I honestly still don't know exactly what happened.
If you're reading this, then Equestria is probably in a very bad state or I left the journal somewhere again. Wouldn't be the first time either. The first thing you need to know is I'm not from this world. If I could explain more I would but the events surrounding mine and my friend's arrival were by sheer luck, or by our standards, bad luck.
I should probably start at the beginning here. I was studying a certain kind of magic within the confines of my laboratory at Redmont Academy, in the human world. The lab was a pretty good one. An air conditioner sat right above the ceiling, pumping cold air into the room at all times to create controlled temperature conditions. There's no windows in it as there's some photosensitive, or light reactant, materials in the room. Uncontrolled light would cause potential danger as some of these materials could explode upon contact with certain varieties of plasma, the energy kind not the blood kind. Luckily those items were sealed away behind a steel door located much deeper in the lab. The lab itself has a ton of equipment for all sorts of procedures. It even has an x-ray machine; I never got why that was there in the first place nobody had used it at all. I wore a green sweatshirt combined with black sweatpants that day, or more accurately whenever I worked in the lab. I was usually the only one in there when I was doing my studies, as the other students didn't exactly like me. I dreaded leaving the lab because my glasses get fogged up upon entering a warmer area. I had set up two lights in opposing corners of the room; and set two cards at a distance in front of each bulb to create a shadow in the opposing corners. I also had a glass of water on a table near the door; experimentation is thirsty work. You might ask why I did that with the lights; well what I had in mind was one of the reasons people fear the dark.
This magic under the right circumstances could be either the most deadly thing ever wielded, or the greatest tool of peace. It focuses around controlling shadows using four different aspects. Camouflage, bending a shadow to cover your entire body, rendering you invisible. Manipulation, being able to move shadows or literally rip them from the ground for later use. Weaponization, turning picked up shadows into weapons or using those on the ground for weapons. Travel, the art of going through one shadow and appearing in another. It seems powerful, I know, but for all of these aspects, heavy restrictions lie in place to block out potential misuse.
I had recently finished mastering camouflage, it only took about five years for me, and started studying the travel aspect, hoping at the very least to be able to get to my dorm room and my laboratory without any troubles from the campus bullies. Studying certain kinds of magic here, such as any kind of healing or defensive magic, makes you a target to them. They viewed this sort of magic as wimpy and non-manly. Of course this meant they would avoid the girls when it came down to it but they had their troubles to deal with and their own kind of bullying. I wasn't really an exception to this bullying as I studied a magic not normally found, so I stood out as different to them. They'd attempt to heckle me in the hallways, steal my stuff, and sometimes booby-trap the door to my dorm room. The only issue I foresaw wasn't them actually. It was more the fact that it would most likely take me beyond my study program at the academy.
See, shadow magic has minimum times one must study it to master different aspects but students rarely ever take the minimum time, they usually go way over it. From what I've heard, only prodigies take the minimum time on the aspects and even then, they have troubles with the final part.
Getting ahead of myself again. My apologies. I was working through some of the texts I found and decided to attempt one of the most basic travels. It was supposed to be from one side of the room to the other, using shadows created from the light of the lamps. This was all good and probably would've worked well had events not taken a sudden turn.
The door slammed open right as I was about to step through the shadow, my concentration was broken, and the water glass I had set near the door splashed on the ground as I heard an excited voice.
"Josh! I just got the latest book in the Ranger's Apprentice ser-"
"Did you not notice the do-not-disturb sign, Dylan?!"
My friend stopped in his tracks, apparently aware that he, in fact, did see it and entirely ignored it. He did that on numerous and frequent occasions. I really should have begun to expect it a long time ago. He had brown messy hair and usually wore whatever he felt like. Today it appeared he felt like wearing a black sweatshirt accompanied by the same colored sweatpants. Not exactly good materials as it was the middle of summer and he was one of those that enjoyed going outside.
