Where the Rainbows Touch Down

Chapters

1 - The Human and the Pegasus Guard
2 - Cast Away on an Open Sea
3 - Falling
4 - Wrecking Ball

1 - The Human and the Pegasus Guard

I woke up on a small bed, a simple steel frame and small mattress with a thin red cloth blanket over me. Next to that was a small metal desk with a glass of water in it. I became aware of a sudden thirst and found myself reaching for the water and had drained it before I even could question what possibly might be inside it, though it tasted like normal, purified drinking water to me.

Afterwards, I took some time to examine my surroundings. It appeared to me that I was inside a small cell, one with the ceilings only just high enough that I could stand in the room and walk about, though my hair kept touching the ceiling. The steel door only went up to my neck and I had to almost get on my knees just to see through the window in the top of it. The room appeared to be lit by a large square light in the top though no switch was available inside the room itself, which was covered in muted beige walls with a wooden baseboard. The floor itself was some sort of soft white carpet that reminded me of the inside of a padded solitary confinement cell. And in the top corner was a small black surveillance camera that seemed to follow my every move. Having nothing else I could do, I went over to the bed I had been lying on and sat down on it, waiting for something to happen.

I didn’t have to wait long. I had barely sat myself down when I heard the sound of the steel door unlock with a loud clang! and a small horse stepped into the room. This one was a tall stallion, able to stare me in the eye while I was sitting down on the bed, and covered in the same bronze armor I had seen on the horses at the entrance. His coat itself was a rather bright off-white color, and large his eyes were a glittering bright blue. He sat down in front of me, his posture looking very much like a cat, and raised his two front hooves up to his helmet. In the same smooth gesture, he grabbed his helmet with both hooves and lifted it off his head before setting it down on the ground in front of him and revealing a mane of bright blonde hair that was tied into a ponytail. It was an odd sight to behold and I must admit that I stood there dumbfounded and not quite believing what I was seeing.

The small horse took a few minutes to survey me, all with a rather calm and level gaze. His eyes moved more than his head did, glancing at me from my feet to my head. After a while, he looked straight at me and I could see the edges of his mouth tilt upwards in a small smile.

“I’m sure you have plenty of questions,” he suddenly spoke. At least, I was sure it was him. I hadn’t spoken at all as I was too confused to say a word and I was pretty sure I saw his own mouth and lips move. Not only that, it was a soft, clear voice as opposed to my normal deeper, occasionally growling voice. “I will attempt to answer them as best as I can,” the stallion continued.

Being trained as a scientist and receiving lessons about proper communication, I responded in the way I could logically and reasonably think of. “You’re speaking…!”

“Sure,” the stallion said calmly, my obvious hysteria not fazing him a bit. “I can sing and dance, too. I would show you, but I’m not exactly skilled in either.”

“But you shouldn’t be. I must be dreaming. Yes, that’s it. I’m dreaming. There is no way that a horse can speak, a scientific improbability with how the vocal chords are structured, that the only way that sort of thing could possibly happen is to be in a place where logically anything can happen: my own mind.”

The stallion laughed. “I can assure you that I am speaking to you. But let’s determine where exactly it is you come from and see if somehow we can’t find a connection between the two. First of all, let’s go through some basic things. Where did you come from?”

I told him.

It was the only time during my entire conversation that he even seemed close to breaking the nice façade. “…where?”

I told him again.

He looked up as though searching his mind for something. “I shall have to ask her later,” he said, mostly to himself. “Now, let’s just have a little conversation here. I promise nothing will happen to you. What’s your name?”

In the position of something that likely could kick me and cause extreme damage if I didn’t do what he asked, I took a few deep breaths to calm down and responded. “Trent Phillip.”

The stallion nodded. “My name is Garnet. Garnet Heart. And how old are you?”

“I just passed by my twenty-seventh birthday not long ago.”

“Alright. And, um, what do you do for a living?”

“I’m a chemist working with a small laboratory in my hometown.”

“And where is this lab?”

I told him a third time.

“Well, Mister Trent Phillip, do you mind if I call you Trent?”

“Of course.”

“Well, Trent, I’ll give you a little information that may help you out,” the stallion said calmly. “Currently you are in a place called Equestria, a land ruled by ponies similar to myself. We are the dominant species here. If I am correct in my thinking, you are a human. They’re a rare sight around here lately and always seem to come in through odd ways. Matter of fact, I was leading a group out to meet you when you first arrived because someone said there was an odd puff of smoke outside our little town and that you had appeared unconscious on the grass.”

“That doesn’t sound anywhere near to—”

“The place you mentioned isn’t even on our maps,” the stallion said before I could finish. “Now, might I ask what you were doing when you first arrived?”

I told him, limiting the details.

“Well, then,” the stallion said.

“Look, I don’t know who or what you really are, but I just want to know if I could somehow get home.”

“It’s not quite that simple.”

“What do you mean?”

“Place your hand on my head.”

I wasn’t sure what he was asking, but I reached slightly forward and gently placed a hand on his head. The white fur and dirty-blonde mane were soft to the touch, yet even as I touched his head I could feel something coursing through me, something completely unfamiliar to me. It was a sort of energy that I could not determine its source, but it felt warm and comforting. It enveloped me from head to toe and settled gently down on me.

The stallion was watching me with intrigue and gentle amusement. “What do you feel?” he asked.

“A… a strange sort of energy. It feels warm, and the second I touched your head it coursed through me like an electrical current.”

“That is what we call magic,” the stallion said. “I cannot perform feats of magic, but I have it in me. Everything does here. There might possibly be a way to send you back, but it would require this ‘energy’, as you put it, and a rather large quantity of it.”

“There must be a way to send me back, though.”

“Magic has its limits,” the stallion said as I pulled my hand away. “However, I can contact our leaders, and they will be able to determine whether or not we have the required amount of necessary energy to bring you back.”

“How long will it take you to know? I will have friends and family that will miss me if I am gone for too long.” Or, if this was all a dream, I would be able to wake up sooner.

“Only a few days. I can send out an urgent message this evening. In the meantime, I have been told to watch over you, to take care of you, and to make sure that you remain calm here.”

I said nothing in response. There was nothing I could say. I wasn’t sure what was going on. I was so confused about what was going on my head hurt. I simply sat on the bed with my hands on my legs, wondering what in the world was going on.

“I imagine this is hard to process,” the stallion said. He looked at me with a gentle smile and placed a hoof on my hand. It was strange, intimate, surprisingly familiar. “I don’t want to hurt you. I want to help you in whatever way I can. You can trust me.”

I looked at him and said my next words with a sense of resignation that surprised even myself. “What choice do I have?”

The stallion kept his smile, but the look in his eyes changed to a sense of pity. “Don’t worry,” he said. “We will make sure you get home, wherever it might be. For now, come. We’ll need to get you something to eat and I need to consult an official in town about your arrangements.”

I still had only my lab coat, shirt, jeans, and shoes. I checked my pockets and found I had carried with me nothing else; everything had been deposited in a safe before I had entered the laboratory proper back at home. I had arrived with nothing but the clothes on my back. After I had inspected myself, I ducked under the doorframe and followed the stallion out of the room and into a small hallway filled with four rooms similarly constructed to mine, each with a key in the lock. The stallion led me down the hallway and into a small lobby with a few desks, brightly lit by the light of the afternoon sun outside.

“How long was I out for?” I asked.

“You arrived this morning,” the stallion said. “We did some paperwork and the agreement was reached that, if you were calm and controlled, I was to take you home and take care of you.”

“Who is ‘we’?”

“I’m a member of a small guard force for the town of Ponyville. There’s not much crime so there’s not many of us; you’re the first big thing we’ve had happen around here in months.”

I followed the stallion out the door and into the village of pink and beige houses with thatched roofs and dirt roads. More of the smaller horses like the stallion I was following populated the streets, all in a variety of colors and mane styles that logically couldn’t have existed back home. Some had nothing, but some had wings and some had horns that would glow slightly as objects were surrounded with a similar glow and moved around without them even touching them.

“Welcome to Ponyville,” the stallion said.

I said nothing but followed the stallion down the street. Some of the smaller horses would look at me, and some even found themselves bolting into nearby buildings and closing the doors, watching me from behind window curtains and in darkened rooms, while others stared at me in some sort of horror, taking special care to keep a large distance from me.

“Um… what is your name again?” I asked.

“Garnet. Garnet Heart.”

“Right… what are all those pictures on the flanks?”

“They’re called cutie marks. Each of us get them as our talent is revealed. The picture is an indicator of what talent the pony has. A pony’s name usually matches their cutie marks.”

“What is yours?”

“My cutie mark? A heart made of a carved red gemstone.”

“How did you get it?”

“The garnet gemstone is often a symbol of faithfulness and friendship. I obtained this mark because of my loyalty and friendship with others.”

I recall thinking I could not have heard a more sickeningly romantic thing in my entire life. I’ve since heard and seen worse. “Is this entire place like that?”

“Oh, yes,” Garnet replied. “But without it, none of this place would exist. Without the bonds that tie us together, we’d be separated. No civilization. Is it not the same back where you came from? Without the bonds of cooperation, you would have no society, wouldn’t you?”

I was surprised this pony could argue like that.

“Do not think we are completely free of the troubles you have. For instance, many thought that you were a monster from the nearby forests when you appeared, and the first response was to call the guard and make sure we were armed in case we had to fight.”

“…do you think me a monster?”

“No. I see you as lost, scared, perhaps even lonely. After all, as you can see, there’s not another of your kind here.”

“Are there in other communities?”

“Not even an eighth of Ponyville would be filled if all the humans across Equestria were gathered in one place. They are out there, but it’s difficult to bring them all together.”

Eventually we reached a small, one-floor house with faded paint and Garnet pulled out a key from somewhere underneath his armor. Using his mouth, he placed the key in the lock and unlocked the door, pushing it open and motioning for me to go inside. I walked in and found the roof a little higher and the doors a little taller, and it didn’t require so much ducking for me to enter and exit the place.

It was a rather normal house. In the main room that I walked into there was a couch and a chair, along with a bookshelf filled with books of all shapes and sizes. A small television set stood on a table, and a radio was not far away. There were three rooms off the main living room; a kitchen with a small counter and a table big enough for four ponies to sit at though it had pillows instead of chairs, a small bathroom with a fair-sized tub and shower, and a bedroom with a small clock on the wall and what to me might have been a full-sized bed.

“Welcome to my home,” Garnet said, following me in. “I realize it’s not much, but we’ll have things sorted out for you to stay in comfortably.”

I walked in a little more, but followed Garnet to the white-tiled kitchen. I had to duck under more doorways and pulled out a pillow and sat on it while Garnet made his way through his kitchen. A few minutes later I was treated to two eggs, three slices of toast with butter and jam, and a decent-sized salad with lettuce, tomato, carrots, cabbage, kale, and nuts covered in a sweet oil and vinegar mix, along with a fair sized glass of milk to go with it. Garnet seemed to have the same thing, though among his food I saw bits of hay and a slightly smaller amount of eggs. He had served me my plate first along with proper utensils, but I was unsure about it.

“Go on,” he said. “Eat. It’s probably been hours since you last ate.”

I tentatively tasted everything. It was all good, though I missed the fact that there wasn’t any meat in it. Of course, this was to be expected in a society of hors– um, ponies, who were obviously more along the line of vegetarians. I ate slowly, watching as Garnet went between picking things up with his hooves and eating with just his own mouth in the dish. To be honest, I was slightly put off by the behavior and after eating only half my food I pushed the rest away.

“You’re not hungry?”

I shrugged, not wanting to explain. “Not particularly.”

Garnet looked at me for a while, his bright blue eyes looking me over. “Tell me what’s bugging you.”

“It’s nothing. I’m just not hungry.”

“Why aren’t you? Are you sick? Are you not feeling well? Do you need a rest?”

I shook my head.

Garnet looked at me thoughtfully. “It’s because I’m just eating with my mouth, isn’t it?”

I nodded slowly.

Garnet nodded in return. “It’s fine. I didn’t actually do that when I prepared it. I have utensils, but it’s hard for me to use them without having to grasp something with my mouth. It’s all clean, though.”

