Another World, Another...Pony?

“Ow! Hey that kind of needs to stay attached to me you know!” A male voice called out at a gnashing monster that had tried biting off his arm, only for the young man to end up scared slightly. The young man grabbed the remained of his shirt’s sleeve that was hooked on the monster’s teeth and allowed himself to be swung slightly. “Fine just for that-”

The boy let go and was thrown in the air and brought up a sword with a skull instead of a hilt and smiled. “No burēdo o bunkatsu!” The sword grew and morphed into a larger and sharper form. He seemed to step against the air and slashed at the monster cleaving it in two. A small brown gray orb flew out of its body and the young man grabbed it as he fell. “Another case solved. Eh?”

The young man looked down to see a hole open up in the ground he was headed towards. “Already!? Alright fine!” He tossed the orb to the side. “Let’s go!”

The wind blew, the trees swayed. That was how Applejack was used to it. She had taken a moment from bucking apples to enjoy the soft wind that blew through her farm. She smiled and gave out a small yawn before catching herself. “Shoot! Ah can’ be tired now. Ah barely got any work done.” She looked over to a tree still full of apple and nodded; back to work for this mare.

However before she could jump back into her work she suddenly yawned again. She shook her head and blinked. The blonde mare blinked and went over a mental list. She had gotten plenty of sleep, she barely had started working; 27 trees was a warmup to her. So why was she so tired?

“Mus be something goin on round here. Ah bet Twilight’s noticed it. Ah better check up with her.” Before she could start running a tug could be felt at her hooves. She looked down to see she wasn’t moving towards town but instead into the woods just outside of her farm’s fence. “What in tarnation? Why am ah bein' pull towards the…well fine ah’ll just check an then tell Twi.” She let her hooves race her over the fence and into the forest.

As the young man flew through the strange portal space distorted constantly as always so he chose anything else to look at. “Ugh how long until we land?” He tried to keep his flying-like pose to keep him from feeling like his limbs were working against him.

“You always complain. Just sit tight and we’ll be there soon.” A raspy voice rang out.

“I know that. Do you think we’ll get a rest before the next fight? I still need to change my outfit.” The young man looked over his sleeve. He noticed the more he fought the more outfits he seemed to lose. “I really need to pack an extra shirt next time.”

“I’m already your carry on. I’m not eating another shirt so you don’t have to carry a backpack.” The voice cackled at the young man’s sighed of dejection.

“You know…I wonder if there’s a way to tell where we go. We always sort of land in the most random of places…” The young man rolled his words in his mouth and shook his head. “Nevermind, the less I think about that the better.”

“Look alive! We’re almost there!”

The young man focused his eyes ahead of him and saw an opening in the long tunnel of distorting colors. A large smile built on his face at the sight of lush looking trees. “Great! This time we’re not landing in a wasteland!” He stepped off the air once more and moved faster towards the opening. “Let’s see what’s in store!”

He shot straight through the opening and a gust of wild caught him as he fell. The young man turned and a large smile crept on his face as he looked at the clear sky and beautiful sight that was the sun. He closed his eyes and curled up slightly before throwing his arms and legs out and shouting out. “Yahoooooo! Bright skies! The sun! I love this world already!” The boy was so happy he didn’t seem to mind that he was falling out of the sky very quickly. In fact he didn’t notice until he had already hit the ground.

Applejack had gotten a bit into the forest when the tired feeling she kept getting vanished all at once, along with the pulling feeling at her hooves. She stopped and looked at her forehooves in confusion. “Wha-“ A loud thud make her jump and fall flat on her rump. She shook her head to realign herself and looked toward the sound of the crash and started running toward the impact zone.

The young man opened his eyes to find himself on the ground and in the shade of a few trees. He sat up and rolled his shoulders. “Well this has to be my best crash landing yet.” He stood up and served the area for a moment. Then it accord to him that he had forgotten his chest list.

He pulled out a piece of paper from his back pocket and flipped it open. The words ‘Test To See If I Am Still A Tall Drink Of Water’ in bold with a little skull head next to it. He walked over to a tree and rolled his finger in a circle on the bark and a mirror appeared where he drew the circle.

“I can still use magic. I still have my sturdy body. I’m still…human? Ugh I’ll never get that answer.” He looked himself over in the mirror carefully. Long dark brown dreadlocks tied in a low ponytail around his shoulder; check. Bright red left eye and brown left eye; check. Tribal tattoo that signified his contract with his friend; check. Dark brown skin and killer smile. He gave the mirror a bright smile and chuckled. “Double check.”

He gave his clothes a quick check. Long sleeve shirt missing most of its right sleeve; …check. Jeans and very bland shoes that he has fifteen pairs of; check.

“Looks like I’m still all here.” He looked to his side where a sword handle with a skull for its hilt was attached to his hip with a sword holder. The sword didn’t look like much of a sword since it lacked a blade though. “Yep still here.” He turned to the crash site and scratched his head. “I better pay attention next time though.”

