doors. Twilight opened it up the doors slowly, making a large annoying creeeeaaak noise. We began to walk through the long room and noticed that each side of the walls had stained glass windows, each one with a weird image. There was one where this male unicorn and a pink winged unicorn were holding hooves and were floating together in a heart shaped position. Another one we passed had this weird looking monster, that had the parts of almost every animal on its body, and what was below it really puzzled me: It looked like it was Twilight and her friends, and it appeared that they were shooting beams of something at the monster. What the hell? Are Twilight and her friends famous in this world? Are they soldiers or heroes or what? We got to the end of the room, that’s when I got really surprised. At the end, was another winged unicorn sitting on a throne, but this one was different. It was much taller than Twilight, had white fur, wore glass gold slippers, a gold tiara, and had a sun mark on its flanks. What really got me was its mane and tail. They were sparkling, multi-colored, and flowing. I couldn’t feel a draft in the room, so how the hell were they flowing like that? Anyway, when we got the end of the room where the creature was, we all stopped. “Princess Celestia,” greeted Twilight. “Hello Twilight Sparkle,” she spoke in an elegant and feminine voice and her eyes sparkling. “My faithful student.” Just then, Twilight and the others bowed to her. Kira, Den, and I looked around and noticed that all 7 of them had their heads down. “Psst,” whispered Twilight. “Why aren’t you bowing?” Then I started to get the idea that we had to bow too, so all three of us bowed our heads, quickly. Well this is, odd. I still don’t understand why we have to bow. “You may rise,” the princess commanded. “Um, Princess,” Twilight spoke nervously. “I don’t mean to jump into discussion, but is there a reason why you called us up? And why you told me to invite my new friends?” “Yes, there is a reason for that Twilight. I’d like to speak with them,” she answered, and then she turned her attention towards me and my friends. She gave us all an unsure look. “Hi,” I said, casually. “Please, state your names,” she asked. The white creature leveled a hoof at me. “Starting with you.” “My name’s Vincent Chambers,” I began. “I’m Den Michaels,” Den responded next. “And I’m Kira Valentine,” Kira finished. “Pleased to meet you all, surely you know who I am?” she asked. Twilight mentioned that this one was named… Celestia? “You’re Princess Celestia?” I asked, hoping I didn’t screw up her name. “Correct,” she responded with a smile, “Twilight has told me all about you three.” “Seriously?” “Yes, but she also mentioned that you had… strange behaviors.” “And?” “I hope you don’t mind if I ask you some questions?” she asked. “Shoot,” I replied. “Firstly, where did you come from?” she asked, nonchalantly. “Out of town,” I replied. “Where exactly?” she pressed. “Really far out of town,” I replied again, trying to sound convincing. “I see,” she said, sounding unconvinced, “Second, why did you come to Ponyville? Vacation? Reunion? Research?” “Um-” “D. All of the above,” Den covered. “Princess, what’s with all of these questions?” interrupted Twilight. “Yeah, I’d like to know too,” added Dash who sounded suspicious. “You’ll soon see. Be patient,” she responded. Then she looked at me again. “Lastly, where are your cutie marks?” I froze there for a minute I couldn’t tell her that we didn’t get any, or where we came from otherwise she might get doubtful. I felt like it was over. “I-I got nothing,” I replied. “Vin…” Kira started nervously. “I see. Then you’re the one whom my sister encountered last night. Her description of you seems to fit perfectly,” she said. Sister? Last night? Wait, how would she know? Is she really the sister of Luna that Twilight was talking about? The pieces were fitting together: Twilight sending a letter to the princess, our encounter with Luna, her saying she had a sister, and the letter saying to come and visit her. “Princess, what are you talking about?” asked Twilight who seemed afraid. “You’re Luna’s sister? The one Twilight sent a letter to?” I asked. “Twilight,” spoke Celestia in a firm voice. “I think you should know that these three are in fact, not ponies.” Everyone in the room gasped at this discovery. The three of us were especially shocked to see the princess figuring it all out without actually meeting us. What did Twilight write in that letter? “Well, I guess our goose is cooked,” sighed Den. “Wait, what are you talking about? Of course we’re ponies,” I lied, nervously. “You’re a terrible liar, Vincent,” Celestia chuckled. Her small smile disappeared and return to its more serious face. “I know one of my subjects when I see one and observing your strange behavior, lack of cutie marks, and odd names-” Really, our names are odd?!? “I believe it’s safe to say, that you three, are not from this world.” “What?” asked Twilight, sounding afraid. Shit, it’s all over. Everyone had shocked faces; especially Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack. “Vincent, is this true?” Twilight asked, still surprised. “Yeah, it’s true,” I sighed, seeing no point in hiding it anymore. “Then what in the hay are you?!” demanded Rainbow Dash who had a stern yet confused face. “We’re…” “We’re?” asked Pinkie. “We’re humans” I admitted. I was expecting a loud Whaaaaaaaat?!?! From the group; but instead of expressions of fear, they showed expressions of confusion, except for Pinkie. “Humans, in Equestria?!? This is unbelievable, this is scary, this is- wait! What are humans?” Pinkie asked. Every one, except for the three of us, all stared at the princess expecting an answer. The princess looked the most baffled out of all of them. “Sorry to say, but I don’t know of this species known as humans,” she admitted. “Seriously?” asked Applejack. “I’m just as confused as you all are. Perhaps our newcomers would like to give us a little more detail?” suggested the princess, and everyone stared at us. “Ok,” I started. “Let me explain.” One Brief Explanation about Humans Later “And that’s basically what humans are, what WE are.” Everyone’s eyes in the room were wide from the explanation, all I did was briefly describe to them what humans were and how they acted. Then again, I would have the same reaction if creatures from another world came to my place and I had no idea what they were. “Oh my,” Fluttershy whispered softly. “Well, you humans sound like a very… interesting type,” Celestia responded, sounding unsure. “Yeah, well…,” I replied. “Is there anything else I should know about your species, like human history?” asked Celestia. “Well, that’s a little harder to explain, and it might take a while to tell you our whole history.” “Yeah, like a LONG time, besides everything you want or need to know is on the internet these days,” added Den. But that just gave everyone puzzled faces. “Don’t ask,” Den added hastily. “Anyway, there’s another question I’d like to ask you” Celestia said. “And that is?” “Why are you here?” she asked, rather calmly. “Huh?” I asked, not understanding the question. “And how did you get here?” “I don’t really know why we’re here,” I answered honestly. “Perhaps you’re all undercover spies who are trying to figure out our secrets and tell your army back home or something,” butted in Rainbow Dash cynically. “Why would we do that? Besides, we’re not even old enough to enlist; we’re like 16 years old.” “Rainbow Dash, let them speak,” ordered Twilight. Rainbow Dash grunted and then stepped, or flew, back. I turned back towards the princess. “As for the second question, we didn’t come here on purpose. I was just reading a book and then-“ “Wait,” interrupted Celestia, “What book?” “I don’t know. It was big, brown, had a golden horse’s head on it,” I explained. “I see.” “What?” “Legend has it that somewhere in this kingdom, there is a magic spell book, written by an anonymous author, which can take anypony to any place on any world. But I’ve heard only two copies of this book exists. Who’d think that one of them was in your world?” she explained. “Where’s the other book?” I asked. “I don’t know,” she replied, “But, I suggest that you and your friends should find it quickly.” “What?” I asked. “Personally, I wouldn’t mind having you here, but I can’t say the same about my subjects. If they found out a new unknown species has entered my kingdom, there’s no telling how they’ll react.” “Yeah, I suppose that would be best,” I replied. “Is that why you asked me if I trusted you?” asked Twilight. “Just so you can get me to help you find this unknown book?” “Yeah, sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. You seemed like a smart pony and you were the first one I met. So I figured that if I told you right away, you would freak out and not want to help me. I needed to get your trust first, so you can help us, so that we could go home,” I replied truthfully. “So, just to be clear, you came here by accident and just want to find a way home?” she asked. “Yeah, I just want to find that book and get back home, nothing more and nothing less,” I answered clearly. “So, do you trust me?” It went silent for a while and Twilight was looking at the ground. My guess was that she was thinking real hard about her answer. She rose her head, stared into my eyes and sighed. “Vincent, in all honesty, I don’t think I can trust you yet,” she finally answered. “Huh?” “After all, I just met you yesterday, and I almost know nothing about you. Aside from the fact that you’re a species I’ve never heard of, and that you prefer the night rather than the day.” “He prefers the night to day?” asked Pinkie. “That’s just weird.” “Pinkie!” hissed AJ. “Its fine,” I replied, “So I guess we’re on our own then.” “You didn’t let me finish,” spoke Twilight. “Finish then,” Den replied impatiently. “I said “I can’t trust you”. But I will help you.” “What?” I asked confused. “Apparently, getting back to your world is important to you; and your species sound somewhat interesting, something else I could study. I’d like to know more about humans. So if I help you, will you tell me more about your kind? More than you just explained?” she asked sounding kind of excited. I gave her a simple nod as an answer. I was a little surprised, she would help me search if I told her stories about my species in exchange. I didn’t know whether to feel elated or creeped out. Either way, I now know that she’ll help me out. “WHAT?! Are you serious Twilight?” exclaimed Rainbow Dash who sounded betrayed. “He’s not even the same species! You can’t help him; you’ve only known him for a day. Who knows what he’ll do to you!” “Look, they just want to go home. So I’m willing to help them out,” defended Twilight. “Forgive and forget. Get over it Dash,” responded Den casually. Rainbow Dash let out a small growl of anger and snorted smoke out of her nostrils. She then sat on the ground and pouted, seeing how she couldn’t convince Twilight to not help us. I turned my attention back to Celestia. “We just need to figure out a way to get back to our world, we’ve all got things to do. So, would it be alright if we stayed in Ponyville until we can find another way home?” I asked Celestia. “Very well. Until you can find that spell book or find an alternative route home for you and your friends, you may all stay in Ponyville,” she announced. We all heaved a sigh of relief. “However,” she started. “I mentioned that it would be best if you kept your species a secret from other residents so that they won’t panic and wreak havoc,” she reminded us. “Yes?” “Also, if you do something that could put this entire country to war, you and your friends will be punished,” she warned. Should I be concerned when she said “punished”? “Punished?” Kira asked, sounding scared. “I make no promises; but I assure you that nothing like that will happen,” I responded. “Good, now I suggest that you start your search now, for your journey home, has only begun,” she ended. I gave her a nod, turned around, and started to make our way out of those big doors. “Oh, and Den,” she called out. “Yeah?” he asked “Try not to crash into anymore roofs while you’re here” she joked. Den felt irked at that reminder, and then gave Twilight and stern look. Twilight just gave a guilty smile back. “Thanks for ratting me out like that, Sparkles!” Den complained. “Excuse me?” asked Twilight, feeling insulted by the nickname. There was no way, I would do anything to put this country to war, and no way would anyone else know about our species. I’m going to make sure that I get me and my friend’s home safely. We’ve all got our own things to do back at home: Den has a match coming up, Kira told me she was still working on a painting, and I had to pay a visit to someone. So yeah, this really was the beginning of our journey. Before we left, I turned around and faced the princess again. “Before I go,” I started, “I have something to ask you, princess.” “Yes?” “How is your mane flowing like that?” Vincent and the portalHey, I’m Vincent Chambers. There’s not a whole lot to my life. I’m just a simple school boy trying to survive. Everywhere I look; it seems that the world I live in never seems to change. I live in California, and let me tell you, it’s not always sunny and bright. It’s not where your dreams come true, to me it’s all filth. The town I live in is small and stifling. I felt trapped about where I live; the school was bleak, the sky was gloomy, and the people were just boring. Nothing exciting ever happened, until that one day. One day, it changed everything; my entire perspective about life, as I know it, changed because of that one day. I mysteriously came across this strange mystic book filled with spells. So I read it and, out of nowhere, it transports me and my friends to another realm. Another strange, bright, and colorful one; filled with ponies! I know it sounds crazy but hear me out. I should probably discuss how it all began; but first a little about me. I’m 16 years old, I’m a junior at Sacramento high school, and I live with my aunt Val. She’s just your typical aunt, looking out for you and making sure your safe and that you have a bright future. She’s been looking after me since my mom’s in the hospital, she’s been sick for 6 months now. I really hope she’s ok by the end of this. I also like to listen to rock music and I have long dark brown hair. One of my favorite bands is A Day to Remember and my hair is about shoulder length and is kind of messy. Anyway, my alarm clock went off one day, and I was just getting ready for school. “Vincent, you’re going to be late for school”. my aunt said to me. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine”. I replied. “You want breakfast?” “No thanks, I’ll just get something there”. “Do you have your keys?” “Yeah”. “Ok, have a nice day!” “Thanks, bye”. I waved goodbye to her, grabbed my blue jacket, got on my motorcycle and headed to school. I also love to drive motorcycles. Once I got my driver’s license, I decided might as well get my motorcycle license. So I passed the test and purchased a motorcycle with the money I make from doing chores around the house. I ride just a standard black motorcycle, it’s not really special, but whenever I ride it I feel relaxed. I made it to school, just in time. I parked my bike and headed into the school. It looked the same as ever dirty, depressing, and just pathetic. I walked in and strolled through the hallways. I was also wearing my headphones listening to The Downfall Of us All by A Day to Remember, trying to block out all of the outside noise. Everywhere I looked there was always a couple making out or a kid getting beat up or something, some school. But, I suppose it’s not all bad. I made it to my locker, and my personal thoughts immediately went away when I felt a sudden hand on my shoulder. I looked over and saw that it was just Den, my best friend. “Hey, what’s up, fool?” he asked jokingly. “Dandy until you showed up.” I joked back. His full name is Den Michaels. Den and I have been best friends ever since I moved here. We went to the same middle school and now we’re at the same high school. He wore an orange shirt, had short light brown spiky hair, pale flesh skin, and had one of those flashy attitudes where it’s just too much for you. He also had a silver stud earring on his left ear and tattered jeans. “Hey, how was your match last week?” I asked him. “I’ll admit, it was difficult, but I pulled through until the man couldn’t stand". “In other words?” “I won”. he answered while wiping the tip of his nose with his thumb while giving one of those cocky smiles. Den is a young mixed martial artist at the school. Our school doesn’t have a mixed martial arts class, but sometimes after school he would hit the gym and practice some of his fighting moves. Then sometimes at the end of the week or so he would go to a stadium for young fighters and throw down. He’s even taken down guys that were three times his weight. Even though we're the same age, Den’s the strongest guy I know, especially when he can attack you with different fighting styles. He has this dream to become the youngest mixed martial artist there is and maybe fight in the UFC. To me, that sounds like a death wish. “That’s great.” I replied. “Yeah, so where were you?” he asked, curiously. “Studying.” “Again? Dude, you got to get out more. Don’t you want to see the world, explore what’s out there?” “You’re asking the wrong guy.” As we were joking around, the bell rang and we had to run to our first class, Coordinated 2 science. In other worlds, life science. We made it in time and took our seats as we watched the other kids walked in. Then I spotted another one of my friends who just walked in the class, named Kira Valentine. She was tall, wore an emerald green coat along with short shorts, had long luscious blonde hair, slender figure, and had bright pink eyes. Kira was a very close friend. I only met freshman year, when Den and I were new at the school and she was a fellow loner and decided to join us, and so far we’ve had a very stable friendship. She’s like one of those friendly people, who always want to stick by you. She walked past me and Den and took her seat. Pretty soon our teacher, Mr. Jones, came in and told everyone to sit down. Then he spent to whole period talking about the life cycle about several insects and what their purpose in life was. Then when the bell was about to ring, he announced that we had to do a project. “Alright class, this week you’ll have a project due. You have to create a poster for a life cycle for an insect. It can be any insect, no arthropods or anything else. You need step-by-step drawings, along with facts written underneath each graphic, and you’ll need to color it. You’ll need three in a group and it shouldn't take long at all. So pair up.” he directed us, and then sat down at his desk. Everyone got up and searched for partners. Den and I paired up, no surprise, and we had to find someone else. But before we had a chance, the bell rang and every one ran out. Luckily, Den and I didn’t get trampled. It was break now so we needed to find another partner. We were walking towards the lunch tables and then we saw something. We saw a group of guys harassing and hovering over Kira, getting in her face, grabbing her backpack, and trying to kiss her. The tall leader who wore a red jacket that was bothering her was Gamble, the school thug. Alongside him we’re his goons, Jake and Jack, who mostly wore brown and purple. The other different was that one was fat and the other skinny with his hair in his eyes. Gamble would do anything to get his way. Selfish and greedy, if you ask me he’s more like a dragon than a human. I decided to go over there and do something, i hated it when guys badger my friends. I felt like I had to help her out, she always goes through with this kind of crap everyday. Where almost every guy tries to hit on her. I grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. “Hey, Gamble leave her be.” I demanded. “Hey, guys it’s biker boy! You think you’re s tough with your motorbike?” he tried to tease. “No, why would a motorcycle make me seem tough?” I questioned, “Look just leave my friend alone.” “Hey now, I was just asking if she wanted to be my partner for the project.” he responded. “It looked like you were molesting her.” “Well I wasn’t. So why don’t you screw off.” “You’re so pathetic, Gamble, instead of doing the work yourself or getting your own money, you have to rely on others to give you what you wish.” “What you say?” He said while poking me in the chest. But I took no notice to it. “You think you can say that to me? huh?” he said. Then out of nowhere, he punched me right dead in the shoulder. The impact made me fall on the floor, it started to hurt a lot. “You think you can say that to me!?” Then he started to kick me repeatedly. Right in the stomach, it hurt like hell. “Hey, that’s enough!” warned Den who stepped in. “I can take him!” said Jake, the fat one who wore the brown jacket. He approached him and attempted to punch Den. But when he threw his punch, Den caught his arm, and then elbowed one of his triceps which made Jake squeal a bit. He then turned him around and restrained Jake’s arm behind his back. Then he shoved him towards Jack, the other one who was wearing the purple jacket, who tried to approach him. They both fell on the floor defeated. Then Den looked at Gamble who was still kicking me. Gamble saw what Den did to his thugs, but he wasn’t intimidated by him. “Is this going to be a problem?” asked Den. “You don’t scare me. Just because you defeated my friends, doesn’t mean……” But right in the middle of the sentence, Den punched Gamble in the chest bone, knocking him on the floor. Den went over and helped me up, I felt pretty beat up. Gamble got up and stared at us both. “You won’t be so lucky next time.” he said. And he and his friends ran off, while he was holding his chest to make the pain stop. “Bastard.” I commented. “I know, right. But c’mon, you do you have to run off your big mouth like that?” asked Den. “You ok?” Kira said, as we turned to her. “I think I’ll live.” I replied to her. “Well thanks. You know, it’s been like this a lot. Every time some guy spots me they just have to annoy the hell out of me.” continued Kira. “That’s how some guys react when they see a pretty face.” said Den smiling, and then I elbowed him. “So what did they really want?” I asked. “Aside from helping him on the project, he was asking me to be his girlfriend.” “What?” “Don’t worry, Vin, I’d rather be dead than to be with him. The only boys I need are right in front of me.” she said refereeing to me and Den. I looked down at her feet, and noticed that there was a blank white sheet near. I decided to pick it up and hand it to her. I turned it around and noticed that there was a bright green field and a village with small houses painted on it. Kira is an amazing artist. She can paint from using water colors to acrylics to oil; she’s really talented at what she does. “Another masterpiece?” I asked. “Yep, who else could paint that?” “This is your best one yet.” commented Den. “Thanks, Gamble knocked it down while he was asking me to work with him. Are you sure you’re ok, he kicked you pretty hard.” she asked showing concern. