Into Your Dreams...

by skiskinator

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance, Original Character, Adventure, DJ P0N-3, Main 6
Length: 29613

Joseph receives a text simply saying to "Open Your Heart."

Joseph is not a normal high school sophomore, and neither is his life at home. He finds himself shunned by his peers and unloved by his divorced parents, but when he meets a girl at the movie theatre in a similar situation, he finds a small amount of relief, until she doesn't respond to his attempts to contact her, only receiving a text reading "Open Your Heart." He is transported to Ponyville, but soon learns he must tame his inner demons in order to keep himself from hurting the ponies he loves.

Published 2012-04-02 06:24:03 UTC
Last updated 2012-07-14 03:06:14 UTC

1. I am are You

Chapter 1: I am, are You?

It was just a normal week...or was it? I mean not of my journey into Equestria (and myself really), but just the week in general. I go back and just think of all the absolute SHIT I was going through. It wasn't even the divorce. No my parents had divorced last week. It was just what my father had said on his way out that haunts me. Looking back now it does't really bother me like it did then, but just the fact of calling my mother a "fucking whore," and, "Has a one way ticket to hell," totally calm on his way out just perturbed me for some reason then.

But that was only Monday.

I was Fifteen, a sophomore, 6' 4", and very easy going. I was different than others at my school, maybe even the entirety of my state. I was profoundly influenced by literature, music, movies, and influenced my mental development doing so. Whereas others in my neighborhood stopped using their lego and building blocks much before me, I preferred to keep my imagination at peak performance and continued to use them to that day.

Now, I had been more of the shy kind at my high school, taking into account that I had to build up a fair amount of courage and energy before even approaching someone I didn't know, and was so because of my experiences in my younger years. It was then in the second and third grade that I was picked on and bullied by one of the kids, most likely because I towered over him, and pretty much the entire class at the time. It made me stronger yes, but it set barriers in my heart forever. Moving on…as I said before, I didn't quite fit into my high school. As a result, I was excluded from most events and such, until THAT week.

It was the day after my father left in his 'unbecoming' fashion, and I was a little on edge because of it. This seemed to be the opportunity that the other students were waiting for. They have good sense, really. They can tell when someone let's their guard down, and immediately take the opportunity, as it comes, to humiliate whoever it is that gets their attention. Unfortunately, that was me.

They were a little nice, I suppose, leaving me alone until lunch, but that turned out to be to my disadvantage as well. Turns out, the pricks at my school have been keeping a close eye on me lately. They proceeded, at lunch, to come up to me, beckoning me into a fight. I had been so far gone at that moment, that I hadn't heard what he said, and he didn't repeat himself so I don't know what he actually said. Nevertheless, he did not like being ignored and told me to stand up once he thought he had my full attention. I did as he asked, and ended up seeing stars as he hit me with a solid right hook. I was still hazy, but that bit brought me back in a flash. He looked at my face as it flushed with rage, and started backing away. Too late. Two hits to his chest and an uppercut later he was laying on the floor, being dragged away by two of his friends in fear. I then promptly packed up my lunch and left the room, which had fallen silent after they had seen me cut loose.

And that was Tuesday.

I went to school the next day, still bottling up all my feelings from the past days, and months, and went about business as usual. That is…until I was requested to the office by a phone call to my teacher. As I walked, I thought, 'This must be about yesterday.' I had no idea. I finally got there, the royal blue door taunting me, no, daring me to go inside. Challenge accepted I guessed as I grasped the knob and walked inside. The woman at the front desk simply looked at me and pointed down the office's hall towards our vice principals room.

The meeting was a blur of miscommunications and accusations as the asshole from earlier started playing the baby to the vice principal. After he finished his blatant lie about me threatening him with a knife and his defense saving countless others, the VP looked to me and asked for my side. I told him what actually happened in the cafeteria and he nodded, knowing that the other guy was full of garbage as he started turning bright red when I told him how he socked me when I had been previously eating lunch.

The vice principal, upon my completing the story, leaned back and looked at the two of us. And said, "Two weeks suspension for both of you for fighting during school," then turned around and wrote out the slips, handed them two us saying, "you may go."

And to think I had loved Wednesdays.

That night is when it happened. My week already terrible, I went to my mom to talk. She wasn't available. So I texted one of my few true friends to see if they had time. They each seemed to be up to something. Track, homework, video games, they each seemed to have an excuse, that is, until I came across a number on my desk.

I had gone to the movies about two weeks ago alone to unwind some as my parents had started fighting again. I was an hour early, as I had gotten the hell out of there before the worst began( The movie theatre was about 2 miles from my house so I walked.) There, a girl had been sitting in the lobby, looking distraught. Normally, I would have gotten the hell out of there as well, but a strange heat filled my body. My nerves were firing and there was nothing I could do but Freak the fuck out. Suddenly, I did something weird. I went over to her and sat next to her, and asked her what was wrong.

She jumped a little at my voice and looked over, her silky blonde hair being whipped over her shoulder as she quickly looked over at where the voice came from. She eyed me for a moment, debating the legitimacy of the offer. "Joseph," I said putting out my hand. She looked at my hand, then back up, then back down and accepted the gesture looking back up at me, "Zoe," she responded.

"What's wrong Zoe? You look unhappy," I said, my heart pounding audibly as I worried if she could hear it.

"Well," she began, "I came here after I got into a fight with my mom, and needed to get out of the house. Unfortunately, I forgot to grab any money before leaving and now can't pay," She said with a sigh.

"Hmm…I know how you feel, sorta." I replied, almost to myself, adrenaline running out.

"Really?" She asked

"Yea, my parents are going through an ugly divorce and were getting into another fight, so I left."

Neither of us said anything, just looking in our own respective directions, not looking at anything, just not at each other, embarrassed.

"Umm…" I started, not sure how to break the silence, "I think I have enough money with me for the both of us…want to…go…with me?" my voice getting softer with each few words.

She looked over at me, smiling nervously her emerald green eyes meeting mine and replied, "That'd be nice."

So we went to the movie and had a good time talking afterward, and she gave me her number to text later. I had texted her a few times since but she hadn't responded.

'Eh…what the hell it's worth a shot,' I thought as I saw it on the desk next to my phone.
I texted her a short message saying hi and reminding her who I was and where we had met.
No response for ten minutes and I had moved onto my computer, looking for what to do for the rest of my suspension. It was at the exact moment that I had clicked on to watch some videos that my phone buzzed. Totally expecting another excuse from a friend, I didn't look at it for a minute, but then I remembered who I had just texted. I excitedly grabbed my phone and looked at the sender. It was her! I looked at the message, but all it said was, "Open your heart." I looked again and again, reading the message not once, but kept reading it until my eyes hurt from the backlight on the phone. 'Some fucked up joke,' I thought, but then suddenly recalled something Zoe said before she left the theatre. I had just told her about a youtube clip I had saw recently, and she claimed to have seen it, and had responded by telling me about a valentine's day video she had found with a friend. We watched it on her phone. Some girl opened up a heart-shaped card to a special message, but Zoe got a phone call and I didn't get to finish seeing the message on the inside of the card.
Yet now this cryptic message she sends me, could it have something to do with the video? I look around the room, and see a deep red heart-shaped card sitting on my bed. I jumped up and snatched it up to look at it. On the front it said, "Your Heart." I guess someone wanted the message known, but why? I looked at it again, and began to open it. Just then my mom called me downstairs to talk so I closed the card and went downstairs, leaving it on my desk.

2. Zoe

Chapter 2: Zoe

One argument later, I returned to my room, frustrated. I sit on my bed, head held in hands trying to regain control. I leap up and thrust my fist through the wall and stand there panting. Finally calm, somewhat. I look to my desk…the heart. I walk over to it, picking it up again.

"Open Your Heart…"

I slowly open my "heart," and light pours out, engulfing me.

My head hurts and I can't see. I can feel my body, I just can't see it. Where the hell am I? I reach my hands up to my face and rub my eyes, 'much better.' I take in my surroundings, and gasp. The trees, the path, even the clouds, I knew everything. I have teleported to Equestria, more specifically, just outside the Everfree Forest, on the path to Ponyville. I look at my hands to ground myself, more or less, and look back to my surroundings. I'm truly starting to freak out, hyperventilating and all, until-thankfully-I see another human walking towards me, turns out it's…ZOE! As I begin to fast-walk towards her down the path, I trip on something on the ground and go careening forward. Expecting the hard ground to greet me with a smile, I brace for the worst. I open my eyes, and I'm hovering a few inches above the ground. I am levitated up back to my feet.

Zoe stands before me, hands glowing as she holds me in place. Slowly, she begins to glow with a soft white light, until I can only see her silhouette in front of me. She soon starts to shake, her form that is, and her outline starts to become less and less defined. What was once Zoe, now is a glowing oval suspended about a foot off the ground. Soon, the oval itself begins to shimmer, the edges becoming indistinct and ragged. Out of the blob now comes a foot, then a tail. The blob continues shifting until it has taken the base shape of a pony.

I gasped when I saw her take form of a pony, but again, it was only the base, colorless-lifeless. Just then, a horn sprouted out of the hard, and the glowing white light changed to red as the irises of the pony were colored red, then the red light turned dark blue as the mane and tail grew out and colored. The same happened for each feature on her, the turquoise highlights, her purple shades, and eventually glowing white to put a shine on her pristine white coat, only marked upon by her eighth note cutie mark on her flank.

"Hello Joseph, nice to see you," She said to me.

"Wha…" Was all I could manage.

She giggled, "Surprised?" I nodded, "well I guess that is to be expected. Look we have to talk, so I'll just change you to pony form so you'll fit in."

She raised her horn to me and I felt myself being stretched and changed. I imagined that i probably looked the same as she did when she changed.

"I scanned your mind and found your preferred form," She says to me as I start to slow in my morphing.

the first thing that strikes me is that I seem to be taller than her, as I was on earth, judging on how I had to look down to meet her gaze. I then see that my coat reflects that of a suit, with a white spot on my chest where the white shirt would have been, split by a thin black line the I assume was representing that of a tie. I have a silver mane, in a ragged style that shimmers slightly as it moves, covered by a fedora. And to complete the picture, I have on the sunglasses too. I start breathing hard again as I find a mirror facing me, ready for me to asses myself in full. I take a look, and my jaw hits the ground. I am the pony equivalent of one of the Blues Brothers, and better yet, I'm an ALICORN!

Zoe could see I was pleased and left me with the mirror, to stare at myself, and trotted over to where I came in and picked up the card that brought me here and poofed it somewhere with her magic. All I could do for five minutes was just stare at my reflection. Vinyl wasn't kidding when she said preferred form, I had been imagining this character for months. After finally overcoming the shock of actually being a pony, I started to once again examine my surroundings. My eyes fell on my trumpet case and I began wondering why it came with me.

"Just stow it for now, you can practice later. For now, follow me. I'm sure you have an ocean of questions to ask," she said, trotting towards Ponyville. I decided to try my luck and attempted to ask her about her name.

"Wait, you're not Zoe, you-" she rushed to cut me off.

"Wait until we get into town and I'll explain everything." she said in a whisper.

Not five steps into Ponyville and a pink blur is seen headed right towards me. Since I'm still not quite steady on my feet- hooves- yet, I go flying as she runs into me and we go tumbling onto the grass side of the path. I then see Pinkie Pie standing over top of me with an excited grin on her face.

"Hi?" I say

"HIHOWAREYOUYOU'RENEWHEREPARTYTIME!" she yelled as her party cannon comes out of nowhere, she hops in and blasts herself to the mountain overlooking the town.

"umm…okay then." I say, trying to comprehend what I just witnessed.

Zoe walks up to me and helps me up. I begin following her once again to apparently her pad in town. It was on the outskirts of town, on the other side, so it took us a few minutes to get there. Many stared as they saw me, stopping in their tracks and watching me go by. I could only imagine what they were thinking at the moment, seeing- first- a new pony coming to town, second- It was a stallion (not many of us guys here in Ponyville), third- I am a freaking ALICORN, fourth- I retained some extra hight from Earth and towered over most of them, and of course my jet black coat and silver mane might have done something as well. Like I said most of them stopped quite abruptly, and were frozen in some, "interesting," poses. Who am I kidding, they were hilarious! One pony was mid-bite into a sandwich when she froze, and another had an ice cream cone hovered in front of her that she dropped upon seeing me.

After about fifteen minutes we finally got to her house, and went inside. By this point I was going crazy, seeing all of the different ponies that I knew, and those I didn't. Aside from that, It was the waiting for all my questions to be answered that really killed me. Zoe, as she called herself, was actually Vinyl Scratch, and for some reason, does not allow me to make assumptions until she tells me what to assume. Which is made even more infuriating by how she ambles up to her door, and fiddles around with the keys for a few minutes, then lets us in. As she closes the door, I open my mouth to question her, but end up with a hoof in my face as she tells me,

"Just a few more minutes."

I nod, and walk over to the couch and sit on it, starting to evaluate my situation. 'I am an alicorn stallion in Ponyville, I retained my trumpet through whatever thing sent me here, and am in the home of Vinyl Scratch, who I previously knew as Zoe not two hours ago.'

She trots up to me, seeing the strenuous look on my face, and sits down on a parallel couch to mine and gets my attention.

"I can tell you have a lot of questions," she says.

I raise my eyebrow in response.

"First off," She begins again, "Yes I am Vinyl Scratch, and yes you are in Equestria. I searched through your mind for your preferred form using a spell I learned from Twilight, and turned you into it." She looks to me and smiles, "Not bad, huh?"

"Not bad at all," I say looking down at myself.

She smiles again, "Well its the least I could do. You see, I brought you here because of what you did for me. At the movie theatre when you came up to me, I had had a bad week here following a certain mishap involving one pink pony and my DJ equipment. I was fuming afterward, and decided I needed to leave town for a few days. As I was getting ready to leave, Twilight paid a visit to see how I was doing, seeing as how I stormed out afterwards. I told her my intentions, and she taught me a few spells regarding transporting myself somewhere that I wouldn't be disturbed by anypony, and a few shapeshifting spells as well. I then went to Earth to escape for a few days. It was alright, but I started feeling a tad lonesome, being the only pony there and whatnot, and started looking for someone to talk to. Although I tried to make myself somewhat attractive in your world, the only girls getting attention were those in more, 'expressive', clothing. After I realized this, I decided that I simply needed an escape, and thats when I had gone to the cinema."

Her face had begun to reflect her feelings and was quite forlorn, but then she looks up at me again and smirks a bit, "and thats when I met you. The one human who seemed to actually care that I didn't seem happy, who couldn't care less that I wasn't practically exposing myself for attention. As you could probably tell by my expression at the time I was skeptical, but I saw sincerity in your eyes and decided you were the one. But after listening to your story after the movie, I realized that you had it worse than I did, and I was going to do something about it. It took awhile, as you know, but I set up a portal in that card for you to find, and low-and-behold you made it here." She had stood up but now comes over to me and sits beside me.

"Now," she asks, "any questions?"

I must of had a look of amazement on my face because she giggled. I brought myself back to Earth- Equestria that is- and slowly formed a statement in my mind.

"So I'm really here?"

"Yes."

"This...this is all real?" I asked, waving my 'arms' around indicating the world around me

"Yes."

"Hmm…no cutie mark," I wonder aloud as I examine my blank flank.

"Ahh, about that. Since cutie marks are all about self discovery, the spell didn't include it in the shape shift." she replied.

"Makes sense I guess," I say, "Im gonna look weird without a cutie mark, being an alicorn stallion."

"I suppose," she says, looking off into the distance.

"Well whatever. I just can't believe I am ACTUALLY HERE!"

She giggled again, "So you're okay with it?"

"Of course!"

"Good, now let's go meet some of the other ponies before Pinkie's Party."

"That couldn't be tonight could it, I mean, the last time we saw her she shot herself from a cannon into the mountain!"

"Ha, don't worry about that, she's probably already back and setting up."

"Wha-how?" I exclaimed.

She giggled again and said simply, "Because she's Pinkie Pie!"

'Makes sense,' I thought to myself. I guess I had forgotten about Pinkie's so-called "abilities."

"Well let's get out of here," I said.

"Cool." She replied, picking up her shades, and I mine.

"Wait, actually…can you teach me a little magic first?" I asked.

"How about we get Twilight to teach you, since I'm just a magic aficionado."

"Alright, that works too," I said back as we left the house

4. Midnight Blues

Chapter 4: Midnight Blues

I slowly open my eyes.

