Author's Note

Reasons I haven't updated:
1. school started
2. broken arm
3. new relationship
4.I built a drift trike
5. writer's block

II ~ Twilight

I stood, testing my leg. It wasn’t quite as bad as it first seemed. I am not a doctor but, I’d say it’s a bruise and sprain. It was swelling up. I wiped the small amount of blood out of my eye with the back of my hand. The blood had stopped on it’s own. Poking the wound and feeling around it, revealed to me that it had swelled up real nice, thankfully it wasn’t a gash. My back was a bit tender in some spots causing me to not stand straight.

I hobbled over to my pack on the ground being careful not to put much weight on my leg. I sat as slowly as I could next to my pack, so basically a flop onto my butt upon the ground next to my pack. My back tensed up from the jostle and I had to wait for it to relax before I could continue. I pulled the pack onto my lap and dug through it, pulling out a shirt and a bandana. Tossing the bag to my side, out of the way, I do my best to wrap my knee up in the shirt, directly over my grey jean. “This sucks,” I think to myself as I pull the knot tight and hiss in pain.

The purple bandana I had in my lap was the next thing I focused on. After the sharp pain reduced to a throb, that lacked the intensity it previously had prior to wrapping. Opening the purple cloth fully I took a corner of it a wipe my hands, forehead, and my hair free of blood. Honestly there was not much of it. I folded the soiled section of the cloth over forming a triangle and put it on my head, knotting it in the back. The purple cloth was tight over the wound on my head, I didn’t want any dirt or crap getting in the cut. “Fuckin’ aliens. What else could it be.” I say aloud, to no one again.

I stood and was thankful that my encounter was not of the sixth kind. I re-orientated myself finding my target very easily due to the disgustingly bright town. Usually I am all for colours, I love them but, this town must have been made by hippies. Everything was much too bright, I had this problem at home but, this was an extreme I had never experienced before. I imagine it is what it would like to be in a dessert without sunglasses. I was practically blind from too much light.

With my sights (barely or rather overwhelmingly) set, I made it down the hill I was on, the process was slow and painful but soon I made it to the first building and leaned against it. The building was a fluorescent orange, I felt rather than saw the extra light beating on my face from the building when I stopped with my eyes closed. I needed to catch my breath and my heart was both palpitating and rushing, my injuries were swelling, increasing in pain with each throb. My moment of rest was quickly interrupted.

“There it is twilight!” I turned my head to see blue, apparently winged demon-horse spawn was back floating effortlessly besides a walking purple demon-horse spawn. The evil duo began heading my way from across the road, between two giant blobs of overzealous colours I knew to be buildings by assumption. I needed to get away.

“OH Please! No mo’” I wined out, whilst pivoting on my good leg. I promptly began moving away from the ‘things’ at a break-neck speed; that is what I was attempting to do but it was expressed by me falling flat on my face. I got a mouthful of grass and dirt for my efforts. This is now the third time I have fallen, I hope this does not become a trend.

“RAINBOW! What Did You Do To It?” a voice from behind me exploded in anger. It terrified me. I actually fliched at the voice, it also took me a few second to realize it wasn’t directed at me. “It’s terrified,” the voice had become quiet and sad. The change in attitude gave me the confidence to look over my shoulder.

“And ‘urt. tha’ blue one beat me up real good.” I quipped towards Purple but indicated the blue demon with a weak pointing of my finger. Purple’s face twisted in anger and she shot Blue a death glare.

“I thought it was a monster!” the object of the death glare spat out indignantly.

“Does that look like a monster? I don’t see fangs or sharp nails. It’s wearing clothes to top it all off. And even if it did have big nails and teeth, that is no reason to attack it. Haven’t you learned anything from any of the escapades you’ve been on? I can’t believe you of all ponies would do something like this.” Purple was lecturing the blue demon. Lecturing was not quite the right word, Purple was belittling her and implying that she was a bigot. The whole time Purple went on, Purple’s voice became higher, tighter, and faster; the blue demon’s demeanor was quiet and still.

