A Strange Place for a Strange Man

”Am I home? N-No... am I at school?... no. Where am I? What is this pla-”

"This might hurt for just a second, but once that's over, you should feel at peace."

He hit himself on his left arm, to see if he was alive. And he was. It seemed like it hurt.

”Ow! Ok. So I'm not dead. But at the same time, I don't feel alive. Usually the world isn't so... dark.”

He stands up, because sitting down on your feet hurts a bit, after a little while.

"You said you really wanted to meet them, didn't you? Now's your chance."

”Argh! What are these images in my head?”

He starts walking a bit. But it's so dark!

He hears a growl behind him. The growl seemed oddly familiar, though. Kind of like a... manticore.

”You have got to be freaking kidding me!”

He starts running. He catches a glimpse of light from his right eye. He follows it, on the way there, he slips and falls to the ground, with a faceplant. He turns around, so he stares directly at the running manticore.

”Oh, you have got to be freakng kidding me!”

The manticore jumped to him, and stands with spread legs right above him, looking like he's about to eat him.

A familiar voice stopped the manticore from killing him.

”No! Bad manticore! Come over here, and tell me what you were just thinking about!”

”Was that... Fluttershy?”

"You said you really wanted to meet them..."

”Them! Am I really in Eque-”

”Oh are you ok?”

He was interrupted by an innocent, quiet voice. He looked at the direction the voice came from.

”Is this real?” He asked.

”Uhm... yes, at least I think so.”

She blushed and reached out for him, with her cute, yellow hooves. He grabbed it, but as he did so, he noticed something strange. He has hooves!

After he's up on his legs again, another flashback of a sort occures.

"I hear you've been obsessed with these... animal creatures for quite a while. Anything you want to tell me about them?"

”... hey! Hey! Are you ok?! You've been out for a few minutes.”

He shakes his head, and replies.

”Yes, I'm fine, but... I know you.”

”You do? How?... I never met you before, not what I remember that is.. I'm sorry..”

”No no no! Not like that. I've seen you before. You're Fluttershy, right?”

”Yes, I am.” She started blushing again, with a slight smile, as well.

He hugs her, and tells her ”Thank you for saving me, I'm really grateful.”

She hugs back, as a way of saying You're welcome.

”Let's get out of this place. I'm kinda freaked out, after experiencing this.” He said, partly shaking. More or less, because he's freezing, and shock.

The two of them starts walking, to Ponyville, where they are welcomed by a particular Blue rainbow-maned pegasus pony.

”Hey, Fluttershy! Wait up!”

Fluttershy looks back, and there she is. Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy speaks up ”Oh hey, Rainbow Dash. What have you been doing?”

”Oh, not much I was just doing some tri...”

She stared at the strange Earth Pony, standing besides Fluttershy.

”Erh... Fluttershy, who is that?”

”Oh him? He's a Pony I just saved from a manticore.. And here I was, thinking I had put that manticore in its place. I hope it has stopped now.” She looked pretty mad, which is rather understandable.

”Oh.. well hello there... erh... what's your name?”

Rainbow Dash asked.

”Oh, sorry. I totally forgot. I'm James.”

Rainbow Dash looked at me with wide eyes, like she'd just seen a ghost.

”James? That doesn't sound like a pony name.”

She stared at his flank. It was blank.

”I see you're a blank-flank, as well.”

He was kinda shocked, and yet, it was pretty obvious, seeing that he just got here.

Fluttershy started laughing a little bit. Sounded more like a slight squeek, though. But it is Fluttershy after all.

”I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude. It's just pretty funny to see a full-grown stallion with no Cutiemark.” And once again. The usual blush, except this time, she stared down at the ground and started digging in it with her hoof.

”Naw, it's ok. I don't mind. I just got here, anyway.”

They both looked at him, with question-marked expressions. It went on like this for a few minutes.

Rainbow Dash broke the silence.

”You just... got here?”

He looked towards her, and nodded slightly.

”How do you mean? You mean you just got to Ponyville, because that's not a very good reason, for being a blank-flank.”

Fluttershy agreed with her statement, with a clear nod.

”I'm aware of that. But I mean, I just got to Equestria. I don't know how, nor do I remember what had happened before I got here.”

James said.

”Well, let's go and find Twilight, she's smart. She might know something. Eggheads like her, knows everything.”

….

”What do you mean you don't know?! You're an egghead, you have to know!”

Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Twilight sighed.

”Rainbow, that's not how it works! How was I supposed to know, what had happened to him. All I can tell, is that he has some sort of amnesia or something.”

”Am-what?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Twilight facehoofed.

”Amnesia... memory loss.”

”Oh... now I get it.”

James just stood there, not knowing how to react to any of it. But he couldn't stop staring at Twilight's purple eyes, for some odd reason.

”Hey, you. Whoever you are!”

Twilight said.

”Oh yes, my apologies. I'm James.”

”James, huh? That doesn't sound like a-”

”I know, it doesn't sound like a pony name. Already heard that.”

He glanced towards Rainbow Dash, who glanced towards him and grinned quietly.

Twilight started speaking again.

”Ok. So do you remember anything? Just the slightest.”

”Well, I know, that I'm not actually a pony.”

Their expressions changed again. Silence fell over them.

Twilight broke the silence, though.

”You're not actually a pony? Then... what are you? You look exactly like a pony to me.”

”No... I'm not usually a pony. I was a human.”

”A human?”

Rainbow Dash asked, with confusion in her voice.

Twilight looked like she was about to ask the same thing.

”A human? I never heard of that race before. Wait just a second, I'll try searching through some of my books, to see if I can find anything about them.”

”I don't think you can. As far as I'm aware, we don't exist in Equestria.”

James said.

”Then how did you get here?”

”I have no clue.”

Fluttershy joined in on the conversation, after staying quiet for a while.

”In any case, I guess you can sleep at my house, until we find a place for you to live.”

That sounded pretty nice to him. He always found Fluttershy's house, to seem pretty cosy.

”Ok. So, let me know if you remember the slightest thing.”

Twilight said.”

”I will. Don't worry.

They parted ways. Rainbow Dash flew to Cloudsdale, Twilight went upstairs to the bedroom, and Fluttershy and James went onwards home.

When they got home, they didn't say much. Fluttershy just let him sleep on the couch. Of course she found a blanket for him, as well.

Fluttershy went uptairs, and spoke a single word, on the way up there.

”Goodnight!”

And james replied back with.

”Sleep tight!”

And thus, they fell asleep.