I can count on one hand the number of times that I have cared to leave a positive first impression on any of the beings of the world that I now call my home. Certainly it would have made my life here easier to a certain degree. Yet, when I first woke up after being transported to this world, making a positive first impression was one of the farthest things from my mind. My state of mind certainly influenced my behavior, however, I cannot honestly say that if given the choice to do it over again that I would do it any differently. My uncaring nature is a large part of my personality here. While I would never admit it to anyone but Sparky, my indifferent outer visage was often a facade to hide the nervousness and fear that I often felt during my beginnings in this world.

-Daus Skarr

*******

thump… thump… thump…

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh, my head…

thump… thump… thump…

I was acutely aware of the pounding headache that was assaulting my senses as I slowly came to. It reminded me of the day after the birthday party that my friends from college had thrown me when I had turned 21. Then the look on my parents face when they showed up later to surprise me and, “shower me with presents” (yeah right). My mother had been shocked, but my father just had given me a knowing grin and a loud, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Since then I had sworn off “getting hammered” as my friends liked to call it.

Not to say I didn’t drink, on the contrary, I usually keep at least a 6 pack stored in the fridge in case I needed a “little pick me up”. This, however, was not the side effects of a “little pick me up”. A wave of dread washed over me when I concluded that if I was this out of it, then I must have really wanted to forget about something.

The thing is, I can’t remember anything particularly bad happening. This wasn’t any big comfort though, no no no, the universe wasn’t about to just let me forget about something this big. I would, unfortunately, remember eventually. I vaguely remember getting a letter in the mail about my rent… but I had paid that… I think.

Yeah, I remember now, I had raced down stairs to give the money to my landlord. Who had (grudgingly) accepted the check I had written. After which, I had gone back to my apartment and… nothing. I couldn’t remember anything after that.

In fact, I remember finishing off the last six pack the night before, so a hangover was out of the question. I hadn’t been sick, and I don’t think any kind of disease can just hit you like this out of nowhere, even though it would be just my luck to be the first to contract such a disease. This left me with only one option left.

I had been mugged, and probably robbed… great.

In fact, I was probably laid out across my now barren living room…

Wait… what?

I felt around with my hands, and discovered that my body wasn’t lying to me.

I was in a bed.

It wasn’t my bed though, mine wasn’t anywhere near as comfortable as this. It almost felt like I was floating on a cloud… which is of course ridiculous. I had never slept on a cloud before, duh.

I opened my eyes and sat up a bit, then immediately regretted it. I felt a spike of pain shoot though my skull as my eyes tried to take in the bright room around me. I squinted and groaned in pain as my eyes adjusted to the bright light that surrounded me. The source of the light being a massive archway in the side of the room to my right. The archway led out to what seemed to be a balcony, but I quickly turned away from the bright light of day coming in through there and surveyed the rest of the room.

The walls seemed to be circular and made of white stone, much to my annoyance, which reflected the light from the archway all around the room. Fortunately for me, there are some tapestries covering some of the stone, these however, weren’t much better. Most depicted a being clad in angelic armor that covered her from her feet to her neck. There was a symbol, which I assume is the sun, emblazoned on her chest plate and thighs. On some of the tapestries there was another… women, I think. I couldn’t really tell due to my squinting, but this other person was also in most of the tapestries. She was slightly shorter than the other lighter colored figure with similarly dark blue colored armor and a white crescent moon on her respective chest and thighs. At times she seemed to be helping her slightly taller counterpart, but in others she seemed to be fighting with her, though she did look slightly darker and more malevolent in those images.

As my eyes adjusted to the light, however, I began to notice things that were slightly odd about these two figures.

Their faces where defiantly not human, and I could see now that they did not wear any helmets as their eyes could be clearly seen. I couldn’t really tell due to their hair, which always seemed to be blowing in the wind, but it looked like they had ears that stood strait up on either side of their heads. However, the nose was the strangest feature, it almost looked like a horse’s muzzle but much smaller and flatter. Also the legs looked strange. They were fine until you got a little past the knee, then it inverted slightly before continuing down to the feet, which weren’t feet. They almost looked like hooves. Also, their skin was defiantly not any color I had seen before. The brightly colored woman had almost bleach white skin, and her shorter companion had blue/blackish-blue skin, depending on which tapestry you looked at. To top it all off the hair on the white one looked like a tie dye shirt, and the blue one just threw logic straight out the window with what looks like a field of stars.

