Being Normal in Equestria

Guy turned toward the door to the library and pushed the heavy wood open with a hoof. As he walked outside he was greeted by the bustle of townsfolk again, seeing the pink one bouncing in the distance with a basket of what looked like cupcakes in her mouth. Guy tried tossing his head up slightly to see the map, but was finding that wasn’t working very well. He considered that perhaps he could levitate it like the purple pony… Sparkle… did. He closed his eyes and focused on the paper in his mouth. He felt a warmth at his horn, and suddenly the paper pulled itself out of his mouth. He opened his eyes wide as he saw it floating in front of him, and suddenly the green glow sputtered and stopped. He focused again and managed to maneuver the paper in front of his face, memorizing where the hut was. Just as he felt he would remember the route, the green glow faltered again, and a breeze snatched it away. Guy tried to grab it with his hooves, but it didn’t do him any good.

The walk through and out of the small town was fairly uneventful for Guy, for which he was extremely thankful. While he was still absorbing all the different colors and behaviors of the ponies around him, he was quickly accepting of it as being the new normal he would be experiencing here. Pegasus ponies apparently regularly maintained the state of the sky, as he noticed any bigger clouds would be broken up into smaller ones or removed entirely. He didn’t see many unicorn ponies, and so he worried that he might be slightly abnormal here, but the more he walked to the outskirts of the town, the more it was becoming clear that this was a more rural area. The ponies seemed to use a great deal of some form of technology, but outside the town he could see plenty of farmland and areas that looked to be very worked by labor.

Guy finally left the limits of the town and found himself quickly faced with what must have been the Everfree forest. It was surprisingly dark and foreboding. However, Guy was somewhat calmed by the more natural look of it. While he didn’t know what might live within, he was not put off by its appearance. He decided to go ahead and start into the shadow cast by the tall, wild trees.
Luckily, the path Guy found himself on seemed like it was regularly used, with even some wheel tracks. He took this as a good thing, and followed it while the sounds of branches shifting surrounded him with a pleasing ambiance. The ground was soft and cool under Guy’s hooves now that he was out of the sun.

It wasn’t long before Guy started to smell what seemed to be the product of a fireplace and herbs. A glow in the distance proved to be a hut of some kind, which Guy assumed to be the place he was looking for. He walked right up to it and gingerly knocked his hoof on the door. It opened after a moment and Guy was greeted by a zebra with golden rings on her neck and ears, and a gray and black mane in the style of a mohawk. She looked at him quizzically and asked,

“And what pony do I greet, just as I prepare to sit down to eat?”

“I’m sorry to bother you. I’m Guy Colt, and well, this pony, Twilight Sparkle, told me you might be able to help me,” Guy nervously rubbed his hoof on the ground a bit.

Zecora’s eyes suddenly brightened, “A friend of Twilight Sparkle is a pony I will help gladly. Please, come inside and tell me what ails you so badly.” She turned back inside and Guy followed.

“Well, I seem to be having trouble remembering anything before this morning. I keep remembering a world with people that walk on two legs, but I know that can’t be real, since I’m definitely a horse, or er- a pony.” Guy looked around and saw a myriad of spiritual-looking masks and an assortment of flasks and herbs.

“What I am hearing is strange indeed, but it sounds like a memory brew is what this pony may need. I am surprised as well, for Twilight Sparkle knows a memory spell.” Zecora pulled a couple of flasks down from her shelves and poured some into a bowl which she placed over a small fire.

“She does? Well, I suppose she was in too much a hurry. I was only able to speak with her for a short time.”

“I would not let it be of any worry, for this brew should reveal more of the story.” Zecora said, as she handed Guy the now steaming bowl.

Guy was worried that he might spill it if he tried to hold it with his hooves like Zecora was, so he closed his eyes briefly to focus on levitating the bowl. The bowl glowed green and Guy navigated it carefully to his lips, taking a long drink from it. It tasted like warm leaves and some kind of sweet juice. As Guy lowered the bowl, he was subjected to a strange feeling within himself. It started as a warmth, then a tingling, and then he felt himself falling backwards into a depth. He closed his eyes for a moment as he fell, and when he opened them, he was in a bright room with colors on the wall. They were very out of focus…

As everything began to clear, Guy found himself sitting in a desk, very human like he remembered. Except, something wasn’t right. Everything around him seemed bigger, and a very tall women approached him with a stack of paper in her hands.

“Guy, you need to put more effort into your work or you’ll never be anything more than average.” She placed a paper on Guy’s desk. It was a test on Geography with a large blue C stamped on the front. Guy wanted to say something, but suddenly found this place fading and himself falling again.

Guy now found himself in a clearing of grass. As it came more into focus, he looked around at how normal it all seemed. The sky had the constant gray overcast he was used to, and the trees were a nice dull green.

“Come on, you gotta live, Guy. You can’t just live a boring life with no excitement. Where’s your drive?” Guy could now see his old friend, Frank, sitting on a dirt bike. He remembered this day clearly, because this was the day that…

Frank put his helmet on and drove off the clearing and down a hill. He reached the bottom and then rode very quickly towards a smaller hill, which he proceeded to do a backflip over. When he landed, the bike twisted and lost control, sending his friend tumbling off. Guy remembered that Frank had broken an arm and a rib from this, and it solidified Guy’s desire to remain as normal as possible. Why risk so much? And then he fell backwards once more into darkness.

As Guy’s new location came into focus, he found himself outside on a bright, sunny day. He was on a sidewalk… this was this morning! Guy looked around to see if he could find anything he had missed, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary except for the sun. That bright, bright sun! Everything seemed clearer and more colorful. Guy watched himself as his body seemed to gather an electric charge, and then he was pulled with a snap as the world shifted and twisted around him. It was starting to make him dizzy as he experienced being pulled into this world, his body shifting and changing faster than he could feel it happening. He landed in the grass where he remembered waking up, and suddenly fell backwards into the darkness again…

Guy opened his eyes slowly. He felt stiff all over, and as he looked around he was still in Zecora’s hut. She was standing over a pot she was tending, and the stars outside her window indicated that Guy had been out for a good while.

“It is good to see you awake, for you were experiencing a great deal of shake,” she said as she added some herbs to whatever she was brewing.

“I don’t fully understand. Everything I saw was a memory of what seemed like another world. The world I remember growing up in. Except… there was the point this morning. I was walking, and everything got very bright and I ended up here as a pony.”

Zecora stirred her brew some, “I’m sorry I could not be of greater assistance, but your situation seems to involve you crossing a great distance. Of portals and magic I know much less, for it is expertise with potions and powders that I possess.”

“Any idea what I should do? I don’t know anyone except for you, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie.”

Zecora looked at Guy and stifled a giggle, “Surely anypony is what you intend. I am not surprised that you are not from this land. I suggest that you find a place to stay, and speaking with Mayor Mare might help you out in the day. For now you may stay with me, and in the morning you will see.”

“Thank you Zecora. I am pretty tired. It’s been a long day.” Guy said that, and just the thought of sleep made him drift away immediately. He dreamed of cupcakes…