The Trials Of the Elements

Chapters

1. The Beginning of the Trials
2. A New World
3. The Explanation
4. A Supernatural Experience

1. The Beginning of the Trials

It was just as normal a day as ever in Ponyville, Twilight had finished her weekly book sorting of the library and was now about to write a letter to tell her about what she learned about friendship.

"Spike take a note." Twilight said. But as Spike took out a scroll and quill he felt the usual feeling of a letter coming.

Spike burped out the letter "Actually Twilight it seems Princess Celestia sent you a letter." Spike said holding the letter in his claw toward Twilight.

“I was just about to send a letter to her, I wonder what she want’s?” Twilight asked, taking the letter from spike with her magic.

“Dear Twilight Sparkle I am sending you this letter to request the presence of you and your friends as I need to speak to you about something urgent” Twilight read out loud.

“The Princess want’s to speak with me and my friends, I wonder what about?” Twilight said as she ran around to grab everything she needed which included different types of books, quills, and ink jars.

“Uummm Twilight, I don’t think you’re going to need to bring many things besides your friends.” Spike said rolling his eyes.

Twilight looked at Spike for a moment before smiling sheepishly, “Oh yeah..heh heh.”

When Twilight and her friends got to the castle they were greeted by the guards and went straight to the throne room to meet Celestia.

“Hello Twilight it’s good to see you and your friends again, and I would love to catch up about your findings in the meaning of friendship but I think we should cut right to the chase if that’s alright with you” Celestia asked as soon as Twilight and her friends got comfortable.

“ummm...alright I guess that’s okay if it's that important” Twilight said wondering what could be more important then her findings on the magic of friendship.

Celestia looked around to make sure the girls were listening, satisfied she started to speak “Twilight I have called you and your friends here for a very important reason, it seems that we have discovered an entirely new dimension.”

Twilight and her friends were just staring at the princess trying to process what they had just heard, after a while Rainbow finally spoke up "WHAT!?" she screamed

Twilight couldn't speak upon hearing the unbelievable news, when she was finally able to think of something to say "What is this new universe?" she asked

"I'm glad you asked Twilight." Celestia said looking at her student "This world seems to inhabit a different species entirely from Equestria, and we would like to learn about them."

"Ooh maybe they're weird monster's with tentacles or something or maybe they have six eyes and fourteen wings but they don't use them to fly which only makes them weirder and-" Applejack covered Pinkie's mouth with her hoof before she could continue with her crazy theories.

"Ah think we should let th' Princess tell us what th' creature's are like" Applejack said as Pinkie was trying to speak through her hoof.

"Thank you Applejack" Celestia smiled at the orange mare "Now this world seems to be inhabited by creature's known as human's"

"Hu...man's?" Twilight said curiously, obviously intrigued at this new discovery "How much do we know about them?"

"Not much, but we do know that they are completely different from us ponies in many ways" Celestia said to the six mares.

"In what ways?" Twilight asked.

"Well first of all they don't seem to have hooves, instead they have weird things on the end of their arms which from what I could gather are called hands." Celestia did her best to explain but was not helping the girls confusion at all.

"Hands? What are hands?" Twilight asked perplexed.

"They seem to be like griffon claws, except they're not sharp." Celestia explained.

This example helped the girls understand it a lot more "Oooooooh I get it now so they can pick up things with and without their magic that's super helpful!" Pinkie started another rant but before she could continue AppleJack had put her hoof over her mouth again.

Princess Celestia shook her head "No it doesn't seem they have magic."

This shocked everypony in the room "They don't have magic!?" Twilight was clearly the most shocked and intrigued by this fact.

"Yes it does seem like that, it seems like they get everything done with hard work and imagination." Celestia continued to explain.

"So yer sayin that they're just like us earth ponies?" Applejack said with a smile.

"Yes I guess so." Celestia responded thinking about this.

"Well now ah want to learn more about these humans." Applejack said rubbing her hoof against her chin.

"Yes I would like to learn more about them as well, is there any way we can Princess?" Twilight asked Celestia with a hopeful look on her face.

"Yes there is a way we can learn more about them." as Celestia said this Twilight had an ear to ear smile on her face "But we will need to bring them here to properly study and we can't bring many here." Celestia said in a serious tone.

"Why not?" Twilight said Puzzled after hearing this piece of information.

"Because I'm not sure how much they can be trusted, they seem to not be as nice as the citizens in Equestria, they seem to...fight a lot and argue about every little thing" Celestia said in what seemed to be a disappointed tone.

"So how are we going to know which humans to trust?" Twilight asked already thinking of ways to find a human to trust.