Being an artist myself I can’t help but cringe at the images on the wall, someone had messed up bad when they went to make these. Either that or the things on the wall weren’t human, which confused me. It was obvious that a lot of work had went into making those images, but I can’t imagine who would pay for something so extravagant and yet not depict themselves on the fabric.

Whatever, I have bigger fish to fry, like why I’m in someone else’s bed, in a room I don’t recognize. Across the room from the bed was a set of drawers with a mirror on top and a stool in front. The bed itself looked like it was made for a queen, the thing was massive, if a bit short. As I glanced at the sheets I saw that the same sun symbol as in the tapestry was emblazoned on the sheets as well. The strangest thing was that the more I looked at the symbol the more I felt like I recognized it. If only I could place it then I might be able to figure out where the hell I am…

Suddenly I began to hear… footsteps?

Alright, those are the weirdest sounding heels I’ve ever heard, but they seem to be getting louder… and coming closer. I grab the covers and pull them over me as I hear someone open the massive double doors to the left of me.

“…biter says I’m not handing it over unless one of the princesses tells me to.”

The voice sounds feminine, and annoyed… great.

I hear someone else outside the room give a muffled response. It was hard to tell from under the covers, but I think it sounds like a guy. From what I heard he sounds nervous but determined.

“And I’ve told the Arbiter already, and so have the other princesses, that it does not look like a threat to national security, so the Arbiter has no right to stick his hands into this matter. This will be handled by the Alicorn Council and until I hear from one of the other princesses that is the way it is.”

I hear the door close with a thud and whoever came in take in a deep breath then release it slowly. I’m really starting to worry right about now. Whoever this “Arbiter” guy is, it doesn’t sound like I want to be handed over to him. Especially if he thinks I’m a threat to the national security, which is ridiculous. What the hell did I do last night?

As I lay there examining my options, I hear whoever had just walked in start to come closer to the bed. I start to get a little nervous as whoever it was mumbles something under her breath. I strain my ears but don’t catch any of it. Though, from the tone, it sounds like she(?) is agitated about something. I start to panic as she stops at the edge of the bed and I feel her reach for the edge of the covers.

Might as well kick things off on my own terms.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!”

As I yell I rip the covers off me and swing wildly at whoever was next to the bed. All I could see was a blur as my fist came closer to the side of the persons head. Then a flash of purple and… nothing. Whoever had been standing next to me before was gone, just gone.

I looked around franticly. I cursed as my eyes roved over the archway, temporarily blinding me and adding to my already throbbing headache. Then I felt something hit me and a tingling rapidly spread through my body as I collapse back onto the bed facing the door, unable to move. I’m really starting to panic now. Was I paralyzed? How could I have moved before and why hadn’t I felt anything broken before now?

Then the pain hit. It wasn't really that bad, but it was everywhere, my entire body was aching. Was this a side effect of being paralyzed? If so, I needed to get un-paralyzed now. I do not want to live in constant pain for the rest of my life.

I let out a muffled groan as I continued to try to move my body, to no avail. After a few more seconds of struggling I felt something poke me in my right shoulder. I tried to turn my head to look, but my neck muscles were being just as unresponsive as the rest of my body. I felt something poke me in the back this time and silently swore as my sore muscles screamed at me in response.

“Did… did I kill it?”

I silently curse again as she poked me in the leg this time.

“Hmmmmmm, maybe if I…”

I felt a warm, and strangely comforting, field of… something, envelope me and the same tingling sensation spread through me. I wiggled my toes experimentally and felt a wave of relief wash over me as they responded. Well, at least I’m not paralyzed any more. Then I felt her poke me again, this time in the shoulder.

I took a deep breath as I prepare myself, “I swear to god, if you don’t stop that-“

“AAARGH!”

I was cut off by a yelp from whoever was behind me and instinctively rolled away from them. Unfortunately for me, I had run out of bed by this point and fell off, dragging most of the covers with me. As I hit the floor I saw a blob of purple light fly over me, barely missing. Was that what had paralyzed me? I had never seen anything like it before. It had to be some kind of gun, but I had never even heard of a gun that shoots purple light. Just thinking that sounds ridiculous.

