At Request of the Ancients
Painful Beginnings & The Fancy Man
Sleep; wake up, alone; get dressed; shower; eat breakfast, alone; brush teeth; put on a convincing mask; go to work; keep mask up all morning; get lunch and eat, alone; go back to work; struggle to keep mask up; work ends, go home; take mask off; listen to music and read or watch Youtube videos; take a walk; head back home; go to sleep; repeat.
This is and has been the daily routine of Jack Ignianos for the past 5 years ever since his dad was killed in a mugging; it's kinda surreal, living in a small town like his where almost everyone know's everyone you never think of the possibility of something like that happening; yet, here he is 22 years old living by himself, no friends, no pet's (Ever since his pup, Snowball, died of old age when he was 19), no family... all alone... enough to make anybody at least a bit depressed, but he pushes on, keeping himself distracted with life. He's found a couple of nice things to keep him distracted from thinking about his life: listening to different genre's of music (he especially likes older music), reading stories (Like Harry Potter), watching some Television shows (Doctor Who) and movies (Full Metal Jacket), and taking walks around outside to enjoy nature; to list a few. But, I'm sure you don't want to hear his sob story right now, so instead I'm gonna tell you of the strange happenings that caused him to wake up in the middle of a field with a medieval town on the horizon and the events that followed.
This is the story... of Jack Ignianos (Ig-Knee-On-O-ss)
Jack Ignianos' POV
Going through my daily routine, I've just gotten back from my daily walk, back to my empty, quiet, apartment. It's about 11:30 PM right now, so I'm feeling pretty tired; if I were more alert than I probably would have noticed a couple of things that were off that I missed due to my drowsiness: like how my door was unlocked even though I always lock it when I go for a walk, how there was a slight breeze even though I never opened any windows, and how all of the doors inside my house were open. But, due to my disoriented state, I missed all of this, hung up my keys and headed towards my bed; not even bothering to take off my hoodie or boots; and headed off to bed to sleep off my exhaustion.
3rd Person Point of View
As Jack went off to sleep, collapsing onto his bed, face up, and quickly succumbing to his exhaustion; another figure slowly made his way through the house, he was a peculiar looking person: wearing a fancy black suit and black tie, a black fedora, walking with a cane that had the head of a metal snake with green eyes that glowed ominously in the darkened house. As he entered Jack's room and approached his sleeping form the eyes of the snake started to glow like fireflies in the summertime.
"Hmm," the man hummed softly looking down at Jack's sleeping form, "so you're the one they chose are you? Not much to look at, but who am I to judge the will of the Ancients. Looks like you get a one way trip to a new dimension pal, hope you like mythology; you're in for one hell of a wake up call," the man chuckles softly, as he slowly lowers the metal snake-head down to touch Jack's forehead.
Jack's POV
I slowly started to regain consciousness due to hearing a voice, "... one wa... dimens... like mythology; you're in for one hell of a wake up call," I can hear a soft chuckle. I slowly open my eye's to see a man in a suit lowering a cane with a metal snake-head with glowing green eyes down towards my forehead. My eye's shoot open. "Wha," is all I manage to get out before the snake-head touches me and my world explodes into a world of white hot pain. The feeling of having your molecular structure torn down atom by atom is excruciatingly painful, what I believed to be my mouth opened in a silent scream as my atoms got moved from one area to another; after what felt like hours, but could very well have been seconds, I lost what little consciousness I had left and blacked out.
PAUSE
Alright, before we continue allow me to tell you some things about Jack so you can get a better grasp on his knowledge. Jack has always been a bit of a history nut not just his home country (America) but all over the world, his father was an ex-marine who was missing a leg (He taught Jack basic self-defense before he got injured while deployed), due to Jack living by himself so long he's a relatively good cook, he's gone hunting and fishing enough with his dad (Before he died) that he know's how to clean and cook fish, squirrels, rabbits, and deer; he knows a decent amount about the human body but his best subject's (Other than history) are Astrology and Geology. He's also more accepting of the unknown and strange than most people are and is a strong believer in the Multi-Verse Theory. That should be enough of a quick description to help you out.
PLAY
3rd POV
On the world of Terra, in the beautiful land of Equestria, about 1/2 a mile from Ponyville close to the edge of the Everfree Forest, a small pinprick of light interrupted the otherwise peaceful night. As the minutes passed the pinprick grew, slowly becoming larger and larger while taking on the shape of the one known as Jack Ignianos. That small amount of unnatural light was the only notification to the Ponies of Equestria that they had an otherworldly, and unconscious, visitor; to bad nopony was awake to see it.