Celestia gave a smile to the purple unicorn "Oh I think I know a way."

Author's Note

Well if your reading this than you must've read the first chapter so thanks for that. :pinkiehappy:
I thought I should inform you on a few things since you read this far, sooo here goes.
1. For the sake of the story to not have too many questions Twilight's not gonna be an Alicorn yet so she does not know anything about the human world
2. This Story though I'm not planning it too be the longest story ever might take a while just because I have trouble coming up with ideas.
3. Even though I said it in the original description I thought I should say feel free to critique if I messed up anywhere and I'll fix it ASAP
4. This chapter was made in third person to describe how the Trials came to be, in the other chapters I'll try my best to write them in first person but if that doesn't work out I'll just keep writing in third person

2. A New World

It was a beautiful spring day and John was taking a walk through the park, it had just went from winter to spring so there was still some snow on the ground but he didn't really care, while winter wasn't his favorite season it wasn't as bad as people said it was. It was actually one of his favorite seasons, he liked the fact that it wasn't really hot like summer and it didn't make his allergies go crazy. So it was a close second behind spring as his favorite season.

As he walked down the path he was looking up to the sky "It's such a beautiful day. No clouds in the sky, the sun is shining, and there's a nice breeze to go along with it, reminds me of the episode where the ponies wrapped up winter" he said to himself, humming the catchy song to himself that the ponies sang in that episode.

He was walking down the path of the park, looking at all the puddles of water left from the melting snow. Suddenly he got an urge to jump in the puddle like he did when he was a kid but he knew better than to do things like that in public, so he just dropped some snow in it to subdue the urge of stomping through the puddle, not only would it be really embarrassing but it would also ruin not only his shoes, but his pants as well.

He was still walking down the path when suddenly he saw a flash of light almost directly in front of him "What the h-?" was all he was able to get out before he fell backwards, 'Oww that hurt.' he thought "What was that?" he opened his eyes, except when he opened his eyes he saw the impossible, right there in front of him was the same characters from the show he was just thinking about "W-what in the hell!!" he yelled in shock and disbelief at the sight in front of him.

"Is this the place princess?" Twilight asked looking around the new area they were now in.

"It's really pretty here." Fluttershy said also looking around at the park they had appeared in.

"Yes it is truly beautiful here darling." Rarity said looking around the park "Could do without all the mud though."

John might've looked a little calm on the outside, but on the inside he was freaking out all he could think to himself was 'HOLY CRAP THE MANE SIX AND CELESTIA ARE STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!!' he tried to opened his mouth to speak but he couldn't find the words to use, all he could get out of his mouth was a small squeak.

"Hey he sounds just like Fluttershy" Rainbow said pointing at him with her hoof falling down laughing as John's face started to turn red with embarrassment

"Ummm I don't really sound like that...do I?" Fluttershy asked barely audible, after she asked, John swore he could hear a tiny squeak coming from her.

"Umm you kinda do actually...and it's really cute" John said looking sheepishly at them hoping they wouldn't think he was weird from his comment. He didn't want them to get off at the wrong foot or hoof in their case and the last thing he wanted was for them to avoid him thinking he was some sort of weirdo.

Fluttershy's face started to turn visibly red "oh uhh.. thanks" Fluttershy said really quietly while looking down at the ground.

Rainbow looked at John with a confused look on her face "Oookay that was weir-" Rainbow was interrupted as Pinkie suddenly gasped really loud, making John jump to his feet and quickly look for someplace to hide as he knew what was coming, Yet John quickly realized there was no immediate place to hide, he suddenly felt a chill go up his spine as he knew what the next ten seconds were gonna be like 'Shit' he thought to himself as he heard the sound of what he could only describe as by what he heard, either every bronies greatest dream...or their worst nightmare.

"Oh my gosh a new friend I love new friends will you be my friend!!" John slowly nodded his head, clearly terrified, but Pinkie didn't seem to notice "Yaaay now that we're friends I can throw a 'I made a new friend today' party and we will be the bestest of friends and we'll have fun playing and-." Pinkie suddenly gasped again "Wait a minute." she looked around and the biggest smile John had ever seen in his life appeared on her face "Oh my gosh there are new friends EVERYWHERE!!!" Pinkie tried to run to meet new people but was suddenly enveloped in a yellow light as she started to float up.

Celestia sighed "It appears I have no choice, I'm sorry I have to do this." Celestia said to John as her horn started to glow even brighter than it had before "I'm sure we will meet again." was the last thing he heard before everything went black.