"He's coming to," Said a voice

"Quick get the pitcher," said another

"Joe, can you hear me?" asked a familiar voice.

I coughed, sending a wave of hurt through my head. All I could seem to remember was trying to teleport, and ending up landing on my head, but did that put me in the pain I am in now? It hurt to focus, which was strange, but I reviewed what happened afterward. Then it hit me, and in all seriousness it did hit me as this sudden connection released a whole new wave of pain through my skull, nay my mind, as I remember being hit by the huge ball of compressed party coming from Pinkie's party cannon.

All of these revelations went through my head as I slowly woke up to what appeared to be a nurse, a doctor, and…Vinyl. I try to respond to her, but my mouth i glued shut. She then gave me a glass filled with water in it as I sat up. I accepted and greedily drank the water, as I was very parched. She smirked, somewhat concerned, at this. I tried again, somewhat more successfully to communicate.

"'ey Final," I managed to slur.

"How are you feeling," She asked me

I cleared my throat a bit, "Fine except for my skull feels like its on fire."

She frowned slightly and looked at the doctor, who shook his head, and she smiled, relieved.

"Do you remember what happened Joe?" Vinyl asks.

"Yea, walking home, opening door, indoor party cannon probably not the best idea…" I joked.

She giggled, I never thought making someone laugh could feel so nice.

The doctor then informed me that I did not have a concussion, simply in shock from hitting the ground with such force as to bruise about all of my back and a rib or two, but I should be back to full health in about a week. Satisfied, he addressed the nurse to follow him, and they left, turning right down the hallway. Vinyl came over and hugged me, shooting lightning bolts of pain throughout my back. She notice the wince and apologized, settling on simply holding my face in her hoofs. It was then that I noticed that her Emeralds from Earth had changed to Rubies.

"I got so scared when you didn't stand up after Pinkie accidentally shot you with the party cannon!" She exclaimed, "Ponies were holding me back I was so scared for you. I can't believe nopony double checked the trajectory, no one-" I cut her off before she could say anything else.

"It isn't your fault," I said matter-of-factly.

She looked away, laying me back on my pillow, and sighed.

"But I… I just…" She tried to start but was cut off again by me getting off the bed, wincing slightly as I stepped onto the floor, yet undeterred from saving her.

"There was nothing you could do Vinyl," I said softly, trying to calm her down. Then, a thought occurred, "Why were you so worried about me when we only really met about a day ago?" I asked.

She looked away from me and blushed, "I guess since you're the only one who's ever really shown that you cared about me," she confessed, "I took a liking to you."

I was stunned. How was it that this amazing girl felt that no one really cared for her?

"What do you mean I was the only one who cared about you?" I finally asked.

She paced over to the window, seeming to wonder to herself the answer, and responded, "I just feel that everyone here is nice and caring, but since I never really did anything that changed Equestria like Twilight and that group, I wasn't looked at the same way. Going back to the story I told you about why I travelled to Earth, the one thing about that event that really got to me is how Pinkie got off Scott-Free for wrecking my equipment, and I was forced to buy more, spending my bits that I had been saving for a real house, and all she had to do was BS some lesson she learned about friendship or something." Vinyl finished, and began nervously looking around to see if she had been heard.

Again, I was stunned by this revelation about Equestria. Just because she wasn't an Element of Harmony, she got ignored? I looked to her to clarify this, but was surprised at how close she had gotten while I hadn't been paying attention.

"So simply put," she continued, "I felt you really cared, and that's why I brought you here."

"Well just in case you were wondering," I replied, leaning towards her and kissing her, letting her know that her confidence was well founded. She kissed back. As we parted, she smiled, as did I. She then motioned her head towards the door and asking,

"Wanna get out of this hospital room?"

"Gladly," I responded happily.

We checked out and headed towards town.

It was slightly after two o'clock when we left, and I realized that I hadn't eaten since my meager lunch yesterday, prior to being brought to Ponyville. As if on cue, my stomach rumbled, since me and Vinyl were trotting close to one another, she heard it and giggled.

"Little hungry?"

"Nooooo," more rumbles

"Oh, of course not," she laughed, "let's go get some grilled dandelion sandwiches at the cafe."

For some reason, a dandelion sandwich seemed oddly appealing, and my stomach concurred, as indicated by a slightly more aggressive, but shorter, grumbling.

"Sounds like a plan." I replied, smiling.

Since it was still nice out, the next storm set for three days from now, we sat out on the patio. Facing opposite each other, a waiter came up and gave us each a menu and a water. Vinyl and I simply ordered before he walked away, and he took our menus, and headed back inside. I took the moment to examine the town a little more from this point. The Town Hall centered in the plaza, surrounded by various shops and cafes. It was an impressive structure, the town hall building, looking much like a quad-tiered cake stacked by the mad hatter. The third floor tier, for example, had half of its area hanging off the side of the building, providing an awning for the second floor balcony, which had a spiral staircase leading to the fourth floor tier, which had, of all things, a slide going down the tower. So to say I was impressed was an understatement.

The shops too were impressive looking around at them. They seemed to be made so that each storefront was that of a different time period going in a circle around town hall, where the oldest looking storefront met the future styled store. Why they did this was beyond me, but it looked awesome.

Vinyl then decided to ask me more about my life as a human. I looked at her, hesitating briefly, unsure of myself. But then I remembered how she trusted me enough to critic some of the most popular mares in all of Equestria, and my resolve solidified. I opened my mouth to start, to be interrupted by our food arriving. We both laughed a little, and ate. I have to say, who thought that dandelions could taste so good?

After finishing, Vinyl looked back to me, anticipating my story. I did not disappoint. I told her of my parents divorce, my not fitting in at school, the bullying, going all the way back to about second grade when I felt it all really started. She sat and listened intently, only distracted once when the waiter handed her the check to pay and walked away. I did not embellish any good or bad events in my life by over exaggerating anything, simply telling it as it had happened.

Upon my finishing, she wiped a tear away from under her sunglasses, and smiled at me, through different eyes, just as I had at the hospital. It was now around 4:00-4:30 pm as we set off back to her house, walking close enough to feel the other's presence. We walked in relative silence back, save for me commenting on the amazement I felt looking at the things in town and flowers and such. Once back, I went to the room she had given to me earlier, exhausted from the excitement of the past two days, said good night to Vinyl, and slept.

I did not dream that night, which was strange seeing as how I always had a dream back on Earth. I felt myself being roused from my slumber by a very concerned looking Vinyl.

"What's up?" I asked.

"You were moaning loudly and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Oh, sorry…"

"Well?"

"Yea I'm fine, don't think I'm gonna be able to get back to sleep though, considering I went to sleep at 5:00," I said, indicating the darkness coming in through the window.

"Well it's about 2 in the morning, and I went to bed at eight so I need to get back to bed, but I don't know if I can."

"I have an idea," I said leaving the room, headed downstairs.

It hadn't hit me until then that I had been transported here with my trumpet. So I opened the case and put in the mouthpiece, this alone taking great concentration as I was still a little new to magic. Levitating it to my lips, I found that not only could I still play, but something inside of my stirred as I played a note. I couldn't place it, but a sort of energy pulsed its way into my veins as I thought of 'What a wonderful World' by Louis Armstrong. As I headed up the stairs to Vinyls room, which was across from mine, I felt more and more energy spread through me until I made it to her room. She silently observed from her bed as I came in and lifted my trumpet to my lips. The energy seemed to sense my trumpet being brought to my lips as I played the song with absolute perfection. I could see her drop off into slumber once more as I played the final notes of the song.

"Good night, my angel."

5. The Elements

Chapter 5: The Elements

I gently closed her door, as I started back down the stairs to go and put my trumpet away. I looked around for a clock to check the time. I found one in her living room on the first floor where I had laid my trumpet case. It was 2:30 am, which meant I had roughly five hours before she would even begin to stir. I decided to look around her house a bit, since I didn't know how long I was to be staying here. So I packed up my trumpet, tucking it under the arm of the couch, and went off to explore her house.

It wasn't a small house, but it wasn't massive either. Starting from the path to the house, it was red brick, laid sideways, leading to a brick staircase which led to the front porch. Four white pillars held up the roof that extended over the porch from the second floor. There was an outdoor-style chandelier hanging in between the two center pillars in front of a second story window. The entryway had hardwood flooring, and offered four options of travel. Immediately to the left was a room containing a file cabinet, and a desk with various papers on it, seeming to be the office. Straight ahead were stairs to the second floor, or a hallway to the kitchen. To the right an open room room, mid-sized with more hardwood flooring, and only had her equipment in it, that and an old piano. This room had a window looking out on a peaceful lake, as the Everfree forest was on the opposite side of Ponyville. The room led to a carpeted dining room, separated by swinging double doors, and contained a rectangular dark stained table, surrounded by six chairs. Connected to both the entryway and the dining room was a kitchen, which retained the wood floor from the entryway. It had a counter jutting from the wall in the middle, creating a space for another, smaller table with only four chairs around it. It also had windows providing a view of a wooden deck, leading down to a beach down below. Another door was present in the kitchen, to which I assumed led to a basement, but I stayed with the upper two floors for now. From the kitchen was a living room with a grayish rug set in a diamond form rather than running parallel to the walls. There was a couch, an armchair, and a coffee table set on the rug, as it covered most of the floor. In one corner was an old phonograph, in another a cassette player, and in yet another was a CD player. In the final corner rested a reddish stained cabinet going from floor to ceiling holding many of each of the different media options.

The upstairs was very simple. A narrow hallway went from one end of the house to the other on the right, and immediately on the left was the master bedroom, Vinyl's room of course. On the left of the hallway went a stuffy room filled with old-looking things and chests, then a green tiled bathroom with a tub-shower combo, a toilet and two sinks, and at the end of the hallway was a bedroom. On the right were two bedrooms, one with hardwood continuing from the hallway and a deep blue colored rug in the same diamond fashion as in the living room. The second room periwinkle in color and carpeted with a patterned rug with music notes on it.

My exploration of the house killed another hour and a half. 'What to do with three and a half hours,' I wondered. 'I know, I'll go practice some magic outside.' So out I trotted out onto the lawn. I started with levitation first, still wary of teleportation, using potted plants as my test subjects. That didn't need any work I concluded after about ten minutes of juggling eight pots and their flowers, making the flowers hop out and do the can-can. That last part was entertaining though. I then decided to bite the bullet and work on teleportation.

I decided to work on teleportation out back on the beach since sand tended to be a little softer than dirt. It was quite the effort, working the energy back up to face this fear of mine, since my mind was still associating my ending up at the hospital with teleportation somewhat. I chose a spot ten feet ahead of me this time, and envisioned myself there as Twilight had taught me. The same feeling as before took hold, and I felt a spark leap from my horn as I teleported the ten feet forward, this time ending on all fours. 'Phew,' I thought, examining myself, making sure I was in one piece. I then gauged how far the yard was across, finally deciding it was roughly the same distance as yesterday. I wondered, 'should I really be doing this after one successful attempt?' All in the name of experience I thought as I teleported across the beach, and landed on my right feet, then righted myself.

"Must just take experience," I confirmed, muttering to myself.

"Quite." Said a voice behind me. I turned around quickly to see…princess Luna! I bowed quickly, not letting myself think about who had just addressed me to save myself from nerves, too late.

"I see the newcomer knows his manners," She commented, "You learn those spells from Twilight, Joseph?"

I stood back up wondering how she knew my name and that I was new here.

"Uhm," I tried, my throat getting parched, "Y-yes."

Princess Luna smiled at me.

"Sorry, Twilight wrote my sister earlier about a new stallion in town, and wrote how Rainbow had heard you two talking about Earth, so I assumed…"

"Well yes…I am from Earth, Princess," I confirmed.

"Please, just call me Luna," she asked.

"O-okay," I stuttered.

"Good, I just came to let you know that my sister Celestia and the elements are to pay you a visit today." She informed me.

A thought occurred to me, "Wait, how did you know I was awake?"

"Oh," She blushed slightly, "I heard the beautiful song you played on that shiny bit of yours."

"My Trumpet? How'd you know I played it for Vinyl?" I asked her, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Oh so that's what Pinkie was talking about earlier," She pondered aloud, "Well okay, I started watching after I heard you started playing, the flowers were…interesting," She commented.

"Ah yea…" I felt myself getting red, "Just practicing my…uh…skills…"

"Well, when you're teleporting, don't just think of where, but on your feet as well." She offered.

"Thank you, and nice meeting you pr- Luna."

"Yes, you too Joseph."

She flew off, and I practiced for about another hour. All the intense focus wore me out, so I decided to nap until 8:30. I went and sat on the couch and closed my eyes, falling asleep quickly.

I woke up again at 8:00, as indicated by the clock on the wall between the shelf and CD player. Since I was up, I thought to try my hand at cooking, one of the few things I enjoyed with my father before he left.

I snooped around the kitchen, pulling out the various supplies- or their equivalent- needed for some home-made pancakes. Some of the replacements were funny, actually, one of which being instead of vanilla, there was "Pinkie's homestyle delicious bean squeeze." I checked twice before putting it into the batter, to make sure it wasn't anything weird, but it was honest-to-God vanilla if I'd ever tasted it.

I set up the griddle on the stove and got the spatula ready as I poured the batter on. I flashed back momentarily to my dad and I doing this very same thing on mother's day one year. It was the first time he had let me help out with it, since I was eight and he felt I could handle it. Back to the present, I flipped the pancakes, starting to smell them as the scent almost visibly wafted towards the stairs. I chuckled, loving the physics of this new world. I flipped them again, seeing that they were done, and set them on a plate waiting on the end of the counter, as I could tell by the scent cloud that she would be floating in soon.

It didn't take long for my prediction to come true. I had begun on the second round of four for myself, and watched her being beckoned by the scent, led by her nose until she touched down and opened her eyes. She looked around, clearly confused, until she saw the food all ready for her on the counter. She shook her head, smiling.

"You made me breakfast?" she asked, still smiling.

"You bet! I'll join you in a sec," I replied, taking my pancakes off the griddle.

I watched her, waiting for her reaction as she took the first bite. She closed her eyes and seemed to like it. Upon swallowing she looked over to me, as I took a seat across from her.

"Joe these are amazing! Where did you get the recipe?" Not knowing the pain behind the answer to that question.

"Thanks, it's the recipe me and my...dad used to make…" I said looking off, lost in memories of better times between us.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She replied, pausing in her eating.

"Oh don't be," I said snapping back to reality, "I'm glad to share my recipe with you."

She smiled.

"By the way, Princess Luna found me last night practicing my magic and told me to be expecting her sister and the elements later today." I told her.

"Cool," she replied, "Are you gonna tell them about your being human and whatnot?"

"Believe it or not, Rainbow was eavesdropping on us during lunch and caught me talking about being human and told Twilight, so they all know already."

She "humph"ed in disbelief, mouth full of pancake.

"Well then we need to do some setting up for them before they get here." She said after swallowing.

"Like what?"

"Putting the extra chairs from the basement into the piano room. Maybe you can use you're new 'skills' to help," She joked, doing air quotes with her whole forearm, no fingers and what not.

"Alright then," I teleported right behind her and whispered sensuously in her ear, "I'd love to help out," making her jump as I grabbed her plate and teleported to the sink to start washing up. She gave me the evil eye, but started laughing along with me when she couldn't hold the face any longer. She told me to meet her in the basement once I was done. A few minutes later and I was in the basement picking up folding chairs and taking them upstairs. I took the seven for them and Vinyl took the two for us.

Around two, we heard a knock on the door. I walked up to the door and opened it, and my mind went berserk. There before me were each of the elements of harmony, and Celestia herself standing in front of me, staring at me as I ushered her and the others into the house. We all took seats in the piano room.

"Hello Joseph, I am princess Celestia co-ruler of Equestria."

"It is nice to m-meet you too P-princess," I stammered a little while speaking, causing Fluttershy to look up at me through her mane, maybe because she does the same thing.

I almost asked how she knew my name, but then I remembered that Rainbow told her.

Celestia nodded, "My pupil here has told me much about you and your talent for magic."

"Oh, I would't say I'm talented-" I began before Twilight interrupted.

"Not talented? You mastered invisibility in the time it took me to show you the book and the two minutes it took me to grab a glass of water!"

"Yes," Celestia looked over at twilight for being rude, "My sister observed your little display with the flowers and practicing your other spells as well."

"Well…Um…" I couldn't handle all the ponies staring at me for some reason. I glanced at Fluttershy again, and she smiled at me and I felt a surge of confidence. "Yes I was practicing yesterday after accidentally waking up Vinyl with my sleep-moaning."