I ate the rest of my meal in silence.

Afterwards, I went and sat down on the couch in the main room and Garnet came over with a book in his mouth and gave it to me. Surprisingly, the book was dry and looked like it hardly had been even touched by the teeth. “You’re a chemist, so I suppose you’re a decently smart fellow. Read this book; it offers a short history of Equestria in case you’re still curious. In the meantime, I’ll be off speaking with a local mage and librarian. She might know something about your condition.”

“Where is this librarian?”

“If you look out the window and down the street, there’s a large oak tree in the center of town. It’s been hollowed out and made into a library. That’s where I’ll be. I’ll be back shortly. There’s some apples and bananas and some more bread and jam in the fridge. Feel free to grab something if you need it.” And, with that, Garnet Heart left and I was alone in the house.

There was nothing I could do except for read the book, so I did.

* * *

My name is Trent Phillip. Yeah, it’s weird, having a last name that sounds like it could be my first. I had a few people call me Phillip before, too. Thought it was my actual first name. Anyway, getting off subject for a bit there, I’m currently 28 years old and have recently recovered from a period of depression that had made the last year or so of my life a major pain.

A little over a year ago, I was an undergraduate scientist going for a doctorate’s in chemistry. I worked in a small lab in my hometown, helping the researchers there run experiments with various chemicals and substances. We’d been working on this one new chemical that had recently been approved for testing, a sort of steroid made from chemicals made inside a horse’s blood and digestive system that would supposedly help people become able to digest more fiber from plant foods. At the time being, it was volatile, and since it was an acid we had to attempt to mix it with a base in order to make it where it didn’t dissolve human flesh on contact.

The last thing I was able to remember for a while was that someone dropped said chemical and the base. One of the new interns who had been hired about a month before, I think. Forgot to clean up some water mess or something. Anyways, the thing somehow exploded like someone dropped sodium into water and I got thrown backwards. Everything went sort of white and the lab faded into nothingness, then it went pitch black. For a while, I thought I was dead, but I kept breathing and I never felt my heart stop throughout the whole thing so I can’t really tell.

It was a long time before I managed to open my eyes. I was lying on my back and seemed to have all my vital signs be okay, but I was outside in a grassy field with sunlight high above me. I wasn’t in the lab at all. I still had my white lab coat on, my plain black shirt, my jeans, and my brown hiking shoes that I wore around the lab, all seemingly undamaged, and I found myself thanking god or whoever it was that saved me.

The first thought was to see if I had been blown out of the lab and I got up to see just where I had exploded to. Problem was, the lab I worked on was on a third story window next to a large concrete parking lot so the nearest grassy field was in a park a few miles away. I managed to push myself up to my feet and found myself staring at the entrance to a dark forest that was so thick with vegetation I couldn’t see much beyond a few feet inwards before everything seemed to go as dark as night. I turned around and my eyes swept past long fields of vibrant green grass and sparse trees before finding myself staring down a winding dirt road to a stone bridge over a small river that lead into a village of thatched houses, one that lied in between two small ranges of hills.

This was nowhere that I recognized.

I walked forwards, down the winding path. I wasn’t sure what I was doing, only that I needed to find out where exactly that I was and from there figure out how to get to my home and lab. I walked down the path, noting the strange vibrant nature of the place. The grass was greener, the sky was bluer, the flowers in brighter colors. I had quite obviously gone from the city to the country.

I was maybe a few hundred feet from the bridge leading into the village when I saw them. A group of about four small horses, perhaps no bigger than my chest at the tops of their ears, dressed in gold armor standing at the entrance of the village. Some even managed to have a hoof up and curled around a small but sturdy-looking wooden spear with sharp, metallic tips. All of them were white, but three of them had golden eyes while one had a bright blue eyes and a pair of wings extended from either side.

It was then that the ringing in my ears came. I clasped my hands to my ears and dropped to my knees; the ringing was so loud as though the noise of the explosion had waited until I had settled myself in before pounding at my face. I recall crying out during that time but I had no idea what I was saying; I couldn’t hear anything. I soon fell over to my sides, not caring where I was but only wondering when the ringing would stop.

Along the path, I could see the horses galloping out towards me and everything once again faded to black.

I woke up in the room I mentioned earlier, where I met Garnet, and now we're back to where we started.

* * *

Apparently according to the book I read, Equestria had been around for thousands of years. No one quite knew where some of the ancient ruins came from, but from those ruins came the first Equestrians. I made my way through a surprising amount of wars and inter-tribal conflicts between pegasus ponies, unicorn ponies, and earth ponies and reached a chapter detailing the emergence of the “royal pony sisters”. It was... hard to believe. It sounded like something out of an epic fantasy novel with elves and dwarves and humans replaced with unicorns and pegasi and earth ponies.

Garnet returned, this time with a lavender pony with a purple mane and a pink skunk stripe and boasting both a horn and a set of wings.

“This is Twilight Sparkle,” Garnet said. “One of Equestria’s four rulers and preeminent mage. It was her skills in magic that allowed her to go through the rites of ascension to become a princess and thus a leader. She also has some of the largest background information on humans in Equestria.”

The purple pony bowed slightly to me. “You are Trent Phillip? How do you remember entering Equestria?”

I told her the whole story, starting from my work at the laboratory, again only giving limited details, and went through the entire schedule of what had happened until she walked in the door. She stayed quiet and patient the whole time, taking notes on a pad of paper with a pencil she had brought with her.

It was only when my story was finished that she spoke. “Do you mind touching my horn for a second? I want to see if there’s any magical energy in you.”

Not sure of why that was necessary, I went ahead and touched Twilight’s horn, which felt a bit like a hardened fingernail covered in very small guard hairs. The feeling was much like that of touching Garnet’s head, but stronger in force and even felt like a small electrical shock was going through my body though not enough to paralyze or hurt me. As I touched the horn, Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated and I saw her horn begin to glow, though the tip of the horn where I was touching failed to light up at all. After a while, Twilight frowned and backed away and the glow on her horn disappeared.

“This is disconcerting…” Twilight mused.

“What’s the problem?” Garnet asked.

“It appears he has no magical energy,” Twilight said. “Therefore, it’s entirely possible that we might not be able to send him back.”

I was not too happy about that. “What do you mean, you might not be able to send me back? This, for me, defies as much logic as it does to see you all talking. If you are magic and this place is magic, then certainly magic must be able to send me back home, right?”

“Your logic is commendable,” Twilight said. “However, there are certain limits to magic. For example, you have no magic energy in you. It is entirely possible that you won’t be affected by magic at all. Someone could fire a spell at you designed to burn your flesh and it wouldn’t work and would instead bounce right off or dissolve. Matter of fact, I couldn’t even use my magic to trace where you came from, it simply wouldn’t connect with you even when you were touching my horn.”

I couldn’t argue with that. “Is there anything you can do?”

“There’s someone who has more magical power than even I do, my mentor and main princess of Equestria, Princess Celestia. She knows more about magic than I do and is often quick to contact. I can send a message to her and see if she knows anything possible that we could do to send you back.”

Garnet looked at me. “It’s the best course of action at the moment,” he said. “We should be able to get a message by tomorrow if we’re lucky, I’m presuming, and perhaps then we’ll have an answer. Until then, if not even Twilight can do anything about it, we can’t do much for the moment.”

I nodded. “I understand. Or, at least, I think I do.”

Twilight smiled. “I’ll return to the library and write that note to Princess Celestia. It will be sent to her as urgent mail by this evening and she should get it between tonight and tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I’m sorry this had to happen to you but I shall try to either help speed your return or help acquaint you with Equestria.” Her smile faltered and she seemed concerned. “Whichever route it eventually comes down to.”

Something told me she wasn’t very hopeful about the whole thing, but I didn’t respond. Instead, I merely watched as she left the house and Garnet shut and locked the door behind her.

It wasn’t for a while when Garnet turned around and came over and sat next to me on the couch. He motioned to the book I was still holding and my finger placed in between the pages. “You nearly finished it?”

I nodded. “It was like reading an epic fantasy novel back at home,” I said. “All these things feel so surreal. I still have a hard time believing any of it.”

Garnet nodded. “Do you like classical music?”

I nodded. “It’s calming and peaceful.”

He got up and went over to the radio, using one of his hooves to fiddle with a knob. “There’s a classical music station around here. We can play that for background noise.” A few seconds more of fiddling and Garnet flipped the switch. The radio suddenly came alive with sounds of strings playing a light orchestral piece that I recognized from my days in music class back in university.

Garnet went into the bedroom for a little while and closed the door. When he came out, his mane was straightened and the ponytail was redone so that more of his dirty blonde mane was hanging loose. He had also dropped the armor, and I got to see what he really looked like for the first time. He had a slightly bigger build than Twilight, with more muscle in the legs and chest, but was very sleek and fit and further accented by his bright coat, which looked closer to white with the armor off. His wings, nearly as wide as he was tall, were filled with neatly-preened feathers and currently rested comfortably at his sides. He also had a rather handsome-looking face, neatly proportioned though with a slightly smaller muzzle than a normal horse’s would have been.

“So, what did you do in your job as a chemist?” Garnet asked.

“Well, I worked under a few researchers. They typed out certain experiments they wanted us to do, and I would go into the lab and follow the instructions they typed out and write down the results. Then I would go and send the results to the researchers, watched as they duplicated the experiment for themselves to see if the results were consistent, and would team up and we would write the report. The researchers got the credit, but I got myself a decent salary.”

“Did you have any family back home?”

“I had my parents, currently going into their older sixties, and a brother who was two years older than me. He worked as a literature teacher for a high school.”

“Any special someone?”

“No. I’d had a few girlfriends, but none I ever stayed with for long.”

“What about friends? Who did you hang out with?”

“Well, there was there were a couple of guys and girls from my job and my old university days. We would go out to lunch a couple times a week. Sometimes we would hit up the local bowling alley and play a few games. Other times there was this bar we would go to that had games of darts and shuffleboard that we would hang around while we had some drinks and food. And sometimes we’d get together for barbecues and parties at someone’s house for sporting events, watch the game with food and drinks.”

Garnet nodded. “If you don’t mind me asking, did you have any trouble back there?”

“You mean like with the law?”

Garnet nodded again.

“No. I had a clean record. Never drove after drinking, never got myself into fights, never stole a thing. I had some financial problems a couple times and nearly had to file for bankruptcy, but I got myself back together, paid off my debts, and was back to normal.”

Garnet smiled. It was beginning to be comforting to see him smile, I had to admit, though never to him. “Alright. I’ll tell you a bit about myself. I’m a year younger than you are, graduated from high school and went to police academy. I was there for about three years and entered into the guard. I was sent off for some more training and came back six months later and was hired almost immediately. I have a few friends around here and we like playing cloud soccer, a variation on your game but in the sky, and occasionally heading out to the local drinking establishment and having a few back like you.”

Garnet was silent for a while, as though expecting me to ask him a question. I probably both fulfilled it and defied what he expected with my next question. “Why are you doing this?”

“You’re not a monster,” he said softly. “Some consider you a monster because you look different. The truth is, you’re not much different from us. I don’t know what it was, but I could see that about you, and when we talked back at the offices of the guard, you were simply scared and lost, not angry and hurting.”

“Is looks really all that it takes for them to consider me a monster?”

“Well, there were the cries of pain and fear when you collapsed outside Ponyville. There were a few of us that were scared you might panic and try to attack. But when you cried out in panic and fear it wasn’t hard for us in the guard to realize you simply weren’t used to what you were seeing. Still, it was generally decided we should keep an eye on you.”

“Hence why I’m staying here for the time being.”

“Precisely.”

It made sense, I guessed.

Garnet and I continued talking long into the night. I learned more things about Equestria and I told Garnet as much as I knew about Earth. Things seemed relatively the same only that the ponies were less inclined to eat meat and that seasons were controlled through special events that used varying kinds of magic to manipulate the weather.

