The World I've Come to Know

When I started to come to, I could hardly hear anything. It was as if something were covering my ears. Although, my vision was blurry, I could make out a small light, possibly a candlelight. It was very dark from what I could tell. I could hear someone yelling. Were they yelling at me? What were they saying? I don't know, It's so hard to tell what's going on right now. What happened to me? I was laying on the ground and I turned over onto my back to hear a faint "chinkling" sound. I didn't exactly know what it was and I didn't quite care at the time.

I rubbed my eyes to try and get them to adjust to me finally waking up...that and the dimness. I looked to my feet and realized that they were clamped to a ball and chain. Upon further inspection, I realized I was held captive in the dark brown and mossy walls of prison cell, or what I think is a prison cell. What I thought was a candlelight was a small window that hardly illuminated the room.

"Oh, so, you're awake. The Princess would like to speak with you," some tough-sounding voice said.

"Huh, wha?" I asked, not quite knowing what was going on. Did he say "Princess?" Where was I? I'm certainly not where I should be now. There's no form of monarchy in America. I looked around and only saw a white miniature horse in armor standing outside the cell I was in.

"Who said that?" I asked to...pretty much no one.

"I did."

I didn't exactly know who was talking, seeing that I was the only person around. I looked around my cell. Still no one. My eyes fixated on the miniature horse. I stood up and walked to it. It was not tall at all. It didn't even make it to my chest, as a matter of fact. I squatted down to it's height.

"I'm going to sound so crazy for asking this, but, did YOU talk to me?" I said to the horse, not expecting an answer.

"Yes, yes I did. The Princess will be here shortly," it responded. I stood up and backed away from it.

"Woah. Woahwoahwoah. You just talked," I said in disbelief.

"That would be correct," it said back to me. I tripped over the ball that I'm connected to and fell backward, then rubbed my eyes. It was still the horse.

"This is a dream, right? Yeah, got to be from whenever I passed out," I said, still not believing that the horse just spoke to me.

"I can assure you, creature, you are not asleep. You are, in fact, awake," the miniature horse said. It's talking once again! I must have gone insane!

After a long while of staring at the horse, I stood up and brushed myself off in disbelief, only to notice that some of my clothes were singed. I looked to my hands. They seem to be...paler? No...they looked more gray! My mind started racing as I searched the walls of the cell over and over again trying to calm myself. The minimal light of the window was at about my height and did it's job of illuminating the room enough for me to see. The mossy walls had obviously not been cleaned in a while. My mind was put off track by the sound of a door opening and someone walking down some steps.

Another horse walked into the room. The only difference between the armored one and this one is that is was much taller than the other one, had a flowing mane and...a horn...and wings...

"Oh, God, now there's more," I whispered to myself. I walked over to them so I could get a good look at them and they could do the same to me.

"Good afternoon, creature," the taller one said.

I raised my voice so they could hear me, "Afternoon...Alright...I can try my best to accept that there are two horses that are talking in...wherever it is that I'm in..."

The taller one looked at me strangely. "Yes, you are, in fact, in Equestria. I'm not sure where you hail from, but, here, we are all ponies and I'd like you to address us as such," the taller one said.

I sighed, "Okay, I can do that."

"My name is Princess Celestia. I am one of the rulers of Equestria. I control the sun," the taller one said.

"Yeah, okay...I'm Raymond..." I responded. Controller of the sun? What's that supposed to mean? I noticed a picture of the sun was on the backside of this "Princess Celestia", but, that doesn't necessarily help me out at all. "Any chance of you telling me why I'm in...a prison cell? Restrained to a ball and chain?"

She looked at me as if I should know exactly why. "Because you showed up to this world by means that I do not know..." she stopped speaking for a moment.

"Okay, that's understandable...assuming that by "this world", you mean the "Equine-ria"or whatever you said," I said, crossing my arms.

"Equestria," she said glaring at me.

"Gesundheit," I responded with a smirk. That made her look around in confusion; she obviously isn't familiar with that term. Judging by the look on the armored one's face, he didn't understand either. That caused my smirk to turn to a smile.

"Yes, Equestria. The land full of Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasus alike. We live in harmony here and I wasn't sure if you were a hostile."

I guess that's reasonable enough, I thought.

"The other reason was because you are a biped," she responded.

I don't know why, but, I found that hilarious. I started laughing. Hard. Much harder than I thought I would.

"Did that seem funny to you?" she asked, raising a brow.

"Oh, God, yes, it did! Because I am a biped, you threw me into jail? You're hilarious!" I exclaimed though fits of laughter.

That caused Celestia to looked extremely angry at that note. "Well, you have to understand that I have had a...past when it comes to bipeds! One of them threw Equestria into ruin!" she said, furious.

She calmed herself very quickly and formed a smirk that one could almost call evil formed on her face. "I came here to listen to you plead your case, now I'm thinking about leaving you here," she told me.

I silenced much quicker than I think I ever have in my entire life as all the blood in my face flushed down into my body. If I had seen myself, I'd have probably been more gray than I am now. "Nonono! No! You don't have to do that! I can plead my case!" I exclaimed, trying my hardest not to be stuck in this prison cell forever.

She sat down in a chair nearby, "Then, do it." I looked at her for a moment gathering my words together.