“Y’are talking? Ah must ‘ave a concussion” I growled aloud to myself as I got to a sitting position but Blue felt it was her (guessing from the voice) duty to reply.

“Duh we talk! are you stupid?” she said articulately, exploding all of the negative emotions accumulated during Purple’s rant, towards me.

“Rainbow! What is wrong with you today? It’s obviously confused and provoking it is like the worst possible thing to do.” Purple stated confidently.

“You’re starting to sound like Rarity,” the bigoted, blue demon snapped back at Purple. Purple shot a quick glare at the blue demon, again, before turning her attention to my sitting form.

“Let me help you up,” Purple stated cheerfully that seemed to lack sincerity, most likely smarting from the blue demon’s remake. Before I could object Purple’s forehead started glowing weakly in a purple light, without warning my body developed the same light. I was terrified. Within the light I became weightless as in I started to float off the ground, I began shouting taken over by fear. The light stopped a fraction of a second after I began shouting, which to be honest was more of an embarrassing yelp than a shout. When the light stopped I luckily fell on my butt from only a few inches off the ground, but it was enough to jostle my back giving me minor spasms. As a result I grimaced in pain, capturing Purple’s attention.

Purple walked up to me, closing the gap that had been shrinking since the pair saw me, only about a meter remained between Purple and I. The blue demon kept her distance, about the middle of the street, still floating lazily in the air flapping tiny blue wings much too slowly to stay afloat, yet staying afloat. Purple quietly said to me “I’m very sorry, I only wanted to help you up.”

I sat silently for near a minute staring at this things face. Her eyes were large, expressive and an amazing colour of purple; the type of purple rarely seen in nature, that cannot be made artificially, a colour purple so rich and pure. The very essence of purple. My eyes drifted upwards to her hair, it was combed neatly and styled like human woman. Most of her hair was a dark blue, tinted pink; it was blue but at particular angles was many different shades of blue stained purple as the light shined through it. It is rather difficult for me to adequately explain the depth of colour found in this thing’s hair. Two bold streaks of vibrant magenta and that deep ‘essence of purple’ cut across her hair, off-centre to the left. A lavender horn, perfectly matching her coat, poked out from her bangs, spiraling out from the top of her forehead. I was face to face with a talking mini-unicorn.

“An unicorn is talkin’ ta mah” I slowly pieced together some sort of response. Purple sweetly smiled and nodded.

“Yes, I’m a-” I couldn’t contain myself, I started laughing. This was all too much; the painfully vibrant colours, monsters attacking me and mythical creatures talking to me, I feel like a lab rat on LSD attempting to traverse a constructed environment being studied for its reactions. The idea of an alien overlord hidden by some advanced technology observing my reactions from afar blared in my mind.

“Where teh camera?” I asked as my laughing fit cooled to a simmer of chuckles. the confused look on their faces told me they didn’t know what I was talking about. “So, unicorn… tha’ mean ya, was using magic on me?” I said cautiously getting up from the ground; trying not to put any unnecessary weight on my leg.

Purple nodded excitedly and her horn lit up brightly, forming a ball of white light at the tip and shot me with it. The glowing ball hit my chest and sank in halfway, every muscle tensed up as my body was racked with electric pain as the ball shrank, presumably dissipating into my body. I would be screaming if I could even breath, but that wasn’t happening either, due to the vice-like tension in my muscles.

My eyes rolled around in their sockets sporadically. I saw purple, blue, green, and that nasty orange all in a fraction of a second before whiteness filled my vision and I was overtaken by an intense sensation of complete vertigo. All of my senses, had exploded at unrealistically high levels. Just imagine hearing all the different tones the human ear can detect, at the same time, as loudly as any noise can get, now imagine that happening with all modes of perception. I was Tasting everything that could be tasted, from paint to pizza, bleach to bacon, everything. I felt white hot heat surging through my body as well as the coldest of colds. It was a numbness that existed from sensory overload rather than sensory deprivation; in short ‘I was fucked.’