It wasn’t until late that I finally started to feel the effects of sleep. Garnet pulled out a spare pillow and a few blankets and we set up a bed for me on the couch, though the back cushions needed to be taken off for me to have enough room, and even then I had to bend my legs slightly so that my feet and half my legs weren’t hanging off the end.

“I will be waking up at about seven in the morning to make breakfast. When work begins at nine, I’m afraid you may have to come with me to give the Captain some more information about yourself and where you came from. Don’t worry; I’ll wake you up.”

Garnet went around and turned off the lights. Despite it being darker, the light of the full moon outside shone softly and created just enough light to see around. “You can call for me if you need anything,” Garnet said. “I’ll keep my door open and will likely be awake as soon as you call; I’m a light sleeper. Is there anything else you think you might need?”

I shook my head. “I think I’ll be okay.”

Garnet smiled at me and for a moment I felt calm. “Good night, Trent.” Then he closed the door so that only a crack remained open. I could hear him get into his bed and the sound of blankets shuffling as he positioned himself and the house fell into silence.

I forced myself to get into the bed. It all felt so unusual and strange. I was in an unknown place and in an unknown house with a race of sentient ponies that could speak and acted like humans, something which I thought would only come out of the pages of books. I had nothing to my name except the clothes on my back and from the way things were sounding, I would likely be stuck here.

I broke down then. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t stop it. The explosion was hitting me again, but not with a physical pain. It was a mental one, one that caused me to become fearful and panicked and scared and lonely and confused, and I didn’t know what to do so all I could do was cry. I closed my eyes and slowly whimpered into the pillows, and it later became full-on sobs that only the action of my face shoved into the pillow stopped it.

Eventually, I wore myself out and fell slowly and softly into sleep, though the last thing I heard was the creaking of a door being opened and the last thing I felt was that of soft fur on the underside of my hand.

2 - Cast Away on an Open Sea

I don’t remember dreaming that night. It felt as though I had retreated into myself and refused to come out, even if it was to reach out and ask for help. I had the vague feeling I could have shouted and no one would respond to me, no one could hear me. I found myself back in the laboratory and screamed out to one of my coworkers to grab me as the substance fell from the intern’s hand, as though thinking some remaining connection with the place I once knew might prevent me from vanishing out of existence. …I suppose I did dream, then, or otherwise I would not be in the position I now am.

When I did finally awake, the blanket that had been on me was off to the side and my legs were hanging off the edge of the couch as though I had rolled partially rolled onto the floor. The pillow beneath me was wet and my clothes were rumpled except for my shoes neatly positioned on the floor near my head. I stood up and put my shoes on and stood up, going to stretch yet finding my hands hitting the ceiling above me before they could rise higher than my head.

“Careful,” said a calm, clear voice behind me. “I wager things here are still a bit smaller than you’re used to.”

I turned around to see the white pegasus with the dirty blonde mane from the previous day, Garnet Heart, standing at the entrance of the kitchen. The armor was still off him and I could see the picture of his namesake on his otherwise bright white flank. I turned back around and went over to a window, bending down so that I could see through the frame and out into the gold and deep blue of early morning. I was still in the middle of the town of Ponyville, the beige and pink houses with thatched roofs parted just enough from my view so that I could see the forests by which I had first entered this strange place.

“You’re still in Ponyville, Mister Phillip,” Garnet called softly. “Remember that we await a message from Princess Celestia as to your condition and whether or not you can be brought back.”

I placed a hand to the window. “What could have brought me here?” I asked. “What purpose does it serve?”

“I’m afraid I can answer neither of those questions,” Garnet said, a hint of pity in his voice. I heard his hooves as they walked across the wooden floor towards me. “The twists and turns of fate never particularly like to reveal their intentions. I must admit the same questions crossed my mind last night.”

I didn’t quite respond to him. “I hoped to wake this morning as one wakes from a dream, perhaps in a hospital or on the floor of my laboratory. But instead I thought of the explosion that brought me here, and how my coworkers had seemed so distant at the time, as though they were the ones who were the dream and this place was real.”

I collapsed backwards and sat on the couch, seeing Garnet watch me with a single blue eye turned in my direction. “Is it really so much to ask for an explanation? If not magic, then what? Death? I was conscious and breathing the whole time; you cannot tell me that death is to blame.”

“What makes you believe that death brought you here?” Garnet’s voice was hardly more than a whisper. “Are you so afraid that the first thing you can compare this to is the worst fate to befall someone?”

“There are worse fates than death,” I responded. “There is becoming a prisoner in a foreign land, unable to return home for the rest of your life.”

“At least then you are alive. And with life comes hope.” Garnet turned to face me though didn’t come closer. “I can tell more than you know. I can tell by the way you speak you have already given up hope.” The calm voice suddenly gained an edge to it that made me fear him. “For that, then perhaps this place is like death, for you are not allowing yourself to live and neither do you allow yourself to hope.”

“You believe I doubt what might possibly be my only chance of returning home?”

Garnet’s face softened. “Forgive me,” he said, the venom drawing out of his voice and the calm returning. “I do not mean to be so antagonistic to you. Your arrival has brought a sense of confusion on all of us. I shall attempt to be gentler with you in the future.”

“Oh, stop being so formal.”

“Alright, then. I’ll be quite honest with you and say I don’t even know what is going on here. The place is in uproar – myself included,” he emphasized – “about how to deal with you. Until we finally manage to get some answers, the only thing I can think of is that you are either confined here or at the library with Twilight Sparkle.”

“You do not trust me?”

“I said I didn’t believe you were a monster. That said, you are still foreign to me, and there are many things I don’t know about you.” Then came the smile, the strange feeling of reassurance. “But believe me, I want to know them if only to understand you. What makes you tick, what makes you comfortable. From there we can begin to understand each other.”

I had to avert my eyes because I was tired of looking at his. They brought me hope and reassurance, and yet there was something telling me I still couldn’t trust him entirely. That his words were simply to pacify me and that he would do nothing. I tried focusing on his cutie mark, but at the awkward angle at which it now stood it had the look of a blood stain and I dropped my head to the floor.

“You do not believe me?”

“It is hard to believe something that, not even twenty four hours ago, I didn’t think was biologically possible.”

There was the sound of footsteps before a white hoof came under me and I felt it rest against my face, my chin in the groove created by the horseshoe at the bottom of the hoof. I felt a gentle push and soon my eyes were meeting with the blue before the hoof left my chin. “I understand there’s not much that I can do. But I will do whatever I can. For now, trust me.”

Much the same as before, what choice did I have, really?

* * *

Unlike the others I had seen around, the Captain was a larger unicorn with a short, stumpy horn. He was a very earthen brown and his eyes were a darker green and his mane and tail were both a bright blonde and very short as though most of it had been lopped off. He stood a few inches taller than Garnet did, and had a single golden star as a cutie mark. He wore a set of gold armor similar to the other pegasi I had seen, but did not have the helmet.

I was taken by the Captain to a room off the main lobby in a different direction from where I had originally been held. There was a large room with a single wooden desk, another large light overhead, and a pillow where I sat facing the wall opposite the door. Despite feeling like I had been prosecuted for some crime, the Captain was constantly telling me otherwise.

“You’ve done nothing wrong,” the Captain said. “It’s just that you’re foreign and we would like to answer a couple of questions.”

I asked him: “To determine whether or not I’m going to do something wrong? Be honest with me, please. I know you’re suspicious of me since you’ve never seen something like this before.”

“On the contrary, Mister Phillip. There was a human here about a year or so ago under the care of Twilight Sparkle. He returned to Canterlot where he came from, though, and I haven’t seen or heard from him since.”

“…what’s the problem with me, then, that I’m considered a monster?”

“He came here escorted by Royal Guard. And, if you excuse my frankness,” the Captain said as he sat down on the other side of the table in front of me, “he didn’t scream out like a lunatic immediately upon arrival. Nor did he wear a white lab coat.”

I nodded as though understanding, though really it seemed a bit of a harsh difference.

The Captain had in front of him a few sheets of paper and a few sharpened wooden pencils. He levitated one of the pencils in a yellow glow and positioned it over the paper as he scrutinized it. “Anyway, your name is Trent Phillip and, according to information received by Garnet Heart, you are twenty seven years old. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. What was your most recent degree?”

“Master’s Degree in Chemistry.”

“What job position did you have before arriving here?”

“I was technically a ‘lab specialist’; I knew my way around the chemicals and their uses.”

“Did you have any other jobs related to this degree?”

“I was a forensic scientist for a while for the local police department. I was asked to join in a research facility when I obtained my master’s and peacefully resigned to work there.”

“What was your physical standing before you arrived here?”

“I had recently cleared a yearly medical check at the lab. I was pronounced clean, free of disease and bacteria, and no physical damage. Slightly above average leg strength and lung capacity from walking around a three-story building all day for work.”

“What were your previous hours at the laboratory?”

“Eight hours a day, four days a week, Monday through Thursday. All government holidays off and two weeks of paid vacation.”

“What was your previous pay?”

“Thirty dollars an hour, but with tax deductions and small amounts taken for insurance benefits, it dropped to twenty six dollars an hour.”

“What was your financial situation?”

“I had a few thousand in a private savings account, and about a few hundred in checking. My bills were all paid and I lived comfortably in a two-bedroom apartment that I paid the rent for by myself.”

“What close family did you have remaining back at home?”

“I had my mother and my father, both in their early sixties and living a few miles away from where I lived. I also had an older brother. I wasn’t married, and had no kids. I had a few girlfriends, but was not in a steady relationship at the time.”

The Captain scribbled notes furiously all throughout the questionnaire, and he continued going through the papers as he did so. It was then that another pony came in carrying another sheet of paper in his mouth, which the Captain took with his golden magic and placed it in front of him.

“Alright. We’re going to do a bit of word association. I will say a word and you will say a one-word response, just the first thing that pops in your head. All of your responses will be noted.”

I nodded to let him know that I understood, to which the Captain pulled forward the sheet of paper the other pony had given him. “Are you ready?”

“Yes, sir.”

The Captain looked at the paper, pencil at the ready. “Let’s begin.” There was a long moment of silence before his first word. “Sun.”

“Day.” A check went next to it.

“Moon.”

“Night.”

“Crystal.”

“Gemstone.”

“Magic.”

“Fantasy.” The Captain made a strange mark on his paper for this one.

“Monarch.”

“King.” That one ended up practically being scribbled out rather violently.

“Law.”

“Follow.” An approving smile, but no mark.

“Pony.”

“Transportation.” Another strange mark went down on the paper.

“Ground.”

“Earth.”

“Sky.”

“Wings.”

“Horn.”

“Power.” Another mark. This one I could tell was, from my view, an upside-down question mark.

“Equestrian.”

“Sport.” No mark, but the Captain raised an eyebrow, something which I didn’t think was a very good response at all. Likely to be discussed later.

It went downhill from there. “Animals” was met with “food”, which was met with a disapproving shake and a strange mark, as was “noble” for “wolf”. Both responses of “blood” to “red” and “meat” to “pink” were scratched out on the page. I answered “chicken” with “rice”, which obtained another question mark, while “peace” with “war” was met with a red “x” next to the word. After what felt like hours and hundreds more words going back and forth between us with only the scratching of the pencil breaking any silence…

“Discord.”

“Chaos.”

“Nightmare.”

I actually stopped myself. I had my mouth opened, but I didn’t say the word. While it was my first thought, I didn’t want to actually say it.

“Mister Phillip?” the Captain asked me. “I need a response from you. The word is: nightmare.”

I gulped. The word barely came out from my mouth. “…this.”

Probably the best thing that occurred from this was that the Captain did not look horrified. He scribbled a few more things on his paper and put it along with the rest of the papers he had originally brought in with him. He coughed a few times. “Well,” he said. “Well… I will be speaking with you again in a few minutes, but for now I need you to stay here. I will be back, again, in a few minutes.” And he left the room and shut the door behind him, leaving me alone and staring at the place where the papers had been.

