Chapters Author's Note
I FUCKED UP HORRIBLY! When I first released this I uploaded the wrong version that had the first draft and the final product.
What I usually do is copy and paste the draft over and rewrite it, I guess I got lazy and did a real bad... oops.
So if you read this before. Please re-read it as I believe I've fixed and and all errors.
-Zyks
Prologue: How It Starts
If you want to test a man’s true character, give him power. -Abraham Lincoln
We see a man walking down the long roads of his college campus, simply trying to get to his next class before the lecture started. His feet kept dragging on the ground as his tired eyes kept wandering around his environment. He looked at the calming, smooth waves of the Autumn trees as their leafless arms were freely flowing with the cool wisps of the air.
He was so seemingly distracted with the world around him that he failed to notice a girl on her bike rapidly approaching him. It wasn’t until she yelled for him to move that he finally took his eye off that emaculous tree to see the full force of a bike about to hit him head on.
He fell flat on his back and cursed underneath his breath as he felt his chest swell up with pain. Hardly a second later, the girl was on top of him, making sure that he was completely fine and that she didn’t seriously harm him. In his mind, he felt like yelling at the girl, berating her, for being stupid enough to not pull on the breaks.
But yet, as he was being pulled up from the ground, he couldn’t help but admire the absolute beauty of the girl that was in front of him. Of course, being the man that he was, he thought he could ‘woo’ this girl with his 'playful words’.
“This how you greet every guy ya meet?” he said with a prismatic tone as he stood over the girl. The girl simply stared at him for a few seconds, and then put on a smile. Matthew was about to talk more to her, but was instead looking at the girl as she began to pick up the stuff that had fallen out of her backpack when she crashed.
Seeing as his lecture wouldn’t start for another fifteen minutes, he got down on his knees and helped the girl pack up her stuff. Matthew looked at how pretty the girl was, admiring her every bit. Her pretty blonde hair and young pristine face, he was only caught off guard by a small tattoo on her neck.
It was indescribable, no matter how long he looked at it, it almost seemed like it was constantly changing shapes or moving even.
The lady, clapped a hand over her tattoo and looked Matthew directly in the eyes. Matthew, out of embarrassment looked down at the ground stuck to his thoughts. Was he hallucinating? A side effect of going cold turkey? His eyes failing him aalready? He might need to get some reading glasses soon.
And as soon as the duo had picked up every scrap of paper, and forced it back into its domain, the man picked up the bike and was about to walk to his class again before he heard her voice again.
“Listen, I'm sorry about knocking you over, but thanks for helping me with my stuff… uh…”
“Matthew.”
“Well, thanks for helping me with my stuff, Matthew,” She said as she got on her bike. Before she started to peddle away though, she took out a piece of paper and wrote something down on it.
"Here's my number, I believe you'll be needing it," she said while giving Matthew the number. Matthew took the number and looked down at it in surprise. He didn't even flirt with her that much and he still managed to get her number? How? Just as Matthew was about to ask what he did, she began to peddle away to wherever she was going. Leaving Matthew all alone as he walked on the streets of his campus.
Three hours later he was finally walking back towards his apartment. But as he frayed towards the door, his pass faltered and he was about to turn around and leave before he sucked in a large breath and shoved the door open. Once he was inside he noticed his landlord sitting behind her desk with an uninterested look, her eyes turned down as she was reading a thick book. That was until she heard the door slam. She looked up from the book she was reading and her uninterested look turned into a ferocious scowl as she realized who had stepped into her building.
She got off of her chair and was waddling her old legs as she began to walk toward Matthew. Matthew on the other hand began to walk towards the stairs and was mentally preparing himself for another round with his landlord.
“Where is your rent?!” The lady said as she followed Matthew’s footsteps.
“I’m gettin’ it miss Chen,” Matthew said, his mind popping up images of his bank account with nothing but zeroes.
“You are three months behind! You pay it now or I’m kicking you out,” For a small woman who was too old for her own good, she was scarier than a biker gang.
“I told ya before, I don’ have the money now. I’m getting it! I promise, I’ll get the money before the end of the week!” He said, his anger starting to get the better of him.
This banter between these two individuals would continue for three floors and four rooms before Matthew unlocked the door and slammed it in his landlord's face. But even then, he could still hear her yelling at him through the thin walls of the building. His back slowly slid down the door as she continued to yell at him. He kept listening to her shouting as he sat there, his eyes closed as he was trying to shut himself away from the rest of the world.
About three minutes later he finally noticed the lack of screaming coming from behind him. He opened his eyes and breath heavily as he knew he was going to get kicked out eventually.
“Until then,” He said to himself.
“I’m gonna call myself a girl,” He said as he let his backpack drop off of his shoulders and pulled out his phone, one of the few services he could still buy. He punched in the digits and waited.
“Uh hello?” Said a young girls voice.
“Hey! What’s up! It’s… Uhh… The guy you bumped into” Matthew said, his nerves starting to get the best of him.
“Oh… Hey! Uhhh, how are you doing? Greg?” The girl said, enthusiastic.
“Uh… Matthew,” Matthew said, his nerves getting the best of him.
“Matthew! Right! Sorry!”
“And I didn’t really get your name.”
“Kate.”
“Kate! Well, it’s nice talking to you.”
“So, howya doing?” Kate asked.
“I’m doing fine, I uh, was just wondering if we could, ya know, talk a bit. Just… get to know each other… You seemed to be in a hurry.”
“Uh, yeah. Didn’t want to miss… Chem,” The girl said with noticeable delay.
“Yeah, I feel ya, I almost miss classes with how far they are from each other. I swear it’s so stupid to make a stupid walk half the campus to get to the other side.”
“Yeah, I feel like it’s stupid that I have to do that when I’m an anthropology major. That's why I got the bike!”
“Damn, maybe I should invest in a bike… Fucking wish I had more money though… That would help…”
“Hey man, I know how that feels. I always have my stash when things get a bit too hectic.”
“Whatcha got?”
“Oh, the usual stuff. Weed, Coke, Molly. Some other shit when it gets REALLY bad.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know maaaan. But it is some good shit… You do any?”
“... No, I don’t… Never have.”
“Shit man, why don’t you come down here? We can smoke some weed… Or I can give you this blue pill shit. Gives you a high that lasts for days,” she said, Matthew stood there unresponsive for a minute. Musta been a new drug, Matthew’s never heard of anything like this before and it was making him start to question things. It’s been a hectic few months… Why shouldn’t he? It’d only be one time.
He looked down at his hands and saw them starting to shake… Just one little itch to calm down.
“... Sure.”
“Great, now, you’re going to want to write this down because the address is a bit long,” Not even thinking Matthew grabbed his backpack and ripped out a piece of paper from its binding as well as a pen to write down the information.
He soon hung up the phone and put the piece of paper in his pocket. Before he pulled out a textbook from his back and began to read up on the chapters he needed to study for the test he had tomorrow.
But that phone call still haunted his mind, plagued it with images of his drugged out state of mind.
Before starting his reading, he looked at a wall, upon it he saw his sobriety award. It was contained in a small glass case, newly bought and proudly on his nightstand.
Three years.
He stared at it for a while, remembering all the shit he had gone through before and all the shit he had done to get out of it. All the pain and torment he went through with his family…
His family that kicked him out… His family that screamed and yelled when they didn’t get their way for a second… His family that demeaned him for everything he did and made him feel useless. His family that made him break up with a girl cause she broke her sobriety patch FOR ONE NIGHT-
The glass pane holding his award suddenly cracked, the air seeming to fluctuate around Matthew.
“Goddammit! Not again!” Matthew said, no sooner did he get up to see the damage he caused.
“This is fourth fucking time this month!” He continued, holding up the broken case in his hands.
Matthew stared at it for a bit, biting his lip in anger. He didn’t know what to do. What would his mom say? What would his dad say? If they saw his apartment and how messy it was, who knows what-
Matthew’s concerned face fell off. He looked away from the medal and out his window, perhaps thinking about his parents, or the girl he bumped into earlier today. But no sooner did he let go of the medal and floated it in mid-air.
He held it there for a couple of seconds, just staring at it. Seeing the small broken pieces of glass float with it.
Not a second later did he throw it into a nearby trash can.
What good’s a medal if no one appreciates it.
Matthew was currently sitting in a bus, looking at the piece of paper he had written on to be his guide as the bus driver was driving him further away from his homestead. He had went to college, wrote down notes, took a test, and looked up where he was supposed to go on one of the school's computers.
He was currently waiting for the bus to make one final stop before he would have to get off and walk the rest of the way. And so it did. The bus had driven out to one final stop and he, and him alone, got off the bus. He was thankful that his college I.D. gave him free bus privileges.
But as soon as the bus had driven off into the distance, he was soon walking towards the direction he thought the deal was going down. And so he walked, and walked, and walked. But through his tireless effort, he finally made it to a lonely little home that sat far away from the rest of the houses that made up the small town.
He looked at its peeling yellow paint as the sun burnt its creaking wooden surface. Matthew soon had walked up its rickety wooden stairs and knocked on the doors surface. And so he waited. And waited he did. He waited so long that his skinny legs began to cramp up. He waited so long that the sun had began to pass under the earth’s crust. He had waited so long that he was just about ready to leave “this hoxe of a deal” when all of a sudden, the door had parted slightly from its frame.
And Matthew looked at the door frame to see a small face, as brown as dirt, poking its head out of the doors corner. The face looked him up and down, and scrutinized every single fiber of Matthew’s being. And when the unknown man opened the door to reveal his colossal body, Matthew was afraid of what would happen next. It wasn’t until the man had walked outside that Matthew felt terror. This man, this one single man, had to be seven feet tall, but still had enough muscles to ripple through his body.
“You the guy?”
“... I… think?” Matthew answered, unsure of how to answer the tall ass man.
“You got a wire?”
“Does it look like I have a goddamn wire?”
“I don’t like your attitude…”
“I don’t have a wire.
“Get in,” The tall man backed up into the house and Matthew followed swiftly inside. He was greeted by 7 others. All of them were wearing hoods and robes of some sort, their faces covered fully due to the dark. The only person who didn’t wear a hood, instead wearing some sort of modified plague doctor mask.
Matthew looked between them all, unsure of what was happening. His head suddenly snapped behind him as he heard the door slam shut. He turned around again unto the new group of strangers.
“Brothers and sisters! We have with us a new sacrifice!” The plague doctor man said, his voice echoing around the house.
“Sacrifice?” Matthew said, unable to believe what he was hearing.
“Brother Atrix, if you would…” The plague doctor man said. The bulking man at the door then slammed Matthew into the ground with great force, pinning him down.
“Sister Kasandra… You’ve chosen a most excellent sacrifice!”
“He was an easy target, my lord,” A voice Matthew recognized seemed to speak up.
Matthew was barely able to turn his head but when he did, he saw the girl from yesterday. But it was different. She was older, her hair had grayed out, her skin has formed wrinkles and her eyes had become milky white. If it wasn’t for her voice, Matthew wouldn’t even be sure it was Kate.
“Fuck me! What is this shit!” Matthew screamed out, trying and failing to struggle his way out of Atrix’s grip.
“Fear not child!” The plague doctor said. “You are giving your life unto greatness! Unto a new age!” As the plague doctor finishes his sentence a handful of robed men and woman grab pouches out of nowhere and start to pour salt onto the ground. While others light candles around. With Matthew and Atrix being in the center of it.
“No! NO! PLEASE STOP!” Matthew screamed out, fear starting to come out of his voice.
“Be calm, child! You know not of what is to come!” The plague doctor screamed out, pulling out a knife sacrificial knife from his pocket.
“What kind of cult shit is this?! I just wanted to get high for fucks sake!” Matthew screamed out, still trying to pull himself out from underneath Atrix.
“Atrix, remove yourself from the sacrifice…” The plague doctor commanded. Atrix let go of Matthew and the second he did Matthew tried his best to bolt upright and run. He was met with a resounding thud as he ran head first into a barrier and fell right on his ass.
In front of Matthew was a slightly visible shield, glowing purple and radiating power. Atrix seemed to be able to move between the shield without any problem. Matthew could only stare at it.
“... What the fuck?” Was the only response he could think of.
“Now my brothers and sisters! We call upon our gods!” The plague doctor said. Not a moment later, did they start to chant some incantation. Their words mixing together and sounding like some sort of demonic ritual.
“STOP! PLEASE! I CAN JUST GO! I’LL FIND SOMEONE ELSE TO GET HIGH OFF OF!” Matthews' cries fell on deaf ears as their chant continued on. The salt that has been laid on the ground, forming an indescribable shape has caught a blaze underneath Matthew, singing his pants.
“This isn’t funny! This is NOT FUNNY! STOP THIS!” Matthew tried to call out again and again to the cultists, but they still continued their chanting. Matthew’s rage starting to form between his fists as he clenched his fingers together, his eyes welling up with tears of fear and anger as he was getting more and more furious, a noticeable stillness in the air building up. When suddenly.
“I SAID STOP!” Matthews' voice broke out. The cultists stopped their chanting to suddenly find themselves being tossed onto the floor. Matthew’s power slammed into them like a truck as they are flinged across the room, throwing over furniture and breaking through windows as they fly away.
Matthew looks around him, confused as to what he’s just done then down to his hands. He’s never done that before. Is it powered by rage? Fear? Emotions? He wasn’t quite sure.
“YOU FOOL!” Matthew looks up to the plague doctor, his mask flying off to reveal his true face. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”
“What?” Matthew said, only realizing in that moment that the symbol underneath him has started to twist and warp the wood he stood on. It was as if the very fabric of reality was being changed. Matthew tried to run away from it but found himself being stuck in place by the same shield as before.
“What spell did you cast, child?!” The plague doctor screamed out.
“Cast?! What?! I don’t- Just get me out of here!” Matthew said, the floor beneath him changing color now, a small black hole has formed in the middle and is starting to spread.
“You’ve doomed us all! I’d rather see you burn in the pits of hell!” The plague doctor said, shortly there after raising his hands up towards the salt of the floor. And with a few mumbled words under his breath, the salts catch ablaze, rising even higher and consuming all withinside the shield. Matthew’s screams of agony seemed to reverberate around the house, as the fire consumed him more and more. “We both will die… But you will suffer a fate FAR WORSE THAN DEATH!”
The floor of twisted wood has grown even further, the dark abyss seeming to continue growing our further and further, until finally it reached Matthew. Matthew, whose skin seems to be boiling on the surface and his flesh slowly turning to charcoal. Matthew didn’t even register falling through the hole all he could think about was the immense pain he was.
The second a being fell through the darkness, it sealed itself back up. Whatever had happened seemingly reversing itself as though it didn’t swallow a man.
The cultists that were there could only look in horror at what they saw, what had become of their sacrifice. The plague doctor grabbed the broken mask and put it back on, angrier than before.
“Wherever he is… whatever place he has gone to… I know it will be more tortuous than what we humans can do…”
Chapter 1: A Blazing Enterance
Twilight Sparkle was currently reading in her library, something about ponies in power. Perhaps researching Sombra and what information she could get. Regardless, it was awfully late. Spike was taking a bubble bath, making sure he got every scale accounted for. It was a rather quiet and mundane night. The grasshoppers were hopping, the owl was hooing and the door was getting knocked on.
Twilight turned her head away from her current book she was reading to the door and was confused, there are rarely any visitors this late unless it was her friends. Either way, she got up and answered the door. On the other side was a Mail Pony.
“Package for Twilight Sparkle,” He said, a package sitting right in his saddle bag.
“That’d be me! Real late for a package,” Twilight said with confusion.
“Express delivery ma’am!” The earth pony said, pulling out the package and handing it to Twilight.
“Huh…” Twilight said, taking the package in her magic and moving towards the table in her oak tree house.
“Now I’m going to need a signa-” The mail pony was unable to finish his sentence as twilight slammed the door on him.
“Wonder what this package is for…” Twilight said, undoing the packaging and seeing a note atop a book. Twilight put the book aside and decided to read the note aloud.
“Dear Twilight Sparkle, the spell contained on the last page of this book is Starswirl the Bearded’s secret unfinished masterpiece…”
“OooooOOoooH! -” Twilight exclaimed with giddeness before continuing with the letter
“- He was never able to get it right, and thus abandoned it. I believe you are the only pony who can understand and rewrite it.
Twilight then put the letter down and opens up the book, flipping through all the pages until she gets to the last written page. She re-reads the words over and over again in her head, not understanding what she is reading at first. Then she decides to read it outloud.
“From one to another, another to one, a mark of one destiny singled out alone fufi-” But before she could cast the spell out fully there was suddenly a loud and dangerous ripping noise outside of her house. Twilight looked at her newly acquired book and back outside before letting out a sight and putting the book down.
“Twilight!” Came a shout from upstairs, Spike’s echo coming down.
“Yes spike!” Twilight yelled back.
“What was that noise?!”
“I don’t know! I’ll go check it out! Just stay up there!” Twilight said, trotting her way towards the front door. She was rather curious herself to see what could cause such a commotion. When she opened her front door, she did not expect to see what she found…
High above the sky was a tear in the fabric of reality itself. A giant black hole has opened up right in the middle of Ponyville, causing ponies to stop and stare at it or look through their windows at the giant hole that has adorned their small little town.
The first thought that crossed Twilights mind was Discord having his shenanigans but something was off. The magic in the air didn’t feel chaotic it felt… evil. Like something of pure hatred and anguish caused this rift in reality to appear.
Twilight couldn’t speculate on it further for after the first few seconds of gazing up at the portal there was screaming. A scream that reverberated inside of the portal, one of true and utter pain. The ponies looked at the portal with fear in their eyes at what might come though, unsure of what they might see.
They didn’t have to wait long to catch a glimpse. A couple seconds later, a bright orange flame appears out of the portal and lands on the ground with a thud. The portal overhead closing rapidly, leaving the fire in its wake. There was little time to question what the ponies were seeing, as all they could hear was the wails and cries for help as whatever was burning in front of them continued to do so.
The ponies that surrounded the area could only stare, not knowing what to do, they’ve never been in a situation like this before. Before long, an earth pony with brown fur and a brown man grabbed a piece of cloth and jumped right on top of the burning pile.
“SOMEPONY GET SOME WATER!” He screamed out, as ponies then started to move as fast as possible. Twilight was taken out of her daze and galloped over to the burning thing, whos screams were only muffled out by the pony on top of him.
“MOVE!” Twilight yelled out, the earth pony hoped off of the man, taking the blanket with him. Twilight, within less than a second, casted an ice spell on the thing. By the time Twilight was done casting the spell, the fire had seceded. What remind was a deformed pile of flesh, its skin turned black and exposed to the open elements.
“Dear Celestia…” Twilight said, barley able to contain her vomit as she stared at the charred remains of this thing in front of her. His screams might have come to a pause but it was clearly still in pain. Twilight could only stare.
“Don’t just stand there!” Twilight snapped her head to the brown earth pony from before.
“Do something!” He said.
“...I-I… Right!” Twilight used her magic and gripped the thing with care, hoping to not cause any more pain than what must be going through its systems already. Once she had fully lifted the thing into the air and had a firm grip on it, she teleported directly inside of Ponyville general.
Right in front of her was a concerned nurse with a pink mane and white fur who just so happened to be looking up from a crossword puzzle.
“What in the world-” The nurse said.
“No time! We need a doctor now!” The nurse, after a brief hiccup, got up and galloped to the nearest doctor and then the hospital was fully operational. Ponies from different practices and backgrounds came crawling out of their offices and took away the subject from Twilights magic further into the hospital.
It was so quick that Twilight wasn’t even able to fully process what had happened. In the matter of two minutes. There was a black hole that dropped off a being on fire, screaming and begging for help, in which after being snuffed out, was then taken to the hospital to be further examined by doctors for its injuries.
It was a lot for Twilight to process.
Twilight, now alone in the hospital, casted one last spell and teleported right back home.
Twilight stood in her main hall, for the first time in a long time she did not know what to do.
“Twilight! Is that you?!” Spike yelled from upstairs.
“...Yeah, it’s… me... “ Twilight said, her voice coming out in hushed whispers.
“Hey, are you okay?” Spike said, walking out of their shared room to the top of the stairs.
“I’m… I’m fine…” Twilights voice started to shake as tears started to well up in her eyes.
“Twilight… What happened?” Spike said, concern entering his voice as he started to descend down the steps towards Twilight.
“There was this… this thing that…” Twilight said as she started to catch her voice in her throat.
“Woah woah woah! Calm down! Let’s just breathe! I’ll go make some tea!”
“No! Tea’s not going to fix this! I… I saw…” Twilight started before the stark realization hit.
“... Twilight?”
“Spike, write this down… I need to send a letter to the princess.”
Princess Celestia was walking out of the library room, secretary in tow as they made their way towards Princess Celestia’s living quarters.
“Please write down that we sent the book today, would you?” Celestia said in an angelic voice.
“Yes your grace!” Her secretary said back.
“Thank you, remind me is there anything else I’m missing for today?”
“Well, there was going to be the meeting with the head guards about improving the security around the palace, but you decided to push that back about a week because you wanted to see what Twilight would do with the book of Starswirl.”
“Good, and is there-”
“For tomorrow, depending on how fast your student is, there will be a short meeting with some of the dignitaries in the Griffin lands.”
“What-”
“I believe it’s about land, but knowing the Griffins I’m never too sure.
“Wh-”
“At about 2:30 PM,” Celestia stopped moving and stared at her secretary for a quick second. Not at all concerned about the meeting with the Griffins but more impressed by her.
“How do you know-”
“You have a pattern to your questions,” The secretary said with a smile.
“Well… Good to know how predictable I am,” Celestia said with a smile in kind.
“Oh you’re not that predictable!”
“Well, I’m going to sleep be sure to-
“Tell Princess Luna that it’s her duties now, gotcha,” And with a trot the secretary was on her way to get Luna.
“... I am very happy with the ponies I hire,” Celestia said, going into her private chamber and closing the doors behind her. As soon as she heard the click of the door, Celestia slumped to the floor, releasing her royal facade and just taking a minute to finally breathe.
After a while of just existing, Celestia got up and did her usual nightly routine. She had taken off her regalia, wiped off her makeup and had set her bed for a good long night of rest. After having to deal with long and strenuous meetings all day, it’s nice to get at least the night completely off.
“Finally… Luna thinks no one appreciates her nights… Well I personally am her biggest fan. It’s so peaceful tonight,” Just as she was about to plop down into her bed there was a green fire bal of magic that maneuvered its way in front of her before plopping a letter down in front of her.
“... I know my student is good with magic… but there’s no way that she’s that good with magic. She just got the book… did she solve it already? Why didn’t it trigger it yet?” Celestia magicked the letter in front of her and opened it up to see what her student had sent her.
And the more she read, the more her smile dropped off her face. Celestia, put the letter down, let out a sight, and picked up her regalia.
“This is going to be a long night.”
Twilight was pacing back and forth, still not sure if sending the message to Celestia was a good idea. What if it was just a bad mishap? A spell casted poorly and- No. That wouldn’t make sense, the magic she sensed was of pure anger… And that thing was in pain.
“Wait, so its skin was black and there was no fur?”
“Yes Spike, whatever it is, it’s burns would have to be second to third degree. And I didn’t see any fur besides whatever was on its head… and I’m not sure I’d classify it as fur, looked more like a mane…”
“... Wow… That sucks.”
“Sucks?! SUCKS?! That thing, whatever it is, is suffering in massive amounts of pain, I can’t even begin to think what’s happening over at the hospital! I just… I just saw it and now its gone! What if… what if it’s dead and… I… And I…” Twilight said, tears starting to well up in her eyes again.
“Woah, woah, woah! Twilight, I’m pretty sure that Pony General is doing whatever they can to make sure that… whatever it is, is going to be fine! What’s there to worry about?”
“Just everything Spike! Everything! What if it happens again?! What if it’s some sort of invasion?! Some sort of trick from another entity! What if it’s like Discord… BUT WORSE?!”
“Twilight! Stop! You’re panicking super badly right now, there’s no reason to panic unless we have definite reason to panic! Even then, you’re not even sure if it’ll happen again!”