"Sleep-moanin'?" Inquired AppleJack, "I've heard of sleep-talkin', but not sleep-moanin'?"

"Well since my back got bruised pretty substantially yesterday, when I rolled over in my sleep, I must've started moaning from the pain and Vinyl heard and got worried." I responded.

"Oh yea, sorry about that." Pinkie said, rubbing her neck.

"No problem Pinkie pie, honestly."

Celestia cleared her throat, gaining our attention, "Now Joseph, what is this that Rainbow told us about you talking about Earth?"

I looked at Vinyl, who nodded, and sighed. Hope this goes over well.

"Well, yes I was a human, brought here by Vinyl roughly two days ago," I began. "I had met her at the movies after I left my house due to my parents fighting…" and I went on to tell them the whole story of meeting her, the cryptic message, being turned into my preferred pony, not losing their attention for a moment.

"I'm so sorry," Fluttershy, of all ponies, said.

"Ya your life sucks," chimed in Rainbow, earning looks from all the other elements, "What?"

"What she means is that it sounds like you've had quite the rough life darling," Rarity explained.

"Thank you, all of you. It means a lot." I told them.

It was quiet for about a minute until Rainbow spotted my case that I had moved to under the piano before they had got here. I had just felt that a trumpet fit better in a room with a piano.

"Hey you never told me what was in that case," Rainbow pointed out to me.

I smiled to myself, "Alright Rainbow, instead of telling you what it is, you're just going to have to listen for yourself." She bore a confused look on her face as I stood up and got out my trumpet. I could see excitement in Vinyl's eyes as she remembered me serenading her to sleep. Pinkie too seemed to know what my trumpet was, probably from the para-sprite incident, but still probably didn't quite remember the individual sound of a trumpet.

I thought of a song to play for them, and settled for Pachabel's Canon in D. I raised the horn to my lips and felt the same energy pulsing as before. This time I channeled it into my lips and lungs, allowing for better note-tone and clarity, as I started the first note. As some know, the canon starts slow, each note extended for maximum effect with vibrato. I then begin on the faster notes as the note values become shorter, leading to the main theme. I crescendo to it, adding a pause before playing the melody up an octave higher than normal, and it comes out incredibly clean as the harder melody came and I began sweating it as became quite difficult for me to play. I made it through though, and as I played the final few notes. I lowered my trumpet pleased. It then struck me that It was completely silent in the room. I looked around and they just stared back, even Vinyl who had heard me already, was jaw-dropped in amazement like the others.

"Uh…you liked it?" I asked trying to return them to the world.

Again, surprisingly enough, it was Fluttershy who spoke up first, "It was wonderful Joseph!"

"Yes it was truly magnificent," praised Rarity.

"Thank you," I said getting flushed.

As the others awoke, Celestia announced it was time to leave. We said our goodbyes, and the elements all left for their respective houses.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi all. In case your wondering about what the hell is going on in the last chapter, it's all music terminology, and isn't necessary for understanding the rest of the story, so don't worry about it. If you haven't heard the canon, look it up on youtube, there are a crap-ton of video's with it so it shouldn't be hard to find. Just search "Pachabel Canon in D." Until next chapter!

-Skiskinator

6. Inner Torment

Chapter 6: Inner Torment

Vinyl closed the door and looked at me with amazement.

"Always coming up with something new to impress huh? First magic, then cooking, and now trumpet playing? All accentuated by one extremely hot bod, if I may add," She commented with a smirk.

"Well I guess I have you to thank for that last part," I pondered.

"Hmm…I guess you're right," She smiled, "C'mon I've got a rave to go and set up for and I'm gonna need some help."

"So who's the lucky helper?" I teased.

"Oh, stop," She smiled, punching me in the arm.

Something happened. Starting from that spot I started tensing up completely. I started getting frightened as a cold spread over my shoulder, moving onto my head and hind legs. Soon, I stood in front of Vinyl, frozen. Then, heat came from within me, much like the day I got decked at lunch back on Earth. I guessed that as the other abilities I possessed before coming here were accentuated by ponification, so too were my downfalls such as my wicked temper in situations where physical violence is used. Although it was just a love-tap, not a hit thrown in menace, it didn't make sense as to why I started to become filled with fury as the heat grew from my inner self. I couldn't control it, save for breaking the spell cast over my body for long enough to tell Vinyl,

"Run."

She booked it to the door, and looked back once with worry as she opened the door, and quickly went outside, peering in through the window as I felt anger rise within me greater than before. The fire inside melted the icy cold and I was released, feeling full of energy and filled with bloodlust, ready to tear the next person I saw to pieces. Fortunately it was a new occurrence, and didn't last for more than a few seconds. Upon the energy's receding back to where it came from, I promptly passed out.

I opened my eyes to see that I was still in the piano room, somewhat relieved that I wasn't in the hospital. Not a fan of hospitals. I couldn't hear anything in the house, and wondered if Vinyl was still outside. I looked at the clock and it looked like I had only been out for about five minutes, so she wouldn't have been waiting long. I tried moving to get up, and found a film of something covering me. It was sticky and gross and didn't come off easily, however, upon detaching from my body, it disappeared. I shook some off that was attached to my foreleg, and it fell about six inches before dissipating into the atmosphere. I moved to get up again, this time successful, and went to the front door. On it was a hastily written note from Vinyl:

Joe,

Went to get Twilight to see if she knows anything about what I just saw. Will be back in ten minutes tops.

Love,
Vinyl

As I stood finishing the note, I saw Vinyl approaching from the window. She was blank faced, obviously lost in thought as I opened the door for her. She walked through the door without even noticing. I then closed the door behind her and she jumped and stared at me.

"Hey." I said, expecting the worst as for explanations.

"Hi." No emotion.

"Sorry for freaking out, I have no idea what it was."

"I see," She began, "Twilight seemed to know what was happening when I explained it to her, but she wouldn't tell me anything."

"Well that's life I guess."

"Hmm…" She gave me a look about to say something, but stopped. She seemed to be collecting her thoughts. "You said that…back on Earth…during the fight…" She slowly pieced together the question. "…You slowly filled with rage….what did that feel like?"

"Of course! I see where you're going with this. Yes, it felt much the same, although not with the freezing up part, just the fury."

"So is that why you told me to run when it started?"

"Yea, it took quite a bit of energy, but I wanted you out of there just in case I went berserk. Which I kind of did, but I didn't do any damage."

"Cool," I could see she was glad that no damage was made, "Now, how about we get this stuff over to Sugarcube corner, the party starts in about an hour and it takes me about half an hour to set up."

"All right let's get goin' then," I said happily.

"Hey how about you bring your trumpet and play some in the plaza for the other ponies that aren't into the whole 'club' scene?"

"Hmm, okay. What would you recommend?"

"Well based on your pony I can assume you have Jazz on Earth?"

"Of course!"

"Then why don't you play some of that?"

"Sounds like a plan."

"Sweet. Okay, NOW, let's get going."

As we headed off to go set up, I couldn't help but wonder what Twilight had realized about him. Do I have some sort of serious problem associated to my anger? Did I disrupt some balance being transferred from Earth? What about that gel? I kept drifting further and further from the present situation until Vinyl announced we were there. I set down the equipment I had levitated there and forced the questions away, for the moment. For the next fifteen minutes we set up her stuff inside Sugarcube Corner. Then, as Vinyl started going about her business, I helped Pinkie with the decorations like lights, streamers, and much to my dismay, the party cannon. I made sure however, to angle it upwards, just in case.

I grabbed my trumpet and headed outside to set myself up. I thought of my own songs to play and how I was to play them. I then thought of something. Magical accompaniment. I hadn't heard of it before, and wasn't sure if it was possible, or just wishful thinking. Nevertheless, I thought I'd try it anyway. Still not the magical type entirely, I had no idea what to do. To start, I thought of just a basic blues progression, then of the instruments that would be used in a jazz style combo: saxes, trombone, piano, drums and a bass. I focused through my horn all these thoughts. I felt smoke appearing around me, and gradually take form. As the instruments became more refined, they began tuning up to each other. They started very out of tune, but gradually they began solidifying, anchoring their tone perfectly with one another. I looked around me at the ghost instruments, losing my focus and they began to dissipate. Focusing back again they re-solidified and, remarkably, the trombone took off on a solo. Looking around again, pleased, I sent the instruments back to smoke, feeling ready for the nights performance.

Before the performance began, though, I saw Twilight galloping up to me with Applejack alongside her holding a lasso. I stood puzzled as they got closer and was even more confused when Applejack tied me up with her lasso. Upon doing so, they closed the rest of the distance between us.

"Umm, what's…up?" I asked, clearly confused as to why I was now hogtied on the ground.

"Don' take this the wrong way Joe, but I don' think ya should be out here."

"Why not?" Still confused.

Twilight spoke this time, "Because you are plagued by something that concerns me deeply."

I stare at her uncomprehensively.

"I'll explain more in private," she said after being stared at for a minute.

Vinyl came out to check on me, and didn't seem to comprehend what was going on any better than I was.

"What is going on here?"

"Don't worry Vinyl we got it under control."

She looks at me, I shrug.

"Are you sure Twilight?"

"Yup."

"Alright then."

I felt myself picked up by Twilight's cloud of purple magic, and being taken away.

At Twilight's house Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were waiting for the three of us.

"No Rarity or Pinkie?"

"Pinkie is busy with the party and Rarity, well, never mind about her. We have bigger problems." Twilight responded to my question.

"We meaning…" I questioned raising an eyebrow.

"You." Finished Rainbow.

"I thought as much." I replied matter-of-factly.

I was set, still tied up, on a table in the center of the room, looked upon by the four mares.

"As I was saying before Joseph, you are plagued by something that has been alien to ponykind for several decades now. It is what we called, 'The Torment.' The Torment was an ailment contracted by ponies who were weak and unsure of themselves, but I am under the impression that this is not the case for you, as when meeting you you were very open and sure."

"Actually, I was extremely nervous but was, that is to say, reassured and that boosted my confidence long enough to make a good impression. You are correct in that I am not weak, but I get incredibly nervous around new people ...er ...ponies."

"Anyway, the Torment exponentiates a ponies power by having them tap into otherwise locked sources inside our bodies like rage and bloodlust. I am under the impression that your's was contracted due to the transfer interference from your world to ours."

"Yes Vinyl and I came to that conclusion."

"Good. But to make sure that The Torment is really what ails you, we're going to have to test something." Twilight and the others began looking at each other nervously.

"And that is?" I asked, not pleased with all this drama.

"We are going to try to put you back into the state, and see if the symptoms resemble that of the Torment."

"So Rainbow here is going to slap me up or something to see if I get twisted again?"

"Yup!" Rainbow replied for Twilight, a little TOO happy to be involved.

"Okay," another shrug, I just wanted it over with at that point, but also a little anxious to see what'll happen.

"Excellent. Applejack, go secure the ropes to him so he can't go too far."

"On it."

"Wait," I spoke up, mildly concerned, "Why is Fluttershy here? If what you're saying is going to happen happens…" I didn't finish the statement.

"She's here to talk you out of the Torment once we've determined your symptoms." Twilight explained.

"Well, no offense to her but, is that such a great idea?"

"Don't worry about me Joe," Fluttershy came over to me, "I can handle myself."

"Alright." I did worry, strangely, but I decided to believe her.

Applejack tightened the ropes down on my upper and lower body, two each, and stood back against the wall. Without warning, Rainbow came up and slapped me across the face, hard. I was about to look over and tell Twilight it didn't work, when I started tensing up, starting from the point of impact. It was much the same, except starting from my right cheek instead of left shoulder. Once the tension had spread to my lower back, the cold came as I felt myself retreating inwards. The cold froze me as before and in seconds I was solid as a rock, unmovable and distant. Twilight was holding a clipboard and pen with her magic, and check something off on it.

"Now Rainbow." Twilight commanded.

Rainbow came up and tried to push me, but was greeted by a shock of cold energy as she was, not too gracefully, thrown against the wall, shivering with cold. Twilight made another checkmark.

It was then that the fire began. The heat came pulsing and I began to thaw again. I felt the fire inside and was full of energy, bloodlust coursing through my veins. Rainbow was still in front of me when I finally unfroze, and it hit me, that she had hit me. She met my stare, and my heart rate peaked. I growled, yes growled, and lunged at her, impeded by the ropes. I pushed against them trying to get at her. After seeing me lunge, Rainbow's face went literally white with fear as I strained against my harnesses. I saw out of the corner of my eye Twilight checking something off on her board, and Fluttershy hiding behind her. I was pushing every bit of new found energy into my legs to get after Rainbow, and she started edging towards the door, noticeably frightened by the concept of being mauled by a massive black stallion with his eyes set on her.

"Okay, now Fluttershy." I faintly heard Twilight say, still intently focused on breaking free.

Fluttershy whimpered in response. For some reason, I heard this over the voice of my own rage. She started speaking in a slow manner, obviously scared as well. Slowly, the fire inside me was extinguished, and I immediately fell to the floor exhausted once again.

7. The Jungle

Chapter 7: Welcome to the Jungle

I woke up as Twilight poked me a few times in the chest. I opened my eyes, once again covered in the unexplained gel, which I assumed would soon have an explanation. I opened my eyes and attempted to move. No luck, the gel was much thicker this time for some reason.

"I see you are awake." Twilight spoke.

"MMMPHF" I tried to speak but the gel hindered my speech.

"Oh, oops." She said, an embarrassed smile on her face. She grabbed a container next to her and scraped some of the gel into it, and quickly capped it as the gel started to dissipate. She then cleared away much of the gel around my face so I could speak and see better.

"Thanks."

"Is it safe?" Said Rainbow Dash from the doorway.

"Yup."

"Phew, I didn't know it was going to be like THAT!"

"Neither did I," I commented, "Where's Fluttershy?"

"She just left," Replied Twilight, " She was by your side as you dropped to the ground and made sure you didn't hurt yourself when you fell. It's strange, normally she doesn't go out of her way like this for somepony she's just met."

"Hmm…Really," I had a little bit of a crush on Fluttershy, but that had to wait for the moment, "So…did you find out what you needed to find out?"

"Well," She paused," yes I did. Unfortunately though, the last answer I need will be determined by a test that will take about an hour to complete. I think it best for you to stay here while I complete it."

"What am I going to do for an hour? I'm supposed to be playing at the party right now."

"Oh, speaking of, I have…um…somewhere to be tonight…" Rainbow said to us, feigning innocence.

"Alright Rainbow, go to Pinkie's party, you too Applejack." Twilight addressed the two of them.

"Aw shucks, thank ya' kindly Twi'!"

"Race you there!" Rainbow challenged Applejack.

They ran out, smiling, headed towards Sugarcube Corner. Twilight looked at me then walked up to her room with the gel. I finally stood up as the rest of the gel still on me dissipated. I looked around at all the books in this library of hers. Since I had an hour to wait, I decided to find a book on flying. I searched for "How-to" books, but found none, so I looked under the F's for it. There was where I found the book, "Cloudsdale Beginner's Book of Flying." I picked it up and brought it over to a table and started reading. Every ten minutes or so, I would get up and stretch my wings to get a feel for flying and such. As I read on I tried doing the things in the book during breaks, eventually moving to the outdoor balcony to try out getting off the ground without blowing books and papers everywhere. At the end of about 50 minutes, during one of my breaks I had gone inside to get a drink and was doing a wing stretch. It was at the moment my wings reached full span that Twilight walked in with her clipboard. She looked up to say something, but was stunned by my appearance, and dropped the board. The clatter of it hitting the ground caught my attention and I turned to her while still holding the water with my magic. I can only imagine what it looked like to her, horn glowing turquoise to match my mane with wings outspread to full span. I closed my wings and looked at her, eyebrow raised. She then matched my stare, and turned away, blushing.

"Sorry…Ahem, the test is complete,"

"And?"

"And I have determined that the gel is indeed composed of pure energy."

"…" I stared at her, taking another sip of water.

"That means that you are indeed suffering from the Torment."

"So what can I do about it?"

"Well the only known cure is a flower that only grows naturally in the Everfree Forest."

"So it should be pretty straight-forward? Go in, grab the flower, get out?"

"Unfortunately no. First off, due to the experience of a few 'rebel' Fillies, the Forrest has been gated off with wrought iron fences, almost nopony gets in anymore. Second, the flower exists only in the very inner sanctum of the forest, which is nearly impossible for somepony who doesn't already know the area, and third…well, I don't think Fluttershy will be very keen on the idea of going into the Everfree Forrest anytime soon."