I had been alone for maybe ten minutes when another pony came in with a tray full of medical equipment; this one was a mare with a white coat and pink mane and a white cap with a red cross on it. A cuff was placed on my arm and a small meter placed on the table, and with the press of a button the cuff began filling up with air. Meanwhile, the white mare placed a stethoscope to my heart and then my lungs, using her mouth to write things on a piece of paper. She then tapped each of my knees with a small hammer, looked down my throat and in both my eyes and ears with a small flashlight before the meter beeped. Notes were written down, another button was pressed, and the cuff soon began to release air.

I was then instructed to lie across the table, after which I received a shot into both my elbow pits on the inside of my arm where the pony could find a vein. The areas were scrubbed with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol and soon had a bandage placed over each. It was then that the mare finally packed up her things, placed the papers in a small bag on the table, and pushed the cart out of the room and I was alone once more.

* * *

The Captain came back in a short while later. He once more crossed the space to the opposite side of the table and had a piece of paper in his magical glow. “I have received word that Princess Twilight Sparkle has requested you. You will be escorted to the library by Officer Garnet Heart, after which you will return here so that we can finish filing your papers.”

“And if all this was unnecessary due to me leaving?”

“It is simply done as a precaution,” the Captain said. “If you leave, we send these papers away with a note to the government offices in Canterlot and brush our hooves free of them. Until then, they are our reference to make sure that nothing happens out of the ordinary to you while you are here. Even if you do go back, we will not be sending you back half-dead.”

I nodded and watched as the Captain returned to the side of the table closest to the door. He turned to me. “Come on. Garnet is waiting for you in the lobby. And mind your head.”

I took care to mind the Captain’s words and ducked under the frame leading out of the room as we headed to the lobby. Garnet Heart was there in full armor, boasting one of the finely crafted spears with a wooden shaft, a leather grip one third of the way up the shaft, and a small metal blade firmly secured on the end. He placed his spear under his wing joint and folded the wing up.

“Are you ready?” Garnet said. “Twilight has received information.”

“Has she given you any sense as to what it might be about?” I asked him.

Garnet shook his head. “No, only that it was urgent.”

The Captain remained behind in Ponyville’s Office of the Guard, but Garnet led me out and made sure I stayed close by him. I saw other ponies looking at me with an odd sort of curiosity as I walked down the street. One particularly small pony started to approach me, but an older mare pulled her back. “Don’t go near him,” I heard the mare say as we passed by. “We don’t know what he’s like. He could be cursed by dark magic.” Another mare with a mane in two shades of red and a rose on her flank jumped backwards as Garnet passed. “…the creature from the Everfree!” she barely whispered as I walked by before dashing off into a nearby alley.

A group of stallions stared at me as I walked by. I heard various panicked mumblings, some of which came clear to me: “What a strange thing...” “That’s what caused the roar at the edge of town yesterday morning, isn’t it.” “I heard he came from the Everfree…”

The ponies backed away further as we approached the giant oak towards the center of town, boasting a sign out front that read “Golden Oaks Library.” Despite their backing away, more ponies had gathered to watch as I went up to the three with Garnet as he knocked on the door and I could hear the whispers echoing from all around the tree. Hundreds of pairs of eyes stared at me in perverse fascination but I feared another outburst and kept quiet.

“They all speak of this placed called Everfree,” I whispered to Garnet. “What is that place? Why are they so afraid of it?”

“Everything here is controlled by magic,” Garnet said. “The weather, the plants, the animals… all fall under the influence of magic. The Everfree is strange to us because it does not fall under those rules. It lives and sustains itself. What may be normal to you has become a place of horror and darkness for us. You appeared next to those woods, no one knows exactly how you got here… well, you can make the connection.”

Garnet knocked again. This time, there was a response. The purple mare known as Princess Twilight Sparkle stood there, but she was focused on neither me nor Garnet. Instead, her eyes gazed out on the gathering crowds behind us, still watching and whispering. She strode calmly past us and looked out at the crowds, who all suddenly silenced in her presence.

Twilight scanned the crowds, and I noticed that all the sets of eyes had gone off me and onto her. “Haven’t you got better things to do than stand and stare at us?” she called out, voice level but authoritative. “Go on! It’s not polite! And we have private business we need to attend to.”

At once the crowds started slinking away. “My apologies,” she said kindly to us. “Please, come inside. I have some tea brewing.”

I followed Garnet into the library’s main floor. The library was the first building in Ponyville that actually had a ceiling high enough that I could stand upright and not worry about hitting my head. The high wooden walls were packed with shelves filled with books with the exception of two doors off to my left and a staircase leading upwards at the far edge. A small round table was fashioned out of the trunk in the center of the room, on which stood the ornate carving of a rather normal-looking horse head covered in a layer of gold leaf.

“Are you fond of tea at all, Trent?” Twilight asked.

I shook my head. “Too bitter for my taste.”

“I have some sugarcubes and cream to sweeten it if you want.”

I shook my head again. “Thank you, but I think I’ll pass this time.”

Twilight nodded and turned to Garnet. “And what about you?”

“I have some available at home,” Garnet said politely. “Help yourself, though. I don’t think either of us will mind.”

Twilight shrugged and went off into one of the doors to the left. I followed Garnet and we sat down on pillows in the center of the library at the table. Twilight Sparkle returned not long after with a lightly steaming cup of a brownish tea on a saucer, carrying it with her purple magic glow. She also brought with her a rolled-up piece of paper with a gold seal on it that appeared to have been broken.

“I have received word from Princess Celestia on your condition,” Twilight said. “I told her about my attempts to use magic on you and how I couldn’t even touch you to trace where you came from. There was also information on your arrival and how no one can figure out what caused you to come here.”

I asked her “Does she have the magical energy?”

She responded with “Well… that depends on your interpretation of whether or not she does.”

“What do you mean? If she has enough magical power, that must mean she’d be able to teleport me back home, right?”

Twilight grimaced. “Technically, that would be the case. If that is the case, she has enough power to send you back to wherever you came from in an instant.”

“I’m not particularly fond of your usage of the word ‘if’.”

“Neither am I. You see… Celestia has determined that because of an entry that wasn’t by magic, you technically have no magic in you. As a result, no magic can affect you because you are still tied to your home in the other world. If you were brought here by magic, it’s a simple affair. But no matter the strength, a spell cannot touch you.”

“So… that means… it means that?”

Twilight frowned and I could see a look of pity in her eyes. “…I’m afraid you’re stuck here, Trent. There’s no possible way to send you back home.”

I gulped. I shook my head. I closed my eyes. “No. That… that can’t be possible. This place is filled with magic.”

I could see a faint shimmer in Twilight’s eyes. “There’s nothing. If Celestia can’t do anything, there’s nothing to be done. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” I stood upwards, kicking the pillow I had been sitting on aside. “You’re sorry!? Is that all you can say?”

“I’m afraid there’s nothing more I can say,” Twilight said. “What’s done is done.”

I stared at her for a long while. “…you have got to be joking.”

“She’s right,” Garnet replied. “Celestia is the single most powerful being in this world. If she can’t do anything about it, there’s no way to reverse this.”

“But this place is filled with magic!” I screamed. “You can’t tell me there’s no way to send me back. If this place really has magic flowing everywhere, wouldn’t you be able to call on it and perhaps use it to take me back home? Is it really so difficult?”

“I already told you it was possible it wouldn’t work,” Twilight said, her voice a little more firm. “I let you know from the start of my involvement in this that it could happen that even Celestia wouldn’t have the power to do so.”

“How can’t she!? How come you can’t?”

“Look, there’s nothing we can do if we don’t even know how you arrived.”

A thought clicked in my brain. “Why don’t we go back to the spot where I appeared? Perhaps there may be a clue!” I went to the door and opened it and had crawled out before either of them could grab me.

“Wait! Trent, please!” I heard Garnet call behind me.

I ignored him. It was entirely likely they were fast enough, but when I turned and looked around I saw they maintained an even distance behind me. They were either waiting until I had worn myself down or were going to jump me later.

That didn’t matter. If there was something at the place I entered down the road from Ponyville, there might be a chance at sending me back home. With the thoughts of leaving the place behind, I ran all the way from Twilight’s library to the edge of Ponyville and beyond without stopping. A few ponies had to jump out of the way to get away from me, but ended up watching with curiosity as I passed them without even paying them much attention.

I didn’t even feel myself getting exhausted until I reached the spot I remembered getting my first views of Equestria. I looked into the forests and back down the road into Ponyville from my spot on the hills and knew I had reached the place. I dropped to my knees and began to search around the grass, pushing it aside and tearing it up to see the dirt underneath in case there was something there.

But after a time of searching the area long enough that the sun was beginning to set, I eventually gave up. There was nothing to suggest even that the previous morning I had been lying in this spot even though I remembered so clearly. I looked around to see Garnet and Twilight standing in the dirt road behind me, watching me with concerned looked on their faces.

“Well?” I shouted to them. “Aren’t you going to help me? Is there nothing you can do?”

“Trent…” Garnet called out. “Nothing was there. The guard combed through the entire area where you touched down. Nothing... nothing…”

“No… no traces of chemicals? Or magic?”

Garnet shook his head.

Nothing… nothing remained… nothing to suggest I had come from somewhere else except for a complete lack of magical energy that made it where not even the most powerful mages could touch me. To others this would be a power, but to me it meant there was no path back home. No way to return to where I knew.

“FUCK!”

I knelt down and felt my eyes become itchy and then wet. The dirt below me became stained with tears. “Damn it… why? What have I done?” I looked up to the skies. “What the hell did I do!? Why did you leave me here!?”

The grass softly rustled nearby. There was the sound of footsteps coming towards me and there was suddenly the feel of a wing around me. I don’t know why, but I turned around and shoved my head into Garnet’s shoulder. If I said anymore, it was drowned by my blubbering and my face being shoved deep into the soft white coat.

I don’t remember how long I stayed there, only that by the time we returned to Ponyville it was dark. Twilight dropped us off at Garnet’s house.

“I… I don’t know how much I can do,” Twilight said. “Celestia wants me to help watch over you, Trent, make sure you are able to adjust to Ponyville.”

I didn’t respond. It felt like it had taken all my energy to return back to Ponyville and my throat hurt from crying and screaming. It took a long time for me to calm down, and by the time I had returned I was still occasionally having small bursts. I kept quiet, but shook my head slightly to let them know I heard.

“Your help is much appreciated,” Garnet said in my stead. “Whatever you can do, be it getting new things for him, helping to accommodate him somehow, that will be most helpful.”

“You’re right. Since he’s here, we’ll need clothes. I can order some from a designer for humans in Manehattan. I can have a decent-sized wardrobe for him in less than a week. And a shelter of appropriate size for him will be necessary as well.”

“There’s room near here,” Garnet said, pointing over to an empty plot of land. “You can build it there if I need to continue keeping an eye on him on behalf of the Guard.”

Twilight nodded. “We’ve had humans come through here before,” she said, a hint of exhaustion in her voice, “but never like this…”

Garnet sighed. “It won’t be easy.”

“I don’t mean to be a burden…” I croaked out.

Twilight gave me a sad smile. “You’re not a burden,” she said. “It just is unexpected. For us, too, as well as you. It will take time, but we’ll help you as much as we can.”

I didn’t say anything else.

“Well, I’ll head back to the library,” Twilight said. “I’ll have to send Celestia back more information.”

“What about his paperwork over at the Offices of the Guard?” Garnet asked.

“There may need to be some minor adjustments,” Twilight said. “With this recent breakdown, there might be some changes to his psychological assessment, but we’ll deal with that later. For now, make sure he’s fed and keep an eye on him.”

Garnet nodded. “Can you please send a letter to the Captain? I might need to take a day off or two to stay by him.”

“Of course,” Twilight said. “Well… good night.”

“Good night, Princess Twilight.” Garnet nudged me with his muzzle. “Come on, Trent. Let’s go inside.”

I followed Garnet without thinking. He led me into the house, but instead of leading me to the couch where I had slept the previous night, I was taken through and into the bedroom where there was a full-sized bed. I sat on the edge of the bed and took off my shoes and socks and lab coat and shirt, letting them drop to the floor in a wrinkled mess.