“I… I know… I just… After everything, I’d rather not take chances,” Twilight said, her head turning downwards.
“And I get that Twi. Just… let’s not jump the shark,” As soon as Spike was finished saying that, there was a knock at the door.
“Hey, I got this, don’t worry about it,” Spike said, hopping off a seat and heading towards the door. Upon opening it, he sees Celestia with two random guard ponies standing just outside of the door.
“P-P-Princess Celestia!” Spike exclaimed, in total shock at seeing the princess here at this time of night.
“Hello Spike, is Twilight here?” Celestia said, her calm expression gazing down at the small dragon.
“Wait, Celestia!?” Twilight said from across the room.
“Well, I’ll take that as a yes then. Would you mind if I come in?”
“Of-of course!” Spike said, moving out of her majesty's way and allowing her to stride on in, her guards remaining at the entrance of the door.
“I-I-I didn’t think you’d be here so soon! If I’d known, I’d-”
“Breath Twilight. Just breathe. I know the situation is one of great concern right now. I believe, until we figure out what has happened, that you can put Starswirl’s spell on hold,” Celestia said, trying her best to calm down her student.
“I… You’re right… Yes… Right…”
“Now Twilight, I know this is hard for you right now, considering how fast things are going, but can you please take me to this creature that fell out of the portal?”
“Of course! Right away!” Twilight said, walking right past Celestia and through the door. Just as Celestia is about to go follow her, she felt a small pull on her tail and turns around to see none other than Spike.
“Hey, I uh… I know it’s important, the creature thingy, but can you keep an eye out on Twilight, she’s hasn’t been the best right now,” Spike said, genuine concern in his eyes.
“I promise that, if anything happens to Twilight, you can count on me to make sure she’ll be just fine,” Celestia said back.
“Princess?” Celestia heard from outside. And with that Celestia marched out the door and her two bodyguards following suit.
“Auuuuugghhhhhh, this is going to be a long night…” Spike said to himself.
Chapter 2: A Visit From Royalty
Author's Note
So, I feel like I need to say this, the launch of this fiction has not been so great. I am willing to admit that there are some story elements that could use some tweaking but I don't know what's wrong with it in general.
I've been told very little about its problems besides the fact that the description is bad, which I've now remideed, all I want to do now is figure out any other bad story elements and move/change them.
Please just tell me what's wrong and I promise I'll try to fix it. If there's nothing I can do, I'll probably just pull the fic down and leave it. I really want to be a good writer, but I'm not being told what's wrong with what I'm doing.
Please tell me what's wrong with it.
~Zyks
Chapter 2: A Visit From Royalty
As Twilight trotted down the streets of Ponyville, she couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of dread build up in her stomach. She didn’t know what to expect. If there was anything to expect. Maybe it died already, maybe it’s fine, or maybe it broke out of Ponyville general and is running amuck! There was too many possibilities and not enough answers, it was seriously overwhelming Twilight.
Twilight’s worry soon came to a halt as she felt a familiar hoof on her shoulder. Celestia’s radiant gaze set Twilights mood at ease and they continued their way to the hospital.
Once inside, Celestia walked all the way towards the receptionist who seemed to have gone right back into their crossword puzzle. Celestia simply approached the small desk and waited.
“P-P-P-PRincess Celestia!” The mare cried out, in total awe at the being before her. Celestia simply smiled at the poor receptionist and brought her head closet down to the pony.
“Hello there my little pony, I understand that there’s been a recent addition to this hospital?” Celestia asked, her voice a flutter of words on the receptionist’s ears.
“I- uhhhh… Yes! There was, he’s currently undergoing surgery right now! Might be a while before you can see him!” She said, her words crawling all over each other.
“I understand, would it be alright if I waited here? I wouldn’t wish to distract the doctors,” Celestia said.
“Of- Of course! Go ahead! And if you need anything, please let me know!”
“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind,” Celestia said before turning around and finding a seat to sit upon. Once seated, she levitated one of the nearest magazines and began flipping through its pages. Despite the fact that Celestia was calmed and collected, Twilight was still a whirl of emotions. She was currently walking back and forth in the lobby, unable to keep her hooves still.
“Twilight, I would suggest grabbing a seat, I can’t imagine how much longer this surgery must be,” Celestia said, not taking her eyes off of her book.
“But… But there must be something we can do!”
“There is, and it turns out to be your favorite pass time. Reading,” Celestia said, giggling to herself.
“This isn’t the time to read! We have to do something! Can’t you use your magic to heal him?!” Twilight cried out. Celestia let out a small sigh and put down the magazine she was currently reading.
“Twilight, I raise and lower the sun, I have great power but I’m not a healer. I wouldn’t even know where to begin with the injuries you described. It’s best to just let the doctors do what they do best and wait,” Celestia said, picking up the magazine back up to her muzzle.
“But-”
“There is no but’s Twilight. There is and there is not. You and I are not able to help and would only get in the way if we tried to, so we shall not intervene,” Celestia said, putting the magazine fully down and taking a harsher tone with her student.
“I...I understand… I just wish I could do something…” Twilight said, looking down at the ground. Celestia’s slightly hardened face softened and she opened her left wing up.
“Come here Twilight,” Celestia said, gesturing to her opened wing. Twilight slowly trotted over to Celestia’s open wing and felt said wing embrace her. Twilight’s nerves were coming to ease and she couldn’t help but lean into the winged hug.
“Twilight, you did everything you could, and I’m so proud of you for bringing this… creature to the hospital. I’m quite certain if it wasn’t for you, he’d be… well… dead,” Celestia said, speaking softly and calmly to her student.
“I… I know but I still…. Hear its screams,” Twilight said, tears again welling up in her eyes as her mind started to slither its way back to the event not 30 minutes ago.
“I understand Twilight, it is a horrific thing to see. No pony, or animal, or being should have to suffer that kind of torment… If you don’t mind me asking though, you said it was brought here by a portal?” Celestia said, trying to steer the conversation away from the male.
“I… Yes, it was like hearing a lighting bolt… Or a book being ripped in half… It’s hard to describe.”
“What can you tell me about it? Do you think it was magical in nature?”
“... Well… Yes. I could feel the power coming off of it.”
“Did you recognize the power?”
“No… not even a little, it felt… full of hate and anger… You don’t think Sombra-”
“Sombra’s magic is powerful, but I don’t think he could create a portal such as that. Even then, his focus would be on the Crystal Empire, not here in Ponyville.”
“... Then I don’t know what could have caused this…” Twilight said, her head sagging downwards.
“We will figure this out one step at a time, okay? Right now, our best chance to find out what happened is to interview this creature and ask him ourselves when he fully recovers,” Celestia said, bringing her neck down to nuzzle Twilight. After a few seconds, Twilight started to nuzzle back.
The two remained that way for a while, Celestia's wing draped over Twilight’s shoulder as the two began to read the magazine’s around them. Twilight reading them so fast that she decided to read them again just for the hell of it. But the entire time during their wait, Celestia herself could only think about what she will discover. What possibilities this creature holds and what could have caused it to land here. What evil magic must have ripped a portal that large in the fabric of reality.
She didn’t need to ponder too much on this topic though, as twenty minutes later another nurse pony walked around a corner. She was covered in scrubs still but seemed to be done with whatever operation they performed in the back. Their eyes glanced over towards Celestia and they seemed to do a double take as they almost fell over.
Celestia, seeing this, removed her wing from Twilight and trotted forward towards the pony. The pony in scrubs stared at Celestia in total awe.
“Hello there my little pony!” Celestia said with a smile.
“H-Hi…” The pony in scrubs said.
“How is our guest?”
“He-he uhh.. He’s stable. We just moved him to a room… Had to get two beds together since he’s so tall…”
“Would it be alright if I went to see him?” Celestia asked.
“I… Yes of course! It’s just that…” She looked over her shoulder, her face turning into a grimace as she starts to remember what she’s seen.
“I understand what he may look like but I’d still rather see him for myself,” Celestia said.
“Yes, my princess. If you would follow me,” The scrubbed pony then started walking down the hall, presumably towards where the creature was. Twilight got up from her seat and followed swiftly with guards right behind her.
“I… I’ll just warn you that his injuries are rather… sever…” The nurse said.
“How bad is it?” Twilight asked from behind.
“I… I can’t really say… the doctor would know more,” the scrubbed pony said just in time as they approached a door. Behind it they could hear ponies running around and talking behind the door.
“Are you sure you want to see him?” The nurse pony said, genuine concern in her eyes.
“I understand,” Celestia said and ever so slowly walked forward and into the room. There were ponies running around the room, checking his states with magic, that I.V. Fluid are flowing and that the bed is comfortable enough for the creature to lay on.
The creature itself is covered in gauze up to its torso. Its head was still damaged but was clearly not nearly as injured as the rest of it. Its body though… what remained was questionable at best. It didn’t need to go through amputation, thankfully, but its mutilated form was horribly disfigured. Whatever it was before is practically gone, Celestia herself wouldn’t even be able to tell its alive if it wasn’t for the heart monitor’s constant beeping.
The doctors that were attending to the creature didn’t seem to pay Celestia any mind as they were still running around. It wasn’t until Celestia let out a loud cough that the doctors stopped and looked at her.
“Celestia!” One of the doctors spurted out before all of them dropped into a bow.
“Please, this is not the time to praise. I simply wish to see the creature and know what’s happening here…” Celestia said, as her mask of royalty seemed to have cracked at the sight before her. The ponies and doctors before rose up and stood at attention each of them looking towards one another as they couldn’t help but wonder themselves. One of the unicorns walked on out from the rest, his brown mane and yellow fur standing out from the rest.
“I can answer any questions you may have, Princess,” the doctor said.
“What do you know about the creature?” Celestia said, taking closer steps toward said creature.
“Well, it’s male… has chimp-like anatomy. We think it’s an omnivore, but we didn’t want to damage its face so it's a simple theory right now… Have you seen anything like this before?” The doctor asked.
“Not once in my life have I seen anything closely resembling this… thing… It looks like a hairless Diamond Dog….” Celestia said, as she casted a spell over the creature, trying to detect any abnormalities that she may find.
“That’s what we thought too, but its arms are too lanky,” The doctor said, Celestia soon stopped her scan once she found nothing wrong with the thing.
“Was there anything foreign on it when it came here? Magical signatures?”
“That’s the thing… There was… No magical signatures,” The doctor said, still puzzling over what he said.
“Nothing?” Celestia said, confusion ever prevalent in her voice.
“Not even the smallest fragment of magic. I understand Twilight teleported the beast here with her but we didn’t even detect her magic on it.”
“But that’s impossible!” Twilight said.
“That’s what we said…”
“Do you know when it’ll be awake again?” Celestia asked, filing away that little tidbit of information.
“We put him in a medically induced coma, the pain would be unbearable if he were awake, so we decided it’s best to keep him down until a majority of his skin is healed.”
“How long will that process be?” Celestia asked.
“Uh… A few weeks maybe? We’re starting magical treatment now but we can only do so much to speed up the healing process. Everything else has to come from him,” The pony doctor said, gesturing to the creature in the bed.
“I see,” Celestia said her head a blur with ideas.
“A question if you will-” Celestia continued “- When do you think would be feasible to move him to the Canterlot infirmary?”
“I don’t see a reason to move him at all. He’s healing just fine and I’d rather not jeopardize his healing right now if we can’t help it,” Celestia looked down at the pony doctor. He had a point, they knew nothing about the biology or physiology of this creature. It was probably better to just let it sit and heal right now. That only lead to one problem of security. Celestia turned around towards her guards and gave them an assignment.
“Guards, I want you stationed outside of this room for the next few weeks, no pony besides medical staff, along with Twilight and her friends, are allowed inside. Understood?” Celestia said. Her guard ponies simply gave a salute and walked outside of the door, taking their positions.
“Princess?” Celestia looked over her shoulder to see Twilight, her gaze filled with confusion.
“Twilight, I want you to gather your friends and tell them what has happened.”
“But… why are we allowed in, what’s your plan?” Twilight asked, confusion still present on her face.
“If this… being is of intelligence like us, then I wish for us to make friends with him. I don’t know what has transpired for it to be in this sort of condition but I want him to know that we are not his enemies and mean him no harm.”
“But… what if he’s more… animalistic?” Twilight asked.
“Then I’m quite certain Fluttershy can handle taking care of it. Regardless, it's important to gather your friends, we may be dealing with a dangerous situation right now… Especially if that portal appears again…” Celestia said, not even looking over at Twilight but instead finding her gaze upon the being warped gauze.
“I… I understand Princess. I’ll get them as soon as I can!” With that Twilight disappeared with a small pop of magic and she left Celestia alone with the other doctors in the room.
“If you could all perhaps leave, I’d like to see the specimen for myself,” Celestia said. Swiftly, the doctors left after one last check. Eventually Celestia was left alone with the alien creature, the beeping of the heart monitor being the only thing to be heard. But suddenly, and without warning, Celestia’s royal mask dropped as she looked down at this poor… thing.
“I’m so sorry for… whatever caused you to go through this…” Whatever had caused this, better have been a freak accident or whoever did would receive the highest of punishments. That she would make sure.
There was a pop behind Celstia and she turned around to the element barriers. All of them looked confused as though they had just been woken up.
“What in tarnation could it be right now Twilight?!” Applejack yelled out, still blinking her eyes awake.
“I must agree with AJ, darling, it is far too late for this nonsense,” Rarity said, trying her best to freshen up her mane.
“I just put every animal to sleep…” Fluttershy said, her man and tail noticeably shorter.
“Yeaaaa, what’s it this time egghead? I got a lot of work tomorrow at Cloudsdale. Gonna be a heavy storm tomo-”
“Yea! What is it Twi Twi! Spooky monsters?! Alien invaders?! Discord betrayed us?!” Pinkie said, pulling a cannon out of nowhere with a match at the ready to light it.
“Not exactly,” Celestia said, her royal mask back on.
“Princess Cel-”
“Please, let us move on from this, I’ve had this happen four times today,” Celestia said. The ponies in the room calmed down quickly before suddenly each and every single one of them laid their eyes on the being laid out on the makeshift bed.
“What in good heavens…” Rarity sputtered out.
“I… I ain’t ever… seen…” Applejack said, her eyes widening in horror at the sight.
“Twilight, did you not explain the situation to your friends prior to bringing them here?” Celestia asked, her gaze shifting over to her student.
“I… Uhhh… I thought it’d be better to show them…” Twilight said, her eyes darting around the room. Celestia stared at Twilight for a few more seconds before she steadied her breath and returned her attention to the new mares.
“Where would you like me to start?” Asked Celestia.
“Hold up! You want us to take care of this thing?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, still thinking over Celestia’s words.
“I-I mean-”
“I would appreciate it if you would befriend him, yes,” Celestia said, interrupting Fluttershy.
“I don’t personally see a reason for us to not be friendly to him. I mean he hasn’t done anything wrong,” Rarity piqued up.
“But how do we know he won’t? Far as we know he’s just biddin’ his time,” Applejack said, throwing side glances towards the creature.
“Oh PUHLEASE! I’m going to throw him the biggest and bestest get well party ever! So that way, he’ll already want to be our friend! YAAAAAY!” Pinkie said, pulling out her cannon again and firing confetti into the air.
“Applejack’s right, what if it tries to do something dangerous? We don’t know what this thing can do!” Rainbow Dash said.
“Settle down,” Celestia said in a firm tone.
“I trust each and every one of you to earn his favor, his trust and his friendship when he is to awaken. I know you ponies can, you’ve done it before with Discord! Whatever the being is, I doubt he’s more powerful than Discord!” At that, the mares looked at each other with determination.
“I not only believe you can gain its trust, I know you can,” Celestia said, causing the mares to rally together in a cheerful shout.
“Twilight, I trust you and your friends to see to the care for this being once it wakes up. Until then, I’d like for you and Fluttershy to check up on the being once a day for the next few weeks, can you do that?” Celestia asked, her face turned to her star pupil.
“Yes! I promise Fluttershy and I will do our best!” Twilight exclaimed.
“Excellent, if that is all then, I believe I should talk to my sister about this rather recent development. Not every day we find a new species,” With that Celestia exited out of the door.
“Alright girls-” Twilight said, gathering everypony’s attention, “-I think we should start by making a list of things to do when our new friend wakes up!” Immediately, the room is filled with groans.
Celestia was outside of the room for maybe ten seconds before she heard the sounds of disapproval from inside. She merely rolled her eyes and continued to cast her teleportation spell. Twilight was a smart pony, but she never knew how to read a room.
Celestia, though, had more important matters to attend to. One being her sister.
With a flick of her horn, Celstia travelled far from the small village of Ponyville up to the tall mountains of Canterlot. And with another poof of magic she stood tall in her sister's private quarters. And just as Celestia turns around, she sees a sight that bemuses her greatly.
She saw her sister laying on her back, legs spread apart and face flushed red. While on top of her was one of Luna’s very own night guards, seemingly stopped in the middle of ravaging her. Celestia and Luna shared a look between each other for a couple seconds, words unable to come to each other’s mouth’s.
Suddenly, and without warning, Celestia bursts out into laughter. Her voice reverberating around her as her wails and cries of laughing seemed to have no end.
Luna on the other hoof, was shaken out of her daze and pulled the guard pony off of her and shoved him to the side of her bed, all the while Celestia laughed her ass off.
“Sister! This had better be of importance!” Luna cried out, her face still flushed red. But her voice seemed to have fallen on deaf ears as Celestia continued to cackle and roar with laughter. Luna eventually let out a small groan and eventually cast a small sound bubble around her sister, whos laugh seemed to grow only more and more ferocious.
“Should I leave?” Luna turned her head to her lover and her demeanor softened.
“I don’t imagine my sister would show up here unless it was important… Perhaps it would be best for you to go,” Luna said, still angry.
“Hey, it was nice while it lasted,” The guards pony said, grabbing Luna’s hoof. Luna looked away from her sister and towards her guard pony and simply smiled at him.
The sweet moment was cut off by more inane laughter.
“But yeah, I should get going,” The guards pony said, hopping off of the bed and collecting his armor.
“I’ll be seeing you soon,” Luna said, looking directly at her guard's pony, her lashes simply fluttering upon eye contact.
“And I can’t wait for it,” The guards pony said, before walking past the sound bubble shield and leaving Luna with her now insane sister. The second the door slammed shut, Luna’s smile dropped and her attention turned to her sister whose lungs haven’t somehow collapsed.
“Tia! This had better be important!” Luna said, casting her magic again to drop the sound bubble that surrounded Celestia. Celstia didn’t seem to notice though.
“TIA!” Luna screamed out. Celestia, after a few agonizing minutes slowly broke her laughter down, a few small giggles escaping every now and then.
“I- ha- I’m so sorry, I just - heheheaha- I’m not used to seeing you at the bottom!” Celestia said.
“That was the first time, and last time, you’ll ever catch me during such activities!” Luna exclaimed, the blushing on her cheeks returning. Celestia let out a breath of air and finally seemed to calm down fully.
“Well, it looked like you two were having fun,” Celstia said, her smile coming down on her face.
“Twas a heavenly time!”
“I’m sure it was, Lulu, but onto more important matters.”
“Yes, why don’t you tell me the exact reasoning for you to be here?”
“Well, for one, it’s your turn now as the moon is fully risen and two… My pupil has discovered a new species,” Celestia said, smile falling off completely.
“New species how?” Luna asks, now curious herself.
“We’re not entirely sure yet… Its entrance was rather interesting if I recall Twilight's letter correctly.”
“I feel as though I’m missing something.”
“Well, there was a lot that happened in the last hour.”
“Is it an attack from a conspiring kingdom?”
“No, doubtful, I’ve never seen anything like this in all of Equestria… In all of Equis now that I think of it.”
“Hmmm… You wouldn’t come to me right now unless there’s something you need me to do…”
“Correct.”
“What is it you wish for me to do, Tia?”
“I want you to look into this being’s dreams, see if there’s anything to point out who and what it is and if it posses a danger to us.”
“That’s all? I can do that easily.”
“And when you’re done with that, to get on the throne.”
“Pfft, no pony still visits but I’ve learned to live with it.”
“Yes, I’m quite certain you’re finding companionship elsewhere.”
“I hate you…”
“Does the night last forever with him?”
“That’s not funny!” Luna said, a chuckle escaping out of Celestia's lips.
“I would still like you to investigate any way you can. I already have Twilight and her friends there physically in case anything happens but I’d rather avoid a fight if I can help it.”
“... Alright… Fine, I’ll look into the thing’s dreams and tell you what I find out,” Luna said, getting out of her bed and sitting down on the floor.
“Excellent, I’ll get out of your mane now so you can focus on that,” Celestia turned around and started to walk her way out of the room. But before she exited fully, she stopped at the doorway and turned towards her sister one last time.
“By the way, a good choice out of all your guards, gold star,” Celestia quickly exited the room, a pillow being thrown against the wall the white alicorn was previously at. Luna simply stared at her door for a couple seconds, calming her nerves. She let out a small sigh and then began to work her magic.
Whatever this creature was and whatever its motives were, Luna was sure to find out.
The hospital was quiet. The ponies staffed there earlier today have long since left and have gone home, leaving a skeleton crew to keep an eye on their new patient. The two guard ponies stationed outside of the said creature's room were currently sleeping on the hard tiled floor. They had been awake for hours and with no rest. They simply passed out.
What they failed to do as guard ponies though was notice the sound of approaching steps. The pitter patter of two feet. One hoof and the other a claw.
Discord stood in front of the door, looking down at the two passed out ponies before him and scoffing.
“My, my! Tia should make these guard ponies train more if they’re going to just sleep half the time,” Discord said, conjuring a blanket into his hands and laying it on the passed out ponies. He then started to snicker to himself about what he intended to do later.
He stepped around the ponies and grabbed the wall, quickly pushing it open as though it were a door and then closing it behind himself, making sure to not cause too much noise. Discord, after wiping his hands clean, turned around to see something the creature.
Discord looked it up and down for a few seconds, making sure he was seeing it correctly, before letting out a groan of complaint.
“A human?! That’s what caused all this ruckus?!” Discord said, annoyed as all hell to see a human of all things.
“This thing’s barely worth the trouble! Why is everypony throwing a fit over this thing?! It’s not like it’s anything special!” Discord exclaimed, putting his hands on his head in frustration before he realized something important.
“... How did he get here?” Discord said, as he then looked over to the human, a smile slowly coming across his features.
“Oh, this will be quite fun…”
Chapter 3: What The Future Holds
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Princess Twilight was walking back to her library with her friends. The after party in Canterlot was a mighty celebration and one she appreciated fully. Looking back on it, it seemed as though it’s been planned for a while. Though Twilight expected such a thing since Celestia did send her the book in the first place.
“I can’t believe you’re a princess now! Oh! I can’t wait to dress you up with some of my bestest designs!!” Rarity said, getting giddy at the idea of it.
“Hold your horses their Rarity! She just became a princess, least we can do is let her get used to those new wings of hers.” Applejack said.
“Eh, I don’t know, it might be a bit before she can even learn how to glide,” Said Rainbow Dash, floating above head.
“Well! I can’t wait to throw a party when she does! Speaking of parties, we should throw a party in Ponyville to celebrate Twilight becoming a princess!” Pinkie Pie shouted out.
“Weren’t we at a party for that already?” Fluttershy said.
“Oh silly! That’s for Equestira! This is for Ponyville! I should probably start planning now!” Pinkie Pie said, pulling a planner out of nowhere and jotting down on it.
“Pinkie Pie, I would love nothing more than to go to another party, but I don’t think I’d be able to come,” Twilight said.
“Uggggh! Why not!” Pinkie Pie said, planner falling on the ground.
“Well, we just finished one party, and we still need to focus our attention on our new pony friend, remember?”
“Oh, good heavens, I completely forgot about him,” Rarity said, her eyes widening.
“Oh yea, that lil’ varmint. When is he gonna wake up again?” Applejack asked.
“Soon. At least that’s what the doctors told me,” Twilight said. Suddenly there was a gasp of shock. Pinkie Pie butted her head between Applejack and Twilight, a brilliant idea coming to mind.