********************************

"Ooooww..my head." John groaned while rubbing his head which was in pain for a reason he could not seem to remember. "What happened?" John said to nobody in particular as he was the only one living in his apartment. His apartment wasn't that big, but it was big enough for one person to live in. Which was okay since he was the person living there, and he wasn't planning on anyone moving in anytime soon, he didn't have a girlfriend and all his friends didn't live anywhere near him. But from what he was told they were doing pretty well for themselves. So they weren't in need to move in, plus even if they did they had others closer to them that they could move in with instead.

He got out of his bed and started staggering to the bathroom. "I need an aspirin." he said fumbling with his medicine cabinet looking for the right bottle. When he finally found it he took two and went to the kitchen for some breakfast, as he was eating his breakfast of a few waffles when he started thinking about what he was doing yesterday that gave him such a bad headache in the first place.

It was a Saturday so he wouldn't have to go to work, not that he liked his job at the bank much anyway, I mean yeah it payed well but it wasn't the most fun thing to do for eight hours a day, doing the same thing every single day. Someone comes in, asks to pay off a loan or to take a loan, go accept it, rinse repeat.

After about an hour the most he could clearly remember was that he was going for a walk in the park, and he started thinking about My Little Pony. He also remembered that he started humming Winter Wrap up to himself, but everything after that was a blurry mess.

He eventually decided to go for another walk 'Maybe I'll be able to remember if I go walk in the park again.' He thought to himself as he put on a Hoodie and walked out the door.

**********************

"Ummmm Princess?" Twilight said to Celestia nervously.

Celestia looked at her student with a smile "Yes Twilight, what is it?"

"Why did you have to erase that man's memory? He didn't seem like a bad person." Twilight didn't like to question her mentor's choices, but she just had know the reason for this one.

Twilight had just witnessed Princess Celestia send the strange man to what Celestia said was his home and was curious about how Celestia knew where he lived.

Celestia sighed "Well Twilight, we can't be sure about anyone here until we go through with the trials, besides..." Celestia looked down to the purple unicorn and smiled " I have a feeling we'll see him again soon." She said to the now even more confused unicorn.

But Twilight had one more question she wanted to know the answer to. "Princess, one more thing." Twilight said

"What is it Twilight?" Celestia said to her student.

"How did you know where he lived? We've never seen him before, so I don't understand how you knew where to send him." Twilight asked

Applejack nodded in agreement "Yeah ah've been wondering that too, it doesn't make sense how you just knew were to teleport em."

Celestia smiled " Oh is that all you wanted to know, I just did a identification spell on him to find out where he lived then I sent him there."

"Is that it?" Twilight asked curious.

Celestia looked down at Twilight "Well I also had some help from Pinkie."

Twilight saw this as a understandable answer and decided not to question it any longer. After all, never question Pinkie Pie.

********************************

'Here we are, back at the park.' John thought to himself as he got to the park from his last memories of the previous day. 'Hopefully this will help me with the blank spots from yesterday.' He thought as he entered the park and walked down the familiar path.

After about thirty minutes of walking down the path John found himself on the complete other side of the park with no idea of what happened the day before. So he just decided to walk down the street to think.

As John was walking down the street he noticed a crowd starting to form in front of the convention center "Hm? What's going on over there?" He started heading to the steps of the center when he saw something that booted all of his lost memories back into place in ten seconds flat.

Right there at the top of the steps...was Princess Celestia, and the mane six standing a few steps behind her, and a giant banner behind them that read Welcome To The Trial's of The Elements.

Author's Note

Another chapter done with, and more things to explain. First of all thanks for reading the second chapter, it means a lot to me. :pinkiehappy: Now on to the things you should know
1. There will be NO SHIPPING in this story, that moment with John and Fluttershy might look like I'm shipping them. But I can guarantee you I'm not.
2. I'm still new to writing fanfictions so tips are always appreciated, If you notice something wrong that I missed, feel free to comment the problem and I will fix it.

3. The Explanation

John suddenly remembered everything that had happened in the past day, from walking down the path to the park to running into the mane six and talking to them. Then Celestia used what he now assumed was a memory spell that erased his memory.

'I'm sure we'll meet again.'

That was the last thing Celestia said before erasing his memory, but how did she know that they would meet again?

John heard multiple whispers as more and more people started gathering to see what was going on.

"What's going on? What are those things?"

"Oh my god! I must be dreaming...OW!!! What was that for!?

"You acknowledge pain, therefore you aren't dreaming. So this is one hundred percent real."

John couldn't help but chuckle as the two men had started to quietly argue, it reminded him of Twilight whenever she was in a scientific moment.

"WELCOME FILLIES AND!! er I mean... Welcome ladies and gentlemen!"

Speak of the devil.

