Waking Up in Equestria: Redux

The very first sensation that came to me was the feeling of the suns' warmth as it came down on me, wrapping me in its' warm embrace. I gave a lazy smile as I accepted the warmth and curled up under my already warm bedsheets. Sleep nipped at the fringes of my mind, but there was something that kept it some-what awake.

My mattress was unusually stiff. It felt like I was laying on the ground.

Feeling was the second sense to come to me, connecting to each point in my nervous system, relaying messages to my brain with lighting fast speed. I shifted and rolled onto my side, trying to find a soft spot in the mattress, but to no avail. As I struggled, my sense of smell kicked in as I took in a breath. The scent of leaves and grass tickled my nose as I laid there. At this point, my sleepy mind began to have a minor fit of confusion as it gathered the information given to it.

A bird chirped nearby, followed by the returned chirps of other birds.

My ears twitched and turned to the- wait a minute.

My hands shot up to the sides of my head, expecting to feel my ears there. But instead of them being there, I simply patted at my cow licked hair, having to move up farther my skull.

Closer...closer...closer...

Since when did I have horse ears?

My eyelids shot open, revealing the world above me to my blurred gaze. I was laying in a forest clearing, staring up at a fading night sky. I could see the lighter colors of a rising sun peaking from behind the trees to my right. Blinking, I crossed by eyes for a moment and stared at my nose, seeing that it was longer and a bit more broader, covered in a toffee colored fur. I raised a had and patted at the snout, seeing that it too was covered in the same colored fur. My hand continued up and lightly patted, expecting to feel my glasses. Not feeling them there, I looked to my left and spotted the black, blocky frames. Grabbing them, I set them on my face and jumped a bit. They were larger than usual, the nose pieces having been spread out farther to accompany my broader nose. Blinking, I sat up, letting the blanket covering me fall off my frame, my back popping in a crescendo of breaking air pockets within my spinal cord.

Looking down, I examined my arms in wonder. They were entirely covered in the same toffee fur, moving up and under my Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon shirt. I assumed that the rest of me was covered in the fur, so I didn't bother to continue looking. Giving a sigh, I began to stand up, only to fall back down to my rump, my legs sending messages to my brain that something was very wrong. I threw off the blankets to look at my legs, gasping at what was revealed.

Instead of feet and toes poking out at the bottom of my pajama pants, there were two solid hooves. Instead of two knees, I had four total in sets of two. There were two front knee joints, connected to a rear set of knee joints. I flexed my legs, watching how they moved and rotated.

"This is very wrong..." I mumbled as I sat there, dumbfounded by what was before me. The nerves in my back began to send messages of major confusion to my brain, telling it that they were very cold and being weighed down on by something on my back. Looking over my shoulder and down at my back, a glint of silver caught the corner of my eye. I twisted my back, trying to see more of the silver object I'd seen. A hiss of air was heard, soon followed by the sounds of small gears and motors powering something. I could feel additional weight being added to my back and my arm shot back to grope around as the weight continued. My fingertips brushed against cold, solid metal that ended in sharp angles.  I turned my head again and was suddenly met by the sight of metallic feathers shaking slightly from some tension being released within the mechanics. The wing span was longer than my arms, going out past my fingertips.

"This is very wrong indeed..." I said aloud to the surrounding forest. Under the orchestra of chirping birds was the sounds of a running creek. However, there was another sound that was beginning to over take the creek and the birds.

Someone was singing, and quite beautifully I might add.

I glanced down to my fe- erm, hooves and frowned a bit. Walking with these is going to be a bit of a challenge.  Pushing my self up and onto my hooves, I staggered a bit as my weight adjusted itself to my new legs, throwing me forward and backward a bit. When I got centered, I took a shaky step forward, then another, and another. My double-jointed knees shook and quivered as I began to nail down the new rhythm of walking. My hooves took me to a group of bushes, where the majestic singing was coming from behind the bushes.

Reaching forward I pushed aside a clump of leaves and peaked at who the singer was...

Then I retreated from said bushes in a jump of shock.

"There's no way..." I mumbled to myself, peaking up from behind the bushes again. I ducked down again and blinked, confirming what I was seeing: Fluttershy was singing to her animal friends as she took care of them in her backyard.

As a Brony, meeting any of the Mane Six would've been an amazing experience. But in the current situation, having woken up and in a strange place and suddenly seeing Fluttershy as she sang, this encounter was a bit alarming to my already confused mind.

But seeing Fluttershy has confirmed one thing: that I had woken up in the Everfree Forest, and that I was somehow teleported to Equestria.

"Well...I better say something..." I said, clearing my throat. "U-Uhm, hello?" I called out. Fluttershy's singing trailed off a bit, with a small 'Hmmm?'. "I-is anyo-erm, anypony there?" I asked. I heard the soft approach of hooves coming towards the bushes. Then, Fluttershy's quiet voice spoke up.

"H-hello? Are you b-back there?" she asked curiously.

"Uh, yeah! Listen, uhm, I'm kinda lost and need some...help. Think you can help me?" I asked, a bit nervous.

"Well how can I help you if I can't see you?" Fluttershy asked kindly. I could tell by the tone of her voice that she had a small, eager smile on her face. Thinking about that, I sighed and poked my head up again and looked at her.