“Wait! I have a brilliant idea! If the man thingy wakes up soon that means we can have a party for our new friend as well as a party for Twilight! Double the party, DOUBLE THE FUN!” Pinkie Pie said, excitement in her eyes.
“I’m sorry Pinkie, but it’d have to be a small party. Celestia said that she’d rather talk to him first before and I don’t want to overstimulate him. He’s been in a coma for a couple weeks, I wouldn’t want to throw him into a party head first,” Twilight said, scratching the back of her head.
“Oh come on!” Pinkie Pie said.
“Darling, I’m quite certain Twilight is more than willing to throw a party for new friend, but you’ll just have to wait a while,” Rarity said, trying to explain the situation to Pinkie Pie.
“Yeah, come on Pinkie, if you want to throw a party, it doesn’t have to be about those two,” Rainbow Dash said.
“But what would there be to celebrate, Dashie?! I can’t make a party unless there’s something to celebrate!”
“I learned how to crochet!” Spike said.
“Nobody cares about that Spike!” PInkie Pie blurted out. Spike looked down dejectedly.
“Pinkie Pie, we will have a party just not right now, we still need to focus on the thing and it could wake up any second. We’re just going to have to be vigilant and prepared for when that happens,” Twilight said. Right on cue, however, there is a pony doctor in a lab coat galloping towards the mares at top speed.
“Twilight!” The stallion said, calling out towards said pony. Twilight stopped her trotting and turned towards the pony doctor who had just gotten to them, panting and breathing rather harshly.
“Doctor Graymane?” Twilight said, confused to see the pony here.
“Hi... I… I came to… to tell you that…” The pony said, gasping every now and then for breath.
“Man, this guys needs to work on his stamina,” Rainbow Dash said. Doctor Graymane, after catching his breath fully, stood at attention.
“Sorry… I came to tell you that the creature is about to wake up!”
“Now?!” Twilight said, her wings spreading out in surprise.
“I… Yes, his vitals are rising. I thought you’d want to be there personally when he-” The doctor was cut off by a loud pop of magic.The spot Twilight previously occupied now empty.
“Consarnit! Come on girls, gotta make sure that monster thang don’t hurt Twilight!” Applejack said, galloping towards Ponyville general with incredible speed. Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Rainbow Dash following closely behind.
“But… I don’t think he’ll hurt anyone,” Fluttershy said.
“Uhhh, should we go with them?” Spike said.
“Oh uh… maybe we should?” Fluttershy said, spreading her wings apart and slowly following from a distance away.
“No! I meant the both us… And she’s gone…” Spike said, as he himself starts his slow trek towards the hospital.
“I’ll just… I’ll just… die here…” Doctor Graymane said, falling over onto his side from exhaustion.
The beeping of the machines was all that Matthew could hear. The constant tick of the heart monitor next to him was all that he could hear. Matthew slowly opened his eyes and looked around. All that greeted him were the white walls of the room he was in, accompanied by the fluorescent light bulbs above him. Matthew let out a groan as he started to slowly gain consciousness.
“Fuck, what happened?” Matthew asked himself, struggling to put himself in an upright position. He lifted his arm up and grabbed at his head, felt like he had one too many drinks.
“Where am I?” He asked himself looking around for a sign of some sort. He soon stopped his searching when he looked down.
“Oh fuck…” Matthew said as he looked down at all the gauze he was wrapped in. Suddenly the memories started to come back to him. His little trip to that shithole neighborhood. The feeling of being crushed beneath a giant and the fear that penetrated him as he felt himself almost die.
“God I hope I’m not in some cult hospital or something… Would that make it Scientology or-” Suddenly, with a flash of white light, there was a purple horse in front of him.
“What the fuck...” Matthew said to himself, in a hushed whisper. The horse in front of him snapped its neck towards him and looked at him with such glee.
“You’re awake! I’ve been waiting so long to talk to you! I can’t believe you’re awake after all this time!” Twilight said, spreading her wings out and doing a little dance.
“You can speak?!” Matthew sputtered out, unable to understand what he was looking at. Twilight stopped her little dance and looked at Matthew with a confused look.
“Well… duh? Most ponies can speak basic… You can speak!” Twilight said as her eyes widened in surprise and happiness.
“What is going-” Matthew said but was cut off when the pony in front of her poofed a note and pencil into the room.
“Okay! Okay! So how do you know Equis? It’s a bit of a hard language to understand for most foreigners!” Twilight said, poofing a stool next to her so she can sit.
“I… what?” Matthew said, confusion still on his face.
“What are those thingies on your arm called? Those five little claw thingies?” Twilight said, seemingly ignoring the man’s imminent mental breakdown.
“Ex-Excuse me?” Matthew said, his voice starting to break down.
“Actually, let’s start off small, what are you exactly? Are you some half breed with diamond dogs?”
“Can you please-” Matthew said, being interrupted again as his heart rate seemed to skyrocket.
“Ohhhh that’d be an interesting theory! Do Diamond Dogs now how to use magic now, I should talk to Princess Celestia about that, that seems a little-”
“STOP!” Matthew screamed out, causing the room to fall into silence. Twilight held her pencil in place and Matthew simply stared at her with fear in his eyes. The silence didn’t last too long as two pony guards kicked the door open and barged in to see what was happening. When they saw Matthew, they simply looked at him in shock.
“... Let the princess’ know that he’s awake,” One guard said, the other guard took a second to register what the first guard said but soon bolted out of the room.
“What is this?” Matthew said, breathing out harshly.
“... Uh… This is a hospital…” Twilight said, still taken aback by his voice from before.
“NO! What is this! Why are you horses?! Why are you TALKING horses?!” Matthew screamed out.
“I… I don’t understand what you-”
“You shouldn’t be talking, you’re a fucking horse!” Matthew screamed out again, his mind being unable to accept what he was seeing.
“I’m- I’m not a horse, I’m a pony-”
“You have wings and a horn?! What’s happening, none of this makes sense!”
“Please stop! I can expla-”
“Is this that hell that cult cunt was talking about?!” Matthew said, looking around the room again.
“Cult? What? No! Just please-”
“Where the fuck are they?! I’m going to kill them if I ever-” Matthew stopped suddenly as he felt something holding his lips together, he looked down the best he could and saw a faint purple/pink cloud covering his mouth. He looked up to see Twilight sparkle's horn covered in the same cloudy material. Justa s Matthew was about to panic, Twilight spoke.
“Please! If you just calm down I’ll explain everything, okay?” Twilight said. Matthew didn’t blink, instead held eye contact with Twilight and slowly nodded.
“Okay, I’m going to let go now,” Twilight said and she slowly let go of Matthew’s mouth. Matthew kept true to his word and didn’t panic.
“Let’s start off small. My name is Twilight Sparkle, what’s your name?” Twilight asked.
“...Matth- Matthew.”
“That’s a pretty nice name… How are you feeling?”
“... Fine…”
“Okay, do you have any questions for me?”
“... Where am I?”
“You’re in Ponyville general. When I found you, you were on fire and I brought you to the closest hospital.”
“... You’re not a… cult are you?”
“Cult? No, I’m Twilight Sparkle, I’m a… Princess… now…” Twilight said, getting used to the title.
“Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a cult,” Matthew said with a sarcastic tone.
“I can assure you it’s not a cult.”
“... Yeah, to be fair you haven’t set me on fire,” Matthew said with a bitter tone as he started to remember back to him burning alive.
“Would… it be okay if I asked you a few questions, Matthew?” Twilight said, pulling up her notebook and pencil.
“... I don’t think I got a choice,” Twilight let out a small sigh at hearing that but persevered.
“How did you get here?”
“I… I don’t know where to start…”
“Just take your time,” Matthew sat there for a minute gathering his thoughts for a bit before letting out a sigh.
“I was going to a house to get some… food and inside was this cult thing.”
“Cult thing?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, it was… I don’t really know it’s just… I was forced into the middle of this… weird symbol thing and they started chanting.”
“Can you describe the symbol?”
“No, I don’t even know how I’d start with that.”
“Oh… Continue, please.”
“I wasn’t able to escape… and then… something must’ve happened cause the guy in charge got any and used… magic I guess to set me on fire.”
“Why would he do that?” Twilight said, genuine concern in her voice.
“I don’t know… But afterwards I fell through this hole in the ground and… I can’t tell you how long I was falling for…” Matthew said, unable to remember just how long that time was.
“Is that when you ended up here?”
“I don’t know, everything else kinda blacks out after a while.”
“Okay… I’m… so sorry that happened to you.”
“I guess the only thing I’m surprised about is the fact that I still have my legs.”
“Well, the damage wasn’t that bad, all things considering, but they should be fine now. Fully healed soon!” Twilight said with a smile on her face.
“... How long have I been here?”
“Uh a little over two weeks.”
“Two weeks?! That’s all?!”
“... Is that a problem?”
“No! It’s just… I’m pretty sure I would’ve been here for months if… fuck,” Matthew said, bringing his hand to his head.
“What’s the matter?”
“I don’t have health insurance, how the fuck am I going to pay this off…”
“... Health insurance?” Twilight said, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, you need it if…” Matthew said, before slowly stopping as he realized what he was saying.
“I’m not in America am I?” Matthew said, as realization was starting to set in.
“What’s an ‘America’? Is that the name of your country, sounds nice,” Twilight said with a smile on her face.
“... Yeah… I guess I’m not in my world either...” Matthew said, his voice trailing off again. Twilight stopped her writing and put down her notepad. She slowly reached a hoof out and laid it on Matthew’s still gauzed up hand.
“I know this is hard, but trust me, everything will work out! If I can decipher Starswirl the Bearded’s spell, I’m pretty sure I can figure out how to send you back home,” Twilight said with a smile.
“Starswirl… The Bearded? Matthew said, his brow rising high. Twilights eyes looked confused for a second before they slowly started to widen and a giant grin slithered its way onto her face.
“... Oh my gosh, I get to teach you everything!” Twilight said, clapping her hooves together, as she floated up her notepad again and started to write in it.
“Okay, so we’ll first start off with basic history and move onto mathematics and start with elementary chem-”
“I know this stuff already,” Matthew said, butting into Twilights speal. Twilight stopped to look up at Matthew.
“You do?”
“Well… maybe not the history part but I know about math, I majored in engineering.”
“Majored? What’s that mean?”
“Well… it means like… studied the hell out of it.”
“Oh! So you can make things!”
“... No, I uh… well… sorta… I just do the numbers and people can do the rest.”
“Fascinating!” Twilight said, writing down more into their book.
“I feel like you’re going to be writing down a lot of the stuff we’re gonna be talking about…”
“Oh most definitely! I have so much learn about your species! Your history, your art, your culture! Everything! I’m going to have so much fun-” Just then, five more ponies barged into the room. Some panting from their exertion and others with a grim look of determination on their eyes.
“Twilight are you alright?!” Applejack said, keeping her eye on the man the whole time.
“What? Why yes I’m fine,” Twilight sad.
“You left in an awful hurry. This wise guy didn’t do anything, did he?” Rainbow Dash said getting right in the man's face.
“... Get the fuck out of my face,” Matthew said, venom laced within his voice.
“Or what, wise guy!” Rainbow dash said, shoving her muzzle up against his nose. The two stared at each other for a few seconds, their gazes slowly hardening as anger started to get mixed in. Suddenly, Rainbow dash was pulled by by Twilight’s magic and forced to sit down.
“Rainbow Dash! He isn’t a threat!”
“We don’t know nothing about this guy! How can you be-”
“I’ve been talking to him already! He’s completely safe!”
“What if he’s just tryna trick you!”
“Why?! He’s lost and confused, he has no reason to trick anyone!”
“You’re far too trusting! I wouldn’t trust this thing to tell the truth as much as I trust it to-”
“I’ll shove my foot down your throat if you don’t knock it off!” Matthew said, cutting off Rainbow Dash.
“I’m not afraid to defend my friend from the likes of you, you monster!” Rainbow dash said, flying herself above Twilight.
“Enough!” Twilight said, shouting. Rainbow Dash was surprised by her outburst and pulled her attention away from Matthew.
“Sit down!” Twilight said, giving Rainbow Dash an angry look. Rainbow dash, slowly floated her way down and sat down on the floor.
“I know what I’m doing! If he’s dangerous, I’ll handle it okay! This is not what Celestia wanted! She wanted us to be his friends! Is this how you treat your friends?!” Rainbow Dash didn’t even have a word to say. She couldn’t make some subtle remark or anything, she just sat there and took it.
“I got to agree with Twilight here, sugarcube. The feller looks… well, angry right now. But he don’t know nothing about the place. Let’s just take it easy on him alright?” Applejack said. Rainbow Dash looked around the room and let out a sigh.
“I’m just worried, okay? I’m sorry,” Rainbow Dash said, looking down at the ground. Twilight's gaze softened and she approached Rainbow dash.
“And that’s okay, but please, let’s be calm about this,” Twilight said, putting a smile on her face. Rainbow dash smiled back.
“What did I walk into?” Spike said, as he was looking at the scene from the doorway.
“Oh, hi Spike! It’s nothing much just sorting out some things, where were you?” Twilight said, genuinely confused.
“I was walking all the way over here and I- Oh… you’re actually up,” Spike said drawing his attention away from Twilight and towards Matthew. Matthew looked at it confused for a quick second before opening his mouth.
“... Are you a goddamn dragon?” Matthew said.
“Uhh…. Yes?” Spike said, not sure how to respond to such a question. Matthew’s eyes made a noticeable twitch and he quickly breathed in through his nostrils.
“You know what… talking ponies is still the weirdest thing.”
“Uhh, right… Say Twilight, did you send a letter to the princess’ yet?” Spike asked, turning his gaze towards Twilight.
“What?” Twilight asked, not hearing Spike fully. Suddenly, they were interrupted when a small flash of light poofed into the room. When it went away, none other than Princess Celestia and Luna were there.
“Princes Celestia! Princess Luna!” Twilight exclaimed, surprised by their presence. Celestia stepped forward to greet her student.
“Hello Twilight, I see your friends are here as well, that’s good,” Celestia said as she slowly turned her head over to Matthew.
“Hello there, you have caused quite the commotion here,” Celestia said a smile present on her face as she talked to him.
“... You are… one tall pony…” Matthew said, amazed at the height difference between the two princess’ before him and the other ponies. Celestia let out small giggle, surprised by the man’s words.
“I get that a lot,” Celestia said as she turned her gaze over to the rest of the ponies in the room.
“Twilight, would you be a dear and step out of the room with the rest of your friends? Luna and I would like to speak to our guest in private,” Celestia said, causing Twilight to break out of her stupor.
“Uh- Right away princess’, let’s go girls, I’ll tell you all I’ve learned about Matthew,” Twilight said, exiting the door with the rest of her friends following behind her.
“Matthew? Interesting name, creature,” Luna said, looking his body up and down.
“... And you guys are… princess? Did I hear that right?” Matthew said.
“That’s correct, Matthew, I am Princess Celestia and that is my sister Princess Luna,” Celestia said.
“... Huh, It’s uh… nice to meet you,” Matthew said.
“It is a pleasure to meet you as well Matthew, we just have-”
“We can skip the pleasantries, Tia” Luna said, cutting off her sister. Celestia simply looked over to her sister and sighed.
“Fine, we’ll do it your way, Luna,” Celestis said, sitting on the ground. Luna strode forward towards the man in front of them.
“What are you?” Luna asked plane and simple.
“... What do you mean by that?” Matthew asked.
“Your species, what is it?”
“... Human… I’m a human,” Luna’s face held the same cold stare as it looked deep into Matthew’s eyes. Her facial expression not changing in the slightest.
“... Do you know who Discord is?”
“Luna, why would he know who that is?” Celestia asked.
“No reason, sister, I just wish to know,” Luna said, still not taking her eyes off of their guest.
“... What’s a Discord?” Matthew said, confusion clear on his face. Luna’s face seemed to calm down ever so slightly, but it was enough.
“Good, disregard the question.”
“... O… kay?”
“I have one last personal question, but that shall be all. Why can’t I access your dreams?”
“... What?” Celestia, hearing this, walked up to Matthew and took place next to Luna.
“You’ll have to forgive my sister’s forwardness. May I Luna,” Celestia said, glancing towards her sister. Luna side glanced over to Celestia before letting out a small scoff.
“Fine, go ahead,” Luna asid, turning her head away from the conversation.
“Thank you. My sister is able to enter into the dreams of ponies and see what’s going on in said dreams. The only reason she asked the question is because she can’t enter into your dream, which is a first for her. I am quite curious myself,” Celestia said looking at Matthew.
“I… Don’t know what to tell you, I don’t control my dreams… I didn’t even know people could enter my dreams…” Matthew said, thinking on the question hard. Luna turned her head sharply towards Matthew
“I can though. Not once in the hundreds of years I’ve been alive has anypony been able to block me out… What are you hiding?” Luna said, suspension in her voice. Matthew’s face suddenly showed a small tinge of fear as his mind knew exactly what she was talking about… His small little ability.
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Matthew said, looking away from Luna.
Luna was not having any of it. With a quick flurry of magic, she pulled Matthew’s head to look at her and stared down into his soul.
“Do not lie to me, human! What are you hiding!”
“Luna…”
“I will not hesitate to throw you into the pits of tartarus if I have to!”
“Luna.”
“Do not think you can fool me with your blatant lies-”
“Luna!” Celestia said, getting her sisters attention. Luna stopped her tirade on Matthew and turned towards her sister.
“We are here to talk to Matthew, not threaten him,” Celestia said, her royal mask still on. Luna looked back over to Matthew, the thick tension in the air weighing her down, before she let go of Matthew’s face entirely.
“Matthew, we’re not here to hurt you,” Celestia said, her voice calming Matthew down.
“Yeah, just make me shit my pants,” Matthew said, trying his best to control his breathing.
“Again, forgive my sister, she means well, she just has a certain way about it.”
“Yeah… real certain way,” Matthew said, shooting a dirty glance Luna’s way.
“Please, tell us the truth, we won’t be mad and we won’t hurt you. What is it that’s happening?” Celestia said. And while Matthew didn’t say anything initially, he was having a battle in his mind about it. He didn’t know whether or not he could trust these ponies. What if they started doing lab experiments on him? Hell, that was the reason he didn’t tell anyone back in his world and now he’s being confronted about something that he didn’t even realize he could do. But, he knew better, he wasn’t going to get away with this. Matthew let out a small sigh and looked up at Celestia.
“I… I have powers…” Matthew said with a shaky voice.
“Powers? How so?” Luna asked.
“... I… Can do things with my mind… I… I can pick up objects just by thinking it and-”
“That’s just magic,” Luna said, annoyance in her voice.
“No it’s not… I’ve seen what magic is by now, I don’t have… cloudy shit over my hands or… head when I do it.”
“Would you mind giving us a demonstration?” Celestia said, poofing a small ball out of no where. Matthew looked at it and let out sigh.
“I… I can’t… control it,” Matthew said, looking down in disappointment. Luna let out a small chuckle at that.
“You sound like a foal discovering their own magic!” Luna said, laughing out even more than before. Celestia looked over to her sister with a stern face.
“Luna, he is learning about his powers just like we learned how to move the sun and moon. Starswirl didn’t laugh at us for failing, and shouldn’t laugh at Matthew,” Celesetia said, still giving her sister a scornful look. Matthew on the other hand, just sat there and stared at Celestia’s words with great confusion clear on his face.
“... I’m sorry, what?” Matthew said, drawing the attention back to him.
“Hmm, I guess that’s a lot for you as well… My sister and I move the sun and the moon, respectively. I would tell you which one I raise, but I think you can gather that on your own,” Celestia said with a small grin.
“I’m sorry, are you saying that you move… the sun and the moon… because you can? Why?” Matthew asked.
“I’m quite certain Twilight is more than willing to explain that to you, but our time here is short as we both have duties of our own to attend to,” Celestia said.
“I… I’m so confused…” Matthew said, gripping his head. Luna turned her head at this.
“As am I, human, but I’m not complaining about it,” Luna said, looking away from Matthew again.
“Matthew, before Luna and I leave, I’d like to as you one last question. Will you harm any of our ponies?” Celestia asked, looking seriously at Matthew. Matthew in turn, looked up towards Celestia confused by her question.
“Harm them? Why would I harm them? I don’t… I’m not a violent person, I just… I don’t know what’s happening.”
“And it’s okay to be confused, but I’m going to need an answer, Matthew. Will you harm them?”
“... No… Not unless they do something first.”
“That is understandable, but please don’t resort to bloodshed,” Celestia asked, a small smile coming across her face due to Matthew’s answer.
“... Is that all?”
“Yes, that’s all of our questions, but I wouldn’t get too comfortable, Twilight and her friends are sure to have many more for you.”
“Great…”
“But this has been an interesting conversion. I did enjoy or chat, but if you’ll excuse us we’ll be on our way, thank you for your time,” And just like that Celestia and Luna both disappeared with a pop of magic, leaving the room empty again. While the silence lasted, Matthew reflected back on what was happening. Magic was real, ponies talked and he’s in a whole different world. It was a lot for him to handle. A few minutes passed as he kept going back on his thoughts, he didn’t even realize the door opening and six ponies walking right in.
“Matthew?” Twilight said, seemingly getting his attention as he snapped his head towards them.
“Yeah?”
“Uh, how was your conversation with the princess’?”
“If those are princess’, I can’t wait to meet the king,” The mares in the room looked at each other in confusion before turning their attention back to Matthew.
“We don’t have a king, silly!” Pinkie Pie said, making a cute little snort.
“... Queen?”
“Nope, don’t got that one either,” Applejack said.
“... What kind of Diarchy is this?”
“Well… That’s a bit hard to explain, lot of history because of that,… But I can if you want me to!” Twilight said, enthusiasm in her voice.
“Go on.”
“Not so fast! Just to make sure that this whole thing is fair, I’m going to answer your question, but afterwards I want you to answer one of mine, deal?” Twilight said, extending her hoof out towards Matthew. While Twilight’s extended hoof is a common friendly gesture in Equestria, Matthew could only stare it, confused on what to do.
“... Uh… deal…” Matthew said extending his hand out and wrapping his fingers around her hoof and shaking it up and down. After their little hand shake, Twilight looked down at her hoof in wonder.
“Woooooow, that feels different.”
“So… back to the question?”
“Oh! Right… So, that all started almost a thousand years ago, right after Discord's defeat…”
“What in Tartarus was that?” Luna scoffed out as she and her sister appeared in Celestia’s room.
“What do you mean?” Celestia asked as she started taking off her regala.
“I'm sorry, did you miss the whole ‘I have powers’ thing?”
“Oh. No, I’m quite certain I heard it.”
“Then why are you being so courteous of it?! It’s quite obvious he’s lying!” It was quiet for a small while after that. Celestia was still calm and unhindered while Luna was angry and fuming. Celestia paused her nightly ritual and took a deep breath, trying to alleviate her emotions before continuing.
“I doubt that, but I wouldn’t blame him. Right now, he is confused, and he is simply a scared child who doesn't know what has happened to him. I wouldn't put it past him if he was lying. He was, after all, completely shocked by our mere presence,” Celestia said, taking off all of her regala and grabbing some makeup remover.
“You might have a point, but that still doesn’t explain why I can’t enter his dreams!” Luna said as Celestia started to make way to her bed.
“You heard him yourself, he has some sort of power. Now that I do not think he was lying about,” Celestia said, pulling the sheets down off her bed.
“What do you plan to do with him?” Luna asked, breaking Celestia's train of thought. Celestia stared off into the distance, unsure whether to give Luna her answer. Before it suddenly came out.
“I don’t know,” She said slowly.
“What do you mean you don't know.”
“It means that I don’t have a plan for him.”
“What? You couldn’t make a plan over the last two weeks?!”
“I have spent many nights awake, trying to figure out what to do with him once he wakes up… but I can’t seem to place him anywhere.”
“Well, what are we going to do?”