John looked up to where the voice was coming from and wasn't surprised to see the lavender unicorn standing in front of the others, in front of a microphone. Her face was slightly red after messing up the greeting and he could see Rainbow behind her stifling a laugh.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, I am a unicorn from a land called Equestria." She took out some notecards and flipped through them, then looked back up to the audience. "Me and my friends have come to your planet of...Earth, to learn more about your species."

Everyone in the audience that wasn't confused before was definitely confused now, of course there were still people that were just extremely excited by the multicolored ponies talking to them.

"But... as we learned about your world, there are a lot of you that simply cannot be trusted, you see...It seems to us that your world is plagued by violence and greed. So we can’t trust you to come to our world." Twilight said to the huge audience in front of her.

Hearing this hurt John, and a lot of people in the crowd, he had never done anything violent in his life, I mean yeah he thought about doing violent things every once and awhile but he never did any of it. He never liked Earth's habit of using violence to solve answers. So assuming all humans were bad was just plain bad judgment.

"But, we have found a way to trust one of you so that we can bring you to Equestria." Twilight said with a reassuring smile.

John was surprised with what Twilight had just said, 'A way to go to Equestria!? That can really happen, I thought all those Fanfictions were fake.' He thought to himself.

The whispers around got noticeably louder. From surprises that a new world exists, too more people not believing that this was happening which lead to more pinching and arguing.

“However before I reveal how we are going to trust one of you.” Twilight said once the crowd started to quiet down. “I’d like to introduce me and my friends, officially starting with me. My name is Twilight Sparkle, I am a unicorn from the land of Equestria and I am the student of Princess Celestia and I represent the Element of Magic.”

Twilight turned around to face the five multicolored ponies behind her. “Now who would like to go ne-.”Twilight was interrupted when Pinkie Pie suddenly jumped out of her mane.

John decided it would be best to cover his ears, as did many others in the audience

“OOH!! ME!! I WANNA GO NEXT!!” Pinkie yelled right into the microphone making everyone in the people who didn’t cover their ears go near deaf.

“My name is Pinkie Pie, I live and work in Sugarcube corner, which is a bakery with Mr and Mrs.Cake, and the two CUTEST FOALS IN THE WORLD Pound and Pumpkin. Also I represent the element of laughter.”

John was surprised with how little Pinkie said, but he decided that it was a miracle that she didn't say much and didn't question, afraid that she would somehow read his mind and keep talking.

"Alright...thank you Pinkie." Twilight said, clearly still shaken as the pink mare retracted back into her mane and disappeared, later appearing behind her somehow. "Now, who's next?"

Applejack walked up to Twilight. "Ah'll go next sugarcube."

"Okay Applejack, go right ahead." Twilight signaled to the microphone with her hoof.

Applejack trotted up to the microphone "Howdy y'all, mah name is Applejack. In Equestria Ah live an' work on Sweet Apple Acres, where we buck apples to help feed Ponyville. Ah love mah family more than anything else, an' Ah represent the element of honesty.

As Applejack walked back to the group, Twilight also turned around, she was about to ask who would go next, when she realized a certain rainbow maned pegasus was missing.

Twilight sighed "Where's Rainbow?"

Rarity rolled her eyes and then pointed up towards the sky with her hoof.

Rainbow suddenly flew straight towards the ground, and stopped right before colliding with the hard surface.

"You called Twilight?" Rainbow said to the unamused looking unicorn.

"Yes Rainbow, would you like to introduce yourself next?" Twilight said to Rainbow.

"Ummmm OF COURSE I wanna introduce myself next, why wouldn't I want to introduce them to my awesomeness." Rainbow said pointing her hoof to herself.

Rainbow flew up to the microphone, threw it up, and grabbed it in her hoof.

" My name is Rainbow Dash, the fastest, coolest, most awesome pegasus ever!! I live in a cloud house just outside Ponyville. My dream is to be a member of the Wonderbolts, the best flying team in all of Equestria!" She said emphasizing select points with her hooves.

"Oh yeah, I also represent the element of loyalty. The best element there is." She added in.

As Rainbow walked back into the group, Twilight turned to face them.

"Alright, who would like to introduce themselves next?" Twilight asked with an asking smile.

"I think I would like to introduce myself next darling." Rarity said, eyes gleaming.

Twilight smiled. "Okay Rarity, go right ahead."

Rarity Walked gracefully up to the microphone.

"Hello darlings, my name is Rarity, first thing about me is that I am a fashion designer at my very own Carousel Boutique. Where I make fabulous clothes for all of Ponyville, and one day... for ALL OF EQUESTRIA!!!"

The crowd looked at Rarity as she pointed to the sky with her hoof.