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” I replied. “Ok, since I turn him down and that I don’t have a group yet, and if you guys don’t have a third, could I join?” “I think the answer is pretty obvious, Kira.” I responded. “Right, I think break is about over.” And right when she said it the bell rang and everybody went to class. Pretty much the rest of the day we were just walking around from class to class talking about the project, the day seemed to last forever. We decided that the insect we were going to do our project on is a Dragonfly, plain and simple. So after school we would all meet at my house to get started on the project. After a few more classes the bell finally rang and everyone was going home. I walked out of the building and head towards my motorcycle in the parking lot. I hopped on, strapped on my helmet, and started the engine. It made that loud starting sound and was ready to go. I lifted both of my feet off the ground and began to move. I rode out of the parking lot and started to ride home. Sometimes, as I was riding, I would ponder to myself why I’m still here? The world I live in is too bland; I know we can do better. As I was riding down the road with the wind blowing around my body, I started to think about my mom. She’s been in the hospital for a while now, I just hope that her illness gets cured soon, and she can come home. I don’t even know what happened it was Saturday, I was watching cartoons, my mom was making eggs and bacon, and then out of nowhere she collapsed. I really don’t know what happened, I called an ambulance and they took her away. My aunt told me she had some sort of attack, I can’t remember what, and said that she was going to take care of me until she felt better. So my aunt moved in and has raised me ever since. I finally made it to my house and parked my motorcycle in the garage. Then I went inside to get started on the project. I told my aunt Den and Kira were coming over and she seemed fine by that. I ran upstairs and looked through the bookshelf in my room to see if I had any on insects. I only had about one or two books on bugs but they were mostly kid books and told very little information. I searched for 5 minutes but no luck. I heard a car driving up from outside. I looked out my window, and noticed that Den parked his car next to the sidewalk. Both he and Kira stepped out and were walking towards the door. The door then knocked and I heard my aunt calling me. “Vincent, your friends are here!” she informed me. I came downstairs, greeted them, and lead them upstairs into my room getting ready to start the project. “Your room’s kind of messy. Same as always.” said Kira. “Sorry about that. Just can’t find any books on insects. The only thing that’s close is these children books.” I told them, then showed them the two books. One of them was an Eyewitness book on insects and the other was Insects Everywhere book. “Well, whatever works.” said Den. I removed my laptop from my desk and cleared everything else off, leaving a big space. “I think this is where we should draw the diagram, and write in facts beside it.” I started to explain. “I can get started on the Dragonfly?” asked Kira. “Sure, and I’ll see if I have any other books.” I said. And so Kira got to work and began to draw the Dragonfly, while Den was just standing around practicing his punches. “Hey, Den, quit fooling around. We need to work on the project”. I said to him. “Alright fine, I got another match in a matter of days and I want to make sure my blows will be hard enough”. He replied. “You’ll be fine”. “You know, sometimes I wish for a better challenge. Maybe fight a professional fighter that’s actually in the UFC.” “You call it a challenge, I call it suicide”. “Pfff”. “Why do you challenge a heavy fighter anyway?” I asked him “Why is it that you ask questions you already know the answer too?” he responded. “I know that, but is there like some complicated motive you have behind it all?" “I have my reasons”. That was all he said. “Well, I’ll have to ask what your reasons are later, because we got to….” I then noticed something on my bookshelf. One of the books on it was suddenly sparkling. I grabbed it and pulled it out of the shelf to look at it more. I looked at the cover, and it seemed to have a horse’s head on it. “Vincent, I didn’t know you like horses”. commented Den. “What? This isn’t my book. I didn’t even know I had this book”. I replied confused. Then Kira stood up and walked towards us. “Hey did you find any other books on…….what’s that?” she asked. “Some kind of book I found”. I opened it up to see what lies within it, all that was there were a bunch of words pressed together, as if they weren’t even spaced. “This some kind of old timey book?” asked Den “I’m not sure. And I highly doubt there’s any information in here about dragonflies.” I answered sarcastically. “Hey, look at that”. pointed out Kira. There were some words written down, but these words were glowing brightly, brighter than the others. I read aloud what the words said, that turned out to be my big mistake. The words read, Lleps Latrop Cigam. I was so curious enough to actually read them aloud. Right when I spoke those words, a strange portal appears out of nowhere and is now in my room. I guess curiosity did kill the cat. We all stared at it with awe and fear. “What the hell?” Den asked with many confusion. The portal was large and violet, many swirls and lightning bolts is what it was made up of. “How did…you do that?” asked Kira. “I don’t know. I don’t like the looks of it”. I answered. We all decide to get a closer look so we all leaned forward and squint our eyes to see if there was anything. But, we got too close, and the portal pulled us in.We were suddenly swirling round and round. We didn’t scream, we were all too speechless of what’s happening, we didn’t know how to react. I then saw a light ahead, and it’s not the light we’re all familiar with. When we got closer to the light, I felt that we all hit something hard. I felt like we were lying on the ground. I felt motionless. I then opened my eyes slowly, my vision was blurry. But from what I could make up of, it seemed we were all in a forest or somewhere with nature. My vision finally cleared, and noticed that we were on some kind of path. “Oh god, my head hurts”. I said to myself. I rubbed my head with my hand, but something felt different. My hand felt flatter than normal, and I couldn’t feel my fingers. I pulled my hand down in front of my face to get a better view, only I realized…….I didn’t have a hand anymore. Instead, I had a hoof! “What?” I raised my other hand, only to see that it also became a hoof. I was really starting to freak out now. I looked to my right, and noticed a small pond nearby. I then began to crawl towards the pond. When I made it, I looked down into the water to see my reflection. And, I was horrified; to see that……I was no longer a human. I suddenly had a snout or muzzle or something and noticed that I had a blue coat. “What the hell is going on!!!” I shouted I became a small horse! I’m not screwing around, I am now a horse! I turned around and saw that my friends were waking up as well, only to see, that Kira and Den have also became horses. They woke and stared at each other and saw what they are now, they were both paralyzed with fear knowing what they have become. Kira then turned her head towards me with a scared expression on her face. “Vincent?.....” she said scared . “Guys, don’t lose your minds, but I think that portal took us somewhere. And turned us all into equines”. I told them. Shocked with this new reality, Den only said one thing, “Bullshit”…… The strange new place We all just sat there in silence, trying to come to terms over the sudden realization that we were now small horses. Normally I don’t get easily scared. Not even the time we went to Knott’s Scary Farm and Den’s little cousin pissed his pants when a guy dressed as a zombie chased after him around Camp Snoopy. This however was on a whole different scale, there was no chance to hide the fear. I started to feel the rest of body with my…hooves. My sense of touch was a distorted but I was sure that I felt my new fur covering me. “How did this happen?” asked Kira, her face twitching with small spasms. “I have no idea. I just read the book out loud, and suddenly THIS!” I replied. “I can’t fight like this! I have a match to do and I can’t fight without my fists” Den said, fear in his voice over the loss of his hands. “This is messed up man!” “Alright just calm down, let me think!” I yelled in response, trying to stop my friends from having a nervous breakdown. I limped back over to the pond to get a better look at myself. Looking at my reflection, I noticed a few things. First off my fur, rather my entire body, was entirely blue, like the jacket I was wearing when I spoke the words. My mane looked like the same as my hair had been; long, dark brown, and messy. My eyes were bigger than my head, which struck me as the second oddest thing that happened to my body. The one thing that really surprised me was a horn sprouting of the top of my head. Giving it a few pokes it with my hoof, it was clear that the horn was part of me, very attached to my forehead. “What?” I said to myself. “What? Why do I have a horn on my head?” I asked myself, expecting my reflection to give me an answer. Then I turned at Kira and Den who were still just sitting there and staring at each other. “Why is there a horn on my head?” I asked again. “That must mean you’re a unicorn, Vin” answered Kira. “WHAT!?” As soon as she answered, I heard chuckling come from Den who was trying to hold in his laughter. “You’re a Unicorn.” Den chuckled, "What's wrong, feeling horny?" “That’s impossible, unicorns don’t exist.” I said, pounding my hoof on the the ground. “Well, maybe in this world, they do.” said Kira. I looked up again to stare at my friends as they looked like cartoonish versions of themselves, except as horses. Kira still had her blonde hair, in a mane and tail and her coat was emerald green just like her jacket and her eyes were still pink . Turning to Den, he still had his spiky brown mane and tail, and orange fur except I noticed something off about Den. Something was attached to his sides, turning my head, I noticed he had wings attached, bird wings. “Hey, Den...” I said, and pointed a hoof to his body. Den looked down and saw the wings. Then they were spread out, showing a huge wingspan. “Whoa, am I a Pegasus?” asked Den. “Looks like it.” answered Kira. She looked down at herself and noticed that she didn’t have any wings or a horn; she was just a normal horse. “How come you have a horn, he has wings, and I don’t have anything?” whined Kira. “I don’t know, but we better find out where we are, and it’d be better to not draw any attention to ourselves.” I suggested but Den was too interested in his new wings to pay attention to what I was saying. “Whoa, these things are cool” he said, admiring himself. He tried flapping his new appendages and pretty soon he was hovering in mid-air. We stood there, jaws dropped in amazement, even Den himself. “Hey, I’m flying. Sort of.” he said, wobbling in mid-air. Unfortunately, that’s when things went wrong, incredibly wrong. When he was just a few second in the air, he started to swerve, buzz, and jerk around in zigzag pattern. “How do you work these things!?!” he screeched, flying around like a ricocheting bullet. Suddenly, he took off like a runaway train, flying high up into the sky. We watched him tear through clouds, attempting to control his flight pattern but Kira and I could tell he had no idea what he was doing. All we could do was watch in horror and listen to his panicked screams. All of a sudden he stopped high up in the air, frozen in space, after three seconds of his abrupt stop, he plummeted straight down and hit the ground in the distance. We could both hear the resulting impact. “Smooth.” I said to myself, rubbing my new hoof against the side of head. “I think we should go after him.” Kira suggested. “Alright, then we can ask someone where we are.” I replied. We both got up and trotted, yeah I said trotted, to wear Den had fallen. It wasn’t easy walking on all fours, actually it was really difficult. We trotted for about 10 minutes and still couldn’t find Den. “Where do you think he landed?” asked Kira. “I don’t know, I think he’s up ahead somewhere.” I answered. “I’m really starting to worry. Not just about Den, but also about where we are.” added Kira. “So am I, so let’s just find Den, figure out where we are and then we can find a way to get back home.” I said. “But what if we can’t get home? What if we’re stuck here for a while? This doesn’t feel right, this form I’m in.” Kira panicked, the depth of the situation starting to sink in. “Don’t worry, I’ll figure out what’s going on. How we became this, and how we can turn back. Trust me, I don’t like this either.” I said, in truth I’m calming her down to keep myself calm. Wandering for 10 more minutes, we finally saw something come into view. In the distance, we saw a small little village with little houses. What struck as odd though was the village looked like the exact same one in Kira’s painting we saw earlier. As soon as we saw the village, we stopped and surveyed what were looking at. “Kira.” I said. “Yeah?” she responded. “Doesn’t that look like the exact same village in your painting?” “Yeah.” she answered softly. We stared at it for while, trying to soak in how Kira’s painting was so identical to this mysterious village, was this just a coincidence? Or was this something more? We decided to just walk in and find Den but when we could enter the village, you wouldn’t believe what the residents were. They weren’t humans, no, they were horses, just like us. Everywhere we looked, everyone was a small horse, each one just trotted by us without a second glance. That’s when I suddenly realized why we were turned into horse in the first place. “Well, that explains it...” I said out loud to myself. Each one of these horses was small in size but what was really strange was how they were all multicolored. Most of the were either red, blue, purple, orange, pink, teal, grey, green, tan, yellow. It looked like they all came trotting out of a box of crayons. The strangest thing is that most of them had a tattoo on their flanks. “Hey Vin, you noticed that each one of these horses have tattoos on their flanks?” Kira asked, her eyes following one horse with trotting down the street. “Yeah, it’s weird” I replied, “Let’s just find Den so we can get the hell out of here.” We continued down the street until we saw bunch of horses starting to gather around one particular house. They were just standing outside, looking in. I noticed a huge gaping hole in the roof. From the look of it, the house was like a giant tree but with windows and a balcony near the top branches. No doubt the residents were wondering what happened when suddenly got an idea. “I think Den might be there” Kira pointed out as we both headed over towards the treehouse. ___________________________________________________ Man, I was NOT used to this new body I’m in, I have no idea on how to control these wings, and now I crashed in an unfamiliar place where Vincent and Kira were nowhere to be seen. Of course it wasn’t easy to spot them, I was knocked out. It’s bad enough that I might miss my next fight, but now I’m stuck as a flying horse with no idea where I am; some luck. You know, I sort of knew that something was off about that book but I didn’t think it would’ve actually been magical. Why did Vincent have to read it aloud, him and his big mouth…Damn Vincent. My eyes finally started to open up, and it took a while for my vision to clear. Even though I couldn’t see, I could tell I landed on something hard. (Stop snickering.) Anyway, the surface felt really lumpy and I felt like I was lying upside down. My vision was slowly coming together although still blurry. I looked up and saw some sort of figure that was mostly purple and possibly looking down at me. I rubbed my eyes with my….uh…hoof, yeah. Anyways my vision finally began to clear but when it had, the strangest thing was looking back at me. It looked like a lavender horse with a purple mane with pink highlights and really big eyes with a horn on it’s head. The horse just stared at me with its confused expression. I looked up with the same face. “Uh……Hi” I muttered. “Hello. Um, who the hay are you?” it asked. I literally could not believe what I was hearing and seeing. A talking horse, I shit you not, it’s a talking horse; and with a rather girly voice. “What?” is all I could say. “I asked what your name was?” replied the mare. “WHAT?” I repeated. The horse sighed and said, “Maybe I should try a different approach. My name is Twilight Sparkle. And you are?” All I could do was laugh at that, c’mon, with a name like that, you know you can’t resist. “Um, is there something funny?” the horse asked. “No, nothing.” I replied, poorly attempting to hold back my laughter. “So then, what’s your name?” she asked. I finally stopped chuckling and told her my name. “My name’s Den.” I said. “Den? That’s a weird name” she said. “Weirder than Twilight Sparkle?” “Hey, you got a problem with my name?” she snapped. “No, no. But, can you answer me this? Where exactly am I?” “Well, you just crashed in my library. And now you’re lying upon a pile of books, which I just organized this morning.” I looked below me and noticed the books I was laying on. That explains why it felt so lumpy underneath me. Anyway, I got up from the pile and stood on my feet, or rather, my hooves now. I heard some footsteps coming down steps nearby. When I looked to my right noticed a staircase carved into the tree but also some kind of lizard standing on them. It was small, had purple scales and green spikes; I felt really lost. “Twilight, what was that noise?” the lizard asked. Its tone was a little more bass so it was obviously a male, so apparently there’s not just talking horses but talking lizards in this world as well. “It was just some Pegasus crashing in here, Spike.” The little lizard then turned his head and looked at me with a funny expression and then up at the hole in the ceiling. “And I thought Rainbow Dash crashes a lot” he said. I turned my head back towards the horse. “So, why do you have a baby lizard with you?” I asked casually. “Lizard?” it shouted, “I’m no lizard!” “He’s a baby dragon” the mare finished. “So why do you have a baby dragon with you, then?” “First, do you think you could tell me about why you put a hole in my roof?” “Sorry about that. I’m new to this” “New to flying, but you’re a Pegasus pony? Shouldn’t you have learned by now how to fly?” “Wait, what did you call me?” “A Pegasus pony, what else?” I knew I was a Pegasus, but a pony? That’s just too girly for me. “Whoa, wait a minute here. Now, before we go any further, let me clarify something here. You’re saying that I’m a pony?” I asked her. I mean being a horse was ok, but a pony? “Oh you’re one of those types. Then, you’re a Pegasus stallion shouldn’t you have learned by now?” she asked again. “Well, uh……” As I was trying to come up with an excuse, she turned to the side and started to put her fallen books away except with her horn. Apparently she has the power to levitate objects. Then again, she is a unicorn. But when she turned to the side, I noticed something. She had a weird tattoo on her flank. It looked like a pink six-sided star surrounded by a bunch of little stars. “Hey, what’s with that tattoo?” I asked. She turned and saw where I was looking. “You mean my cutiemark?” she asked but before she could for an answer, someone knocked at the door. She trotted over to the door and opened it up. _____________________________________________________________ Kira and I were waiting outside of the door waiting for someone to answer. As we were waiting, Kira and I were discussing how to handle the situation. “You sure this is where Den landed?” I asked Kira. “Well, I don’t see any other buildings with gaping holes on their roofs.” Kira replied. To be honest, it was a rhetorical question. “Kira.” I said. “Yeah, Vincent?” she replied in question. “Most of the residents here are horses, correct?” I asked “From the looks of it.” she answered. “And no one knows we’re actually humans in horse bodies?” “Pretty much, why do you ask?” “I think we should keep it that way” I told her, giving me a confused look in response. “What?” she asked curiously. “Well think about it. It’s pretty obvious there are no humans in this land we are in. Imagine, how these people would react if they spotted a small group of bipeds in their village” I told her. “I still don’t follow.” she said. “It’s kind of simple. You know how most alien movies work, right? Visitors come down, people are frightened by them, they automatically think they’re evil and try to kill them. Technically speaking, we would be like aliens to them”. “I’m still a bit confused” “What I’m trying to say is, let’s lay low about our species, until we can find someone we can trust.” I said to her, it finally seemed to click that time. “Oh, ok. Got it” she replied. The door finally opened up, and there on the other side of it was… a purple unicorn. I’m not really surprised by it at this point, seeing how so many citizens here are equines. It had the horn and everything;as well as a purple body, purple mane with pink highlights, and really big eyes. Kira gasped but remained still. “Hello, how may I help you?” the purple horse said with a girly voice, obviously it was female but when