The pillow from the couch in the main room was brought in and Garnet gestured for me to lie down in the bed. I did, and as I did, I could feel the stress, the tension, the pain begin to leave me. I felt the stallion get in and place his back to me so that I could feel the soft coat and some of the feathers of his wings along my back. One wing was placed over me and the blankets were pulled up. From next to me there was the soft sound of a lilting voice as I blocked out the world around me.

Hush now, quiet now, it’s time to lay your sleepy head.

Hush now, quiet now, it’s time to go to bed.

Drifting off to sleep; the day’s events behind you.

Drifting off to sleep; let the joy of dream land find you…

3 - Falling

I’m not even sure when it could be said I woke up. My eyes opened early in the morning, but I kept drifting in and out of sleep. I pulled the blankets around me even tighter and stayed there. My legs and knees ached and I didn’t care about moving from the bed, easily falling asleep as I sat there and let the pain fade away as my consciousness drifted along with it.

Simple things woke me up. The bed shook as Garnet got up and out, followed by his hoofsteps receding as they left the room and eventually closed the door. Then there was the gentle knocking what felt like seconds later, his eventual calling to me, and finally the feeling of being watched, which was confirmed by my opening a single eye only to find that there was a pair of blue ones on a white background staring at me, a look of pity in them.

“Trent,” Garnet called out softly, as though afraid he would startle me. “Are you hungry?”

I didn’t want to move my head. “No,” I told him, barely making any sound.

Garnet didn’t even move. “What about thirsty?”

“No,” I told him again.

Garnet remained where he was. “I have some fried eggs and toast with jam cooked. Would you eat some of it?”

I remained quiet.

Garnet sighed and sat down in front of me, allowing me to see his whole head. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

I could feel my eyes hurting as though his fur was too bright. “There was nothing at the site?”

Garnet shook his head. “I wish there was.”

I averted my eyes and looked down to his chest. Garnet did not attempt to correct my vision or move my head back to face him.

“What can I do to make things more comfortable for you?”

“Nothing will ever be the same,” I told him. “I’m essentially a refugee in a foreign country. I can’t feel comfortable knowing I’m not supposed to be here.”

“Then… what can I do to alleviate it?”

I didn’t reply.

Garnet got up. “I’ll check on you in a few minutes. If you’re still not up, I’m going to bring your food to you.” Then he left.

I watched him as he left. I was simultaneously happy that he was leaving me alone, and wishing he hadn’t left me alone at all. With him, I was reminded of the fact that I was alone and had no one here that could possibly sympathize with me. Without him, I had no one that I could explain these feelings to and was aware I really was alone. With him, I struggled to stay on my own two feet and felt like I couldn’t move a muscle. Without him I had no one to help support me.

I eventually pulled myself upwards and sat on the edge of the bed. I felt weak. I felt lame, like I couldn’t even use my own legs. I felt numb. I was getting out of bed in a house that wasn’t my own in a place that wasn’t where I considered anywhere close to home and was sitting in a place surrounded by things that was scientifically illogical to me.

Garnet came back. “Are you feeling okay?”

I barely shook my head.

“You haven’t eaten since yesterday morning,” he told me. “Come. Let’s get you into the kitchen.”

Garnet walked over to me and stood in front of me. He turned around with his tail towards me and backed up to the edge of the bed. “Come,” he said again, spreading his wings out to the sides. “Sit on me. I can carry you if I have to.”

I pushed myself off on the bed and onto Garnet’s back. I watched as his legs steadied themselves and he adjusted to the extra weight. I lifted my legs ever so slightly so that they weren’t touching the ground and Garnet pulled his wings back over my legs. Garnet took a single step forwards and I found myself thrown off-balance, falling forward and landing with my arms around his neck. Garnet gave a slightly delighted chuckle.

“Hang on, if you have trouble balancing,” he said kindly. “I really don’t mind.”

Garnet took a few more steps forward. I closed my eyes tightly, afraid of him buckling under my weight as I felt him sway from side to side, weight being placed more on the left, then the right, then the left, then the right. Soon he fell into a simple rhythm and I opened my eyes. Garnet walked easily and calmly through the door and into the main room while I held on for dear life, though it didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest. By the time he had walked gently from the door of the room to the kitchen, I found myself calming down. By the time we reached the kitchen, I felt strong enough to stand up, swing my leg over Garnet without kicking him, and set myself down on the pillow, albeit while holding on to the table the entire time.

Garnet gently picked up a plate with eggs, fruit, and toast on it and placed it in front of me on the table. He pulled a similar plate over at the other side of the table where he sat and went to his pillow to sit down, from which he took a wing and used it to push a fork over to me.

I feebly took the fork and began to eat. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I took the first bites of egg, realizing that Garnet was right and that I hadn’t eaten anything for a long time. I looked around and saw the sun shining brightly outside the window.

“How long was I in bed for?” I asked.

“It’s nearly eleven o’clock if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“…so you’re two hours late.”

“Not really. I was charged with taking care of you. This still applies. I just don’t have to go into the office.”

I poked at the egg.

“Twilight tells me your reactions to the word association test are completely normal for a human and that the guard doesn’t have to constantly keep an eye on you.”

I nibbled at the toast.

“You might be wondering what this has to do with me. Well, I’m really the only one of them who has to take care of you. I will be the one helping you to start a new life here, settle in to Ponyville, make sure you’re fed and have someone around to talk to if you need it.”

I let the sound of an apple crunching drown out a few of his words.

“…occasional medical and psychiatric tests by mandate … are easily done at Ponyville Hospital. There’s also … and multiple furniture stores for … ordering clothes from Manehattan … you even listening to … at the wall behind me …Trent?”

I refocused my eyes back on him. “…what?”

“Are you listening?”

“…not particularly.”

“…why are you so withdrawn?”

“Why do you care?”

I must have snapped at him, because Garnet’s ears went back as though he was flinching. “Because I… I…” he sighed. “The best way I can explain it is because you came here with nothing. I want to be your friend. I want to be someone who you can trust, someone you can turn to and tell me anything. Any of what’s bothering you.”

I looked at him like he was crazy. “How could you understand?”

“I won’t. Ever.”

“Then why try?”

“Because that could give me a glimpse. I may not understand fully, but I can try and help you process these things.”

I sighed. “What could you do? I can’t go home, I can’t go back to my family and friends. I probably can’t even go back to my original job.”

“…we could try and get you a job with the guard. I don’t think we have a forensic scientist here, and we could always use extra help in analyzing whatever data comes around.”

“Sure. Fine.”

“…you don’t sound too pleased.”

“I feel sick.”

“There’s a bathroom out the kitchen and to your left.”

“Thank you.”

I left the kitchen, taking care not to hit my head on the ceiling, and ducked into the bathroom. I knelt on the floor next to the available bucket and vomited. I wasn’t sure why my body was rejecting the food, but after a fair amount of my breakfast had left me I ironically felt better. I told Garnet about the bucket, but he said not to worry about it and that’s what it was used for and we continued eating.

It was eleven thirty by the time we finished and I was still feeling tired and somewhat unresponsive. Garnet brought me an extra glass of water and I drank it before using the pegasus for support as we made our way over to the couch. Garnet turned his radio on to some classical music and brought in the day’s paper from the doorstep before coming over to the couch and sitting next to me.

“Do you want to read a book?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t feel like doing anything.”

“You can’t lay around in bed all day. Um… we could go for a walk around town. Meet with some of the ponies.”

Garnet said this as though it was the obvious solution. I just stared at him.

“Why would they want to meet me? They think I’m a monster. That reminds me, what is the Everfree?”

“I’ve told you before, but I’ll tell you again. The Everfree is the forest you landed outside of when you first entered. Now, here in Equestria, most of the weather and properties of the land and animals are guided and controlled with magic. But the Everfree forest is different. In the Everfree, these things take care of themselves, and it grows wild and out of control.”

“That’s fairly normal. Plants and animals kept untamed for a while tend to grow feral and with abandon.”

“But in terms of everything else, this is strange to us. Now, you didn’t come from the Everfree, but the ponies of Ponyville can be a suspicious lot, and your appearing next to it is enough information for them.”

“So… you plan on changing this by showing me to the others.”

Garnet shrugged. “It’s a start. At least they’ll see you being escorted by a guard.”

“It’ll take more than that to get rid of a first impression. It probably won’t matter how nice I act to them, they just will run away and hide.”

“Isn’t that what you’re doing by just wanting to stay in bed all day?”

I couldn’t respond. I just rubbed my hands together idly.

“We could go for a walk.”

“My knees hurt from being on the ground for a few hours yesterday.”

“Right… we could go to Sugarcube Corner and get some donuts or cupcakes.”

“That would involve meeting the other ponies, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes, but trust me when I say Mr. and Mrs. Cake and their assistant Pinkie are some of the sweetest ponies you’ll meet. I don’t think any of them were present among the crowds watching us at Twilight’s library.”

I was unsure. Garnet was right that I needed to get out, but I did not like the fact that I could potentially be considered a monster. If there technically was any place we could start, this place seemed like a better place than most.

“Alright,” I told him. “We can go.”

* * *

We returned half an hour later.

I was once again sitting on Garnet and clinging to his neck, this time for dear life and feeling extremely dizzy, going so far as to shut my eyes tight as he opened the door and we went inside so as not to feel like I was going to throw up again. Garnet’s own eyes were wide open, his teeth clenched together so much that the bag barely got in the door before it broke open and Garnet was spitting paper out of his mouth.

“Are you okay?” Garnet said between pants.

“I think so,” I replied. “I can feel my limbs still, if that’s what you mean.”

“Ugh,” Garnet said, picking up the bag of pastries that had fallen at his feet. “I can’t believe Pinkie Pie would pull out the Party Cannon at your first appearance.”

“That’s what that thing was?”

“You saw it coming?” Garnet started stepping easily towards the kitchen with me still on his back.

“All I remember was a black hole with a blue ring in my face before waking up on the floor feeling like I had been punched in the gut.”

Garnet sighed. “I keep telling Twilight to rein Pinkie in when someone new comes in to town.” He gently set the bag on the counter before walking over to the couch. “She always insists she’ll do better.”

“I don’t know about that,” I said. “Now, do you have a shower? I think I need to wash the icing out of my hair.”

“Might as well head there myself,” Garnet replied as he turned away from the couch and headed towards the bathroom. “I need to brush the streamers out of my mane.”

“Hold on a minute,” I said, causing Garnet to stop just outside the bathroom door. “I can’t strip down with you in there. I’m a bit sensitive about privacy with that.”

“Alright. Shower should work the exact same way it does back where you came from. I’ll wait to brush until you say you’re in.”

I gently got myself off Garnet and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind me as I inspected the shower and tub. It was a simple faucet-like shower with a lever going from cold to hot and either a faucet or shower head to come out from. The shower head only went up to about my neck, but bending down or even sitting wasn’t a problem with how long the shower was, likely to accommodate a longer body or at least as long as my own.

There was a small counter with a sink and a few drawers nearby. I turned the water on mildly warm and stripped down all my clothes until I was stark naked, folding them up neatly and placing them on the counter. I got in when I saw a few wisps of steam and closed the plain white, thick curtain behind me as I entered, feeling the warm water rush over me. At least they had some normal comforts despite all being horses.

“I’m in now,” I called out, “if you wanted to brush.”

Garnet opened the door and came in, but I couldn’t see him. I could hear his hoofsteps on the tile floor, his rummaging around through the drawers, and eventually even the sound of a brush going through his mane. I dunked under the water and watched as trails of pink, blue, and yellow started to come out of my hair.

“The blue is for the hair,” Garnet said. “White is for the skin.”

It took me a moment to realize what he was talking about. I looked around and soon saw two bottles, one blue and the other white. I took the blue and squeezed a tiny amount in the palm of my hand and rubbed it around my hair, soap now mixing with water and icing and gently falling from my hair.

“Your clothes are kind of dirty after that,” Garnet said. “You want me to wash them?”

“I got nothing else,” I told him. “You told me Twilight was ordering something from someplace that made human clothes, but that could take a few days.”

“Oh, right. I could probably do the shirt and pants tonight when we’re in bed and leave them to dry overnight.”