"Wait, what does Fluttershy have to do with this?"

"Well, as I said. Fluttershy is the one who admits ponies into the Everfree Forest. Nopony has gotten in recently because Fluttershy doesn't let foals through, and older ponies don't venture beyond the Ponyville limits, save for Zecora of course. And as for getting to the inner sanctum…well…Fluttershy is the only one who has ever ventured there, remarkably, and that was only because Owlicious had injured her wing doing an errand for her. She mapped it all the way there, for future reference and I guess we-You- are lucky that she did. So I guess you're going to have to convince HER to go to the Everfree Forest, not just yourself."

"Now this may sound stupid but, can't we just fly over head and grab the flower?"

"I understand your thinking, but there is a debilitating fog that stays above the forest permanently, and it is impossible to use any abilities, flying or magic."

"Okay sorry I just…yea."

"Alright good, now head over to Fluttershy's, it's on the outside of the forest, hence why she's the gate-keeper."

"Cool I'll see you later…hopefully."

I put back on my hat and sunglasses and walked out of the house and, for the first time ever, I took to the skies, and headed towards the Everfree Forest entrance. It was amazing, flying that is. Feeling weightlessness like that was amazing. Because I was a novice, however, I didn't go quite so fast, but still the feeling of the wind through my mane was simply incredible. Now I knew why Rainbow Dash loved it so much, and I could only imagine what a sonic-rainboom would feel like. Still, soaring high above the clouds was just so amazing, especially the view from up this high was phenomenal! I could see that I was approaching the forest, and began my descent.

I touched down with a thud, as I almost fell over, thinking I was lucky I had practiced some. I closed up my wings and knocked on Fluttershy's door. I heard an "eep!" from within, then the door opened to a cowering yellow pegasus, I keep forgetting how big my pony form was. I gave her a smile.

"Oh, hey Joe," She greeted while noticeably relaxing, "please come in."

"Thank you," I replied stepping over the threshold.

"What brings you around here? Did you get what you needed from Twilight?"

"Well, sort of. I am indeed suffering from the Torment, but she didn't have the cure."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"What? It's not your fault," I said chuckling.

"Force of habit, Sorry, oops, sorry, i mean…" She stopped, blushing.

I was still laughing a little to myself, "Don't worry Fluttershy, there is nothing here for you to apologize for. I only came here to ask you for your help."

"Really? How could I help, I only deal with small animals, not full grown ponies like you."

"Actually, I know where the cure is- Twilight told me- but she said that you were the only one who would be able to lead me to it."

"Wait, you couldn't mean…" She started getting anxious.

"Yes, the cure for the Torment is inside the inner sanctum of the Everfree Forest.

Fluttershy's face blanked of all emotion suddenly, "Oh," she said flatly, and promptly passed out. I caught her before she hit the floor and carried her over to the couch and set her down. After setting her down, I took a seat on the chair next to her couch. Finally I had a moment to myself to think through a few things.

So far, I've encountered the mane six, Luna, Celestia, and Vinyl. I knew Vinyl liked me, but wasn't sure on what level. Since she was the one who brought me here, I would make the guess that it's more than just friends. And of course she felt close enough to confide all her innermost thoughts and feelings, and I with her. Then, what I could assume from reactions, that several others may or may not like me. All that I could be sure of is that I saw Luna, Twilight, and Fluttershy blushing during conversations. I was a clueless romantic, not knowing how to flirt or read body language or anything like that, but maybe since I liked these ponies I subconsciously was doing so.

In the midst of these thoughts, I once again was interrupted as Fluttershy began to stir. She looked as though coming from a pleasant dream, then realizing what had happened she saw she was on the couch, and looked over to me and blushed.

"Sorry about that, I must've fainted." Fluttershy apologized.

"Stop apologizing Fluttershy, you didn't do anything wrong." I reminded her.

"Right. So what were you saying before?"

"Just that I needed you to bring me to the inner sanctum of the Everfree Forest for the cure to that which ails me."

"Oh…right…" She looked about to faint again.

"If you don't want to I can just take the map Twilight told me about." I offered.

"No, that's okay," judging by her face that was a flat out lie, "I'm sure I can handle myself. Plus, I'm sure an alicorn stallion like yourself would be able to protect me."

"Of course Fluttershy. Just be sure you're okay with this."

"I am."

"Oh, wait! Can I send a letter to Vinyl? She's probably wondering why I never came back to the party after I went to Twilight's."

"Yea sure."

I jotted a quick note to Vinyl telling her what I was about to do and that I explain further once I returned. One of Fluttershy's birds carried the message off and we walked toward the gate.

Fluttershy was quivering somewhat violently as we got to the door. She looked back at me, a little frightened, and bowed her head at the gate. A lightning bolt of pink energy shot up from the ground in-between the two ornate gates, and they slowly opened and fog came from between them. I simply stood and watched with a grimace as the menace of the forest made itself apparent to me for the first time. The trees were darker here, with much more twisted branches than trees in Ponyville, or even on Earth. the grass darkened as well, going from a clean, excellently manicured emerald green, to teal shaggy and overgrown.

I nodded to Fluttershy and we started through the gate. It was colder past the gate, and the gate closed with a loud clang to which Fluttershy responded with an "Eep". She jumped and fled to beneath my right wing. I felt her warmth next to me as she quivered in fear. I looked down and smiled at her, and she nervously smiled back and shrugged.

"Hey Fluttershy."

"Yeah?"

"How about you hop on my back and navigate?"

"That'd be nice," She giggled nervously.

I was bigger than she was, not by much, but I was able to handle her on my back. She flew up onto my back, laid down, getting comfortable, and put her forelegs around my neck.

"Thanks."

"It's no trouble at all Fluttershy."

She then guided me to a tree with a hole in it. In the hole was a bag full of assorted items, including the map, matches, a harvesting satchel, and other things as well. After, we headed off on on an overgrown path winding deeper into the forest.

"We can follow this path to the third outer ring of the inner sanctum."

"Then what?"

"Then we have to pass the challenges."

"What are the challenges?"

"Well, just in case anypony were to get in, I set up a failsafe system of three challenges to discourage them from entering the inner sanctum."

"Why?"

"Because the Inner Sanctum is an oasis that has been untouched by nopony since possibly the beginning of Equestria! I just stumbled upon it because Owlicious hurt her wing."

"So was this after the gates went up?" We were making good time down the path, which I noticed was beginning to shrink.

"It was actually about the same time. The Cutie Mark Crusaders decided to try getting an 'Exploration' cutie mark, but got lost for about two days before Applejack had to go in and get them. Turns out they had been treed by a pack of adolescent timber wolves. After they returned I was at first relieved that they were safe, but then I thought of the Oasis. I brought it up with Celestia and she agreed that the forest should be closed off, and that I could protect the Inner Sanctum by whatever means necessary."

"So you can bypass the challenges?"

"Yes…well…kind of."

"What?" I asked stopping suddenly, looking at her.

"Well I made the challenges to keep the sanctum safe, so I made it so that only I could bypass my way in."

"So I AM going to have to complete them."

"Yes," She saw the grimace appear on my face and nuzzled her nose in my neck, "Sorry Joe, I'm sure it'll be a walk in the park for you."

I looked at her, seeming so valiant in her effort to save the sanctum, and I was resolved, "Okay Fluttershy, let's get to the first challenge then."

"Great, it should be about five miles away at this point."

"Hmm…in that case we should probably make camp, its getting dark and you know better than I about the Everfree Forest at night."

"That is true, good thing we grabbed the bag," She said, pulling a bundle out of the satchel we had obtained from the knothole in the tree back near the gate. In a few seconds she had ripped the bundle open with her teeth and a full sized tent popped out of the minuscule package, complete with a queen bed on the inside. "Oops, I forgot I only packed for one pony when I made that bag."

"I'm sure we can both fit on it, if that's okay with you."

She blushed again at the offer, "Yea that's fine with me."

"Great."

I trotted over and transferred her from my back to the bed and, after zipping up the tent, got in myself. After settling in, extremely tired, Fluttershy shifted cozying up to me, and we drifted off to sleep, her in my arms.
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Draw conclusions at your own risk everypony!

(BTW, the title is a Guns 'n' Roses reference, Just in case being called a Jungle threw you off)

-skiskinator

8. The Outer ring

Chapter 8: The Challenges-The Outer Ring

I awoke the following morning being aroused by Fluttershy, looking extremely scared. She whimpered slightly and I bolted upright, scaring her into the corner of the tent by accident. She saw me get up and relaxed.

"What's wrong Fluttershy?"

"Oh, sorry, I didn't want you to get angry at me for waking you up," She said frowning, starting to hide her face behind her mane.

I blew out a sigh of relief, "Oh thank God, I thought something was wrong."

"I'm…sorry…" She squeaked out

"No no I overreacted, it's not your fault. In any case, we…I…need to get going on the challenges."

"Right. So, like I said before, there are three rings before the Inner Sanctum, each containing a different challenge."

"The first being?"

"The first being the challenge of perseverance. Since this challenge is supposed to deter ponies from entering the Inner Sanctum, it is the longest, but the least difficult of the three. It is a multi-staged obstacle course that is about a mile long."

"We're that far away?" I said getting discouraged slightly, thinking it must be three to four miles to the Sanctum.

"Oh no, remember it's a ring so the course winds all the way around in a circle. Actually we're about three quarters of a mile out."

"Oh thank God."

With that, we repacked our site and swept for any garbage, then Fluttershy hopped up and we headed to the first ring entrance. The path abruptly veered left ahead and Fluttershy led me away from the path before it did so. She fished out the deforestation blade out of her bag and nudged me with it, motioning for me to take it. I grabbed it with my magic, and forged ahead, using it very sparingly, not wishing to cause permanent damage to the ecosystem surrounding. On we headed in the opposite direction of the path, as it grew smaller and smaller behind us. About an hour later, I had just cut some vines barring my path, and encountered a family of what looked like grizzly bears, cubs and all. Fluttershy hopped down and started fishing around in her bag again. The father bear took notice of us cocking his head to the side. I looked frantically to Fluttershy and saw that she found what she wanted and stuck her head in the bag to pull it out. The other bears started looking at us following the father's stare. I looked again and Fluttershy had seemed to have pulled out a massive bin of feed out of the minuscule bag. The bears took notice too and walked over to the tub and started eating. Fluttershy hopped back up and motioned for me to go around them.

Eventually we reached another iron gate, this one was painted jet black and was overgrown with vines, making look much more intimidating than the Forest's entry gate. This time instead of Fluttershy having to open it, she directed me to a winch with a handle on it, but stopped me before I started pulling.

"That winch is part of the first challenge, once you activate it, then the challenge starts." She warned.

"So you're going to go meet me in the second ring?" I asked somewhat jokingly.

"Yep, I'll see you there."

"Mind holding onto my hat and sunglasses?"

"Sure," I handed them to her and she put them on, looking even more cute than usual, "Good luck."

"Thanks."

She bowed again and a pink lighting bolt like from before ascended from the ground and pulled her down and then she was gone. I looked to the winch again and reached for the handle and started cranking. The gate was incredibly well oiled, not making a sound as I cranked it open. I let go after opening it sufficiently for me to walk through, but it started closing back up. I quickly grabbed the handle again before it closed all the way again. 'It really is part of the challenge,' I thought to myself, thinking that this was probably the easiest that it's going to get. I winched open the doors to full expanse and dashed through before it closed.

I looked around once I was inside and saw that this ring was pretty much cleared of trees, as I could see the second ring fence about a quarter mile away. To the left of the entrance was another fence, but it was not see-through so I assumed it was the exit. Then to my right, I could see cement walls in the distance, but no obstacles. Slightly curious, I took a few steps towards the first wall, but my hoof got stuck and I flung forward landing in a pit of mud. I silently thanked myself for thinking to give my hat to Fluttershy before-hand…hoof…before-hoof. I tried to get up, being met with a lot of resistance, but I eventually unstuck my body after hearing a huge sucking sound. Once I was up, I looked and saw that this pit went all the way to the cement wall about 100 yards away, normally an easily achieved distance, but not through this rubber-cement-like mud. Each step was rewarded by a sucking sound followed by sinking back as I replaced the foot in front of me.

It took me about 5 minutes to make it 75 yards, then my energy started depleting, reaching the end of the base carbohydrates, meaning I hit "the wall". I knew, however, that if I pressed through it, I would be able to tap into my fat-energy. I pushed through the last 25 meters and saw a doorway through the cement wall appear. I opened it up and stepped through, jaw dropping as I saw the next part of the course. I saw several 3-foot square platforms raised on pillars about 10 feet in the air, ranging in distance from about one foot apart to seven feet apart. Below the pillars was a net hung from the second ring fence to the outer fence. It struck me that these obstacles ARE in fact achievable, and there is really no penalty for failing, it just takes that much longer. This part was a prime example of this, how if I fell, I would simply roll back to where I am now, instead of possibly hurting myself on the fall.

I look to the first pillar and see a passageway angling up to the first platform, covered entirely by a wooden tunnel that was, like everything else here, overgrown with vegetation such as ivy. I started to head towards it, and candles mysteriously lit inside of it, lighting the way sufficiently. I was wary, but entered anyway. Walking up the tunnel, it started curving back the other way, back towards the platform most likely. As I followed, I felt my hoof depress slightly into the planking. Thinking I had accidentally punched through I recoiled back slightly as a vine wrapped itself around my midsection, rendering my wings useless. I exited the tunnel shortly after and examined the handiwork. It was a simple clove hitch, one end of the vine wrapping over the other creating the grip. I then looked around from the platform. There in front of me was the next platform about six inches away. I looked down from the platform, against my better judgment, and saw that it wasn't as high up as I thought it was. I decided to test the net here so I wouldn't have to "test" it later.

I worked myself up, and I leapt onto the net. I felt myself falling, and abruptly stopped as I was caught by the net, which flexed and tossed me back into the air. Pleased, I walked back up the tunnel to the platform, not getting a vine this time through. I stepped forward onto the second platform, and stepped over the foot to the next one, and took a long stride over the two foot gap, which was where I had to stop. There were about 10 more platforms, two for each distance it seemed. I readied myself for the first three foot gap, and hopped across. I make it without issue, but stumble a little forward, catching myself before falling off the platform. I did the same for the second three foot gap. I reared up some for the four foot gap, and jumped for the platform. I tripped over my back foot and fell all the way down to the net and was rolled back to the start of the obstacle. Climbing up, I went back and to the same spot as before. Preparing myself once more for the four foot gap, I leapt across it, but retained too much momentum, so I simply jumped again across the second four foot gap and was able to stop. The five foot gap stretched ahead of me. Luckily, it seemed as though the platforms were getting longer, whereas it was 3 foot square before, it looked now to be roughly 5 foot long now. They were still the same width, but that shouldn't' be a problem. I backed up as far as my platform would allow, and ran forward and jumped as far as I could. It was far enough and I cleared the landing onto the five foot platform. I did the same for the current platform as on the the previous, backing up all the way and running forward and jumping to the next platform. I could see the next concrete partition from where I was standing. The final gap, six feet in length, waited in front of me, challenging me.

I reared back again, nervous for the longest gap. I ran forward, completing the 5 feet of the platform quickly, and I leapt for the final platform. I felt myself soaring through the air and I closed my eyes out of fear. It felt like an abnormally long amount of time, and I felt as though I missed the platform. I opened my eyes fast to see where I was. I stumbled frantically as I clipped the front edge of the platform with my back hooves. I crouched, regaining my balance by lowering my center of gravity. I stood up straight again and looked to the wall. It was about twenty feet ahead of me at the moment, and I started upon the wooded pathway that lead from the platform I landed on. Two things happened as I walked on the path: First, the vine holding my wings fell of and tuned to dust, second, a door appeared in the cement wall allowing me passage through.

There were many other obstacles over the course of…the course, but one in particular made a lasting impression on me: The scales of vital et mortem. The scales were massive, roughly the size of the town hall on either side of the center post. The center post was a slightly tarnished gold, with silver plates for scales. One tarnished silver plate had the word "Vital" Inscribed on it in black, while the other silver plate had inscribed "Mortem on it."

The first thing I saw entering the room was a sign. The sign read:

"All living things are equal, but also depend on one another, as is proved by these scales, the scales of vital et mortem.

To pass, you must use the wildlife around you to equate the scale to your own weight."

Though I wasn't sure how anything really made sense in that obstacle, the name was simply awesome. I forgot about the name, however, after having to haul almost 200 pounds of hay and vines and other things to match my weight.