“Am Ah dead?” I asked in a hushed tone, from the ground, once I could move my face but not without great difficulty. I didn’t hear myself speak, I may have mouthed the words. I must have fallen again, I was on my back. I kept my eyes closed as the white grayed into black, along with my other senses returning to normal. I was angry, I sat up quickly as soon as I was able and began shouting “WHAT THE FU-ck did ya do ta me?” By the third word my anger evaporated, I was too surprised to be angry. My knee felt a lot better, in fact all of my injuries were no longer throbbing in pain. Checking the wound on my head had me confused, it was no longer swollen, in fact it was gone.

The blue demon burst out in a hearty laugh “You busted him up worst than me. What is wrong with me? What is wrong with you, today?” the arrogant blue thing fired at the purple thing.

“I u-used a-a healing sp-spell on you,” Purple’s voice was quiet, quivering, and remorseful. “it shouldn’t have reacted that way,” she said sadly looking down at her front legs as they pawed at a tuft of overly green grass. I stood, picked up my pack and placed it on my back. As much as I wanted to be pissed-off, I simply couldn’t; she seemed so sad. I stepped forward and her head tilted further towards the ground. I was then about a foot from the strange purple creature, behind her I saw the blue demon glaring at me cautiously.

I dropped to one knee so I would be at eye level and gently touched Purple’s face with open palms upon her cheeks and physically encouraged her to look at me. It looked as though she was about to cry, I saw tears welling up in her eyes, her face was warm and fuzzy, and she was sniffling silently.

I didn’t understand why it was so upset nor did I understand why I cared in the least, so I said the first thing that came to mind. “Stop yo cryin’, ya was obviously tryin’ ta ‘elp me. And Ah’m fine now. Ah’ll fo’give ya if ya can ‘elp me out.” Giving her a way to resolve this… whatever this is, Purple’s demeanor radically changed, from sad to hopeful in just a few seconds.

“What do you need help with... umm, may I have your name?” Purple asked with The blue demon continued to stare at me but had moved from an impossible hover to standing on the ground a few metres behind Purple.

“It is rude to axe fo’ someone’s name wit’out givin’ yar own.” I said whilst standing, no longer holding Purple’s expressive face which had turned a little sour after my statement “But, it is even ruder to attack someone wit’out even speaking to them.” The last statement was directed over Purple’s head towards the blue demon, who’s glare somehow deepened. “You can call me Atrox, whadda Ah call ya?”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle and that over there,” Twilight gestured with a hoof, “is Rainbow Dash. How can we help you?” Honestly the gesture was rather funny looking in my opinion and showed how very flexible these little horse thingies are compared to a normal horse. I stood with my arms crossed silently questioning the reason I was talking to part of my imagination or part of my dream. Twilight cleared her throat about to speak, I put a finger up to indicate ‘one minute’, somehow she knew what I meant. I lowered my finger and gathered my thoughts.

Trying to keep my response as simple as possible I said, “Well, in short, Ah’m lost. An’ Ah’m unsure of the very construct of reality.” I said the last part more to see what there response would be. Both, Rainbow’s and Twilight’s faces twisted up up in concentration. Rainbow was the first to respond.

“You’re lost? Well, you’re in Ponyville. Now you’re not lost.” Rainbow stated proudly as though she solved my problem with a smug look upon her face. Her arrogance was emanating off of her like a stink cloud in an old cartoon. Twilight made a hysterical gesture of slapping herself in the face with her hoof, something like a ‘facepalm’, before deflating the blue demon’s head. (Perhaps that is how she flies; like a hot air balloon.)

“Rainbow, it sounds like Atrox is lost in a greater sense than not knowing what town you’re in. Is that correct Atrox?” Twilight spoke in a flat voice.