“You can talk?”

I heard more clicking, albeit at a slower pace, then a head poked itself around the edge of the bed. I blinked a few times as my eyes finally came into focus. Then blinked a few more times as I tried to make sense of the… thing… that was looking back at me.

It had what looked like purple fur all over its face with violet eyes and dark purple hair with a pink streak going through it. Where its nose and mouth should be was what looked like a horses snout but much shorter. The hair also looked like it was from a horse, it sort of looked like a mohawk that had grown out as long as normal hair. It curled over and came back across her forehead and hung there in a straight edge. The ears on either side were, again, horse ears that were currently pulled back in fright.

Oh, and it had a horn growing out of the top of its forehead. Did I mention that yet?

“Are you alright?”

As I had sat there ogling the horse human it had crept a little closer around the edge of the bed. I frowned at the question. “I don’t think so.”

“Do you need me to get a doctor, because if you’re still sick…”

I opened my mouth to respond then we both jumped as my stomach yelled at me for some food.

“… I’ll send for some food, what do you eat?”

I thought about the odd question for a second, then decided to let it pass for now. I needed some food NOW! I hadn’t realized it before but I was famished! I felt like I hadn’t eaten in a week!

“Right now I could eat anything,” I deadpan while struggling to untangle myself from the mess of blankets that I had dragged down with me to the floor. The pain in my everywhere was not making it an easy task.

As I continued to struggle, the horse human stood up to her full height and walked over to the door, opened it, and started to whisper to someone outside. Deciding that untangling myself was a lost cause I glanced over at the horse human to see if she could help me, but she was still talking to whoever was outside. With her back to me I could finally get a good look at her without feeling awkward. She was fairly short, with a pink dress that came down to her ankles. It had white trim and gold fabric draped around and behind the shoulders and waist which both tied off on her right side. I turned back to the blankets covering me and frowned, then did a double take.

She had a tail.

It came out of the back of her dress exactly where here tail bone would be, which makes sense I suppose, and it was the same color and simple cut as her hair but still…

She had a tail.

As I continued to ogle her tail she finished talking to the person outside and closed the door. It wasn’t until she was turning around that I realized how weird it would look if she caught me ogling the back of her like I was. Unfortunately for me, I was not as quick in hiding my expression as I should have been.

The horse human froze when she caught my expression, “Where you just staring at me?”

I felt myself blush as I tried to hide my embarrassment, “NO! I was just…” I scrambled for an excuse to finish the sentence with.

The horse human lifted an eyebrow, “You were just…?”

I gave off an exasperated sigh as I gave up on finishing my sentence, “Help me up, will you?”

The horse human snorted and walked over to me reaching down to loosen the blankets I was trapped in. When she walked I couldn’t help but be drawn to her feet, which I recognized as hooves.

While I had been thinking this over the horse human had gotten me free of the blankets and reached down to pull me up by the arm. I tensed up when I felt her hand tighten around my arm, pain flaring in the area she had grabbed me.

She paused and looked down at me with a worried expression on her face, “Is something wrong? I’m not hurting you am I?”

I grit my teeth and push through the pain, “No, your fine, I’m just a little sore for some reason.” I pushed up with my legs and, with the horse humans help, got back onto the bed. While lying there I looked down and realized that I still had my hiking boots on, and now that I think about it, I still had everything on.

I glanced down at my jacket and waved the blankets away when the horse human motioned them to me. After folding them up and placing them at the foot of the bed she sat on the stool. We sat there in awkward silence for a few seconds before both looking away.

I shifted on the bed to get in a more comfortable position, “Sooooooooooooooooooo… what the heck are you?” I figured I might as well be the one to break the ice.

