The time was now four-fifteen in the morning, and my accident had sadly not gone unnoticed.

As I sat on the now upright chair, I examined the little drop of blood that was creeping down to my lip from my left nostril with the mirror Twilight had been kind enough to let me borrow.

Fortunately, my nose was not broken in any obvious way. My pride however used its new wound as a profound statement to remind me that standing on unstable objects to grab things was not a good idea.

Using the tissue, also provided by Twilight, I dabbed at the blood causing it to smear before I cleaned it up completely. Once done, I scrunched up a piece into a small knot and stuffed it in to stem the flow.

Taking in the quiet early morning atmosphere, I calmly set down the mirror and looked at the previously mentioned pony who looked back with mirthful eyes from her prone position on the settee, a hoof covering her muzzle as she tried to hide her giggles at my expense.

“I suppose I can say that the fall knocked some sense into me.” I muttered, causing her to finally break down in to a fit of laughter. Being physically sound I had to admit finding someone face down and backside up on the floor after something silly like this would be quite funny, if painful. Trying to forget the fact that if I had been unlucky enough I could have been hospitalized, I did laugh a little myself, though it ended up feeling a bit awkwardly forced.

Self-casting would really be useful if something like that happened.

“So Red, why were you standing on one of my chairs?” The sudden question brought me out of my reprieve, and I looked at her blankly for a moment considering an answer. I did consider a lie, but there wasn’t much chance that admiring the woodwork would be considered normal from the inside of a tree.

Scratching the back of my neck nervously, I told her the blunt truth.
“Um, well, call me crazy but I kind of made flowers grow out of the ceiling.”

The silence was deafening.
Yeah, I didn’t think it sounded believable either, but hey, I was talking to a unicorn.

For a moment Twilight rubbed her eyes before inspecting the ceiling of her home, before looking back in confusion.

“Where are they?” she asked plainly.

“Well, you see, I forgot they were only made out of magic, meaning that after a few seconds they vanish.” The more I talked, the more she seemed to look at me with uncertain glare.

“So, you’re telling me that you cast a spell that I couldn’t detect, in my house that made flowers out of raw magic, grow out of solid wood without damaging it?”

“They didn’t grow out of it more as they grew on it. They weren’t real flowers.” I muttered, trying to solidify the statement.

“Is there something I’m missing here, I think you must have held out on what you really are Mr. Human…” The look I was now on the sharp end of was bordering on scientifically predatory.

Rising my hands defensively I pushed the chair back a little across the floor.
“Honestly, I’m not too certain of myself either at this point.” I had been slightly nervous about telling her this this early, the situation however left me with little to no choice. “I… I am not quite the same as I used to be before I arrived here, I don’t have all the facts yet.”

I looked down and to the side, unable to continue looking at her large eyes, uncomfortably shifting in my seat. The silence was once again palpable with the large green elephant in the room.

“So, you don’t have any inherent magic, and you have no basic concept of spell casting, so how did you cast it?” To this I grimaced. Of course she would start digging given the short conversation that we swapped last night.

“That’s not entirely true, I knew of the magic I now possess, it just doesn’t work the way I remember it doing.” Taking a deep breath, I decided it was probably the best time to jump into the deep end even though this was moving forward far quicker than I had intended.

Motioning for Twilight to get comfortable I began to think about how to explain my additional situation. As she sat on the floor I made a point to lay the staff on the floor between us, giving a weather eye glance towards the sword at the door too for good measure to help me jog my memory.

“As I may or may not have already told you, my world does not have magic, but we do have stories. Tales, fiction, myths, you name it. Many of them will involve a magic of some nature. There was one rather odd… or should I say a few odd tales that spoke of a world that had wizards.”

“These wizards were an odd bunch in comparison to many tales before them. That was not what made them unique however. Their power stemmed from eight elements and to use them they drew the power in from the world around them in select combinations, channelling them into these kinds of staffs…”
I prompted this by giving the staff at my feet a gentle nudge.

“…or into other such artefacts to generate spells and magicks.”
That was as far as I wanted to go, yet questions were unavoidable as she took her time to puzzle over the information.

“So, you just woke up with the ability of something you only knew of in fantasy, an ability that manifests magic in eight different forms through specific objects?” I simply nodded, mixed emotions in my head frothing as I still tried not to think about it too much.

“You have really landed in a strange predicament haven’t you?” She smiled, catching me completely off guard. The conversation yesterday had proved to me that she was a very inquisitive pony, one who would ask plenty of questions.

For her to just stop was something unexpected.

“You could say that again.” Smiling back, I still felt uncomfortable, and something felt off about how chipper Twilight looked.

Slowly, she stood up and walked past my left side before circling back on my right, before I knew it she was circling around me, eyeing me up as I sat there watching her out of the corner of my eye.
Her eyes seemed to search every detail for any kind of information they possessed, scrutinising so hard that I felt almost like I was naked under her gaze. Finally after the third pass she sat down in front of me looking me dead in the eyes.

To say she was really beginning to unnerve me was an understatement.

And that was right before she smiled at me and spoke.

“I think this deserves a demonstration.”