"Also my element of harmony is generousity." She added in with a smile.

Twilight turned around with a smile. "Alright, now all thats left is Fluttersh-" She looked around in confusion, the butter colored pegasus was not on the stage.

Rainbow rolled her eyes and pointed over to the curtain behind them, where there was a light pink tail coming out from under them.

"Fluttershy, its time to introduce yourself." Twilight said to the trembling pegasus.

"Oh.. well, its just.. there are so many poni- people, out there, and I don't think I can, do it." She said meekly.

Applejack trotted up with a smile. "Aw don't be silly sugarcube, all ya have to do is go up to th' microphone an' say yer name, tell them what ya do in Ponyville, an' what yer element is. It'll be easy." The orange country mare said.

"Yeah Fluttershy." Pinkie chimed in. "Just go up there, we'll be right next to you to help."

Fluttershy peered around her friends at the big audience behind them. She took a deep breath. "Okay I'll try."

The five mares beamed as Fluttershy trotted up to the microphone with a determined look on her face, as she got up to the mic her face of determination slowly dropped to more of a timid look.

"Uh, Fluttershy?" Twilight said to the creamy colored pegasus. "Are you okay?" She asked the now slightly trembling pegasus.

Fluttershy looked as if she was going to pass out at any second. "It's just that..they're all staring at me." She said meekly.

"Uum yeah, what else would they be doing? Your standing at the mic about to introduce yourself." Rainbow said.

Fluttershy looked back at the rainbow pegasus. "Y-yeah but-"

"THIS IS FLUTTERSHY!!!" Pinkie suddenly yelled out of nowhere.

Everyone in the audience, including John, screamed in agony as they could no longer hear anything briefly, due to the sudden high pitched scream that was Pinkies voice.

"Pinkie! What in the hay did ya do that fer!?" Applejack yelled after the ringing in her ears stopped.

"The introductions were taking too long and thew writer felt like it was taking too long, and the reader was getting tired of it." She said with a smile.

Everyone, including the audience and the girls, looked at Pinkie Pie as if she had said that she was a pegasus.

"Uuummm, what are you talking about Pinkie?" Rainbow asked.

"You know, the readers!! The ones reading this right now, and the writer. The right writing everything we're saying right now." She said smiling

"....Best not to question it, probably just Pinkie being Pinkie." Rainbow whispered to the other four.

"agreed" the rest of the girls whispered among themselves.

"Now." Twilight said as she looked up to the crowd, who were just as confused as Twilight and her friends at Pinkies outburst about readers and writers and whatnot. "Lets get back to the introductions."

Fluttershy started to slightly tremble again, but Twilight looked back at her with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry." she whispered. "If you can't do it, then I can just introduce you."

Fluttershy smiled at this. "Thank you Twilight. I'll try my best."

Fluttershy walked back up to the microphone, looked out into the crowd, and said in a confident voice. "Hello everyone, my name is Fluttershy, I just love taking care of animals back home. I hope you all have a good time at the event we've hosted for you...um... if you want to that is." The last part being said barely audible.

All the five mares behind Fluttershy could do was watch mouths agape and their eyes wide as she introduced herself with no hesitation at all, even the people in the audience, including John, who knew who she was and knew about how shy she was couldn't believe that she introduced herself so easily.

Fluttershy trotted back over to the other five mares, who were still looking at her in disbelief. But once she got to them, her legs started to slightly tremble again. "Was that okay?" She asked her friends.

There were several whispers coming from the six of them, all of them either exclaiming their amazement, or asking if they were with the real Fluttershy.

After they finished whispering, they noticed the crowd becoming restless. Twilight walked up to the mic and held it with her magic. "Fluttershy has forgotten to mention that she wields the element of kindness, but this was a big moment for her so I think we can let it slide."

"I should mention that Equestrias ruler, Princess Celestia could not be here at the actual event because she's preoccupied with ruling Equestria."

'That seems fair.' John thought to himself, after all, who was he to question how the ruler of a country did things.

But she will be appearing at the end of the event to congratulate the winner and to give them their prize." Twilight said

John was surprised by what Twilight had said. 'Prize? What prize?'

"Anyways, now that the introductions are over. It's time to reveal what this event will be about." She raised her hoof to a banner above the stage, as she did the paper covering what it said disappeared in a flash of light, confusing most audience members.

"Welcome! to The trails of the elements!!" The entire audience looked at the talking unicorn in utmost confusion, which Twilight didn't seem to notice as she continued with her speech. "This event will mark great importance, not only to human history, but to equestrian history as well. As during this event, you will all be tested in six trials to show that you are trustworthy to..." She paused for what John could only assume was for dramatic effect, and it was working. His heart was pounding wondering what this would be for.