The horse human perked up at this and got an entirely too energetic look on her face, “Oh that’s right! I haven’t even introduced myself yet! I am Twilight Sparkle, an Alicorn pony from Ponyville, which is in Equestria. I am also the bearer of the Element of Ma-“

“Magic,” I cut her off, I’d recognize that name anywhere, “former student of Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria, of which you have saved countless times, blah blah blah. Yeah right, either that is a really expensive costume or this is a dream. Actually, scratch that, this is a dream. I know it is. There is no way that you could fake your magicy thing like that in real life. Although, I don’t remember any of my other dreams being this painful.” I massage the place where Twilight had grabbed me. I can’t believe this. I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS. I have the most realistic dream in my life and what is it about? Freaking ponies. My brain didn’t even care enough to make them ACTUAL ponies. It’s like it took a women and a pony put them in a blender and voila! Horse human, have fun.

I glanced over at “Twilight Sparkle” and snorted. At least there was something nice to look at, relatively speaking of course.

Twilight huffed, “This is not a dream! And I’m not wearing a costume either! And how do you know so much about me?!”

I grin deviously, if this is a dream…, “Your short, grow taller.” After a few seconds of waiting nothing happens, figures. If I could do whatever I wanted I would just wish myself out of this dream.

Twilight huffed again, “I am the average height for a mare my age!”

“Your, like, four nine.”

“And a half!”

It was my turn to snort now, “You have a tail.”

“Yeah, and I caught you staring at it earlier!”

"I was not!”

“Yes you were!"

“Excuse me, Twilight,” while we had been arguing, the doors to the room had opened to reveal a food cart and non-other than Princess Celestia wearing a regal but simple white dress that went all the way to her hooves while pulling a food cart along behind her with her magic. Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but I beat her to it.

“Sunbutt!” I grinned and spread my arms in welcome, which caused me to wince in pain, “So glad you could join us!” I let my arms fall as I roared in laughter at the look on Twilights face.

Celestia raised an eyebrow at my antics, “So, I’m assuming that you don’t need all this freshly cooked food that I have brought you, because if not I can just as easily take it back to the kitchens…”

That shut me up. I started to respond when my stomach yelled in mutiny, “… No, I mean, yes I’d like the food… please.”

Celestia nodded and walked the rest of the way into the room, pulling the cart of food in with her. Once the cart was clear of the doors Celestia used her magic to close them with a thud, and I swore I heard the click of the doors locking.

Celestia moved the cart closer to the bed and walked across the room to a chair that had been sitting against the wall. After positioning herself in the chair she looked up at Twilight and nodded her head at me. Twilight jumped up off the stool and stuttered a few times before getting started, “P-princess, I’m sorry about… him,” she glanced over at me with a curious look. I just nodded and continued to fill a tray with food. “Right, him, I didn’t know that he would be like this and he doesn’t even think this is real and he just thinks it’s a dream and that I’m wearing a costume and-“

Celestia smiled and held up a hand, “Please, Twilight, slow down. I would never blame you for the actions of others. How long has he been awake?”

As the two princesses rambled on I concentrated on the problem at hand. All this food and no meat? Oh, wait, ponies, right… damn that sucks. I was hoping for a hamburger or at least a chicken leg. I sighed as I considered my options. Of which there were many. There was pretty much everything BUT meat on here. I snorted as I picked up a horse shoe shaped cookie with chocolate where the grooves were supposed to be. I put the cookie back down and grabbed a bowl of pasta and loaded the rest of my tray up with cake and pie. I sat back up and positioned the tray in my lap so that I wouldn’t spill anything. Then, just before I could dig in, I realized that both the princesses were staring at me.

“Well?” Celestia looked at me expectantly.

I gave her a blank stare, “Well what?”

Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes, “Your name, what’s your name?”

“Hmmmmm,” I paused as I thought about it.

Celestia gave me a worried look, “Do you not remember you own name?”

My eyes roved over her dismissively, “No I do, it’s just that I don’t know if I should tell you or not.” I looked down at my food and started eating, still thinking. If on the wild chance that this isn’t a dream, I just don’t think that my real name would sound right here. Although, if I don’t give them my name, I’ll need to at least give them a name. I don’t want to be known as that one guy for the entire time I’m forced to live this… dream.

After finishing a few bites I look back up. Celestia is staring at the floor with a thoughtful expression on her face. While Twilight looks a little offended and… hurt?

I look back down at my food and continue eating before Twilight can catch my eye. Why had that hurt so much? She’s a freaking pony. Why should I care if I hurt her feelings or not? She’s not even real. I’m probably about to wake up to the sound of my alarm any second now. I’ll get up, eat breakfast and move on with my life. Probably finish that Pinkie Pie commission I’ve been putting off for so long.

