Who... and WHAT are you?

Who… and WHAT are you?

“Wow, what a trip… That took a lot out of me… Next time, I should probably ask for help from Rarity…” a small, strange talking animal muttered to itself after emerging from what I’d guess was a portal.

“Get the f… how does somethin’ like this even…?” I whispered to myself loudly.

“Oh, hello there!” the home invader spoke aloud. I almost moved to hide myself back behind my bed, but figured I’d surrender, as the being had already spotted me.

“Um… hello,” I sheepishly replied.

“Hi! My name is Twilight Sparkle! Who… and what, may I ask are you?” the strange creature asked as I crawled from cover, ironically looking as confused as I did.

“Uh… My name is Tyshawn… I’m… a human,” I barely managed to shakily murmur as I was still looking in shock at the creature standing before me and talking.

“Well, Tyshawn, I’m very sorry to have alarmed you like this. You see, I was practicing this spell I had recently learned which was supposed to allow me to travel great distances across Equestria, and I—!”

“Okay, sorry to interrupt, uhh… Twilight Sprinkles, but you don’t even have to finish that sentence for me to have a ton of questions…” I skeptically interrupted, the fear in my voice gone. “Also, you ain’t in any place called ‘Equestria,’” I added, wondering what horse-back riders had to do with Twilight’s appearance here.

“Sparkle,” the unicorn corrected matter-of-factly. “But what do you mean, ‘not in any place called Equestria’?”

“Exactly what I said... Twilight. You are not in Equestria. You are in America.”

“America? What the hay kind of country is that?”

“Certainly not one where you’re from, I’m guessin’.”

“Odd… well, I guess I’ll have to mark this down as a new kind of spell…” Twilight pondered for a minute in silence. As the creature was wondering what had happened to transport it to this place, I surveyed every inch of its small, horse-like body. It had such a strange, yet… cute look to it. Like a teddy bear, or a pet. Either way, I felt compelled to touch it. I laid my left hand on the top of its head and applied very light pressure with my fingers. It instantly became apprehensive, as I’d expected.

“What are you doing?” Twilight asked in surprise after shaking my hand off of its head and backing away.

“I’m… uh… obtainin’ knowledge… and stuff… yeah, tha’ss it.” I answered uneasily. “Other than the fact that you can talk and that you don’t look like anythin’ I ever seen before, you seem pretty tame. Are you housebroken?”

“You mean like some kind of pet?” She asked, raising an eyebrow at me.  My eyes widened in surprise at her knowledge. “Well, you’re dead-wrong if you think I’m some stray animal. I’ll have you know that I am a pony.” I almost laughed at the irony of Twilight’s statement about not being a stray animal.

“A pony, huh?” I asked while tilting my head slightly and raising an eyebrow myself. “Not sure how bein’ a pony is different from bein’ an animal… but I guess that explains the mane, horn and tail… the horn must mean you’s a Unicorn. But that don’t explain the fact that you’re purple and so are your eyes, along with the oddly… straight dark blue mane and tail with purple and pink highlights...” I leaned to the right to get a better look at the unicorn’s body. I noticed a tattoo of some sort adorned on its flanks. “Hey, what’s that starry-lookin’ thing on your butt?” I asked rather brashly. The alien’s jaw dropped a little and it blushed in embarrassment at my rude comments and question.

“You’ve got quite some nerve, talking to a lady like that,” she stated in annoyance, glaring at me. I was about to stick my foot further into my mouth with yet another idiotic comment regarding her gender and species. However, I caught myself and instead slid backward a couple of inches in apprehension. “I’ll have you know that I was born the way I am, and I’m proud of it. Also, this is my Cutie Mark,” she said, turning her body to face sideways, looking back at her flank. “It is a symbol of my super special talent. But that’s enough about me for now; what about you?”

“What? What about all the—!?”

“In due time, Tyshawn. But for now, I need to familiarize myself with my surroundings… As you can see, I’m entirely new to this country.”

“Fair ‘nuff… Quick note, though: I think you’re in a whole ‘nother world, given that you look way different from any horse on this planet and you can talk but ain’t seen a human before. Anyway, what do you wanna know?” I asked nonchalantly.

“Hmm, where to begin…? Ah! You said you were a ‘human,’ right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well… what’s a human?” she asked with utmost curiosity.

