This morning had been so normal.
It was in the middle of Con season, my sister and I were attending one of the biggest Cons in the country, and were having a good time. Even though my sister had a tendency to wander if I didn't keep my eye on her. But it was fun nonetheless.
Everyone loved our cosplays--I should know. I made them. And we were continually asked for pictures. 'Little Red Riding Wolf'. It wasn't the most original idea, sure, but even though we weren't dressed as popular video game characters like that guy in the green outfit with a sword (saw a million of him) or popular comic characters like the grey-colored people that had orange horns (saw a million of them, too), we still had people come up to us and ask us if we could take a picture, "Because we were so cute".
Well, that was the idea.
Most of our pictures were taken in the park that was near the hotel the Con was using for those that attended. It makes sense: Forest-like setting, two cute girls dressed up as Red Riding Hood--it was a pretty natural setting.
Of course, I was taking this seriously. Conventions are very much serious business. The planning, the budgets, the blood, sweat, and tears that go into each and every piece of the costume. To have enough money to make the cosplay perfect and still have enough for that cute plushie in the Dealer's Room. To get to every event you want to attend but still factor in food and rest breaks.
My sister...was not of the same opinion.
She wandered off when I didn't keep my eye on her. She bought every cute thing that caught her eye even though our father gave us joint expenses. She was always dangerously close to dripping chocolate or ketchup or cheese (of all things!) onto the cloak I made her. It was a full-time job just making her that she didn't ruin anything for the both of us.
You would think that a twenty-four-year-old would have more sense than a thirteen-year-old.
But I digress.
We were getting our picture taken in the park. A man with a professional-looking camera and an official Convention Staff badge had stopped us and asked us to pose by a couple of trees that overlooked the lake. Some shots of us looking lost, some of us eating from the (plastic) bread and apples in our baskets; that sort of thing.
However, the thing about parks is that there are usually kids there. Rowdy kids. Kids that run around screaming and don't pay attention to where they're going.
Kids that knock into you and send you rolling down a hill towards the lake.
I remember everything being in slow motion. One moment, I was pretending like I was super excited to be delivering goods to Grandma's house with my big sister. Then, I heard some kids yelling at each other that they were going to win. I felt a hand or a shoulder or something bump into my back. And next thing I knew, the flash went off and I'm sure the photographer got a shot of flower-printed panties (Note to self: Remember to contact the convention staff and make sure that picture is NOT shown anywhere!) as I went tumbling.
I tried to reach for my sister, but I guess she lost her footing cause soon enough she was screaming down the hill with me.
I know it sounds stupid, but at that moment all I could think about was, "Our cosplays are going to be covered in grass-stains!" and "The water is going to ruin my hair! Jess spent hours making sure it was perfect!" I was more concerned with how I looked than my well-being.
Just before I splashed into the water, I heard my sister scream, "Abigail!". And then I was floating.
You know, it didn't occur to me at the time that my clothes were dry, I didn't have a hair out of place, and that I basically looked as well as I did just before 'The Incident'. I didn't even think about how my sister Jessica and I ended up on dry land.
No, I was more concerned about the fact that, at that moment, I was laying on my stomach, staring right into a giant pair of pink eyes hidden behind an even bigger pair of purple glasses.
I shot up so fast that I got dizzy, but I never took my eyes away from the ones that were staring right back at me. The higher perspective now showed me that the eyes belonged to a...pony. A cream-colored, red-headed, and frankly tiny pony. And then I looked around, and the entire world was more of the same.
Ponies! Everywhere! Of every color, size, and shape!
Of course, I did what any sane thirteen-year-old would do when faced in a world that was inhabited by horses instead of humans...
I screamed.
"O-Oh my God! Oh my God! Jessica, just where the hel--" And that's when I realized my older sister wasn't freaking out like I was. In fact, I didn't even realize that she hadn't said anything since we ended up here. Which was stupid, I guess, since she was laying face down next to where I was...just not moving.
"Jess? Hey, say something," I nudged her shoulder, "...Please, say something. Don't tell me you're--"
Then she made a noise in only the way that she can. A low, guttural sound that was totally unfitting of a woman that had a face like my sister had. I stared at her...then gave her one hard shove to flip her on her back.
There she was, my big sister, who had just fallen out of an (I assume) portal, asleep.
I took a deep breath, leaned in real close, and yelled "Wake...up!" before slapping her across the cheek. She sat up with a jolt and just stared at me sleepily while I just glared at her.
"Abby! Falling down that hill made me so tired..." She leaned against my head and hummed, "I'm glad you're okay though."
I huffed but didn't move. "Jess, did you even look where you were before you passed out?"
"Hm?"
For the first time since we landed here, Jessica looked around to see just where we were. Of course, at this point we had drawn quite the crowd of ponies--the only one that was within two feet of us, though, was the same tiny one in the huge purple glasses. I was scared, the ponies were scared, but of course my sister was not.
No, she was delighted that we were now in the strange, new world, with possibly no way of getting home, because there were ponies. It doesn't take a genius to realize that I'm the more sensible of the two of us.
"Oh my gosh, Abby! Look at how cute they are!" She gushed, "Aren't they just cute?"