“Err,” I wasn’t really sure how to answer, “yeah, tha’s right.” The face Rainbow made in response to my affirmation of Twilight’s statement was that of utter defeat. Her lips were quivering and frowning, and her ears flopped downwards, frowning in their own right; it was so sad it was cute. I don’t know if I mentioned this before but these little horse things were really cute, like giant stuffed animals with the colours to match. Their eyes were large, expressive and filled with unnatural colours. The blue one had very dark pink in her irises, a magenta only found in rare instances in nature. The swelling of tears in her eyes drew my attention to her eyes.

Twilight came to Rainbow’s rescue by pulling the attention of both, Rainbow and I away from Rainbow’s outward expression of emotions by speaking. “Rainbow, why don’t you go tell spike to come here with the materials for a letter. Get back to your weather duties, I think I can take it from here.”

“Are you sure Twilight? This thing may try to hurt you.” Rainbow paused thinking for a moment, holding a hoof under her chin with her other foreleg across her chest, standing on two legs. Her cocky smile returned before she spoke. “Then again it was pretty weak. Okay Twi, you got it.” Rainbow’s wings unfolded from her sides and she jumped into the air before I could retort against her bold statement. A blur of blue and a trail of rainbow was all that I saw as the blue demon went to get this ‘Spike.’

In my suprise I had lifted a finger towards the disappearing trail of colours, then looked at Twilight. The lack of response to the unholy and physics breaking speed told me this sort of thing was normal. Ha, normal, I was talking to a unicorn and apparently a pegasus, two things that should not exist. I lowered my finger knowing I would not get a response. “Twi-Light, am Ah dreamin’?” I know it was a dumb question but I had to ask it anyway.

Dumb in the sense that ‘of course you’re dreaming’.

Twilight’s face mimicked the sadness it previously had but at a much lower intensity before she asked. “Why do you think you are dreaming?” her sad voice rang out. It was starting to creep me out how nice she was being and how very invested in my situation she had become in the few minutes since we had met.

“Well, yar an unicorn, and tha’ blue demon” I waved my hand around “jus’ ain’t real.” The manner in which I spoke was flat, I didn’t even know why I was bothering to talk to this, this ‘dream character’, for lack of better term.

Twilight looked shocked, as though something dramatic happened, it was ridiculous in my opinion. I crossed my arms and waited for this purple thing to try to convince me otherwise. “I don’t understand, as far as I can tell I am real.” She looked at a hoof of hers. She held it up in front of her face, once again showing the strange joint articulation these little horsies had. (I know it’s a childish word, but I don’t care.) Placing the hoof back on the ground she continued. “However, I can’t really prove I’m real so honestly, what does it matter if it is a dream or not?” Twilight answered with such brutal logic I had to stop and think on the words she spoke.

I stood squinting into the horizon, some of the terrible brightness had subsided. I was staring at the sky; melting from one colour into the next. hues of orange-red danced in the clouds playfully nipping at the pink tufts scattered throughout the sky. The backdrop to the slow and delicate waltz was a transition from power blue into a deep, almost sad blue with tiny points of light poking through. “It’s all stuff I can’t prove.” I thought slowly to myself repetitively until Twilight de-railed my train of thought by speaking.

“Atrox, are you okay?” the sweet but sad voice called to me, seemingly from very far away.

I then remembered something, from deep within my memory. It came not to my mind first, but to my mouth. “I t’ink, derefore Ah am.” I mindlessly spoke. I don’t think I made a lot of sense to Twilight, not from the face she made. It never made much sense to me either, until this purple thing said what she had said. Twilight’s face was twisted up in confusion, like she ate a lemon. I don’t know if it is from the lack of clarity of my speech or from my choice of words but I did not give Twilight the chance to begin voicing any of her ideas. “Ah’ve gotta choice that ain’t much of a choice,” I sighed out, feeling somewhat defeated.

“What is it?” Twilight said cautiously, with a tiny tremble in her voice.

“Umm” I said trying to buy myself time to piece together something to say. “Ah don’t think you understand the extent to which Ah’m lost. Ah don’t t’ink Ah’m on eart’.” I cleared my throat to speak better. “Earth. Ah don’t t’ink.” I stopped in frustration at my lack clear dictation. “ Ah don't think Ah’m on Earth.” I stated in a monotone voice in order to get the pronunciation correct, I always had trouble with 'th' sounds.