That’s what I want right?

I stab angrily at a piece of pie before missing completely and almost spilling my tray all over the bed. This is ridiculous. Why did I have to dream about ponies, just… why?

I continue to eat in silence, contemplating my situation. At least the food is good. We all sit there for a few more minutes while I devour the food. I had almost cleared the tray when I hear Celestia clear her throat. I glance back up at her, “Well?” She leans forward and gives me an expectant look.

“…Daus,” I finish off the tray as I give my answer, “my name is Daus.”

Celestia raises her eyebrow at this, “Is that your real name?”

“No,” I tersely reply as I look away and place the tray back on the cart, “it isn’t.”

Celestia just nods and leans back into her chair, “I see, well, I hope with time you will grow to trust us with your real name. In the meantime,” Celestia stood and began to walk out of the room, “I have day court to attend. My student, Twilight, will answer any and all question you have. I will be back at sunset when my sister awakes to decide what to do with you. If you get hungry just call for a cart.”

I just grimace and nod as she leaves, not trusting myself to talk at the moment. I was so angry all of a sudden. By what right did they have to grab me and rip me out of my world only to stick me in theirs? This is assuming, of course, that any of this is actually real. Which it isn’t, because this is all a dream…

I turn back to Twilight and a look of curiosity crosses my face. She was standing there with a strangle look on her face, like she couldn’t decide whether to be excited or dismayed that she had to baby sit me for the rest of the day. As I continued to stare at her with a questioning look on my face, she blushes and turns away.

“Sorry,” she moved back to the stool and sat down facing me while staring off into space above me, “It’s just that you’re the first being from outside of Equus in documented history.” She suddenly focused on me, “You’re not from Equus, right?”

I began to remove my jacket and boots to get more comfortable, “Never even heard of the place before.” Truthfully I have. Well, I have heard a lot about Equestria, or rather seen a lot. Any information about the rest of the world outside of Equestria was just speculation built upon the hopes and dreams of those with nothing better to do. However, if the appearance of these “ponies” was any indication, I doubt that the little I knew about Equestria was true either.

Twilight got that entirely too energetic look on her face again as, with a flash of purple magic, she pulled a quill and rather large scroll of parchment out of thin air and began to unroll it. “Good! The princesses and I agreed that when you woke up you would probably not know anything about where you were or who we are. However, it seems that you do know a few things,” Twilight shot me a frown from behind the scroll as she continued to scan through the parchment. “What all do you know, and, if you’ve never even heard of Equus before, how do you know it?”

I considered the question. I doubted that she, or anyone else for that matter, would believe me if I told them the truth. They would probably just say that I’m crazy and lock me up, and I defiantly didn’t want that. If I’m going to be stuck in this dream I’m going to enjoy it. So how should I play this? It’s too late to feign ignorance, I had already shown that I know quite a bit about their world. At least all the important things anyway.

As I lay there thinking. I notice Twilight was subtlety giving me suspicious looks while pretending to be distracted by her scroll. Whatever I thought of, I would have to think of it fast. I didn’t want Twilight to go all psycho crazy on me like that one episode… it sickens me that I even remember that. Whatever, pride aside, I wasn’t going to lie to her. She’d just end up sicking Applejack on me, or get Fluttershy to guilt trip me… and whether I liked the show or not, I’m not a horrible person. At least I don’t think I am, and as much as I don’t like these… ponies… all they’ve done is help me since I woke up.

Besides Twilight shooting me.

“Hey Twilight,” she jumped as I called her name, “why don’t we start this off by you telling me how I got here. Then I’ll think about telling you how I know what I know.”

She shot me another suspicious look before setting her scroll aside and nodding, “I suppose that’s fair, but you better not be planning to hold out on me.”

I shrug then lean back and stare at the ceiling while Twilight starts recounting how I arrived here.

“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have ruled Equestria for exactly 1757 years, this being the year 1757IS.” Twilight paused for a moment when she saw the questioning look on my face, “What?”

“What does the ‘IS’ stand for?”

“It stands for Imperium Sororum,” Twilight rearranged herself on the stool, “or ‘Rule of the Sisters’ in Basic.”

