A New World and The Journey Home

     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.