it spoke it made Kira jump a little, I’m guessing she wasn’t expecting it to talk. I didn’t either, but I just went with it. “Hello,” I said calmly, “we’re looking for someone who may have landed in your home”. “Oh...” she said in an irritated voice, “C’mon in.” We both walked in and closed the door behind us. “Does, THIS belong to you?” she said. We both looked to where she was pointing and saw Den standing in the middle of the room like nothing happened. “Oh, hey guys.” he greeted us as he trotted over. “Hey Den.” I replied. “What happened back there? Did you break anything?” worried Kira. “Nah I’m fine. And, I really don’t know. One minute I’m floating in the air next minute, I’m flying around like a hummingbird.” Den tried to explain. “It really is strange” said the mare behind us. We all turned and looked at her. “He should be able to learn to fly by now. Seeing how he’s a Pegasus pony.” “W-what?” I laughed. “Hey, I am not a pony. I’m a hu-“ Before Den could say another word, Kira quickly covered his mouth shut. “Den, I think we should keep our species secret” I whispered to him. “W-why?” he asked while moving Kira’s hoof out of the way. “Because, if they find out what we really are, they could just freak out and try to kill us.” I told him. “Oh, wouldn’t want that.” replied Den. “I’m sure none of us do.” commented Kira. We all turned back at the purple mare and continued our conversation. “What is he talking about?” asked the curious mare. “Nothing by it, anyway sorry about our friend miss…….” “Oh allow me to introduce myself, my name is Twilight Sparkle”. I literally could not believe what I was hearing. A talking purple unicorn is one thing, but having the name of Twilight Sparkle? C’mon. “What’s your name?” she finished. “I’m Vincent” I introduced. “Seriously?” she asked. “Is there a problem?” “Well, no offense, but you and your friends have really bizarre names. I mean Den, Vincent?” “Well that’s not very nice.” I joked. She let out a light chuckle and looked at Kira. “And what’s your name?” she asked. “My name is Kira” she introduced “Wow, that’s a pretty name” the mare complimented. “Oh sure, she makes fun of our names, but it’s HER that she compliments.” Den complained to me. “Anyway, we’re new to this area. Do you mind telling us where we are?” I asked her. “That’s simple, you’re in Ponyville. The friendliest place for all ponies” she stated proudly. I could hear Den trying to hold in his laughter, but who could blame him. Seriously, this place is called Ponyville? Th-That’s like calling my hometown “Humanville” or “Peopleland”. Even Kira was trying not to laugh, covering her mouth with her hoof and all. Twilight seemed to notice them silently giggling. “Is something wrong with your friends?” Twilight asked. “It’s nothing”. “Hey, you never did answer my question. What’s with the tattoo?” asked Den. “What?” asked Twilight. “Anyways,” I interrupted not really wanting to stay any longer, “Sorry to bother you, so we’ll be on our way now.” I said, making our way over to the door. The three of us started to walk out the door and leave. But when we went outside, something was out there waiting for us. Out of nowhere, a blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane just popped right in front of my face. “Hey, You!” it scolded with a very girly tomboy voice, “Who do you think you are, crashing into my friend’s house like that?” “I didn’t…..” “What’s happening?” a voice said. I looked behind and saw that a small purple lizard appeared, strange. “What’s happening is that this guy tried to smash Twilight's house!” the rainbow pony replied. “I didn’t do this.” I replied. “If you didn’t who did?” she demanded. “It was my bad.” Den stepped in, “I kind of lost control and crashed. Sorry.” “Sorry doesn’t cut it!” the rainbow Pegasus said. “Hey, at least nobody got hurt.” Den retorted. “You better hope nobody gets hurt, or else” she threatened while shaking her hoof. “Are you threatening me?” “What else am I doing?” “Look, miss….” “I’m Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in Equestria!” she proudly introduced. Again I could hear Den trying to hold in his laughs again. “Something funny?” She asked. “What is with the names in this town?” he accidently said aloud. “You think my name is funny? Well what’s your name?” “That’s not the issue" continued Den, "Look, Rainbow Slash, I told you no one got hurt. This is none of your business. So why don’t you piss off” “First off, that’s not my name. Second, anything with my friends involved is always my business”. “My God, nothing happened. So just go away.” Den demanded. “Are you trying to start something here, crash?” she scolded. “Maybe I am. What of it?” “You want to do this the hard way? We’ll do this the hard way!” “Bring it on, Rainbow bitch! I’m always up for a challenge!” Before they could start something serious, I stepped in and stopped it before it happened. “Will you two idiots just stop!” I shouted at both of them, breaking them apart. “He started it.” the rainbow one stated. “Well I’m ending it.” I stated. “What in tarnation is going on here?” a sudden southern accent said. We all turned to our left and noticed another small horse. This one was a bright orange, had a blonde mane, three apple tattoos on its flank, and wore a cowboy hat. This was getting ridiculous. “I heard a loud crash noise, then yelling and arguing and here I am. So can anyone tell me what’s going on here?” she asked. “It’s nothing, Applejack” the purple mare replied as she stepped outside “Just some crazy Pegasus flying through” Ok seriously. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack? These aren’t names, these are flavors of frozen yogurt. “It was just an accident.” Den repeated. “So you’re the one who crashed into Twilight’s house? Well, accidents happen.” she replied. “That’s all you have to say, AJ? He nearly crushed her and Spike” Rainbow interrupted. “Will you just let it go?!” Den yelled at. “Anyway, we got what we came here for, we’ll be off.” I told everyone around. “Fair enough, I need to figure out a way to fix that hole in my roof.” Twilight said as we all looked up. I kind of felt guilty, even though I’m not the one who caused it. The Kira leaned over and whispered something to me. “Hey, Vin, do you think we should help her out?” she whispered. “What do you mean?” I asked her. “Well, there’s the fact that there’s a hole in her roof that we sort of caused.” “It was mostly Den.” I replied. “Plus, maybe we can get to know her. And maybe once when we get her trust, we can ask her if there’s a way home for us.” she suggested. “I don’t know, Kira. What if she loses it when she finds out, remember what we discussed?” I asked her. Kira remained silent after that for a while. “Oh, right but it’s still worth a shot and we should at least help her fix her roof.” Kira said. “Alright, fine.” I agreed. We all turned around and faced Twilight. “Hey, if you want, we could help you fix your roof.” I offered. “Oh no, I couldn’t ask you to do that.” replied Twilight making a smile on her face. “We insist; it’s the least we could do. Besides it’s a good time to get to know each other a little more. Being new to town and all” added Kira. “Well, it’s always good to make new friends.” Twilight agreed. “Alright, where do we start?” asked Den. Something told me that Twilight didn’t really want Den around, mostly due to the uneasy expression on her face. “Oh…uh…I don’t really think…..” “I think we got this covered Den.” I finished for her. “O…K…,” he said, “Well what am I supposed to do? Got to do something to rid my boredom.” “Why don’t you come with me?” offered the cowgirl pony, “I could use extra help on the farm.” “Farm?” asked Den. “Wait, you’re asking HIM to help you, AJ?” asked Rainbow. “Why not, if he’s strong enough to bust through roofs, then I bet he’s strong enough to buck some apples” replied Applejack. “Yeah…wait, what?” asked Den, confused about Applejack's offer. “Follow me, partner”. Den followed Applejack while the obnoxious Rainbow Dash flew off, leaving Kira and I to follow Twilight into her house. Getting ready to fix her roof, it looked like we were off to a start, some kind of start.
Bucking some apples, meeting the othersI followed the cowgirl pony until we reached to what looks like a farm. A red barn with open fields with rows of crops while animals were grazing lazily in their pens. I really didn’t know what she meant by “buck some apples”? Should I be concerned? I don’t know. Anyway as we were walking, I couldn’t help but notice that she had a tattoo on her flank as well; but it was just three apples. Does every citizen in this world have a tattoo on their ass? “Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres” the pony exclaimed. “Cool. Hey, um….” I couldn’t remember the name. “Applejack” she turned around and answered, “You know, I never got your name. Mind telling me what it is?” “It’s Den” I introduced myself proudly. “Den? That sure is an interesting name” she complimented. “Really, I don’t think the purple unicorn thinks so,” I replied humorously. “You mean Twilight? I’m sure she didn’t mean anything buy it. She can be a little…….” “Yeah”. “Sorry, didn’t you want to ask something?” she reminds me. “Yeah, um…. My friends and I are kind of new here, and we don’t know a lot of things that go on. Like what is that tattoo on your flank?" I asked trying not to sound suspicious. “You mean Cutiemarks?” she asked. “Really, that’s what they’re actually called? I just thought that’s what only the purple one called them.” I thought to myself. “Do you not have them where you come from? I don’t see one on you” she pointed out. I noticed it too, that my flank had no strange tattoo on it. Was it considered “weird” to not have a tattoo on your ass in this world? “That certainly is weird” continued Applejack, “You’re a grown Pegasus and you still don’t have a Cutiemark…………” “I’m not grown, I’m still in my late teens” I interrupted. Sorry, it’s just that sometimes people mistake my age. Some of the think I’m 13, while others think I’m 30. It kind of gets annoying after a while, you know? “Oh, sorry about that”, she apologized while rubbing the back of her head, “Anyway, what kind of town has ponies that don’t have their marks?” “Mine” I answered. “Oh, well Cutiemarks is what we have that symbolizes what our special talents are,” she answered. “Really, what’s yours?” I asked. But then she just chuckled. “Isn’t it obvious?” she laughed and then pointed to her apple tattoos on her flank. I didn’t know what she was trying to get at. “Not really,” I said confused. This made her slightly surprised. “Seriously?” she asked. “Nope, you’re going to have to be more specific that just pointing to your flank” I responded, still confused. “Well, let me show you. Follow me.” she instructed. I followed her which led us towards a nearby apple tree full of red apples. She stopped in front of the tree and turned around, so that she was facing backwards towards the tree; still VERY lost, here. Then out of nowhere, she lifted up her hind legs and kicked the tree, followed by a loud BANG. Soon all of the apples fall into individual baskets that were lying by. She then smiled and crossed her right leg over her left with a proud smile. “Huh, so that’s what you meant by “buck some apples”. I said, now FINALLY understanding. “What else could I mean?” she asked. “Nothing, nothing...” I replied. “Well, why don’t you give it a try?” she offered, “There’s a nice big tree over there that could use some bucking”. She pointed behind me to the right and I noticed the big tree. The trunk was thick; the leaves were green, and full of apples. “Alright,” I approached the tree feeling confident, I figured out my own way on how to get those apples down. “Now, don’t feel upset if ya’ll don’t get it the first try”, Applejack somewhat comforted, “Not everypony is as strong as I am so if it takes a few times to-” “HAAAAAA!!” I spun around in the air one time and then…….. *Fwack* My hind right leg spin kicked the tree and knocked half of the apples on the ground in one go. Even some squirrels that were hiding in the tree fell to the ground. I stood up with a victorious smile, turning around to face A.J. “How’s that?” I asked confidently. Applejack just stood there with her jaw wide open, she looked really impressed, and why wouldn’t she? Whenever people witness my cool moves in a match, they can’t help but stare in awe. I may be young, but I’m a hell of a lot stronger than you think. “Whoa,” she exclaimed, “That….was impressive”. “Thank you,” I replied. “Just how strong are you?” she asked still amused. “Very. I can lift up to about 50 pounds. I guess it’s just a part of MY special talent”. I responded proudly. “And that is?” “To be an amazing fighter”. I answered with pride. “Seriously?” “Yeah, it’s my dream. Everyone’s got one, what’s yours?” “I’m already living it, working hard on the farm and making our famous apple cider,” she said with much pride and anticipation. “Cool, in case you didn’t notice, my dream is to become the greatest and youngest mixed martial artist out there!” “No, I noticed,” she replied in an unimpressed tone. This kind of made me worry a little. “Is something the matter?” I asked. “Well……” she replied while looking away nervously. “Well what? You can tell me”. She then looked up at me and asked, “Well…..let me ask you this, partner. How many fighters have you fought?” “Pffff……..To be honest, I don’t really know. I’ve fought so many opponents that I lost track. But I know it was a lot, though. And some of them even had to be sent to the emergency room to get their faces stitched. But don’t worry I never kill anyone, that’s not how I role. Unless it’s Mortal Kombat,” I finished trying to sound impressive. “Uh-huh. Sounds like to me that you’re some kind of brute who’s looking for nothing but trouble,” she replied with disapproval in her voice. This made me go down a little. It sounded like that she didn’t approve of my goals or my interests. “Is something the matter?” I asked. “Well, to be honest, I’m not much of a fan of random fighting. I’ll admit, I have been in some fights of my own. But that was because my friends were in some kind of danger” she stated, “But when you fight, it sounds like that you just bully others who are not as strong as you”. “Excuse me?” I asked, I was shocked that this small horse thinks that I fight because I want trouble. “Tell me, Den, why do you fight?” she questioned. “I have my reasons” I answered. Those are the same words I use whenever Vincent or someone else asks me that question. “And those reasons would be?” she asked sternly. “I can’t tell you”. “Why not?” “Well, why do you live your life on the farm when you have other opportunities?” I remarked. “Because, this place is my pride and joy; and I love doing what I do”. She replied, sternly. “Same here with me” I defended. “Yeah right, unlike you I have a reason to pursue my dream”. “So do I”. “What is it then?” “I-I can’t tell you. It’s personal,”. I finished. I actually do have reason why I fight. I just don’t want anyone to know, not even Vincent or Kira knows and I tend to keep it that way. “Oh, so it’s some kind of secret?” she asked while looking away. “I guess you could say that”. “Look. I know what it feels like to keep a secret” she comforted, then placing her hoof on my front left arm, “It’s hard. But if you hold onto it forever, then you could lose your closest friends. But you know, sometimes telling the truth is all that they need”. “But, I don’t know you that well” I replied. “Still, tell you what. When you feel comfortable about telling someone, you can tell me,” she said while giving me a slight smile. “Thanks, but I don’t think I’ll tell anyone”, I replied while taking my hoof away, nervously. “Maybe not yet, partner, but like I said, when you’re ready you can tell me,” she told me. She then full smiled at me, even though she’s known me for like, half a day, I was starting to get the feeling that she was beginning to trust me. “We should probably get back to work?” “Yeah”, I followed AJ to some more trees and did some more bucking. At least it’s a good exercise on my legs. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ We were in the middle of repairing Twilight’s roof, and when I realized that I needed to hammer in a few nails for the supports, I couldn’t. Mostly because I now have freaking hooves for hands, how am I supposed to pick it up. I noticed that Kira, standing next to me, was having the same problem. She looked at me with a confused expression. We both turned to Twilight who was using some kind of telekinesis to hammer in the nails. And the little lizard, whose name I can’t remember, was hammering with his claws. I felt lost. I looked next to Kira, and it looked like she found an easy way out. She picked up the hammer with her mouth and started to hammer in some nails with it. Her head kept waving up and down, repeatedly until she couldn’t hammer in anymore. When she finished, she dropped the tool and raised her head. And it was spinning round and round. “Oww, my neck,” she moaned. It looked like she was about to have a headache, or maybe throw up; even her eyes were spinning a bit. “Are you going to help us or just stand there?” joked Twilight. “Uh, sure,” I responded. I did what Kira did and picked up a hammer with my mouth. And, Man was it irritating. Who knew that hammering with your mouth turned out to be more difficult than to do it with your hand? I banged in a nail about 3 or 4 times until it was in the wood. I looked up at Twilight who seemed confused. “Why aren’t you using your magic?” she asked and lifted one of her brows. “My what?” I asked, still trying to recover from the pain in my neck. “You’re magic, that ability that all unicorns can do,” she answered suspiciously. I had to make an excuse. “Oh…Uh…I’m….a…..” I started while rubbing behind my head nervously. “He’s a slow learner!” Kira saved, “A VERY slow learner”. “Yeah, uh, where we’re from, magic is limited and only a very few can perform it. It’s like, a jewel for us” I lied. I knew it wasn’t good, but I had to come up with something. “Oh, ok” she replied and got back to work. I let a small sigh of relief; I didn’t know that ALL unicorns could use magic. “Thanks for the save” I whispered to Kira. “No sweat, how long do we have to keep this act up?” she asked. “Until we can gain her trust, and until we can find that damn book that brought us here.” I answered. “I hope we find it soon. I want to go home, where I can use a hammer with my hands.” she whispered, complaining. “Don’t worry, once we get to know her better, maybe we can ask her about the book. She seems smart.” I replied. “Well then, I guess it’s time to get to know each other better.” she replied confidently. “What do you mean?” I asked. “Hey, Twilight!” she shouted happily. Twilight swiftly turned her head around and faced the two of us still working on the supports below. “No need to shout, I’m right here,” she laughed. “Seriously,” replied the little purple and green lizard that was covering his ears. “Sorry. Look, Vincent and I are new to this town, and we don’t know a lot of peop… I mean ponies here” she saved, “And seeing how you’re the first one we’ve seen, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?” “I’d love to” she answered as she stepped back onto the ground using the extra wood as a ladder. I was actually not looking forward to this. Here’s the thing: I’m not really good at socializing with other people I’m not familiar with. Unless they’re my friends, aunt, teachers, hell even if they’re bullies I know I’ll talk. It’s hard for me to talk to new people. But why should I? I’ve already got friends; shouldn’t Den and Kira be enough? I’ve known them long enough to know that they’re both good people, we’ve been friends for years. But with new people, it’s sometimes hard for me to make small talk. I’ll admit, when I talked to Twilight for the first time, I felt uneasy. Despite the fact that she’s just… a unicorn. She’s also someone I’ve never talked to before. So yeah, I have trouble talking to new people. She approached me and Kira in her library. “Ever since I was a filly, one of my favorite things to do was learn. I love reading books and learning new spells. I also love being with my friends, and helping others,” she answered happily, “Although I wasn’t too excited about coming here at first”. “Then why did you come?” asked Kira. “The princess sent me here to check on the decorations on the Summer Sun Celebration. But when Nightmare Moon attacked, everything was a disaster. But luckily, this is where I met my new friends, and once we discovered the magic of friendship we defeated Nightmare Moon”. I felt more lost than before. Princess, Nightmare Moon, Summer Sun? We both decided to just go with it, seeing how we didn’t want to look suspicious. “Now, I live my days happily here. Learning the lessons of friendship and writing to the princess,”. She finished. “Wow, that sounds interesting. I wish I had a life like that.” Kira complimented. “And I like eating gems!” the little lizard butted in. “Gems?” Kira laughed, “Doesn’t that hurt?” “No way, why would it. They’re delicious” as he said his small stomach began to rumble, “Great, now I’m hungry”. We all let out a short laugh and Twilight focused her attention back to us. “So, what do you two like to do?” she asked. “I love to paint” Kira answered first, “I could go a whole day doing nothing but painting”. “Wow, you’re an artistic pony? I know someone who’s like that” she smiled. “I hope someday to become a great artist, and make paintings that everyone will enjoy,” she replied with glee. So far it seems that she made a good impression on Twilight. “Well, you never know. Maybe it will come true,” she complimented. She then turned her heads towards me. It was my turn to leave an impression. I guess I have to make small talk again. “So, Vincent” she started, “What do you like to do; reading, writing, cooking, theater?” I had to keep it simple, if I told her about my motorcycle interests she would probably question me about what it is. It could get me and my friends exposed and probably cause a riot. The key word being “Probably”. “I like to listen to music” I answered calmly. “Oh, you’re a music lover. What kind of music do you like?” “Um……rock” i said trying to keep it simple. “Rock n’ Roll, that’s interesting. We have music like that here”. I let out a small sigh of relief knowing that