I continued to stare at her in confusion, “What’s Basic, and what’s that Imperi word in?”

“Basic is the most common language spoken today. It is usually the first language spoken by ponies, griffins, zebras, dragons, minotaurs, and any other intelligent creature in this region of the world.” Twilight used her quill to scratch off something on her scroll, “Imperium Sororum is a phrase in the ancient language. It is usually only used by scholars and unicorns in spell casting due to its unique nature.”

“What makes it any different than Basic?”

“Because if I were to perform a complex spell that requires specific components in Basic, I could be too vague and misfire. However, if I used the ancient language it would instantly know what I wanted to do and perform that action, as long as I say exactly what I want to do.” Twilight flared her horn. “For example, if I wanted to teleport that flower to me from the food cart, I could try saying the words in my head using Basic,” Twilight concentrated and the glow in her horn intensified briefly before disappearing with a bright flash, leaving me a bit dazed. “Or, I could use the ancient language,” Twilight’s horn glowed briefly again and, with another flash, the flower appeared in her hand, “and now I have a snack without even having to get up.” She popped the flower into her mouth with a satisfied smile, “Mmmmmmm, Equadorian Rose my favorite.”

I silently gagged as she munched happily on the poor flower, “Did you seriously just eat that!”

Twilight gave me a hurt look, “Um, yes, do you not like flowers?”

I back tracked immediately, “Not to eat, no. My people don’t eat flowers at all.”

“Hmm,” Twilight finished chewing and swallowed, “that’s a shame. Some can taste really good.”

I shake my head, “I’ll take your word for it.”

“Anyway, where was I,” Twilight glanced back at her scroll, “right the object. So sometime during the Equestrian Reneighssaunce, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna found a mysterious magical artifact in one of the towers of Canterlot Castle. It had apparently simply appeared there one day with no explanation as to its origin or purpose.” Twilight paused for a moment as she remembered something, “The princesses told me that the object had burned everything in the room away, leaving nothing but stone. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to have been in that tower when it happened,” Twilight shuddered. “The princesses immediately placed their strongest force field around it and waited for something to happen, but nothing ever did. So they decided to study it to figure out what it was.”

I snorted, “That seems a little dangerous. Why didn’t they try to move it instead?”

“They did, but no matter how hard they tried the thing wouldn’t budge.”

I shook my head and laughed, “So the almighty sunbutt and moonbutt were foiled by some strange magical object that just walked right in and made itself comfortable without them even noticing. I want to shake the hand of whoever made this thing.”

While I continued to laugh Twilight gave me an affronted look, “Hey! This happened over a thousand years ago! I’m sure that if the same thing were to happen now, the princesses would be more than capable of moving it!”

I stifled another bout of laughter and motioned for Twilight to continue. She huffed and crossed her arms, “After studying it for a while with no results they decided to use their magic to get some kind of reaction out of it.”

I rolled my eyes, “Of course they did.”

Twilight sighed and continued, “Once they had prepared the proper safety measures they flew out and each-“

“Hold on,” I grinned, “Celestia doesn’t have wings, and neither do you for that matter.” Now I know I’m dreaming. Even in the show when they were just ponies all the princesses had wings. It was obvious that Twilight and Celestia didn’t have them though, and I’d been on the internet enough to know that if you can find even one inconsistence, then it proves that you’re in a dream. I had even tried it before. It was one of the ways to force yourself into a lucid dream.

Twilight smirked at me and stood. I frowned and squinted as she positioned herself in front of the archway to my right, “What are you-AUGH!”

I yelled as, with a bright flash of purple light, Twilight sprouted a pair of wings from her back. I squinted and held a hand up against the bright light that streamed in from behind her, “Would you stop doing that! You’re going to make me blind if you keep flashing yourself in my face! And why is that light coming in from there so bright!

I could hear the concern in her voice as she responded, “Is something wrong with your eyes? The light coming in from outside is just sunlight. It shouldn’t be all that bright.”

I roll over and face away from the archway only to get poked in the eyes by the glare coming off the food cart, “Yeah well, can’t you get sunbutt to take it down a notch! It’s her job isn’t it?!”