"Alright, I don't exactly know what happened. I was on my way home and it was raining hard. Lightning struck very close to me and I almost got hit by it. About 20 minutes later and a mental reassurance that I wouldn't get hit by lightning, I kind of saw what I'm going to call "Oblivion," seeing that I don't know what it was that I saw,"

For the next twenty or so minutes, I tried to describe every little detail that I saw on that acid trip before I passed out. Throughout my explanation, Celestia simply just looked at me, her expression didn't change at all and her gaze never faltered from looking at me.

When I finally finished explaining my...whatever the Hell that was I saw, I said, "I don't exactly know how, but, I think that teleported me here," I explained, looking at myself from a small puddle on the floor. Upon inspecting my reflection, my eyes widened probably two times their normal size. Something was very, very wrong. My hair had completely changed color from brown to solid white and my eyes were two different colors! One was blue like it should be, but, the other was blood red! I adjusted my glasses and looked to her. Her brow furrowed as she noticed my state of distress.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, looking me up and down.

"My hair isn't supposed to be white...It's supposed to be brown! And my eyes are supposed to be only blue! What happened to me?!" I said, shocked.

"So, you've changed?" Celestia asked, raising her brow, "Is that an effect of your teleportation method?"

I looked to her, calming down. "It would appear so," I sighed. "Although, I don't even know what my teleportation method was. I don't know quantum physics, I don't have the scientific capabilities to come here...How does one such as myself get to place like this?" We stared at each other for a while in silence.

Celestia was the one to break the silence. "So, you don't know how you managed to get to Equestria?" she asked.

"No...No, it seems I don't..." I said, looking to the floor. I kept my gaze there for a long while until I heard Celestia lean forward in the chair she was in.

I studied her a bit, looking at her form and how she could do so much more than I could. "Well, eh, Princess Celestia, was it? Seeing that you have a horn and wings, I can only assume that you are part uh...what was it? Unicorn and Pegasus? I'm not too up-to-date with mythology as it is," I asked.

"I believe the term you're looking for is "Alicorn", and yes, I am one of them. I can use magic and fly," she explained, taking a more modest tone.

"Well, I can't do either of those things. I can just use brute force. That's it. But, I hardly resort to using that anyways, seeing that I hardly go outside other than to work. I have a tendency to recluse myself," I said.

She looked up to me, a bit concerned. "Isn't that a bit...unhealthy?" she asked.

I rolled my eyes, "Of course it is. I just hate every single human being on Earth! With very few exceptions!"

She looked at me with a confused look. "Hoo-man?" she asked, "Earth?"

I took my glasses off and put a hand to my face. "Yes. Humans and Earth," I said, putting my glasses back on. "I am an example of a human and Earth is where I came from," I said.

"Does this hatred spawn towards my subjects?" she asked, looking at me, concerned, obviously not for me, but, for those that she reigns over.

"No, no. If there's no humans here, then no," I explained, "But, as far as I know, I only came here through coincidence."

She started tapping her chin with her hoof. "Coincidence...? So, you're saying that you think that they won't come here..." she looked over to me, "...and you're the only one that did?"

I thought about it for a second. "That's right," I responded, confident with my answer.

She moved her hoof from her chin and looked at me. "Why is it that you hate your own kind? Certainly they can't be that bad?" she asked, looking to me with her head cocked sideways.

I chuckled at her statement. "You don't even know the half of it," I said, putting my hand behind my back and walking to the window. "My people...they are cruel and unforgiving and most of them just look out for themselves. They don't care about each other, to be honest. Most of them are greedy and all they want is power or money. Most of them are lustful and...well, you know. I only go around with those that look out for their friends and don't care about power, money, or women. The few people that can forgive you for whatever you may do," I explained.

She looked shocked from my explanation. She obviously didn't want any of this in her world.

"But, rest assured, I am one of those few that don't care for money, power, or women. I'm asexual after all. I don't have an attraction to women. I mean, would I like to have money and power? Well, yeah, that would be nice. But, I'm content with what I have as it is," I explained. She shook the look off her face and returned to her solid expression.

"I can see why you would hate them now. Although, it isn't very good to hate others," she said.

"Fine, I'll say that I "shun" them. Is that any better?" I asked, sarcastically.

"Actually, yes it is," she said, a smirk on her face. I took my glasses off once again and pinched the bridge of my nose, sighing. This caused her to giggle at my reaction.

She serioused up again. "I can only put my trust into your statement, but, if any more of your kind show up, you'll end up back in the dungeon," she said, magically floating over a key-ring from the armored pony.

"I'll take that risk," I said without a second thought, walking over to the door, "Hell, I'd even help you fight them off if they invaded this world."

She unlocked and opened the door before stepping out of the way, "You're free to go."

I walked past the door and then her, smiling victoriously. I walked up the stairs and out the door of this little cell block, which was empty. I looked around to see many other doors probably leading to other cell blocks. This entire area here was only illuminated by candles, so, I can only have the assumption that this "Equestria" is more primitive than Earth is. Part of me finds that to be a good thing.

A heard a set of hooves walk up the stairs and close the door behind them. I turned around and Princess Celestia was looking me dead in the eyes. I looked around the place one last time before asking a very important question.

"Uh...Where's the way out exactly?" I looked down each hallway, which ended in a turn or a fork in the path.

"This way, Raymond," she said, walking past me and forward, through the dungeon. I could only follow her as I didn't know where to go. It turns out, the exit wasn't that far way, just a few turns away. We walked up the stairs and up to a large, metal door. Celestia put her front hooves out and pushed open the door. I couldn't help but shield my eyes from the light. I'd gotten so used to the dim underworld of the dungeons that I hadn't really thought to ready myself for the light that would be coming in once I had exited this place.