“For now, he’ll stay in Ponyville with Twilight and her friends. He can make many friends there, live a good life, maybe even find a mare to settle down with, and we can keep an eye on him. But whatever happens, happens, Luna.”
“Shouldn’t we send him back?”
“That… would be rather difficult…”
“We’ve opened portals to other dimensions before.”
“Yes, but we never targeted one.”
“Fair… but what about your student?”
“What about Twilight?”
“You think she is ready to take on this for you?”
“She has proved multiple times in the past that she is more than capable of taking care of herself and her friends. I am quite certain that she can befriend this creature. She is, after all, a princess now.”
“... Ohhhhh… I see now. You’re using this human to teach Twilight.”
“Precisely.”
“A rather bold move, seeing as we know nothing about him.”
“Yes, I agree, but Twilight needs to learn how to handle things like this… Regardless of how it ends, he’s going to teach her a valuable lesson either way,” Celestia said, finally getting into bed and getting comfy.
“Now, I’m going to sleep. I believe it is your turn now,” Celestia said as she started to lay down. Luna snuffed out a nearby candle with magic and looked at her sister.
“I’m going to try to enter his dreams again, I have a new theory that might work,” Luna said as she started to open the door.
“I hope it succeeds, sister. Goodnight,” Celestia said.
“Goodnight, Tia,” Luna said closing the door as she left the room. Celestia chuckled lightly before she closed her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.
"Woah with what, hold on, you mean to tell me that you guys built these super wagon things and they've broken the sound barrier?!" Rainbow Dash asked shock on her face at hearing that fact.
"Well, I didn't build it, others did, but yeah. Pretty insane stuff," Matthew said thinking back on the conversation.
"That's insane? You managed to get to the moon! I didn't think any amount of technology would ever be able to do that!" Twilight said, scribbling down more stuff into her notes.
"I mean… I wouldn't exactly call that our most defining moment," Matthew said thinking back on other darker parts of human history. Twilight stopped her writing and looked up at Matthew.
"Oh?! What would you say is the most innovative thing the… 'human' race has done!" Twilight said, her pencil on the page ready to write down whatever Matthew had to say.
"Hold on, hold on. I answered one of your questions. You gotta answer one mine."
"Oh… right?" Twilight said.with a small blush on her face.
"How many races are here exactly? Cause I was compared to a… Diamond Dog?"
"Oh… hmmm… well there's breezes, griffins, changelings, minotaurs, dragons, earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi… I guess Alicorn's count too and-"
"Stop… That’s … that's enough."
"Oh, sorry," Twilight said sheepishly.
"Definitely more diverse than my world, I'll give you that much."
"Oh really, how many species are there?"
"Well-"
"Darlings it's getting rather late, perhaps we can continue the conversation in the morning when Applejack and Spike aren't sleeping on a chair?" Rarity said, pointing to said pony who just so happened to be drooling on a chair as well as a small dragon who just so happened to be sleeping on the cow pony herself.
"Oh?! What time is it?" Twilight said, looking around for a clock.
"Late enough. I'm gonna be honest I was about to ask to go to sleep myself," Matthew said as he let out a small yawn.
"Oh uhh… guess I got cared away again," Twilight said as she scratched the back of her head out of embarrassment."
"Eh, don't worry about it egghead, I'll take Applejack back home while you get some shut eye yourself," Rainbow Dash said.as she hopped onto the floor and started to lift Applejack onto her back.
"I'm so sorry to have kept you here this long girls, I promise I won't do it again," Twilight said. Fluttershy perked her head up and looked over at Twilight.
"Oh don't be Twilight, I liked hearing about Matthew's world."
"And I can't wait until he's out of the hospital! Then I can throw four whole parties in one!" Pinkie Pie said as she hopped in the spot.
"Four? I thought it was two?" Twilight said.
"Well yes four, duh! There's you becoming a princess party, the get well party for Matty, the we discovered an alien party and then the welcome to Ponyville party! Four parties in one!" Pinkie Pie said with a wide grin of excitement.
"That's a lot Pinkie, you sure you can handle it?" Rainbow Dash asked with Applejack now on her back.
"I don't worry silly! Of course I can but that means I gotta start planning now! Which means I'm gonna need a full night worth of sleep! See ya guys later! So much to plan! So much glitter to put everywhere!" And just like that the enthusiastic party pony zoomed right out of the room without a second to lose.
"Well that's Pinkie for you," Rainbow Dash said as she herself started to walk out too.
"See ya, pride parade," Matthew said, while giving a small glare to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash gave one back with a look of confusion before looking at the other mares in the room.
"I'll see ya guys later. And Twilight, remember if you ever need me to knock someponies skull around let know."
"I… won't but thanks for coming Raimbow Dash."
"See ya," with that the Pegasus walked out the door.
"Darling. I seldom like to get into a pony's business but perhaps it'd be in your best interest to treat our little Dashie nicer?" Rarity said.
"Yeah, I'll start when she does," Matthew said, still giving the door a glare.
"Well, regardless I imagine Sweetie Belle is getting worried by now. I'll be on my way as well," Rarity said as she trotted towards the door, but before she left she turned around to look at Matthew one last time.
"But Matthew, when you do get out of the hospital, please feel free to stop by! I think I can find you something more fitting then those… rags you have."
"I will certainly keep that in mind."
"Good, I do love helping friends in need. Until then, goodnight!" Rarity said as she finally walked through the door.
"Carousel Boutique… has a nice ring to it," Matthew said as he looked over to Twilight.
"She works very hard to break into the fashion biz. I think she's getting there," Twilight said. Just as Matthew was about to respond, he saw a yellow Pegasus slowly sneaking their way to the door.
"Goodnight I guess?" Matthew said, causing the shy Pegasus to let out a small squawk.
"Uh. Ye-yes goodnight," Fluttershy said as she scurried out of the door.
"I know you guys said she takes care of animals and shit, but there's no way she takes care of hundreds in a little cottage,"atthew said as Twilight slowly levitated a very sleepy dragon onto her back.
"Nope she takes care of every single one of them."
"... You know the shock value thing kinda goes away after a while."
"Is that good?"
"It has its perks," At that, Twilight let out a small giggle.
"Well, it's been nice talking to you! I can't wait to learn more about you and more of your culture tomorrow!"
"Yeah, I can't wait either," Matthew said as Twilight lit up her horn.
"Next time you come here can you try the door? I had enough existential crisis' today."
"I'll keep it in mind. Until then, goodnight Matthew!" Twilight said before going away in a small poof of magic.
"Goodnight Twilight," Matthew said. Waiting a bit before laying down in his bed about ready to pass out for the day.
That was until he heard something stretch. His eyes shot up and his head snapped right to where she heard the noise. In the corner of the room, the chair Applejack had been sleeping on with Spike seemed to be morphing and shifting it'd structure into something else.
Suddenly, after a flash of magic, in the spot of the chair, stood a rather tall amalgamation of creatures. A rather infamous draconquess.
"Oh that pony drools like a dog! I'm covered in it," Discord said as he shook himself like a dog, fake drool whipping off of him.
"What the fuck…" Matthew said, mouth agape at what he saw. Discord turned his attention towards Matthew and grinned.
"Why hello there Matthew! How are you this fine evening! … that shock value worn off yet? Discord said in a slight mocking tone.
"Who… are you…"
"My name is Discord, the ruler of chaos!" It is a pleasure to meet you!" Discord said as he bowed down towards Matthew.
"You're … hold up… you're supposed to be in a statue-"
"I know. I know. Stuck in a statue for a thousand years blah blah blah. They did forget to mention how I was released recently.
"... Are they stupid?" Discord laughed at hearing that.
"Don't let them hear you saying that! They wouldn't like that too much!"
"....I'm ….I'm sorry it's just… why are you here?"
"Oh that's a pretty good question! I thought I could have a little fun here especially since I have a new little toy!"
"... Toy?" Matthew asked as another Discord poked his head around Matthew's shoulder. Matthew let out a gasp of fear and turned his head over to his shoulder Discord.
"Why you my boy! I see your potential and it is rather intoxicating to look at!"
"What are you talking about?!"
"Your power of course! It's small now but I can see it growing in time!"
"What?!"
"Don't be surprised, you must have felt it too!"
"...Yeah it's getting stronger but I have no idea what I'm doing! I don't know how to control it! I barely know how to move an object!" Matthew said as he yelled at Discords face. Discord simply let out a small laugh and pulled his head away from Matthew, appearing on Matthew's shoulder with a small devil costume on. Matthew snapped his eyes down towards the little devil man.
"That's the beauty of it Matthew! I've decided that it'd be in my best interest to help you anyway I can!"
"Help? What do you mean by that"
"It means I'm going to teach you how to use that power of yours! Telekinesis ey? Who knows, there might be even more powers you haven't even tapped into yet! Isn't it exciting!"
"I… more?" Matthew said with shock in his voice.
"Yes my boy! And I'll teach you all of them on one condition."
"What?"
"When I ask for it, you will help me no matter the time of day, or night or wherever you are in the world."
"That's it?"
"That's it," The devil Discord said with a smile before he walked behind Matthew and materialized in front of Matthew back to his normal form.
"What's the catch?"
"That's the beauty of it, there is no catch! Just scratch my back and I'll scratch yours!"
"It… would be nice to finally control it…"
"Do we have a deal?" Discord said as he reached his hand forward. Matthew looked at Discords hand for a moment unsure if he should shake it or not. But then he thought back to all the mishaps he's had before. The only time it's ever been helpful was during that cult thing and he still didn't know what he did to get it to work the way it did.
It seemed like there really wasn't any other option, so Matthew extended his hand out and shared Discord's outstretched paw.
"Deal," Matthew said as Discord pulled his paw hand away.
"Excellent! Now make sure you get plenty of rest cause we won't be starting yet but Twilight is going to most definitely tire you out."
"When do we start then?"
"Oh I'd give it a couple weeks, but don't worry about that now. For now enjoy yourself! Soak in the rays and enjoy the town of Ponyville! I'll be catching you later Matthew!" Discord said, and with a snap of his fingers he was gone.
Matthew simply stared at the spot Discord was at? Should he tell anybody? He wasn't so sure. What if this Discord guy betrays him or something? What if he's forced into servitude for the rest of his life? These were all questions that plagued Matthew's mind.
But eventually, after an hour of repetitive thoughts, he slowly drifted to sleep.
Princess Luna was yet again searching through the dreamscape to see if she could gain access to that human’s mind. After weeks of checking back on the door every day only to be pushed away, she was more than ready to try this one final trick. She’s been preparing this for about a week and she was sure, more than ever, that if this didn’t work, nothing would. She approached the bubble and looked at it one last time and noticed something was odd about it. It was… different, looked more colorful than usual.
Luna walked right up to it and reached out her hoof and was surprised by the results. Her hoof, instead of being pushed away, was able to pierce into the bubble.
“What trickery is this?” She asked to herself, unsure if it was safe to step inside of the dark room. She had waited many moons to enter this being's dream world, anticipating the moment until she would finally be able to see what thoughts were held within. And so, she walked right in, the world around her turning dark while the dream started to slowly build around her.
While waiting for the world to come into play, she couldn’t help but think of what dreams may be held within. Was he dreaming about his past? Maybe a horrible deed he’s done? Or something completely arbitrary and random? Or is it going to be an amalgamation of all the above? Luna could only shake in her boots as the world fully came into view.
Only for her expectations to be utterly crushed as she found herself in the middle of a colorful, grand spectacle. Around her sat many other humans, most of whom looked older than Matthew. And what she saw couldn’t match with what she heard. The sounds of children laughing and yelling over one another filled her ears, drowning out the talking adults. And as she looked around herself, she could see grand machines that spurred out orange tickets to giddy children. She saw many other adults wearing orange uniforms as they carried plates of pizza while children ran around them. Some trying to keep the children under control and making sure they didn’t hurt themselves.
But what caught her attention the most was not the fact that children were all wearing party hats or were all pushing each other out of their way. It was the giant mouse that stood in the center of the gathering masses. It had tears here and there some fluff poking out of its ear and a stupid grin on its face that infuriated Luna.
“I guess it’s one of those dreams…” Luna said to herself as she watched the giant mascot continue its duties. But once it stepped away from the children, she could feel a familiar pull telling her to follow it.
“This is the dreamer? How ridiculous.”
She followed him without any complaint and soon found herself inside a grungy, worn out room with a table occupied by a couple of people.
“Man I fucking tell ya, these kids are going to kill me one day,” The dreamer said as he started to pull off the head of his costume, revealing a sweaty, frazzled hair teen beneath it. He looked younger than Matthew, but still had the same attitude.
“Yeah, we had a bunch of ‘em almost knock down one of the arcade machines,” A voice said behind her, his pimpled face and greased up red hair not impressing the princess all that much.
“Still not as bad as the teenagers I tell you that much,” Matthew said, regaining the attention of the princess as the two began to converse to each other about their job. All the while the princess seemed to have her attention being pulled elsewhere, completely ignoring the conversation in front of her. She stared in rage at what was happening in front of her. The pure and utter anger that filled her system as she realized what was happening.
Discord was pranking her.
“Oh, that infuriating cur!” She said, not wasting anymore of her time as she magicked up a door tearing the door open and slamming it shut behind her. Barley even managing to hold down her rage as she was casting a spell to exit the dreamscape.
“He leads me on a wild goose chase thinking that the human was more dangerous than anything this land has ever seen. Tartarus, I bet he also rigged the door to keep me out until he awoke!” She said to herself as her physical body started to wake up from her spell.
“He angers me to no end! And for what?! Just to get a few laughs!?!” She said as she all but stepped down off her throne, not noticing a shadow creeping up behind her.
“What’s wrong Lulu, did the big, nasty, human scare you?” Luna snapped her head around to face the draconquess with her, her raeg being ever so prevalent on her face.
“Give me a good reason I should send you to the moon, where you can rot!”
“Oh, Lulu, I didn’t know the human was that scary.”
“You will refer to me as ‘Princess Luna’ you enraging animal!”
“Why are you so angry at me Luna?-
“Princess Luna!”
“All I did was warn you about the human.”
“How did you do it? Changing the dream?! The dreams that human has can’t be as simple as a random job! Nopony is as intertwined into dreams as I am! I didn’t waste weeks of my life just so I could find him playing as an oversized rat! So how did you change it?!”
“Luna, whater-
“PRINCESS LUNA!” She screamed out, almost on the verge of using her Canterlot voice.
“Princess Luna whatever you think I did, I can assure you that you have your bets on the wrong draconequus. While I do have a rather large sum of power at my disposal, I assure you that I still don’t know how to take hold of the dreamscape like you do. Nor do I want to. It’d be too easy to cause chaos that way.”
“Then he…”
“Oh come, Luna, you can’t honestly think that skinny armed weasel is that dangerous, can you? He might be a new species from another world and such, but I doubt he’s going to be able to do much at all. Now, if you’ll excuse me I believe I’m missing tuck time with Fluttershy. Tataloo!” Discord said before quickly snapping his fingers and teleporting off somewhere else. Leaving Luna alone with her thoughts about what Discord has told her. Her mind wondering about how he could’ve had such an affect on her world without even making the conscious decision to do so.
“Perhaps you are less dangerous than I thought, Matthew… I will have to send an apology later,” A scowl slowly making its way on her face.
Twilight was currently rereading all the notes she wrote down with Matthew. Her eyes, seemingly, not being able to tear themselves away from the book in front of her. She was so enamoured within her story that she failed to see Spike starring directly at her.
“You there?” Spike asked, causing Twilight to let out a small scream of surprise. She dropped her book and looked over at the dragon in shock. Spike simply scratched the back of his head and looked around.
“... Uh… You’ve been reading that book over and over again for the past couple days, don’t you think you should find something else to read?” Twilight, after calming her nerves down, sat back down and levitated the book back to her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about Spike. There’s nothing better than what’s in this book! We talked about everything! His species, the animals there! The weather! The technological advancements! I can’t believe they have this method of travel called… ‘cars’, it’s just so fascinating!”
“And I get that Twilight, but, maybe it’s getting to the point of being unhealthy.”
“Unhealthy? What do you mean by unhealthy?” Twilight asked as she put the book back down.
“Well… I don’t think this is a good look for you,” Spike said as he pulled a mirror out of a small drawer near him and held it up to Twilight. What Twilight saw made her gasp. Her eyelids had sacked down heavily, it looked like she hasn’t slept in weeks, and her man was a mess, almost getting to the point of being a rat's nest. Suffice to say, she was less than stellar to see herself.
“... I… Why did nopony say anything?”
“Because it was just me… and I tried to tell you but you told me you’d get sleep later and… you didn’t,” Spike said as he pulled the mirror away and put it back in the drawer next to them.
“I… I guess I didn’t realize how bad it’s gotten, huh?”
“You’re telling me, I really think you should take the day of, Twi.”
“But, I need to talk to Matthew, I know Fluttershy is going and I still have so many questions still!”
“... Do I need to pull out the mirror again?” Spike said as his hand was slowly edging its way closer to the drawer.
“No! No. You’re right. I’ll go brush out my mane and go to sleep. I don’t really have all that much to do today anyway, so I’ll just enjoy myself,” Twilight said as she started walking up her room, but just as she was about to enter the door she stopped and turned around.
“You don’t suppose Fluttershy’s going to struggle talking to Matthew?”
“... Is that a serious question? It’s… Fluttershy.”
“... Yeah… maybe I should-”
“NO! I’ll just go find Rainbow Dash and tell her to watch over Fluttershy.”
“You sure that’s a good idea? I know you were asleep for most of it, but I don’t think Matthew and Rainbow Dash hit it off that well.”
“Hey, she’ll keep him in line, and why not? Maybe they’ll sort out their differences!”
“Or make them worse, we don’t know that much about Matthew. As far as we know, he may still be holding a grudge over her.”
“Oh please, Rainbow dash isnt that dumb, I doubt she’ll do anything bad. And I think the guy can handle himself, he didn’t look like a pushover.”
“Maybe because you couldn’t see over the bed. He didn’t look too good, but… I suppose you’re right. Rainbow Dash won’t make or… do anything too drastic so I guess you can go get her.”
“On it!” At that, Spike headed out, opening and quickly shutting the door behind him, leaving Twilight on the staircase.
“I mean… it could make things better, but… wow… I’m starting to feel how sleepy I am,” Twilight said as her legs wobbled beneath her. She slowly turned back around and started heading inside, her eyes lids growing heavy as she trotted.
What she failed to notice was a talon and paw reaching for the notebook she left on the table.
The hospital room was rather quiet, the only noise being the machines letting out whirls of beeps every now and then. It was so still and so quiet that one would be able to hear Matthew breathing. The only thing that broke the silence were the small wheels on the EKG machine that started to move on their own. It started off slowly but picked up in speed, pulling away from Matthew as it then started rushing towards a wall.
The loud crash when it collided against the wall shot Matthew awake and made a small scream. He looked over to see the now broken EKG machine, as well as the now dented wall.
“Goddammit,” Matthew said as he slammed his arms down on the bed. Not even a second passed by when the door to the room was slammed open and two guards ponies entered, spears drawn and at the ready.
“What the hell are-” Matthew said, cutting himself off as the memories from last night came back.
“Oh right, ponies…” The guards ponies looked around a little more, only seeing the broken EKG machine. They slowly put their spears back and looked back at the human.
“What happened in here?” One of them said as they approached the new dent in the wall.
“I… Tried standing up on my own… I grabbed it and I tripped, I sorta flung it trying to stay up,” Matthew said, barely believing his own lie, but it seemed to be enough for the pony guard who knew nothing about Matthew.
“I’ll call a nurse,” Said the other pony guard, both leaving eventually after seeing that everything was fine. After they left, Matthew simply let out a sigh and looked at the damage he had caused.
“Musta been a bad dream or something, I swear this shit’s getting harder to control,” He said as he then started grabbing at his head in frustration. He was so angry at himself, he didn’t even realize that two ponies had walked into the room.
“Hello there Mister Human,” A soft spoken voice said. Matthew raised his head up and looked over to see the shy, yellow only from yesterday walk in with rainbow haired backup. Caught off guard by the name, Matthew stared at Fluttershy with some confusion.
“Oh… Hey.”
“Would you mind if we came in?” Fluttershy said, as she held a small smile on her face.
“I don’t mind, go ahead,” And so the ponies did. They both walked right in and were shocked to see what happened to the machine. Rainbow Dash took a closer look at it and poked it confusingly.
“Woah, what happened to this thing?”
“I uh… pushed it.”
“You pushed it?” Rainbow Dash said in surprise as she turned her head back to look at Matthew.
“Yeah, I was trying to get up and I got angry so I pushed it,” Rainbow Dash turned her head back and looked at the wall itself.
“And you left a dent in the wall… Remind me not to piss you off.”
“Yeah… You should remember that yourself,” Matthew said with a somewhat snarky attitude. Rainbow Dash quickly turned around, her facing showing some anger, and started walking towards Matthew aggressively.
“What was that?” She asked as Fluttershy got in the way between Rainbow Dash and Matthew.
“Rainbow Dash, we talked about this, you said you’d be nice and apologize,” Fluttershy said with a small glare.
“Me?! But he just-” Matthew saw very little but the look on Rainbow Dash’s face was priceless as she went from full on anger to full on freight in less than a second. Rainbow Dash backed away from Fluttershy and stammered.
“O-Okay okay! Just stop with the look, please!” Fluttershy eased up her look on Rainbow Dash and stepped out of the way and let her talk to Matthew. Rainbow Dash walked forward and stood at the base of Matthew’s bed, scratching the back of her head and looking away from Matthew.
“I uh… I’m sorry about… ya know being… a bit mean. I just didn’t know you and I thought you were going to try to… do something bad. I’m… sorry,” She said, not really able to look up at Matthew. The human on the other hand was shocked to hear such an apology, his face just left his mouth slightly agape. After a few seconds of silence, Matthew shook his head and stared at Rainbow Dash.
“I uh… accept your apology. It’s fine really, I don’t know what it’s like to see uhh… well something like me. I’m sorry too, about the insults and all that I’m just… I guess I was a bit on edge myself. ”
“Yeah, it’s fine, I accept your apology.”
“Still, can’t imagine what it’s like to be in your shoes and see… well… this,” Matthew said as he gestured to himself.
“It’s a bit horrifying if I’m being honest, you look like you’re about ready to turn into a zombie,” Rainbow Dash said with a small smile on her face. Matthew, seeing the smile, picked up what she was putting down.
“Really? I’m the disgusting one? You know, they say if you follow a rainbow, there’s a pot of gold at the end of it, why do I see your ugly ass?” Matthew said with a smirk while Rainbow Dash’s smile seemed to deepen.
“Oh yeah? Well I see somepony who looks better with the bandages on. Maybe if you had them over your face, somepony would be interested in you.”
“Oooooh, that’s a great line coming from someone who looks like they just got out of bed. Though I bet you’d look better if the lights were off.”
“Well I-”
“Why are you two being so mean to each other?!” Fluttershy said, stopping the flow of their insult battle the two were having. Rainbow Dash and Matthew both looked at each other for a few seconds with some confusion on their faces.
“It’s a friendly thing, Flutters, don’t worry about it. I like this guy, seems pretty cool to hang out with,” Rainbow dash said as she shot Matthew a smile.
“Yeah, just some friendly banter, don’t worry yourself.”
“Oh… Okay,” Fluttershy said as she noticeably relaxed.
“But, if you guys don’t mind me asking, whatcha doing here?” Matthew asked.
“Well, I thought I could just come by and make sure you’re okay. I was getting worried thinking about you all night with Angel Bunny. I told him all about you and he seemed so worried, so many of my animal friends were.”
“... You talk to animals?” Matthew said with genuine confusion.
“Well of course I do silly, it’s my cutie mark,” Fluttershy said as she point to her flank.
“I… I mean I asked about them but… that doesn’t… butterflies?”
“Don’t worry about it dude, I’m sure Twilight will do her geek magic and you’ll learn about them just fine,” Rainbow Dash said as she turned back around to the wall.
“I… guess? I know I didn’t really ask, but where exactly will I be living when I’m out of the hospital?” Fluttershy widened her eyes in excitement at hearing that.