I didn’t blow our cover. But, since when do ponies like to listen to rock music? “Is there, a specific type of rock you like to listen to?” she asked. “Either heavy metal or punk rock” I answered. Twilight tilted her head a little, looking confused. She looked like she hadn’t heard either type of music before. Kira looked at me nervously; did I blow my cover by mentioning music that they probably don’t know of? “You don’t talk a lot, do you?” she finally said. “What?” “Well don’t get mad at me for saying this, but you seem very taciturn, Vincent. Even when you came here to pick up your roof breaking friend, you didn’t say much. Acting all calm and all; is something the matter?” she asked concerned. Actually, something was bothering me. I just realized something awful a moment ago, but I’d rather not tell you about it now. “It’s….It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it” I answered, “Let’s just finish the roof”. I continued to hammer in some nails with my mouth, when I couldn’t help but overhear Twilight and Kira talking. “Is he always like this?” asked Twilight. “Not all the time” Kira replied trying to sound normal. “Not all the time?” she asked, confused. “Well, he can be a little moody. But when he’s like this, well……” “Well what?” “It either means he’s bored, or something is troubling him. But he doesn’t like to talk about it”. “Oh, I see. I hope you don’t mind me asking this, but are you two dating?” Twilight asked. “What? No.” Kira laughed. To be honest, I’m glad she said we’re not dating. Because I think we’re better off as friends. When I heard Kira reply, it sounded a little funny. I think we’re great as friends, right? After a few more hours, the roof was finally finished and we felt exhausted. Kira was lying on the couch and I was lying on the floor; too tired and lazy to find a proper place to rest.We were both sweaty. “Finally, the roof is done,” I said to myself. “So….now what do we do?” asked Kira. No one said anything for a while, I guess everyone was too tired from all the work. That is, until Twilight finally broke the silence. “I have an idea” she started, “Why don’t I take you to meet my other friends?” “Really?” asked Kira. “Yeah, the day isn’t over yet. We still have a while before the moon rises,” she said. Kira and I looked at each other and exchanged looks. I shrugged my shoulders giving the “I guess so,” gesture. She then looked up at Twilight. “We’d love to meet them” responded Kira in a positive voice. “Great, follow me,” instructed Twilight happily. Pretty soon me, Kira, Twilight, and the little lizard all walked out of the door and wandered in the village. Kira and I were following close behind. My head was down. “What’s wrong?” asked Kira. “N-nothing” I replied. “You were thinking about her again, weren’t you?” she asked, worried. Yeah it was true; I kept thinking about my sick mother. But, how could I not? If your mom was sick in the hospital, and you were sent to another dimension without knowing whether or not she’ll make it, what else would you think about? It really hurts. “Was it that noticeable?” I asked, shamefully. “Everything will be fine,” she replied trying to cheer me up, “I’m sure she’s still healthy.” “Yeah, maybe,” I retorted. “I worry about you, Vincent. Ever since she was sent to the ER you’ve been wondering if she's still alive,” she cooed. “It’s not natural for someone to be sick that long, I can’t even remember how long it’s been?” “Some diseases are like that. Some of them could last up to many years” I doubt that. Even though Kira was a close friend to us, her math was always a little off. “Doubtful” I responded. “You can just check on her once we get back”. “That is, IF we get back”. “Don’t say that. It’s like you said before, once we gain Twilight’s trust, we can ask her and see what she knows. And once we find out how to get back, you can go and visit her. I’ll even go with you if you want”, she offered. “Y-yeah, I suppose you’re right”, I replied. She then smiled at me, knowing that I was still going with the plan. This is one of the things that make Kira a great person to us. No matter what situation or problem you’re in, she’s always there to back you up and be the voice of reason. That’s what I like about her. But then again, she does have her flaws. “We should hurry up, we’re falling behind” she said. We caught up to Twilight and the lizard and we both ended up standing in front of a house that looked like an carousel. “A carousel house?” I asked. “This is where Rarity lives,” exclaimed the little lizard. Though judging from his tone, he seemed oddly excited for some reason. “I can’t wait for you two meet her. Follow me,” said Twilight. We followed them both inside the strange white and purple house and, once we went inside, it was covered with fabric and dresses. I was afraid this was going to be one of those fashion stores where they sell beauty products and dresses; the boring stores. We looked around and saw that there were dresses everywhere, but they were either hung or on pony mannequins. Yeah, I don’t know either. We also saw one of those stands things where there were like three mirrors behind it. Shouldn’t one be enough? “Your friend lives here?” I asked Twilight. “Yeah, Rarity’s a fashion designer-” “And a really talented one if you ask me!” the little lizard interrupted. “I’m not really into fashion. What do you think Kira?” I looked over and noticed that Kira was just jaw dropped and eyes widened as she was staring at some nearby dresses on pony mannequins. One of them was white with blue swivels on it, and another was red with bright blue sparkling gems. Another dress looked liked it was old fashion and just full of colors, like a rainbow. there were also purple gems at the collar and even some feathers on the back. “Just look at this!” she squealed, “I’ve never seen anything so stylish in my life. Everything is so artistic; the colors, the design, the patterns. Magnificent!” I could feel a sweat drop appear on the side of my head. I really didn’t know how to respond. “I’m glad you think so” a voice called, it sounded rather elegant and feminine. We all looked to see that a white unicorn with a purple swirly mane and tail has appeared in the room. I also noticed that her tattoo consisted of three diamonds. And it seemed that right when she appeared, it looked like that the little lizard guy had hearts floating over his head. “Hi, Rarity,” called Twilight. “Hello, Twilight,” she responded as the white mare approached us. “I ran into some new ponies in town and I was just showing them around” she said, “Meet Vincent and Kira”. “Nice to meet you Vincent-eehhhhhh!” she squealed. “What?” I asked. “Oh my, just look at your mane!” she exclaimed. I looked up and saw my messy and untidy mane. “What about it?” I asked. “It’s- it’s so…….. disorganized!” she replied. “So?” “SO?! I’ve never seen a mane so messy or…spikey, in my life! Doesn’t it bother you that it’s slightly in your eyes?” she yelled dramatically. “Huh?” I replied while raising a confused eyebrow. “Is that your actual hairstyle, or is that your bed-head? No offense, darling, but it’s just…I can’t even describe it than I already have!” “Uh, lady, is there something wrong with you?” “No, I cannot let this slide. You are in some desperate need of help. Not to worry, Rarity is here!” Before I could object, she started shoving into another room with a small smile on her face. “Hey! Hey, hey, hey, hey! What are you doing, I don’t feel comfortable with this! I don’t like that look on your face!” *One Fashion Abduction Later* I came out wearing some kind of suit made for ponies and my hair now all silky and tied in the back. I did not approve of this at all. I walked out and saw that Twilight, the lizard, and Kira were still there waiting for me. Their reactions were priceless; the lizard guy was on the floor laughing, Twilight’s jaw was dropped, and Kira was just surprised. “Oh my god, you look so cute!” Kira laughed. “I feel violated,” I responded. “There,” said the unicorn who abducted me, “Doesn’t that feel much better?” “I think I prefer my mane in a mess” I said as I untied my hair and took off the uncomfortable suit. But, when I was about to un-tie my hair, I realized that I couldn’t do it, damn hooves. “I got it,” said Twilight. She then used her magic to untie the band that kept my hair back. When she did, it went straight back to its untidy and spikey self; where it was touching the back of my neck and the bangs were in my eyes, just the way I like it. “Thanks,” I said to Twilight. “Hey, it was so perfect before. I don’t see why you like it when it’s in your face?” the white unicorn whined. “Is she always like this?” I whispered to Twilight. “Sort of; she was like this when I first met her” she answered. “Isn’t abducting another pony to accessorize their entire body against the law here?” I asked Twilight. All she did was gave me the “I dunno” shrug. I noticed that the little lizard was getting up off of the ground, panting from all of the laughing he did. It wasn’t that funny. Then Kira stepped in. “Miss, Rarity was it?” Kira asked. “Correct”. “I just want to ask, did you make all of these dresses?” Kira asked with still a lot of amazement. “Indeed I did. Every dress you see in here was created by me,” she responded elegantly. “Really? I just love the designs you did for all of these dresses” Kira complimented, “It’s so original, so artistic!” “Seriously? It seems I’m not the only one with an eye for fashion and decor!” “Well, I’m not really a dressmaker, or whatever you call them. But anyway, I’m an artist and seeing your dresses, it just", she paused, "They’re like paintings that you can wear. We don’t get these kinds of clothes where we come from. To me, our dresses are all dull and mostly only one color. But these dresses, there so", she paused again, "Invigorating!” Kira exclaimed happily. “I’ve never heard anypony say that about my dresses before,” Rarity responded happily. “I think your dresses are amazing too, Rarity,” butted in the little lizard. But it seemed she didn’t hear him. He just sat down and pouted, something tells me that he has a thing with this white mare. The both of them continued to talk fashion and dresses for a while, and I grew bored easily. “Do you think we could go?” I asked Twilight, growing bored of all of this. “I suppose” she responded. Both Kira and Rarity turned and looked at us, and gave us disappointed faces. Then Kira looked back and looked at Rarity. “OH! Excuse me, um…..?” “Oh, I’m Kira” she responded. “Right, Kira. You said you’re an artist? What kind of things have you painted?” the white mare asked. “Anything really,” she responded, “I’ve painted environments and animals”. “How would you like to help and design a new dress I’m working on?” she asked. I looked at Kira and her eyes suddenly lit up and grew a huge smile on her face, and she even squealed. She turned to me. “Vincent, can I stay and help Rarity? Please, please, please???” she pleaded while jumping up and down. She was acting like those little kids who were begging their parents for a lollipop. “Fine by me,” I responded. She then lead out a loud cheery giggle and ran over and hugged me; nearly choking me. “Thank you!” she yelled cheeringly. “Trouble……breathing” I spoke. “Oh, sorry,” she said and then released and followed Rarity into another room. “I have a feeling that this is the start of a beautiful friendship,” I heard Rarity said. The remaining three of us went outside and started walking towards some other houses near the woods. “Some friend you got there,” I said to Twilight. “Yeah, well, Rarity is definitely the stylish type. And I’d say she’s the most mature out of my friends,” she responded. “And she’s so Beautiful” the little lizard spoke softly. “Yeah, nothing says mature and beautiful like abducting others against their own will and give them make-overs,” I joked. “What are you saying?” spoke the little lizard in a suspicious tone. “It’s just sarcasm. Didn’t mean anything by it….Sorry, I keep forgetting your name”. “It’s Spike. S-P-I-K-E,” he responded. “Ok. So, Twilight, where to next?” I asked. “Well I was thinking that we could head over to-" Before she could finish, I saw a quick pink blur just zip past me. I only had a millisecond before it zoomed by, to get a clear visual of the fast object. “Did anyone else see that?” I asked. “HIII-ya!” “Gahh!” I yelled and jumped back. Out of nowhere, some pink pony just randomly appeared out of nowhere and was in my face. When I fell to the ground, I got a better view. It looked like a normal pony, the one that doesn’t have any horns or wings. Although, I don’t think “normal” is the right word. It also had bright blue eyes, fluffy pink mane and tail, and had a trio of balloons on its flank. I got up, and before I could ask who this crazy pony was, well- “Omygosh! I’ve never seen you here before? Are you new? You must be new cuz I’ve never seen you here before? I love your mane; it’s all messy like mine. Only mine is poofy and yours is spikey. If you’re new, then that means you must be lonely. And if you’re lonely, then that means that you have no friends. And one thing I can’t stand is seeing other ponies without any friends. Not to worry, I’ll be your friend, and I’ll even throw you a huge welcome party! I’m Pinkie Pie,”. “I’m leaving,” I responded and started walking away from her, not wanting to be bothered. But then she reappeared in front of my face. “Nice to meet you leaving!” she exclaimed. “How did……what the……” I looked back to wear she was before, then back to wear she is now. Trying to figure out how she popped up in front of me in the blink of an eye. “It’s just one of the things that Pinkie does,” Twilight answered. I was still looking back at where the pink pony was standing before, still couldn’t believe of how quickly she transported. Seriously, it was like i was staring at her outline at where she was originally standing. “That’s not possible,” I added. “Anything is possible, leaving,” responded Pinkie happily. “My name’s not leaving, Its Vincent, I was being facetious,” I told her. “Really, that’s such a fun name, Vinny!” “Don’t call me that”. “I gotta go now, got's to go plan for your party!” she yelled with excitement. And she just zipped off to somewhere else. I barely know her and already I find her extremely annoying. “What the hell just happened?” I asked. “You just got a preview of what Pinkie Pie is like,” answered Spike smiling. “If that’s just her greeting, I’d hate to see her in a real conversation,” I said. “Don’t worry, she grows on you from time” said Twilight, “Now, I was thinking that, since you already met Pinkie Pie, I think it’s time you met Fluttershy”. “Fluttershy?” I asked. “Yeah, she’s really nice and great to be around. I think you’ll like her, Vinny,” Twilight teased. “I said not to call me that!” I demanded. We started walking to the outside of the village until we reached what looked like a small cottage. There was a little bridge, bird houses hung all around, animals everywhere, the roof was covered with green plant life, the walls looked like it was made out of old wood, and there was even a stone path leading to the door. It was actually kind of peaceful. We walked across the little bridge that was there and made our way to the door. She knocked at the door about three times and waited for a response. The door then opened, and approached a small Pegasus. It’s fur was yellow, had a long light pink mane and tail in which some of the mane was covering her face, and had a trio of butterflies on her flank; butterfly tattoos is at least something common in my world. To be honest, when I first saw her at the door, I didn’t know what to think. She just looked really, frail and innocent. I really can’t say. “Oh, Hello Twilight and hello Spike,” she said. Not to mention that voice, it was so soft. She then looked at me and then suddenly went all quiet, odd. “W-who’s this Twilight?” she asked. “This is Vincent, he’s new in town,” Twilight introduced me, “Vincent, meet Fluttershy.” “Hello,” I said. “H-hello, Vincent,” She whispered. “Uh, what?” “Hello,” “What?” “Hi,” It seemed the more I asked the more she got quieter. To the point where I really couldn’t hear a word she was saying. “Fluttershy isn’t really good with new ponies,” explained Twilight. Me and her both; though what was I going to expect from someone named “Fluttershy”? “I know the feeling,” I muttered. I tilted my head and looked in the slightly open door, I was curious. There were animals crawling and flying everywhere, it looked like a pet shop. Is she a pet shop owner? “Whoa, that’s a lot of animals. Are they all yours?” I asked her. “Well, I wouldn’t say they’re all mine. Sometimes I just take care of the animals that need me in my cottage,” she replied, this time clearer. “But, don’t animals need to look after themselves?” I asked, confused. “Why would they do that?” she gasped. “Yeah, why would they, do animals in your kingdom fend for themselves?” asked Twilight. This was seriously weird, is letting animals take care of themselves illegal in this world? Does everypony have to help small animals run their lives? What happened to the natural order? Well, I guess I would’ve expected much from a place inhabited by small horses. “Yes,” I answered. “Seriously?” asked Spike. “Well, you know. Different land, different laws,” I lied, unsure if i said the right thing. “Huh, the laws there must be really confusing,” added Twilight. “In a way...” I said. “Oh, I hope the animals there are alright. Having them take care of themselves must be really hard,” said Fluttershy. “I think they know what they’re doing” I said, “Plus, not every animal is as small or innocent like the ones you have here.” “What do you mean, what kinds of animals do you have? If you don’t mind me asking.” “Don’t mind at all,” I started, “We have a whole lot of animals; like tigers, crocodiles, polar bears, snakes, great white sharks”. “We have some of those creatures here” she said, “But, what’s a great white shark?” “Just a really big fish with lots of teeth that will practically eat anything that’s above it. They mostly eat large fish and seals.” I answered simply but something told me that I gave out too many facts; because she was crouching on the ground quivering. Oops. “They sound…really scary,” she whimpered, “Do they attack ponies?” “Unless you swim right above it and move like a seal; other than that, not so much. But it’s hard to tell, they’ll practically devour anything that’s in the water,” I answered, again I felt like I spoke too vividly. She even let out a frightened squeal. Again, oops. “I-I don’t think I’ll go swimming anymore,” she muttered, “It was nice to meet you, Vincent, bye.” With that, she zipped back inside her home and shut the door. “Smooth,” I said to myself. I looked at Twilight and Spike and saw that they both gave me confused and shocked looks. “What?” “You really shouldn’t scare others like that, Vincent. That wasn’t very nice”. Twilight said, firmly. “I was just describing what sharks are and what they do where I’m from. Is it a sin to tell the truth?” I asked. “Of course not, but maybe next time you could be a little more gentle on how you describe your different creatures”. “Well, sorry for describing an animal that can’t even hurt you unless you’re in the ocean,” I remarked. We all looked up at the sun and saw that it was starting to go down, I felt really tired for the day. “We should head back,” said Twilight. “Alright.” We walked away from Fluttershy’s house and started to make out way back to Twilight’s house. I felt so done for the day, with the working and the walking and such. All I really wanted to do now was find a comfy place for me to just sleep…
