Umbra

by Carnath

Rating: everyone
Tags: Princess Celestia, Alternate Universe, Human, Main 6, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 2406

One human has his entire life turned around when he happens upon a strange purple unicorn.

Alexander's life was going pretty well. He had a nice house, quite a bit of money, and was friends with some really important people that lived in his town. None of that seemed to matter quite so much anymore though after he finds, and helps, Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her friends from a teleportation spell gone wrong.

Published 2012-04-28 05:44:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-04-28 05:44:02 UTC

Discovery

Alexander Braun was driving his truck down the old forest roads outside town – he always preferred them to the main roads – when there was a sudden flash of light that caused him to lose control of his truck. When Alex got out to see what had happened there was a purple unicorn laying there, looked wounded to. Granted he was in a state of minor panic, but his curiosity had always been able to get the better of him. He grabbed the emergency kit from the back of his truck and did what he could to dress her wound. What Alex thought would have been a difficult task, he knew nothing about taking care of animals much less ones that shouldn’t even exist, proved to be fairly simple as quite a few of the wounds started to mend themselves. Pretty soon the unicorn regained consciousness and did something that caused Alex to almost lose consciousness himself; she asked him where she was.

“The country is the…um…United States and the planet is Earth,” Alex managed to say, “and seeing as we can understand each other, somehow, I would like you to answer a few questions of my own starting with; who are you, how did you get here, and are there any others."

She replied with a sense of urgency, “I am Twilight Sparkle from a town called Ponyville; I was testing a new teleportation spell when something went wrong which is probably how I got here; and it was a group teleportation spell so I was testing it on five of my friends as well so they are probably, and hopefully, around here as well.”

“Great,” Alex sarcastically remarked while holding his head in his palm, “just great. So what you’re saying is that we now have five other talking ponies - who I can only assume consist of another unicorn, two pegasi, and two normal ponies whose names are Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack respectively – are now wandering around Earth very close to a town, able to unintentionally cause untold amounts of chaos if any other human so much as sees them. Alright then these are your friends so you would know how to be able to locate them, and this is my hometown so I would know how to put said information to use; here’s hoping we can find them all easily. My name is Alexander by the way.”

“You just got all their names right so I’m going to need to figure out how later but from what you’re saying it should probably be our top priority to find them all first. Rainbow will probably be the easiest to find since she will probably be flying around.” Suddenly a loud crash occurred deeper in the forest. “That was probably her so we should probably get moving in that direction while I try to explain more. Fluttershy would probably be trying to find an area with the most animals and the least amount of…humans I believe is what you said you were, so she shouldn’t end up causing too many problems. Not entirely sure what Applejack would do in a situation like this, I guess she might just head to a nearby farm or orchard if there are any. Rarity would be trying to find the cleanest and fanciest place she could to try and wait this out. Pinkie is the only one who would cause any problems in your town since she would be throwing parties and trying to talk to everyone, although it would make her easy to find.”

Right about then they were near the source of the crash and were able to hear Rainbow Dash say “Why did I let Twilight talk me into being a test subject for a teleportation spell. Now I’m lost, I have no idea where anypony else is, I probably won’t be able to make it to see the Wonderbolts’ air show in a few days, and to top it all off I think I just broke my wing; actually to top it all off I’m now talking to myself in the middle of some creepy forest in who knows where.”

“Hey Rainbow,” Alex called out, “if it helps any you aren’t entirely talking to yourself anymore. I could also tell you almost exactly where you are, not that it would help at the moment. I’m a new friend of Twilight’s and she’s right here too so at least someone you know is here. Plus this forest isn’t that creepy it just gets darker than most places at night. Don’t think we can do anything for your wing though, or about getting you to the air show.”

“Come on Alexander,” Twilight remarked, “no need to scare Rainbow like that, especially now.” Turning her attention to Rainbow she said, “Apparently my teleportation spell brought us to this planet called Earth. Alexander here is a human, the primary species on this planet. Now then I can’t help directly but I can use my magic to try and help accelerate the healing process of your wing.”

After a couple minutes Twilight backed up and said “All right Rainbow you probably shouldn’t be using that wing for at least a few hours, but it should be fine here shortly.” Looking towards Alex, who had sat down and was leaning against a tree, she asked, “Hey Alexander, Rainbow is going to need a place to rest, and it’s getting pretty late so I’m probably going to need somewhere to sleep to, is there anywhere safe we can go?”

“Yeah, I have a pretty big house far enough outside the city that nobody should notice us there.” Alex mentioned while shaking himself awake, “Actually I just bought and was on my way back from making sure everything was working right before I started moving all my stuff in. If you can help get my truck out of the ditch and working again I can drive you two down there and you can use it as a house, and I can come along whenever I get the chance to try and organize searches for the rest of you. Oh, and you can just call me Alex, pretty much everybody does.”

By the time they got back to Alex’s truck it was probably around midnight. Finally getting the chance to assess the damage from when he hit the ditch Alex noticed that everything was just fine, until he looked at his front left tire and saw that the thing was over half sunk in the mud and dirt. “Good thing you’re here otherwise I wouldn’t be getting this thing out of here anytime soon,” Alex said with a sigh.

As Twilight and Alex started to get the truck unstuck she asked “How in Equestria, or Earth or I guess, did you manage to get this thing stuck so badly anyways?”