The other obstacles, other than the scales, followed suit of the first two, possible to do, and only mild penalties for failure. They were relatively easy, and after about an hour, I made it full circle and saw a rather bluesy looking Fluttershy.

"Maybe we should get Rarity to make you some accessories too, you look good."

"Oh…thank you," She said with a blush, "So I see you made it through okay, more or less."

I didn't know what she meant by "more or less" immediately, but then I looked down at my coat of fur and saw it covered in mud, brambles, twigs, and other things accumulated throughout the past challenge. I started laughing.

"Yea, I guess I did." I replied still laughing.

"Here's your reward," She said turning red as she leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. I too immediately blushed as she did this. I began to question my feelings again. I felt tingling inside when she kissed me that I hadn't felt before, even when sharing a kiss with Vinyl. I realized just how much my feelings for Fluttershy have grown since meeting her. The problem was that Vinyl was the one who brought me here, and had she not, I wouldn't have even MET Fluttershy.

We stood there for a few moments until came back from my thoughts.

"So…What's the next challenge?
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Hey all, this and the next two chapters were supposed to be one chapter being titled, "The Challenges" but it was getting to be a little long, I felt, so I split it up into the different rings. I am going to be out for the next week so I won't be uploading till the eighth or ninth. Thanks for all the support.

P.S. The if you were wondering about the name for the scales, it's latin for life and death. See if you can find the deeper meaning in the scales. Message me if you think you have it.

-Skiskinator

10. The Inner Sanctum

Chapter 10: The Inner Sanctum

"Are you ready for this Joe?" Fluttershy asked me smiling, looking very excited.

"Ohhhh Yeahhhh." I said with a grin, reclaiming my hat and sunglasses from her.

She giggled a bit, "Alright, here we go."

Fluttershy turned the handle on the vault style door leading to the Inner Sanctum. What I saw was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. There was a set of glistening ponds in rocky outcroppings, each feeding each other by a small waterfall between each. Each one was about a foot below the previous one and the last pond had a stream heading out of the Sanctum on the far side. Surrounding the whole area was zap-apple trees intercut with red delicious apple trees. The grass was a lush emerald green, and seemed to be perfectly trimmed. Upon further inspection it turned out that the grass wasn't cut, it just didn't grow past the desired length. In front of the apple trees were rows of colored roses. There were seven rows in total, purple on the far outside, and going through the colors of the rainbow, eventually ending with pure white roses on the inside ring. At the exact center of the Sanctum was an eight foot wide circular patch of flowers surrounded by stone. The flowers were, again, arranged in rows but spaced further apart this time- roughly six inches between each row- and only one flower wide versus four wide on the outer rings. The very center flower was white and had six petals. To my amazement, the veins in each petal changed colors every few seconds. Each petal had a different color in the veins at any given moment, in accordance to the colors of the rainbow. Then surrounding the central flower was the same arrangement as the outer flowers, except the flowers were all different here, and started with purple on the inside, and white on the outside.

It then occurred to me that I had no idea what I was looking for, other than that it was a flower. I thought back to Twilight's house, and thought hard to see if she had shown me the flower. Anything to hint what it could be, I was at a loss. I finally swallowed my pride and went to Fluttershy to admit to my mistake.

"Hey Fluttershy?"

"Yes Joe?" She was so happy to be here, I wonder how she would react to this.

"Um...well...I now realize that I have no idea what kind of flower we're supposed to be looking for here."

Fluttershy looked at me, then looked off, thinking. She then came back to the present and face-hoofed.

"Of Course!" She exclaimed, catching me by surprise.

"What?" I ask.

She didn't seem to hear me as she rushed to the bag she brought with her all this way. She stuck her head in and pulled out a book with a single leaf painted on the front.

"This!" She exclaimed.

"A Book!...I'm afraid I don't understand."

"This is the book I had compiled-am compiling-about everything in the sanctum."

"This place is amazing, but there isn't much to compile is there?" I was kind of thrown by how big of a job Fluttershy was making it sound.

"Oh no, you don't understand. This," She motioned with her hooves, "This is only the beginning. I looked back here a few weeks ago, and found that you can go past the tree line and there's even more to the Sanctum than you could ever imagine! Like to the left over there there's a massive canyon system! And over there there is a gushing river full of white foam rapids going every which way! That's why its so cool to be here."

"Jeez if I knew this was here I would come here every day! But it sounds like you don't."

"Oh...The Everfree Forest is too scary for me."

"Well I think this is amazing! The hike, the challenges, it was so worth it to get here. Just this area with the ponds, the apple trees, the flowers. I can see why you felt it needed protecting, hell I'd guard this place with my life and come see it every day!"

I felt a tingling start to grow inside me during my little speech, and now it was all over my body. The tingles began to "move", per say, down my body, focusing in on my flank. From there, my flank began to glow and a picture created itself on my flank. Fluttershy squealed with joy when she saw it and clapped her hooves, and I just stood flabbergasted, staring at my new cutie mark!

I was simply astounded, my cutie mark was not like I had expected at all. I was expecting a music inspired one like Vinyl's but it wasn't even close. My cutie mark was three trees, the middle one at the fore front. In front of the trees was a grey gate with an "E" on one side and an "F" on the other. I then made the assumption that the letters stood for the Everfree Forest, but couldn't understand why the gate was necessary.

Fluttershy had gotten over her joy and had come over to see my mark and froze. She stood staring at my flank, motionless.

"The Guardian..." She breathed.

"What?" I asked nervously.

She snapped out of it, "What, Oh...Sorry, I...Well," Fluttershy closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, collecting her thoughts. "After entering the Sanctum for the second time, a lone parasprite appeared. At first I was incredibly worried, especially after what happened last time, but something struck me as odd: The parasprite was colored rainbow like the zap apples. I had stared at it for a moment, and then it spoke to me, saying that I was to be the temporary guardian of the Everfree Forest until 'He' came along. The sprite somehow showed me an image of what your cutie mark looks like, and told me that this was the mark of the real Guardian."

I stood there, digesting all this new information.

"Don't you know what this means, Joe? This means you're the Guardian of the Everfree Forest!" The wind suddenly picked up as Fluttershy said "The Guardian" and I was floated into the air. I had no Idea what was going on, and it appeared that Fluttershy didn't either, seeing as she ran and hid behind a tree when the wind started.

I was lifted about three feet in the air. THe wind was blowing leaves all around me. Soon a rainbow blur joined the wind currents and a cloud of rainbow sparkles appeared before me. I gasped at the sudden appearance of the cloud, sensing its true power.

"What, is your name," A booming voice asked me.

Normally I would have been petrified by this display, but for some reason, I felt empowered.

"Mirror Shadow!" I called back confidently.

"Mirror Shadow," It called back, "Do you accept your place as the Guardian of the Everfree Forest?"

"I Do."

The rainbow cloud pulsed with each word, "Do you swear to keep safe both the Everfree Forest from ponies, and ponies from the Everfree Forest?"

"I Do."

"And do you swear to keep safe the purity of the Inner Sanctum, by any means necessary?"

"I Do," I was still feeling powerful, responding confidently to each question.

"Then go forth Mirror Shadow, Guardian of the Everfree Forest!"

The cloud disappeared into the white flower in the grove, and the wind abruptly stopped and I fell to the ground. When I hit the ground there was a boom of thunder and a single bolt of lightning shot across the sky. Then everything was more or less normal again.

Fluttershy crept out from behind the tree she had fled to, cautiously, then I looked at her and she eeped and shot back behind the tree. I laughed a bit, then went behind the tree and found her huddled on the ground, shivering. She then looked up after seeing my hooves, smiled, a little embarrassed, as her face blushed a deep red. I laughed again as she stood up. THen she came up and hugged me.

"Oh I'm so happy Joe! This is such an honor!"

"I know, this is amazing!" A thought occurred, "Oh Fluttershy."

"Yes?"

"We still haven't gotten the flower."

"Oh that's right! I was just looking before, well I guess you were there."

She went over to the book again and flipped through until she found what she wanted and brought it back for me to see.

"If' diff un" She said, mouth occupied by the book.

Her writing was a clear cursive with big loops. It was quite impressive, seeing as she had to do it with her mouth, but I had more important matters to attend to. I looked at the picture. The flower was a yellow colored, orchid-looking flower that I had seen in the center circle.

"Got it."

I walked over to the circle of flowers and found that on the opposite side was a path leading to a pedestal in front of the center flower. I used the path to safely reach the ring of yellow flowers. I was about to pluck the flower from the ground when I remembered my new responsibilities to the Forest. I examined the flower and found a seed pouch and buried it in the ground where the flower had been.

"Okay, I have it," I said to Fluttershy, who put it in another bag, which she gave to me.

"Cool, let's head back."

"Wait you don't want to explore some more?"

"Well it's almost dinner time and I don't have any food packed."

"What about apples?" I said, indicating with my hooves the apple trees surrounding us."

"True, but I have to get back to the animals back home."

"Oh, yeah sorry I forgot. Here, hop on."

Fluttershy Jumped up onto my back and we started towards the vault door again.

"Isn't there a quicker way out?"

"Just trust me on this one."

"Okay Shy."

I turned the bit on the door and opened it up and lo and behold I was right next to where I entered the outer ring. I could see the sky turning orange to indicate it was getting late so I started out at trotting pace, and started going a bit faster, but didn't quite reach galloping. This time managing the foliage was a non-issue. Whereas before I had to move, and at times cut, the plants and vines, now they simply shifted slightly, and a path opened before me.

On our way back I heard a thumping noise. I slowed to a halt, and listened again, and heard the noise repeated. I changed course to where I heard the noise and found the opening we passed before with the family of bears. This time, however, there was simply the tub, overturned in the middle of the clearing. I then saw the tub move slightly and a muffled cry of, "Help."

I quickly closed the short distance between me and the tub and picked it up. Underneath was the cub from before. It looked at me and repeated the word, "help". I was at first amazed at how I could understand the bear, but then I remembered the cubs's predicament.

"Which way did your family go?" Fluttershy asked the cub.

"I don't know, probably back home. All I know is that I was playing in this box you gave us and I got stuck inside."

"What can we do to help?" I asked Fluttershy.

"Could you just walk me home?" THe cub answered for her.

"Of course, lead the way." I replied. Fluttershy looked at me strange and jumped down and walked alongside me and the cub.

"You could understand what the cub was saying?"

"Yeah I know weird right? For some reason I could understand him this time around."

"You mean the first time you came you couldn't understand us?" THe cub asked.

"No I couldn't. Hey by the way, what is your name?"

"I'm Paws."

"Nice meeting you Paws, now how much further from here do you live?"

"Actually our den is hollowed out under that tree right there."

I looked ahead to the tree and found it was a massive redwood looking tree, and was about 12 feet in diameter, and towered over the other trees surrounding it.

"Come inside, I wasn't you to meet my parents, for real this time!"

"Thank you that's very kind, but we can only stay a few minutes. We have commitments back in Ponyville," I told hime.

"Sure."

We walked down and found a hollow roughly the same diameter as the tree above, but the walls were made of roots from the tree, and the massive central root, about a foot in diameter, stretched from floor to ceiling in the middle of the room. On the other side of the den was the mother and father, the mother in tears. I called out to them,

"I believe someone here would like to say hello."

THe immediate reaction was the father to whip around, startled by the outburst, and started growling. Paws stepped forward and called, "PAPA!" and all traces of anger vanished from the father's face and both he and the mama bear ran forward and nuzzled paws.

"Oh Paws, I'm so glad you're okay," said the mother.

"What happened, we thought you were hurt," the father said.

"No, I just got stuck under the food tub, and these two came and helped me out and made sure I got home okay." Paws revealed.

The father stared at his son a moment, then shifted his gaze to Fluttershy and I.

"You gave us that tub of food didn't you." He asked us.

"Yes, we did," replied Fluttershy.

"I guess I owe you a thank you for that," he said, "And for bringing my boy back home again."

"Actually, sir, it is my friend here that you should be thanking for that. He's the one who notice your son in the first place."

"Hmm...Is this true?"

"Yes sir. I heard Paws here cry for help and I got him out from under the bin," I said to him.

"Then I guess I owe you a debt of gratitude. My name is Bearclaws by the way."

"Mine's Mirror Shadow, and please, you don't owe me anything. I was recently appointed to the role of the Guardian of the Everfree Forest so it is my duty."

"Oh I apologize for my lack of manners sir," Bearclaws said.

"No worries, I don't expect any special treatment. now what do you do around here Bearclaws?"

"I'm the head of the order of animals out here."

"Head of animals?"

"Yes, in case of disputes between species I either moderate or referee, depending on the species."

"So is that the hierarchy out here?"

"Yes, well sort of. We are just the normal animals, the birds, mammals, cold-bloods, and nocturnal animals. But aside from us there is only the mystics, but they mostly keep to there respective territories."

I knew I had to go soon, but this intrigued me.

"What are the mystics?"

"Oh the mystics are the creatures unique to the further regions of the forest."

"Like what?"

"Like the manticore and the timber wolves. All the mystics have their various methods of herding."

"So do you ever meet or have an overall leader? The mystics and non-mystics that is."

He gave me a queer look, "Why, you are the moderator of the groups now. Didn't you know?"

"Sorry, no I just learned about an hour ago."

"No, I apologize. Next time you're around just find me and I can fill you in on your duties here, I'd be happy to help."

"Thank you very much Bearclaws. Have a nice evening, and Paws?"

"Yes," replied the expectant cub.

"Stay safe bud."

"Okay, see you around."

"Bye all, come on Fluttershy." She had layer down near the wall and I roused her so we could head out. She seemed exhausted from the day, and could barely stand. Once we were outside I lifted her up onto my back with my magic and started walking.

"Thanks Joe." Fluttershy said, got cosy, and fell asleep on my back
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That's the First of the handwritten chapters, probably about two more to come, based on where transitions come. Like I said before, I started getting writer's block recently and am at a crossroads as to where to take the story next, so I am starting on, hopefully, a much shorter fanfic showcasing Twilight's 5 day journey to De-trot, seeing as I live near Detroit I thought it would be a nice homage to the city. I am accepting OC's for the new story, as I need people to inhabit De-trot, just PM me and I'll ask you about it. I am accepting maybe 10 to 15, but I don't want too many more than that.

Felix lectio

-Skiskinator

11. Last of Torment

Chapter 11: The Last of the Torment

By the time I could see the gate in the distance, It had grown dark and Fluttershy had been sleeping for about 30 minutes. The gate disappears behind the tree line once more and I hear Fluttershy start sleep-talking some.

"...mmmmmmm...oh right there..." She tensed up a second then relaxed and trapped her hooves over the side of my back, shifting around and said "...I like you Joe...zzz...Like-like..." She giggles a bit "Really?...zzz..." then she stopped.

I had simply kept walking, but processed this new turn nonetheless. I had had an inkling that she liked-liked-loved-me by how she felt safe hiding under my wing, and how she kissed my cheek after completing the 1st ring of the three. I realize now, as well, that keeping her safe is a big priority of mine, that I was comforted back when I was first meeting the mane six. I find that I really did like the sensation of her kissing me. And above al I realized that, I would be devastated if I lost her.

Finally reaching the gate, I decided to try my hoof at the task of opening the door. I stood before it, and willed it open. My horn sparked a few times, but nothing happened. Unfortunately, the light show of rogue magic sparks woke up Fluttershy. I felt her stir, lift her head and look around. Then she saw the gate and hopped down.

"Sorry, I must've dozed off."

"It's no problem, I just need to know how to open the gate," I inquired sheepishly.

"Hmm? Oh that's easy, just channel your energy through your cutie mark, not your horn."

"Ohhh..." It made sense. Fluttershy wasn't a unicorn and she could open it.

I went back and tried again. This time my wings got a jolt of energy and I shocked myself. Fluttershy comes up and bows her head and the gate opens with a flash of pink energy. I smiled Sheepishly and we headed back out to Fluttershy's house.

"I'll see you in and then head over to Vinyl's and rest the night. We can make the cure tomorrow."

"Okay," Fluttershy yawned, the yawn seemed almost scripted, faked. "You know you can stay with me," She said, the desire slightly detectable in her voice.

"Sorry, I haven't talked to Vinyl since Applejack and Twilight took me from the party and she'll be worried I'm sure."

"Oh," her face drooped, "Well...the offer still stands, just in case. Just have angel let you in and show you to the guest room."

"Okay thanks Fluttershy." I then kissed her cheek, making her jump back in surprise, then left the house.