Parties and Dreams I felt so done for the day as we were walking back to Twilight’s house from the long day. The sun was setting and the weather was starting to get slightly chilly, all I wanted to do was just get some sleep. I still needed to get Twilight’s trust so I can ask her about the book. I don’t know how she would react when she finds out my friends and I aren’t ponies. I could tell we were both tired, none of us has said anything for the past three minutes as we walked back. Twilight and Spike had been walking next to me and never said a single word. The silence was starting to kill me. “So…” she finally said, “Did you like meeting my friends today?” “Yeah, it was alright,” I replied, nonchalantly. “Where did you say you were from again?” “Out of town,” I replied. “Oh, I see,” she said the silence starting up again. “Riveting conversation,” Spike said, breaking the awkward silence. “I see you’re still carrying on that taciturn trait.” pointed out Twilight. “Sorry, I’m just a little tired, been walk-trotting all day,” I replied honestly. “Well, doesn’t mean we can’t have a friendly conversation,” she suggested flashing a smile. “Yeah, I suppose.” I didn’t know if she wanted me to come up with a random topic to discuss or something. “Hey, Vincent,” she started. “Yeah?” I replied. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, where’s your cutiemark?” “My what?” I asked confused. “Your cutiemark?” she asked again, and pointed to my blank flank. I completely forgot that every equine in this village had some sort of tattoo on their flanks. I had to come up with an excuse. “Oh, uh, we don’t usually get marks where I’m from,” I lied. “Really? That’s weird, because you should have your cutiemarks by now. Come to think of it, I didn’t notice any of your friends having marks either,” she pointed out. I was on thin ice; well not really, all I had to do was just come up with another excuse. “OH, cutiemarks. I thought you said…mutie clarks!”. Mutie Clarks, Seriously? Man, I’m a terrible liar. It’s not like I know any Clark’s who are mute anyway. “OKay” Twilight said unconvinced. “You know, I have a faded memory and I tend to forget important stuff easily,” I fibbed. “Really, but you remembered my name?” she said. “Oh,well, uh, I didn’t remember the lizards name at first,” I replied, nervously. “Dragon,” corrected Spike. “Whatever, the point is I have a bad memory. So, maybe you could remind me, on the importance of cutiemarks?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t find it strange I had no clear clue what those tattoos were. “Okay then,” she started, “Well Cutiemarks are basically the marks we get on our flanks that reveal what our special talents are. So if you have something like, a hammer for example, then it could mean you’re good at construction.” Geez, your talent could just be revealed on what your tattoo is telling you? That’s just bizarre. Ever heard of a profile or a resume, but still, the idea of a tattoo representing who you are is kind of interesting. “Oh, right, now I remember. Thanks,” I said, trying to sound convincing. “No problem.” “Boy, socially awkward and short term memory. You’re really something, Vincent,” Spike joked. “Spike” hissed Twilight. “It’s fine, I’m usually not used to being around new, ponies,” I admitted with a slight laugh. “It’ll be fine. I wasn’t used to this place at first, but then I made a lot of friends here and I got used to living here. I think you’ll like it.” she said supportively. I gave her a small smile back as a reply. We finally made it back to Twilight’s house where Kira, Den, Applejack and Rarity were all waiting for us. Along with two other little fillies, who looked like younger versions of Applejack and Rarity. Although one of them had yellow fur, red mane and tail and a pink bow; the other had white fur with a light purple mane with a pink swirl in the mane and tail. Neither of them had marks; looks like we’re not the only ones who didn’t have a cutie mark. “Yo! What up, Vin?” Den said, greeting us. “Just got back from murdering my legs,” I replied jokingly, referring to the long walk and walks we’ve been having today. “How was the apple thing?” I asked. “The apple bucking? I’ll admit, it was quite the workout, we made some pretty good progress,” he boasted proudly. “Good progress, ya’ll only got half the apples in the first basketm” Applejack corrected him. “The point is I feel stronger, ready for my next match!” “How can you be ready to fight if you can’t even control your wings?” playfully mocking him. “Pfff, no way can a couple of unstable wings can keep me down!” he yelled as he started to hover in mid-air. We were amazed at how fast he was learning how to fly already. “Hey, it looks like you’re at least getting the hang of it.” No sooner as I had said those words, Den shot straight up into the air like a rocket, zipping past the clouds leaving a hole in them. I could hear him shouting as he blasted off. “Or maybe not,” I corrected myself, watching my friend careened through the open sky like a wayward missile. We waited awhile but Den still hadn’t come back down. We all beginning to worry, sharing concerned and confused looks as we searched the skies. “This is going to take a while,” Spike said, finally speaking up. “So anyway, what’s your name?” I asked the yellow filly. “I’m Applebloom, Applejacks sister,” she introduced herself. “I can see the resemblance,” I responded, which made her smile before she returned to looking up at the sky. “Sheesh, how long is he going to be stuck up there?” she asked. “I have no idea, it’s like Spike said, it may take while just for him to come back down,” Twilight answered. “I just hope he doesn’t crash into my roof again.” “Well that’s Den for you, he’s completely unpredictable,” I stated flatly. “And unstable,” added Kira. “But he did help out a lot on the farm, I’ll give him that,” admitted Applejack. “Yeah, and he’s really strong. His dream sounds so amazing. Hey, maybe we could get our cutiemarks in mixed martial arts! Whatever that is.” Applebloom said, her eyes growing rounder at the next crusade. “Uh-uh. No sister of mine is going to go running off and fighting others who are twice their size for the fun of it,” snorted Applejack. “What? Then how come he gets to?” she whined. “Because he has his reasons,” Applejack answered. Funny, those are the exact same words Den tell me whenever I ask him that question. “Ooh, before we forget”, Rarity interuppted. “Kira, would you like to show everyone the design you came up with for the dress?” “Oh right!” Pulling out a large sheet of paper, she unrolled it and it revealed a picture of a dress. I’m not good at describing clothes so I’ll do my best. It was slim and looked silky. The collar was made of tulip petals but the entire dress had a dark violet colour to it, with minute sparkles woven in. Bloomed lotus flowers covered the body in varying blues, reds, and greens. A tiara was drawn above the dress weaved out of rose thorns with a large rose as the center piece. Looping wind sigils on the dress gave off the impression that the wind was blowing by. Definitely looks like something Kira would paint. “What do you think? It’s the new dress we’re working on,” she chirped happily. “We’ve been working on this design all day, and I think it’s going to turn out great once it’s fully complete” added Kira. “Isn’t it just, magnificent?” Rarity asked cheerfully. “Well, Kira, you were right. You certainly do have an artistic eye,” complemented Rarity. “Thank you,” Kira bashfully replied, her own cheeks becoming rosy. “Looks like it’s another masterpiece yet to come true,” I answered with a smile. “You really think so? I put a lot of thought into this design,” Kira said like a child who got their parents approval. “Of course, everything you paint is beautiful”. That last complement seemed to really make Kira smile, along with Rarity; I looked down and noticed the other filly standing next to them patiently. “So who’s the mini-Rarity?” I asked. “This is my sister, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said, nodding to her little sister. “I helped out too. It’s really nice to meet you, I’ve heard a lot about you from Kira. Isn’t she the nicest pony you’ve ever met?” she squeaked at a mile a minute. For a moment there, I felt like my ears were about to bleed. That filly has one hell of a squeaky voice. “How adorable,” I said nonchalantly, trying to rub out the ringing in my ears. “Isn’t she?” asked Kira she said innocently. “So, what does that note say?” Spike brought up. “Oh, right, let’s take a look.” Twilight and I walked up to the door to read the note attached to it. Twilight lifted it off with her telekinetic powers and began to read it aloud. “Come to SugarCube Corner for a sweet surprise,” she read aloud. That’s got to be the briefest note I’ve ever heard in my life. Well, other than the suicide message from the movie “IT”, this was reassuring. “What does that mean?” Kira asked. “Oh, ya’ll will see soon enough,” Applejack chortled. A loud thoom turned our attention to a nearby tree to see Den tangled up in the branches. “Hey, Den! You alright over there?” I asked. “I’m fine, never better” he muttered darkly, his eyes rolling around in his skull. “You sure about that, sugarcube?” asked Applejack. “Yeah, just losing large amounts of blood from a life threatening fall, don’t worry I’ll be dead in a few minutes.” “Well can you manage to save some life left, we just got invited to this place called SugarCube Corner,” said Kira. “SugarCube what now?” he asked as he raised his head as his eyes refocused on us. “I don’t know, man. It’s just some weird invite,” I clarified watching him trying to wiggle out of the branches. A little creak was heard followed by a loud snap and Den fell face first to the ground. Applejack and Applebloom went over and helped him up. “So are you coming?” “Eh, why not,” he answered while rubbing the back of his head with a hoof. “Look on the bright side,” started Twilight. “At least he didn’t crash into my roof again”. “Or anyone’s roof,” I added. “Yeah. Anyway, we should head on over there.” “Lead the way.” I was walking behind her while Spike rode on her back like a cowboy would on a horse, funny in it’s own way. Kira and Rarity were walking beside each other talking about dresses and paintings with Sweetie Belle jumping in here and there. Applejack and Applebloom were helping Den walk in a straight line, he kept wobbling to the left and his eyes were still spinning like a top. Finally we came to a stop out in front of what I could only describe as some kind of life size gingerbread house. The roof, the doors, the walls and even the windows had candy themes. Odder still was that no lights were on, it looked rather deserted. I was assuming this was SugarCube Corner, it certainly lived up to its name. “Here we are,” Twilight said as Spike hopped off her back. “Of course it is,” I spoke. “What?” “Nothing, it’s just that it was kind of predictable to find out a place called SugarCube corner turned out to look like THAT,” I pointed my hoof at Peewee’s (second) Playhouse. “Well yeah, what did you expect?” “Whoa, cool. A candy house!” exclaimed Kira, “Can we eat it?” “I’m afraid the building itself isn’t edible darling,” chuckled Rarity. “Dang it,” whined Kira. “But don’t worry, there’s plenty of sweets inside,” said Rarity. “Good enough for me,” said Kira giving a toothsome smile. Den finally managed to fix his eyes and spotted the gingerbread house and focused in on it. “Oh we’re here?” he asked. “Sure are. Ready to go in?” asked AJ. “Sure, I’m starving,” answered Den “Then let’s go in,” said Twilight. We walked straight into pitch black darkness, the smell of sweets tickling my nose. “Is it always this dark in here?” I asked aloud, an eerie chill crawling up my spine as we stood in complete darkness. “No, but I have a feeling...” Twilight sang. “A feeling of what?” I asked. It wasn’t until all 9 of us were inside and Applebloom shut the door behind us, when it happened. A light switched on and a bunch of ponies shouted- “SURPRISE!!!!” It all caught us off guard. “Aaahh!” it felt like my heart was trying to claw its way out my chest. Kira, Den, and I dropped to the floor. Twilight, Rarity and Applejack helped us up as the party began to go into full swing. Ponies were laughing, talking, and dancing with one another with streamers and noise makers and loud music playing. “Hi-Ya, Vinny! Were you surprised, were ya? Were ya!?” Pinkie asked, popping out of thin air. “Oh, it’s you again,” I sighed. “Yeah its me. Did ya like the surprise? I got every pony in Ponyville to show up and helped me throw you a surprise welcome party!” she exclaimed while blowing a noise maker horn, right in front of my ears. “OW! Do you have to blow that horn right in front of me?” “Oops, sorry,” she laughed and backed up and blew to the horn again. “That’s…better, I guess,” I replied. Don’t know if she would take it seriously. “Well, I thought you did another job well done, Pinkie,” complimented Twilight, “It seems you’ve really outdone yourself once again”. “Yay, Party!” shouted Applebloom. “C’mon, I see Scootaloo over there!” yelled Sweetie. “Fillies,” laughed Rarity as she watched her sister disappear into the crowd. “Well, they are just kids,” Kira said sweetly. “You’ll never see me act like tha- OOOOOO, CUPCAKES!” squealed Kira, and she ran towards them like a hungry child. “Kira, wait!” shouted Rarity as she chased after her. “Whoa, some party we got going on here,” Den said as he took in the food and music. “Well that’s Pinkie Pie for ya,” replied AJ. “Um, hello,” a soft voice called out. We all looked to our left and noticed that Fluttershy was standing right next to us. “Um, are you one of the new ponies in the town, if you don’t mind me asking that is?” she timidly asked Den. “I guess you can say that. The name’s Den, what’s yours?” he asked. “Oh um, I’m Fluttershy,” she whimpered. Though to be fair, it was more difficult to hear her with all the noise going on. “Uh, what?” asked Den. “This is Fluttershy” Applejack answered, “And as you can tell she’s-” “Shy? No Kidding, I had no idea,” replied Den sarcastically. “Is there a problem?” Fluttershy asked. “No not at all. It’s just that, you sound like such a tough and durable fighting machine. I bet all you do for fun is fight wild animals am I right?” teased Den. “Why, why would I do that?” she asked. “Because you’re the most lethal pony here, how about you me have a little brawl, what do you say?” he teased some more. “Den,” hissed AJ, her eyes narrowing to slits. A blue bolt shot out in front followed by a familiar messy rainbow mane and tail, wearing a pissed expression. “Hey, leave her alone,” scolded Rainbow Dash. “Oh, it’s you. Have you badgered any other innocents today?” Den asked casually. “I don’t know, crashed into anypony else’s roofs lately?” she snapped back aggressively. “No, but I did crash into a tree just a few minutes ago.” “Serves you right. Why the hay are you picking on Fluttershy!” “Picking on her? I was just messing with her, cool your jets.” “My what?” “You, you were?” the timid Pegasus asked. “Yeah, I didn’t mean anything by it. Can’t you take a joke?” he asked. “Well, um…” “Aw c’mon, It’s not like you actually fight wild animals would ya?” “I would never, I love animals”. “Well then that’s fine. I was just messing, nothing serious. No hard feelings?” he asked, still smiling. Fluttershy went quiet for a while until she finally looked up and gave a small smile and nodded “Yes.” “You see, we’re all good now. We’re here to party right? So let’s get it started!” he exclaimed. “I agree, let’s party!” exclaimed Pinkie as she zoomed off to somewhere else. “You sure do have a sick sense of humor, picking on Fluttershy like that,” retorted Dash. “It was a joke. Ever heard of forgive and forget?” “I may be able to forgive, but I never forget,” she hissed. “Oh, I’m counting on it,” Den replied. Rainbow Dash just huffed and flew off to another part of the party. Den and Applejack began to walk off to somewhere else. “Geez, what a hot-head,” commented Den. “Well, Rainbow is still ticked at ya for crashing into Twi’s roof like that,” said AJ. “C’mon, I said I was sorry. Do I have to write an apology letter too?” Soon they mingeled with the crowd, until we couldn’t hear their conversation anymore. “That Den certainly is obnoxious,” spoke Twilight. “Yeah, he’s an animal, but he knows when to admit he made a mistake,” I said, “Plus, it’s not like that Rainbow Dash is any better. Does she always hold a grudge for a long time?” “You’d be surprised,” she replied dryly. “Surprised in a good way?” “Never mind, c’mon, let’s just enjoy the party,” she said. “Sure”. The party went on for a while. Loud music played while games were being enjoyed. It seemed my friends were finally having fun. Kira was just stuffing her face full with every sweet she could grab a hold of, as Rarity and I just laughed at her silliness. I couldn’t help it. A record was playing lively music and everyone was dancing in a circle in the middle of the floor. Twilight was doing some really awkward dance, thrashing her arms around like a dying tuna on a beach. Den and Spike were trying to bob for apples. Den came out with two apples in his mouth and spit them out. Then he went back in while Spike was still trying to get some, and Den came out with two more apples in his mouth, Pinkie declared him the winner for getting the last two out. He shot his arms up in the air in a victory pose with winning smile on his face, and then Applejack gave him a victory hug. Towards the end of the party, I stepped outside to get some fresh air. Leaning up against the side of the building to rest, watching as the sun dipped over the horizon and the moon began to rise up. I could stare at the sky for hours. A sudden snap pricked my ears, turning my head I was face to face with Twilight. “What are you doing out here, the party is still going on inside.” “I don’t know, I guess I’m just tired.” Not like it was any of her business anyway. “You weren’t doing much you know,” she said with a small frown on her face. “I know but like I said before, I’m not used to being around a lot of peop-ponies. It just makes me feel, uncomfortable,” I said. If I had my I-Pod and headphones I’d listen to my music all night long. “Oh, well you shouldn’t feel uncomfortable, Vincent. It’s always nice to make new friends. You’re probably just not used to this place yet, kind of like how I was when I first moved here.” “Probably, why did you move here again?” I asked. “Like I said, the princess sent me to check up on preparations for the Summer Sun celebration. Then Nightmare Moon came and was about put Equestria into eternal night”. “Cool,” I said, however this seemed to struck a nerve with her. “Cool?” she asked suspicious. “Yeah, it’s cool” I said. “What? Why would you think eternal night would be ‘cool’?” she asked surprised. “I don’t know, I kind of like the night. It’s always so peaceful and quiet, not a lot of,” I paused, “ponies, come out during the night to make a lot of noise. I actually wouldn’t mind being in the dark forever. The sun would never come and shine in my eyes in the morning, and I wouldn’t be able to go to school to deal with a bunch of zombies. Besides, I like sleeping”. “That’s ridiculous!” she snapped. “Is something wrong?” “Um, yeah! How could you think it’s ‘cool’ to live at night for all eternity?” she scolded. “I’m pretty sure I just explained why.” “I get that, but WHY would you think that? It’s not good to sleep forever, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to live, and how would you find your way through the dark? The sun would never rise up again and Nightmare Moon would take over, that’s just horrible!” she ranted. “It was just my opinion. You don’t need to complain about it and in case you haven’t noticed, this Nightmare thing isn’t even around. So why would you need to worry about something that doesn’t even exist. Or at least not anymore, not to mention that everyone is entitled to their own opinion” I retorted. “You’re right, sorry,” she sighed, “It’s just that, you’re the first pony I’ve met to actually say they prefer to live in the eternal night rather than day”. “No problem, besides, look how beautiful the moon is,” I pointed. We all looked up and noticed the full moon and how it was shining down on the village, and the stars twinkling around it. “Yeah, Princess Luna’s moon definitely is stunning” said Twilight. “Hmm?” Who’s Princess Luna? Probably best to ask her about it later. “Hey, Twilight” “Yeah?” “Do you trust me?” I asked. Twilight went silent for a while. “Oh um…well, I just met you, and uh, well, mmhhmm.” “No?” “Well, why do you want to know if I trust you?” she asked. “Curious,” I replied, deciding to keep it simple. “Oh, then -” Before she could finish, the door opened up and ponies began walking out. My only thought was, Did Pinkie seriously invite every pony in this town? Anyway, the last few stragglers came out was the group followed by my friends: Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Applejack, Applebloom, Spike, Kira, and Den; who was wobbling while holding a cup of punch in his right hoof. “You alright there partner?” laughed Applejack. “Where’s the leak ma’am?” Den muttered in a deep voice. “You do know that that’s non-alcoholic, right?” pointed out Kira. “Don’t care, too tired to argue” responded Den. “Oh yeah that reminds me, where are we going to sleep tonight?” asked Kira. “Huh, didn’t really think of that,” the realization now dawning on me. “I’m sure there’s a hotel near here that you and your friends can check into,” suggested Twilight. “We didn’t really bring any money. Sort of forgot.” I said. “Sort of?” “Not to worry, I’m sure I’ve got room for Den to sleep at Sweet Apple Acres,” said Applejack. “Fine by me,” Den responded, still sounding tired. “And Kira, you may stay at Carousel Boutique if you wish,” offered Rarity. “Thanks, Rarity.” “Yay, Kira’s sleeping over!” chirped Sweetie Belle. “Ok, so where am I going to crash tonight?” I asked myself. “It’s alright, you can stay at my place for the night, I have a spare bed. Maybe now, you can catch up on your sleeping,” she smiled. “Thanks. Alright then, I guess it’s settled,” I said, satisfied. “Good night, Vincent,” Kira said and went over to hug me goodbye, “See you tomorrow”. “Good night everypony,” signed off Rarity as she, Kira, and Sweetie trotted off and we waved goodbye. “We better head on home now,” suggested Applejack. “Sure, night everyone!” yelled Den as they were all heading back to their farm. We waved goodbye to each other and made our way back to Twilight’s house. I still didn’t get a clear answer out of her. How am I supposed to ask her about the book now? Twilight’s Library We were inside Twilight’s home, upstairs in her room. Just like the downstairs, bookshelves lined the walls. Twilight’s bed sat next to her window, roughly a wooden box with a mattress on top. Blue blankets decorated with stars. She was just setting out the spare bed across from hers, just a few feet splitting the beds apart. It was blander and more looked like a board than her own, but it was better than nothing. Off to the side was a small basket with a pillow and covers inside of it. “You have a dog?” I asked, pointing a hoof at the little basket. “What, oh no,” she laughed, “That’s where Spike sleeps”. “You calling me a dog?” asked Spike defensively. “Down boy, heal,” I teased while petting his head. “Why I otta,” he growled. “Relax, I’m just kidding, geez. Why are all of you so uptight?” “Spike, do you think you could meet me downstairs, I need your help with something?” Twilight asked. Spike huffed and started walking downstairs, I looked back at Twilight and she just finished the bed. “The bed is all set,” she said. “What are you working on?” I asked curiously. “Nothing much, I just need to send a letter,” she answered. “You can go ahead and get ready for bed. I’m probably going to be up for a while.” “Cool, goodnight”. “Night”. As she was trotting downstairs with a candle, I climbed onto the bed and slid under the covers. Even though it was a spare bed, it was still soft and cozy. I turned to sleep on my left side, and once my head touched the pillow I was out like a light. ______________________________________________________________________________ My eyes shot open and I noticed that I was floating in a big, empty, violet, open space. I wasn’t floating, I could feel the ground underneath my hooves Objects floated around me. Clocks, gears, a TV, music notes, skulls, motorcycle parts, black electric guitars, amps, headphones and my I-Pod. I looked around and noticed that I was totally alone; no Twilight, or Applejack, or Kira, or Den. No one. “What the hell is going on here?” I asked myself. “You are in a dream,” a rather feminine and royal voice said. I looked around to see who spoke but I couldn’t see anyone. All I saw was the violet emptiness wavering in front of my eyes. “Up here,” said the voice again. I looked up and saw the source. It was a pony, like the others, but this one was different. Dark blue fur, flowing blue mane and tail, it’s mark was a crescent moon with black splatter around it, wore blue clear glass slippers, and had both a horn and wings. It looked so, surreal. “Who are you?” I asked. She floated down until she was at eye level with me. “I am Princess Luna,” she introduced. Princess Luna? So, this is the princess that Twilight was talking about, the one who owns their moon or something? “Princess Luna?” I asked, confused. “That is correct. My duties are to raise the moon when the day has come to an end,” she answered in a somewhat echoing voice. “So wait, let me get something clear. This is a dream that I’m in?” I asked. “Correct young one,” she answered. “Oh great,” I sighed, “Are you like the Freddie Krueger of this world?” “Excuse me? I do not know of this ‘Freddie Kruger’ you speak of,” she responded. “Well if I’m dreaming right now, lost in a strange dream and now I’ve just come across this unknown, dark-looking creature that’s giving me weird vibes. Does that mean you’re going to kill me?” “Why would I do that? When I enter pony’s dreams, it is only so I can talk to them,” she answered. “So you CAN enter my dreams, but you’re not going to kill me?” “Where are you going with this?” This conversation was getting us nowhere. I guess my curiosity got the better of me. “Never mind, it’s nothing” I said, a little embarrassed that I asked a lot of questions. “You are forgiven. Now then, please, tell me your name,” she asked. “Vincent Chambers,” I responded. The dark winged unicorn went silent for a minute. “Uh, what?” “Vincent Chambers? Then my sister was right, that name sounds too unreal for any pony to have,” she said. “What?