As he was about to start exploring the feeling he was being watched caught him and he turned to see a pair of green eyes staring at him. He tilted his head and took a step back when four more pairs of eyes appeared right next to the first. “Why can’t I catch a break!?” The young man groaned as five large wolf-like wooden creatures jumped out at him. He crouched down and jumped clear over them and landed on the branch of a tree behind the wolf-like creatures. “Still agile. That’s good.”

He faced the wolf-like creatures and jumped out of the way of another set of gnashing teeth. “Déjà vu...” He landed on the ground one of the creatures was on him not giving him enough time to dodge. He stuck his arm to block the set of teeth, and bad breathe, bearing down on him. He closed his eyes and awaited the pain of being bitten…and nothing. He opened his eyes and looked at the wooden wolf biting his arm like it was trying to bite into steel and then he realized. “These…these things aren’t Oshoku. Huh…they must be natives.” He watched as the wooden wolf continue to bite into him without success. “Aggressive natives.”

The young man brought two finger to the creature’s snout and flicked it sending it rolling into a tree. “Bad wood wolf thing!” The other wooden wolves growled at him but the young man didn’t back down. He took in a huge breathe and roared out. “SIT!!!” The wooden wolves found their rumps on the grassy floor. “Good wooden wolf things. Now the leader of this pack come here, now!” The largest of the wolves stood and tutted over to the young man and whimpered. “Oh no you don’t! You guys tried to eat me! Bad! Promise you’ll be good and I’ll forgive you.” The wolf whimpered and pushed its wooden muzzle into the young man’s cheek. “…okay fine. I just can’t be mad at wolves can I?”

He rubbed the alpha’s head and sent the wolves off with the promise of stopping by the say hello. He waved at them as they vanished into the trees. “See you later!” He put his hands on his hip and smiled. “Okay let’s see to finding a place to rest.”

“…w-what…how…what is that thing?” Applejack questioned under her breathe. She had come across the scene when the Timberwolves had started attacking the strange creature and was worrying about whether she should help or not. Her heart nearly stopped when the creature was talking to itself as a Timberwolf was chewing on him. It happened a second time when the creature made the Timberwolves listen to him.

She was confused, worried and…intrigued. She had never seen Timberwolves listen to anypony. The idea that this creature was their leader went out the window when they tried to eat him. Applejack was very curious about what this thing was. But being the straight forward pony she was her first concern was Ponyville and if this thing would be a danger to her friends and family.

She closed her eyes and worked up the courage to confront the creature. After a moment of silence she opened her eyes ready for-

“Hello there.” A pair of bright red eyes met her own. A smiled from the creature brought her to the world. “Can I help you?”

“WAH!” Applejack tumbled back and found herself on her back slightly dizzy. She refocused her eyes on the creature and scooted back before getting back onto her hooves. “Wh-who are you!? Whater doin’ here and…jus what are ya!?”

The creature raised its claws and seemed to laugh. “Sorry, sorry. I forgot my manners. Right so uh…I should start with my name.” It cleared its throat and smiled. “My name is Xaios. Well technically my name is Aster Cresdin but Xaios is what I’ve always been known by.” It smiled and put its hands down. “I am whats called a human. I am the male of my particular species.”

Applejack blinked and tilted her head. “Human? Wait ain’t that what Twilight said we were called on the other side o’ that mirror?”

“Oh you know what a human is?” Xaios smiled and sat down to talk to Applejack better. Her head came up to the top of his stomach so it was easier than looking down. “That makes this very easy.”

Applejack loosened up a bit. She just couldn’t keep a tense mood around this human called Xaios. “Yeah that’s right. But what’re ya doin in the Everfree? Where’d ya come from?”

Xaios rubbed his chin and pointed at the sky. “I came from a portal in the sky. It’s like being teleported except it’s a bit boring and I never really know where I’m going.”

Applejack nodded. Honestly she expected to be confused but Xaios was explaining it rather simply. “Well why were ya in that portal is ya don know where it’ll take ya?”

“Simple. It’s my job. It takes me where I’m needed. Simple as that.” A loud roar made the two strangers jumped but Xaios covered his stomach. “Jumping through a portal also happens to make me very hungry…”

Applejack blinked at Xaios and started to tremble before bursting out into a fit of laughter. It took her a long moment to calm down and look Xaios in the eyes. She then burst out laughing again; he was pouting.

After Applejack had stopped laughing and caught her breathe she turned and started trotting off. “Well come on then. Ah feel bad about laughin at ya so I’ll give ya something to eat.” Applejack turned back to look at him and smiled.

Xaios smiled and stood up. “Thanks uh…sorry I didn’t catch your name.” He wasn’t exactly bothered by a walking, talking, candy colored pony; he’d seen much, much weirder.

“Ma name is Applejack. I run Sweet Apple Acres, home of the best apples your ever done tasted!” Applejack said with pride as usual.

Xaios blinked and thought about her words carefully as he followed her. “Huh…got any pears?”