Walking to Vinyl's I went over the day and found that following becoming the Guardian, I had newfound confidence, like having that power gave me a permanent boost of confidence. Like when I started talking to Bearclaw, I didn't stutter once while he was giving me the death stare, and even worked up the courage to kiss Fluttershy. Things were looking up.

It took about fifteen minutes to get to Vinyl's pad, and I found that some lights were still on. I opened the front door with my key and walked inside the door.

"Vinyl, you awake?" I called softly.

"Mirror?" Vinyl came from the kitchen area to see me and had an expression of shock on her face. Something was off though, she had called me by my pony name.

"Who's there Vinyl?" Called another voice, a male voice, from what sounded like the dining room.

"No one Jake!" She called back, "What are you doing here?" She seethed at me.

"Ummmm...haven't I been staying here for a week?"

She stared at me, "You didn't get the message did you?" I shook my head. "Well I-" She was cut off by a reddish-orange unicorn with a blue mane coming in the room. He had a long Beiber-bowl cut and his cutie mark was a pencil drawing a smily face. He was taller than Vinyl, as a stallion should be, but I had about six inches on him.

"And you are?" He asked in a supercilious tone.

"Mirror Shadow. You?" I replied, straight faced.

"My name is Jake Silver, nice to meet you." I could see Vinyl start to sweat.

"Enchanted," my voice belying the statement.

"Well now that the niceties are out of the way," His face changed to one of anger, "What are you doing in our house!"

"Well I just got back from a trip to the Everfree forest, and having trekked to the inner sanctum and back, beating the challenges, earning this guy here," I motioned to my cutie mark," AND becoming the Guardian of the Everfree Forest, I wrongfully expected that the home I had been staying at before the whole thing would allow me back, but agin, I guess I was wrong."

"Yes, yes you were," I could see Vinyl start to shake, hearing Jake say this and seeing my cutie mark and my new position, but not hearing that I had gotten the cure yet. "Now, get out before I get you out myself."

"Look, this was just a misunderstanding," I glanced at Vinyl, "Threats aren't necessary."

"Like I said, get out before I make you!"

I narrowed my eyes at him, "You wouldn't dare."

"Watch me."

He turned around and bucked me into the door, which was closed, and I once again began to freeze up, this time quicker and starting from my side where he bucked me. He began to approach where I lay on the ground, frozen, and opened the door to kick me out. He accomplished the first, but my inner fire prevented him from doing the latter. I quickly jumped as he bucked again, effectively dodging hi admittedly weak attack. I grabbed his hind legs, and hurled him onto the lawn.

"Sorry for the misunderstanding." I said to Vinyl, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Jake didn't know what he was up against as he charged at me and quickly met a left hook-hoof?- to the face and sprawled out on the lawn again. I used my wings to take to the skies, ad then shot down where he was laying. He quickly rolled out of the way as my forelegs stuck into the ground about 6 inches. I recovered and turned around and bucked jake as hard as I could. I felt the connection and sent him flying into one of the pillars in front of the house.

I felt the energy waning, so I cut the walk and teleported to Fluttershy's house and whispered to angel.

"Hey, Fluttershy told me to ask you to show me her guest room."

"Right this way," angel replied in a decidedly British accent.

"Thank you."

Angel showed me to the room then hopped away and left me to my own devices. I felt myself swaying with exhaustion and I fell forward onto the rug and blacked out.

I woke up in a hospital bed, attached to my arm was a UV tube and I heard the characteristic beep of an ECG machine in the background. I did a double-take back to my arm...my human arm. I stared at the palm of my hand, turned it over and examined my knuckles as well. It was my hand, I was human. I felt my head for my horn but found nothing but some hatted hair stuck to my forehead. I sat up and felt my back, no wings. I threw off the covers and found my body as it had been before being transported to Equestria.

I quickly looked around and saw my dad asleep in a chair off to the side of the room. I tried calling out to him, but my mouth didn't work. The bed began descending, I jumped off, the IV ripping out of my arm and the ECG pads coming off my chest. I grabbed the ledge of where my bed was descending, but my father came forward and had a devilish grin on his face. He then stepped forward onto my hand as I tried hauling myself forward and I dropped. I looked pleadingly, extending my hand up to him. He looks, grabs my hand and pulls me up, then throws me into what is now a dark abyss, I fell and fell until I blacked out.

My eyes shot open and I awoke on the floor of Fluttershy's guest room. I shuddered at the clarity and the realism of the dream, and stood up. I got in at around 11:00 at night and it was now 7:00 in the morning. It seems no matter where I am my eight hour sleep clock never misses a beat.

I was still rattled from the dream as I went out to the main room to find Fluttershy getting out the animal food.

"Need any help with that?" I asked her.

She eeped and leapt about 3 feet in the air with surprise dropping the bag she had been holding. I quickly levitated it before it hit the ground. I set it on the ground gently and went over to her.

"Sorry for startling you, Angel showed me in last night." I explained.

"Yeah he told me, I just get scared easily," She replied sheepishly.

"Right. So do you need help?"

"Forget that, what happened last night, I though you were staying at Vinyl's."

I sighed, I wasn't even sure yet, it had happened so fast, but I told her what I knew. "Well I'm not exactly proud of what happened but here goes..." I then proceeded to tell her about going in and the peculiarity of Vinyl calling me by my fake name, I went on aboutJake bucking me into the door and she gasped when she made the connection.

"You had another torment attack?" She asked.

"Yes I flung him out of the house and went after him. I knew underneath that I should have just left, but for some reason I kept at it, even after flinging him out of the house. I should have just teleported or something but I did it anyway."

"From what Twi said that seems to be the nature of the Torment. You should head over there now for the cure before it happens again," She said.

I hadn't noticed it at first but I saw fear in her eyes after telling her the story. Before leaving, I say,

"I'm so sorry Fluttershy."

"It's okay, just get the cure."

"Will do."

I grab the flower from my room and walk out the front door. I didn't want anypony to see me so I focused and teleported to the library instead and knocked on the door. Twilight opened the door, greeted me and showed me inside.

"So how was it? I can already you've got your cutie mark."

"It was definitely interesting time, how much do you know of the Inner Sanctum?" I asked, curious.

"Well I know about the three challenges and that there are flowers on the inside to cure various ailments, but past that I have no idea."

So I told her my adventure through the challenges, what it was like to see them first-hoof, and about the sanctum. I explained about how Fluttershy told me about the other places in the Sanctum and my getting my cutie mark. Twilight gasped in amazement when she heard I was the guardian. I finished by telling her about understanding Bearclaws and saving Paws, the trip back, keeping secret what Fluttershy said and my run in with Mr. Silver. I produced the flower and she took it to another room.

"That's one heck of an ordeal, but I thought you were staring at Vinyl's the past few days."

"Another time?" I ask.

"Well we have about thirty minutes to wait for enough of the cure to be distilled from the flower."

I sigh, "Alright."

Twilight nodded, pleased for my compliance, and went into the room, and I heard various clicks and whirrs, then she came out again. We plodded upstairs to her room where I took a chair opposite to her as she lays down on her bed.

"Short and simple, I had another Torment attack."

Twilight's face dropped and took on a grave expression, "you didn't hurt Vinyl did you?"

"No, I didn't hurt Vinyl, just somepony named Jake Silver," My head was in my hooves as I explained everything to her. She was surprised at his violence towards me in a misunderstanding, and was silent at the end.

"I really hope he's okay." I said.

"Hmm...Jake Silver..." Twilight seemed deep in thought, her brow furrowed. She then looked back up and snapped-somehow- and said, "Of course, Jake Silver was the one convicted of the Canterlot crime spree. He pulled a series of heists in Canterlot, then made off with the loot. He was caught and convicted but escaped somehow between the court and prison. I heard Vinyl talking about a boyfriend yesterday but I didn't put two and two together. I never would have figured he was a criminal."

"Oh shit." I said, earning a disdainful look from Twilight.

"Joe I would rather have you not use such language around here."

"Sorry," I said sheepishly, "It slipped."

"It's fine for now, just keep it to a minimum. And try not to at all when Spike is here."

"Oh yeah, where did he go? Is he asleep somewhere?"

"No, the CMC wanted him to do something yesterday and he said he was going to spend the night so he'll be back later."

"Cool. Oh, by the way do you know what happened to my trumpet? I didn't see what happened to it when you and Applejack took me away from the party."

"Oh I grabbed it on the way here when we, um, took you. It's next to the bed."

"Thanks for that. Did you put it back in the case?"

"Yes, all but this bit," She pulled the mouthpiece out of her mane, and blushed, "It intrigued me."

"Hmm..." I decided not to ask what I was thinking, "So did you like my playing?"

"Yes it was amazing! I loved every second of it, I could only imagine the difficulty of a skill like that."

"Well thank you Twilight, it means a lot."

"We still have about ten minutes until the cure is ready..." She left her sentence unfinished.

"Would you like me to play someth-"

"YES!" She cut me off.

I laughed a bit and went over to my trumpet and inspected it to make sure everything was in proper order. The valves were a bit dry, so I took care of that and started thinking of a good piece to play. I remembered my experiment with the magic accompaniment and allowed myself to think broader. I thought through my jazz background this time, and finally settled on Glenn Miller's Pennsylvania 6-5000, a little more complex than I had aspired previously.

"Alright let's go down stairs. I'm gonna try something new and I might need space."

"Oh, okay." I could see Twilight getting excited.

We went downstairs and she moved the table from the center of the room, and sat on the steps as I stood in the middle. As before, I thought about the different instruments in the big band set, and simultaneously arranged them in the ideal band arrangement. I focused especially hard on the rhythm section as to make sure they were perfect. From the space in front of me, Shadows appeared and soon the instruments formed in their respective rows, trumpets in back, trombones, then saxophones, then a row of clarinets in front, with the rhythm section on the side. Just like last time, the instruments tuned to each other as they grew more defined. I then jumped to the back with my trumpet and I cued the other instruments and we started the first note, ringing out perfect.

Twilight jumped from the shock of the new instruments, the suddenness and intensity of the first notes, and the fact I had invented a new magic. I could see the excitement in her eyes as we reached my solo and I took off for about a minute and we finished the song.

Twilight got up and started clapping he hooves together gleefully.

"Joe that was amazing! The fast pace, the range, the MAGIC!"

"Thank you," I said, dissolving the ghost instruments.

"How did you do that with the other instruments?" She asked, bewildered.

"I just created them in my mind from having heard the song so many times that I just projected it through my horn with magic and played along."

"Wow." She shook her head.

I creed my throat, "Is the cure done yet you think?"

"What? Oh yeah, yes the cure, sorry I was preoccupied for a minute there." She trots back to the room and came out holding a vile of yellow liquid, swirling around with a red liquid.

"Drink it and your Torment will be no more."

"Finally."

I levitated it to my lips and downed the pungent liquid in one gulp. I coughed violently and Twilight produced a bucket that I promptly vomited a blue liquid into. Twice more this happened before I got to the restroom. An hour later when I was done, I got a glass of water from the sink, rinsed and spit into the toilet to get the taste of blue out of my mouth.

I flushed and left the bathroom and went to find Twilight.

"Ugh was that supposed to happen?"

"Yes sorry if I didn't explain adequately enough."

"Its fine don't worry about it. I opened the window to get the smell of blue out of your bathroom so just FYI for the next time you use it."

"Thanks, where are you off to next?"

"Back to Fluttershy's until I can build my own home."

"Well remember you're always welcome here." Was it just me, or did I see another hint of a blush on her face?

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you Twilight."

"My pleasure."

I picked up my trumpet case, and headed to Fluttershy's

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: So many implications, I have a few more cards to play but my hand is pretty much on the table. All you need to do is look at the clues. Sorry for taking so long, this was the last of the paper-chapters and I'm putting my other fanfiction on hiatus to work on this one now so expect more chapters soon (the next chapter may take a bit since it is to be a major turning point in the story but after that...XD)

12. Confessions

Chapter 12: Confessions

Sitting in the Ponyville PD, I didn't have to think too hard about what they brought me in for. It was only a matter of time before they started looking for me.

"Mr. Shadow?" Called an orange unicorn. She was wearing a badge around her neck on a chain and had on a black utility belt, covering her cutie mark. Her mane was also black with a turquoise streak, matching her eyes.

"Yes that's me." I replied back.

"Come this way please, it will only take a few minutes." She spoke so evenly I couldn't detect good or bad intentions in her voice.

"Thank you," I replied simply.

She led me from the holding room they had put me in to a room down the hallway. The plate on the door read 'Interrogation 1'. The orange unicorn rapped on the door three times, then paused, then once more. An intercom buzzed to life below us, installed-apparently- into the floor tiles.

"Just five minutes for cleanup."

The unicorn sighed muttering mild obscenities under her breath, shaking her head.

They had taken me when I was about three feet from Twilight's doorway. I didn't run, I put my trumpet down, and waited for their instruction. They came to either side of me, attaching steel wing cuffs and a horn guarder, to prevent any last-ditch efforts, I thought. I had simply complied and requested they replace my trumpet on my back after they attached the hoof-cuffs. The two officers nodded to each other and did as I asked. Following that, they set up the teleportation circle and zapped us to Ponyville PD, where I met the orange unicorn now standing next to me, waiting for the interrogation room to be..."cleaned."

"So...how are you?" I asked, trying to see if I could could some kind of emotion from her.

"I am doing well." She replied. Her lack of emotion baffling.

"Do anything fun last weekend?"

She did not look at me when responding, "I don't think that is an appropriate topic to discuss."

"Oh come on I won't bite, just trying to make conversation."

Finally breaking character, she glanced over, but briefly. "It isn't protocol."

"What isn't protocol?" I quickly said, coyly.

"It isn't protocol to speak with a potential suspect." She responded flatly.

That got my attention. I hadn't really thought about it since it occurred, but in actuality I was looking quite dangerous. I mean I had assaulted another pony, but I knew it was self defense. It finally dawned on me that I may have very well killed a pony. I started sweating, yet still no change in the unicorn's demeanor. The intercom buzzed twice and the door to the room clicked open. She pulled the door the rest of the way, then motioned into the room with her hoof.

I hesitantly entered taking in the drabness. Now of course I had seen my fair share of crime shows on Earth, and this looked much the same, but actually being there had a...much greater effect. The main difference I could detect was that the walls were grey and smooth, but not a building material I was recognized. The whole ceiling was tinted glass, reflecting on me. The scent of antiseptic assaulted my senses, stinging my nostrils slightly. It made me wonder where the pony was that came in before me was, which furthered my anxiety, but I kept a poker face. I noticed a slight change in the atmosphere in the room and looked over to see the orange pony enter the room shutting the door behind her, and the opening disappeared from view. There was a table in the middle of the room with four chairs, two on either side, all of it glistening metal. She approached the table and sat on one side and nodded to the other side. I looked warily at the chair, detecting menace in its polished surface, but I sat down anyway, associating the perception to paranoia.

I heard a hiss and a grey unicorn pony, another mare, walked in from a new passageway formed when a panel of the wall slid open on the opposite side of the room from the door I entered. She sat next to the orange unicorn, on the opposing side of the table, it felt.

"Hello Mirror Shadow, my name is Ashley Forge, how are you today."

I smiled to myself *If only they knew...*"Can't complain, yourself?"

"Same for me. Now down to business. We received a report of assault by a one Vinyl Scratch, any comments?" The grey mare inquired.

This was a surprise, I wouldn't have thought Vinyl would have been the one to call in, but then again, I still didn't know the condition of Silver.

"I have an idea of what you're speaking of, last night involving a pony named Jake Silver correct?"

"Well yes...wait, did you say Jake Silver? As in..." Ashley looked to the mare next to her and brought a briefcase out of nowhere and set it on the table, starting to rifle through papers. "Yes that is the incident but Vinyl did not use a name in the report." She looked up at me, "Please continue, I'm just looking for a file."

"Well I had been staying at Vinyl's for a few days, so I had a key to the house. I went on a trip with a friend to get a cure for a condition I used to have."

"What condition?"

"I had a condition called the Torment, but I took the cure earlier this morning so I no longer have it."

Her head poked up with a file folder in her mouth obstructing her voice, "Ofay, pleath continrrrr..."

"Alright, I had just gotten back and I head over to Vinyl's, expecting to have a nice chat but when I went in this Jake Silver character confronted me and bucked me into the door, triggering the Torment. When he had come forward to buck me out the door, I 'resurfaced' and threw him outside onto the lawn. I'll skip most of the action suffice it to say we sparred a bit on the lawn and I eventually bucked him into a pillar, then left."

"Hmm, much different from the story we heard in the report, but much more believable than hers." Ashley told me.