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “She has told me that some new ponies that have arrived here have very unusual names and have bizarre actions. Who knew you’d be one of them.” “Wait, how do you know that?” “Are you not one of them?” “What are you talking about?” “Not important, but I must warn you. That the troubles you have now are nothing when compared to what’s going to happen.” “What? Can someone please explain what is going on?” A sudden wind came down turning violently into a hurricane. All the objects floating were vanishing with the wind, all I could see was Luna getting blown away. “Farewell!” she yelled as she disappeared into the void. My eyes shot open, I was still resting in the spare bed but I could feel my whole body shaking. I slowly sat up and looked out the window. The sun was shining through the glass, burning away any sleep from me. I blocked the sun’s rays with my hoof, but I still couldn’t shield my eyes. I stretched out my limbs, letting out a yawn, and crawled out of bed. I stood up and began to walk downstairs. When I got to the bottom, I saw Twilight and Spike sitting at a table with little cups filled with coffee and a plate filled with muffins. “Oh, good morning, Vincent,” said Twilight, happily. “Morning,” I replied. “Did you sleep well?” she asked. I didn’t know if I should tell her about the weird dream I had. I didn’t know how she would react, so I didn’t mention it. “Yeah,” was all I said. “Well, grab a muffin,” said Spike as he swallowed some gems and continued to put more in his mouth. “Doesn’t it feel weird to eat gems?” I asked while taking a muffin, “How do they taste?” “Delicious,” he muttered, while he was still chewing. “Spike, don’t talk with your mouth full,” scolding the young dragon. Spike’s child-like behavior made me let out a slight chuckle as I took a bite out my muffin. “I think I’m going to get some fresh air, be right back” I spoke after I swallowed. “Ok, hurry back” said Twilight as she waved goodbye. I waved back and walked out the door. I finished my muffin and started walking about; it looked very bright and sunny today, it was kind of annoying of how bright the sun was. I felt like it was blinding me. I continued walking and spotting some ponies nearby, talking and walking past me. It was kind of funny, for some reason, these ponies remind me very much of how people act, I don’t know why. “Hey fool!” yelled a voice. I turned to the left and noticed both Den and Kira standing next to a large pony statue in the middle of town. “Good morning!” yelled Kira. I walked over to where they were standing to greet them. I stopped in front of them and was about to chat. “Hey, how did you guys sleep?” I asked. “Pretty good, Applejack had a spare bed for me,” answered Den, “Then again, it was in the barn”. Kira and I let out a small laugh at Den’s inefficient sleeping area. “Sounds comfortable,” I said sarcastically. “Hey, you try sleeping at night with the constant sound of mooing and barking,” he retorted. “Right, how did you sleep, Kira?” I asked. “Pretty good, I guess” she answered, “Rarity didn’t actually have a spare bed, so we had to share her own. And I couldn’t take Sweetie Belle’s small bed”. “Oh, you and Rarity had to share a bed” Den said foolishly, “getting it one, were you?” “Shut up,” Kira said punching his arm. I decided that it was time that I asked them about the dream I had, seeing how I’m telling people who I can trust, at least people in pony bodies. “Hey guys, did you have any strange dreams last night?” I asked. They both turned their attention towards me with puzzled faces. “Now that you mentioned it, I did have some strange dream last night,” pointed out Kira. “Yeah, so did I,” added Den. “Really, was it with this big blue winged unicorn with a-“ “Moon tattoo,” Kira and Den both answered at the same time. We all exchanged looks; it was weird that we all had the same dream last night. What could it mean? “Seriously weird,” I said. “What do you think it means?” asked Kira. “I have no idea, but i-“ “Hey!” We all turned around and saw Twilight trotting towards us, she looked worried for a minute. “Twilight, what’s wrong?” I asked. “Vincent, I’d like you to know that I sent a letter to the princess last night before I went to bed,” she started. “So?” “So I told her about meeting you and how glad I was making friends with you and your friends, even though you were a bit strange at first,” she said with a smile. “Again, so?” I asked. “SO, I just got a letter back from her. She told me to gather my friends and catch a train to Canterlot. And also, she told me to bring you and your friends along as well”. “So, your princess wants to meet us?” “Well, one of them. C’mon, let’s gather every pony, buy tickets, and head on over to Canterlot,” she finished as she trotted back to her house. “One of them? So there are two princesses?” I asked myself. “Two?” asked Kira. “Yeah, didn’t the winged unicorn from our dream refer to herself as a princess?” asked Den. “I don’t know?” replied Kira. “Well then, I guess we better follow Twilight”.
Important meeting, "Do you trust me?"We were all waiting at the train station just outside of Ponyville. And by “we” I meant all of us: Me, Kira, Den, Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, AJ, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy. We were all in a big group clutching our tickets. We were just on the platform waiting for the train, and I was starting to grow impatient. I was just about to walk away so I didn’t die of boredom when I heard a certain whistle. Kira, Den, and I looked to our left and noticed that a train was just pulling in. When it did pull into the station, I was not impressed. The train itself looked old fashioned and all too bright and vivid. All the cars, including the engine, consisted of bright pink, blue, and yellow. Even the trains here looked especially girly. “What?” I asked, un-amused. “You have got to be kidding me,” complained Den. “Didn’t see this coming,” added Kira. “Why are you guys acting so surprised?” asked Twilight, “You’re acting like you haven’t seen the trains here before.” “We took a different train here. One that wasn’t…..THIS,” I replied while gesturing to the crayon box train. “You guys don’t get out much, do you?” asked Rainbow Dash. I shrugged my shoulders, giving her an “eh” gesture. We turned our attention back to the train and waited for everypony to get off. Once it was all clear, we boarded in the second to last car. The pink one. Ughh. We all got in the car, and it was actually kind of roomy inside. It looked like any other passenger car, despite its cookie-like appearance on the outside. There were comfy seats and large windows and two rows of seats, one for each side I guess. Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and I sat on the left side of the car while Kira, Den, Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack sat on the right. I was sitting next to a window with Twilight sitting next to me. Once we were all in, the conductor yelled “All Aboard!” and the whistle went off and the train started moving. We’ve been on the train for nearly 25 minutes already. I was starting to forget where we were going, and I was even more bored now. All I did was look out the window and watch as the scenery pass by. I could hear my friends talking and laughing on the other side. At least they’re all getting along. Especially seeing how Den and Rainbow Dash are now somewhat separated. “So where are we going again, Hogwarts?” asked Den. “What, no? I told you, I sent a letter to the princess telling her about you guys and all of the sudden she wants me to bring you to her,” Twilight answered. “How did you send a letter to her?” I asked, seeing how there was no email in this world. “Through Spike.” “The little lizard?” “He’s a dragon!” she corrected, irritated that I still couldn’t get his species right. “Seriously, how many times do we have to tell you?” asked Spike who also seemed irritated. “Ok, ok, sorry geez. But that still doesn’t explain-“ “His flames can teleport letters to the princess,” interrupted Twilight. “I thought you might ask that, seeing how you ask so many questions.” “Right.” Another 25 minutes later, I was resting my head on my hoof and leaning on the glass window with my eyes half open. We’ve been on this train for almost an hour now. Twilight was on the other side of the car discussing something with her friends while Kira decided to come over and sit across from me. “You ok, Vin?” Kira asked, “You look a little… dead.” “I’m just really bored. We’ve been on this train for an hour and there’s nothing to do,” I replied, sounding tired. “Well, we could talk about that thing we discussed earlier,” she suggested. “The really weird dream with that moon pony.” “Yeah, I suppose,” I said, sounding a bit interested. “So what happened when you first saw her?” “At first, I didn’t know how to respond when I was in the violet void. Especially with all these weird objects floating about, like paint cans and brushes, blank canvas, colored pencils, water colors, and cupcakes. But that could be just from the dozens of sweets I had last night,” she said with a slight laugh. Weird, something like that happened in my dream too, where my personal interests were floating around. “And then what?” I asked. “Then that moon princess came, and she said that her name was Luna. She then warned me, that the issues we had were nothing when compared to what was in store. And then she was blown away by some gust,” she concluded. That’s freaky, because that’s exactly what happened to me in my dream. Those were even the same words. “Same here. Anything else?” I asked. “Well, at one point, she asked me my name. I told her, and she seemed disturbed; saying that my name was far too human,” Kira said, worried. Same with me. “Do you think she knows?” Kira whispered so that no one would hear us. “I don’t know,” I whispered back. “But that’s exactly what happened in my dream. And I bet $10 that’s happened to Den too.” “Well, don’t you remember? Twilight said that she sent a letter to the princess. Do you think Twilight knows about us and told Luna?” “I don’t know, and I’m hoping not.” “Well, Luna did say that her ‘sister’ told her that our names sounded bizarre. And, before we got here, Twilight did say that she sent a letter to the princess. Do you think it’s possible that Luna and Twilight are related?” I was putting the pieces together in my head, and it seemed very likely. Luna saying that her ‘sister’ was suspicious, and then after that Twilight telling us she sent a letter to the princess telling her something about us. It is possible. Although I feel like I’m forgetting one important detail for some reason. “I wonder,” I said aloud. Just then, the train came to a complete stop, shaking us. “What’s going on,” I asked, feeling a little jumped from the sudden stop. “We’re here,” responded Twilight happily. “About time,” I said. “I was about to die of boredom.” “Very unlikely.” We departed from the train and walked onto the platform. When we looked past it, we saw this huge, fancy and delicate looking metropolis. We walked out of the station and into the entrance of the place. “Welcome to Canterlot,” Twilight announced proudly. “Whoa,” gasped Den. “Is this like the capital?” I asked. “Hope it’s not like the capital of Panem,” added Kira. “The princess’s castle is just up ahead, follow me,” instructed Twilight. Still thinking about the whole ‘Luna and Twilight’s letter’ thing, I started to look around as we walked through this Canterlot. All the residents were dressed in fancy clothes, the buildings were huge and had royal décor, and the whole place looked like a glamorous utopia filled with snobby rich ponies. Only one thing comes to mind when I think of fancy and sophisticated places: BORING. We all stopped in front of a pair of huge golden painted doors. They had to be about 15 feet tall. There were also guards in front of the door. They had white fur and were covered with golden armor. Security must be tight here. “Hello, sirs,” Twilight called. “We’re here to see the princess.” “Yes, Miss Sparkle,” they responded, and they opened the doors behind them, leading to a giant staircase inside. Twilight turned around and faced us. “Are you ready to meet the princess?” asked Twilight. I looked behind and all of her friends gave a confident nod, while we had our own responses. “I’m ready,” replied Kira, excited. “I suppose,” I spoke unsure. “Eh, what the hell” replied Den in a dismissive tone. We all entered the castle and walked up the staircase and began walking through this long hallway. We walked until we reached another set of large doors. Twilight opened it up the doors slowly, making a large annoying creeeeaaak noise. We began to walk through the long room and noticed that each side of the walls had stained glass windows, each one with a weird image. There was one where this male unicorn and a pink winged unicorn were holding hooves and were floating together in a heart shaped position. Another one we passed had this weird looking monster, that had the parts of almost every animal on its body, and what was below it really puzzled me: It looked like it was Twilight and her friends, and it appeared that they were shooting beams of something at the monster. What the hell? Are Twilight and her friends famous in this world? Are they soldiers or heroes or what? We got to the end of the room, that’s when I got really surprised. At the end, was another winged unicorn sitting on a throne, but this one was different. It was much taller than Twilight, had white fur, wore glass gold slippers, a gold tiara, and had a sun mark on its flanks. What really got me was its mane and tail. They were sparkling, multi-colored, and flowing. I couldn’t feel a draft in the room, so how the hell were they flowing like that? Anyway, when we got the end of the room where the creature was, we all stopped. “Princess Celestia,” greeted Twilight. “Hello Twilight Sparkle,” she spoke in an elegant and feminine voice and her eyes sparkling. “My faithful student.” Just then, Twilight and the others bowed to her. Kira, Den, and I looked around and noticed that all 7 of them had their heads down. “Psst,” whispered Twilight. “Why aren’t you bowing?” Then I started to get the idea that we had to bow too, so all three of us bowed our heads, quickly. Well this is, odd. I still don’t understand why we have to bow. “You may rise,” the princess commanded. “Um, Princess,” Twilight spoke nervously. “I don’t mean to jump into discussion, but is there a reason why you called us up? And why you told me to invite my new friends?” “Yes, there is a reason for that Twilight. I’d like to speak with them,” she answered, and then she turned her attention towards me and my friends. She gave us all an unsure look. “Hi,” I said, casually. “Please, state your names,” she asked. The white creature leveled a hoof at me. “Starting with you.” “My name’s Vincent Chambers,” I began. “I’m Den Michaels,” Den responded next. “And I’m Kira Valentine,” Kira finished. “Pleased to meet you all, surely you know who I am?” she asked. Twilight mentioned that this one was named… Celestia? “You’re Princess Celestia?” I asked, hoping I didn’t screw up her name. “Correct,” she responded with a smile, “Twilight has told me all about you three.” “Seriously?” “Yes, but she also mentioned that you had… strange behaviors.” “And?” “I hope you don’t mind if I ask you some questions?” she asked. “Shoot,” I replied. “Firstly, where did you come from?” she asked, nonchalantly. “Out of town,” I replied. “Where exactly?” she pressed. “Really far out of town,” I replied again, trying to sound convincing. “I see,” she said, sounding unconvinced, “Second, why did you come to Ponyville? Vacation? Reunion? Research?” “Um-” “D. All of the above,” Den covered. “Princess, what’s with all of these questions?” interrupted Twilight. “Yeah, I’d like to know too,” added Dash who sounded suspicious. “You’ll soon see. Be patient,” she responded. Then she looked at me again. “Lastly, where are your cutie marks?” I froze there for a minute I couldn’t tell her that we didn’t get any, or where we came from otherwise she might get doubtful. I felt like it was over. “I-I got nothing,” I replied. “Vin…” Kira started nervously. “I see. Then you’re the one whom my sister encountered last night. Her description of you seems to fit perfectly,” she said. Sister? Last night? Wait, how would she know? Is she really the sister of Luna that Twilight was talking about? The pieces were fitting together: Twilight sending a letter to the princess, our encounter with Luna, her saying she had a sister, and the letter saying to come and visit her. “Princess, what are you talking about?” asked Twilight who seemed afraid. “You’re Luna’s sister? The one Twilight sent a letter to?” I asked. “Twilight,” spoke Celestia in a firm voice. “I think you should know that these three are in fact, not ponies.” Everyone in the room gasped at this discovery. The three of us were especially shocked to see the princess figuring it all out without actually meeting us. What did Twilight write in that letter? “Well, I guess our goose is cooked,” sighed Den. “Wait, what are you talking about? Of course we’re ponies,” I lied, nervously. “You’re a terrible liar, Vincent,” Celestia chuckled. Her small smile disappeared and return to its more serious face. “I know one of my subjects when I see one and observing your strange behavior, lack of cutie marks, and odd names-” Really, our names are odd?!? “I believe it’s safe to say, that you three, are not from this world.” “What?” asked Twilight, sounding afraid. Shit, it’s all over. Everyone had shocked faces; especially Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack. “Vincent, is this true?” Twilight asked, still surprised. “Yeah, it’s true,” I sighed, seeing no point in hiding it anymore. “Then what in the hay are you?!” demanded Rainbow Dash who had a stern yet confused face. “We’re…” “We’re?” asked Pinkie. “We’re humans” I admitted. I was expecting a loud Whaaaaaaaat?!?! From the group; but instead of expressions of fear, they showed expressions of confusion, except for Pinkie. “Humans, in Equestria?!? This is unbelievable, this is scary, this is- wait! What are humans?” Pinkie asked. Every one, except for the three of us, all stared at the princess expecting an answer. The princess looked the most baffled out of all of them. “Sorry to say, but I don’t know of this species known as humans,” she admitted. “Seriously?” asked Applejack. “I’m just as confused as you all are. Perhaps our newcomers would like to give us a little more detail?” suggested the princess, and everyone stared at us. “Ok,” I started. “Let me explain.” One Brief Explanation about Humans Later “And that’s basically what humans are, what WE are.” Everyone’s eyes in the room were wide from the explanation, all I did was briefly describe to them what humans were and how they acted. Then again, I would have the same reaction if creatures from another world came to my place and I had no idea what they were. “Oh my,” Fluttershy whispered softly. “Well, you humans sound like a very… interesting type,” Celestia responded, sounding unsure. “Yeah, well…,” I replied. “Is there anything else I should know about your species, like human history?” asked Celestia. “Well, that’s a little harder to explain, and it might take a while to tell you our whole history.” “Yeah, like a LONG time, besides everything you want or need to know is on the internet these days,” added Den. But that just gave everyone puzzled faces. “Don’t ask,” Den added hastily. “Anyway, there’s another question I’d like to ask you” Celestia said. “And that is?” “Why are you here?” she asked, rather calmly. “Huh?” I asked, not understanding the question. “And how did you get here?” “I don’t really know why we’re here,” I answered honestly. “Perhaps you’re all undercover spies who are trying to figure out our secrets and tell your army back home or something,” butted in Rainbow Dash cynically. “Why would we do that? Besides, we’re not even old enough to enlist; we’re like 16 years old.” “Rainbow Dash, let them speak,” ordered Twilight. Rainbow Dash grunted and then stepped, or flew, back. I turned back towards the princess. “As for the second question, we didn’t come here on purpose. I was just reading a book and then-“ “Wait,” interrupted Celestia, “What book?” “I don’t know. It was big, brown, had a golden horse’s head on it,” I explained. “I see.” “What?” “Legend has it that somewhere in this kingdom, there is a magic spell book, written by an anonymous author, which can take anypony to any place on any world. But I’ve heard only two copies of this book exists. Who’d think that one of them was in your world?” she explained. “Where’s the other book?” I