While I continue to try to shield myself from the sun, I hear Twilight walk away from me a little. “Here, I’ll just close the door and pull the drapes….” I hear the sound of a door swinging closed and then a latch being put in place. Then I hear the muffled sound of a curtain falling as the room gets considerably darker.

I roll back over onto my back and look over towards the archway. From the little light that is getting in around the edge of the curtain I can see the outline of Twilight standing facing me with her hands on her hips and what looks like a pair of rather large wings sprouting from her back.

“That… may have worked a little better than I expected. Hang on a moment.”

I continued to stare at her as she lite up her horn, and, with yet another purple flash of magic, she summoned a pale orb of purple-ish light that floated up to the ceiling and hung there.

I motioned with my hand toward her, “Nice wings,” they were probably as long as she was tall. Definitely not the same wings as the ones she had in the show.

I thought I saw her blush as she grabbed her tail and started to fiddle with it, “T-thanks, I only just recently got them.” Twilight looked down at the floor, “I can’t even fly that well with them yet…”

“How long have you had them?”

Twilight looked back up at me, “For about five months, I got them in October of last year.”

I shrug, “If this wasn’t a dream I’d say that you’d get used to them eventually but…” I trailed off with a smirk.

Twilight just sighed and shook she head, “Anyway, where was I… oh yeah. So the princesses flew out and stimulated the object with their magic, and it responded rather… interestingly.”

I leaned back on the pillows and put my hands behind my head, “Really? I would never have guessed.”

Twilight huffed and walked back over to the stool, “You need to take this seriously. This is very important!”

I wave my hand at her dismissively, “Sure, sure, sure. What happened next?”

Twilight sat down and sighed before continuing, “Once the princesses had checked the area for any dangers they flew back in to the tower.” Twilight paused for a moment to cross something else off her scroll, “Once inside they noticed something on the floor in front of the object and that the object had gotten… bigger.”

I raised an eyebrow at her waiting for her to continue.

“Well… the object wasn’t really bigger, I don’t think. Based on the description Princess Luna had written, it was… shaped differently. How did she put it…?” Twilight paused again, trying to remember something, “She said that before the object had been in a crescent shape, like the slice of an apple. However, after the princesses had activated the object it seemed to have gained another slice, seemingly from nowhere. Princess Luna did the math and theorized that the slices where a part of one orb. Which was confirmed two weeks ago when the princesses and I activated it for a fourth time.” Twilight looked down and added in a low voice, “We hadn’t counted on it disappearing though.”

I felt a twinge of dread that I promptly squashed before it got out of hand, “I’ve been here for two weeks?!”

Twilight looked back up at me in surprise, “Yes, I haven’t told you already?”

“No!”

“Oh,” a look of concern crossed Twilight’s face as she looked me over. “Well, yes, you’ve been in a secure room of Canterlot Castle’s medical wing. Most of the time that you were there you were… well… detoxing I suppose would be the right word. When you appeared you were highly charged with thaumic energy. Which is the scientific term for magical energy.” Twilight paused to dip her quill in some ink and scribble something down on the edge of the scroll, “We quickly learned that this wasn’t normal for you as your vital signs keep fluctuating all over the place.” Twilight set her quill down and looked back at me, “We quickly rush you to the medical wing and started treating you for a severe case of the bends, which is when a pony uses to much magic and their body starts to shut down. It took the best medical equipment and even the princesses’ magic at times to keep your vitals within, what we assumed was, an acceptable range.” Twilight continued in a low voice, “We almost lost you several times.”

After several seconds of staring at each other we broke eye contact. I crossed my arms and looked down with a frown, “Thank you I guess, but I still think this is a dream.”

Twilight got an annoyed look on her face, “The fact that I had to nurse your body back to health for two weeks proves that this. isn’t. a. dream.”

I smirked, “That’s just what my brain wants me to think.”

