Through the Door

I opened my eyes to find that I was in a bed. There were tubes sticking out of my arms and weird machines surrounding the bed.

“Where am I,” I croaked. I sounded different, like I had been punched really hard in the throat, causing my voice to get all scruffy.

Just as I had spoken, I was approached by a black figure. I couldn’t make out their features since they were shrouded in darkness. I looked up to see that only one light was on, illuminating me, but nothing else in the room.

“You’re finally awake, that’s good. Okay, we’re going to run a few tests to see if you are responsive to anything. First off, when you hear the beep, I’d like you to raise your hand okay?”

“Uh, sure…”

“Ah, so you’re responsive to speech. That takes care of the second test. But first, let’s deal with the first test.”

I sat there for a few moments waiting for a noise. I didn’t hear anything, but a heavy sigh.

“Patient is unresponsive to quiet sounds. We’ll move on to test three. When I tap your knee with a small hammer, you should kick out in reflex. This will let us determine whether you are responsive to any kind of feeling. I know what you’re thinking and it’s normal. You can’t see your knee because if you did, it would cause you to resist the reflex, causing this test to be useless.”

I sat there for two seconds when I felt a slight tap on my knee. My leg jerked up in response. I then heard a slight laugh.

“Patient is responsive to feeling. Are you ready to move on to test four?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Oh good, you’ll like this one. I’m going to bring out various foods and I want you to identify what it is using your sense of smell okay?”

“Alright, seems easy enough.”

The first scent that penetrated my nostrils was sweet and smelt foreign to me.

“Forgive me, but this is a foreign scent to me. See, I came from a world where my daily meal consisted of beans, mashed potatoes, corn, and maybe some peas if I was lucky.”

“Oh, I didn’t know. Okay then, we’ll try this test later then, once you’ve become situated with other scents. For now, let’s move on to test five. I’m going to ask that you stand up please.”

I did so, almost falling over in the process, but managed to stand up steadily.

“Okay, now take a few steps forward.”

Once again, I did as I was asked and managed to take three steps before falling to my knees.

“Subject is having a hard time walking at the moment. Excuse me, but can you please try again?”

“I don’t see why not,” I said in response. Carefully standing up again, I took a few more steps forward before being able to walk normally again.

“Patient is able to walk. Well, that wraps up our tests for now. If you would come with me, that would be great.”

The lights came on, blinding me for a few seconds. My eyes focused quickly and I was met by a large, four legged creature with flowing, colorful hair.

It frowned and said, “Have you never seen an alicorn before?”

My eyes rolled into the back of my head and I fell over, everything going black.

When I awoke again, I was in the same bed, except this time, the entire room was lit up. I was the only one there it looked like.

“It was all a dream,” I thought aloud. “Oh thank goodness it was just a dream.”

“I’m sorry dear, but I’m afraid that this is no dream.”

The large four legged creature that referred to itself as an alicorn reappeared before me, this time she looked very strict.

I was about to scream when it said, “Calm down, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Well, that is until you meet Lyra. She’s quite the hoof-full. Now, can you tell me your name, just so I can be sure you are who I think you are?”

I sat there, my mouth opening and closing, though no words came out. Finally, I managed to say one thing which is what was requested from the alicorn.

“My n-name is S-sky…”

“See, now we’re getting somewhere. Welcome, Sky, to this world that we call Equestria. I am Princess Celestia, but please, call me Celestia. Anyways, as you may already know by seeing me, this world is populated by ponies. There are four different breeds of us, starting with the alicorns then the pegasi followed by unicorns and earth-ponies as we refer to them. The pegasi look like I do, minus the horn. The unicorns have horns, but no wings. The earth-ponies have nothing special about them and are more commonly known as horses to your kind back on Earth.”

“I have never heard of a horse before...”

“Really? How peculiar, most humans know what a horse is.”

“Look, Celestia, you’re right that I come from Earth, I don’t know how you are, but you are. What you don’t know is th-”

“Is that your world is nothing but a wasteland now? I’ve known that ever since we opened the door. I may or may have not gone through your bag and found your journal. I’m sorry about your family Sky, I truly am. Our world is also in a state of collapse, though you may not know yet. We’ve sent many ponies out on expeditions through interdimensional doors that we have managed to open using the help of our three other princesses, Luna, Cadence, and Twilight. You somehow stumbled upon the door leading to Earth that we abandoned long ago when we discovered that there was nothing for us there. You also, sadly, closed that door, preventing your return back to Earth. The only that you could possibly return is if Luna, Cadence, Twilight, and I somehow used enough magical energy to open it back up. I doubt that you would want to go back however, and I don’t blame you if you don’t. I wouldn’t want to return to a world like that, especially since it has nothing to offer but death.”

I sat there, blankly staring at her. Finally, I spoke.

“You were the ones who opened up the door?”

“Yes, it was a very difficult task, but we managed to do it. Twilight has more knowledge on how to open those doors, however, we sent her on an expedition to find a new home for us. If you could find her, I’m sure she could help you get back to Earth to try and round up whatever is left of the human population. It’ll be very hard to find her though. I have the slightest clue of where she is right now. My only guess is on another planet opening more doors to get to more places. We told her to go with a group, but she insisted that she go alone.”

“When was the last time that you saw this Twilight?”

“About fifteen winters ago.”

“So fifteen years?”

“Yes, fifteen years. All of our communications with her were lost about twelve years ago.”

“You guys haven’t bothered to go and look for her?”

“We have, but with her opening up so many other doors on so many different planets, our search parties have to return as soon as they set hoof through the second door they enter.”

“But why do they have to return immediately?”

“Too many doors to go through. Also, with each door they enter, one stays behind to make sure that the group knows which door to go through on the return trip.”

“So you guys have a system? Why not use bread crumbs or something that’ll help you remember your way back?”

“We’ve never thought of doing that, but who knows what else is out there that would want the bread crumbs. Also, let’s not forget that the environment can change easily. So, there are many factors that could prevent our usage of bread crumbs.”

I sighed heavily, swearing under my breath. Finally, after some time to think, I asked Celestia an important question.

“What if I were to help?”