Chapter 2: Pastel?

Jonathan, Somewhere

Jonathan woke up in the oddest place that he had ever seen. The whole world was... Pastel? It looked like some cheesy animated show. This must be a dream, he thought. In fact, it most definitely is a dream. Might as well enjoy it while it's here.

He was lying on his back on a grassy field, staring up into the sky. He pushed himself up and tried to stand on two legs, but he wobbled and fell onto his back again. He held a hoof to his face-- A hoof? He was a little startled by this, but then he brushed it off. It was a dream, anyway. Anything could happen. So, he was a horse. He could walk on four legs. He rolled around and got up on four legs. He wobbled a little but steadied himself.

Now that he was steady, he tried to walk around a bit. Just like crawling, he thought. He trotted around for a bit before finally getting the hang of it. But all this time he had been looking forward. What did he look like? He held a hoof up to his face. It was a bright, neon green and it hurt his eyes a bit, so he put it back down again.

He decided to look around for some kind of body of water so he could see his reflection, maybe get a good inkling of what he really looked like. After looking around for a while, he found a small pond. He tentatively looked over in it and started back. He'd never seen a horse like that before, and especially not in that colour. He had... A horn? Really? His mane and eyes were a darker, olive green and the former took his eyes off the painful green the rest of his body was.

Now he really took a look at the grass around him. It was almost as bright as his coat. Was this whole world filled with bright, painful colours? He hoped for the best and explored to maybe find a road to some civilised area. This dream was starting to get boring. All there was to see hurt his eyes and he was quite alone. There were no animals, and only a few trees in sight.

He blinked, thinking about home. He blinked again. And again. He was still there. Normally this worked. He decided to try another tactic. You always come out of a dream right before you get hurt, right? And you don't feel pain. So, he turned toward a tree and galloped head-first at full speed toward the tree and rammed into it, shaking it a good bit. But he wasn't out of the dream. Instead, he was stunned. He thought he had a headache.

But that isn't right, he thought. You shouldn't feel pain in a dream. This was the oddest dream he had ever been in. And dreams made use of things you had thought about recently. Sleeping was about sorting things out. He was sure he had never seen any of this. There was only one thing to try left. He knew for sure that this would bring him out of this utterly dull dream.

Lifting up his right hind hoof, he slammed it into his manhood and yelped, falling back. Not a dream, not a dream, he thought frantically. He rolled around, panting until the pain subsided and he could think again. He contemplated this new revelation for a short while longer before coming to a terrible conclusion. His family was gone. His friends were gone. His Millie was gone. What would she do without him? He didn't need to think about it anymore. He didn't want to think about it anymore. He broke down, racked with sobs, and cried himself to sleep.

Twilight Sparkle, Library

Twilight was exhausted. She had woken up 3 hours ago, at 5 in the morning to start on her long list of duties. Unfortunately, she had forgotten to account for flight (but could you really call it flight?) time. Now she was already an hour off schedule.

She groaned. "How could I make such an obvious mistake?"

"Tomorrow we can have it fixed," said Spike hopefully.

"No, this is the only todo list that works!"

"Maybe we could ask Celestia to-"

"No! I have to show her that I'm competent as a Princess."

"Maybe we could hire someone."

"Most in Ponyville already have a job! What, do you expect that we'll just find some random jobless pony in the middle of nowhere?"

Spike shook his head.

Twilight sighed. "Let's just try and salvage what we can." She exited the Library and tried to fly off with Spike on her back. After trying a few times to no avail, she just speed-walked. Pulling out her list she read the next duty.

"Hey, I know that place!" Spike exclaimed enthusiastically. "That's by Sweet Apple Acres!"

After a bit of walking, Spike asked, "What about the path?"

"The path is longer," explained Twilight. "If we take the straight path, we'll get there more quickly." They walked for a few minutes on the field before coming across a bright green pony sleeping beside a tree.

"What's he doing here?" Spike asked loudly.

Twilight started to shush him, but then the pony stirred and his eyes opened. "H-huh?" His eyes adjusted to the light and he stumbled back, bumping his head into the tree. He reached up to rub his head. "Who are you?"

"The real question is, who are you?"

"Um... Jonathan Spirit."

"That's an odd name," said Spike, not rudely.

"Spike! That's rude," exclaimed Twilight. Spike lowered his head in apology.

"Where am I?" asked Jonathan.

"About half the way from Ponyville to Sweet Apple Acres."

"From where to where? Ponyville?"

"Yeah... Where are you from?"

"Um..." He thought for a bit, and then made a wild guess, hoping that they had some version of it here. "Uh... London?"

Spike cocked his head. He was about to ask what that was when Twilight interrupted him. "Oh, you mean Manedon? I was wondering where you got that accent."

"Yeah... Manedon."

"Do you have a job?"

"Um... I guess I'm looking for one."

Spike chuckled a bit and then clamped his mouth shut when Twilight glared at him sternly. "That's just perfect," she said. "I'm looking for someone who can help with my duties."

"Um, Twilight, we can't pay him," said Spike.

"Oh yeah... We can pull from the treasury, remember?" Spike nodded. "Okay then, how about, say, 50 silver bits per day?"

"Bits?" Jonathan asked.

"Sorry, forgot that you were from Manedon." Twilight does the calculations quickly, and says, "That'll be about 30 pounds."

"Hmm..." Jonathan wondered if Pounds here were the same as Pounds on Earth. They had Manedon though, so...

His thoughts were interrupted by Spike saying, "That'd make a good living here."

"I'll take it then. What do I need to do?" Jonathan was startled when a moderately long list levitated in front of Twilight. So, unicorns can actually use their magic, he thought. Twilight examined the list for a few minutes and then cleanly ripped a set of duties that would make both lists lenient for both her and Jonathan.

She handed it to Jonathan. "Ignore the times," she said. "I'll fix it tomorrow. I'll have Spike come with you'll know where to go and so the people will know that you're on official royal business." Before Jonathan could ask about "royal business," Spike was already walking away.

Jonathan caught up with Spike, albeit slowly (he wasn't completely used to this new body), and asked, "What's all this about royal duty?"

"Hasn't the news reached Manedon yet? Twilight's a Princess now. Didn't you see the wings?"

"Oh..." Jonathan said, not really understanding. Then he figured it out. That pony back there was a Princess, and he was working for her. "Oh!" They completed a few duties and Jonathan learned more about Ponyville. He saw a few unicorns practising magic and finally asked, "How does one do magic?"

Spike gaped. "You mean... You can't do magic?"

"No. I didn't really know magic existed in anything other than parlour tricks up to this point." This was true, like most of his statements so far.

"How- How do you not know about magic? You at least had one unicorn for a parent. Surely they know some magic?"

"No, not at all."

"Well, maybe you could learn from Twilight. It'll make these duties a tonne easier."

Jonathan nodded, and they walked into a building for one of the duties on the list. "So, what are we doing here?" he asked. And that's when the shaking started.