asked. “I don’t know,” she replied, “But, I suggest that you and your friends should find it quickly.” “What?” I asked. “Personally, I wouldn’t mind having you here, but I can’t say the same about my subjects. If they found out a new unknown species has entered my kingdom, there’s no telling how they’ll react.” “Yeah, I suppose that would be best,” I replied. “Is that why you asked me if I trusted you?” asked Twilight. “Just so you can get me to help you find this unknown book?” “Yeah, sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. You seemed like a smart pony and you were the first one I met. So I figured that if I told you right away, you would freak out and not want to help me. I needed to get your trust first, so you can help us, so that we could go home,” I replied truthfully. “So, just to be clear, you came here by accident and just want to find a way home?” she asked. “Yeah, I just want to find that book and get back home, nothing more and nothing less,” I answered clearly. “So, do you trust me?” It went silent for a while and Twilight was looking at the ground. My guess was that she was thinking real hard about her answer. She rose her head, stared into my eyes and sighed. “Vincent, in all honesty, I don’t think I can trust you yet,” she finally answered. “Huh?” “After all, I just met you yesterday, and I almost know nothing about you. Aside from the fact that you’re a species I’ve never heard of, and that you prefer the night rather than the day.” “He prefers the night to day?” asked Pinkie. “That’s just weird.” “Pinkie!” hissed AJ. “Its fine,” I replied, “So I guess we’re on our own then.” “You didn’t let me finish,” spoke Twilight. “Finish then,” Den replied impatiently. “I said “I can’t trust you”. But I will help you.” “What?” I asked confused. “Apparently, getting back to your world is important to you; and your species sound somewhat interesting, something else I could study. I’d like to know more about humans. So if I help you, will you tell me more about your kind? More than you just explained?” she asked sounding kind of excited. I gave her a simple nod as an answer. I was a little surprised, she would help me search if I told her stories about my species in exchange. I didn’t know whether to feel elated or creeped out. Either way, I now know that she’ll help me out. “WHAT?! Are you serious Twilight?” exclaimed Rainbow Dash who sounded betrayed. “He’s not even the same species! You can’t help him; you’ve only known him for a day. Who knows what he’ll do to you!” “Look, they just want to go home. So I’m willing to help them out,” defended Twilight. “Forgive and forget. Get over it Dash,” responded Den casually. Rainbow Dash let out a small growl of anger and snorted smoke out of her nostrils. She then sat on the ground and pouted, seeing how she couldn’t convince Twilight to not help us. I turned my attention back to Celestia. “We just need to figure out a way to get back to our world, we’ve all got things to do. So, would it be alright if we stayed in Ponyville until we can find another way home?” I asked Celestia. “Very well. Until you can find that spell book or find an alternative route home for you and your friends, you may all stay in Ponyville,” she announced. We all heaved a sigh of relief. “However,” she started. “I mentioned that it would be best if you kept your species a secret from other residents so that they won’t panic and wreak havoc,” she reminded us. “Yes?” “Also, if you do something that could put this entire country to war, you and your friends will be punished,” she warned. Should I be concerned when she said “punished”? “Punished?” Kira asked, sounding scared. “I make no promises; but I assure you that nothing like that will happen,” I responded. “Good, now I suggest that you start your search now, for your journey home, has only begun,” she ended. I gave her a nod, turned around, and started to make our way out of those big doors. “Oh, and Den,” she called out. “Yeah?” he asked “Try not to crash into anymore roofs while you’re here” she joked. Den felt irked at that reminder, and then gave Twilight and stern look. Twilight just gave a guilty smile back. “Thanks for ratting me out like that, Sparkles!” Den complained. “Excuse me?” asked Twilight, feeling insulted by the nickname. There was no way, I would do anything to put this country to war, and no way would anyone else know about our species. I’m going to make sure that I get me and my friend’s home safely. We’ve all got our own things to do back at home: Den has a match coming up, Kira told me she was still working on a painting, and I had to pay a visit to someone. So yeah, this really was the beginning of our journey. Before we left, I turned around and faced the princess again. “Before I go,” I started, “I have something to ask you, princess.” “Yes?” “How is your mane flowing like that?”
Vincent and the portalHey, I’m Vincent Chambers. There’s not a whole lot to my life. I’m just a simple school boy trying to survive. Everywhere I look; it seems that the world I live in never seems to change. I live in California, and let me tell you, it’s not always sunny and bright. It’s not where your dreams come true, to me it’s all filth. The town I live in is small and stifling. I felt trapped about where I live; the school was bleak, the sky was gloomy, and the people were just boring. Nothing exciting ever happened, until that one day. One day, it changed everything; my entire perspective about life, as I know it, changed because of that one day. I mysteriously came across this strange mystic book filled with spells. So I read it and, out of nowhere, it transports me and my friends to another realm. Another strange, bright, and colorful one; filled with ponies! I know it sounds crazy but hear me out. I should probably discuss how it all began; but first a little about me. I’m 16 years old, I’m a junior at Sacramento high school, and I live with my aunt Val. She’s just your typical aunt, looking out for you and making sure your safe and that you have a bright future. She’s been looking after me since my mom’s in the hospital, she’s been sick for 6 months now. I really hope she’s ok by the end of this. I also like to listen to rock music and I have long dark brown hair. One of my favorite bands is A Day to Remember and my hair is about shoulder length and is kind of messy. Anyway, my alarm clock went off one day, and I was just getting ready for school. “Vincent, you’re going to be late for school”. my aunt said to me. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine”. I replied. “You want breakfast?” “No thanks, I’ll just get something there”. “Do you have your keys?” “Yeah”. “Ok, have a nice day!” “Thanks, bye”. I waved goodbye to her, grabbed my blue jacket, got on my motorcycle and headed to school. I also love to drive motorcycles. Once I got my driver’s license, I decided might as well get my motorcycle license. So I passed the test and purchased a motorcycle with the money I make from doing chores around the house. I ride just a standard black motorcycle, it’s not really special, but whenever I ride it I feel relaxed. I made it to school, just in time. I parked my bike and headed into the school. It looked the same as ever dirty, depressing, and just pathetic. I walked in and strolled through the hallways. I was also wearing my headphones listening to The Downfall Of us All by A Day to Remember, trying to block out all of the outside noise. Everywhere I looked there was always a couple making out or a kid getting beat up or something, some school. But, I suppose it’s not all bad. I made it to my locker, and my personal thoughts immediately went away when I felt a sudden hand on my shoulder. I looked over and saw that it was just Den, my best friend. “Hey, what’s up, fool?” he asked jokingly. “Dandy until you showed up.” I joked back. His full name is Den Michaels. Den and I have been best friends ever since I moved here. We went to the same middle school and now we’re at the same high school. He wore an orange shirt, had short light brown spiky hair, pale flesh skin, and had one of those flashy attitudes where it’s just too much for you. He also had a silver stud earring on his left ear and tattered jeans. “Hey, how was your match last week?” I asked him. “I’ll admit, it was difficult, but I pulled through until the man couldn’t stand". “In other words?” “I won”. he answered while wiping the tip of his nose with his thumb while giving one of those cocky smiles. Den is a young mixed martial artist at the school. Our school doesn’t have a mixed martial arts class, but sometimes after school he would hit the gym and practice some of his fighting moves. Then sometimes at the end of the week or so he would go to a stadium for young fighters and throw down. He’s even taken down guys that were three times his weight. Even though we're the same age, Den’s the strongest guy I know, especially when he can attack you with different fighting styles. He has this dream to become the youngest mixed martial artist there is and maybe fight in the UFC. To me, that sounds like a death wish. “That’s great.” I replied. “Yeah, so where were you?” he asked, curiously. “Studying.” “Again? Dude, you got to get out more. Don’t you want to see the world, explore what’s out there?” “You’re asking the wrong guy.” As we were joking around, the bell rang and we had to run to our first class, Coordinated 2 science. In other worlds, life science. We made it in time and took our seats as we watched the other kids walked in. Then I spotted another one of my friends who just walked in the class, named Kira Valentine. She was tall, wore an emerald green coat along with short shorts, had long luscious blonde hair, slender figure, and had bright pink eyes. Kira was a very close friend. I only met freshman year, when Den and I were new at the school and she was a fellow loner and decided to join us, and so far we’ve had a very stable friendship. She’s like one of those friendly people, who always want to stick by you. She walked past me and Den and took her seat. Pretty soon our teacher, Mr. Jones, came in and told everyone to sit down. Then he spent to whole period talking about the life cycle about several insects and what their purpose in life was. Then when the bell was about to ring, he announced that we had to do a project. “Alright class, this week you’ll have a project due. You have to create a poster for a life cycle for an insect. It can be any insect, no arthropods or anything else. You need step-by-step drawings, along with facts written underneath each graphic, and you’ll need to color it. You’ll need three in a group and it shouldn't take long at all. So pair up.” he directed us, and then sat down at his desk. Everyone got up and searched for partners. Den and I paired up, no surprise, and we had to find someone else. But before we had a chance, the bell rang and every one ran out. Luckily, Den and I didn’t get trampled. It was break now so we needed to find another partner. We were walking towards the lunch tables and then we saw something. We saw a group of guys harassing and hovering over Kira, getting in her face, grabbing her backpack, and trying to kiss her. The tall leader who wore a red jacket that was bothering her was Gamble, the school thug. Alongside him we’re his goons, Jake and Jack, who mostly wore brown and purple. The other different was that one was fat and the other skinny with his hair in his eyes. Gamble would do anything to get his way. Selfish and greedy, if you ask me he’s more like a dragon than a human. I decided to go over there and do something, i hated it when guys badger my friends. I felt like I had to help her out, she always goes through with this kind of crap everyday. Where almost every guy tries to hit on her. I grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. “Hey, Gamble leave her be.” I demanded. “Hey, guys it’s biker boy! You think you’re s tough with your motorbike?” he tried to tease. “No, why would a motorcycle make me seem tough?” I questioned, “Look just leave my friend alone.” “Hey now, I was just asking if she wanted to be my partner for the project.” he responded. “It looked like you were molesting her.” “Well I wasn’t. So why don’t you screw off.” “You’re so pathetic, Gamble, instead of doing the work yourself or getting your own money, you have to rely on others to give you what you wish.” “What you say?” He said while poking me in the chest. But I took no notice to it. “You think you can say that to me? huh?” he said. Then out of nowhere, he punched me right dead in the shoulder. The impact made me fall on the floor, it started to hurt a lot. “You think you can say that to me!?” Then he started to kick me repeatedly. Right in the stomach, it hurt like hell. “Hey, that’s enough!” warned Den who stepped in. “I can take him!” said Jake, the fat one who wore the brown jacket. He approached him and attempted to punch Den. But when he threw his punch, Den caught his arm, and then elbowed one of his triceps which made Jake squeal a bit. He then turned him around and restrained Jake’s arm behind his back. Then he shoved him towards Jack, the other one who was wearing the purple jacket, who tried to approach him. They both fell on the floor defeated. Then Den looked at Gamble who was still kicking me. Gamble saw what Den did to his thugs, but he wasn’t intimidated by him. “Is this going to be a problem?” asked Den. “You don’t scare me. Just because you defeated my friends, doesn’t mean……” But right in the middle of the sentence, Den punched Gamble in the chest bone, knocking him on the floor. Den went over and helped me up, I felt pretty beat up. Gamble got up and stared at us both. “You won’t be so lucky next time.” he said. And he and his friends ran off, while he was holding his chest to make the pain stop. “Bastard.” I commented. “I know, right. But c’mon, you do you have to run off your big mouth like that?” asked Den. “You ok?” Kira said, as we turned to her. “I think I’ll live.” I replied to her. “Well thanks. You know, it’s been like this a lot. Every time some guy spots me they just have to annoy the hell out of me.” continued Kira. “That’s how some guys react when they see a pretty face.” said Den smiling, and then I elbowed him. “So what did they really want?” I asked. “Aside from helping him on the project, he was asking me to be his girlfriend.” “What?” “Don’t worry, Vin, I’d rather be dead than to be with him. The only boys I need are right in front of me.” she said refereeing to me and Den. I looked down at her feet, and noticed that there was a blank white sheet near. I decided to pick it up and hand it to her. I turned it around and noticed that there was a bright green field and a village with small houses painted on it. Kira is an amazing artist. She can paint from using water colors to acrylics to oil; she’s really talented at what she does. “Another masterpiece?” I asked. “Yep, who else could paint that?” “This is your best one yet.” commented Den. “Thanks, Gamble knocked it down while he was asking me to work with him. Are you sure you’re ok, he kicked you pretty hard.” she asked showing concern. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” I replied. “Ok, since I turn him down and that I don’t have a group yet, and if you guys don’t have a third, could I join?” “I think the answer is pretty obvious, Kira.” I responded. “Right, I think break is about over.” And right when she said it the bell rang and everybody went to class. Pretty much the rest of the day we were just walking around from class to class talking about the project, the day seemed to last forever. We decided that the insect we were going to do our project on is a Dragonfly, plain and simple. So after school we would all meet at my house to get started on the project. After a few more classes the bell finally rang and everyone was going home. I walked out of the building and head towards my motorcycle in the parking lot. I hopped on, strapped on my helmet, and started the engine. It made that loud starting sound and was ready to go. I lifted both of my feet off the ground and began to move. I rode out of the parking lot and started to ride home. Sometimes, as I was riding, I would ponder to myself why I’m still here? The world I live in is too bland; I know we can do better. As I was riding down the road with the wind blowing around my body, I started to think about my mom. She’s been in the hospital for a while now, I just hope that her illness gets cured soon, and she can come home. I don’t even know what happened it was Saturday, I was watching cartoons, my mom was making eggs and bacon, and then out of nowhere she collapsed. I really don’t know what happened, I called an ambulance and they took her away. My aunt told me she had some sort of attack, I can’t remember what, and said that she was going to take care of me until she felt better. So my aunt moved in and has raised me ever since. I finally made it to my house and parked my motorcycle in the garage. Then I went inside to get started on the project. I told my aunt Den and Kira were coming over and she seemed fine by that. I ran upstairs and looked through the bookshelf in my room to see if I had any on insects. I only had about one or two books on bugs but they were mostly kid books and told very little information. I searched for 5 minutes but no luck. I heard a car driving up from outside. I looked out my window, and noticed that Den parked his car next to the sidewalk. Both he and Kira stepped out and were walking towards the door. The door then knocked and I heard my aunt calling me. “Vincent, your friends are here!” she informed me. I came downstairs, greeted them, and lead them upstairs into my room getting ready to start the project. “Your room’s kind of messy. Same as always.” said Kira. “Sorry about that. Just can’t find any books on insects. The only thing that’s close is these children books.” I told them, then showed them the two books. One of them was an Eyewitness book on insects and the other was Insects Everywhere book. “Well, whatever works.” said Den. I removed my laptop from my desk and cleared everything else off, leaving a big space. “I think this is where we should draw the diagram, and write in facts beside it.” I started to explain. “I can get started on the Dragonfly?” asked Kira. “Sure, and I’ll see if I have any other books.” I said. And so Kira got to work and began to draw the Dragonfly, while Den was just standing around practicing his punches. “Hey, Den, quit fooling around. We need to work on the project”. I said to him. “Alright fine, I got another match in a matter of days and I want to make sure my blows will be hard enough”. He replied. “You’ll be fine”. “You know, sometimes I wish for a better challenge. Maybe fight a professional fighter that’s actually in the UFC.” “You call it a challenge, I call it suicide”. “Pfff”. “Why do you challenge a heavy fighter anyway?” I asked him “Why is it that you ask questions you already know the answer too?” he responded. “I know that, but is there like some complicated motive you have behind it all?" “I have my reasons”. That was all he said. “Well, I’ll have to ask what your reasons are later, because we got to….” I then noticed something on my bookshelf. One of the books on it was suddenly sparkling. I grabbed it and pulled it out of the shelf to look at it more. I looked at the cover, and it seemed to have a horse’s head on it. “Vincent, I didn’t know you like horses”. commented Den. “What? This isn’t my book. I didn’t even know I had this book”. I replied confused. Then Kira stood up and walked towards us. “Hey did you find any other books on…….what’s that?” she asked. “Some kind of book I found”. I opened it up to see what lies within it, all that was there were a bunch of words pressed together, as if they weren’t even spaced. “This some kind of old timey book?” asked Den “I’m not sure. And I highly doubt there’s any information in here about dragonflies.” I answered sarcastically. “Hey, look at that”. pointed out Kira. There were some words written down, but these words were glowing brightly, brighter than the others. I read aloud what the words said, that turned out to be my big mistake. The words read, Lleps Latrop Cigam. I was so curious enough to actually read them aloud. Right when I spoke those words, a strange portal appears out of nowhere and is now in my room. I guess curiosity did kill the cat. We all stared at it with awe and fear. “What the hell?” Den asked with many confusion. The portal was large and violet, many swirls and lightning bolts is what it was made up of. “How did…you do that?” asked Kira. “I don’t know. I don’t like the looks of it”. I answered. We all decide to get a closer look so we all leaned forward and squint our eyes to see if there was anything. But, we got too close, and the portal pulled us in.We were suddenly swirling round and round. We didn’t scream, we were all too speechless of what’s happening, we didn’t know how to react. I then saw a light ahead, and it’s not the light we’re all familiar with. When we got closer to the light, I felt that we all hit something hard. I felt like we were lying on the ground. I felt motionless. I then opened my eyes slowly, my vision was blurry. But from what I could make up of, it seemed we were all in a forest or somewhere with nature. My vision finally cleared, and noticed that we were on some kind of path. “Oh god, my head hurts”. I said to myself. I rubbed my head with my hand, but something felt different. My hand felt flatter than normal, and I couldn’t feel my fingers. I pulled my hand down in front of my face to get a better view, only I realized…….I didn’t have a hand anymore. Instead, I had a hoof! “What?” I raised my other hand, only to see that it also became a hoof. I was really starting to freak out now. I looked to my right, and noticed a small pond nearby. I then began to crawl towards the pond. When I made it, I looked down into the water to see my reflection. And, I was horrified; to see that……I was no longer a human. I suddenly had a snout or muzzle or something and noticed that I had a blue coat. “What the hell is going on!!!” I shouted I became a small horse! I’m not screwing around, I am now a horse! I turned around and saw that my friends were waking up as well, only to see, that Kira and Den have also became horses. They woke and stared at each other and saw what they are now, they were both paralyzed with fear knowing what they have become. Kira then turned her head towards me with a scared expression on her face. “Vincent?.....” she said scared . “Guys, don’t lose your minds, but I think that portal took us somewhere. And turned us all into equines”. I told them. Shocked with this new reality, Den only said one thing, “Bullshit”……