“Oh. I was thinking you could be with me and my animals! I promise they’re all nice and friendly they wouldn’t-”
“I think I’ll have to pass, sorry,” Matthew said, cutting off Fluttershy before she was even able to finish her sentence. Her mood seemed to drop suddenly at hearing Matthew’s words.
“Oh… I understand, sorry,” Fluttershy said as she seemed to sulk a bit more. Matthew, feeling bad for her, came up with a lie on the spot.
“I uh, I don’t want to cause… I have really bad allergies with fur and stuff and I can only imagine how covered that place is with like cats and dogs and-”
“It’s mainly squirrels, rabbits and a bear man,” Rainbow Dash said as she started poking at the dent now.
“I… a bear? Yeah, I’m gonna have to pass on that. What about you, Dash?”
“Sorry man, that’s gonna be a no go, I live in the clouds and I don’t think you’d be able to stay up there for long,” Rainbow Dash said as she looked back at Matthew.
"... Sorry you live in clouds?" Matthew asked with his jaw slightly agap.
"Well yeah, they're comfy and you can only stay on them if you have a pair of wings," Rainbow Dash said while pointing to her own set of wings.
“Damn… well, it’s not like it’s gonna matter much, you guys’re gonna send me home anyways.”
“Yeah, that egghead’s bound to figure something out.”
“Yeah…”
“Hey man, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you throw it this hard?”
“What?”
“The whole… dent in the wall thing. You don’t look that strong, your arms look pretty flimsy even with all the padding its got.”
“I… guess it was just pure anger,” Matthew said,
“I guess.”
“You guys just wanted to check up on me, right?” Matthew said, Fluttershy perked her head up and looked at Matthew.
“Oh yes, we just wanted to make sure you’re okay, there’s nothing else you need is there?”
“Nope, I think I’m fine, just bored now, could use a book or something to read,” At hearing those words, Rainbow Dash snapped her head towards Matthew with excitement and glee in her eyes.
“Oh! You wanta book to read! I have this amazing book series you’d love! I read it myself when I was at the hospital and it’s such a great story filled with action and mystery and it was just so awesome!” Rainbow Dash said as she was getting excited just by her own description of the story. Matthew only stared at her with slight discretion.
“I’ll uhh… I’ll keep that in mind…” A few seconds after Matthew was done talking, a couple nurses came in and looked around the room to see the now dead EKG monitor.
“Oh, dangit,” one of them said as they started moving the EKG machine out. The other nurse decided to check up on Matthew.
“You’re fine, right? No pain in your skin or anything… or your muscles?” The nurse asked as she looked over at the wall.
“No, I’m fine, no pain at all.”
“Hmm, if that’s the case, then I think we can take off these bandages… Would you two mares just wait outside for a quick minute?” The nurse pony said as she looked towards Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.
“Yeah, me and Fluttershy were about to go anyways, come on Flutters,” Rainbow dash said as she floated herself outside of the room with Fluttershy following behind. But before she existed, Fluttershy turned to look at Matthew.
“Stay safe, please,” She said before heading out herself.
“Alright sir, I’m just gonna remove the gauze and see how well you’ve been healing up,” The nurse said as she conjured up some magic and started to peel away some of the gauze.
“Ohh, that looks like it healed nicely, you are definitely ready to have this whole thing be removed!”
“Oh, great, how does that-'' Suddenly, in a poof of magic, the gause that wrapped up Matthew’s entire body was gone, leaving him completely naked, thankfully there was a sheet covering most of his more exotic parts. Matthew stared down at himself in shock as he felt the fresh air on his skin again.
“Damn, never knew I could miss the feeling of air,” Matthew said as he started taking in senses again.
“Okay sir, we’re just going to switch out the broken EKG machine with this new one, thank you Nimble,” The nurse said as she magicked a new strap around Matthew’s arm.
“Huh… that’s weird.”
“What’s weird, sir?”
“I guess I just never noticed it but the whole thing being wrapped around my arm… we usually have something that goes on our finger,” Matthew said, flipping his arm over and pointing to his left index finger.
“Oh, you don’t say! How do they find the… Huh…” The nurse seemed to lose her excitement when she noticed something on Matthew.
“What?”
“Sir, I don’t mean to alarm you, but what are those spot things on your arm?” She said, pointing to Matthew’s arm. Matthew looked down and saw the scars he himself inflicted onto him.
Track marks.
They’re scars now, but it’s been so long since he’s even looked at them that he simply forgot they were there. Matthew could only stare at them, memories from before flooding in and overwhelming him.
“Can I take a quick look sir?” Matthew was brought back out of the depths of his mind quicker than he could think. Without a second thought, he clapped his hand over the marks and looked at the pony in fear.
“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it,” Matthew said, as though he were reading off of a script.
“Sir, if you’re still damaged, we can gauze-”
“It’s not a burn. It’s-... Just a thing humans have!” Matthew said, lying right through his teeth. The nurse pony seemed to back up with a face of clarity.
“Oh! I’m so sorry if I made you uncomfortable, I’m assuming it’s a… ‘human’ culture thing. Oh well,” the nurse pony said as she started heading out to the door with her other nurse friend.
“If you ever need anything, just give a shout and we’ll come as soon as possible!” She said before finally leaving the room. When the door shut, Matthew looked back down at his arm, the disappointment ever so present in his face. He traced his hand around the marks, each one giving a small reminder to how badly he was addicted back then. Then one memory came forward from the depths of his mind, there was so much fighting, and yelling and it all lead to something he’d regret for the rest of his life.
He kept playing the memory in his head over and over again, tears welling up in his eyes as it just started to become too much for him to handle. He eventually stopped and sunk his head into the pillows he had, and wept.
Celestia was in the middle of her duties, currently talking to some random noble about something or the other. She wasn’t quite certain what the topic of conversation was anymore, after centuries of listening to the same sort of rabble day in and day out, it all just starts to mesh together after a bit. Usually it’s about erecting some statue for somepony whose family never deserved it, or land disputes, or some minor conflict that could’ve been resolved without Celestia’s guidance. Rarely, if ever, is it about somepony else.
“And I can assure you this statue will stand as a legacy to my great, great, grandfather Snoogles! And teach others of his greatness for years to come!” It appeared to be the usual today. Celestia let out a small sigh, bit down on her tongue, and forced her usual royal smile.
“I’d love to erect a statue in your… great, great, grandfather Snoogles, but I don’t believe that would be a valuable use of resources. If you’d like I-”
“No! This statue has been requested for generation after generation! We’ve sent multiple letters of request as we always have year ‘round to…
And like that, she started to tune out the pony in front of her, her mind being occupied with things far more important. The Summer Sun Celebration will be in about three weeks and she couldn’t wait to attend it with her sister… Would her sister like it? It was a celebration for beating Nightmare Moon, but it’s turned into something far more familial.
Celestia was drawn away from her thoughts as her eyes glazed over to one of the many stained glass windows that adorned her great hall. Something was amiss with it, she swore there was an extra figure on it, but she wasn't sure which one.
It wasn only when she took a closer outlook that she realized what had changed, there was a certain Draconquess reading a book on it. And it seemed to be looking directly at her. The royal smile that was ever so present on Celestia’s face seemed to drop instantly.
“Are you even listening?!” The noble asked, bringing Celestia’s attention back.
“I heard you, but it appears that there is a rather important matter I must attend to now. If you’d like to continue this conversation elsewhere, I’d be glad to listen more, but if you could please step out now, I’d be more than grateful. This goes to you too, my loyal guards,” Celestia said, in a matter-of-fact tone. The noble she was talking to simply had their mouth agape before pushing their head with a loud humph and walking out of the throne room. The guards, didn’t hesitate or even dare disobey the princess’ orders and walked off as ordered to.
Celestia, after making sure the coast was clear, drew her attention back towards the stained glass window.
“You can come out now,” Celestia said. The small figure in the glass painting quite literally pulled itself out of the painting and fell down to the ground with a loud shatter of glass. It rapidly put itself together, and with a poof of smoke, Discord was in the center of it in full mass with a book in his hand.
“Hello there Celestia, how goes your little meeting thingies? They bore you to death yet?” Discord said, not daring to take his eyes off of the book in front of him.
“I believe I am doing just fine Discord. The only thing that clouds my mind is to why you are here.”
“Oh, I simply wanted to ask you a few questions about the human that we have in our sweet little town of Ponyville!” He then popped up right in front of Celestia, with a fake doctor's outfit on.
“I hear he’s been a rather big conundrum for your sister! Doesn’t that interest you?” Discord said, taking his eyes off the book for once and letting it poof away somewhere else as he looked deeply into Celestia.
“I had a feeling you were watching but I didn’t think you’d stay around as long as you did, you usually get bored of such things.”
“Ohh that’s true, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for our little broken down and lonely human friend!” Discord said as he poofed a random photo of Matthew into his hands and shedding some mock tears.
“What is it you really want Discord? You don’t come by here to play games unless there’s something you’re not telling me,” Celestia said, clear that she wanted answers for Discord’s appearance.
“Oh yes! I was wondering if I could talk to you about that whole… power thing that our sweet boy Matthew has!” Discord snapped his finger and a giant projector screen came out of nowhere with a diaphragm of a human brain, Discords clothes changing as well to look like a professor.
“Go on,” Celestia said with caution.
“So! Here we have the normal human brain, nothing is wrong with it. It is perfectly healthy in every single way imaginable! But…” Discord snapped his fingers again and the image of the human brain changed to show a small growth inside of the brain.
“This is our dear sweet Matthew’s brain. Just by looking at it, it looks like some sort of benign tumor! But it has some special abilities that I’ve never seen before! I can feel its power! It’s potential! And it is quite interesting!”
“What’s your point Discord, I know that he harbors some power already,” Celstia said, annoyance forming in her voice. Discord then snapped his fingers again and appeared in a two piece suit with a fancy table in front of him.
“Here is my offer! You allow me to teach this human how to control his power, and only me, I promise to bring you some absolutely beautiful technological advancements!”
“You? How could you make a promise such as that?” Celestia said, confused all the meanwhile. Discord then snapped his fingers again and brought a notebook back out and laid it on his fancy desk.
“The last time I was in the human world, they had nothing more than sticks and stones and were only just discovering how to farm! But this book tells me that they’ve advanced so much further than I could have possibly imagined! It’s honestly quite impressive to see!”
“Wait, you’ve been to the human world? Do you know how to go back?”
“Well of course I do, it’s rather easy for me to-”
“Send him back,” Caught off guard, Discord stopped his tirade and stared at Celestia with confusion.
“I… I apologize, what?”
“Send him back home,” Celestia said again with more emphasis.
“I… I think you misunderstand the situation, Tia. I want to simply-”
“And I want to send this lost soul back home. Send him back,” Celestia said more stern than ever. Discord’s smile dropped fully as he realized what he’s done. He quickly concocted a plan and regained his smile.
“Oh, Tia, that would only cause more harm than good!”
“Please explain,” Celestia said. Discord snapped his fingers again, turning the table in front of him to a crystal ball while he wore some fortune teller outfit. He waved his hands in front of the ball and showed off what looked to be a regular city.
“The power he currently possesses is small now, bound to grow in time. It might not be that dangerous at the moment, but…” With a wave of his hands the city inside of the crystal ball quickly turned into rubble.
“If he goes on without proper guidance, and proper training, he’s going to destroy everything. And he won’t know what he can do to stop it...” Discord said, with a serious tone in his voice. Celestia took his words in while looking deeply into the crystal ball.
“... Then why offer to bring technology if all you wanted to avoid was bloodshed?”
“Ah, well, I simply wish to help you along with our little perfect world! Could you think of all the things we could do if we had half of what was in that book? So many things could change and I’d love to see it all play out! ... Oh and the whole reformed thing,” With another snap of his fingers he was back to his regular self with the book in his hand.
“You’re having fun with this, aren’t you?”
“Oh, you know little old me,” Discord said, his head already being wrapped in the book he’s reading, literally. Celestia mulled over his words for a few seconds before speaking again.
“If I give you permission, I expect you to teach him properly. No chaos and no intent to harm him whatsoever, do you understand?”
“Yes, yes, I’ll make sure the human won’t be harmed during our little training exercises!” Discord said with a wave of his paw.
“Is that all Discord?”
“Why yes. I’ll start his training in two weeks! See what he can do after he’s fully recovered.”
“Good, now if you’ll excuse me, I believe I’ve put my court on hold long enough.”
“Oh yes, yes, go on and continue your most exciting court matters! I’ll be on my way, my dear Celestia!” With one final snap of his fingers, Discord disappeared in a puff of smoke and left Celestia to her own devices. She breathed in one final time to catch her breath and forced her royal mask back on.
“Guards! You can come back now!” The guards who were stationed at the bottom of Celestia’s throne returned and stood tall and stoic for their princess.
“I believe we have court to finish.”
Chapter 6: Out of The Hospital
Author's Note
I don't usually like to ramble or put my thoughts on paper whatever, but I feel like I need to address the growing hatred of this story.
Soooooo it's been a bit, hasn't it? And you might be wondering why that is. So, I will be straight forward and honest with those who actually enjoy my story.
During the first initial release of this story, there's been major backlash. I have had this idea in my head for the past few years and I was finally motivated enough to write it down and publish it to the world.
Sadly, there has been very bad reception towards it. I don't typically like to say that I wrote it solely for the likes and views, I couldn't care less if the story got popular. It's simply the fact that a large chunk of people simply don't like the story. I know I said that I didn't write it for the likes, but I personally don't see a reason in writing a story and publishing it if people just don't like it in general. The dislikes just don't make me feel confident as a writer and I really feel inadequate right now.
If you don't like the story, please DM me your reasons as to why and let me try to improve, cause that's all I ask for. I want to be a better writer and I want to be a storyteller. The issue is that I can't do that if I'm not being told what I'm doing wrong.
I'm sorry to any of those that I may upset with this story. I apologize that it did not live up to your standards.
Sorry about the rant, please tell me what you think of this chapter in the comments below.
Chapter 6: Out of The Hospital
Matthew was sitting in his room again, but instead of being bored out of his mind, he actually had something to entertain himself. A Daring Do book so ever generously given by Rainbow Dash herself. And while he was very appreciative of having something to do, there was one major issue
It was getting hard to read the damn thing.
The words in the book resembled English to some extent but they were too close together, practically mashing into each other. Matthew figured he’d have to learn how to read this different language, but didn’t think that their current one would reflect his own so closely.
“Feels like I’m in first grade again,” Matthew said to himself as he brought the book even closer to his face. While he was attempting to decode the language, the door to the room opened up and three mares walked right in. Matthew pulled his gaze away from the book and looked up to the three mares.
“Oh… Uh… Hi guys,” Matthew said as he looked at Applejack, Rarity and Twilight.
“Hey there partner, how ya feeling right now?” Applejack said.
“Uh… Never better I guess. Though I think any condition where I’m not burnt to a crisp is better,” Twilight then trotted up to his bed.
“I think you look a lot better now, are you fully okay though? Just want to make sure before they release you from the hospital.”
“They’re releasing me?”
“Why yes, you’re fine now… I think. Is this what humans usually look like?”
“Uhh, I mean, sorta, I am fine, I just... Guess I’m not used to how fast it healed. Something like that would’ve taken months or years and my skin looks fine. Doesn’t even look like I was burned,” Matthew said as he rubbed his arms.
“That’d be due to that magic them unicorn doctors used on ya. Why, I remember when I broke my leg during one Applebucking season as it managed to heal within a few days,” Applejack said as she rubbed her hoof in remembrance.
“A few days?! It would take actual months to heal on Earth!” Matthew said with a look of shock. Rarity then decided to poke her own head in.
“Well magic does have its uses, darling.”
“You’re telling me…”
“Anyways though, I believe a doctor’s going to come in here soon to release you, I’m so excited!” Twilight said
“Why are you excited?” Matthew said with some confusion.
“Well, the rest of the girls and I talked about your living situation and it's been decided that you’ll be staying with me for the time being!”
“Really? No one else would take me in? Not that I’m complaining, just wondering I guess,” At that Applejack looked away a little sheepishly.
“Well… to be frank, sugarcube, you don’t got the strength for farming! Rarity has her little sister living with her and there ain’t no room in that boutique. Ya’ll already said no to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie lives with Mr and Mrs Cake already. Twilight’s really the only choice ya got,” Applejack said as she pointed towards Twilight, whose smile only seemed to grow.
“Alright, I’m fine with that, won’t be for long anyways… I think,” At the mention of that Twilight’s smile dropped a bit and she looked a little uneasy.
“Uh About that. There’s uh… A bit of an issue with trying to send you back… I uhh… I don’t know how to send you back,” Twilight said with her face looking down at the ground.
“... What?”
“I… I’m sorry Matthew, I looked up everything in the books about interdimensional portals and whatnot, but I couldn’t find anything! Not even in Starswirl the Bearded’s books!”
“... Oh…” Matthew looked lost. He didn’t know what to say. Anything that came to mind seemed to slip off and away from his thoughts. Rarity and Applejack looked towards each other with a slightly concerned look before Applejack stepped forward.
“Look, sugarcube, I bet my whole harvest that Twilight will do everything she can to try and send you back home. She’s a smart pony, she’ll figure something out,” Twilight, upon hearing that, looked a little more away from the conversation.
“I… I’ll try whatever I can, but I don’t know if it’ll be possible right away. I’m so sorry Matthew,” She then backed away from the bed and awaited the human’s response.
“I… I guess it’s the best I can ask for, ya know? If you were in my shoes, there wouldn’t have been anyway to get you guys back to your home… So it’s… fine,” Matthew said, trying to calm himself down as his emotions seemed rather conflicted. Applejack forced on a smile and approached Matthew.
“It’s gonna be okay, I swear,” Matthew looked down at Applejack, her smile causing the human to put on one of his own. The moment didn’t last too long as a doctor stormed right inside of the room, looking at his notes that he brought along with him as a wheel chair rolled in behind him.
“Uhh… Matthew, it seems like your whole body has healed from the massive burns altogether! Excellent progress! I’d say you are fit to leave the hospital now!”
“Uh… about that doc, where’s my clothes? I’d get out of bed, but I’m pretty sure I’m naked underneath the sheets,” Matthew said, looking around a little bit trying to find his own pair of clothes. The doctor pony looked a little apprehensive at that.
“Ah, about that, well, we had to cut them off to perform some basic surgery on you, removing some burns that were too damaged to heal properly, and… well we tossed them. There was barley anything on you… They’re… ruined to say the least,” At hearing that, Matthew pulled the sheets up to cover most of his body up even more.
“I’m not getting out of this bed,” Twilight looked up in confusion at Matthew.
“Uh, why not? It should be fine, right?”
“Well, I guess we never covered that topic during our conversations. BUT, my… privates kinda just dangle out and I’m not going to walk through town with my sausage bouncing around.” Rarity put a hoof over her mouth in shock at hearing that.
“How improper use of language!”
“It’s true though and I’m not leaving this bed without some sort of clothing!” The ponies looked to one another, wondering what to do. Suddenly Rarity seemed to have this idea spark in her head.
“Oh! I have an idea, it’ll have to do for now, but I can let you use ”a roll of cloth from my boutique!"
“You’d do that?”
“Well of course, daring! You need it now more than anypony else, it’s the least I can do! Twilight, would you be a dear and go get it? It's in my room!”
“Yes, of course, I’ll be back in a jiffy,” Twilight said as she teleported out of the room, presumably to Rarity’s Boutique.
“I can’t thank you enough, really. I didn’t expect something so… generous,” Rarity couldn’t help but smile at hearing that.
“Well, it’s to be expected seeing as I’m the Element of Generosity!” Rarity said, with a small bit of pride in her voice. Though, her words only seemed to confuse Matthew.
“... Element of Generosity?” Before Rarity could answer, Twilight came back with a dress, it was mainly purple but the ends were dyed with some reddish color, all of it being held together by a vest piece. As well as the cloak seemed to just be a random cloak with little to no design.
“Will thus do, Rarity?” Twilight said as she floated the long piece of fabric over to Rarity. Rarity in turn, enveloped this dark brown fabric in her own magic and looked over it.
“Yes, I believe this is it! Hmm, what do you think dear?” Rarity said as she lifted up the cloth for Matthew to see.
“Uh… how am I supposed to wear it?”
“Oh, you let me worry about that deary! Do you like it?”
“I… guess?”
“Excellent!” With that, Rarity’s magic went to work. Out of nowhere scissors were flown high into the sky as well as a tape measure and a sewing needle.
Right in front of Matthew’s own eyes, he could see a cloak being made right in front of him. A couple snips here and a few bits of sewing there and before Matthew could even comprehend what was happening right in front of him, there was a brand new cloak, brown cloak that had Rarity’s cutie mark upon it.
Matthew could only gape at what he saw.
“That right there is what I call some magic!” Applejack said as Rarity levitated the newly made garment right into Matthew’s hands.
“I did what I could, but I hope it’s to your liking! I’ll be sure to make something far more comfortable down the line.”
“No, it’s fine, I’m just… shocked,” Matthew said as his mouth still hung agape. Twilight, seeing his bewildered expression, walked forward.
“At what?
“Well, I’ve never seen that before.”
“Magic? Well, we talked about that already and-”
“I mean the whole… Never mind,” Matthew then wrapped the cloak around himself, comfortable to at least cover up some of his dignity. Just as he was about to throw the sheets off, he couldn’t help but notice the prying eyes on him.
"... Uh… can I get some privacy?" The ponies that stared at Matthew were shaken out of their daze with blushes ever present on their faces. Without saying many words, the three mares excused themselves and trotted out of the room. The only pony remaining was the doctor that came in earlier.
“Ah, I think you forgot I was here, huh?”
“A little… I’d still like some privacy.”
“... That… won’t happen.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well, for one, your body has gone under great stress healing the wounds it procured during your little… fire incident. I’m just staying to make sure you’re able to trot.”
“... I… I mean you’re right… I just-”
“Come now, I’m a professional, I’ve seen plenty. The only thing I want to see is if you can stand, are you okay to do that?”
“... Yeah, I’ll sure as shit try,” Matthew swung his legs over the bed, shame and pride pushed aside for the moment, and he attempted to stand. It was a little shaky at first, but Matthew seemed to be able to keep his balance for a bit.
And then he started walking.
The literal second that Matthew lifted one of his feet off the ground, he felt a sharp bolt of pain shoot up his leg. He started falling immediately. Thankfully a certain pony doctor caught Matthew in his magic before he was about to fall too far.
“Woah, woah there! You alright? See it’s a good thing I was here,” The doctor said as he put Matthew back on the bed.
“Dammit… I thought I-”
“Don’t beat yourself up over it. You’re still recovering, we’re just gonna have to put you in a wheelchair for the time being. Just try to move your legs every now and then, that combined with magic, and you’ll be just fine,” The dark pony said as he pulled over the wheelchair from earlier and pulled it out in front of Matthew.
“Alright, when can we do that? I’d rather be able to walk on my own again.”
“Don’t worry about that now, you’ll probably be able to walk later today, we should get you out of the hospital for now,” As Matthe was getting hauled to the door, he wrapped the cloak around his waist, making sure to cover up whatever was left of his pride.
“Uhh… Okay. I don’t see why we’re rushing, but I guess this is fine,” As soon as he was done, he was quickly lifted and put onto the wheelchair that was a bit too big for him.
“Uh… how do you guys have something like this in storage? … Do you guys have giant ponies to take care of?”
“What? No! Well sometimes. But this wheelchair’s for a minotaur, we just repurposed it for your use,” The doctor said as he was making sure the wheelchair was good enough for Matthew’s use.
“Oh… Hmm… You know for a guy who’s been doing all this stuff for me, kinda surprising I haven’t gotten your name by now.”
“Doctor Greymane, at your service!” At hearing his name, Matthew grabbed at his forehead and whispered to himself.
“Greymane, Ponyville- What’s with all the stupid horse puns?”
“What was that?”
“Nothing, don’t worry about it,” Greymane shrugged his shoulders and started pushing Mathew out of the room. When the doors opened, Matthew could hear the three mares giggling to themselves.