“Ah, well… let’s see…” I pondered as I rubbed my chin, trying to begin a proper explanation of my species. “Okay, do you have monkeys where you come from?”

“That we do,” Twilight answered, her eyes widening in eagerness to hear what I had to say.

“Good, that will make this easier. So anyway, humans are like monkeys, but… we don’t got tails, most of us aren’t nearly as hairy, and we are able to stand completely upright on two legs, seein’ as instead of havin’ ‘fore-legs’ like you, we have ‘arms’ and ‘hands’. Also, we wear clothes on a regular basis and are also capable of speech, as evidenced by the fact that this conversation is unbelievably happenin' now. As I’m assumin’ ponies are the dominant species in your world, humans are the dominant species here. Tha’ss just the basics from my point of view, though.”

“Wow, I see…!” Twilight responded in thoughtful understanding. “Well, what about ponies? Are there ponies here?”

“Well… yes and no,” I answered uneasily. “Y’see, while there IS such a thing as horses here, ‘ponies’ of your kind would supposedly be… how you say, ‘not real.’ Interestingly enough, there’s this kids’ TV show I’m not too familiar with that your look reminds me strongly of. I think it’s called My Little Pony or somethin’ like that, and there’s tons of toys and books and whatnot based on it.”

“What!?” Twilight asked in shock. “So what you’re saying is, in this world, a world that is strikingly similar to mine is known about and visible through this… ‘TV’ device, but not tangible, or believed to be real?”

“I guess so. I’m also gonna guess that in your world, humans don’t exist, and that there’s nothin’ that even hints to us existin’?”

“100% correct,” the unicorn responded. “At least, until now, anyway... Say, seeing as there’s the possibility that my world’s already known of, has there been any research done in order to prove its existence?”

“Research?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah. You know, magic tests, teleportation spells, et cetera.”

“Um… if your idea of ‘research’ includes ‘makin’ toys and merchandise for human children, girls specifically, but recently missin’ the demographic, instead attractin’ humans my age and older,’ then I’ll say it’s goin’ swimmingly!” I responded sarcastically. She let out a small chuckle.

“You’re pretty funny,” Twilight complimented. “But seriously, what about the magic? Can’t humans use magic?”

“Sadly, no. There ain’t one magic bone in our bodies. Iss all physical labor and technology for us. The closest thing to magic we have here is maybe… optical illusions and strange ways to exceed the believed physical limitations of the body.”

“How odd… you can’t even do something like this?” she asked as her horn began to glow a bright magenta and, within a second, my entire body was engulfed in the same glow.

“Whoa, what the fuuuuUUAAAAH!” I screamed as I began to involuntarily float into the air, thrashing about like a fish out of water. She levitated me over my bed, and loosened her magic grip. The glow around me disappeared instantly as I came crashing onto my bed face-down. Twilight giggled again.

“Cute,” I flatly stated with a fake smirk after lifting my head. She giggled a little more. “Ahem! Well, to answer your question: No. No we can’t do that,” I said, getting up off the bed and standing in front of her.

“Whoa, you’re huge!” Twilight said while looking up in astonishment. “Are all humans this tall?”

“Mm, not really,” I said, unsure. “I’m six feet and three inches tall, while I think the average height for humans—at least, in America, is somewhere lower. But then, there’s many other humans who are taller than I am. Some by a little, others by a lot. That, and humans have various body shapes and sizes. In terms of shape, I’m pretty lean.”

“Is that so? Interesting. I see… I’ve got a lot to… *yawn* learn… but right now, I’m worn out from that teleportation spell.”

“We only just scratched the surface on learnin’ about each other. Buuut, I assume that means you gonna be sleepin’ here rather than teleportin’ back to Equestria, huh?”

“Funny AND smart. I can tell we’ll get along just fine…” the purple unicorn whispered as she hopped onto my bed and curled herself up, and rested her head in her hooves.

“Hey, who said—?” I began, but decided not to finish my question, as I saw she was fast asleep.

“Aww, she’s adorable…” I said to myself. I looked at the clock to see it was inching towards midnight. “Man, time flies...” I took out a pair of pajamas and went into the bathroom to change into them. When I came back, I found a comfortable position next to my new unicorn acquaintance, making sure not to disturb her peaceful slumber...