I swear my heart froze at the sight of her and her helpful gaze. Her eyes met mine and her smile broadened a bit more.

"Oh! Hello!" she chirped sweetly.

Yep, definite heart failure.

"H-hi...mind uh, stepping back a bit. I uh...don't want to alarm you." I said, hoping that she'd understand. Her head tilted to the side a bit in slight confusion and she stepped back, keeping her eyes on me. With another sigh, I rose to my full height and stepped out from behind the bush, watching her eyes widen in surprise as she looked me over, a hoof raised a bit as her jaw sat agape.

"O-oh...my..." she squeaked.

"Yeah...I'm not exactly from around here." I said simply, giving a meager shrug.

*     *     *

After Fluttershy had gotten over the initial shock of my appearance, she had invited me in to her home and offered me some tea. Not wanting to be rude, I accepted her offer for tea and sat down in her kitchen as she went to get a book from her bookcase. When she returned, she sat down and looked me over again, this time in a scrutinizing manner.

"Well...you're obviously part pony..." she mumbled, flipping through the pages. "But I can't quite find what you've been mixed with..." she continued.

"You're making it sound like I'm some lab experiment." I pointed out. Fluttershy looked up at me with a look of slight hurt.

"O-oh...I'm sorry...it's not everyday that a new species of pony is seen..." she said sadly.

Great, nice job Harrison. Now you've gone and hurt her feelings. Great first impression!

I gave a sigh and shook my head. "No, you're fine. But like I said, I'm not from around here." I reached across and patted her hoof to reassure her. She smiled a bit and took a second glance at my hand.

"Wait a minute..." she said softly, pulling back her hoof and flipping to the front of the book. She stopped on a section labeled 'Ape'. She looked at the diagram of the ape and back to me, comparing her observations. "It looks like you've been mixed with a monkey and a pony. What an interesting combination." she said, closing the book with a satisfied smile.

"Do you always classify new creatures?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh yes! It's important to determine the relations between currently cataloged species and new ones! It's how I determine how to take care of a new friend!" she said happily. My eyebrows shot up at the last part of that sentence and scratched my head a bit.

"Uhm...what do you mean 'take care of'?" I asked, hoping she wasn't going to keep me prisoner all of a sudden.

"Oh! I obviously don't need to take care of you. You look like you've been able to do that yourself just fine." she said as she got up and returned her book to the shelf. She turned to look at me. "I know this is sudden to ask, but do you need a place to stay? I can let you stay here if you'd like." she said, giving me a smile before jerking a bit and mumbling "If that's okay with you."

I smiled and gave a shrug. "Sure, why not?" Fluttershy nodded and smiled. "I'll go get the spare room ready then." she said as she went up the stairs. Sitting back, I gave a small sigh.

"I just met her and now she's offering a place to stay. Things certainly work fast around here." I said, letting myself relax. I could see Angle Bunny giving me the stink eye in the other room as I sat there. I raised an eyebrow and gave Angel a rude hand gesture that made him scowl and return the same gesture. I blinked in surprise as he smirked and hopped away just as Fluttershy came back down the stairs.

"Oh, I've been meaning to ask you something." she said as she retook her seat in front of me.

"And what's that?" I asked.

"Where are you from? You said you're not from around here." she said, leaning forward to hear what I had to say, very curious about my origins.

"Well...how do I explain that I'm from an alternate world and that I suddenly woke up here when I went to sleep in my own room last night?" I asked. Fluttershy blinked once, twice, then a third time. Silence fell around us as she stared at me. "I didn't break you did I...?" I asked worriedly.

"No...I'm just...trying to take in what you said..." she mumbled.

"Want me to put it in simple terms...?" I asked. She nodded a bit and I sighed. "I'm from a different world. In my world, people are just big, upright apes with not as much hair on them. I went to sleep last night in my world, then woke up here. I have no idea how I got here, or why I look like this." I restated. This seemed to register with Fluttershy's mind a bit better as she gave a slow nod.

"Well...I can talk to a friend of mine who can help you out..." she offered.

"Who is this friend and what would they do?" I asked. I had a feeling that Fluttershy was going to answer with Twilight.

"Her name's Twilight-" Bingo. "-and she would probably do a spell to detect any magical residue." Fluttershy said. I nodded then looked at her.

"Just her, okay? I don't want news getting around town that an alien that looks like a pony-ape thing is in your home." I said in a serious tone.

"Oh, I understand completely." she said with a nod, getting up once again. "I'm going to go get Twilight now, okay? I'll be back soon." she said. When I nodded, she trotted out the door and off to town, leaving me alone.

"Well, what's the worst that can happen?" I mumbled. Suddenly, a blur of white zipped across my face and my vision was immediately blurry. I patted at my face, expecting to feel my glasses. Feeling that they weren't there, I squinted my eyes and spotted Angel standing in the doorway, my glasses gripped in his little paw. "Give those back!" I demanded, getting up and going for the rabbit. Angel gawked at my height and scurried away, hoping up the furniture and out the window with my glasses. "YOU LITTLE RODENT!" I bellowed as I charged out of the cottage in hot pursuit of the little thief.