Her sudden exclamation caused me to flinch, before a deep cold dread began to settle in. Internally I could feel my stomach starting to tie into a knot. Memories of chaotic barrages of spells flying every which way, people and creatures turning to mush as large boulders crushed them, arcane beams scouring their flesh while cones of frost froze others solid. It was brief feeling, but I felt moderately more tired for it, the thoughts fell away quickly though leaving me anxious.

“Uh, I’m not so sure if that’s a good idea, at least not here. I mean what if I accidentally damage something or something explo-”

“Its fine we’re not close enough to the books for them to be in any real danger from such things. On top of that whatever happens I have more than enough magic of my own to handle it.” Her overconfidence, while a little inspiring, made me cringe internally. That was usually the kind of line that happened shortly before everything hits the fan.

Swallowing heavily I looked her in the eyes somewhat hoping that at least a fragment of that confidence would rub off on me. I had barely begun to know the mare and I already could tell she was the kind who could quite easily cause her own trouble if she couldn’t find it. The only supposed blessing was that I already knew the destructive powers of this magic even in its simplest form.

Playing a game and using the real life thing are two completely different things.

In the brief moment that I had been uncertainly staring into the violet depths lost in thought, she had come to a complete stop. Not even noticing her concern I slowly stood up, taking the staff up with me.

“Ok…” The first mutter from my lips was simply a reassurance for myself.
“Ok, just one demonstration.”

“Aww, but you said there were eight.”
At that Twilight pouted, her eyes going wide with the kind of puppy-dog or kitten like stare that would usually melt even some of the least caring hearts. The cold feeling still fading from my gut caused it to fall short.

“Twilight, please don’t. The reason I’m doing this is… is because I haven’t got a feel for the rest yet. Like I said, the magic is not in a form I’m familiar with and I don’t want to cause a hazard.”

Resigning with a sigh she walked back over to her seat to watch, so now the only issue was repeating what I had just learned. Only I had a better idea, one that could help put across my point a little better.
Again I began to focus, life, the healing energies coming into focus much faster than before, so much that before I knew it I already had two of the little green lights dancing and flitting about me. For the moment they popped into existence Twilight had begun to write down notes on a pad she seemed to pull from nowhere, the whole time watching intently as I thought about how to achieve the result I wanted.

It took a moment, thinking about my stance and how I had achieved the previous cast, Twilight slowly shuffling closer to the edge of her seat, notebook poised. Her posture was strange, as she sat on the cushion like a cat, tail twitching from side to side impatiently.
It was then that a penny dropped in my mind, posture. The stance I had used before was wrong. Self- casting looked more like a praying stance with head bowed towards the staff, and that meant…

Again I took the stance with the staff pointing towards the ceiling, legs slightly spread in a firm stance as I thought hard about pushing an imaginary energy outwards from around me.

What happened was actually rather spectacular.

The moment I had thought it, feeling the pull of the powerful green energies rush inward, the lights flew to the staff like before, shooting down it like lightning before exploding at my feet into a bright green ring of energy that expanded outward from my feet.
The wave pulled a circular curtain of flowers and grass behind it from the either, everything immediately around me became covered in floral pastels except for the chairs and the coffee table next to them.

As quickly as it appeared, the ring disappeared as it reached its limit, though it had not gone as far as I had been expecting it had the desired result as Twilight watched with wide eyes as each flower soon began to fade from the centre of the ring outwards. After about a minute all the flowers had vanished into fading sparks of energy just as someone suddenly decided to speak up from somewhere behind me.

“Wow, what kind of spell was that?! My stomach ache’s all gone!”

Pausing, I slowly turned my head to look at the small drake standing mere feet between myself and the stairs. The faint green glow of the elements healing effects fading quickly, I guess it proved that it worked as intended.
Again I turned around to face Twilight, she looked mildly surprised but undeterred as she looked between me and Spike, her gaze finally settled on the confused drake as she simply asked him to go to the kitchen, and simply shrugging he walked off with his question unanswered.

“So, when were you planning on telling me that that magic also heals people?” She asked with a sly grin. I nodded absentmindedly before confirming that I had been planning on telling her after the cast, accidentally healing Spike had not been a part of the idea but it had worked in my favour.
Quietly I went over to the chair again before realising that I had yet to put on my robes. Grabbing them and the hood from where they had been discarded I set about putting them on, all the while stewing in the sudden silence that had once again reared its ugly head. Once robed, I sat down heavily on the floor.

Twilight quickly finished writing down her notes before placing the pad on the table and looked at me.
“In particular, is there any kind of name for that element you just used?”

Looking up at her, I simply stated its canonical name, “Life.”

Nodding with a gentle smile she watched me for a moment as the silence continued further, Twilight seeming just taking a moment to drink in the atmosphere while I tried to stay awake.

“You know, you’re not really all that much of the talkative type, are you?” The question came softly, yet it still caused me to sort of space out. I felt every little barricade I had erected against the torrent of dark foreboding thoughts crack a little more, another self-imposed facade to somewhat quell my unease slowly being worn down. After a moment or two, I decided on a slow and deliberate response to really set the light on my mood, predicament and how poking me with a metaphorical stick was not helping any.

