From the Journal of Leon the Dragon

In something that felt like five minutes of this overwhelming white, I began to notice things. Things like... my body hurt, but not in the 'I just got run over by a big rig and I'm bleeding out on the street' kind of hurt. More like a 'I just fell down and got the wind knocked out of me' type. Breathing was hard, my chest hurt a lot, and I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or not since no matter what I tried all I saw was the white. All I could hear was a ringing in my ears.

Gradually I started to make out other colors in vague shapes. As my senses started reporting things other than pain, white light and white noise I was able to figure a few things out. For one, I seemed to be lying on my face, and it felt like I was on some kind of carpet. If my eyes were looking where I thought they were than it seemed to be a light gray carpet, though if there was any kind of pattern in it I couldn't tell through the fuzziness of my vision. And there was something at the edge of my sight that was a dark red. And someone was talking above me, but the continued ringing made it impossible to make out any words yet.

I tried to speak, tried to move, but my body wasn't paying attention to my brain. I think my lips moved a little, but other than that the only movement I managed was to keep blinking my eyes. At least my vision continued to get better. I was sure now that I was looking at carpet. But even more, I noticed at the edge of my sight there was a shoe. It was black and fairly shiny, reminding me of the shoes that went with my dress blues. And I thought that I could just make out the bottom of a black pants leg. This discovery made me wish I could turn my head to see who it belonged to, but my body still wasn't listening.

On the other hand, my hearing was also improving, or maybe it would be better to say the constant ringing was getting softer. I was starting to make out some of the words being said. "... why... him...?" Not a lot to work with, but the voice sounded a bit familiar. Definitely a guy speaking. Maybe French? Hard to tell through the ringing, but it seemed like he had an accent.

"Tha-... -ery nice... was... -inking it wo-... have some-... -een there... talk to."

Whoa! Now THAT voice was really familiar. Like, someone I knew I should remember, but the ongoing pain and other distractions were preventing me from remembering where I knew his voice from.

"... doesn't belong... time...! Send... back... now!" Mister Frenchy didn't sound too happy with the other guy.

"Temper... mon capitaine... only... to help." Man, the way he said that, at least the part I could understand, REALLY made me think I should know who he was. I knew it was going to bug me until I figured it out.

I noticed that it felt like I could get my foot to twitch a little as Mr. Frenchy fired back again. "This isn-... -unny! He -an't -ay here!" Wow this guy is loud! I hadn't realized it before due to my ears, but he must be yelling at the top of his lungs. I mean, at this point I could make out other mumbling voices around me as well as some odd beeping noises to compare to.

Just as I found I could move my hand a little bit, I heard the other guy's response with my rapidly improving hearing. "Fine then!" After that I heard a snap... and then the whiteness claimed me again.

"Oh, but sending you back would be such a waste!"

Strange, I couldn't feel my body... again... but I was still hearing that frustratingly familiar voice.

"Hmm... I know! How about sending you somewhere else you'll be useful?"

As the chuckling of the mysterious voice faded out, I noticed the rest of my senses coming back again. The pain was thankfully less, but my vision and hearing seemed to be messed up again. I tried blinking several times and decided that there was something I was looking at, but what it was I couldn't make out at all. There were a variety of colors this time, and no easily defined shapes to work out. So for the time being, I decided to just leave my eyes closed until the strange white overlay would fade out.

Not worrying about seeing anything let me concentrate on other things. For one thing, my breathing was getting back under control, and I could move my arms and legs around although it hurt to do so. I also realized that I was laying on my back instead of my face this time. I heard a soft dripping noise that seemed to echo a bit. Then I heard the sound of a hollow wind blowing. I started to think I must be in some kind of cave, but then I realized there was a soft rustling sound, as if some leaves were being blown around in the wind, but what would a tree be doing in a cave?

With a massive effort I managed to lift myself up into a sitting position. After deciding my head wasn't going to spin off my shoulders, I cautiously opened my eyes again. With most of my sight back I could confirm that I WAS in a cave, and the entrance was in clear view and didn't look like it would be hard to reach. On the other hand, it almost seemed like there was more light coming from behind me than from the opening in front of me, so I carefully shifted around to look the other way.

And there was the tree. The first thought I remember having was that all those people who told me gemstones don't grow on trees were wrong. This tree living inside of a cave had a brightly shining gem at the end of each major branch, and the whole trunk had an obvious glow. I was just starting to notice the oddly familiar shapes these gems were in when the strangest thing so far happened and blew away all working thoughts.

The tree talked to me.

It wasn't in words or even images so much as... sensations. I felt an overwhelming sense of welcoming, joy, and a sense of love like being hugged by my parents. The tree was happy to have me here. It needed to tell me something. And in a whirlwind of colors, emotions, sounds, and scents it started to flood my mind.

I came out of my rapture to find myself on my hands and knees still staring up at the tree with someone tapping me on the shoulder. As the tapping started to become impatient I shook my head to help clear it and let whoever it was know I was awake now. As I worked at standing up, I finally realized that I could hear several feet shuffling around in the dirt behind me. But when I turned around I almost fell over from the shocking sight it revealed!

Standing in front of me was an anthro horse woman. With lavender fur. And a horn on her forehead. And wings. And... no clothes. But the human-ish parts didn't stop me from recognizing who had been tapping me. After all, I've seen my fair share of fan art.

"Twilight Sparkle?!"