I couldn't hide my sigh, "Adorable, Jess, but shouldn't we be more concerned that we...you know, aren't at the convention? What if we can't get back? What would Dad think? What about all of our stuff in our hotel room? What about--"
Horror of horrors, that's when my brilliant sister decided to lean over and pick up the tiny pony. She had a wide, childish grin and spoke to it like one would speak to a toddler or a baby. The red-headed pony squirmed in her grasp, trying to escape. And when that didn't work...
"Canth you pleasth...put me downth?"
It spoke. It spoke English. I screamed and all but slapped it out of my sister's hands, who was sitting there staring at it.
"Um...thankths." It shied away slowly before turning tail and hiding behind one of older ponies.
A murmur rippled through the crowd--they looked afraid yet curious at the same time, and at the moment, even though they were just ponies, I felt increasingly uncomfortable with the dozens of eyes on me. I stood to get away from them--helping my sister to her feet as well--but at that moment I saw more ponies coming towards us. White and purple, yellow and pink, and...pink and pink. I remember thinking: Who came up with these color combinations? Not that they were bad... just weird to see on ponies. Of course they were all technicolor, so that was hardly the weirdest part.
Once the three ponies had gotten to the front of the herd (with the yellow-pink one hiding slightly behind the other two), the rest of the ponies had fanned out and gave us more room. The one that was too many shades of pink than should be legally allowed hopped (yes, hopped) up in my face, just bouncing there as she stared at me.
Jessica had taken a shine to the white-purple one, and as such she reached out to pet it...only to receive a shock from her horn. And it was in that moment where it was something that was blindingly obvious, but so much weirdness had happened at once that it didn't register. Some of the ponies had wings. And horns. And then I blurted out:
"Unicorns and pegasi are real?!"
I guess I was a little too loud because I swear it echoed (how can something echo in a park?!) and again a dozen eyes turned to look at me. My hands shot up to cover my mouth and I could feel heat turning my cheeks red.
The pink pony let out a giggle. "Of course they're real, silly wolf! You should know that!"
The unicorn that had zapped my sister created a light blue aura and dragged the pink one back by her tail. It let out an exasperated sigh and shook its head. "I apologize for Pinkie Pie. You two don't look dangerous, even if you have wolf ears and tails."
The pink one--Pinkie Pie--waved a hoof in the direction of my sister and I, "They remind me of Iron Will, you know? Maybe they're his cousins!" She turned to my sister with a wide grin, "Do you know Iron Will? He's a Minotaur and he's a life coach! He seems like a big meanie but he's actually kinda nice when you know him. Sometimes he gives bad advice like when he told Fluttershy--" She gestured to the pegasus,"--that she should be more assertive. She got really really really mean, and she even insulted me and Rarity! But then we straightened it all out by--"
"Pinkie Pie! That's enough!"
Jessica must have had her weirdness radar set to off, because she squatted down to the pony's eye level (they went up to her thighs when she was standing, and I only went up to her waist. Thinking about it, were ponies small like that?) and reached out her arm. "My name is Jessica Larson! And this is my little sister Abigail!" Her face broke out into a large, innocent smile, as if she were thinking "This is super normal!", which it really wasn't.
Rarity--I assumed by process of elimination--reached out her own hoof and actually shook hands (hooves? Hoof-handshake?) with her. Pinkie Pie all but shoved her out of the way to continue inspecting and bouncing around (something, I might add, my sister had no problems with whatsoever! I worry about her) us, while I stood staring at the pegasus, who was also staring at me.
At this point, my sister and I had:
- Fallen into a lake and came out completely dry and unharmed.
- Found ourselves in some town or something inhabited by ponies.
- Discovered said ponies could not only talk, but we could understand each other.
- Realized that I was the only one truly freaking out about everything.
I grabbed my costume basket and my sister's arm, pulling her back onto her feet. "This whole thing is weird, Jess. We need to go now."
"Awww, Abby! These ponies are so cute though! And Pinkie Pie said that we can get something to eat!" As if that were completely normal.
"Are you insane?! Be an adult for once help me find a way home!"
"But we didn't get to eat lunch before!"
"That's because you spent our money on a giant plushie of a llama! Which is in the hotel, I might add! Along with all of our other stuff! How the hell did you make it to adulthood?!"
With a frustrated groan, I spun on my heel to face the lake. I figured, if that was the way in then surely it was the way out. I thought that it would be the same way: Jump in, appear on grass on the other side.
Well, I had been wrong.
I closed my eyes, held my breath...then jumped. I had to have been in the water for no longer than a minute before I resurfaced to the same exact scene I thought I was leaving. Only this time my clothes were soaked and my carefully-styled hair came undone and stuck to my neck and shoulders.
"Augh! Why me?!"
This morning had started out so normal. So why was I sitting in the middle of a living room, surrounded by animals, soaking wet, and being tended to by a pony with wings? Why am I going to be sleeping in this house for an undetermined amount of time? Why was my sister acting like this happened every day? Why did this have to happen to me?!
I'm going to write down everything that happens to me here, so that when I wake up in a mental hospital and the doctors bring me my belongings, I can give this journal to them and shout, "I'm not crazy! This really happened!"
At least Fluttershy--the yellow and pink pegasus pony--had been nice enough even allow us to stay here until we can figure out how to get home. I'll just...have to get used to this in the meantime.
Who am I kidding--I'll never get used to this.
Author's Note
Comedies are hard to put in written form.