“I would feel awkward waking up here without something.”

There was a moment of silence. The icing was out of my hair and I was just enjoying the stream of warm water. “I’ll start with the pants,” Garnet said after a few minutes.

A short while later, Garnet left the bathroom and I shut off the water. I carefully slipped my clothes back on and sniffed the inside of my shirt, which definitely had a new smell to it. I ran my fingers through my hair, looking in the mirror as I pushed it back.

I came out of the bathroom to find Garnet with his hoof at an awkward angle, clearly trying to use the brush on his back. Without saying a word, I went up to him and gently took the brush from his hoof. I fit the strap on the back on my four fingers and gently started going down his back with the brush, noticing as the pegasus relaxed and didn’t even question why.

I don’t know why, but it was oddly soothing. I took gentle, even strokes along the back, watching as the white coat went from slightly tangled and messy to soft, straight, and shiny. A few moments later, Garnet took a wing and opened it up, bringing it over to him, and gently started nibbling at his feathers while I continued brushing his back.

“What are you doing?” I asked him.

“Preening,” he replied between nibbles. “It keeps the feathers clean and able to have air flow through them easier when flying.”

“I’ve never seen you fly,” I told him.

“I have to stay on the ground to watch you,” he said. “I don’t mind,” he quickly added. He was quiet for a while before speaking up again. “So, what did you think of the Cakes?”

“Mrs. Cake reminds me of my mother,” I said. “The moment anyone would come over, she would immediately welcome them and start feeding everyone. Mr. Cake, meanwhile, reminds me more of my uncle. Devoted father but a little stressed when my younger cousins were born but he was the one I’d go to with problems when my father was out of town.”

Garnet chuckled. “I told you they were sweet. In two senses of the word, even.”

I smiled. “It’s weird.”

“What’s that?”

“I talked about my parents, but I don’t exactly feel sad.”

“Really? How do you feel?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’m still trying to process things, but I feel better than I did earlier.”

Garnet was silent as I moved down his back a little. “Do you think you’d be able to meet other ponies after this?”

I shrugged. “Maybe if we take it slow. I don’t want another encounter like Pinkie and the party cannon.”

Garnet nodded. “Perhaps tomorrow we could go by a little café where some of the locals play music.”

“Too many eyes.”

“Well, you survived Sugarcube Corner with Mr. and Mrs. Cake and two regulars, and then there’s Pinkie who’s like five or six ponies combined in energy.”

“Yeah… I’m a little afraid of that happening again.”

“But it wasn’t as bad as you thought it would be, right?”

“…initially.”

Garnet nodded. “Maybe tomorrow we could head over and see the Apple family? They’re a rather friendly bunch.”

I sighed. “Alright. We’ll try.”

* * *

The rest of the evening having been spent in relative calm while Garnet washed my pants, I felt better the next day about leaving for the Apple family orchard. The weather had cooled since the previous days, as well, a light breeze coming through town; every once in a while, I could see a squadron of pegasi flying in sync over the town, the breeze kicking back up again as they passed by. I put on the white lab coat for extra protection from the wind and felt comfortable as we walked along the road to the orchard.

I was also able to walk on my own again. Three square meals the previous day had helped me get over my nausea and the evening of rest had helped stopped the pain in my knee. A few drinks of water and I felt like I was almost feeling normal again, though we had to take it slow due to the knee which Garnet obliged.

Thankfully, Garnet’s home was not far away and we were at the edge of the ranch within minutes. I must admit it was a beautiful sight, seeing a bunch of apple trees currently in bloom. There were other smaller plots of land with smaller things growing from them, but the apple trees covered the hills as far as I could see. Garnet led me through the shade of the trees up to a fair-sized farmhouse with a bright red barn only a few yards away.

Garnet knocked on the door of the farmhouse and we waited only a few minutes before someone opened the door. It was an orange mare with a blonde mane and a rather traditional cowboy hat. She looked over to Garnet. “Good mornin’ to ya, Garnet. You here for your checkup on the farm?”

Garnet bowed politely. “Hello, Miss Applejack. And no, I’m not on duty today. You see, we had a human suddenly appear in Equestria and it seems he’s here to stay. He’s a little timid at the moment, however, so I wanted to take him out and show him around Ponyville to meet some of the ponies.”

The mare looked over to me. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you! My name’s Applejack, and you are…?” She held out a hoof towards me.

I had no idea what to do with it. I sat there and stared for a moment as I looked between Applejack and the outstretched hoof.

“You can shake it,” Garnet said quietly. “It’s not considered offensive.”

I reached out and tentatively wrapped my hand around the end of the hoof. Before I could so much as move a muscle the mare’s hoof was violently rocking up and down and she had a big smile on her face.

“Trent,” I spluttered out. “Trent Phillip.”

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Trent. Me and my brother were just about to go check on the orchards, ain’t that right, Big Macintosh?”

As though on cue, a stallion at least a head taller than Applejack with a red coat and a green apple cutie mark came out from the other side of the door. He came up to me and looked me up and down before nodding. “Eeyup,” he said, also extending a hoof.

I shook the stallion’s hand as well, though he was calmer and didn’t violently shake me around with it. Eventually his hoof dropped and my hand let go and I stood there staring at them with a lack of anything to say.

“You’re the one that supposedly came from the Everfree, aincha?” Applejack asked.

I looked over to Garnet, who mimicked tugging at his own throat subtly enough that Applejack didn’t see him do it. I looked back over to the mare and her brother. “…yes…”

“Don’t you worry about it,” Applejack said. “Big Mac said he saw the explosion outside the forest and not in it. My brother ain’t one to lie, and you certainly don’t look like no monster that comes from there.”

“Nope,” ‘Big Mac’ agreed, shaking his head.

Garnet heaved a sigh of relief, though no one else noticed as we started walking through the orchards. “Course my little sister Apple Bloom came home from school and talked about it non-stop. She and her little friends are around here somewhere, but I ain’t botherin’ with them right now.”

“Um… AJ,” Big Macintosh spoke up. “Wasn’t Apple Bloom supposed to be headin’ over to Sweetie Belle’s for a project?”

“Oh, they’ll just come and use the tree house out here and that’s fine,” Applejack responded to her brother before looking over to me. “So, Trent, what do you think of Ponyville so far?”

I shrugged. “It’s nice. The air is cleaner than back home and the food seems fresher, too.”

“Well, I would have expected you to be a bit more talkative than that,” Applejack said as she walked over to a tree. She jumped on the trunk and started looking at the flowers. “Last few times we had a human come through here they just kept askin’ questions. One spent a whole day here at the farm askin’ about my fruit and our locally renowned apple pies and fritters. Should send you and Garnet home with a couple if I remember.”

“Forgive me for my relative quiet, Miss Applejack. It’s just the whole transition happened quite suddenly and I’m not even sure how I got here, and I’m less inclined to believe I am.”

“Don’t worry yourself too much,” Big Macintosh said. “Ponyville is normally a friendly place. Shouldn’t have too much trouble settlin’ in.”

“Normally,” Garnet spoke up. “The commotion even two days after he arrived I think might have been a bit much for him. He’s looked at as a monster around town.”

“This quiet colt?” Applejack said, motioning to me as she raised herself up on another tree. “He looks more like a filly that can’t find its mother.” She suddenly grimaced and a blush appeared on her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “You’re nicer than most I’ve met.”

“Well, thank you kindly,” Applejack said, still blushing. “Anywho, who else have you met around town?”

There was a rustling in the bushes next to me, but when I looked over to see what was there I couldn’t find anything. “Um… I stopped by Sugarcube Corner and met the Cakes. And there was the Captain who—”

“Sugarcube Corner? Please tell me you didn’t meet Pinkie Pie…”

Garnet scratched the back of his head with a hoof. “Um… he might have gotten a direct blast from the party cannon.”

Applejack gasped. “Oh dear lord…” she said. “’S a miracle you’re still standin’. I’ve heard stories about some folk who come through here and get thrown across buildin’s cause of that thing.”

“Well, he wasn’t thrown, but he was flung backwards a foot or two.”

“Oh, well, hopefully others aren’t so rough with you.”

“If you count standing back at a minimum of ten feet,” I said, “then yes the others haven’t been as rough.”

Applejack nodded but quickly smiled again and turned the conversation to a happier topic. “Well, this here is all part of Sweet Apple Acres. We’re one of the biggest farms in Ponyville and we grow almost all the apples and make almost all the apple juice and cider for the town.”

“Cider…? Like fermented or…?”

“We have two kinds here. We have a normal one we sell to the public, but a few barrels go to the local places that are fermented.”

“Ah. So how long until—”

“HIYA!”

The shout stopped the conversation still. “What was that?” I asked.

“There he is!” came another shout from off in the distance. “Let’s get him!”

“…oh, no…” Applejack said.

“I told you you should have—”

“Don’t get started on that now, Big Macintosh! Just find out where they are!”

The bushes nearby us crashed open and I saw a yellow, an orange, and a white blur come out at me. I didn’t even have time to duck before a brown blue joined them and went straight for my head. Thankfully, whatever the trajectory was caused it to hit me square in the chest instead of my head and I was thrown backwards yet again, this time aware of the fact that the brown blur was now going in the opposite direction. It wasn’t long before I slammed into a tree and slowly collapsed to the ground, feeling dizzy.

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS MONSTER TA—”

“Apple Bloom!” I heard Applejack shout as my vision refocused itself. “I told you not to go around doin’ stuff like that! It’s dangerous!”

“I’m sorry, Applejack,” came the voice like that of a young girl. “It wasn’t my idea, though. It was Scootaloo’s.”

“Huh, what?” This voice was another young girl’s, but was deeper and rougher. “You went along with it too, Apple Bloom. Anyway, Applejack, we were just playing.”

“Playin’ should not involve hitting things on the head with… with…” Applejack scanned the area and picked up the wooden object that had bounced off me earlier. “…with wooden swords.”

My vision had refocused enough to see the scene. Garnet was looking me over and making sure I wasn’t injured. Big Macintosh had a young filly with a yellow coat, a red mane and bow, by her neck with his teeth though he wasn’t injuring her. There was another orange pegasus filly with a purple mane sitting in front of Applejack, while a third unicorn filly with a bright white coat and a light purple mane was looking at me.

“Sorry, Mister Human,” the unicorn filly was telling me. “It was just supposed to be something fun; I didn’t think we’d actually hit you.”

“You should still know better,” Big Macintosh said through the filly in his teeth.

“Alright. I’ll be tellin’ Rarity about this, Sweetie Belle,” Applejack said, looking over to the unicorn filly nearby. “Meanwhile, I thought you three had a project you should be workin’ on for school. Go to the clubhouse, pack up your things, and head on over to Sweetie Belle’s like you were supposed to.”

“Yes, Applejack,” the three fillies said in unison and trotted off across the orchard.

“Are you okay?” Garnet asked.

I nodded. “Had the wind knocked out of me. Better off than I was with Pinkie, though.”

Our walk through the orchards stopped there. We went back to the house and Applejack served us all a piece of apple pie (even gave me a fork) and a glass of apple juice.

“Sorry if it’s a little under quality,” Applejack said as we all sat down around the table in the Apple family kitchen. “It’s the last couple of batches before the new blossoms turn into first fruits.”

“Tastes better than most I’ve had back home,” I said, taking a bite of the pie, a buttery and flaky crust with a sweet and cinnamon-y apple filling.

“I know it ain’t enough to make up for what happened out there,” Applejack said, sitting down herself now that everyone else had been served and was eating.

“So, who were those fillies?”

“That was my little sister, Apple Bloom, along with two friends of hers from school,” Applejack replied. “They made a little club since they don’t have their cutie marks quite yet and go off and do all sorts of little things, tryin’ to get their cutie marks while they’re playin’.”

“Called the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’,” Big Macintosh replied.

“Are they normally…” I paused, trying to think of a word.

“Hyper?” Applejack guessed. “Yes. Their energy comes together and it seems only breakin’ them apart in the evenings will make them stop.”

“No. I meant, um… what’s the word… energetic?”

“…ain’t that the same thing?” Applejack said.