Jack's POV
Oohhh, what the hell did I DO last night; I feel like I just went 10 rounds with a Sontaran, I can feel the sun beating against my eye's and the hard ground beneath my back, what the hell? I think as I open my eye's slightly, "Augh! Fuck that hurt!" I quickly shut my eye's and turn my head to the side after accidentally looking directly at the sun, I open my eye's again and blink away the spots. "Why the fuck am I outside? I could have sworn I..." memories from the night before come rushing back to me. Mythology? "What the hell did that guy DO to me?"
Body check: Feet and Toes? Check. Legs? Check. Torso? Check. Arms, Hands, and Fingers? Check. Rugged Good Looks? ... Damn still nothin'. Well, at least I'm not missing anything and the soreness from whatever the hell that guy did is disappearing. Taking stock of my surroundings I can see a thick forest next to me, a medieval-looking village a small ways away, and a couple of mountains dotting the landscape; I appear to be in some sort of field and according to my watch it's 8:23 AM. Ok, where the hell am I? There weren't any mountains anywhere close to where I lived. As I try figuring out where I am I stand up and start heading towards the town, figuring it's as good a place as any to start my search.
Maybe I can even figure out who the hell that was in my house last night
At Request of the Ancients
The Baby Argonian & The Treebrary
3rd POV
As Jack heads toward the town of Ponyville, one of the few non-pony creatures are just waking up to make breakfast for, who he considers, his adopted sister. This creatures name is Spike: a baby dragon with purple scales, green slitted eyes, light green belly scales, and green spikes. As Spike wakes up before his sister he starts his day by getting out of his basket, heading out downstairs to the kitchen and starts making breakfast for his pseudo-sister Twilight Sparkle.
Fifteen Minutes Later
"Hhmmmm," Spike hear's somepony humming happily. Turning around he see's Twilight's finally awake, shuffling like a zombie towards the table for breakfast.
"Want your coffee Twilight?" Spike asks, as he finishes making their breakfast.
"Mmmhhhmmm," came the mumbled response from the half-asleep unicorn.
"Alright, here you go Twi," he says, handing a mug of black coffee to her that he had prepared like any other day. Spike starts setting up everything at the table, giving Twilight her plate of food and setting up himself in the seat across from her and they both start eating their breakfast.
As they finish breakfast and head to the library portion of their home to get to work. Spike grabs some books from the book return and head over to the bookshelves to put them into their respective positions. While Twilight uses her levitation magic to grab a couple of books off of the shelves.
20 Minutes Later
Twilight is still reading her books, having gotten 3/4 the way through the book on the History of Starswirl The Bearded; meanwhile Spike has finished restocking the books and is relaxing on a pillow.
*Knock Knock Knock*
Twilight is to absorbed into her book to notice the knocking at the door. Spike, however, is not and lifts his head to look at the libraries door.
*Knock Knock Knock*
"Hello?" Spike hears a male voice sound from the other side of the door, "This is the library isn't it?" It sounds like he's talking to himself.
"Augh," Spike makes a sound showing his annoyance, "I'm coming!"
Twilight looks up for a second then goes back to reading her book. Spike get's up from the pillow he was relaxing on and walks over to the door opening it. "How can... I... help..." Spike trails off, finding himself looking at the bottom part of a grey hoodie. He slowly tilts his head up and takes a step back to get a better look at what he's talking to. The strange creature look's like a teenage dragon in height and is standing on it's hind-legs like one; he, judging by the voice he heard, has light brown looking skin; a black mane; and for some reason has it's hand -like a Minotaurs but with an extra digit- over it's face.
"Is this the library?" The creature at the door asks, taking his hand off of his face and hanging it by his side.
"Uuhhh," Spike says, ever the eloquent speaker, "Twilight! Can you come over here please." The creature at the door raises an eyebrow at this.
A huff of annoyance sounds from behind him, "What Spike?!"
"There's... um... someone at the door."
"Well, than let them in. This is the library," she say, then mumbles under her breath, "don't know why the hay ponies knock, when it's a public library."
"Er, well come on in." Spike tells him while backing up some more to make room for him to get in.
"Uh, thanks... I guess. Is there a... uh, History section?"
"R-right over there," Spikes stammers, still unsure what this creature is, pointing a claw towards the history books.
"Thanks" he mumbles.
23 Minutes Earlier
Jack's POV
As Jack get's closer to the town he's able to start making out details better, more specifically what appears to be the 'residents' of the town.
Am I dreaming? I've got to be frickin dreaming, I mean seriously? Fucking technicolor equines, Unicorns and Pegasi to boot? I stops and give myself a hard slap across the face *Smack!* "OW!", I yell out, "Ok, not fuckin dreaming and never doing that again."