“What’s so funny?” The mares immediately quieted their giggling and looked towards Matthew with a smile.
“Oh, nothing, just girl things!” Twilight said. Applejack trotted up next and looked at Matthew’s new clothes. Nopony noticing Doctor Greymane slinking away from the group.
“Eh… I mean… I’ve seen worse, Rarity...” Applejack said with a forced on smile as she looked towards Rarity.
“Oh PUHlease! This was incredibly last minute! I will be sure to remedy this, and make proper attire, after the par-” Suddenly, Applejack closed her hooves over Rarity’s mouth, looking at Matthew with a giant smile.
“After the uhh… Uhm…” Applejack then looked over at Twilight, worry and help screaming from her eyes.
“Uhh!...After the… package!”
“... Package?” Twilight said as her eyes darted around the room.
“Yes! I am… getting a package from Celestia and… It has… Uhh-”
“If you don’t want to tell me, it’s fine, you don’t have to make this bullshit of a lie,” Matthew said as he stopped Twilight from embarrassing herself more.
“Uhh… Sorry, it’s a bit of a secret and we didn’t want to spoil anything.”
“Spoil what?” Matthew said with a smile. Twilight was not amused though, showing a rather flat face towards the joke.
“Okay, sorry, let’s just get out of here,” Twilight said as she gripped Matthew’s wheelchair and started pushing him down the halls of the hospital, Applejack and Rarity following in tow.
The walk was rather silent, occasionally the girls would talk about this or that, but it was nothing of real interest. What was interesting, at least to Matthew, was the lack of… well anybody else. As they continued walking down the halls, and even past the front desk, there wasn’t a single soul in sight. It frightened Matthew, but he bit his tongue and didn’t say anything.
It wasn’t until they exited the hospital that Matthew started to get concerned. Instead of the bustling town that he was told Ponyville was, he was greeted by nothing. No noise, no random chats to hear. There was just nothing.
“Uhh… Where is everybody?” Matthew said, drawing the girls' attention away from their random conversation. The mares looked at each other for a second before Twilight started speaking.
“Uhm… well… you’ll just have to wait for it!” She said, still pushing Matthew’s wheelchair.
“Does this have to do with that thing you guys were talking about earlier?”
“Whaaaaaat? Noooooooo, don’t be silly, we’re just going to my library,” Not even letting Matthew get a retort in, they continued moving forward, further into the dead town. The shops that littered were barred shut, like they were closed last minute, and the stands that lined the streets were empty of stock. Matthew didn’t know what to say or think, but it clearly had something to do with what the girls were talking about earlier. Was it some special holiday? A religion maybe? Matthew wasn’t quite certain which one to pick, or if any of them were correct, but the girls would more than likely tell him afterwards.
“Before we get going back to the library, would ya like a treat, Sugarcube?” Applejack said as they approached a building in the middle of the street. Said building looked like an upscaled gingerbread house with a cupcake at the top. This place certainly had its interesting landmarks.
“Uhh… What is this thing?”
“This here is Sugarcube Corner, it’s got some of the best deserts in all of Ponyville!” Applejack said as she trotted up the steps.
“You sure this place is open? The windows are blocked off like the rest of the stores,” Applejack was about to stumble over her words, but Twilight came by Matthew's side rather quickly.
“We know the owners! They sometimes give us some deserts for free, I’m quite certain they wouldn’t mind this time. Especially since they’ll be getting a new customer soon!”
“I myself spend tons of bits here! I can never get enough of their creme brulee, it’s quite delicious!” Rarity said, taking up next to Twilight.
“I… Alright, I’ll bite, could use a blueberry muffin or something.”
“That’s the spirit!” Twilight said, before lifting Matthew’s chair up with her magic and floating it inside of the store. Once inside though, it was dark, all the lights were off. And try as he might, Matthew could barley see in front of himself, the only light being produced being the light coming in through the door. It was just enough light for him to make out some decorations though… Welcome To Ponyville.
“SURPRISE!”
In a split second, the darkness went away and Matthew was surrounded by what must’ve been a hundred pony’s or so, there were far too many to count. Regardless, Matthew was lowered down and everypony was able to get a good look of him.
The cheers around the room seemed to stop instantly once the ponies started to get a good look at Matthew. Many of them stared in wonder while others looked confused. All Matthew could do was watch as the ponies started to gather around him in wonder.
“Ohhhh!”
“Is this that ‘human’ thing Pinkie was talking about?!?”
“What’s he wearing?!”
“He looks weird!”
“Was he really one fire?”
All the talking in the room was starting to become too much for Matthew to handle, it was getting to the point that the voices seemed to just meld together in one loud noise. It was almost getting to the point of overstimulation before Twilight looked over at Matthew and saw his uncomfortable face.
“Everypony! Let’s all just calm down for a second!” The ponies in the room silenced themselves at hearing Twilight words.
“This here is Matthew, I’m sure Pinkie Pie’s told you all about him, and I know he looks different then… well… everything, but please treat him like he’s one of us! He’s just a human who’s looking to make friends! So why don’t we all just throw him the greatest party ever!”
The ponies in the room let out a loud cheer and started going about their way with the festivities of the party. Twilight, then stepped away from the crowd and approached Matthew.
“Are you okay?”
“Uh… yeah, just a lot of… talking,” Rarity then walked up to Matthew and sat next to him.
“Oh Matthew, dear, it’s quite alright, Pinkie Pie’s parties can definitely be something,” Just then a party horn was blown right into Matthew’s ear. Without even thinking, or even moving his limbs, the party horn darted past Matthew’s ear and to the other side of the room.
“Wowie Zowie! I didn’t know I could blow my party horn that hard!” Pinkie said as she hoped in place with a party hat of her own. “Welcome to Ponyville Matty!” she said as she then wrapped her hooves around Matthew’s shoulders and gave him a bone crushing hug.
Matthew found himself with no oxygen in his lungs. Thankfully Applejack took mercy on him.
“Uh, Pinkie Pie, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea since he just got out of the hospital.”
“Well, of course it is silly! He needs a big ol’ hug to get him in the party spirit!” Pinkie said as she somehow managed to increase the strength of the hug, making Matthew feel like his eyeballs were about to shoot out of their socket. It all suddenly let up with a pop of magic and Matthew found himself able to breathe again, taking in long gasps of air as he did so. Twilight was rather quick with her magic thankfully.
“Pinkie Pie… ”
“Oh, you know I’m just having fun! Twily!”
“Don’t… do that… again…” Matthew said, still taking in long gasps of breath.
“Okay! But no promises!” Pinkie Pie said before zipping on into the party
“The fuck do you not understand by ‘don’t’?!” Rarity, though seeing Matthew almost die, had her own eyes glued to the human with confusion.
“You… say that word a lot.”
“What word?”
“Uhh… the word ‘fuck’… What does that word mean?”
“... I… I… I don’t even know how to start describing that… Uh-” before Matthew could explain the basic fundamentals of curse words to Rarity, a certain blue pegasus made her way to the group.
“Ey yo! Glad to see bandages got out of bed for once. How you liking the- What in the world are you wearing?!” Rainbow Dash said as she stopped right in the air.
“Oh you know, the latest fashion trend from Gucci, thought I’d splurge a little on myself.”
“... Gucci?” Rainbow Dash said in confusion.
“I’m the only person that’s going to get these jokes…”
“Oooookaaaay… Guess I won’t ask. How you liking the party?” Rainbow Dash asked, depseratley trying to change the subject.
“Uhh… I don’t really like parties…” Nothing was said, there was no warning, no sign of what was to come. The music in the party house screeched to a halt and all the ponies there snapped their heads to Matthew in shock and horror. No one dared say anything as they themselves were still processing what he had just uttered.
“Uhh… Did I say something wrong?” Matthew didn’t see it, but a certain party pony had turned her head towards Matthew slowly, her genuine smile being replaced with a frown as her hair seemingly started to deflate.
“You… You don’t like my parties?”
“... What? I didn’t say that I just-” Rainbow Dash then wrapped one of her hooves around Matthew, cutting him off, and looked directly at Pinkie PIe.
“He means he doesn’t like the parties back in his world! RIGHT MATTHEW?!” She said while giving Matthew a tight squeeze. Matthew picked up on what she was saying.
“Uh… Yeah… the parties back at my world sucked,” Like flipping a switch, the pink ponies mane turned back into a curley mess and her smile came back tenfold.
“Then I will make this the bestest party ever! I’m going to make you love parties!” The pink pony said as she zipped off somewhere else in the room. The music came back on and all the ponies there resumed their activities as though nothing happened.
“... Maybe this is a cult thing,” Rainbow Dash, still having her hoof around Matthew, turned him to fully face her.
“Are you insane?! Why would you say something like that here?!”
“Uhh… What?”
“You don’t say those words when at a Pinkie Pie party! What are you stupid?!” Rainbow Dash was quickly pulled back by Twilight’s magic, and forced to sit, as Twilight stood next to Matthew.
“Sorry about that, but you really shouldn’t say that about Pinkie’s parties, it’s kinda her whole thing.”
“... But I wasn’t really lying.”
“Well neither does Applejack, but even she wouldn’t be as stupid to say that!”
“I just don’t like lying.”
“Why don’t you like parties?” When the words left her mouth, she noticed Matthew’s face turned sour as he grabbed his arm.
“I’d rather not talk about it… Can you guys just shove me in a corner and I’ll keep to myself.”
“You know what, I’ll join you! Why don’t the rest of you girls have fun?” Twilight said as she turned to the rest of her friends.
“You sure, dear? I would hate to leave the guests of honor to just sulk in a corner,” Rarity said.
“Oh yes, I do have a bunch of questions for Matthew still.”
“Fun…”
“Welp, good luck with that, wraps,” Rainbow Dash said as she dashed off to another part of the party somewhere else entirely. Everypony else followed suit as they went off to their own little part of the parties and enjoyed themselves. After the two were alone, Twilight simply pushed Matthew’s wheelchair to a more reserved and quiet part of the party. Once Matthew was parked in place, right next to a table, Twilight pulled up a chair next to him and sat.
“I hope you’re enjoying yourself, Pinkie Pie puts a lot of work into her parties!”
“Yeah, I can tell,” Matthew said as he looked at the seven decker cake in the middle of the table.
“So Matthew, I didn’t want to concern you or anything, but did I ever leave my journal or notes at the hospital?"
"I don't think so, why?"
"Drat! I thought it would have been there! Auuughgghhhh!" She said as she buried her face in the table.
"Am I missing something?"
"I…lost it."
"How? You seem like the kind of person to keep everything organized."
"That's the thing! I don't know! I left it on the table one day to go to sleep and when I woke up it was just gone! I looked everywhere for it but it's like it just sprouted some legs and ran away!"
"Oh, uh I'm sorry… Don’t you have some magic you could use?”
“What? No, why would you think that? Magic doesn’t solve everything.”
“... Aquio horcrux…”
“Horcrux?”
“Agh, don’t worry about it.”
“... Okay? But I’m going to have to rewrite everything from that book!”
“I mean, I’m still here if you have questions, it’s really of no-”
“No, no, no, I memorized it! I just didn’t want to rewrite the whole thing if I didn’t have to.”
“I’m sorry, you memorized the whole thing?” Twilight found her face flushed red.
“I uhh, well I… maybe read it a few times…”
“...”
“... Okay, maybe more than a few times
“Was about to say.”
“It’s not like I can’t rewrite it though I am so excited to learn more about your culture!”
“Yeah? Well, there’s a lot of stuff I don’t think you’d like.”
“Like what?”
“... Dictators, supremacists, racists, etcetera.”
“Uh… huh… Okay, that’s a lot to take in.”
“Yeah, I’ll only tell you about those ones if I have to.”
“Okay! Let’s start off with something small! Like the dots on your arms!” The smile on Matthew’s face dropped like a dead fly.
“What?”
“Oh, uh, Nurse Redheart told me you said that the dots on human’s arms are important or something. So I was just wondering if-”
“No,” Twilight was caught off guard by Mathew’s tone, he turned from being friendly to being angry within a second.
“Uh.. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you-”
“It’s fine,” The tension between the two was thick after that, neither of them looking at each other as they sat there in silence.
“Welp, I’ll go do some party things, I’ll see you around Matthew,” Twilight said, not letting Matthew get a word in as she stood up and walked back into the party pit. Matthew though, was covering his track marks, memories beginning to flood in again. He wasn’t able to dwell on his thoughts for long, before him the cekes decorative frosting morphed in front of him, changing their very design, to create a draconequus. Said draconequus was riding on top of a book that seemed to grow legs.
“Why hello there Matt, how goes the party?” Discord asked, grabbing a piece of himself and eating it.
“... What the fuck are-”
“Magic Matt, do you really need an explanation for that?”
“I… What are-”
“Might I add, it was rather hilarious that you got Rarity to say that word, given its meaning and such!”
“What do you want?”
“Oh please, Matthew, I don’t want anything more than to enjoy this little festivity here and check up on my new… ‘friend’.”
“We just met.”
“Oh, you wound me Matt! I thought we were already the greatest of chums!” Discord said as false frosting tears seemed to fall from his face.
“I don’t know what you’re doing here! Why are-”
“Quiet now Matt, you’ll look insane talking to a cake.”
“Can you stop calling me Matt?!”
“Ooooooh, did I strike a nerve there? Why should I stop, Matt? Something in your past life you don’t want to mention?” Discord said as he poked his claw out of the cake and pointed towards Matthew’s arm. Matthew swatted his hand away and Discord simply let out a laugh before retracting his hand back into the cake.
“Don't call me that!"
"Fine Matthew, have it your way. But I have a couple questions."
"Such as?" Discord then grabbed the book he was riding and pulled it in front of himself.
"Well, you see, there's a lot of information in this book, see? I was only wondering if there’s anything more I should know about your little world and how it’s progressed.”
“What?... Wait… Is that-”
“Yes, the very one! I just couldn’t help myself and read it! So many interesting inventions and so many wondrous things that are held within this book! But please tell me Matthew, what has happened since I was last there?”
“... Last time… Wait, you’ve been there?!”
“Yes Matthew, of course I have! When I was there though, you humans lived in tall castles and I believe fighting off some plague… Gonna be honest, I thought all of humanity would have died after that.”
“I… I need you to send me back. I want to-”
“Before you even finish that sentence, I want you to know that I’ve lost the ability to go there.”
“... Bullshit.”
“Oh but I’m not ‘bullshitting’ you, I am telling you the truth! I haven’t gone back there in over a thousand years and I can’t remember the spell for the life of me.”
“What the fuck do you really want then? You want to just rub it in my face that you were there or-”
“I already told you, I simply wish to learn more about your little world! Tell me, what’s one of the bigger weapons your world has? Last time I was there, the most advanced thing was a cannon, so please do update me on that, would you?”
“Why should I?”
“Oh Matthew, remember our deal, you help me and I’ll help you… Do you want to go back on it already?” Matthew looked at Discord with hate and regret in his eyes, wanting nothing more than to punt Discord across the room. But he wanted something else moreso, to be able to control his abilities.
“I don’t know… a nuke?”
“Nuke? Pray tell, what would that be?”
“A bomb so powerful that it can wipe out entire cities within seconds.”
“oooOOooooo… How are you humans alive?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, good to know, I’ll keep that little ‘bomb’ thing in mind.”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Don’t worry about it, for now you should enjoy yourself!”
“I think I’ll tell Twilight and her friends about the bullshit you’re doing.”
“Do it.”
“What?”
“Do it! I’d really love to see who they’d believe more! Me, who’s been there closest confidant for the longest of times, or you… somebody they know nothing about and is ever so friendly with others… Twilight will surely take your word…”
“... I-”
“Now, now, this conversation is starting to bore me. I think you should enjoy your party, I’ll go do some light reading about your human history! Goodbye for now, Matt, ” Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared off the cake, leaving Matthew to stare at the cake in anger. The cake suddenly started to tip over away from Matthew.
The second the cake started to tip, Matthew's anger dissipated and the cake then came back towards Matthew. It wobbled back and forth, tempting to fall off of the table or towards Matthew as it tipped back and forth. Before it eventually settled back down at the table.
“... I guess it’s rage then… Shit, that’s gonna be hard to control,” Matthew said as he started rubbing the back of his head in frustration. “Yeah, that took long enough to figure out, dumbass. Goddamn…” As Matthew was about to berate himself even more, three little fillies slowly approached him.
“Whatcha think he’s gonna do?”
“He looks scary…”
“He doesn’t look that scary! Rainbow Dash said he’s pretty cool!”
“I don’t got a good feeling about-”
“Is that your attempt at whispering? I can hear you from here!” Matthew shouted out, causing the three little fillies to stiffen up at his voice. The one with a red mane spoke first.
“You… you could hear us?”
“... No shi-... Yeah, I could hear you. Who are you guys?”
“Oh, I’m Applebloom, and Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo!”
“Uh nice to meet you, do you need something?”
“We were just wondering what it’s like to be human with those… fleshy limb thingies, Scootaloo said, pointing towards Matthew’s hands. Matthew looked down at his hand with a confused look.
“... My fingers?”
“Yeaaaaah!” They all said in unison.
“... I hate kids.”
While Matthew was being bombarded with questions galore, Twilight and Rarity were having a conversation of their own. After getting out of that conversation with Matthew, Twilight seemed out some comfort.
"I don't know what I did wrong! I guess it's part of the culture, but I don't know now that. Nurse Red Heart just said that it was a human thing! I… I don't-"
"Breath, darling," Twilight stopped her alight panicking and took a couple deep breathes. "What he did was a bit rude, but he didn't yell at you, did he dear?"
"No, it's just that this is an important assignment, Celestia told me to make sure he feels welcomed and-"
"Sorry dear, 'assignment?'"
"Well, Celestia told us to be Matthew's friend and we-"
"Twilight, dear, I'm not sure I'd classify that as an assignment."
"What do you mean?"
"Well… I feel like it's more of a… nudge to be his friend. I mean, was it an assignment to be my friend?"
"What? No, of course not."
"Exactly. We don't have to be friends with dear Matthew, we can really just check up on him, though I'd rather actually be his friend, he seems like a good stallion."
"I… guess you're right."
"Still on about the aggression thing?'
"Yeah."
"Well… we can theorize what those dot things mean if you want."
"What could they be to cause him to be angry."
"Well… what if it's the amount of marefriends he's had … or coltfriends, and each one is how many times his heart has been broken! I can picture it now! Matthew plans the perfect date, has flowers a reserved table at an expensive fine dining restaurant and in a pocket a ring! He was planning to propose!! And when his date arrives, they look so upset and unhappy! And then-"
"I get it Rarity,".Twilight said amused at Rarity’s romantic story telling. Rarity’s face was shaded a slight pink as she realized what she was doing.
"Apologies, I may have gone a little overboard."
"Well, I got the point… maybe though. That's not a bad theory, I'll be sure to write it down, I just don't want to make him upset again."
"...I don't know what to tell you, Twilight. Maybe just don't ask about it?"
"That's really the only option, huh?"
"Afraid so, dear."
"I just wanted to know more about his culture though…"
"And we will eventually. Until then, I can't wait to tell you about all the designs I have in mind for him! I have so many ideas just stirring around!" Rarity said, pulling out a sketchbook and showing off the many designs she's crafted for Matthew. None of this seemed to interest Twilight though, her mind was still on the dots on Matthew's arm.
What could they mean?
Celestia sat at a fine dining table. It was lunch time now and she was having a simple daisy sandwich with a, for herl, small side of cake. Currently she was listening to the rest of her schedule coming from her secretary.
"And at 6'oclock sharp, you're going to a little party with Fancy Pants and his guests about funding with other schools!" The secretary said, putting down her little clipboard and looking at Celetsia with a smile.
"I see… tell me, can we set up any meetings with the guards from Manehatten? I heard there's been an increase in organized crime."
"Uh… I don't know if we can fit it in today, it'd rather late and-"
"I meant on another day, Raven," Ravens white fur didn't help to hide the extreme blush she had on her face at her mistake.
"I-I-I'm so sorry my princess! I must've misunderstood! I'm so terribly sorry-"
"There's no need to apologize, I understand the confusion. Just try to set up an appointment with the mayor and the head guard at Manehatten, preferably by the end of the week," Raven then started to write down a letter in her notepad and started scurring her way out of the room.
"Right away princess! I'll do my best!" Raven said as she opened the door, then freaking out when she laid her eyes on a very disgruntled, half awake, Luna. The difference however was that, this time, Luna had makeup on… Though it looked rather haphazardly put on and and though an ameteaur applied it. Raven let out a small scream before clamping her hooves over her mouth.
"I am so sorry, Princess Luna! I didn't know you were there! I thought-" Luna then picked up the mare in her magic and moved her past the door, not giving her a chance to speak before slamming it behind her. Celestia, seeing her sister in her usual mood, couldn't help.but let out a smile.
"Goodafternoon, sister."
"Morning…" Luna replied, not even waiting before she started making herself a small brew of coffee.
"Do tell, why are you awake at this time? Not usual for you to be here unless something's disturbing you," Luna turned her head to Celestia, the bags under her eyes showing just how little sleep the Alicorn got last night. Luna shook her head a little and stared at the guards stationed in the room.
"Leave us," The guards did so without word. The moment they were gone, Celestias smile grew.
"So, what's got you so wound up?"
"That human, thing …"
"What about him sister?" Celestia said, picking up a piece of cake and nibbling on it.
"This whole time I thought he'd be a danger, a potentially threatening force for Equestria! But nooooo, he's the exact opposite!"
"Does this have to do with that rat costume thing again?"
"No. This time, his dreams were laid with some female."
"Female you say?"
"Yes! She had the parts for one!"
"Agh, one of those dreams. So, I take it that he has nothing to hide?"
"I have found nothing… All that's left is the human himself and how he got here."
"Twilight still hasn't gotten that answer."
"How has she not?! It's been well over a week! What have they been talking about, the clothes his species wears?!"
"From her letters I've been sent, she's been trying to get to know him in general."
"Oh yes, that seems quite important…"
"Luna, this may be a lesson for Twilight, but it's also a lesson for us."
"Really now? Us? You can't be serious."
"I am not joking, sister."
"... Prey tell, what do we, the Princess' have to learn?"
"Embracing the lost."
"The lost? Go on, do explain."
"Matthew is a po-... human who was thrown out of his world and into ours. What we must do, as good ponies, is to show him compassion, kindness and gentle-"
"Yes, yes, yes, I get that, but why do you want to relearn all of this? I'm quite certain you've more than mastered that aspect of politics," Celestia gaze and smile fell off of Luna as she took a deep breath.
"Because if the compassion, kindness and gentleness don't work… then we'll need to take action…"
"Action? Don't tell me you believe that whole power talk he babbled on about."
"..."
"... You can't be serious."
"I am at the moment."
"We've had no proof whatsoever that he has this random power he talked about. What makes you think he-"
"Discord."
"... What haven't you told me?" Celestia looked at Luna for a few seconds, her mind trying to make up excuses as to try and disguise what she was to say. She soon stood up and trotted over to a window, looking over her land.
"... A couple days ago, he visited me in the middle of court… and he was interested in Matthew," Luna's face filled with shock at hearing that, the mad titan himself was interested in one lowly human.
"He's… interested… in the human…"
"My thoughts exactly."
"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"
"... I don't know why I told you at all… You wanted answers…"
"...What did Discord say exactly?"
"In exchange for letting him train Matthew with his new power, he'll grant us a piece of technology from the human world."
"You know what trickery he's bound to pull?"
"Of course I do, but this gives him a distraction and gives Matthew the ability to control whatever power he spoke of."
"I suppose you're right but… you said if kindness and gentleness doesn't work, we'll take action… Do tell me why we're arming him then?"
"A show of faith."
"Faith? What if your suspicions of him turn true, what will we do?"
"Luna… we both know what we'll do… if it comes to that," The room was silent, neither of the Alicorn Princess' dare speak a word as the tension in the room felt thicker than stone.