"...Come to Equestria!!"

'Wait...what?' Was the only thought John had when Twilight had finished. Go to Equestria? Of course he had always wanted to go live there, every brony he had asked answered the same thing, 'If I were given the opportunity, I was say yes in a heartbeat.' But he never expected that to actually happen, and if it ever did, he certainly never expected it to happen while he was alive. It was an understatement to say he was thrilled, he was finally given a chance to go to a truly perfect world. But at the same time, he was nervous, would he be able to come back to this world? How would he explain this to his friends, or his family in that case.

'I'll see if I can ask about that if I get the chance.' He thought to himself.

Twilight started to speak again, so John looked back up at the stage.

"Now, let me explain how the trails will work."

As she said this, she looked at Pinkie and nodded, Pinkie responded by jumping up and pulling down a screen seemingly out of nowhere, Twilight then shot a beam out of here horn towards the screen, and an image appeared, acting like a projector.

"These challenges have been set up to test you all in varying degrees of friendship, to determine which one of you will be trustworthy enough to bring to Equestria."

Twilight pointed to her friends with her hoof.

"Each one of us will give you a challenge that will test how much you represent the element, if you can pass all the tests. Then you will be allowed into Equestria. But, in order to make sure no one unwanted gets in, only one of you will be allowed into Equestria..."

'Okay, so only one person can go to Equestria.' John thought to himself. 'But will I be allowed to go back?'

Then, as if Twilight had read Johns mind, she looked up and, with a serious face said.

"It's also important to mention that once you go to Equestria, you will not be able to come back."

Author's Note

God, I FINALLY finished the chapter. I got really distracted with either school, or just me being lazy. (get it together me)
Anyway, hope you enjoy the new chapter. I'm going to try to give myself deadlines to finish these so, hopefully that will help this go faster :pinkiehappy:

4. A Supernatural Experience

"It's also important to mention that once you go to Equestria, you will not be able to come back."

That was the last thing Twilight had said to the large crowd in front of her, and John was still having trouble taking in this statement.

‘I won't be able to return ever?’ He thought to himself in disbelief.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing, it made sense when he thought about it more, but that didn't make it any easier to accept. He was given the opportunity to go to the perfect world, where there was rarely any war and there was friendship all around you no matter where you were. But in order to go there he had to give up everything he'd accomplished on earth. All his friends, family, and..and...

"And what?" He said quietly to himself as he came to the sudden realization that... he didn't have much here. All of his friends lived nowhere near him, who was he kidding with family, the only family he had was a sister who didn't like him, and a brother that was in jail. Other than that, he had no one, and while his job didn't pay that bad, he was still getting paid enough to only live in an apartment.

"I guess I could go for an upgrade." He quietly said to himself, looking down at the ground.

'Then I guess it's decided.' He thought to himself as he looked back up to the stage. 'I'll try my best in these "Trials" that they have set up, if I manage to somehow win, I'll go live out the rest of my days in Equestria, if I don't, no need to be mad. It will be extremely disappointing, but I have one of the better lives as it is.' He monologues as a sly smile slowly grows on his face.

John looked back to the stage, Twilight was still talking about the trials.

"...And that's all you need to know about the actual trials." Twilight smirked as she opened her mouth to speak again. "Except of course for one catch."

There were multiple whispers in the audience, well, if you could call it an audience anymore. It seemed that after Twilight had announced that you couldn't return from Equestria, a lot of people left, of course there were still a fair amount of people, probably mostly bronies who want to live the dream life.

"There is one rule that everyone must follow." Twilight started to say when everyone got quiet. "Since these are trials that will test your abilities in friendship, it only makes sense that you should do them with a partner."

This shocked everyone in the audience. Most people weren't that worried, as they had friends that were in the audience with them, but the people like John, who didn't have many friends were very worried and quickly washed with disappointment as they realized that they couldn't participate without one. But none of the audience members could have predicted or expected was what Twilight said next.

"But there is a catch to this catch, the friend who you team up with must not only be someone from this audience, but they must also be someone that you don't know."

There was a silence in the audience as Twilight said these last words, no one really knew how to react to this stipulation. Many groaned out of displeasure, while others were silent because of shock.

John didn’t feel any more hopeful than he had before, sure, this meant he had more people to choose from. But he still had to build up the courage to go up to someone and ask if they wanted to team up on something as big as this.

After the initial shock had started to die down a little, Twilight continued.