"Why what was her story?"

"She had claimed that you flat out assaulted both of them with no provocation, but now that we know that Mr. Silver was involved I believe you are free to go."

"Great."

A wall opened up and Ashley lead me through it, "I apologize for any inconvenience."

"No trouble at all, I'll see you around Ms. Forge."

I then walked out of the PVPD and saw that it was getting to be dusk, so I upped my pace and galloped to Fluttershy's house, trumpet affixed to my back once again. I passed the Treebrary, and eventually made it to Fluttershy's just before sunset. To think that here in Equestria this beautiful phenomenon is actually controlled; a privilege, not just a given.

As I walked up I saw Fluttershy sitting on the roof of her cottage, alone just looking at the Forest. I tried to think of a way to not startle her, but nothing really came to mind since it seemed everything I've tried so far has been unsuccessful. So instead of announcing myself I simply flapped my wings and laid down next to her with no warning. As I figured, she eeped and leapt into the air, holding herself a few feet from the roof. I looked up with a smile,

"Hey Fluttershy how are you?"

"Oh Joe its just you. I'm fine," she spoke more tentatively than normal, "did you get the cure?"

"Yes I did, It's all gone, trust me I felt it leave."

She touched back down on the roof. "Felt it?"

"I'll spare you the details but let's just say I am never eating anything blue ever again."

Fluttershy giggled, "Alright I won't press." she paused then said, "the sunset is beautiful tonight, isn't it?"

My mind took off like a bullet *should I tell her then? This would be the perfect moment to do it, on the roof, backed by the beautiful sunset. Oh but if she says no then what would that mean? But if I don't when will I get another chance?* My nervousness came back with a vengeance, and apparently it was noticeable.

"Joe are you okay? What's wrong?" She turned away from the horizon and looked into my eyes, her magnificent blue-green eyes showing her sincerity and ernest. My inner war took a dramatic shift, and my confidence returned to the point where I could finally express it.

"Fluttershy, I think it's time I told you." I took a deep breath and started. "Since we first met at Vinyl's house for introductions I felt an affection for you. During our trip to the Inner Sanctum as well, I felt my feelings for you grow stronger. Every time you kissed me was like a personal fireworks display in my mind. Whether you feel the same or not, I just need to tell you that...well, I love you."

The words finally out, I felt the nerves lift and the battle cease. I then thought about what I just did. From this point forward our relationship would be changed, for better or worse. *That is a chance I am willing to take* I thought, because if I hadn't told her then I would have been haunted forever by a moment passed, even if I had told her later.

Her face had kept the same concerned face for the most of my confession, looking at me even as I had been looking everywhere but her. The last words, however, I had said looking deep into her eyes, but she had looked down after I had finished. Her face was still hidden by her hair so I couldn't tell what she was thinking. I was starting to get discouraged after a few minutes of her not responding, and started feeling awkward as well. Then she faced me, still not looking into my eyes and squeaked something, but I couldn't understand.

"What?"

"I mmm mmmm." She mumbled out.

"I'm sorry I didn't hear that."

She finally looked up at me with a sudden outburst and replied, "I love you too!" And came up and kissed me.

Sparks flew as we kissed, and I was both relieved that she felt the same way, and excited for what this meant for us. I finally had a pony to love, a pony full of kindness and tenderness. I felt us both start hovering as both our wings go into autopilot, but we were too happy to care. We pulled back and I smiled at her and she smiled at me as we touched back down on the roof.

"That was amazing Joe, I've never felt anything like it." Fluttershy beamed.

"I'm just happy you share my feelings, I've been thinking about it for a while now."

"Well to tell you the truth, I felt this way for a while, but you know how I am."

I smiled remembering her talking in her sleep when we had been walking back from the everfree forest, "I had a feeling, that's why I felt confident enough to tell you."

"Really? How did you know?"

I felt my face getting red, even though my fur was black. "Oh well when you were asleep on my back in the Everfree Forest you were talking in your sleep...yeah..."

Fluttershy instantly blushed, "Oh yea I had an interesting dream then."

"About?"

She squeaked.

I chuckled a bit and said, "Alright don't worry. So Fluttershy, will you do me the honor of being my special somepony?"

She looked up quickly, "Of course!"

Finally relieved, "Alright. Now that that's out of the way, what were you doing before I came?"

"Well I just finished feeding the animals their dinner, and decided to take a moment to observe the beautiful sunset. Then I was going to head over to Twilight's to see how you were doing, you know, make sure everything was okay?"

"Yea I know. Sorry I was so late, I got taken in by the police for questioning. It was loads of fun I'll tell you."

She giggled, "I'm sure it was. How do you feel about going into town again? I have to go get carrots for Angel's breakfast tomorrow, I just ran out."

"Works for me." We stood up and flew back down to the ground.

The sun was almost all the way down past the horizon when we made it to Ponyville. Walking side-by-side we walked through town. Some ponies looked our way on our way, but having seen me a few times now, they didn't pay much notice. According to what Fluttershy had told me on the way to town, you could only tell that two ponies were together if they wore matching silver hoofbands. I had seen a few around town, but didn't really pay much attention to them, figuring they were just an accessory. We had been absorbed in a comfortable silence at the moment, but I broke it to ask her.

"So am I supposed to make the hoof bands?"

"Hmm?"

"The hoof bands. Do I buy them or do I make them myself?"

"Oh it's personal preference really. If you want to make them then it's up to you, but there aren't any rules or guidelines. Ponies sell them and ponies make them so..."

"Alright, I think I know what I'm doing then. Now where are we headed again?"

"Carrot Top and Applejack and other ponies set up a farmer's market in the square every other day, that's where I normally stock up on food."

About ten minutes later we were at the market, approaching the carrot stand. Fluttershy chatted with Carrot Top for a few minutes and I smiled a bit, but my mind wandered back to my dream in the hospital. What did it mean was the biggest question. Why was I in a hospital? Why was I hooked up to IV? And the biggest question was: Why was I human again? I had ideas for all these answers, but I was scared to accept it. Could it be possible that this existence that I know, could it all be a projection of my mind? Could I be sitting in a hospital somewhere torturing my parents with my absence? And although I could be wrong and it was just some weird thing, it being a possibility was just as bad.

I had been so lost in thought I hadn't noticed when they must have asked me a question, for both of them were now looking at me, expectantly.

"I'm sorry what?"

The two giggled and Carrot Top repeated, "I had asked how you got your cutie mark. It's just something that I like to ask everypony around here and I've never seen one like yours before, although pretty much everypony's mark is unique."

"Hmm, well up until recently I had a condition called the Torment, which made even the slightest physical contact lead to me being filled with rage-fueled power. The antidote for this condition was a flower only found in the Inner Sanctum or the Everfree Forest. Since I didn't know my way around I convinced Fluttershy to lead me. I found the splendor of the Inner Sanctum moving and proclaimed my devotion to it. This earned me my cutie mark and the guardian of the Forest itself." I looked to Fluttershy and smiled. She smiled back and scooted closer, our wings brushing against each other.

Carrot Top seemed to be putting two and two together between Fluttershy and I, but didn't say anything.

It was quiet for a moment so I broke the silence, "So how long have you been running the farm?"

She was still quiet, looking from Fluttershy, to me, then back to her, then back to me. Nopony knew about us yet, but we weren't planning on keeping it a secret so when she finally asked, "Are you two...?", Fluttershy giggled and responded.

"Yes Carrot, he just asked me before we came here."

Her ears perked up and her eyes got wide as a big grin appeared on her face, "That's great Fluttershy! I'm so glad you found your special somepony."

Then a rumbling sound started coming from behind us. Fluttershy and I turned around to see Pinkie Pie leap from Applejacks apple cart from across the market. She did a mid-air flip and landed next to us with a huge, almost creepy, grin on her face. Seeing as our history I instantly shied away from the pink pony, but Fluttershy just laughed.

"Fluttershy, is it true? Do you have a special somepony?" Pinkie yelled. Pinkie's voice must have carried because I saw many other ponies start looking over at us. I started to blush, embarrassed, but was smiling at the same time. Fluttershy, on the other hand, was hiding her face, but her blush shone through her hair too. Pinkie looked happily from her to me then back to her, seemingly oblivious to how uncomfortable the situation had just become. I looked over to her, and she looked up to me. I smiled and nodded to her, our personal connection noticeably giving her confidence as we looked into each other's eyes. She came out from behind her hair and actually smiled, then looked back to Pinkie Pie, who had a somewhat quizzical look on her face. What we hadn't noticed is how many ponies were looking our way, including Applejack from her cart and Rarity who had been talking to her.

Fluttershy spoke quietly, but confidently, "Yes Pinkie, he's my special somepony now. He asked right before we came here."

Pinkie Pie's characteristic smile quickly replaced the quizzical look and her excitement was palpable to all nearby. She nearly broke the sound barrier when she leapt into the air yelling "This is fantastic!" She landed in front of us again before saying, "You know what this means right?"

I guessed, hoping it wasn't what I thought it was, "Party?"

"Yup! Off I go!" And with that she hopped into her party cannon like the first time and shot herself over the houses of Ponyville to wherever she was headed. I cringed hearing the sound of the cannon, still a little traumatized by what happened the first time. Fluttershy just giggled and gave Carrot Top the bits for the carrots and we started on our way back to her cottage. We didn't get far before we were stopped once again, but this time by Applejack and Rarity. Of course they wanted to know the details and such, since Fluttershy was one of their best friends after all.

Rarity was first to speak, "Fluttershy this is wonderful! I'm so glad you found somepony to be your coltfriend. We obviously know how you met, but how long have you two been together?"

Fluttershy said back, "Well he just asked me about 45 minutes ago, before we came here to the market to get supplies." She was giggling with joy. She was pressed up against my side, sending the vibrations from giggles through me as well, and I smiled too.

Applejack eyed me suspiciously, "Now did y'all get that cure?"

I snapped out of my moment of pleasure and took on a serious face, "Yes Applejack, I did. I am now Torment free. Twilight made me the cure this morning and it was, well, it was an experience I will not soon forget." I finished the last statement with a hint of a smile."

She smiled, relieved. "Well that's good ta hear. You and Shy make one heck of a couple."

Rarity also , "Oh yes I do agree Applejack they are simply adorable! But I believe we must be off."

An idea popped into my head, "Oh wait Rarity, mind if I ask a favor right quick," I motioned with my head to the side to indicate I didn't want Fluttershy to hear.

Rarity saw my motion and spoke to applejack, giving her a wink as well, "Oh Applejack didn't you want to talk to Fluttershy about keeping the rabbits out of your new corn fields?"

"Oh, um, yea! So Shy..." She took her with a hoof and led her a few paces away to talk to her.

Rarity then looked to me with questions practically written on her face, "So what is this about then?"

I cut to the chase to save time, "Fluttershy told me about the hoofbands to affirm ponies' relationship. I plan to cast them using magic in silver, but I need gems that match her eyes. Do you think you can get me two gems of that color?"

She looked at me, then at Fluttershy who was several yards away, "Yes I'm sure I could get you gems of that color, but would you rather I made them for you? I've made a few sets in my time, I could make them for you."

"Rarity, that's very nice of you to offer but I would like to do this myself, all I need are the gems."

"Hmm, okay then, but don't be afraid to ask darling."

"I'll keep you in mind. When can I pick up the gems then?"

"I think I might have some in my bag here," She flips open her satchel with her magic and shuffles some things around. Eventually she levitates two gems out and in front of me for me to take. I did just that, hiding them at the base of my right wing. We then went back to the other two, no suspicion evident from Fluttershy. We exchanged parting phrases for the second time, then we were off to the cottage once more. I decided to plan out the bands. Going off of very, VERY limited knowledge on the subject, I designed them in my mind, choosing what flourishes should go where. Unfortunately I had NO idea how I was going to create them, but I figured a trip to the library should help. I was deep in thought when Fluttershy spoke up.

"Joe, is something on your mind?"

This caught me slightly off-guard, "What makes you say that?"

"Well, yesterday when you stayed the night and I saw you, you had this pained expression on your face. I had dismissed it as plain sadness after you told me about what happened, but then today when Carrot asked you about your cutie mark and you didn't respond, I saw the same face again before you answered her question. Now I know that face doesn't just come from anything, so tell me. What is going on?"

I looked at her, seeing the love in her eyes, her concern. It broke my heart, and my resolve, in seconds. I sighed, "Alright Fluttershy, I had a dream last night and it was strange, to say the least."

"You know you can trust me. What about your dream makes you so uncomfortable that you won't share it, even though it's obviously causing you trouble."

We were just outside her cottage and the sun had safely set at this point, leaving us in relative darkness. "Let's go inside then I'll tell you, if you'll have me that is."

"Of course."

So we went inside and took care of the animals, feeding them and putting them to bed, then she led me to her bedroom where we sat, her looking at me expectantly. I started haltingly at first, then it flowed faster, the confusion, the fear I felt and how I didn't know what it all meant. Her eyes went wide when I told her about being human, and stayed that way until I finished. I had been looking out the window to recall my dream, but looked to her when I finished. Her eyes were waiting for me, watering up threatening tears. It wasn't particularly scary though, so I wondered what prompted the tears.

"Joe, I have to tell you something too."

That was convenient, "What happened Fluttershy?"

"Nothing happened, just a dream like you, a dream with you. Oh it was awful."

I moved closer and hugged her, "I'm here."

She held me tight as she told me her dream.

"I was trotting through Ponyville, doing my usual weekly shopping. I had just bought some clovers and started walking away when you walked by. I felt elated and went to you and called your name, but you kept going. I tried repeatedly to get your attention but you wouldn't stop. Then you started fading, slowly disappearing from back to front until you disappeared completely. I panicked, asking other ponies where you were. They just looked at me puzzled, then told me there was nopony named Mirror Shadow. The last thing I heard before waking up was a deep voice saying 'you're next...'"

She had started crying again mid story. I hesitated for less than a second before bringing her in for a huge hug. She was surprised, but soon hugged back and let herself cry on my shoulder. Nothing could move my heart more than seeing this gentle, caring pony crying like this. I gently rubbed her back, trying to calm her down. Her sobs eventually subsided and she relaxed in my arms

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Hey all, sorry for the delay in this chapter. I use delay even though I am aware that it has been several weeks since my last chapter. It has been quite the process though, getting through writer's block and finally starting to move towards endgame. Yes that is correct, "Into Your Dreams" will soon be coming to an end, albeit there may or may not be a sequel. In any case, thank you for the fantastic support and of course,

Felix Lectio

Skiskinator

3. Magic

Chapter 3: Magic

So we left from Vinyl's house, not sure what I should call her really, and went off to see Twilight. I could tell I was more steady on my hoofs than I was when Pinkie jumped me before, and decided to stop looking at my feet, and start looking around me. I mean a dirt road is only interesting for so long until you start thinking you're seeing the same rock every time you pass one. I saw all of the houses, the flowers, the meadows, hell even the SKY was beautiful due to the pegasi. I noted as much to my companion. What I didn't know is that we had an eavesdropper.

"Glad you think so," said a cocky tom-boyish voice from above me.

I looked up to see the one and only, Rainbow Dash, hovering over me with her casual flapping. I know I had seen her before, but being this close was different. Yes it was quite different to see her up close, seeing the texture of her wings, the wind's affect on her mane, even her cocky expression looked different in person than it does in the show. Her cyan coat too was vividly different, almost seeming like a color I had never seen before.

"Wow…" I said as I stood star-struck for a moment.

"I thought as much, all in a days work," she said, misunderstanding my stare.

Vinyl had to nudge me to get me to snap out of my stupor. I shook my head to clear it and felt a wave of nervousness crash over my head. Luckily, I had trained myself to be polite before nervous, although the effects were still audible in my voice.

"Hello, m-my name's...uh...M-Mirror Shadow," I managed to stutter out, "Are you R-R- (I took a deep breath to calm myself) Rainbow Dash?"

"The one and only!" she proclaimed.

"Glad to meet you," I said to her, then whispered to Vinyl, "should I tell her about-"

"Not quite yet," Vinyl replied.

"Hey! Where's your cutie mark Joe, and what's that on your shoulder?" Rainbow asked, a little off about us whispering and ignoring her.

"Oh well…" I began but Vinyl cut me off.

"He comes from an area where ponies aren't encouraged to search for themselves much, and since he just got here, well, he hasn't had much time to 'look,' if you understand." Vinyl answered for me.

"Okay, then what about that box there?" Rainbow asked again.

I nodded to Vinyl, signaling that I could handle it.