Ok, Jack. Deep breaths. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. Just calm down and think, I think to myself, putting my hand on the sides of my head, trying to calm myself down. Alright Jackie-boy, let's break down what I know or think and try not to freak. I'm in a new... let's say universe until further notice due to some strange person breaking into my house last night a hitting me with the head of that cane. I woke up in the middle of some kind of field surrounded by nature. I found a medieval-looking town. The obvious residents appear to be sentient Equines judging by the way they're acting and the fact that I don't see anything else that could have built the houses. It is yet unknown to me whether they speak any language I could possibly know, though if their Equines than they shouldn't be able to speak any human language, but then again I went from sleeping in my bed after a routine day to waking up in a damn field near a village with thatched roof's and what appear to be sentient Equines. Breathe in. Breathe out.
"Alright, I need to find something to help figure out where the hell I am so let's head off and see if I can find a library," I say to myself as I start walking towards the town again, "I hope I can communicate with these... equines, somehow otherwise I'm screwed... damn it, not even a full day and I'm already talking to myself."
As I enter the outskirts of the town the residents slowly start to take notice of me, not that hard considering their all quadrupeds while I'm a biped making me about 1-2 ft taller than them. I'm able to make out more details as I begin walking past the equines that were near the outskirts, most of them edging away or frozen like a deer in headlights. At least there's not any screaming or pitchforks, judging by the looks though I'm guessing they've seen something similar to me but they've never seen a human. Let's just ignore that observation for now and file it away for later, I think I'm having enough trouble keeping calm without that tidbit of information.
As I make it to some kind of cross section I find the first bit of writing since entering town and strange enough It's actually English! If they can write it than they can most likely speak it (How the hell do equines possess the ability to write a human language?), at least that's my hope. Though whether they speak it or not it looks like they'll bolt if I so much as breathe in their direction, so let's continue with that library idea and hope I can figure out more about this place. Looking at the sign it looks like a sign you'd see in a human town only an older version, it being made of wood. It says the library is to the NW side of town. So I start heading that way towards information and hopefully not a mental breakdown.
10 Minutes Later
Well... I found the library, at least according to the signs... It's a fucking tree. A damn library in a tree house; I don't mean in the tree branches, I mean a literal tree-house as if somebody carved out the inside of a tree and, somehow, still managed to keep the tree itself alive; it's a frickin Treebrary. God I'm gonna have a breakdown if this keeps up. Walking up to the door I pause for a second to try and figure out why the hell they need door handles when they don't have hands, decided to file it for later questioning, and knocked on the door to make sure I'm at the right place, wouldn't want to walk into somebodies house, I'm sure they'd freak out enough if some random person walked in, add to the fact that they seemed to be unsure of me with me just walking around.
*Knock Knock Knock*
I wait a couple of seconds and knock again when I don't get any kind of answer, hoping that somebody will answer.
"Hello?" I call out, then say in a quieter voice, "this is the library isn't it?"
I hear an "Augh" sound from the other side of the door, then heard what sounded like a little kid call out an, "I'm coming!" Well, at least I now know they speak English.
A few seconds later the door opens and I look down expecting to see one of the equines. Is that a baby Argonian -My hand meet's my face- geez, what the hell doesn't this place have, what's next? A Sphinx? hhmmm, I wonder if the riddle would even be the same if there aren't any humans here
"How can... I... help..." Mr. Scales trails off and slowly tilts his head up and takes a step back to get a better look at me.
"Is this the library?" I ask, taking my hand off of my face and put it back at my side.
"Uuhhh," the baby lizard-child says, then calls to somebody inside while still looking at me, "Twilight! Can you come over here please." I raise an eyebrow at him (I think it's male, just sounds adolescent) when he does this.
A huff of annoyance sounds from the other side of the doorway, "What Spike?!" A female voice calls, alright so Mr. Scales name is Spike... not very creative is it.
"There's... um... someone at the door." Spike says putting emphasis on the 'one'.
"Well, than let them in. This is the library," the lady confirms what I read on the sign.
"Er, well come on in." Spike tells me while backing up some more to so I can get inside. I enter, ducking my head down so I don't hit my head on the top of the doorway.
"Uh, thanks... I guess. Is there a... uh, History section?" May as well start somewhere.
"R-right over there," the Silurian named Spike stammers, guess he's taking it rather well considering I'm barely holding myself together as it is.
"Thanks," I mumble heading over to wear he pointed.