“Now, the reason you must team up with someone else is because we want to test how easily you can make friends.” She stopped and took a breath before continuing. “Of course we’re not saying that if you have great difficulties making friends, that you will not belong in Equestria. It’s just that we want to know about how long it would take for you to become accustomed to a brand new world, surrounded by a different species. Obviously it would be lonely for you, so we have decided to see how much we will have to help you with making friends.” She explained very clearly to the audience.

This seemed to make sense to everyone in the audience, as some people were already looking around for someone to partner with.

“Now hold on everyone.” Twilight said, directing the audience's attention back up to her. “There are a few rules for the trials that you’re going to want to know, there aren’t many, but they are very important.”

Some people in the audience groaned as they heard the mention of rules, but Twilight ignored them.

“Rule number one is, of course: You must be partnered with someone you don’t know and have only met today. If we find out you were friends before this you will be immediately disqualified. Rule number two: You are all working together in this, even if you are not all going to win. If you try to sabotage anyone in the duration of the trials, you will be immediately disqualified.
Rule number three:” Twilight gave the audience a reassuring smile. “Have fun.”

Most people gave a sigh of relief when they realized there were only really two rules.

Twilight looked as if she suddenly remembered something. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The princess of Equestria could not make it to the actual trials, as she has plenty of princess duties, but she will be observing the trials as they go on so, smile, cause you’re being watched. Twilight said with a chuckle.

Most of the audience including John, who had been listening quietly, repeating the two simple, but important rules that were in place.

After he had repeated the rules enough to never forget them for the rest of his life. He started to look around for someone to partner up with, while thinking of how to break the ice with the person he decided on.

“Alright everyone!” Twilight said loudly as she raised her hoof in the air. “Your first challenge will be to make a friend, on your mark... get set...GO!!”

Almost immediately chaos was everywhere in the audience, people were pretty much shoving others out of the way to find a suitable partner. There were a lot of people who found a suitable partner almost immediately, while others took a while to find one, and then there were the people who had yet to even talk to someone. John was in that group.

John had not moved right away so he wouldn’t get swept up in the frenzy of people running around. Once things started to calm down he started to look around for someone who looked nice enough to be his friend.

“Now who would make a good friend?” John said to himself, walking around the area. Eventually, he saw someone walking around looking around, probably for someone to quickly make friends with as well.

It was a man, about the same age as him. He had blonde, short hair, and was wearing a shirt which at first glance, looked to be a doctor who shirt. But at a second look, you could tell that it was a crossover between doctor who and my little pony.

However, before he got a chance to go up to introduce himself. The man started to walk up to someone else, shying away about twenty feet away from the girl. But he wasn’t making any attempt to talk to her and by the looks of it, was starting to turn a little pale. Then, before the man could even think about talking to the girl, another man came up and immediately started talking to her, they eventually walked away, side-by-side.

The man looked utterly defeated, looking down at his shoes, on the verge of tears. John knew he needed comforting, so John took a deep breath, and walked up to the man.

“Well that didn’t go too well, did it?” He said, making the man jump. “Whoops, sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” John said with a smile.

The man looked at John first with disbelief that someone was talking to him of all people, but then he started to look shy and looked nervous, not knowing what to say.

John looked at the man and held out his hand. “My name’s John, what’s yours?” He asked, giving the man a reassuring smile.

The man gave a small smile. “My name’s…” The man hesitated for a bit before answering. “...Sam.” He said as he gave a small smile.

John smiled as the man who he had only just met was starting to open up to him. “Well, it’s nice to meet you Sam, nice shirt.” John said as he pointed down to Sam's shirt.

Sam started to visibly open up more as he realized him and John shared an interest, and therefore had something to talk about. “Oh, thanks.” He said with a clear smile.

“Do you like doctor who or my little pony more?” John said, striking up a conversation.

“That’s a pretty tough question.” Sam said as he started to open up a bit more, to the point of chuckling even. Sam thought about the question before he gave his answer. “I’d have to say my little pony.” Sam said.

“Why is that?” John asked. “I don’t know much about doctor who, but from what I’ve heard, it’s really good.”

“Oh yeah, it’s about as good as many fans are able to describe it, but there are a couple creepy things that come from it, like the weeping angels and the Daleks.” Sam explained.

“Yeah, I guess they are kinda creepy. But my little pony has its fair share of creepy things, such as chrysalis and the cockatrice.”

“Yeah that’s true, but they’re more creepy in a cute sort of way, you know?” Sam said to John, who put his head down in thought as Sam finished.

Once John put his head back up, he had a smile once again. “Yeah, I guess I can see what you mean. But it’s still creepy for a kids show.” He said.

“That’s true.” Sam said, now seemingly to have fully opened up and was laughing. “Just imagine if there was a creature that was so cute, it was scary.” Sam said sarcastically, which caused John to laugh in response.