"Uhhhh. Nope didn't see it," He replied with a cheeky grin. He never understood when delicate experiments were taking place.
"Well at the very least... I'm lucky you didn't do that when I stepped into the shadow," I replied, covering my face with my hand in annoyance.
He looked a bit confused. His head tilted and he put his hand to his chin, apparently thinking deeply. He knew that I'd been studying shadow magic. However he was going for a different degree, namely he wanted to learn more healing-oriented magic than stealth. Because of this, he never paid attention when I told him what the potential consequences were for messing up on shadow magic.
"Why would that be? I mean nothing bad could've happened right?" he asked. It was a fair question but it would have been better had I not already told him three separate times in the last week.
"It actually could've been disastrous. Unlike the other aspects this one is a bit more unforgiving with the consequences. If I lose my concentration during the spell process, I'll be warped to a random point in space. It could be five feet from here, or it could be an entirely different dimension," I replied with a cold stare.
That's why most students didn't like me. I was cold, calculating, filled to the brim with logical deductions around things not concerning magic, and I generally didn't fit in. I didn't mind at the time, I thought the less students bugging me the better. I was the only student studying shadow magic in the school. Mainly due to people generalizing and thinking shadow and dark magic were one and the same when they couldn't be more different. Though the little incidents I accidentally caused while studying camouflage probably had something to do with it as well. However, I wouldn't put myself in the prodigious category. I am good at it but I don't think I'm anywhere near the best.
Dylan was really my only friend there. We shared a dorm room and it was near impossible to live in the same room as that guy and not become friends. I had caused many others to request dorm room changes in the past, but he was determined to not give up. I guess that's what made him unique among the other students. His cheery demeanor, naturally friendly personality, and his never-give-up attitude definitely made him a friend for the ages.
"Fine fine, I'll get out of your hair for now. Lemme know how it goes alright?" he gave a cheery smile, then turned and left the room.
"Alright. See you." I turned back towards the shadow and started focusing again. My hands started glowing with the black aura that I'd come to associate with shadow magic and as I stepped in, Murphy's law took effect again. Dylan barged in the door again, yelling something about remembering to lock the door to our dormitory room. In his haste he slipped in the puddle of water and crashed into me. I lost my concentration again and it was too late for me to back out. We were both headed into the shadow. Whether or not we'd make it out alive was not certain.
"........ke up......"
"... you..... strange....."
"Josh! Wake up!"
My head shot up at the voice shouting in my ear. "I'm up... I'm up. Did I miss breakfast again?" I looked around trying to gather my bearings and saw something familiar, but at the same time something was off about it. I was inside a forest, which seemed to be safe at the moment but I wasn't too sure. The trees seemed a bit off-color from what I was used to, and a bit more crooked as well. Thorny vines were scattered here and there throughout the edges of the clearing I'd woken up in and if I listened carefully, I could have sworn I heard roaring off in the distance. The area was unnaturally clean and looking back on it, if I had been in a clear state of mind then I would've been able to easily pick up that this area had been visited before and quite frequently. Apart from the occasional twig and leaves it was spotless, well except for the dirt on the ground of course. The trees were also blocking out most light, leaving me to use the little bit of light I had to make out shapes in the darkness. I quickly shook my head before focusing back to what had woken me up. The voice that yelled in my ear had been Dylan's, I'm sure of it. However I couldn't see him anywhere.
"Hey! Get a grip, man! Something's gone really wrong!"
I looked over to my right where the voice was coming from and nearly leapt out of my skin. Right there was a brown unicorn with a white-grey mane. In all honesty it didn't look like what we'd learned unicorns to be. From what we learned, they resembled horses just with a horn. This one looked more cartoony in nature, having a larger head, larger eyes, which were green for that matter, and his mane and coat didn't match up in the way I expected them too. What surprised me even more was the fact that Dylan's voice seemed to be coming from it. My eyes widened a bit and my voice failed me.