As I head over to the shelves I take stock of the inside of the... tree. For some reason there's a couch and some pillows in the middle of the room, I'm guessing it's for people to relax in while they read; kinda nice, considering one of the most annoying parts of reading is finding a comfortable spot that won't become uncomfortable in five minutes. The shelves themselves seem to be part of the tree that got carved out, same with the stairs leading upstairs. I look over to the couch as I pass it by and see a lavender colored unicorn absorbed in a book. Walking up to the shelves I search them until I find a book titled An Abridged History of Equestria. Well, I hope that I'm in Equestria right now and not in a different country... oh who am I kidding, most of the residents I've seen so far are equines if this isn't Equestria than they need to work on names... actually they need to work on naming places anyways, I mean seriously Equestria and this town is filled to the brim with equines; speaking of which I need to figure out what this towns name is, I've seen multiple signs so far but not one mentioning this towns name.
I take the book I picked off the shelf and head over to one of the cushions and plop myself down on a red one, laying on my stomach and open the book up and start to read. After about three minutes of quiet reading, I hear a quiet gasp and look up to where the unicorn was only to see her staying down at me with wide eyes.
Damn these thing have some big ass bug-eye's, if their equine why the hell are their eye's in the front of their heads instead of on the side? Do they eat meat?
I look next to see that 'Spike' is sitting beside and slightly behind her, probably having just notified her that I was here.
"Hello?" I say with apprehension in my voice, after staring at one another for a minute. She seems to flinch slightly as if not expecting me to be capable of speech.
"Uhm hello," she seems to be studying me, her eyes moving slightly taking in my features, "er, not to sound rude but what are you?" I raise an eyebrow at the rather blunt question, she could have at least asked my name first.
"Have you never seen anything like me before?" I ask, hoping to get an answer to the question that's been bothering me most since waking up.
I'm surprised I haven't had a mental breakdown yet, I'd think any sane person would have by now
"No, the closest thing I can think of is a Minotaur but you're to scrawny to be one."
Well, that's a blow to my ego, but at least she answered that question. So, no humans... well not like I interacted with them much when they were around so I guess that won't change very much; on the plus side I know another creature here: so far we've got different breed's of equine, Minotaur's, and whatever the hell Spike is called here.
"Well, I'm a human."
"Human?" she asks as her horn lights up and, I kid you not, a frickin old fashioned looking scroll of parchment and a quill start floating next to her in the same aura as her horn.
Sure, levitation. Why not, I think looking from her horn to the floating objects, yet another thing I'm going to have to worry about.
"I'm just going to take some notes, I've never seen or read about anything like you before." Probably mistaking me eyeing the floating objects for me wondering why she's taking notes. "That's fine," I tell her, moving to a sitting position to get comfortable, if she's anything like me right now she's probably bursting with questions. She backed up a bit as I sat up, probably not expecting me to move.
"The names Jack Ignianos," I tell her, since she has yet to ask or tell me hers, "what's yours?"
"My names Twilight Sparkle I'm Princess Celestia's personal student, it's nice to meet you." She tells me with pride in her voice.
No, idea who that is but at least I know what kind of Government this country most likely has, I ponder why the personal student of a princess is in a small town library. She seems to deflate slightly when I don't give any reaction to her introduction.
"Sooo... where did you come from?"
I experience a bit of discomfort at that, but manage to not let it show. I'm unsure if I should tell her; her being the personal student of a princess could be good and bad. She could tell the princess who would tell her parents, who could then help me find a way back home or at least help me figure out how the hell I got here. Or she could tell the princess who would tell her parents, who would see me as a threat and either imprison me or put me in a cage or something. I start to hyperventilate slightly causing Twilight to look at me with concern.
"A-are you alright?!" She asks me, "you don't have to tell me if it brings back bad memories, just calm down!"
I close my eye's. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.
"S-sorry about that, I'm fine; even if I did tell you where I'm from I doubt you'd believe me, probably put me in a mental hospital."
She raises an eyebrow at this. "Why don't you tell me anyway's and I'll decide whether to believe you or not."
Well Jack, no going back now. "Alright... I'm not from around here."
"Oh, are you from around Minos? I know that most of-"
"No. Farther than that. As in not from this planet."
At Request of the Ancients
Q & A With The Crazy Purple Pony
"... another world?" Twilight asks in a deadpan.
"Yaaa... that sounds a lot crazier out loud." Oh, who am I kidding. It sounds just as crazy in my head, and I'm the one living it!
"You expect me to believe that you're from another world?"
"... Yes? Look, I know how crazy it sounds but I'm telling the truth!"
"Mhm. Alright, if you are from another world, then tell me about it."