“Hahaha, yeah, that would be a weird.” John replied after he stopped laughing from imagining what something so cute it was scary would look like.

“Hey! You two!” A voice called down from above them. John and sam looked up to see Rainbow Dash floating above them. “You’ve been talking for five minutes now, if you’re gonna partner up then you should get over there!” She said pointing over to Twilight and the others.

John and Sam instantly snapped out of the conversation they were having. “Oh yeah, the trials!!” John shouted.

Sam looked over to John with a shocked look on his face, which quickly turned into a smile as he realized something.

“Hey!” Sam looked behind to see John waving over to him. “You coming?” Sam quickly nodded as he started to catch up to John and ran next to him, as he thought to himself.

‘I made a friend, and it wasn’t even that hard.’

***************************************

John and Sam had gotten back to the stage, it hadn’t looked that far away when Rainbow pointed towards it. But it had taken roughly another five minutes before they arrived in front of Twilight, who was smiling as she saw them run up the steps.

The first thing John noticed was the ridiculously long list that Twilight was holding with her magic. ‘Is that how many people are apart of this?’ He thought to himself in shock by just how many people that him and Sam were going up against.

“Hello, thank you for participating in the trials, my name is Twilight Sparkle.” She said, holding out a hoof.

John held out his hand and shook her hoof. “Hello, my name is John, thanks for giving us a chance to participate in this. It is extremely exciting.”

“I know, it’s a big thing for both of our worlds.” She said, with a huge grin plastered on her face. She then turned over to Sam, reaching out her hoof to him. “And you are?” She asked.

Sam hesitated before grabbing the unicorns hand and shaking it quite hard. “It’s such an honor to meet you, my name is Sam.” He said excitedly, shaking Twilight's hoof, maybe a little too hard.

“Yes I’ve been getting that from a lot of people, I was aware that this world was extremely different than ours, and I had really high expectations coming here to learn about new things. But even with how much I’ve been told this place was different, it was still hard to believe that we were just a Saturday morning cartoon to you.” She said in disbelief.

“It’s almost the same to us.” John said. “Except to us, you were just a cartoon, and it’s a surprise that you actually exist.” He explained.

“It really is crazy.” Sam added.

John nodded. “The universe is a big place.” He said.

“It really is.” Twilight said, smiling. “Just think about it, there are hundreds upon hundreds of galaxies out there, and in those galaxies there are hundreds of planets, and millions upon millions of stars.”

John put up his hand. “Twilight, the universe is a humongous place. We know this.”

“Ah yes, of course you do.” Twilight said smiling sheepishly and blushing.

Twilight got back into more of a professional posture. “Now, you are accepted into The Trials of The Elements, and before I forget, here you go.”

Twilight’s horn glowed before a blinding light flashed over John and Sam’s chest. When the light went away, they looked down and saw a badge of some sort on the front of their shirts.

“What are these?” John asked, as he lifted his shirt to get a closer look at it

It was a very cool looking badge, it was in the shape of a purple, six pointed star, Twilight’s element of harmony. And upon closer examination, it didn’t appear it be made from any sort of plastic or metal. It was a gem, an actual gem shaped into Twilight’s element.

John was astonished that she was just handing something this valuable to them.

“A-are you sure about this?” He asked hesitantly. “Isn’t something like this extremely valuable?”

“To you right here and now? Yes it is, as it acts as a reminder for how many trials you’ve cleared, to us? No, this is a gem that you can find quite frequently if you look in the right places.” Twilight explained.

John and sam held their moves open in aghast, amazed at how such a perfect looking gem could be found by digging in the dirt in Equestria.

“Anyway.” Twilight said as she stepped to the side and used her magic to open the door. “Right this way to your test of friendship.” She said as she motioned her hoof inside the building.

John looked over to Sam, and smiled. “Here we go, we may not win. But we’ll do our best.”

“Right!” Sam said as he and John fist bumped.

And with that, they walked inside.

Author's Note

Finally I've finished chapter four.

I would've had this out much sooner but things did not factor well in my favor, what with me getting sick with mono and strep, and then just as I was recovering, having a dentist appointment.

Anyway, the chapters done, a new rule to the trials have been added, John found a good friend in the quiet Sam, and they completed the first trial. But of course things won't be as easy as make a friend later on.

Thanks to everyone who's kept reading up to this point and feel free to give thoughts or questions you have in the comments. I always appreciate it. :pinkiehappy:

P.S. And of course, if I made any mistakes, grammar or spelling, you can correct them as well.

P.P.S I will also be taking a little break before I start on the next chapter so that I can get settled into the new trimester.