The strange new place We all just sat there in silence, trying to come to terms over the sudden realization that we were now small horses. Normally I don’t get easily scared. Not even the time we went to Knott’s Scary Farm and Den’s little cousin pissed his pants when a guy dressed as a zombie chased after him around Camp Snoopy. This however was on a whole different scale, there was no chance to hide the fear. I started to feel the rest of body with my…hooves. My sense of touch was a distorted but I was sure that I felt my new fur covering me. “How did this happen?” asked Kira, her face twitching with small spasms. “I have no idea. I just read the book out loud, and suddenly THIS!” I replied. “I can’t fight like this! I have a match to do and I can’t fight without my fists” Den said, fear in his voice over the loss of his hands. “This is messed up man!” “Alright just calm down, let me think!” I yelled in response, trying to stop my friends from having a nervous breakdown. I limped back over to the pond to get a better look at myself. Looking at my reflection, I noticed a few things. First off my fur, rather my entire body, was entirely blue, like the jacket I was wearing when I spoke the words. My mane looked like the same as my hair had been; long, dark brown, and messy. My eyes were bigger than my head, which struck me as the second oddest thing that happened to my body. The one thing that really surprised me was a horn sprouting of the top of my head. Giving it a few pokes it with my hoof, it was clear that the horn was part of me, very attached to my forehead. “What?” I said to myself. “What? Why do I have a horn on my head?” I asked myself, expecting my reflection to give me an answer. Then I turned at Kira and Den who were still just sitting there and staring at each other. “Why is there a horn on my head?” I asked again. “That must mean you’re a unicorn, Vin” answered Kira. “WHAT!?” As soon as she answered, I heard chuckling come from Den who was trying to hold in his laughter. “You’re a Unicorn.” Den chuckled, "What's wrong, feeling horny?" “That’s impossible, unicorns don’t exist.” I said, pounding my hoof on the the ground. “Well, maybe in this world, they do.” said Kira. I looked up again to stare at my friends as they looked like cartoonish versions of themselves, except as horses. Kira still had her blonde hair, in a mane and tail and her coat was emerald green just like her jacket and her eyes were still pink . Turning to Den, he still had his spiky brown mane and tail, and orange fur except I noticed something off about Den. Something was attached to his sides, turning my head, I noticed he had wings attached, bird wings. “Hey, Den...” I said, and pointed a hoof to his body. Den looked down and saw the wings. Then they were spread out, showing a huge wingspan. “Whoa, am I a Pegasus?” asked Den. “Looks like it.” answered Kira. She looked down at herself and noticed that she didn’t have any wings or a horn; she was just a normal horse. “How come you have a horn, he has wings, and I don’t have anything?” whined Kira. “I don’t know, but we better find out where we are, and it’d be better to not draw any attention to ourselves.” I suggested but Den was too interested in his new wings to pay attention to what I was saying. “Whoa, these things are cool” he said, admiring himself. He tried flapping his new appendages and pretty soon he was hovering in mid-air. We stood there, jaws dropped in amazement, even Den himself. “Hey, I’m flying. Sort of.” he said, wobbling in mid-air. Unfortunately, that’s when things went wrong, incredibly wrong. When he was just a few second in the air, he started to swerve, buzz, and jerk around in zigzag pattern. “How do you work these things!?!” he screeched, flying around like a ricocheting bullet. Suddenly, he took off like a runaway train, flying high up into the sky. We watched him tear through clouds, attempting to control his flight pattern but Kira and I could tell he had no idea what he was doing. All we could do was watch in horror and listen to his panicked screams. All of a sudden he stopped high up in the air, frozen in space, after three seconds of his abrupt stop, he plummeted straight down and hit the ground in the distance. We could both hear the resulting impact. “Smooth.” I said to myself, rubbing my new hoof against the side of head. “I think we should go after him.” Kira suggested. “Alright, then we can ask someone where we are.” I replied. We both got up and trotted, yeah I said trotted, to wear Den had fallen. It wasn’t easy walking on all fours, actually it was really difficult. We trotted for about 10 minutes and still couldn’t find Den. “Where do you think he landed?” asked Kira. “I don’t know, I think he’s up ahead somewhere.” I answered. “I’m really starting to worry. Not just about Den, but also about where we are.” added Kira. “So am I, so let’s just find Den, figure out where we are and then we can find a way to get back home.” I said. “But what if we can’t get home? What if we’re stuck here for a while? This doesn’t feel right, this form I’m in.” Kira panicked, the depth of the situation starting to sink in. “Don’t worry, I’ll figure out what’s going on. How we became this, and how we can turn back. Trust me, I don’t like this either.” I said, in truth I’m calming her down to keep myself calm. Wandering for 10 more minutes, we finally saw something come into view. In the distance, we saw a small little village with little houses. What struck as odd though was the village looked like the exact same one in Kira’s painting we saw earlier. As soon as we saw the village, we stopped and surveyed what were looking at. “Kira.” I said. “Yeah?” she responded. “Doesn’t that look like the exact same village in your painting?” “Yeah.” she answered softly. We stared at it for while, trying to soak in how Kira’s painting was so identical to this mysterious village, was this just a coincidence? Or was this something more? We decided to just walk in and find Den but when we could enter the village, you wouldn’t believe what the residents were. They weren’t humans, no, they were horses, just like us. Everywhere we looked, everyone was a small horse, each one just trotted by us without a second glance. That’s when I suddenly realized why we were turned into horse in the first place. “Well, that explains it...” I said out loud to myself. Each one of these horses was small in size but what was really strange was how they were all multicolored. Most of the were either red, blue, purple, orange, pink, teal, grey, green, tan, yellow. It looked like they all came trotting out of a box of crayons. The strangest thing is that most of them had a tattoo on their flanks. “Hey Vin, you noticed that each one of these horses have tattoos on their flanks?” Kira asked, her eyes following one horse with trotting down the street. “Yeah, it’s weird” I replied, “Let’s just find Den so we can get the hell out of here.” We continued down the street until we saw bunch of horses starting to gather around one particular house. They were just standing outside, looking in. I noticed a huge gaping hole in the roof. From the look of it, the house was like a giant tree but with windows and a balcony near the top branches. No doubt the residents were wondering what happened when suddenly got an idea. “I think Den might be there” Kira pointed out as we both headed over towards the treehouse. ___________________________________________________ Man, I was NOT used to this new body I’m in, I have no idea on how to control these wings, and now I crashed in an unfamiliar place where Vincent and Kira were nowhere to be seen. Of course it wasn’t easy to spot them, I was knocked out. It’s bad enough that I might miss my next fight, but now I’m stuck as a flying horse with no idea where I am; some luck. You know, I sort of knew that something was off about that book but I didn’t think it would’ve actually been magical. Why did Vincent have to read it aloud, him and his big mouth…Damn Vincent. My eyes finally started to open up, and it took a while for my vision to clear. Even though I couldn’t see, I could tell I landed on something hard. (Stop snickering.) Anyway, the surface felt really lumpy and I felt like I was lying upside down. My vision was slowly coming together although still blurry. I looked up and saw some sort of figure that was mostly purple and possibly looking down at me. I rubbed my eyes with my….uh…hoof, yeah. Anyways my vision finally began to clear but when it had, the strangest thing was looking back at me. It looked like a lavender horse with a purple mane with pink highlights and really big eyes with a horn on it’s head. The horse just stared at me with its confused expression. I looked up with the same face. “Uh……Hi” I muttered. “Hello. Um, who the hay are you?” it asked. I literally could not believe what I was hearing and seeing. A talking horse, I shit you not, it’s a talking horse; and with a rather girly voice. “What?” is all I could say. “I asked what your name was?” replied the mare. “WHAT?” I repeated. The horse sighed and said, “Maybe I should try a different approach. My name is Twilight Sparkle. And you are?” All I could do was laugh at that, c’mon, with a name like that, you know you can’t resist. “Um, is there something funny?” the horse asked. “No, nothing.” I replied, poorly attempting to hold back my laughter. “So then, what’s your name?” she asked. I finally stopped chuckling and told her my name. “My name’s Den.” I said. “Den? That’s a weird name” she said. “Weirder than Twilight Sparkle?” “Hey, you got a problem with my name?” she snapped. “No, no. But, can you answer me this? Where exactly am I?” “Well, you just crashed in my library. And now you’re lying upon a pile of books, which I just organized this morning.” I looked below me and noticed the books I was laying on. That explains why it felt so lumpy underneath me. Anyway, I got up from the pile and stood on my feet, or rather, my hooves now. I heard some footsteps coming down steps nearby. When I looked to my right noticed a staircase carved into the tree but also some kind of lizard standing on them. It was small, had purple scales and green spikes; I felt really lost. “Twilight, what was that noise?” the lizard asked. Its tone was a little more bass so it was obviously a male, so apparently there’s not just talking horses but talking lizards in this world as well. “It was just some Pegasus crashing in here, Spike.” The little lizard then turned his head and looked at me with a funny expression and then up at the hole in the ceiling. “And I thought Rainbow Dash crashes a lot” he said. I turned my head back towards the horse. “So, why do you have a baby lizard with you?” I asked casually. “Lizard?” it shouted, “I’m no lizard!” “He’s a baby dragon” the mare finished. “So why do you have a baby dragon with you, then?” “First, do you think you could tell me about why you put a hole in my roof?” “Sorry about that. I’m new to this” “New to flying, but you’re a Pegasus pony? Shouldn’t you have learned by now how to fly?” “Wait, what did you call me?” “A Pegasus pony, what else?” I knew I was a Pegasus, but a pony? That’s just too girly for me. “Whoa, wait a minute here. Now, before we go any further, let me clarify something here. You’re saying that I’m a pony?” I asked her. I mean being a horse was ok, but a pony? “Oh you’re one of those types. Then, you’re a Pegasus stallion shouldn’t you have learned by now?” she asked again. “Well, uh……” As I was trying to come up with an excuse, she turned to the side and started to put her fallen books away except with her horn. Apparently she has the power to levitate objects. Then again, she is a unicorn. But when she turned to the side, I noticed something. She had a weird tattoo on her flank. It looked like a pink six-sided star surrounded by a bunch of little stars. “Hey, what’s with that tattoo?” I asked. She turned and saw where I was looking. “You mean my cutiemark?” she asked but before she could for an answer, someone knocked at the door. She trotted over to the door and opened it up. _____________________________________________________________ Kira and I were waiting outside of the door waiting for someone to answer. As we were waiting, Kira and I were discussing how to handle the situation. “You sure this is where Den landed?” I asked Kira. “Well, I don’t see any other buildings with gaping holes on their roofs.” Kira replied. To be honest, it was a rhetorical question. “Kira.” I said. “Yeah, Vincent?” she replied in question. “Most of the residents here are horses, correct?” I asked “From the looks of it.” she answered. “And no one knows we’re actually humans in horse bodies?” “Pretty much, why do you ask?” “I think we should keep it that way” I told her, giving me a confused look in response. “What?” she asked curiously. “Well think about it. It’s pretty obvious there are no humans in this land we are in. Imagine, how these people would react if they spotted a small group of bipeds in their village” I told her. “I still don’t follow.” she said. “It’s kind of simple. You know how most alien movies work, right? Visitors come down, people are frightened by them, they automatically think they’re evil and try to kill them. Technically speaking, we would be like aliens to them”. “I’m still a bit confused” “What I’m trying to say is, let’s lay low about our species, until we can find someone we can trust.” I said to her, it finally seemed to click that time. “Oh, ok. Got it” she replied. The door finally opened up, and there on the other side of it was… a purple unicorn. I’m not really surprised by it at this point, seeing how so many citizens here are equines. It had the horn and everything;as well as a purple body, purple mane with pink highlights, and really big eyes. Kira gasped but remained still. “Hello, how may I help you?” the purple horse said with a girly voice, obviously it was female but when it spoke it made Kira jump a little, I’m guessing she wasn’t expecting it to talk. I didn’t either, but I just went with it. “Hello,” I said calmly, “we’re looking for someone who may have landed in your home”. “Oh...” she said in an irritated voice, “C’mon in.” We both walked in and closed the door behind us. “Does, THIS belong to you?” she said. We both looked to where she was pointing and saw Den standing in the middle of the room like nothing happened. “Oh, hey guys.” he greeted us as he trotted over. “Hey Den.” I replied. “What happened back there? Did you break anything?” worried Kira. “Nah I’m fine. And, I really don’t know. One minute I’m floating in the air next minute, I’m flying around like a hummingbird.” Den tried to explain. “It really is strange” said the mare behind us. We all turned and looked at her. “He should be able to learn to fly by now. Seeing how he’s a Pegasus pony.” “W-what?” I laughed. “Hey, I am not a pony. I’m a hu-“ Before Den could say another word, Kira quickly covered his mouth shut. “Den, I think we should keep our species secret” I whispered to him. “W-why?” he asked while moving Kira’s hoof out of the way. “Because, if they find out what we really are, they could just freak out and try to kill us.” I told him. “Oh, wouldn’t want that.” replied Den. “I’m sure none of us do.” commented Kira. We all turned back at the purple mare and continued our conversation. “What is he talking about?” asked the curious mare. “Nothing by it, anyway sorry about our friend miss…….” “Oh allow me to introduce myself, my name is Twilight Sparkle”. I literally could not believe what I was hearing. A talking purple unicorn is one thing, but having the name of Twilight Sparkle? C’mon. “What’s your name?” she finished. “I’m Vincent” I introduced. “Seriously?” she asked. “Is there a problem?” “Well, no offense, but you and your friends have really bizarre names. I mean Den, Vincent?” “Well that’s not very nice.” I joked. She let out a light chuckle and looked at Kira. “And what’s your name?” she asked. “My name is Kira” she introduced “Wow, that’s a pretty name” the mare complimented. “Oh sure, she makes fun of our names, but it’s HER that she compliments.” Den complained to me. “Anyway, we’re new to this area. Do you mind telling us where we are?” I asked her. “That’s simple, you’re in Ponyville. The friendliest place for all ponies” she stated proudly. I could hear Den trying to hold in his laughter, but who could blame him. Seriously, this place is called Ponyville? Th-That’s like calling my hometown “Humanville” or “Peopleland”. Even Kira was trying not to laugh, covering her mouth with her hoof and all. Twilight seemed to notice them silently giggling. “Is something wrong with your friends?” Twilight asked. “It’s nothing”. “Hey, you never did answer my question. What’s with the tattoo?” asked Den. “What?” asked Twilight. “Anyways,” I interrupted not really wanting to stay any longer, “Sorry to bother you, so we’ll be on our way now.” I said, making our way over to the door. The three of us started to walk out the door and leave. But when we went outside, something was out there waiting for us. Out of nowhere, a blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane just popped right in front of my face. “Hey, You!” it scolded with a very girly tomboy voice, “Who do you think you are, crashing into my friend’s house like that?” “I didn’t…..” “What’s happening?” a voice said. I looked behind and saw that a small purple lizard appeared, strange. “What’s happening is that this guy tried to smash Twilight's house!” the rainbow pony replied. “I didn’t do this.” I replied. “If you didn’t who did?” she demanded. “It was my bad.” Den stepped in, “I kind of lost control and crashed. Sorry.” “Sorry doesn’t cut it!” the rainbow Pegasus said. “Hey, at least nobody got hurt.” Den retorted. “You better hope nobody gets hurt, or else” she threatened while shaking her hoof. “Are you threatening me?” “What else am I doing?” “Look, miss….” “I’m Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in Equestria!” she proudly introduced. Again I could hear Den trying to hold in his laughs again. “Something funny?” She asked. “What is with the names in this town?” he accidently said aloud. “You think my name is funny? Well what’s your name?” “That’s not the issue" continued Den, "Look, Rainbow Slash, I told you no one got hurt. This is none of your business. So why don’t you piss off” “First off, that’s not my name. Second, anything with my friends involved is always my business”. “My God, nothing happened. So just go away.” Den demanded. “Are you trying to start something here, crash?” she scolded. “Maybe I am. What of it?” “You want to do this the hard way? We’ll do this the hard way!” “Bring it on, Rainbow bitch! I’m always up for a challenge!” Before they could start something serious, I stepped in and stopped it before it happened. “Will you two idiots just stop!” I shouted at both of them, breaking them apart. “He started it.” the rainbow one stated. “Well I’m ending it.” I stated. “What in tarnation is going on here?” a sudden southern accent said. We all turned to our left and noticed another small horse. This one was a bright orange, had a blonde mane, three apple tattoos on its flank, and wore a cowboy hat. This was getting ridiculous. “I heard a loud crash noise, then yelling and arguing and here I am. So can anyone tell me what’s going on here?” she asked. “It’s nothing, Applejack” the purple mare replied as she stepped outside “Just some crazy Pegasus flying through” Ok seriously. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack? These aren’t names, these are flavors of frozen yogurt. “It was just an accident.” Den repeated. “So you’re the one who crashed into Twilight’s house? Well, accidents happen.” she replied. “That’s all you have to say, AJ? He nearly crushed her and Spike” Rainbow interrupted. “Will you just let it go?!” Den yelled at. “Anyway, we got what we came here for, we’ll be off.” I told everyone around. “Fair enough, I need to figure out a way to fix that hole in my roof.” Twilight said as we all looked up. I kind of felt guilty, even though I’m not the one who caused it. The Kira leaned over and whispered something to me. “Hey, Vin, do you think we should help her out?” she whispered. “What do you mean?” I asked her. “Well, there’s the fact that there’s a hole in her roof that we sort of caused.” “It was mostly Den.” I replied. “Plus, maybe we can get to know her. And maybe once when we get her trust, we can ask her if there’s a way home for us.” she suggested. “I don’t know, Kira. What if she loses it when she finds out, remember what we discussed?” I asked her. Kira remained silent after that for a while. “Oh, right but it’s still worth a shot and we should at least help her fix her roof.” Kira said. “Alright, fine.” I agreed. We all turned around and faced Twilight. “Hey, if you want, we could help you fix your roof.” I offered. “Oh no, I couldn’t ask you to do that.” replied Twilight making a smile on her face. “We insist; it’s the least we could do. Besides it’s a good time to get to know each other a little more. Being new to town and all” added Kira. “Well, it’s always good to make new friends.” Twilight agreed. “Alright, where do we start?” asked Den. Something told me that Twilight didn’t really want Den around, mostly due to the uneasy expression on her face. “Oh…uh…I don’t really think…..” “I think we got this covered Den.” I finished for her. “O…K…,” he said, “Well what am I supposed to do? Got to do something to rid my boredom.” “Why don’t you come with me?” offered the cowgirl pony, “I could use extra help on the farm.” “Farm?” asked Den. “Wait, you’re asking HIM to help you, AJ?” asked Rainbow. “Why not, if he’s strong enough to bust through roofs, then I bet he’s strong enough to buck some apples” replied Applejack. “Yeah…wait, what?” asked Den, confused about Applejack's offer. “Follow me, partner”. Den followed Applejack while the obnoxious Rainbow Dash flew off, leaving Kira and I to follow Twilight into her house. Getting ready to fix her roof, it looked like we were off to a start, some kind of start.
