I awoke to the sound of birds, which was odd considering I rarely leave my windows open at night, or the curtains for that matter…

Swatting my hand over my eyes, I opened them briefly to let the light of the sun leak through my fingers without blinding me. My whole body ached like I had just fallen out of a tree and my head felt like I might have had a mild concussion. Reaching out with my other hand, I intended to check the time on my phone which was on the bedside table. When I found what felt like a large wooden stick I sharply sat up and uncovered my eyes in one quick motion.

What I saw chilled me to the bone.

It was a nice day, a beautiful day, but all around me was nothing but grass and densely packed trees. To state that this was not my bedroom at this point would have probably caused me to have a mental breakdown. Perhaps fortunately however, nary a sound could be heard except for the delight of birdsong which was oddly calming to my instantaneously shattered nerves. Looking around only revealed more of the same, what appeared to forest expanding in all directions with nothing and no one around sending more and more shock into my already stunned mind.

It took me a while, to say the least, to get my mind back in some form of working order. After taking in my surroundings, I looked down at myself half expecting to be stripped naked with various forms of graffiti drawn on me with permanent marker or some other similar prank. What did greet me however, was nothing of the sort, I was clothed but in a strikingly unfamiliar robe, it held onto my shoulders and flowed with a slight loose flourish around my person, tightly bound around my middle by what could only be described as a leather belt. It covered me completely with a bright red fabric and golden yellow trims stopping just short of my ankles, and while I could not see underneath I could feel that it wasn’t touching bare skin.

The whole situation struck me as something out of a novel, yet it felt so real, a shame really that I would have to wake up soon. Carefully I laid back down, arms behind my head as I tried to ignore the world outside in my mind and sleep…
…
…
…
Nothing was happening.

Opening my eyes again, I stared upwards at the canopy the closely interlocked branches created high above swallowing repeatedly at my suddenly dry pallet. This was real, undoubtedly real, with a deliberately slow and methodical process I began wracking my mind for any kind of explanation for waking up in a forest, in clothes that blatantly were not mine, with my head feeling like I had had an accident with the underside of a car.

Yet it felt so peaceful just lying there. My mind began to drift aimlessly for a while after coming up blank, instead turning to more farfetched ideas and fantasies. Curious, I again reached for the unfamiliar object my left hand had found earlier. Quickly finding it where I had left it, I quickly registered the feeling of smooth, possibly polished wood, I tried to lift it but the angle and size made it difficult to do without digging my hand underneath. Once I had it in my palm the object was swiftly lifted up into the air to a position where it could easily be inspected. For a moment my mind refused to register what it was, the blasted thing was certainly familiar as the crystalline object within the crescent brought the foggy memories to the surface.

That damned merchant, did he have something to do with this? He was the last person I saw, I think, my brain still felt too hazy to come to any major conclusion. On what felt like impulse, my right hand groped the grass on my opposite side, almost instantly my hand found the cold touch of metal, relatively flat with what felt like a handle, a hilt?

A sword, I realised, the rational part of my brain that still functioned disallowing the motion of my hand to bring it up to meet the staff above me. That would not end well if I dropped it.
With a sigh, I finally admitted that nothing was adding up, unless the notion of being drugged by the stranger, stuffed into a robe and deposited in a random forest in the hopes of me being freaked out while they recorded the whole thing was uncannily accurate. I doubted that though, seemed like an awful lot of effort for just that.

I took my time, allowing for the aching in my person to slow to a dull throb and then lapse into a simple sense of fatigue as my heart slowed to a steady rhythm. Slowly, I began to get up off the ground. The grass and soil, as strangely soft an inviting as it was, was not a suitable place to go back to sleep like I had tried. Body protesting again the whole way like it thought it had a say in the matter. As I took my time I searched my memory for other valuable possessions, coming up frustratingly empty. Names, familiar faces, quirks and such, all had vacated my head leaving an empty chasm in their wake. My head was a jumbled mess, barely thinking in one single straight line while my body protested the abuse of having to leave the comfort of my patch of grass.

Under most circumstances I would have tried to console myself, talking to no one in particular usually helped me rearrange my thoughts, but my parched throat denied that. Instead, I took to managing what was currently in my possession.

Looking the staff over I felt a little bit of anger swell, the conclusion was that I had bought it so I may as well keep it. It would serve as a decent walking stick at least. The sword however must have either been a replica or a museum piece the blade was so dull it was practically a club rather than a sword, a simple piece with a hand guard that looked to be gold plated, suppose it could be worth something, I placed it carefully blade down in the belt, using it as a makeshift holder. The robes felt like satin or silk of some sort, something fancy like that. With the evaluations coming forward, my mind slowly began to clear up, the strange haze of the sudden situation slowly beginning to fade.