Twilight just sighed and shook her head, “Listen, I’m assuming that you had a home and family back… where ever it is you came from.” I give her a wary look but nod. A sympathetic look crosses her face, “I know it must be hard to accept being taken away from all of that, but you can’t deny the fact that it has happened. Now, the princesses and I will do everything wi-“

I stop her with a cold look, “Stop. Just stop right there. I will not admit that this isn’t a dream because it is. Nothing like this could ever happen in real life. Quite frankly, I’m ashamed of myself that I’m even having this dream. While this is, admittedly, the longest and most realistic dream I’ve had in my entire life. IT’S ABOUT FREAKING PONIES, AND I DON”T EVEN LIKE YOU. WHY THE HELL AM I SITTING HERE IN SOME BED WHILE TAKING TO A PONY. YOU’RE NOT EVEN A REAL PONY. YOU’RE JUST SOME… some…”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened them I saw that Twilight had scooted as far back away from me on her stool as possible. Her ears where pulled back in a look of fear that was mirrored throughout the rest of her face. When I tried to look her in the eyes she glanced away avoiding my gaze.

Final she spoke up in a weak voice, “I-I’m s-sorry, I-I didn’t k-know-“

“No,” I cut her off. She looked like she was about to burst into tears and I… didn’t want that. “You couldn’t have. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. Dream or not… that’s not me.” I sigh as she continued to avoid looking at me, “Tell you what, I’ll make you a deal. If I wake up here tomorrow I’ll admit this isn’t a dream. Deal?”

Twilight tentatively looked up at me and gave a shaky nod, “Ok.”

We sat there for a few more minutes in tense silence. I can’t believe I did that. Usually it takes a lot to get me worked up. I look down at my hands and grimace. Well, if this really isn’t a dream I suppose it would qualify as “a lot”, but still. I don’t like losing it like that. I learned back when I was a kid that the calmer you are the calmer the people around you will be. Bad things happen when people aren’t level headed. I personally had experienced this many times as a kid… and an adult it seems. I’m 24, I look up at Twilight with a neutral expression, this shouldn’t be happening to me.

Apparently I had scared her so much that she had lost her grip on the scroll and it had fallen out of the air, unrolling itself across the room in the process. She was currently trying to reverse the mess with her magic, but she couldn’t seem to stop shaking long enough to concentrate on rolling it back up.

“Hey,” Twilight jumped and lost her grip on the scroll again making the mess even worse.

I sighed and moved to the edge of the bed. After steeling myself for a second I swung my legs off the bed and stood up with a groan. The pain in my muscles was receding but it was still there. I walked stiffly over to the head of the scroll and began to roll up the excess parchment. After about a minute of shuffling around I finished and walked over to Twilight. She had just sat through the whole thing, her eye downcast. She flinched when I tried to hand the scroll to her.

I cleared my throat, “Hey.” After a second of no response I sighed and squatted down (which hurt like hell I might add) so I could look her in the face. “Hey, listen,” she just looked away. “Look,” I glance at the floor and ran a hand through the stubble on my face, “I’m sorry I yelled at you. I shouldn’t have done that.” I turn my head and start to examine one of the drawers in the dresser to my right, “I just didn’t want to let go of the hope that this is all some big long dream.” I quickly glance up at her face and see that she is looking down at me before resuming my inspection of the dresser, “It’s just hard, having to admit that I’m… all alone.”

As I continued to examine the dresser I felt a hand on my left shoulder. I looked up at Twilight and was relieved to see that she was giving me a smile. “You’re not alone Daus, and I promise that the princesses and I will do everything within our power to get you home.” Twilight removed her hand as I slowly stood (which, again, hurt like hell) and made my way over to the edge of the bed and sat down. “Thank you, I… thank you Twilight.”

We continued to stare at each other for a few seconds more before Twilight levitated the scroll out of my hands. “In the meantime though, I’d like to learn as much about your world as possible.” Twilight pause as she began unrolling the scroll, and gave me a nervous look, “As long as you’re fine with talking about it.”

I shrugged and waved my hand dismissively, “It’s no problem, I have some questions for you as well anyway.”

Twilight perked up at this and grinned ear to ear, “Excellent! This is simply amazing! An entirely new world and species! I can’t wait to start going through it all!”

I smile as I lay back on my back and look at the ceiling, “Calm down Twi we have the rest of the day.”

Author's Note

Sorry for taking so long in writing this. It took a lot more words to write this chapter than I though it would.

So, finals week is coming up. That means more time studying and less time writing ponies, sorry. It'll probably be at least two weeks until the next chapter comes out. It will come out though, I already have it planned and ready.

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