"Once the time comes, you'll find out," I replied with an unusual burst of cockiness.

"Awwwww commmmmeee oooooonnnnn!" she begged.

"Don't worry, your question shall be answered soon enough," I said in a cryptic tone. Vinyl giggled and Rainbow just stared un-comprehensively at me, totally not getting the joke.

"Alright whatever," she said turning around, "Good meeting you."

"You too," I called after her.

"Wouldn't have pegged you to be the nervous type, especially with your image," Vinyl commented as Dash flew away, clearly referring to my being an alicorn and the "outfit" that colored my body.

"Oh, you have no idea." I replied with a smirk.

"We're gonna have to find you a flying teacher too it seems."

That thought had totally passed me by, I had wings! I stopped walking for a moment and felt out to my wings, sending some energy their way as I began to notice their presence. I hadn't had time to explore my pony body for very long before leaving Vinyl's house so it was very strange. Slowly, as if waking from a long sleep, my wings opened, revealing a massive wingspan, and adding to my overall awesome image, Vinyl noticed I was lagging and looked back to tease me, but stopped in her tracks. It was her turn to stand and gaze.

"Woah…" she breathed as she saw my jet black wings extended for the first time.

Now I had some inclination that my height from Earth had transferred here as I had been quite taller than Vinyl in pony form, but I didn't realize that my wingspan was roughly twice my height in pony form. I must've looked amazing because Vinyl stood still so long her glasses fell off her nose and hit the ground.

"Hmm, sweet." I said smiling as I retracted my wings and caught back up to her, picking up her glasses for her and putting them on her face with my teeth and waking her up from HER stupor. She did like me, shaking to clear her head but still giving me a huge smile as she continued leading me to Twilight's Library.

As we approached the tree that held the library my nerves started firing again, but this time, Vinyl noticed and stopped and faced me.

"You okay?" she asked.

"ya-," I squeaked out. She raised her eyebrow. I cleared my throat and more confidently said, "Yes." We proceeded.

The tree itself wasn't entirely impressive, just the fact that there was a huge house carved out of it was what really amazed me. We walked up and knocked on the door. Spike (Twilight's Dragon for those who didn't know for whatever reason) answered.

"What brings you Vinyl? I told you already that the CD's got, ahem, 'mixed up.'" Spike inquired, apparently not seeing me.

"Oh no Spike, I'm not here for the CD's. My FRIEND and I wanted to see Twilight." She responded, adding even more emphasis on friend by nodding in my direction. Spike looked over, sized me up, and simply shrugged and walked away. Taking that as an invitation, Vinyl stepped across the doorway, me following her inside. I am taken aback as I see how big the room really is, especially after seeing the size of the tree on the outside. Also, the sheer amount of books this room had. I mean there were more books than I knew were possible to hold in a single place. I had been to libraries before, but this outdid them all. As I stood there ogling at all the books, Twilight came down the stairs.

Same as Rainbow, I saw Twilight through completely new eyes than before. Her rich purple mane parted by her horn, and streaked with her pink and light purple highlights, all different than they had seemed before. Her eyes seemingly even more beautiful in person- pony- but her cutie mark is what really had my attention. As she walked the five smaller stars surrounding the large one seemed to blink in and out, like the twinkling of stars at night.

"Hello Vinyl," she shifted her focus to me and blushed slightly, catching my stare, "Who's your friend?"

It took me a second to register this as I was still amazed by her cutie mark, but did twilight just blush upon seeing me? She didn't seem the shy type before, but then again I was just staring at her with wide-eyes set on her cutie mark.

"My name is Mirror Shadow," I said extending a hoof.

"Twilight," she replied, "It's a pleasure to meet someone new to Ponyville, especially an alicorn."

No questions about my trumpet here I guess. She had, however, put extra emphasis on "alicorn." 'Ah, that must be the reason she blushed,' I thought to myself. I guess I was a rare find here. I tried thinking of a response, but ended up only saying, "Likewise."

She turned to Vinyl and repeated Spike's inquiry, but instead replacing 'mixed up' with 'disorganized, pending organization.'

It was then that I spoke up, "Actually Twilight, we came here hoping you could start teaching me a thing or two about magic, since…I have this…yeah…" my nerves returning after the surge of confidence Vinyl had given me prior to entering the house, as the sentence got quieter and quieter. I was not used to this much human- er- PONY interaction in one day, and was starting to slip. 'How am I EVER going to get through this party tonight?'

Twilight perked up at the mention of magic, and asked me how after growing up an ALICORN that I didn't know any magic. The explanation, courtesy of Vinyl once again, was the same as the one to Rainbow, save for her relating it to my magic.

"Well that explains the lack of a cutie mark," Twilight thought aloud, then smiled, "Yes Joseph, I would love to help teach you magic."

Vinyl told me to go back to her pad in about three hours to meet up to go to the party. I nodded and she left. For the next three hours I received a crash-course in magic as Twilight, seeming to not have tutored anyone before me, pumped every bit of knowledge she could fit into my head, which was surprisingly a lot. I seemed to have a talent for spell casting after learning to grab objects, levitation- on items, others, and myself-, teleportation, invisibility, and even walking through walls (that one took the most time.) Eventually, three hours passed and I hugged Twilight goodbye, thanking her for her wisdom, and began walking home. There was a distinct lack of ponies around town as I trotted by. I decided to try a little magic to make my trip faster. I looked about 200 meters ahead of me, focused and envisioned myself being at that spot. I then closed my eyes and poofed to where I had say, but was upside-down, and ended up on my back, with a headache, and birds flying around my head.

"Guess I'll have to work on that," I muttered standing back up rubbing my head, trying to relieve the pain.

It took another ten minutes of walking before reaching the door. I rapped my hoof on the oak door and it slowly opened on its own. I was suspicious, but took a step inside. I heard a cannon fire and the lights flick on as it seemed like a hundred ponies appeared from nowhere yelling "SUPRISE!", as I was hit with a blast of confetti, sending me back through the doorway, and onto the lawn.

All I remember thinking was, "Ow," before blacking out

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Hey thought I would thank all those who have read my story. This story was a few weeks in the process of thought, and evolved into what it is now. In case you're wondering about the guy in the story...don't worry about it. If you are worrying about it, message me and I'll put you and your inquiries (I love that word) to rest. Thank you for the support so far.

-Skiskinator

9. On the Threshold

Chapter 9: On the Threshold

Fluttershy was still adorned with my hat and sunglasses -at my suggestion- as she led me through to the gate to the middle ring. This gate was significantly more ornate than the outer gate. It was gloss black with fleur de lis on top of each post of the gate. At the the tip of each post, the black paint was scrubbed away to reveal a bronze layer underneath. To open this gate however, I had to stand in front of the gate itself and spread my wings. I felt a bolt of silver energy get taken from my horn and the gate opened in front of me. I walked from the wooden platform across the threshold of the second ring, and the doors closed behind me I took a minute to take in the scene in front of me.

There was a huge difference between the past challenge's foliage and the scene in front of me. Instead of ivy covering everything and green foliage everywhere, there was a massive canyon made of reddish sandstone. I could see layers of other rock and sediment embedded in the walls of the canyon much below me, descending into what appeared to be an endless pit. All this I saw from the doorway which essentially opened up to the canyon. I looked left and right and couldn't see any bridge, rope, or anything of the sort. All there was was a two foot wide path along the edge of the cliff, and ended about twenty feet down.

"The challenge…of Faith." Fluttershy said.

"Faith?"

She nodded, "Yes, Faith. This challenge is to test your faith of nature."

"I still don't understand," If anything, her explanation made things even more confusing.

"You don't have to. In fact, if you did understand it wouldn't be faith then would it?"

"I guess not…but what do I do?"

"Get to the other side," She said flatly.

I looked around again, then back to where she had been to find she had taken flight and was halfway across the canyon. I called after her, "but how?"

"Sometimes, you just have to take a leap of faith."

Upon saying this she left. All alone, I tried to decipher the meaning of this new challenge ahead of me. A vague sense of dejavu hit me, but I couldn't figure out where I remembered this whole scenario from, so I cleared my head and went back to thinking about how on earth- Equestria- I was going to get across. I thought of my wings, but found that, once again, they were bound together, unable to open. I figured it wasn't going to be that easy. I peered down into the canyon again and still could not see the bottom. For some reason it was quite dark in this ring. I thought prior that it was simply the immense trees blocking the sun, but upon further inspection I found that I was actually in a massive cave made of sandstone. There were some patterns inscribed in the wall, various swirls and whatnots, and I thought I saw some hieroglyphics on the wall behind me. I decided to follow the path to where it ended. I got to the end of the path to find…nothing but more sandstone. Then I found that across the canyon from the end of the path was a hole in the wall, looking like an entrance to another cave. Again I was hit with a wave of remembrance, feeling like I had seen this setup before. Frustrated at the memory just escaping my search, I started to head back to the entrance.

On the way back to the entrance to look for more clues, my hoof slipped and i started to fall into the canyon. I quickly grabbed the edge with my fore-hoofs and tried to get a grip on the sandy edge. So as not to panic I took a few deep breaths and started to pull myself back out of the gorge. My gaze strayed slightly back to where the sand path had stopped and I saw something that caused me to do a double-take. Back next to the path, was what looked like a bridge. I pulled myself back up and it was gone. But it wasn't gone, it was an illusion. The bridge was made to look like the walls of the canyon so that it seemed like it wasn't there. I walked over to the end of the path and kicked some of the loose sand the path was made of over the edge of the cliff. Instead of plummeting down, it slid across the now-revealed land bridge.

I realized now that when Fluttershy said to, "take a leap of faith," it meant that I was supposed to simply walk across at the end of the path. I cleaned up the sand from the bridge, and it disappeared, so to speak. At this, I took my first step, and it truly seemed like I was walking on nothing across the huge canyon. I walked out to the the center of the bridge and looked back and found that it was clearly visible when looking the other way. I walked the rest of the way and went through the next cave entrance.

Fluttershy was there once again.

"Am I done already?"

"No there are two more tests of faith before you reach the next ring."

"Oh," I had sincerely thought that I was done.

"Just remember, as with the last test, not everything here is as it seems."

And on that note she walked through a passageway in a wall, and it closed behind her.

I looked around the room again, and quickly found that there was no exit from the room, which really didn't make sense because I entered somewhere and even that way seemed to have disappeared. With no escape evident, the roughly ten foot cubed room seemed to shrink slightly. With just a hint of anxiety from my claustrophobia, I began to search the walls for any sign of a lever or switch or mechanism to let me through to the next room. Nothing adorned the walls, leading me to think that maybe I had to break down one of the walls to proceed. I reared up to prepare to buck one of the walls. The wall was solid and the energy transferred from the wall, back into my legs and shot me into the opposite wall. I got up slowly with a headache and a slightly bruised pride and turned back to the room. I was about to go examine the wall to the right when I found that there were two hallways on either side of me. It baffled me that these hallways were here now and weren't before, so I slowly backed away from them. Amazingly, the room was built to conceal this hallway by giving the impression that the wall was flat but could only be found if one knew that the passage was there.

I went through the hallway to a much larger room to a very scary scene. Fog and mist was coming from a shallow stream on the ground, risen because of the great plumes of fire being shot from the ceiling of the cave. The fire went all the way to the floor of the cave allowing for no passage. The whole scene was quite shocking, especially when a burst of fire jumped out at me, only to be stopped by a wave of thick fog. Although it was frightening, something was off about the room. With all the fire being shot from the ceiling, one would assume that it would be extremely hot in the room. Sure the water would cool it a little, but that amount of fire should be making me sweat. Remembering what Fluttershy told me, I took a step towards the fire, and another, and another. I fully expected to be torched by the flames at any time, but it didn't get any hotter. I looked at the flames again and noticed that they seemed to correspond to the rolling of the fog. It was at this point that I stepped directly into the inferno.

Like before, I was expecting the worst, but intend of being baking in plumes of fire, i was greeted by mist and fog being sprayed from the ceiling. I looked up and found that where I thought fire was being shot from, was actually a projector, surrounded by mist-makers. The fire, in fact, was a projection shot onto the fog. Since the fog is moving, it gives the impression that the fire too is moving. It was in this fashion that the flames seemed to be engulfed in fog when they approached me.

After admiring the projectors a little longer, I headed to the other side of the cave and exit. I head to the what I thought was the last test to find Fluttershy waiting for me.

"Excellent work Joe."

"Wasn't that only two?"

"Yes but did you not also put your faith in me that you could pass?"

"Was that a test?"

"Yes it was. Now, it is time."

"For...?"

"Do I really have to explain?"

"Last ring right?"

"Yup."

"Alright let's do this."

Shy led me from the room I had entered to a room of polished granite with various gems embedded in the walls. It was quite beautiful to look at, but I had my mission to adhere to so I continued following her to the farthest wall. Shy directed me to a circle on the ground which was a massive emerald, and another burst of silver energy burst forth from my jet black horn. The bolt shot and sunk into the wall, tracing a spiral pattern unto the wall in front of me. Once the energy had disappeared, the rock slid away in the same spiral pattern as depicted by the magic, revealing the innermost challenge ring.

This ring was much like the first one, everything overgrown with ivy and other assorted foliage, but all that stood in front of me was a hut seemingly made out of stone. I noticed that Fluttershy was still standing next to me.

"Aren't you going to go wait at the end?"

"You're already here." She replied very simply.

"What do you mean, this hut?"

"The final challenge is to get into the house. The whole thing is a riddle really."

"How so?" I ask, clearly confused.

"Well I can't just give it away, can I? It would ruin the purpose."

"Alright, so no hints then."

"Sorry."

I went forward to examine the hut. It was roughly eight feet in diameter and, luckily for me, the roof started about eight feet high. I did a complete walk-around of the whole thing and found no doors or windows. I looked to Fluttershy to see if I could gather anything from her expression, but all she was doing was watching me with a stoic expression. She noticed my look and put on my hat and glasses and struck a pose. We giggled a bit and I went back to figuring out the "riddle" as Fluttershy had put it. The hut seemed a little decrepit due to the vines, so I tried bucking the wall. As like in the cave, nothing happened except I ended up face first in a pile of dirt.

Upon getting my head out of the ground, I backed up to where I entered and tried consulting Fluttershy for help.

"So...Are you sure you can't give me ANY hints?"

"I suppose...I could give you one hint."

"That works, I'll take what I can get."

Her face stared off, blank while in thought. Finally, she said, "Pay attention to the big picture."

This seemed to follow suit with her first statement about how the whole thing was a riddle. I looked once again at the stone hut. I couldn't seem to understand what she was saying at all. Then it hit me. When I asked her about the hut, she did not confirm anything about it. In fact, she said that I must enter "the house" not the hut like I had asked. I needed to find a house and not even worry about this hut in front of me. Then her latest clue sunk in, the stone hut is a decoy, used to distract from the actual goal by acting as a pseudo-goal for somepony to focus all their effort on, and give up before getting too far.

Looking again at the hut, I shifted my gaze to beyond the hut. What before I had mistaken for the other side of the ring, was actually a quaint little ranch-style house in the distance. I look to Fluttershy as she yawns at the length of time I'm taking to solve the puzzle, and pick her up with my magic and place her on my back, and head for the house. She lets out an "eep!" when I pick her up, obviously startling her, but then makes herself cozy on my back, content that I solved the puzzle.

She hops down once we get there and opens the door for me.

"Congratulations Joe, you made it all the way," She says, leading me to a doorway at the end of the entryway.

"Great what's my prize?" I asked jokingly.

"This." She replied while she opened the vault door leading out into the Inner Sanctum.
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Guess who's back? Yup that's right. Thanks all for bearing with me on this one, It was killing me not to be typing at all(I was going insane from all the ideas I was having for later in the story) so this chapter came pretty quick. I was feeling a little sentimental while typing it so I decided to throw in a few movie references such as, obviously, an Indiana Jones scene. Happy Reading!

Next Chapter may have to wait until the end of april because of an "intensification" in my studies so I apologize for the delay on the next chapter. I am writing though, but I don't have my computer to upload after today so I'll have the chapters written out, and I will just have to transfer (Maybe I'll post a picture of my crappy handwriting (check below for tumblr \/\/\/\/\/)). Until then, my regards.

-Skiskinator

P.S. I just opened a tumblr for updates on the story and various artwork and pictures (the OC, my journal, and whatever else) that I doodle from time to time. Here it is: http://skiskinator. tumblr. com (erase the space between the .tumblr and .com(obviously(three levels deep parenthesis(PARENTHECEPTION))))