Taking in a long drawn out breath I quickly surveyed my surroundings again to try and get a grasp of where I could possibly be, only to let out tremendous sigh when all I found out was that trees never tended to allow one to find their bearings without difficulty or actually moving. The problem was I had no idea which direction would lead where. Selecting at random could potentially lead to only becoming more lost, but at the same time I possessed no immediate knowledge to allow even so much as an educated guess.

Again I stopped, looking around and admiring the luscious forest, or woods (I was never very good at remembering or identifying the difference), the leaves looked as if they were just beginning to brown.
While I took the liberty of listening to the birdsong I began instead to contemplate just how long it had been since I just had time to admire the scenery, but sadly as much as I would have liked to take it all in I had to find either a familiar landmark or at least a town with some sort of phone. With no choice, I picked a direction and began to walk, my legs aching even as the staff served dutifully as a third.

The thought of how long I could be lost out here for before finding civilisation weighed heavily on my conscience. As I kept walking I could feel the tiredness still seeping into my body, I presumed it probably wouldn’t be long till I was forced to take what would probably be the first of many breaks.

What felt like an hour or so later, my progress was still as slow as ever. I had contemplated taking a brief nap but the thought of being stuck in the middle of nowhere in the dark quickly changed my mind. I slugged onwards, trying to avert my footing away from various tree roots and large branches, it was obvious that no one came out this way often since there were no well-worn paths in the dirt to follow, which left me just as lost as I had started. The only reason I did not believe myself to be walking in circles is because I had yet to turn off the straight path I had made in my mind.

I was tired, I was frustrated, and worst of all my body ached but for some reason I felt the need to keep pushing onwards. Blindly walking through the forest was quickly becoming a chore but finally progress was made.

In the distance I spotted another break in the trees the sudden elation brought my second wind as my pace sped up until finally I could feel the light of the sun on my face once again. Breaking through the tree line I only just noticed that I had practically been running the last few feet, my breathing attesting to the exertion, I relaxed again with more deep breathing while taking a heavy seat on the grass I began observing my new surroundings.
A hill side extending along the lip of the forest ran down into what looked like a valley of vast open field speckled with flowers, a long thin line of blue being the only break in the grassy and floral colours. I could see what looked to be birds, flying high in the blue late day sky, dancing and darting about without a care in the world, and below them sat a clump of various shapes.

My heart leapt in joy, I had found what looked to be a village in the distance, yet as I admired it, the more tired I felt looking at the distance between it and myself. Not only this but there were strange details that were missing, things you wouldn’t normally see unless you looked for them like phone lines, aerials, or any kind of sign that the place was inhabited. Except for mass off birds flitting around above it the place could well be empty.
I sat back against the hillside, looking down at the small mass of what I had presumed to be buildings taking more time to study them, it was then that two very odd details became apparent. One was that many of the buildings seemed off in colour, oddly shaped and sculpted. Many were simply a mix of whites, brown and yellows, but select ones stood out, one in particular looked like an overly decorated cake with its various purples while another actually looked like a cake, brown with white “frosting” and various other assortments of colour.

My second, and by far strangest observation, was that the birds above the village seemed to be moving various masses of white which could only be assumed to be clouds, which would be impossible if it was not for it happening right in front of me. The birds were also off in colour, unlike the buildings though, they had a far wider spectrum of pastel hues.
For a while I just sat and watched fascinated by the absurdity, I rubbed and blinked to see if it was just my eyes but they remained as real as the staff still in my hand. Thinking of the staff, laying it down across my lap I looked at it closely and began racking my brain for any details.
I didn’t know when it was that I fell asleep again, all I knew is that I felt hypnotised by the beauty of the landscape and the show above it as my eyelids slowly grew heavier.

I awoke again with a start, my heart skipping a beat. The feel of grass between my clenched fingers bringing back what had happened earlier, waking up on the hillside was peculiar and set off a large feeling of de-ja-vu. I had determined that this whole thing had been real already, but can you really blame a guy for hoping.
Deciding to take my time I sat there, again admiring the scenery with its new twilight gown, looking across the hillside at the dense tree-line I had the strange sensation I had been lucky to find my way out rather than deeper into it.

The sun had gone down and the land was beginning to darken, the strange birds from earlier had disappeared and the buildings they had been flying over was now the only source of light in the distance.
My mind felt clearer, refreshed and sharp, my achy legs had recovered and as my heart slowed down to a reasonable tempo I noticed that the air was far crisper. A far cry from cold, but nicely chill, I overall felt far more aware of my surroundings as the early night began its slow roll in.
Nights like these were the best, wherever the hell it was I had ended up I had sure chosen a decent time.

Any longer sat here however and I wouldn’t want to leave, so with a clear place in mind I again got to my feet. It was then that I remembered the staff. The damn thing had laid almost dutifully beside me the whole time I was out, a faint glowing from the crystal being the only thing reminding me it was there. Picking it up carefully I examined it closely noting how the glow seemed much brighter in the dimming light.