I blink, is she seriously going to give me a chance to convince her? I'm pretty sure I would have gotten thrown into the insane asylum if I was on Earth and told somebody that
"Uhm... right. What do you want to know?"
"Let's start simple. What's the name of where you're from?"
Hhmm... go big or go home, I guess. Let's see if I can remember this right
"My home planet's"-never thought I'd say that-"cosmic address is: Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo Supercluster, in the Observable Universe."
She raises an eyebrow at this, "Oook. Where did you live on this 'Earth'?"
I can't tell if she's starting to believe me or if she's just indulging me
"I lived in the United States of America, it's a country that was formed some 238 years ago after a revolution." As her slowly skepticism fades a look of curiosity and excitement takes it's place, along with a smile that make Jeff the Killer envious.
"Oh my gosh! A real alien and I'm the first one to contact it"-Twilight get's up off the couch and starts pacing-"*Squee*"-She does a little dance, hopping from one hoof to the other-"I can't believe aliens actually-"
"TWILIGHT!" I cut her off, "While I'm glad that you believe me: CALM DOWN!"
She stops dancing when I cut her off and looks down with an embarrassed look with a pink tinge on her cheeks, "Sorry Jack. Guess I got a little carried away."
I chuckle a bit at her reaction, "That's alright Twilight just calm down alright, I'm sure you have a lot more questions now, so let's play a game of 20 questions so we can both learn a bit, and then maybe I can figure out what the hell is going on." After she hears this she brightens back up, excited at the idea of learning more about where I'm from. I look around for a second, feeling like something's missing. "Hey Twilight, where'd Spike go?"
"Huh," she looks behind her, then around the library, "I guess he went to bed, that's all he seems to do if he's not doing chores or helping Rarity."
Hhmm, you'd think he would have stayed long enough to at least figure out what I am
"Alright-"I clap my hands together"-let's play 20 questions, I'll start: how are you doing that levitation with that quill and parchment?"
"You mean my magic?"
Magic..."Of course. Magic. Why not?" I say spreading my arms out for emphasis.
"Why do you seem so surprised?" Twilight asks.
"Well, where I'm from their is no magic."
"WHAT?!"
"Ok. First off, OW! Second, yes, no magic; the only 'magic' we have is slight of hand and trick of the eye."
"How do you survive without magic?"
"We're technologically advanced race. Also, that was technically two questions. So for my first question what races are all sentient around here? I didn't get very far in the book I was reading."
"Well, there are Minotaurs, Gryphons, Ponies, Changelings, Zebras, and Dragons. To name a few."
My eye's a wide at this point, "Geez, that's a lot of sentient mythological creatures, I'm gonna guess that Spike is a dragon," I mutter, before saying, "Alright second question: Who leads this country?"
"Princes Celestia and Princess Luna, who raise the Sun and Moon respectively." I struggle to keep the smile off my face, Geez, how long has it been since a human used that shtick to make it seem like they were chosen by the gods to rule? "Who rules A-mare-ica?"
I give her an irritated look, "1."- I hold up my pointer finger -"Never call it that again, it's pronounced America. 2."- I raise my middle finger as well -"It changes once every four years, if I remember right it's called a Constitutional Republic and the President is at the top."
"You said you were a technologically advanced race, just how technologically advanced could you be without magic?"
I give a smirk at that question, ponies don't seem very advanced themselves, "Well, to list a few of our greater achievements: we've managed to take flight without wings, split the atom, put a man on the moon, and created aircraft that can go over 3 times the speed of sound." As each one get's listed her jaw drops lower and her face develops a look of disbelief.
"How could you put a man on the moon or go that fast without magic?!"
My smirk grows. I put my hands in front of me and wriggle my fingers moving my hands to the side saying, "Technology."
We spend the next couple hours talking about all kinds of subjects, though after hearing their 'history'(I doubt it was as bloodless as the books make it out to be, if the Princess is as old as she says than she probably kept a lot of info out of the History Books), I kept to the better aspects of our history. Spike came down sometime during our Q&A Session and Twilight had him send a letter to Celestia and she got a letter back saying that her and Luna would be coming down tomorrow and requested Twilight let me stay in her guest bedroom until then (thank you Celestia) since it was late when Spike came down. We went over everything from culture to astrology, they thought Luna controlled the stars!. With my love of astrology, I couldn't let that stand so we got into a heated argument that lasted for a few hours until we just settled on agreeing to disagree (I told her I was agreeing to disagree but the second I got a second alone with Celestia and Luna I will be having words with them). So we decided to call it a night for now, I kept a decent amount of information about my species specifically hidden from her, telling her I didn't want to have to repeat everything the I remembered about the Human race itself.