“Well, I’ve woken up in another world with talking ponies and magic, discovered that I myself am now a wizard from a rather familiar setting with barely any memory of my home, family, friends or really much of anything.”

I paused for a breath, winding up for the rest of my rambling while trying not to raise my voice.

“Furthermore, during the night I realised that not only can I not properly remember any of those things, the lore and history of the very world that my new abilities stem from is almost like it was burned into my mind. There are still details missing but nothing major. By extension I am essentially now a walking talking magical powerhouse, with almost no limit to my magical power save the few elements I wield with no idea or predetermined intention as to why I find myself in such a world drastically different from my own with said power, and I am actually scared for my life and the safety of those around me because of such. I am almost constantly cursing whatever power that brought me here for either their blatant disregard for other peoples’ lives or how they are potentially are doing this for their own amusement all the while debating if maybe I am only seeing one side of this situation and in reality I am either dead, dying, comatose, clinically insane, vividly hallucinating, vividly dreaming or genuinely in another world, in a list from worst case to best case scenario. Lastly, if the latter is true then what is the reason for this world specifically and why was I sent here.”

Rant over and slowly opening my eyes after realising I had closed them in thought I found that Twilights own eyes had crossed, the sudden avalanche of my response negating her comment with a rather harsh and grim painting of my inner thoughts. Truthfully, unloading all this mental baggage felt like I had just dropped a lead weight that had been pulling me down, or at least one of a few. The purple librarian in front of me seemed at a loss for words which as oddly satisfying as it helped me show how lost I felt after being suddenly shoved into all this.

There was a slight bit of guilt though, I had tried not to just dump everything on her like this yet after yesterday’s fumble of being unable to right my thoughts I couldn’t help but blurt it all out at once.

“I’m sorry, I hadn’t realised just how difficult this has all been for you.”
“Sorry about that, I’ve always been told I’m a bit of an objectively based thinker.”
We both spoke at once, Twilight chuckled awkwardly while we stood up.

“Well I have to admit, things have been a little weird and awkward since we met. I’m sorry for pushing but you just seemed so down in the dumps that I thought opening up might help you a little. It seems that I was wrong.” A frown slowly dampened her mood as we watched each other, in truth I must have looked like a mess, no morning shower, barely any sleep, in no fit state of mind.

I was kind of used to it though, stress and I had a long standing relationship from what I did remember, and though it was the one wearing the pants I always had a few cards up my sleeve.

“Hey, look, water under the bridge. Let’s not dwell on it, Ok? Forgiven and forgotten, you were only doing what you thought was best.” I managed some measure of a smile, half-hearted as it was. “For now let’s get something to eat, eh?”

A short time passed after we went into the kitchen from the impromptu demonstration of my new abilities. Surprisingly I had found that this world still had the black miracle drink of the gods (a.k.a. Coffee) and my mood slowly improved from there. Soon I found myself making small talk as we ate a healthy serving of jam on oven cooked toast, I even went as far as to explain to Spike what really happened with the spell I cast.

It was only as we began to wind down from the morning strangeness that I realised just how rushed everything had felt since I got here. Now as I sat here eating breakfast and drinking the only pure wake up elixir with a talking unicorn and a baby dragon, did the situation really begin to sink in properly without causing a meltdown.

I was in another world, not mine, not Midguard, which probably meant that things weren’t going to work quite the same as either of the two. I thought back to what I was thinking back in to when I was in the woods (or forest, still not too sure), thinking that I was literally in a dream world of most cartoon, videogame or anime enthusiasts. I guess I was not far off with that assumption, though that would depend on the individual, to me this whole thing seemed like some attempt at mashing two things together and hoping they worked.

Mentally shrugging I looked back to Twilight as she happily tipped back the last few drops of her own brew, her plate empty and a look of determination on her face as she set the mug down. Spike on the other hand was taking his time, his Jam also mixed with a strange combination of a crushed emerald and amethyst. My own breakfast was only a couple of bites away from being finished and my first mug had been downed long in advance while my second dwindled at a steady pace.

I wondered to myself how long it had been since I had simply sat down and appreciated breakfast like this...

Shaking my head gently I pulled myself out of the reprieve, the more I tried to remember the more I felt like I was clutching at straws, there was no point dwelling on it right now until I found the reason for why I was here. That wasn’t going to happen by just sitting around admiring the small porcelain plates on the table.

Of course the dread still lingered, but it was now fully under control with an objective clearly in mind.

“Ok, Red. Since it seems you might be here for a little while, how about I introduce you to Ponyville properly?” Twilight beamed.

Smiling back, feeling much better for the time to clear my head, I nodded in response.

I had no idea neither what this world had in store for me, nor what my goal might be or even become.

Yet as I stood from the table I decided that this first step should be a simple one.

Try and grasp just what kind of a world I was in.

Author's Note

Ok, third chapter, finally got this far!

From here on out I plan on trying to make these chapters a fair bit longer but LIFE has had me quite preoccupied. I will try and get the next chapter done as soon as possible.