I should have been thinking about just what the heck was going on… yet somehow I had stopped caring. By this stage all I wanted was at least some answers, so I began walking while I thought over what I already knew.

As I walked I watched my feet. Having dedicated my time to my surroundings more than anything I hadn’t noticed my new foot ware that matched my strange get up which were a strange pair of odd leather like shoes with long curled back toes. No laces, just slip-ons, yet stranger yet they hugged my feet comfortably as if they had been tailor made. Then again the same could have been said about the whole of the current apparel.

Red robes,
Strange curled back point shoes,
Sword that was more like a club, and…

I stopped walking.

Yeah, I felt like an idiot that I hadn’t realised sooner.

Looking down at the belt I now remembered the design exactly, a gold trimmed plain red robe, brown leather belt and shoes and a face completely hidden by a…

Reaching over my head and down my back I found the hood….

I was dressed as a wizard from Magicka, the same game that the staff was from, even though I don’t remember putting any of it on. Then again I didn’t remember much of anything, and my head was still losing focus too easily. I had been spacing out so much trying to remember what had happened that I had worn out the topic. It wasn’t much of an issue however as there were more pressing things to think about, putting one foot in front of the other I travelled onward with the decision not to continue thinking about that for a while, there was still a high chance that this was just some messed up joke even though I had the sinking sensation that things were already far beyond normal.

Reaching the bottom of the hill I almost tripped as a fallow field embraced my feet, the grass reaching above my ankles and void of any obvious path like the woods. I kept a rhythm while walking since my legs seemed to have recovered enough to move at a decent pace, still, the footing was rough and every now and then I tripped a little. The staff proved only so useful, catching more on the clumps of grass than supporting my weight. I ended up carrying it over my shoulder by the time I finally found a long cobblestone path leading to the village.

Seeing it up close was strange, don’t get me wrong I usually love being in the more rural areas of the town I lived in, but this was straight up old fashioned. Most of the buildings looked to be pre-dating Victorian times.

This time I didn’t stop walking as I thought about just what was going on. All of the buildings, and I mean all of them had similar styling, some just had a few different colours here and there… and were slightly smaller than usual.

I… I couldn’t really be in Midguard, surely?

I realised I had a fake smile plastered on my face only after it started to crack, my mind was starting to have another brief meltdown as I walked into the village borders. A happy looking sign donning the name Ponyville stood firmly to the side of the road as I walked on by, my eyes taking in the letters but my brain was having none of it. I had never heard of this place before, in life or in game, but I definitely was not in England anymore.

Casting my eyes around as I continued, things only seemed to get more bizarre. More and more buildings began to stand out as drastically different. One looked like a fancy tiered cake, another looked like a gingerbread house that had a cake dropped on it. It was after walking for a good few minutes just looking around like an idiot that I saw the thing that finally broke me.

A treehouse.

Not a tree-house, a literal, honest to god, treehouse actually made out of a tree that had grown out of the ground.

That was it, after all the work I had done to wake up, try and reassert and rationalise everything that I had taken in around me, I finally admitted I was in la-la-land and that someone must have either spiked my food or hit me with enough concussive force that I was stuck in a permanent state of lucidity. My feet carried me on, not even seeing where the path was or what was around me anymore, bumping into something I looked down to it only to find a bench, just a normal, elegantly curved bench. I didn’t bother to look at it in detail, my mind overloaded as it was, and sat down heavily, nearly falling over as the bench proved to be a lot lower than anticipated which forced me to stick my legs out to avoid injuring myself.

I rested my forehead in one hand as my stretched mental capacity worked overtime to process the floods of information and panic. I was doing well, I slowly managed to pull myself together again as I found myself performing another round of deep breathing exercises. The dizziness creeping into my head though was more than a little unwelcome.

“H-Hello? Are you ok?” came a voice from in front of me, uncertain and concerned.

I looked up, expecting to see a doctor, or at least someone human. What I did find, was a small purple coloured thing resembling a pony, with overly large eyes and a distinct horn protruding from its forehead. All thoughts at that point stopped, my entire being felt like it had just momentarily frozen in space and time as our eyes met.

We stared at eachother for almost a minute, before it blinked and opened its muzzle.

“Err, hello? Can you speak?” the same voice as before ushered from its lips.

I am not usually one for being so faint of heart, but hearing those words, clear English, from its mouth drove me over the edge of insanity, everything shut down. I could almost feel my eyes rolling into the back of my head as the world around me dimmed back into the inky black from which I had arisen twice in one day.

Jeez I was going have trouble sleeping tomorrow.

Author's Note

Hey folks, here is the first chapter. I still have to admit it's been a while since I've written any kind of story like this in general, so I apologise if my style of writing seems off or changes at all. Constructive criticisms are always welcome!

Anyway, this chapter was a little shorter than intended but I felt it worked rather well for the time being.