"Wait, can you actually understand me? Come on say something." his voice started picking up more traces of fear, such as quaking and a semblance that he might begin to cry. I couldn't blame him for that, I felt that way myself.
"I... I... How?" I heard my own voice stutter out that simple, but important question.
"I-I don't know. I woke up and you were like that. I tried walking around this clearing but I can't get more than three steps before falling"
Wait, what was that? I didn't understand for a bit. What did he mean by 'you were like that'? When I directed my gaze back at him, I asked the simple question, "What?"
In response, the unicorn stepped forward, reached out a hoof, and tapped something above my eyes. As I looked upwards, I saw a grey horn on my forehead. Before I could jump in surprise, my eyes shot down to see grey hooves as well. My mind clicked, finally putting the pieces together... This other unicorn was Dylan. We'd both changed form. My mind started randomly flashing through different scenarios and I heard my own voice start senselessly babbling. I didn't understand what I was saying and I'm fairly certain Dylan didn't either. How could this have happened? Where could we be? More importantly, how could we be turned into unicorns? Finally, after about 15 minutes, I was able to bite down on my tongue to stem the stream of babble. I looked up at Dylan.
"H-hey, you alright, Josh?" he asked.
"I... I don't know... How could this happen? Where are we anyways?" I said, looking around the clearing again, hoping to find something familiar. Anything at all.
Dylan replied, his voice beginning to tremble a bit. "W-well you said that travel failures sent you to a random point in space, r-right? Maybe this is another planet?" He didn't mention the transformation point, but I guessed he thought that magic could transform a human into another creature upon entering the atmosphere. While there were spells that allowed this, they had to be set right on the fringes of the atmosphere. Trying to have them affect the entirety of the atmosphere would not be possible under any circumstances, not even a surge of power. I started thinking it over. Given that I was in a state of shock it took a bit for me to reach a conclusion. It might make sense that we were in another planet, but we wouldn't have been transformed. I shook my head before turning to reply to him, "No. If that were the case we'd still be human. My guess is that we're in another dimension. There's no documents on what happens when magic is mixed with dimensional travel so I can't be sure. One thing is certain, however. We were lucky. It could have been worse. Much worse."
He regarded me a bit coldly before making a reply. His confusion and fear seemed to be replaced by a bit of anger. "How much worse could it have been than this? We are unicorns.. It's like I'm trapped in a little girl's show."
I stifled a laugh at this. Of course he'd make that connection. However it wasn't the time for levity. I needed to explain why before he decided to plant a hoof in my face. "Remember when I said random point in space? I meant that literally. We could've appeared in outer space and instantly died. At least here we have a chance to get home. Right?"
Dylan's anger didn't subside, but he managed to hide it a bit better at this. He thought things over before speaking again and I could tell he was working hard not to return to his panic mode. "So, how do we even get home?"
"I have no idea, however if we find our way out of this forest, we might be able to find someone who can help," I responded quickly. One of his eyebrows shot up as he heard this.
"How did you work this out?"
"I'd say common sense, but I don't think that's an adequate explanation. We can't be the only ones here, someone else has to be in this world, otherwise this clearing wouldn't be so clean. I'd guess that people or unicorns pass through here frequently so they clear away any debris." I replied, it was obvious that I was panicking a little as well, my voice was quaking slightly. Given that I was in that state, I'm surprised I was able to make that logical deduction.
"I guess that makes some sense. Although here it's kind of hard to make sense of anything. Do you have any ideas? I don't see any way we could find our way outside of the forest. No paths or trails to follow. Not even a view of the sky to see the sun or moon."
I started looking around again at the clearing, getting one small idea. However it didn't deal with getting out of this place.
"Admittedly I don't have any right now. However if we're going to be getting out of here, I think we need to figure out how these new forms work. Somehow I get the feeling that I'm going to fall flat on my face if I try walking any amount of distance like this."