Twilight looked up at me with an odd expression, mayhaps a mixture of confusion and interest, before she spoke. “Earth. Is that an Island?”

“No, it innit.” I know I should have felt defeated, but that is not an easy thing to happen if you’ve got very little in the means of expectations. “Twilight, Ah axe you if this were a dream. Ah never… It’s an alien world or a dream one tah me.” I was stumbling over my words. I knew what I needed to think but I couldn’t. If it was put into words I would have to face the situation. It was too big, I didn’t want to even try, I knew it would be painful if I did. I just did everything I could due.

I sat on the ground and held my face in my hands. I just started breathing deeply and slowly. ‘Mayhaps my brain was starved of O2,’ I thought to myself as I tried to take deeper, more meaningful breathes. After a few minutes of trying to centre myself, I moved my hands away from my face and opened my eyes.

Twilight was sitting in front of me, staring at me with a confused face and her head tilted to the side. It was like a dog trying to figure out what it’s master said. Before either of us could speak the calling of Twilight’s name stole both of our attention.

“Twilight! Are you over here?” a masculine voice called out. I assumed this to be ‘Spike’.

My assumption was proven correct once Twilight spoke, “Spike! Over here.”

Spike bust up from behind one of the ugly coloured building, that I could tell was a building since the sun was retreating, and froze staring at me. I returned the stare. It was a tiny, naked lizard-man holding a few objects in it’s hands. A naked lizard-man. I returned my face to my hands and began breathing slowly. “Twilight, what is that thing? Is it gunna hurt you?” The masculine, yet high pitched voice squeaked out.

I heard Twilight chuckle sweetly, “I really don’t think that will be a problem. I don’t know what he is but he does speak and he told me to call him Atrox.” I heard the gravel crunch, knowing the purple lizard thing was approaching.

Twilight’s tone stayed optimistic the whole time she was speaking about me. This little fact rang in my mind, why was she being so damned nice? What did she want from me? Why did I even care what the intentions of a dream character were. I was getting very pissy and I recognized this. I had to focus on something I could actually fix; I was hungry.

I abruptly stood causing Lizard-man Jr. jump back a foot or two. “Ah be t’inkin’ Ah be needin’ food.” I crossed my arms and gave a flat stare as a response to Spike. Like really? part of my own mind is surprised to see me stand? Mayhaps they really are aliens; I am hungry, in a dream after all. “Would it be any trouble to get some food from ya?” I pulled my wallet out of my pocket, “I can pay you for the food.” as soon as I said it I was worried I was wrong. If it is an alien planet I’m on they wouldn’t use the same money, I’m so stupid.

“You don’t have to pay us for a meal, just let me send a message to Celestia to let her know about you and then you can join us for dinner.” Twilight stated avoiding eye contact doing that pawing thing again but with a small pebble this time.

“Good deal, Ah don’t t’ink my money would be any good here.” I fished out a five dollar bill and decided to try to interact with the purple, naked lizard-man. “Spike? Is that your name? I am Atrox”

Spike looked to Twilight and with a gentle nod from Twilight, Spike answered in a nervous shaky voice. “Y-yes”

“Would you like you take a look at my money? I bet it’s a little different from your’s.” I offered the bill to him. He looked very confused.

“Show me your money if you want me to see it.” Spike declared in a confused tone, no longer nervous from sheer ununderstanding.

“Ah am, this paper is money, Ah should show you my debt card. then you’d be confused.”

Spike snatched it from my hand and looked it over, “It’s so small, it has writing all over it. And little pictures.” after a little while of looking it over Spike held it up to hand back to me.

As I reached for to the bill back Spike sneezed out a fire-ball bigger than my head. I booked it as hard as my stupidly flat feet could allow. After a few steps I was yanked back my leather vest. I landed Hard on my butt, popping my tailbone.

After a gaging and spitting noise caught my attention Twilight began speaking (not the best word to use) “What Is That Stuff Made Of?” the tone Twilight used was that of confusion and disgust.