“I think he’s asking about why they hit him,” Big Macintosh said quietly. “Aren’t you?”

I nodded.

“It probably was influence from the other fillies in town and being nearby to where all the panic was,” Big Macintosh continued. “They are quite excitable, and will get into almost anything with gusto. Might have been an attempt to look brave when they go back to school.”

“I’ll need to have a talk with that silly filly about where she got those ideas,” Applejack commented. “It ain’t right. It’s like that town’s got a sort of group think mentality. Normally that’s a good this, but this…”

“It’s alright, Applejack,” I said, poking at the pie more than I was eating it. “It’s not your fault.”

Garnet said nothing, but I could see the look of guilt on his face. I kind of understood it, but I didn’t ask him about it.

We left Sweet Apple Acres with a pie and a few fritters, Garnet saying he had some of the Apple family apple juice back at home. I ended up riding him halfway home due to possibility of a concussion, but got off him and walked through town to his house. Garnet took the pie and the fritters and placed them in the kitchen while I walked over to and sat on the couch. Garnet came over and sat down next to me a few moments later.

“…I’m sorry.”

“There was nothing you could have done, either.”

“Yeah, but… I’ve just been sending you places where someone has been a little high-strung and something happens to you. I’ve tried showing you some of the best of Ponyville, but every time it just seems like it goes downhill.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” I told him. For a while, neither of us said anything, so I spoke up. “I’m doing enough of that myself.”

I felt a wing wrap around me and Garnet’s head on my shoulder.

I don’t even remember how long I let it stay there.

4 - Wrecking Ball

The next three days we stayed at home. I didn’t want to go anywhere, and Garnet probably felt bad enough about the last experience at Sweet Apple Acres that he was likely recovering from the guilt.

Two of those days Garnet stayed at home with me since he had the weekends off. We played chess on an old wooden set that Garnet owned. It surprisingly wasn’t that different only that the “king” was a “sun” piece, the “queen” was a “moon” piece, and the bishop was a “heart” piece. It was a decent time-waster, as I was searching for moves three spaces ahead but Garnet was able to quickly counter and games sometimes exceeded the two hour mark from us countering moves back and forth and making things unpredictable.

On the third day, Garnet went back to the offices. Apparently they needed him for some extra paperwork that had to be done that day, so I had free range of the house. I was told what food was available but that eventually we’d have to take a trip to the market and that Twilight would be coming around later that day. He made me an egg and wished me farewell and for the first time in nearly a week I was by myself.

I quickly figured out the radio and started scanning through stations. The three biggest were the classical music channel, a rock music channel, and an electronic dance station. I set it to the rock music station after finding I liked the music it played and went over to the book shelf to find a way to entertain myself. A book with a cover containing a pegasus mare dressed up like an archaeologist appealed to me, and I sat myself down and read it.

The book itself was quite good, but the entire experience of reading it was surreal. I frequently got lost in it to the point I looked up to check where that my position had not changed; repeatedly looking out the window, I found it hadn’t, but I was still in the place I still considered a dream. It was like I was reading a fantasy novel while living in a fantasy novel. A story within another story.

Around noon, there was a knock on the door. I grabbed a slip of paper and marked my place in the book before heading to see who was there. I opened the small window in the door and looked outside to see Princess Twilight standing outside, smiling at me and carrying a small bag in her mouth and a large parcel on her back. I opened the door for her and let her inside.

“Can’t you carry those with your magic?” I asked her as she set the bag down on the counter.

“I tend to chat if I do that,” Twilight said. “And as much as I love talking with the other ponies here, I do have an appointment in a while.”

I nodded. “Do you want to take a seat or are you heading out soon?”

“I can stay for a little while,” Twilight said. “I have to meet someone nearby anyway.”

I sat down on the couch. Twilight grabbed the bag again, this time with her magic, and brought it over to me. “I wasn’t sure if you had eaten anything, so I packed you something special.”

She gave me the bag and I opened it. Inside was a small plastic bowl with cover containing a salad with a sweet vinaigrette dressing and something inside it that I couldn’t make out. I went over to the kitchen and grabbed a fork and returned to the couch as Twilight sorted through the contents of the box. I tasted the salad and immediately felt a familiar taste come into my mouth.

“Is this chicken!?” I asked with delight. “I didn’t think I’d ever taste meat again.”

“It is, actually,” Twilight said. “There are some proteins we need that can’t be found in vegetables so we occasionally have meat. It’s expensive since we only need it in small quantities, but I can get these from the local farmers who let the animals die naturally. They’re cut and cleaned so only the edible pieces remain. I thought you might like it, and the farmers will appreciate the extra money coming in, too.”

I smiled at the purple uni-alicorn. “Thanks, Twilight,” I said. “The rest of it tastes good, too.”

“Thought you might like it,” Twilight said. “At least you seem to be well-fed. Anyway…” Twilight passed over the box with her magic. “These are the clothes that came in. I’ve got a few pairs of regular t-shirts, some button-up collar shirts, some pants and socks and underwear, and figured an extra pair of shoes and a set of sandals might help you out.”

I looked through the clothes. I laid the shirts up against me and found they all were the perfect size, as were the pants and shoes. “How did you find out my size?”

“I went over to the Office of the Guard and looked at your profile,” Twilight replied casually. “It included a height and weight, but I had to guess on the neck size and the shoe size. I placed a special order to the tailor in Manehattan the day after the report came in from Celestia; figured you’d need them quickly if you were staying…” Twilight’s voice faded out as though she was hesitant to continue.

I neatly folded the clothes and put them back in the box, having nowhere else to put them, and set the box aside. I picked up the bowl of salad and the fork and continued eating.

“So, how have you been getting along here?” Twilight asked.

“Alright, I guess,” I replied. “I met the Cakes and the Apple family a few days ago, and they’re reasonably nice. Applejack sent us home with an apple pie after we visited her. But I keep getting strange looks from the other ponies in town. They’re all still afraid of me.”

Twilight frowned. “I’m surprised they’ve held the grudge that long,” she commented. “I would have figured they would have calmed down now that they’ve seen you with the guard.”

“Not the case, apparently. And the Apple family seemed to only be calm because they saw the explosion that brought me here outside of the Everfree forest and not from within, while the Cakes were busy enough not to be with the panicked masses that saw me arrive.”

Twilight shrugged. “It’s a start.”

“Yeah, but five days later and I still have everyone looking at me like I’m a monster. Heck, I was over at Applejack’s when three fillies attacked me while playing some ‘monster tamer’ game. Knocked the wind out of me.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “Oh, dear…” she said. “Even the fillies are getting in on the paranoia?”

“What can you do at that age but to teach them?” I asked. “Not exactly an easy thing to do when all the adults feel the same way.”

“Well, besides the fillies and the other ponies so far, has Garnet been treating you well?”

“It’s nice to know he’s supportive of me. He always makes sure I’m comfortable, well-fed, and is there for the moral support. I think he kind of feels bad about how the others are treating me, though. He occasionally blames the hate and paranoia on himself.”

“What about you?” I stopped putting a bite of the salad in my mouth as she asked this question. “Where do you think the blame lies?”

I didn’t know what to say. I found the book about the archaeologist sitting on the coffee table and picked it up. “I’ve been reading this book today. It’s good, but it’s clear it’s supposed to be a fantasy novel.”

“The series is a personal favorite of mine,” Twilight said proudly. “I own all nine books. And they’re all very fascinating. The sort of book you can get lost in for hours. I can complete most of them in a day.”

I studied the book for a moment longer. “To me, it felt surreal reading it. Like I was reading the fantasy novel while living a fantasy novel.” I sighed and put the book back on the table while Twilight’s expression changed. “I guess it hasn’t hit me that I can’t return.”

“I thought it did already,” Twilight said. “I mean, there was the breakdown at the library, the running out to the field to see if anything remained…”

“But that was only denial,” I said. “I couldn’t believe I was stuck here. I still can’t believe that I’m stuck here, that there is no way to return home.” I set the salad down and threw my hands in the air. “I mean, half of me is saying ‘You are dreaming, Trent Phillip’ even as I’m talking to you.”

Twilight had a blank stare for a moment as though unsure of how to process it. Eventually I saw a small shimmer in her purple eyes. One of her hooves reached for my hands and touched it. It was weird, as I could feel the harder bone of the side wall and the softer skin and fur of the sole as she grabbed my hand with her groove. She lifted my hand and placed it against the side of her face. It was odd; it felt warm and soft, and I could feel the heat from her cheek in addition to the warmth of the magical energy in her.

“Is this real?” she asked me. “What do you feel?”

“I feel the softness of your coat,” I said. “I feel the warmth of your cheek, and even the magical energy you have inside you. I can even feel the bone of your hoof grabbing me around the wrist.”

“Is that not real?” Twilight asked me.

I started at her for a while, then frowned myself. “You are a librarian and a princess. Surely you must have read somewhere that the mind can play complicated tricks on a person… pony, rather.” I released my hand from the grip of her hoof. “It won’t take something that simple to realize the possibility of me being at home or just being knocked out is a possibility.”

Twilight shrugged. “I suppose not,” she said.

There was a long moment of silence between us. I finished eating the salad and took the bowl, lid, and fork over to the sink. I rinsed the bowl and lid and put them in the bag, and cleaned the fork before putting it away. Twilight remained on the couch while I did this, and remained sitting as I took the bag and brought it back over to the couch.

“Thanks for the salad,” I said.

Twilight nodded.

“So, why are you over here?” I asked.

“Well,” Twilight said, taking a deep breath, “a contractor is coming out here. We’re going over specifics for building a house for you, to hopefully be completed in about a month or two.”

I nodded. “Am I going to have to pay for this house at all?”

Twilight shook her head. “Celestia is. She sent me a letter saying that I was to make the plans with the contractor for a house that would fit you and put it in the area of Garnet’s house. You don’t have to pay a thing, since technically you and the house would be considered government property.”

I fiddled with the bottom of my shirt for a while.

Twilight eventually sighed and got up, levitating the bag with her magic. “Well, I suppose I should go. The contractor said he’d be around to check out the site in a few minutes. I hope things go more in your favor.”

I nodded. “Thanks Twilight. For doing all this for me. I don’t know how I can repay you.”

Twilight smiled. “You don’t have to.” She got up on her back legs and threw her front legs around me in an awkward sort of hug, which I returned. We stayed like that for a few seconds before she got back down and headed for the door. I opened it for her. “Don’t be a stranger, Trent. You can come around the library any time you need help.”

“Thanks again, Twilight.”

With that, she left.

And I felt more alone than I did before.

* * *

I looked at the stack of papers on the counter, a cup of warm tea in my hand. There were three sheets in the stack, all sort of fanned out. The skillet on the stove started to sizzle with the sound of oil and vegetables as I looked up to Garnet.

“…this is what you were out doing?” I asked him, still looking out at the papers.

“I actually returned half an hour later than I normally do,” Garnet said, taking out a long wooden spoon.

It was a few minutes after five. Garnet must have gotten off at four thirty, as he immediately started cooking dinner when he got home. I picked up the stack of papers and shook them at him; I don’t think he saw it. “…you think this will help me out?”

“Maybe getting a job will give you something to do. Even if it’s not the thing you want to do, it would take your mind off the fact that you’re, well… here.”

Garnet began to stir the vegetables as I looked over the papers. Another pan with rice, egg, corn, and carrot cubes was boiling, and the oven was on containing something that I was unaware of. “Let’s see…” I set down all the papers except the top one, plain white with black typing. “‘Opening within the Ponyville Guard. Must be capable of performing forensic duties and have decent physical strength for patrol. Paperwork may be involved. Starting pay at 17 bits per hour plus benefits.’ I could do the forensic part. I don’t know about the physical, though.”

“They said it’ll be two to three months of training,” Garnet said. “I had to do six, but since you’re a little different, so are the rules.”

I set the paper off to the side and picked up the next one, a pink paper with blue writing. “‘Opening at Sugarcube Corner. Need assistant to help with mixing and baking various pastries. On-the-job training provided. Need to be able to stand up all day and work within close quarters. Starting pay at 10 bits per hour.’” I tossed it aside. “Not if that Pinkie’s gonna be there.”