“Gee,” Alex replied while rolling his eyes, “Maybe it had something to do with that giant flash of light that caused me to temporarily go blind and lose control of my truck; you know, that light that you teleported here by?”

“Oh yeah, that.” Before she got a chance to say anymore the wheel had popped free and Alex had pushed the truck back up on the road, thanks to Twilight’s magic making it weigh a lot less. “Anyways now that your - truck is what you called it right? – is free we can get going to that house you mentioned. I take it we sit in this cart attached to the back?”

“You two would,” Alexander said with a yawn, his lack of sleep starting to show, “I doubt you would fit in the cab, that would be the enclosed front section, and the back of the truck is referred to as the ‘bed’ of the truck, not a cart. This thing’s also probably going to make quite a bit of noise when I start it up so at least try not to freak out.”

Despite the warning Twilight still jumped a bit when Alex started the truck. Letting out an amused chuckle he made a quick U-turn and started driving back to his, or maybe for now he should say Twilight’s, new house.

As Alex pulled up to his house he caught a quick glimpse of what looked like a yellow and pink pony running and hiding behind the house. He rolled down his window and called back out to Twilight, “I’m pretty sure our sure just got a bit easier. Looked like Fluttershy just ran and hid behind the house; makes sense I suppose, the forest around is filled with birds and other creatures, and nobody else ever even comes out here because everybody else thinks the house is too far from the town to be worth anything. You and Rainbow should probably be the ones to go and explain everything to her while I go and get the power running through the house. I would probably just scare her even more then she already would be and neither one of you two would know how to operate anything in the place, no offense.”

“Well you did technically save our lives,” Twilight managed to slowly and tiredly say, the exertion from the failed spell and lack of sleep clearly beginning to take its toll on her, “so I suppose none taken this time. And Fluttershy isn’t exactly the most social and outgoing pony so it probably would work out for the best if it was just me and Rainbow going to explain all of this.” At that point Rainbow jumped out of the back of Alex’s truck and started making her way behind the house, after she was out of earshot Twilight quietly added in, “That’s also assuming I can get her to start saying anything again. She would never admit it but I think she’s scared of both this place, and you Alex.”

With a sigh Alex said, “Well in all honesty I can understand it. If I suddenly found myself on an unfamiliar planet inhabited by an unfamiliar race with one of my arms or legs broken, I would probably be too scared to bring myself to say anything for a while to. So go get everything explained to Fluttershy – hopefully having another Pegasus in this will help Rainbow calm down a bit – while I go make sure none of the fuses are broken and get the power running for the house.” With a simple nod Twilight turned and chased after Rainbow while Alex grabbed his flashlight and made his way into the house’s basement.

As Alex was making his way back up from the basement shaking his right hand, turns out some of the wires down there weren’t exactly in the best condition, he saw Twilight entering and called out, “All right so turns out some of the fuses were blown and the only way to get replacements is to order them, the electrical wiring and everything was custom done by some private company; so a couple of the upstairs rooms, the attic, and the basement won’t have any power running to them. And I’m just going to assume by the pink tail sticking out from behind Rainbow, that despite your efforts Fluttershy is still afraid of me, or at the very least this planet.”

“Yeah, well can you blame her?” Rainbow Dash bluntly stated, “We’ve only been here a few hours and Twilight was injured to the point of losing consciousness, I had my wing broken, and it turns out Fluttershy was actually attacked by a bear. This isn’t exactly the best welcoming I’ve ever received.”

Alex was about to make a joke about Rainbow finally deciding to talk when his train of thought got interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on the front door. “Ok while I go see who that is,” Alex hastily ordered, “you all need to find somewhere to hide, preferably quickly.” As they all rushed upstairs, whoever was at the door started knocking again, with Alex calling out in response, “I’ll be there in just a moment, show some damn patience.”

When he opened the door Alex saw a pink pony standing there, and before she was able to say anything he managed to quickly say in one breath, “I’m going to assume your name’s Pinkie Pie so let me finish what I have to say and don’t interrupt me. My name is Alexander Braun – you can just call me Alex, everybody else does – I know who you are because I have already met Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy; they are currently hiding up stairs because we thought you were another human – that’s what my species is by the way – and right now it would be dangerous for anyone else to find you here. If it will keep you from singing a song right now then yes, we can be friends if you want. My only question to you is this. How did you manage to find us out here, at my house which is in a very isolated location?”

While hopping inside she cheerfully said, “My Pinkie Sense told me that something I never expected to happen was going to happen and it directed me in this direction. Do you know how long it takes to make it somewhere with a full body shiver the whole way? Let me tell you, it takes a very long time.” And she continued to talk as she bounded up that stairs.

Gathering his senses Alex yelled upstairs, “Hey Twilight if you haven’t heard her yet, it was just Pinkie Pie at the door. I’ll let you finish explaining everything if she gives you the chance to talk. I’m going to be heading back to my house to get some sleep, but I’ll be back tomorrow and we’ll see if we can find Applejack and Rarity.”

Heading back out to his truck he laughed to himself while saying, “It’s bad enough needing to stay in the same house as Pinkie, I don’t even want to imagine how bad it must be being her essentially captive audience after she’s had several hours of nobody to talk with.” As he started his drive back to his house in town he realized that while tonight may have been long, the next few days are going to prove to be even longer.