"I suppose we do…"
"If that's all though sister, I believe I'll finish my lunch," Celestia said as she turned back around and sat down at the table again. "I'm not certain what you'll do, but I suggest some sleep, I doubt you'll be able to perform your nightly duties at this rate."
"I'll be fine, Tia. I wanted to get up early anyways, I have to do some important research," Luna said as she turned around and started to walk out of the room.
"Research? Sounds to me like somepony has a date," Luna stopped in her tracks and whirled her head over to her sister.
"I- I- I- I don't know what you're talking about! I'm researching about… uhhhh-"
"Luna… we both know I'm the one better at politics, you've seldom been good at lying."
"... How did you know?"
"Well, for one, you don't like reading."
"... Drats."
"And two, you have makeup on."
"So?!"
"... You only wear it when it’s important, you don't care what a couple guards think about you… Unless there's one certain guardspony who-"
"Quiet!" Luna said as she quickly ran out of the room and slammed the door shut behind her. And though Luna was flushed red, she didn't see the smile on Celestia's face.
"I'm happy for you."
Matthew and Twilight were making their way to her house after the party, the cool evening air having a nice crisp feel. Spike had accompanied them on the ride back, sitting on Twilight as she pushed Matthew forward with her magic.
“What can you tell me about this place?” Matthew asked, genuinely curious about the small little town he was in.
“Ponyville? Well, it’s a small little village that started about a hundred years ago. It was actually founded by Granny Smith’s family! And she’s still alive to this very day, in fact, she’s Applejack’s grandmother! But it was only ever declared Ponyville when-” Spike, getting bored from the lecture
“Twilight, I don’t think the guy’s talking about the history of Ponyville.”
“Oh… right. Well, I think Ponyville is a great little village. It has festivities all year ‘round and with the ponies in it, it never gets bored!”
“Yeah, lotta excitement in this town, huh?” Matthew said as he looked around the buildings.
“...You have no idea,” Twilight said with a smile. The conversation from there on out was rather quiet, no words needed to be exchanged, nothing of note to really talk about. It was a peaceful calm summer evening.
Five minutes must have passed before the small group got close to the library. Twilight’s smile beamed large as she got closer to the library, but Matthew’s eyes caught something and he couldn’t stop starring at it.
“This here is the Golden Oaks Library! I live here and maintain its large collection of knowledge! I can’t wait to show how much-”
“Is that where I came from?” Matthew asked, his voice carrying a slight haunting feeling behind it.
“What?” Twilight said, turning around to see what Matthew was looking at. In front of them, a couple feet away were burn marks on the ground. The rocky path that was Ponyville’s streets had a burn mark that signified where some sort of alien object had appeared. It had washed away a little but it remained ever present on the pavement.
“... Did I-”
“Yes, you did… Uhm… It wasn’t the prettiest sight, but… hey! That’s in the past now! Let’s just get you to bed, huh?” Twilight said, quickly opening the door to the library.
“... Yeah…” Matthew said as he was quickly pulled into the library by Twilights magic, leaving the burn mark to stand alone.
Once inside Matthew’s attention was drawn away from the burn mark rather quickly and towards the immaculate room he was in. Books lined every shelf, the wood in the tree was carefully cared to have this flowey look to it and it made Matthew wonder.
“How the fuck did you guys manage this?”
“What?” Twilight said, confused at Matthew’s wording.
“I… I mean… The wood carving and all that, it’s almost like we’re in a tree, how?”
“Uhh… We are in a tree?”
The silence in the room was palpable. Matthew stared into Twilight's purple eyes, as though asking for more information, a better explanation other than that.
“Is there something on my face?”
“... No, I’m just… Just gonna accept it.”
“...Oooookay,” Twilight said as she magicked Spike off her back and to a nearby couch. The little dragon managed to fall asleep, a small snot bubble being visible on his face. Twilight then quickly grabbed Matthew’s wheelchair and lead him to a downstairs room underneath the library.
“Is this the part where you do weird experiments on me?” Matthew said as they started going down the steps ever so slowly down into the dark.
“What would make you think that?”
“Oh, I don’t know, the whole dark basement thing where I bet no one could hear me scream would be a pretty big red flag.”
“I’m not going to experiment on you,” Twilight said, flicking a switch on the wall and causing the room to light up. “I’m getting you to your room.”
“Wow…” Matthew said as he looked around the room. In a corner there was a bunch of machinery, moved recently, and everything else was more or less the same as upstairs, wood carvings and whatnot. The only thing that stuckout was a rather simple bed set. Nightstands, a clock, the usual stuff. The only thing that stuck out to Matthew was the bed. The bed was much bigger than Matthew would have thought and he was thoroughly surprised to see its massive size.
Twilight, seeing Matthew gawk at its size, couldn’t help but scratch the back of her head.
“Finding your size was a little hard to say the least. So I just got you a minotaur size bed, I hope that’s alright with you,” Twilight said as she lowered Matthew onto the ground.
“You kidding, I never had a bed this big before,” Matthew said as he pushed his wheels forward to the bed.
“Oh, really? I guess it’s a win then!”
“Yeah…”
“Do you need help getting into bed?”
“Oh, no, I think I can manage,” Matthew said as he tried to push himself up off the wheelchair and onto the bed, failing each time he tried. Eventually, after the fifth time, Matthew relented and let out a sigh. “I might need some help.”
Twilight let out a smile and magicked Mathew onto the bed, and made sure he was comfy.
“Do you need any more help?” Twilight asked.
“No, I think I can take this stupid vest thing off,” Matthew said as he quickly wiggled his arms and threw the vest off of him and onto the ground. Matthew let out a small sigh as he laid down fully, the only thing covering him being the cloak now.
“You seem really tired, you going to bed?”
“Yeah, I’m not really a social person. Got pretty drained at that party,” Matthew said as he was taking in the comfort of the mattress he laid on.
“I see. Well, I’ll leave you be then,” Twilight said as she headed back up the stairs, but before she left Matthew, she turned back around.
“Hey Matthew?”
“Yeah, Twilight?”
“... I’m sorry if I made you angry… Ya know about the dots and all that,” It wasn’t visible, but Matthew’s face turned into a sour frown as he replayed the words over and over again in his head, trying his best to not think about it too much. He let out an audible sigh and answered Twilight.
“It’s fine, Twilight, I’d just rather not talk about it.”
“Okay… Well, goodnight,” Twilight said as she walked up the steps and closed the door behind her.
She didn’t get a response.
Discord was sitting down outside of a moon crescent room. He was currently reading a book of more recent human history. Currently he was reading up on the events of World War two.
'Two? Two world wars? I'm more surprised they lived through that plague thing.' Discord thought to himself as he continued to read, checking the door to the crescent moon room every now and then to see if a certain pony would leave Luna after a while.
Eventually though, Discord got his wish as the door creaked open and a night guard stallion walked out of it, his face covered in dark blue kisses pecked all over his face and his uniform put on haphazardly as he seemed to have been dazzlingly walking back to the barracks.
Discord rolled his eyes at the display and morphed himself down the door, waiting a few seconds before knocking on it. Though he loved to teleport in on Luna, something told him he wouldn't come back if he interrupted her little fun session.
After a moment of waiting, and of a slightly audible lighting of candles, Luna called out to the knocking, her voice a slur for words.
"Come in…" With that Discord poofed on a maid dress and walked right in.
What was on the bed was princess Luna, looking like she had just woken up. Her bed was in shambles and the room was littered with incense candles, probably to cover up a certain smell that lingered in the air.
Discord was going to have fun. In mockery, Discord cleared his throat and put on a silly little voice.
"Prrrrrrrincess Luna! I am here to clean your room-" Discord then fakley gasped out of shock at Luna. Luna, hearing Discords voice, turned around in her bed and faced the drconquess, her angry look holding nothing back.
"What. Do you. Want," Luna said as venom was dripping from her voice. Discord poofed away his maid dress and continued to talk.
"Oh, Lulu, did I upset your wittle piwwow tawk," Discord said in a sarcastic tone as laughter seemed to consume him, not realizing the bolt of lightning coming straight for him.
It hit him right in the face, cutting off his laughing as the electricity scoured down his entire body. After the light show, Discord stood there, unamused by the magic, as his turn had a tinge of black on it now.
"Well, I think that was uncalled for," Discord said as he licked his claw and snuffed out a flame that was on his head, aiming a frown towards Luna.
“I think it’s uncalled for your belligerent talk, Discord. If you’re here for games, leave me, I’d rather spend my day at peace,” With a snap of his fingers, Discord's burnt form turned back into his regular self and he couldn’t help but smile.
“Why Luna, I’m happy you found somepony who is… suitable for you. But I didn’t come here to laugh at your little fun. I only came to ask how our mutual friend is doing in the dream world. I was with him earlier, but I would love to hear what he has inside his head… That’s only if you've been able to get through, hmm?”
“I was more than capable of reaching inside of his mind, but I am under no obligation to tell you what he dreams of. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to sle-”
“You need to get up anyways, Celestia is lowering the sun,” Discord said, his grinning growing ear to ear as he could feel Luna’s frustration. Luna let out a loud sigh and magicked her bed sheets off before starting her morning ritual.
“Why would I tell you anything?”
“Well, I’m quite certain Tia’s already told you about my little plan for him.”
“She has, your point?”
“Well, I’d love to know what I’m working with.”
“And I need me to tell you his dreams, why?”
“Do we really need another Nightmare Moon incident?” Luna stopped in her tracks, her neck piece regalia floating slightly above her head. She may not have said a word, but the tension in the air made it all the more harder to breathe.
“You better have a good explanation.”
“Let’s take a step back a thousand years, yes? You were a social outcast amongst your own kind, not even your own guards cared about you. You cried yourself to sleep, you held your own dinners, made your own food, had nopony to even depend on… Not even your own sister. So, in all your rage and anger, you turned into a monster. All I am saying is that our... sweet Matthew, who has powers that are still blooming, may make the same mistakes as somepony in this room,” Discord said, his smile taking a darker turn as he continued to stare at Luna. The princess, on the other hand, couldn’t help but fill even further with anger.
She was fuming, but she held her tongue.
"He has the Element bearers, your point."
"He might be an unstable individual who doesn't see them as friends. Just knowing a bit more information could change him from being exactly Iike you."
“Do not. Ever. Compare me to him. Understood.”
“Oh yes, seems I touched a nerve. My apologies, prrrincesss,” Discord said as he fakely bowed towards Luna.
“You want to know what he dreams about? Intercourse with a past lover and playing as a giant rodent. If that’s all you want, now leave,” Luna said as she finally put on her neck piece.
“Rodent? They almost died to it and suddenly they praise it? That doesn’t make any sense… I do love humans,” Discord said as a smile grew on his face.
“Leave.”
“Oh yes, Luna, I promise I will. One thing though… If he has any dreams of actual note, please… do tell… I want to know everything… Just don’t get so distracted with your little toy next time,” And with that, Discord left with a snap of his fingers. Luna stood there, looking at where Discord was, her anger coming to a boil. Her magic lit up, brighter than day and she let out a shout as whirl of magic. Arcs of lighting cascaded onto the walls, ripping the very paint off of it. Dark energy tore up the ground as cracks formed underneath. Her own furniture was overturned by the strong winds of magic that flew off of Luna.
And then it stopped.
Luna gathered herself and calmed herself down as quickly as she could, trying her best to not think too much on the beast's words. She quickly cleaned herself up, straightened her mane slightly and walked out of her room, her grace taking over her anger.
The room was quiet.
Then there was suddenly a poof of white energy, inside of it was Celestia. Her horn was aglow with magic, as though she was prepared for a fight. When Celestia saw nothing, she let the magic dissipate and let out a small chuckle.
“One of those days I see,” Celestia then lit her horn alight again and started to repair the room to its natural glory. The paint on the walls restored themselves, the floor’s cracks sealed and the furniture righted itself up again. After the magic had done its work, Celestia let out a smile and looked around the room again, detecting something else that lingered behind the door.
“I know you’re there, come in,” Celestia said as she continued to hold her smile. Behind Celestia, the door creaked open and a maid poked her head in. The maid was shaking in her boots.
“I-I-I-I-Uh-I didn’t-Uhm- I didn’t think any-any-anypony would be-be-”
“It’s alright, Clipper. You don’t need to worry about it… I simply fixed my sister's room. You can leave.”
“O-O-Okay!” With that, Clipper closed the door and left. Celestia let out a small chuckle at that.
“Quite a mare,” Celestia soon poofed away back to her quarters, leaving Luna’s empty.
A couple days have passed in the town of Ponyville and it was rather peaceful. The calm chirping of the birds made a small yet perfect song. The air had a fine crisp smell to it and the small breeze in the air made it a perfect summer day. Ponies across all races were going about their day, enjoying the sunlight and the rays that beamed down upon them.
It was a perfect, calm little town.
And there was a child-like scream. The Carousel Boutique is very well known in Ponyville but hearing those cries of pain caused the ponies outside to stare in wonder. Was Rarity punishing Sweetie Belle? Was she killing somepony? Was she up to some dastardly deed in the middle of the day?
No.
She was making Matthew’s clothes.
Inside of the boutique was Matthew and Twilight, they were currently watching Rarity attempt to make something closely resembling Matthew's 'pants'. She had already made a red shirt, which Matthew was wearing now, but she had never made anything of the sort before and it was infuriating her to no end.
"Why must your clothes be so difficult?!" Rarity yelled out as she threw yet another attempt away.
"I… those pants were fine," Rarity was pulling out more fabrics from her collection and inspecting them closely.
"Yes, but I want to make them exactly like they are in your world! I already made the shirt for you, but you never know if there's going to be more humans! And if there are, I get to be the pony they go to for custom pants and shirts!" Rarity said as she dragged out a random piece of material and went to work with it.
“Ya know, I didn’t think after being able to walk again, that I’d be forced to sit down because somebody wanted to make pants perfect.”
“You can walk around the boutique.”
“Nah, this cloak thing wasn’t exactly made for walking,” Matthew said as he tugged on the loak that was still wrapped around his waist. "She always like this, though?" Matthew asked, turning to Twilight.
"Well… not always. She just wants to make sure you're comfy," Matthew looked over at the large pile of pants that Rarity has made, probably twenty or so, and he couldn't help but let out a sigh.
"I mean, I'd be fine with any of those if I'm being honest."
"Yeah, but Rarity wouldn't, she's a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to getting stuff down. At least it's her doing it and not us.”
"What's that supposed to mean? Matthew asked, Twilight turning her head down as she started to remember the fashion show.
"Well… me and the other girls got our dresses designed by Rarity for the Grand Galloping Gala and we uh… got picky…”
“How picky? I mean, if you’re going to wear the dress, it’s not like you can’t ask for beads to be removed or-”
“No, I mean… we wanted to change the dresses entirely.”
“... Wow.”
“Yeah…”
“Was it like… bad?”
“Well… Rarity’s a fashionista and… well-”
“It looked like shit?”
“... Shit? What does that word mean?” Twilight said, raising her eyebrows at Matthew.
“... You know, I never answered Rarity on what ‘fuck’ means either… You might want to write this down cause… there’s a lot of words you’re gonna want to know,” Twilight poofed out a notepad and pencil and looked at Matthew with excitement.
“Do they have some deep meaning behind them! Are they special to your race! Do they mean love and friendship or-”
“Hold on! Hold on! There’s uh… I guess one of them is about love…. But what kind of curse words do you know here?” Twilight seemed confused for the second time today.
“Curse words? You mean like curse spells? Well, there’s a lot of curses, but they’re outlawed and have been for-”
“No, no, no. I mean like… words you scream out when you’re angry.”
“Angry? Hmm… I mean sometimes Applejack would say ‘what the hay’ and I’ve yelled out ‘shoot’ before but uh… That’s about it,” At hearing that, Matthew couldn’t help but look dumbfounded. A world without actual cursing? He’s going to ruin this place.
“...I refuse to believe that this place doesn’t have some form of cursing. You’ve got to be lying to me. ‘What the hay’? What the hell sounds ten times better.”
“Hell?”
“... That’s another topic… I’m just going to stick to the curse words for now.”
“Oh, okay!” Twilight said as she readied herself to write down the words and their meanings.
“Okay, so ‘fuck’ basically means having sex with someone,” Twilight then dropped her pencil and took in a large gasp of air, a blush ever so present on her face.
“Y-Y-Yo-You say that al-lo-lot! Do-Do-Do you want to ha-ha-” Matthew cut off Twilight as she was still gathering her
“No, that’s the definition but it’s more used as an insult than anything else. Like… ‘go fuck yourself’ or ‘fuck you too’. Something like that,” Twilight’s blush fell off at this point and she was back to her normal self, though she seemed rather hesitant to even write down what she heard.
“But… Why would you say that to somepony you hate, wouldn’t it make more sense to-”
“Yeah, but terminology is always changing back at my place, it never stays the same, and you don’t ever want to say that to your partner… ever,” Twilight reluctantly wrote down the word and its definition, though seemed to take her time with it, before looking back at Matthew.
“Okay… and ‘shit’?” Twilight asked with hesitation.
“Feces,” Twilight poofed away her notebook and pencil and sat down, her face turning to a putrid green all of a sudden.
“I think we’re done,” Twilight said, as she gagged.
“Understandable,” Once the two were done with their conversation, they turned their attention back to Rarity who had finished yet another pair of pants. But instead of hating it, Rarity seemed content with what they made.
“It’s finished!” Rarity said as she magicked it over to Matthew, where he then grabbed the pants and looked it over. They were… pants. The way that Matthew described pants was not accurate to say the least. He tried his best to describe what jeans were but whatever words spewed out of his mouth, Rarity didn’t really understand them. Neither did he.
What he had was, at best, could be described as sweatpants. They were stretchy, a little baggy, and not nearly as rough as jeans, but they were pants. Matthew looked up from the pants to the small pile of pants Rarity had thrown away… They all looked relatively the same. Matthew looked back towards Rarity and saw her look of plead coming from Rarity.
Not as in, please just take it and go, but a ‘please tell me if I did it right’. Matthew could give in and tell her that it’s not exactly like the jeans pants he was talking about before and watch as she slaves away at trying to make more pants for him… Or just tell her that’s what it looks like.
“... I like these.”
“Buuuuut,” Rarity said, her eyes twitching as she prepared to get some more material.
“... There is no ‘but’... I think they’re pants,” Rarity let out a little pout and started pulling out some more fabric.
“Oh good heavens, I don’t know if I can keep-”
“Rarity, I like the pants, let me wear them. Hell, I liked the other twenty iterations you made,” Matthew said, his voice becoming a bit more serious. Rarity stopped her talking and looked around flustered.
“I- I… Guess I got a little too into making it perfect.”
“No shit,” Twilight snapped her head towards Matthew, a disgusted look plastering her face.
“Can you not say that word?!”
“In this context, it means ‘obviously’.”
“Bu-But you told me-”
“Yeah, but like I said before, terminology changes,” Rarity looked between the two confused.
“Did I miss something, dear?” Matthew was quick on the draw before Twilight was.
“Oh, nothing you should concern yourself with. Thank you so much for the pants and shirt… Can I take more than just one of them though?”
“You want all of them, but why? They’re so drab, so mediocre compared to-”
“I want more than one pair of pants.”
“Well, I can make more than just that, I can-”
“I have abused your generosity enough. Seriously, I am content with the other twenty pairs you’ve made. Just let me take them, please,” Rarity seemed like she was about to relent but let out a loud sigh and looked at Matthew.
“Well, if you want to wear that, then I can’t really stop you, it is your clothes after all,” Rarity said as she became hesitant of her own words. Matthew didn’t seem to notice, or care, and was just happy to have actual pants.
“Thank you!” He said, as he stood up and looked at the pants in more detail.
“Now, is there anything else about your clothes that I should know of?”
“Uhh… I guess I could use some socks and… well underwear and some shoes,” Matthew said as he thought more out loud.
“I’m sorry, what are those?”
“Well, socks are like… pieces of cloth for feet and shoes are more… They’re for feet too… Uh… I’ve never had to describe shoes before.”
“Is it like the princess’ regalia?”
“Sorta? Just a more flexible material.”
“Hmmm, I’ll try something, what about this ‘underwear’?”
“Uhh, it’s just something to stop the chafing down… there,” Rarity’s face flushed bright red and her face was filled with shock.
“Oh… I uh… what would those look like?”
“Well,it’d look like pants but just out of more flexible material and is worn underneath the actual pants. It’s also a lot smaller in length than actual pants.”
“Huh, alright, just make pants but a lot smaller, understood! Why don’t you try those pants on for now though, make sure they’re okay. You can do that, right?”
“Yeah, I’ll try, though I don’t want this thing scraping my balls.” Matthew said as he went walking toward Rarity’s bathroom, closing the door behind him eventually.
“He’s a rather interesting one, isn’t he?” Rarity said to Twilight, selecting some new fabrics before setting out on her work.
“Yeah… ‘interesting’ is the word…”
“Something wrong dear? He didn’t do anything, did he?”
“Well, not really, he’s just sorta been in his room not really doing much of… well, anything. I thought he’d pick up a hobby or something but he’s really done nothing.”
“Well, darling, why don’t you show him around town more, maybe he’ll find an interest in farming, I’m certain he’d love to talk to the other girls.”
“That’s kinda why we came here to get his clothes made,” Twilight said with a smile.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, he didn’t really want to wear that cloak anymore.”
“Well I understand why, it was perhaps my most horrible work! Still though, happy it had its uses.”
“I really appreciate it, Rarity.”
“Anytime dear!” Matthew then came out of the bathroom with a cloak still wrapped around his waist but a content look on his face.
“Welp, the pants fit, so I’m happy with that.”
“That’s great dear! Now I hope I can make this right… Drats I might as well restart,” Rarity said as she threw away a pair of perfectly made socks.
Matthew and Twilight let out a groan.
Finally, after hours at the boutique, Matthew and Twilight exited the place after so long. They both were happy that Matthew was finally in some clothes that were far more comfortable than what he had previously. The shoes he wore were a little thin but they were better than nothing.
“So, what’s on the agenda today?” Matthew asked as he was getting used to the shoes he wore. While they were walking down the road, Matthew couldn't help but feel stares bore into the back of his head. Every pony they passed stopped in their place.and gawker at the human.
"Well, I didn't really have anything planned but we can go visit Applejack!"
"Not really a farm person," Matthew said, turning around to stare at the ponies who stared at him.
“Fluttershy? I’m sure she’d love to-”
“I do not want to be mauled by a bear.”
“What? Her bear won’t maul you, he’s really friendly and-”
“Nope, I’ve seen documentaries, that’s just a suicide waiting to happen.”
“... Okay? How about Pinkie Pie! Her sweets are just the best!”
“Uh, sure, I guess. I didn’t really eat any of her cupcakes and-”
“You didn’t eat her cupcakes?!” Twilight said, stopping in place and giving Matthew a horrified look.
“... Yeah? I’m not really a sweet kinda guy, never really liked-” Without another word, Twilight grabbed Matthew and started dragging him over to Sugarcube Corner, Matthew stumbling over his steps trying to keep up with Twilight.
“We got to go!”
“Woah, what? Did I do something?” Twilight briefly stopped her gallop and turned towards Matthew.
“You kidding me?! You didn’t eat her cupcakes! She-She-She’s going to be… upset! We need to go!” Twilight said as she continued walking.
“She’s going to get upset because I didn’t eat her cupcakes? I’m just not a fan of sweets! Why would that matter?”
“Her pride is her sweets and her parties! Just come on!”
“Fine!” After that, Mathew started to run along with Twilight towards Sugarcube Corner. After a few minutes of running, followed by even more ponies staring at Matthew, they eventually made it to Sugarcube Corner. Twilight rushed up the stairs and slammed the door open, Matthew following swiftly behind. Once inside, Matthew fell to his knees and started breathing heavily, clutching at his chest as he started to hyperventilate. Twilight didn’t seem to notice.
“Pinkie! Are you here?” The second Twilight was done with her talking, a pink blur came out of nowhere and stopped a mere inch in front of Twilight's face. The smile on the pink pony has never been more present.