“Oh, please,” Garnet said as he used the spoon to now stir the pan with rice. “You’re not telling me you’re going to decline just because of Pinkie are you?”

“Look, I get she’s nice, but she’s a little too hyper for me. You yourself said she was like having the combined energy of six ponies.”

Garnet stopped stirring his vegetables for a moment. “Fair enough,” he admitted.

I pulled over the final sheet of paper. “‘Opening at the Ponyville Post Office. Need a ground worker to allow more pegasi for long-distance deliveries. Must be able to lift weights and walk around for long periods of time. Starting pay at 14 bits per hour plus benefits.’ Great, a job that would bring me out among the ponies that hate me.”

“Oh, the post office ponies were some of the most agreeable ones I met. Two in particular, a stallion named Care Package and a mare named Der—”

“The way you introduced that implied there were a fair amount that weren’t so agreeable.”

“Oh, they were to me. But I had at least five places if not more turn me down.”

“What were they?”

Garnet sighed. “The local music store denied me because they didn’t have an open position available despite the sign on the outside. A construction guild denied because they weren’t willing to teach you. The mayor’s offices denied me because you would cause a scandal if seen there. The local flower shop denied me because they bluntly stated they didn’t want you there, as did a potential position at a local sandwich shop.”

I took my turn to sigh. “I suspect they were all just plain scared of me and didn’t want me there.”

Garnet shrugged as he opened the oven. “I suspect so.” He didn’t appear satisfied and closed the oven before turning off the vegetables. “Still, those three I got were some of the better ones out there. I mean, the guard has benefits and protection, the mail is government-related and allows for fast progression, and the bakery was… well, available.”

“Thank you for the vote of confidence,” I deadpanned.

Garnet rolled his eyes. “Do any of them look interesting?”

“The guard position has traces of what I was originally doing, but that’s about it. I’m still not sure about the physical part, though.”

Garnet opened the oven and used his hooves to pull out a tray from inside. In the tray were four strips of what looked like oven roasted chicken breasts, covered in a dark brown sauce. “The training would help you. You’ve got strong legs, it looks like, so all we’d need to do is work on upper body strength, which we can do some of here.”

Garnet and I sat down on the table. Garnet arranged two plates of vegetables and rice before placing a piece of the ‘chicken’ on the rice. “What is that?”

“Meat substitute,” Garnet said. “All the proteins of meat without most of the guilt. I dress it up with herbs and sauce to help the taste, though.”

I took the knife that Garnet gave me and cut off a small piece of it. It tasted like a barely dressed up vegetable, but the sauce helped, as did pairing it with rice. It also felt a little heartier than most of what I’d eaten minus the salad Twilight had given me earlier.

“Twilight came around with the clothes, did she?” Garnet asked.

I nodded. “Around noon or so. She was meeting with a contractor close by about designing a house for me and dropped them off on her way. Did she tell you about that at all today?”

Garnet nodded. “You haven’t changed into them yet?”

“I thought about it. I’ll finish today with these clothes since I don’t plan on wearing them anywhere. Also, I don’t exactly have a place to put them.”

“We can always just buy a set of drawers and place it in the bedroom.”

I let out a deep breath. “I’m assuming there isn’t another place to sleep other than the couch.”

“Not really,” Garnet said. “But the bed is more comfortable.”

I poked around the plate, eating a bite every once in a while.

“…are you okay?”

I didn’t answer.

“Trent, please, tell me.”

“I was looking at a book you had. One about an archaeologist that went after rare items.”

“Ah, the Daring Do series? Personal favorite of mine; I once got to see the author at a book signing she did at the local store. Was that you reading Quest for the Sapphire Stone there on the coffee table?”

“Yes. But… it was strange. I was reading what was clearly meant to be a fantasy novel, but every time I looked up…”

“…you thought you were living in one?”

I stared at him for a moment.

“Twilight told me about your little conversation this afternoon.”

I had to avert my eyes from his. They weren’t angry with me, but I still didn’t want to face him. Especially after I had practically insulted his home. I wasn’t sure why I didn’t want to. “Look, I mean no offense, but this whole place is just…” I got up from the table, ducked into the living room, and went over to the door. “I… I-I-I just feel like I should be in a dream.”

“What is there to convince you this is all a dream?” Garnet said, walking into the living room to meet me.

“Well, there’s magic everywhere you look, a bunch of talking horses, your history includes two beings that control the celestial objects, the weather is controlled by horses with wings, and your nearby local forest contains beings that apparently are considered monsters. If that doesn’t sound like the setting of a fantasy novel, I don’t know what is.”

“So then all those tears you’ve been crying weren’t real? They were just your mind playing tricks on you? How about the screaming? Or the explosion that brought you here?”

“The explosion was real!” I shouted at Garnet. He was setting me off more than normal, which probably ticked me off even more. “If it weren’t for that explosion, I wouldn’t be here right now, whether or not this was real or all just a dream!”

“If that explosion was real, then why can’t this be real, too? I mean every reason the town has to hate you is because you appeared in an explosion!”

“That could just be a construct! Something my mind created to seem more realistic!”

“Oh, so I’m a construct, am I!? Well, then, why don’t you go and hit me and we’ll see how it feels when you have a hoof against your face?”

“You wouldn’t dare! You’re an officer of the Guard. You’re supposed to keep the peace!”

“I am completely willing to use force to maintain that peace.” Garnet was no longer shouting but every word dripped with anger like I’d never heard before.

“Oh, really? Then how come you aren’t using force?”

“Well, to be quite frank, I thought you weren’t a monster. But it seems I was wrong. You’re not a monster in looks, but your quick temper and constant piss-poor attitude is enough to make you a monster in itself.”

My mouth dropped but for a long time I couldn’t even speak to respond. I spluttered and stuttered but couldn’t even make a full sentence. “Why you… I c-c-can’t even… how could you even… why d-did you…”

Garnet didn’t say anything else. I gave an annoyed grunt and walked over to the door and heaved it open, watching him the whole time.

I finally regained my voice. “Well, if this is a dream, then perhaps Twilight has been lying to me this entire time, as well! You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to go over to the library and expose it for the lie it is! I’m going to get her to send me back with her magic, or potentially go to this Celestia she mentioned, since someone around here in this fantasy novel must be able to wake me up!” I turned around to leave.

“Trent, wait…!”

I turned back around. “I’m not waiting with you any longer! So long, Ga—”

I was on my floor on my back in less than a second, staring up at the ceiling.

I had forgotten that the doors were too small for me normally, and in my haste to leave had slammed against the wall and frame of the door. I lost balance before I even realized what I was doing and fell, leaving staring at the ceiling with a gaping mouth and barely able to see Garnet behind me with a hoof up to his face in horror.

I took a minute to come to my senses. I was still breathing, my heart was pounding, and I hadn’t passed out. But I did feel a warm sensation on my head, followed by the feel of a liquid beginning to slowly drip down my forehead. Unbelievingly, I pulled a hand up and put it to my head, dipping it in the liquid on my head and put it in front of my face to see what it was.

“I… I’m bleeding…”

There was no question about it. My fingertips were stained red, and from the feel of it there was more leaking out. I raised my head a little and looked up at the doorframe, normally a plain wood, was also stained with dark red streaks.

Garnet finally regained his motion. “…oh my god!” I heard his hoofsteps retreating, followed by the sound of running water. It wasn’t long before he was back over and my head was placed under a pillow and a warm rag on my head. I could see his blue eyes over mine, but they barely registered as his hoof pressed down gently on the rag on my forehead.

“Trent… Trent, are you okay? Trent, please answer me! Don’t you pass out on me!”

I blinked a few times, but I wasn’t sure what to say. It wasn’t long before I could feel the tears, but they weren’t of pain. Or maybe they were. I couldn’t tell.

Garnet left, closed the front door, then came back with a long piece of white cloth that had been dunked in some sort of liquid. It stung as he put it around my forehead, and I could only guess it was some sort of alcohol. Garnet didn’t stop until the cloth went from my eyebrows to my hairline, and even then he reinforced it by wrapping it around a few more times for thickness.

“Can you sit up?”

I did as he asked, and after I seemingly refused to walk he dragged me over to the couch and sat me up.

“I… uh… I-I’m going to go call the nurse. I’ll be right back. Um… stay… stay there.”

That wasn’t hard to do. I was barely responding to anything by the time that Garnet returned with two ponies in white caps, one the nurse pony that had met me in the office of the Guard, and another that was a brown unicorn with an x-ray cutie mark.

“How long ago did he hit his head?” the doctor asked.

“About twenty minutes ago,” Garnet replied as a light shined in my eye. I blinked from the brightness as he continued. “We were in a sort of argument then he whirled around and smacked his head on the door frame.”

The doctor nodded then looked over to me. “How do you feel?”

I gestured to my forehead. “I feel warm… I can’t feel anything in my legs.”

“Can you walk?”

I tried moving my leg. It felt unresponsive. “…no.”

“What do you remember?”

“I slammed my head into the door and found I was bleeding. Garnet cleaned it and bandaged it before putting me on the couch.”

“Let’s have you lay down. I’ll just use my magic a—”

“Doctor.”

“Yes?”

“He is completely invincible to magic. It’s a strange condition because of his entry.”

“Oh… Well, then, help me lay him down on the couch.”

I shifted my body around while Garnet and the unicorn lifted my legs and placed them on the couch so that I was lying down with my head on a pillow on the arm and my legs dangling slightly off the couch. The doctor couldn’t use his magic on me, but he could use his magic on the bandage and proceeded to strip it clean. It was only then I saw how red and splotched the thing was.

“Wow…” the doctor said. “I’m surprised he doesn’t entirely have a concussion; he seems to be recovering. Is the clean bandage ready, Nurse Redheart?”

“Ready and available, doctor. Do you need to clean his forehead first?”

“Just the towel with water and cleaning agent should do. I don’t see anything in the wound, so he probably just hit it hard enough to puncture and scratch.”

The white nurse pony gave the unicorn a damp towel and once again my head was dabbed off and cleaned before another bandage was put on it. After the doctor was satisfied, I was left to lie down.

“You’re showing symptoms of acute stress disorder,” the brown unicorn said. “We’ll need to keep an eye on it for the next week or so in case it blossoms into the full disorder, but for now just keep it easy. Take the rest of the night to rest and hopefully you’ll start getting some feeling back into those legs by tomorrow morning. Nurse Redheart here is going to administer a steroid into your legs to help them out, but until then take pain medication and keep the bandages on your head clean.”

The white nurse pony quickly and painlessly put a large needle in my leg, cleaned it up and bandaged it. Then the brown unicorn and the white nurse left and I was back to being alone in the house with Garnet.

Garnet came and sat down next to me on the couch. “Are you okay?” he asked, seemingly choking on his own words.

I didn’t know what to say, except… “I’ve finally realized it’s not a dream.”

“How?”

“No one could experience pain like that and not be woken up from a dream. …I’m stuck here now, and nothing I can do can change that.”

Garnet closed his eyes and looked down. I turned my head slightly and could see tears dropping and staining the bright white coat. “I’m sorry I called you a monster. If I hadn’t lost my temper, none of this would have happened.”

I reached out and put a hand on his cheek. “It’s not all your fault,” I told him. “You’re right in that I’ve been rather negative despite how kind you’ve been to me. But even then, that wasn’t your fault either.”

Garnet nodded and lightly placed a hoof on my wrist. “It must be hard being torn away like that. One moment you’re in your lab and suddenly you’re in the middle of a field in a world inhabited by ponies. I don’t think I could ever imagine that happening to me.”

I just took a few deep breaths. Eventually, Garnet left and soon returned with a soft blanket, which he covered me with. I pulled it close as he came over and leaned his head on my chest.

“Garnet?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks. For everything so far.”

Garnet smiled. “So does this make us friends?”

I shrugged. “Why not? We’re already roommates; might as well get used to it.”

Garnet chuckled a little. It wasn’t a laughing matter to me, but I smiled along with him. Might as well accept the fact my former life is gone…