Looking behind me from the ground I saw spike holding a smoldering fragment of the bill. “Umm, It’s... or it was paper, Ah said it was. It’s got a bunch of stuff in da ink.”

Twilight took a deep breath and sighed, it seemed like she was getting annoyed “I meant that vest of yours. Was is it? It doesn’t taste right.” She said this with a scrunched-up face and her voice was straining to sound pleasant.

My eyes shot open to the fullest extent they could in the realization and implication of her question. I covered my face with my hands and flopped backwards onto the ground hard enough to loudly pop my spine.

I heard a yelp from the fire breathing lizard man. Why the hell was he scared? I can’t think about him now, I have to answer tactfully. My fucking leather vest.

I suppose this is going to be the best opportunity to actually detail what I look like and what I’m wearing, due to the relevance of my clothes to the situation. I am six feet tall and weigh 14 stone, pale, shaved clean on my head. My beard comes in red. Now on to my clothes, you’ll understand why I flopped onto the ground. I had my tall steel toes boots, leather, coming about two thirds the way up my shins, my grey jeans, I think they’re really canvas but whatever. I had a thick shirt, plaid and purple, my leather vest and a leather hat. All the leather was black. Basicly, I was wearing a ton of skin in front of an herbivore.

The stupid vest I made from a motorcycle jacket. I loved how it had many pockets with sturdy fasteners. To be honest it was one of my most prized possessions, I had gotten the jacket when I ran away as a child and had worn it nearly everyday since, when the arms got too short I cut them off. The point I’m trying to make is that is is amazing that a choice in childhood can still affect you years later.

“Umm, Twilight, Is he Okay?” the lizard-man asked. That was it! If she was okay with a lizard, she should be okay with leather, right? Oh fuck it was a gamble and I knew it. I curled up into a ball and rolled forward onto my feet and stood. The time I spent contemplating on what to do, the mismatched duo came closer to my standing form to get a closer look at my face, scowling in concentration.

“Well,” I said in a higher tone than I wished “Ah ‘ave a feelin’ ya ain’t gunna be likin’ muh answer but, it’s leather.” It took some effort to pronounce the ‘th’. I put my hand on my face trying to block all light from reaching my eyes. I didn’t want to see her judging me, even if she was an alien. After a brief moment of awkward silence Twilight cleared her throat.

“What is leather?” she calmly asked. After she said that I had looked at her questioningly. She really didn’t know what it was. I glanced at lizard-boy, he simply shrugged. I took a step back and turned away from them. I really didn’t know what this magic crap was capable of, even if it was just advanced technology. I know there are drugs that can make people tell the truth and tech that can detect lies from Earth. I didn’t want first contact to be based on a lie of any kind. I swallowed hard, closed my eyes, and took a slow deep breath.

“It’s hide.” I said straining not to run away keeping my eyes shut and my hands firmly at my sides. After a few seconds I slowly started to open my eyes.

All I saw was a bright pink flash of light before I found myself in a, well, I guess the best word would be bubble. I could not see through it and it seemed to glow. I tapped the side of the magenta bubble with the back of my hand. it felt hard like glass but It didn’t make any noise. I counted aloud to test my idea “One, two, three.” I didn’t hear my own voice either. I already gave up trying to understanding once I saw the lizard man. I sat down and simply waited.

An undetermined amount of time later, It could have been 15 minutes or an hour, I don’t really know, without warning the bubble burst and dissipated instantaneously. Before me stood a Proper unicorn from legend. Tall, horse sized, a metre long spiral horn, thin and sharp, it’s coat was so white it seemed to glow, the tail and mane was otherworldly. It moved in a breeze that I could not feel, the pastel colours it contained swayed into each other. The beast before me emanated a raw power, the hairs on my arms and back stood out straight. I was terrified, but remained composed. The great white beast looked down towards me and it’s eyes narrowed.

All I could do was weakly wave my hand at it and squeak out “Hello.”