“Hi there Twilight! Whatcha doing here! Wanna have more cupcakes?! I have cupcakes!” Pinkie screamed out and pulled a box of freshly made cupcakes out of nowhere.
“Those look delicious, Pinkie! I’m sure Matthew would love to…” Twilight’s words fell off as she finally noticed Matthew still breathing rapidly, his hand still gripping his chest. “M-Matthew?” Twilight said, her voice edging with concern. Matthew looked up to Twilight, his eyes becoming hazy.
“I… I’m fine… Fuck… Don’t… Don’t make me… run… again…”
“Do you have asthma? Why didn’t you say that, we can go get-”
“I don’t… have fucking asthma… Just give me a minute…” Matthew said, his breathing starting to calm down and his heart going back to its normal rate. Pinkie Pie craned her head over to Matthew, her own concern showing.
“Is he okay?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“I guess? He just said give him a minute…” Matthew had calmed his breathing down rapidly but was still clutching at his chest. Pinkie Pie, seeing Matthew in his state, hopped right up next to him. The two stared at each other for a bit, no one saying a word before Pinkie Pie offered him a cupcake.
Matthew looked at the cupcake with a bit of confusion. But when he saw the genuine kindness on Pinkie’s face, he couldn’t resist but let out a smile of his own.
“Thanks,” Matthew said as he grabbed the cupcake. Pinkie Pie hopped back with a smile going ear to ear.
“Anytime! I noticed you didn’t eat any of my cupcakes during the party, but I bet that’s just you trying to be nice and saving the rest for everypony else!” Pinkie Pie said with a giant smile on her face. “So I made this very super duper, extra special, cupcake just for you!” Matthew looked down at the cupcake and grimaced, imagining the sugar touching his teeth. Matthew simply put on a smile and looked towards Pinkie Pie.
“I don’t mean to sound rude, but I really don’t like sweets, not even when I was a kid, so I’m sorry,” Matthew said, offering the cupcake to Twilight instead. Before Twilight could even respond, Pinkie Pie scooped the cupcake out from Matthew’s hand and held it out to him again.
“Eat it! It tastes really really yummy and it’s full of gooey goodness that you just have to eat it!” Pinkie Pie said, her smile looking more forced and insane. Matthew looked to Twilight for help but she just motioned her head for Matthew to take it.
“I… I don’t want it,” Pinkie Pie’s eye twitched at hearing that as her smile stayed glued on and her teeth began to show in a weird and horrifying way.
“Eat it! It’s so gooooooood!” Pinkie Pie said again, literally shoving the cupcake into Matthew’s face, icing smearing all over him as Pinkie kept trying to shove a cupcake into his mouth. Matthew’s anger started to build up.
“I-I’m good! I don’t want it!” He said as he tried to push the cupcake away.
“EAT IT!” Pinkie said, her voice becoming more insane and becoming more and more infuriating as she continued to push the cupcake into Matthew’s face, his anger rising further.
“I-I don’t-” Pinkie Pie was practically right on top of him, still trying to force the cupcake down his mouth still.
“Pleeeeeeaaaaaasssseeee!” Matthew at this point, put one hand over the cupcake and the other one her chest, his rage at a boiling point. Pinkie's tail made a weird and fast vibration and then her eyes widened in shock.
“I don’t fucking want it!” When Matthew was done spouting out his words, there was a warp in the air. Matthew, without even moving his arm, had sent Pinkie Pie flying through the air, the cupcake being splattered against the ground. In a blink of an eye, Pinkie Pie went from being in front of Matthew to the back of the room.
Matthew was shocked at what he done, and so was Twilight. When Pinkie's body made a resounding thud, Twilight ran to her in panic.
"Pinkie! Pinkie are you alright?! Pinkie!" Twilight said as she shook the mare. Meanwhile Matthew was looking down at his hands, regret coming into his head as memories of a similar event played out in his head. A similar anger, a familiar thud and a resounding silence.
Matthew looked up with tears in his eyes and quickly got up to his feet, running towards the pair as soon as he could. He didn't get close as he found his body being consumed by magic and shoved into a wall.
"You've done enough!" Twilight shouted out, her rage ever present on her face as she bore her eyes into Matthew's skull. Matthew tried to wriggle his way out of Twilights magical grasp, but he wasn't even able to budge.
"I- I didn't mean it! I- I didn't-"
"Why couldn't you just take the stupid cupcake?!" Twilight shouted out, her eyes becoming a blinding white as she continued to look at Matthew with maliciouness.
Just as Twilight was about to do something she'd regret, a pink frizzy mane shot up from the ground.
"Woowie zoowie! You are strong!" Pinkie said as she shook her head, trying to clear the stars she saw. Twilight released her grip on Matthew and pulled Pinkie Pie into a deep and long hug, Matthew bouncing off the floor when he landed.
"Pinkie Pie I'm so happy you're alright! Are you hurt?"
"Of course not, silly! I've taken worse than that from the twins!" Pinkie said as Twilight finally pulled away from the hug.
"You do?"
"Duuuuuuuuh! Why do you think I showed up at your place one time and said 'hiya Twilight!'. But then you were all like 'Pinkie why are you here it's three in the morning.' And then-"
"Okay, Pinkie Pie! I'm just happy you're alright," Twilight said with a smile. Pinkie hopped around Twilight and towards the still downed Matthew.
"Heya there, Matty! Are you okay? Oh! Is the floor soft, I'll come join ya!" Pinkie said as she flopped onto her side like Matthew was. Matthew, on the other hand, was clutching at his ribs from the awkward angel he fell at.
"Nope… not comfortable at all. I can guarantee that…" Matthew pushed himself off the ground and back into a seating position, Pinkie quickly following suit.
"Oooooh! Are you hungry! I know this great cupcake recipe that I could-"
"I don't want a cupcake! I thought you'd establish that when I …" Matthew's words fell off as he realized what he was about to say. "I'm sorry for that… I didn't mean to hurt you if I did."
"It's okay Matty! But why don't you like my cupcakes they're the best in all of Ponyville! I work really really hard on them and I'm sure you'd love them if-"
"They hurt my teeth," Matthew said, as embarrassment took over his face.
"Whaaaaaaaat?!” PInkie said as her mouth dropped down.
“Yeah I uh… Never took care of them when I was younger and it just… It hurts, I’m sorry,” Matthew pushed himself up off the ground and back to a standing position. Pinkie just looked stunned, her face showing little to no emotion as she was processing what she heard.
“Yeah, I’m sorry but I can’t eat your cupcake,” Twilight walked up next to Pinkie, patting her back to try and comfort her.
“Why didn’t you say anything sooner?” Twilight said.
“I- It’s embarrassing to talk about, alright? I just didn’t take care of my teeth and I don’t want to be judged cause of some… stupid stuff I did…” Matthew said as he gripped his arm again, covering the dots that were just poking out. It was a quick, subtle action but Twilight was able to notice it just before Matthew pulled his hand away. Twilight may have said anything, but she made a mental note about what he did.
Pinkie Pie, not noticing his movements, trotted up to him slowly, her eyes still filled with shock at what she heard. For a few seconds the pink pony stared into Matthew's eyes, unwavering and unwilling to move. After an awkward bit of silence, Pinkie sat down and raised her arms wide open, offering a hug to Matthew. The human in question was confused.
"What? Why? I threw you across the-"
"Oh silly, it's okay! I was going a bit cuckoo!"
There was an awkward silence that distilled in the air. Matthew didn’t move, his confusion still ever present on his face while Pinkie Pie sat there with a giant smile still on her face, arms still out wide. Though it didn’t last too long. Pinkie Pie jumped out of her spot and tackled Matthew right onto the ground, wrapping her arms around him and giving him a bone crushing hug. Matthew felt his breath forcefully leave his body and heard something crack before Pinkie pulled herself off of Matthew.
Though the hug was swift and short, Matthew felt like he came out a new man.
“... You got… some damn strong arms…”
“Thank you!” Pinkie said as she hopped in place, Matthew sat up while Twilight walked up towards him.
“I uh… I know you don’t want to talk about it, but I can help fix it!”
“You can fix what?”
“Your teeth! Well, not me, but I know somepony! They can fix your teeth if you-”
“I have no money, I don’t think I can afford a dental plan and coverage with my fantastic zero income,” At hearing that, Twilight stared at Matthew confused, pondering on what he said.
“What do you mean? You don’t pay to have somepony to fix your teeth.”
“... You don’t?”
“No, Canterlot actually pays them.”
“... Huh… Now I know what it’s like to live in Canada.”
“Canada?”
“I’ll explain later.”
“Okay, well, how about I set up an appointment for you?”
“I’d be fine with that.”
“Perfect! I’ll do it as soon as I can!”
“Cool,” Just as the conversation ended, a box wrapped up in a giant pink bow slid right in front of Matthew and Twilight. The pair looked where the box came from and couldn’t see the bright pink pony they were looking for.
The two looked back down at the box.
“She’s in the box, isn’t she?” Matthew asked.
“Yep.”
“I’m not surprised anymore.”
“It grew on you already?”
“Pretty much.”
“That’s good at least.”
“...”
“You gonna open it?”
“What if I don’t?”
“... The thought never crossed my mind to not open a present from Pinkie… I don’t even know what’ll happen.”
“Welp, guess you’ll find out,” With that, Matthew started to briskly walk out of the bakery and out the door, leaving Twilight alone with a party present in the middle of the room.
“I wonder…” Twilight’s hoof slowly approached the present, shaking as it came closer and closer to connect with the box. She could feel the exhilaration enter her body, the adrenaline spiking through her eins as her hoof continuously moved mere inches forward. The sweat on her brow grew more and more as her anxiety filled her stomach to the brim with worry and fear.
Her hoof then made contact with the box, Twilight’s heartbeat racing as she realized she’d have to open the present to see what’s inside. Her hooves shook even more so, the anticipation driving her over the edge more and more as she moved her hoof on top of the box, magic starting to brew in her horn as if she were expecting to be attacked any second. Her face filled with determination as she steeled her nerves and readied herself for what was to come.
And then she opened it.
A hoof of pink came out and booped her on the nose.
Twilight just stood there, her face unflinching as she realized what had happened. Her anxiety quickly turned to annoyance as she processed what just transpired. What she didn’t realize though was that someone was watching from the shadows.
“What the fuck was that?!” Matthew said, as he just stared at her in confusion.
“What? Twilight said, snapping out of her stupor and zipping her eyes over to Matthew.
“That! That whole thing! The anticipation, the-the-THE EVERYTHING!” Twilight’s cheeks quickly reddened with embarrassment.
“I-I- I don’t know what you’re talking about, i was just-”
“You were having the stare down of your life with a fucking present like you were defusing a bomb.”
“I-I- I was just.”
“Jesus Christ, it was like watching a kid find their first porn magazine.”
“Okay! Enough! We can go,” Twilight said, quickly trotting out of the building, not giving Matthew another second to speak. Matthew watched as Twilight left before looking back in the bakery. The present that was opened a second ago, was closed again, but it had a blue ribbon this time.
Matthew simply looked at it.
And then walked out.
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Matthew and Twilight were walking down the streets of Ponyville again, making a line straight to the library.
"I'm so glad Colgate was able to help with your teeth!" Twilight said with an extra pep in her step. Matthew grabbed his jaw and rotated it a bit, getting used to the repairs Colgate gave him.
"Yeah, me too, thought I was gonna get my teeth drilled out and stuff."
"That's a thing in your world?"
"Yeah, when someone's teeth gets too bad they have to drill out cavities and fill them with like… lead I think."
"Oh wow! This must've been shocking for you!"
"Yeah bone magic, I see why it's going to take forever to fix though. Spent an hour on like two teeth."
"Colgate loves her job, she's a perfectionist, it's the reason why she's one of the best dentists I know! I'd say better than some ponies in Canterlot."
"Yeah," Just as Matthew was done talking, he could hear a loud whistling sound above. Matthew stopped in his tracks and looked up into the sky. "What is that sound?"
"Oh no, that's-" Before Twilight was able to finish her sentence, she was cut off by a voice shouting from the high heavens.
"LOOK OUT BELLLLOOOOWW!"
Just as he heard that, he saw Rainbow Dash coming in right towards him at what must be close to Mach speed. He didn't have time to react, he barley was able to flinch in time when Rainbow Dash was a foot away from him. Just as Matthew finally registered what was about to happen, Rainbow Dash collided straight into his stomach.
One second he was standing in an upright position, the next he found himself face first into the solid ground. He get his chest giveaway as Rainbow Dash hit him straight into his abdomen. They were only connected for a second but he could feel the force verberate… around him?
Matthew's body hit the ground like a train hitting a car. The only difference is that Matthew didn't break a single bone in his body, didn't even feel anything fracture. The force of impact might as well have been a single raindrop in a sandy desert.
Matthew, though unharmed, was dazzed by what just happened. He looked around and could see many shapes of different colors moving about as his vision tried to clear up what just happened. But one thing was very clear to Matthew and that was the shouting he heard.
"Rainbow Dash, what were you thinking?!"
"I didn't mean to hit him!"
"How many times have we told you to not practice your stunts near the town?!"
"A lot! But I was away from the town! I just lost control with how fast I was going and ended up here! I said `Look out'!"
"Guys..." Matthew said, his vision clearing up to see a number of other ponies surrounding him.
"He got out of the hospital two weeks ago! What if he- Oh no! We might have to take him back! I already set up more appointments for his dentist!"
"Guys?" Matthew said again, getting into a sitting position as he saw Twilight start to pace back and forth while Rainbow Dahs had her back to him.
"Is that what you're worried about? He could've broken a bone right now and you're worried about a dentist appointment?"
"I wouldn't have to worry if somebody didn't crash into him!" Twilight said, stopping her pacing to look at Rainbow Dash.
"Guys!" Matthew said, one last time. The girls finally stopped their arguing and turned their heads to him. They immediately trotted over and helped him up
"Matthew, are you okay?!" Twilight said using her magic to hoist him into the air, using all forms of magic to see if he broke anything.
"Yeah, I'm fine! Please put me- THAT TICKLES!" Matthew said, quickly falling into a laughing fit as he felt Twilight's magic search every inch of his body. But as sudden as it was, it stopped and Twilight couldn't help but look at Matthew in shock.
"You're… you're fine! Oh thank goodness!" Twilight quickly put Matthew back onto his feet as he giggled away a little. The ponies around him started to let out whispers about what they just witnessed.
"Appreciate the check up, Twi, but maybe warn me next time," Matthew said as he wiped off the dirt he got on his clothing, but before anyone else could say anything, he couldn't help but see a certain Rainbow haired individual walk up to him.
"Hey man, I'm sorry about the whole… hitting you thing. I didn't mean it! It was a total accident! I just lost control and you were in the way and-"
"Hey Dash, it's cool. I'm not even hurt dude."
"Yeah, I know but it's still not a very cool thing of me to do to ya."
"That's an understatement."
"Hmm… oh I know! I'll make it up to ya by taking you to a wonderbolts game!"
"Wonderbolts… Those are the performers. Right?"
"Yeah! That way you can see a real pro at the works instead of… well… me…" Rainbow Dash said as she clearly getting more and more upset at herself. Matthew couldn't help but overhear a couple of the standing by ponies whisper to each other. Matthew, getting more and more anxious of the gossiping ponies, quickly made his way towards Rainbow Dash, Twilight following suit.
"You wanna walk and talk?"
"Uh, sure," Rainbow Dash said hopping up and hovering in place with her wings.
"... Not really walking, but whatever," Matthew said as he started to walk back towards the library again.
"Not really a big fan of gossipers."
"Gossipers? Wait, who's gossiping?"
"You gotta get your eyes checked, man."
"I guess."
"How you holding up?"
"I've taken worse crashes, I'm more surprised you're fine considering you're all skin and bones," Rainbow Dash said as she flopped over to look at Matthew. Twilight quickened her pace to join the conversation.
"Actually been meaning to ask, are you humans typically that resilient?"
"To what? Trauma? Depends, but uhhh… think I just got lucky, yeah."
"Lucky? Well… I guess so. It wasn't nearly as bad as when Dash broke her wing," At hearing that, Rainbow Dash flipped right back up and started to talk.
"Yeah, you're lucky I wasn't doing that routine again or we'd both be in the hospital by now, dude," Rainbow Dash said as she lightly slapped Matthew's shoulder, Matthew quickly let out a small yelp of pain and grabbed his shoulder. Rainbow Dash was letting out a small laugh and started to talk to Twilight. Matthew on the other hand was thinking about that slap.
How come he felt her slap but not the cannonball to the chest? It didn't make sense to him. Was it him flinching? Does he have to see it coming and prepare? Is it based on a sense? Is it random? He's going to have to experiment a little when he gets back to the library. Until then, he couldn't help but think about what this means for his powers.
In no time, the small entourage made their way back to the library, the two friends had apologized for their earlier behavior and were talking about the latest Daring Do books. Twilight opened the door up and Matthew walked straight in, leaving Rainbow Dash and Twilight to talk.
"Yeah, I promise I'll go further out of town before trying that trick again."
"Please do, we're lucky Matthew's fine, but I'm not sure if any pony else could take a hit like that."
"Yeaaaaah…. But Matthew!" Matthew stopped in his tracks and turned back around to face Rainbow Dash.
"Huh? Yeah?"
"Remember, Wonderbolts game!"
"Uh, sure… when is that?"
"About a month from now, it would be sooner if somepony on the team didn't bust their wing doing a trick! Now they have to reschedule everything and push back the tour by a month because of it. I swear the pony that-"
"Yeah, cool, sure," Matthew said, continuing to walk into the tree house and down into the basement below, leaving Twilight and Rainbow Dash to watch him walk off.
"Uhhh, is he okay?" Rainbow Dash said, unsure of Matthew's reponse.
"I think so? Not really sure if I'm honest," there was a pregnant pause between the two friends, neither of them knowing exactly how to react to the situation in general. That was until Rainbow Dash came up with a rather valid answer to the situation as a whole.
"Humans are weird."
Down in the basement, Matthew was sitting on his bed, looking down at his hands. He never really had the time to actually think about his powers and what they could do with them. Every instance he's had free time he's slept, thankfully he's out of college now and has all the free time in the world.
"Now… I just gotta figure out how that… invincible thing happened."
Matthew looked at a nearby wall, much like the rest of the place, it was hardened timber. He pondered on what he could do to test his new ability, unsure if he can trigger it or if it activates on its own accord. He could only think of one thing he could do that would be able to settle if he could or couldn't do it manually. He looked over to a nearby wall and let out a deep sigh.
"Fucking hope I don't break my fingers."
He got up from the bed and walked over to the wall, uncertainty welling up in him as he balled his fist. Nerves got to him quickly as his head filled with images of broken fingers and the pain he's sure to get into. He quickly put those thoughts away, shut his eyes tight, and raised his arm up before throwing a punch directly into the wall as hard as he could.
Just like before, he felt the pushback from the force go around him but not into him. Matthew opened his eyes and saw that the wall was unscathed, he was fine, nothing broken at all. He pulled his hand away from the wall and started to laugh.
"Oh shit! I'm invincible!" Matthew said while punching the wall again, the same feeling going around him. He did this again and again and again, his laughter only growing more and more as he saw the wod start to split from his punches.
That came to a screeching halt when he felt a sharp pain go right into his arm and up to his shoulder.
“FUCK!” Matthew screamed out, grabbing his hand in pain. He let out a couple hisses of pain as he felt his hand throb. He quickly took a look to see that it was going to be a very bad bruise, but none of his fingers were broken. The pain in his hand subsided after a while being replaced with a headache in his head. He grabbed at his temples and started to think.
“Okay… so there’s a limit? Is it per hit or can I only take so much before it breaks… shit…” Matthew said, his head now throbbing as the headache grew worse.
“Shit, how the fuck am I gonna get a handle on this?” Due to his oncoming headache, he wasn’t able to see a certain draconequus come into being behind him.
“That is a great question, my boy,” Matthew shot away from the sound and into the wall he’s been punching, spinning in place to see Discord floating in midair his hands around a phone.
A phone.
“What the… Is that a fucking iPhone?!”
“Hmm, yes, I believe that’s what Greg called it. I must say this is a rather interesting device, I’m surprised at how it works!”
“You… You went to the human world?!” Discord stopped what he was doing on the phone and looked up into the sky, pondering what Matthew just said before realizing that he outed himself.
“... Ooooooh, I see I’ve been caught in a lie!” Discord whirled his hands and the phone disappeared from view, going back to its own storage place.
“You… WHY WOULD YOU LIE!” Matthew felt his raging starting to boil over as he realized how much sooner he could’ve gone home. While looking at Discord, Matthew felt a claw grab his shoulder from behind. He quickly turned around again to face the wall to see Discord’s devilish smile in the wall, as though he'd become the wall itself, and started to speak.
“Oh please Matthew, you think it’s really the best idea for you to go back there? What with your powers or magic progressing the way they have? It’s only a matter of time until you become a ticking time bomb!” Discord said, his face contorting into a clock that started to tick.
“So you’re forcing me to stay here?!”
“Well… yes,” Discord said, flashing before Matthew and sitting down in a fancy floating chair, he pulled out his newly acquired phone and started playing around with it again. “I don’t see a reason as to why I should send you back, it’s rather fun to have you here.”
“Fun?! I WANT TO GO HOME!” At the last syllable, Discord felt a great force hit him like a tidal wave, the phone in his hand launched straight out and hit the wall next to him and the wind that was coming off of Matthew was over turning the furniture. Yet, despite how strong of a blast Matthew was giving off, Discord didn’t even move an inch, barley even flinched at the impact. After Matthew’s small outburst, Discord whipped away nonexistent sweat on his face and magicked over the phone back into his hands, thankfully unbroken.
“Well, that was a little rude, don’t you think Matthew?”
“I want to go ho-”
“Home, yes, I get it!” Discord said, teleporting out of his chair and standing right in front of Matthew, his usual smile gone off his face now. “Look around you Matthew, tell me, is this a normal thing you humans do?” Discord started to take small steps towards Matthew, intimidating the man as he himself started to slowly step away.
“N-N-No-”
“Do humans usually hold a ridiculous amount of power in their head just waiting to be unleashed in childish tantrums?!”
“No, I just-”Matthew said, his back finally hitting the wall. Discord lowered his head down to look at Matthew squarely in the eyes as he talked further down to Matthew.
“Do you have any control of it whatsoever?”
“... No…” Discord continued to stare down Matthew, not daring to move a muscle. As soon as Discord was sure, he pulled his head back and went right back into the usual attitude.
"Now, I believe it’s time that I help you with your power… or magic or whatever in the world it is."
"... Now?"
"Why yes, my good boy! Now! Just a show of good faith is all!” Discord said, grabbing onto Matthew and snapping his fingers away. In a flash, the two of them disappeared from Matthew’s room, leaving the room quiet for the first time that day.
Deep in the heart of the Everfree Forest, was a clear plane of grass, the trees making way for the subtleties of the winds to pass through each blade of greenery. The sky was starting to turn into a hue of orange, signifying the coming of night. It was a calm and serene place.
Then in a flash of white light a human and a drconquess stood in its place.
Matthew looked around him, rubbing his eyes to make sure he was seeing things clearly. One second, he was in his room at the library and the next he's outside in the middle of nowhere.
"What the fuck?!"
"Why do you humans curse so much? It's quite unbecoming," Discord said, snapping his fingers and putting on a trainer outfit from the 80's.
"What did you-"
"I teleported us into the Everfree Forest! Good place to practice those abilities of yours without prying eyes!" Discord said, as he started doing insane stretches, pulling his leg off and literally stretching it.
"I… I… What about Twilight?! She's going to be worried sick if I'm not there! She'll think I've disappeared or that I-"
"Oh calm down, Matthew. You'll be back before she even knows you're gone," Discord aside as he reattached his leg back to his body.
"But I-"
"Do you want to learn how to control this stuff or not?" Discord said one last time, annoyance being placated on his face. Matthew looked between Discord and his hands, contemplating what he should do. Learn how to control his power or stay in bed sulking? There was really only one option. With a sigh, Matthew clenched his fists and looked up at Discord.
"What do I do?"
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