My LITTLE ponies
It was a wonderful spring afternoon. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Alex was out for a walk in the lush forest near his home. He loved this place, from the dark brown floor covered in rotting wood to the sprawling trees reaching across the sky with long brown fingers and green leaves. As he walked under the leaves, he paused to take in the smells around him. The slightly moist and woody earth, the fresh crisp wind and the aged wood of old trees, they all swirled around him. Pulling his coat tighter around himself, he ventured deeper into the woods enjoying his chance to explore the woods.
As he got deeper, the forest became darker and cooler. The trees were larger and roots were poking through the ground, looking like snakes. The branches and leaves twisted together making a lush living ceiling. He could hear the sounds of animals skirting across the branches above him and through the leaves beneath him. In the corner of his eye he saw a small fox watching him but when he turned to look at it all he saw was a blur dashing into the bushes. He thought about following it, but after seeing that the fox had jumped over a discard dragon plushie and run into briar patch he just shrugged and turned down a path to walk into another area of the forest.
This area of the forest was even darker than the last part and much more overgrown. The trees seemed to hit him in the face with every step and he couldn’t find any paths. He wasn’t sure why the trees were so much shorter than in the rest of the forest. The trees didn’t look like they had been freshly planted nor did they appear to be like any of the previous trees. Alex just kept pushing forward until his head began to push through the tops of the canopy.
After brushing off any debris that might have gotten caught in his hair he looked for a way out of the forest and saw a small clearing to the east. As he began to walk to the open space he saw small furry creatures scurrying around his feet. He couldn’t see what they were through the leaves but they didn’t feel like squirrels or mice, in fact one of them felt like it had wings. In the distance he could make out what appeared to be a model town. It was a fairly well made town, he could see the little windows and doors, each which looked a little different. When he finally pushed his way through the brush, he could see that the town had tiny statues and fountains. Next to the town was a fairly extensive tree farm with a wonderfully rustic farmhouse and barn. Whomever had made this town had clearly spent a lot of time making sure that all the details were accounted for each building was different in size and shape. There were a few outlying buildings that really made the whole town look really good.
As he walked towards the town, to get a closer look and see if he could find out where he was and who made it, he felt something fly into his chest. At first look, he thought he saw a warbler flying around him, but when he got a better look he knew he was wrong. He had never ever heard of a bird like this; it was a tiny little thing with pretty blue wings and long, bright, wispy feathers on its tail and head. He tried to catch it but it was it was quick, and avoided his hands. Alex felt something hit his leg and looked down to see a tiny orange mouse, with a yellow tail and a tuft on its head, running around on his foot. While waving his arm around to keep the freaky bird away he tried to knock the mouse back with his foot but it just jumped out of the way.
Then things got really weird
In a bright purple flash, a third creature appeared. Alex suddenly felt stinging pains in multiple places, but there were no more of the little things nearby. His eyes were drawn to movement and for a moment he saw a thin ray of light appear, flowing from the purple creature and connecting to his body. A second later he felt another stinging pain. Alex was so distracted by the purple mouse he didn’t notice the blue bird until it hit him right in the eye. The pain caused him to fall down on his butt, which made all three creatures shake. Before he even had time to push himself up, the creatures were on his lap staring at him. It was then that Alex found out these creatures were actually miniscule horses with oddly bright colours. They seemed to be jumping at him while moving their mouth, the purple one’s head was glowing and Alex saw that it had a horn. He was about to sweep them off his legs so he could stand up when another blinding flash went off in his face. When his eyes recovered he saw that now there was a slightly larger horse with wings and a glowing horn, hovering in front of him.
Alex lifted his arm and waved. “Um, hi,” he said, with a small smile on his face.
On hearing this, the three horses fell to the ground with their front legs covering their ears, while the white one seemed to be pushed back.
The purple horse glowed again and Alex felt a sting on his chest, causing him to raise one arm to rub the spot. In a bright flash of light the white horse disappeared, and a moment later Alex saw it floating right in front of his face. It made a whinnying noise that he could barely make out. Alex cupped his hand to his ear and leaned closer.
“Nope, I can barely hear anything,” said Alex while looking at the white horse.
It faltered in the air, flew down to the other horses and seemed to be making noises with the tiny horse. Suddenly the purple and the white one began to glow very brightly; the glow from the purple one had the intensity of a lighting bolt, while the white one was blinding like the sun. Alex squeezed his eyes shut as hard as he could. When the brightness stopped pushing through his eyelids, he slowly opened them to see the white horse again floating in front of him.
“B es Eccqkcqb Qsiyjhqc sc Tjqknjppw uepe rbe opo bge cyck ei emwj supnquo ubpe?” came its voice.
Alex stared at the flying magic horse before shrugging and asking, “What?”
The white horse’s horn glowed golden for a moment and Alex felt a tingling in his head, then it made another sound, “Yh xhs sgyvmqrpgy fv ghu Nmvprsmv?”
“I am sorry, magic bird horse, but I don’t know what you are saying,”
Again the white horse glowed. “Begrijp jij mij?”
Alex raised his eyebrows “What a moment, you speak Dutch? That is neat. It is a shame that I don’t.”
The glow appear a third time. “Can you understand me now?” asked the flying white horse.
Alex’s eye opened wider. “Um, yep, that time I got what you are saying,” said Alex.
“My name is Celestia and I am the princess of Equestria. Who are you and why are you here?” asked the white pony.
“Um, my name is Alex Lambert and I am a citizen of America. I was going for a walk in the woods and somehow I ended up here. My working theory is that I slipped in the mud and hit my head.”
Celestia stared at him with a look of shock and confusion, while the blue flying horse zipped up and hovered right in front of his eyes and started to shout. “What are you? Are you a spy?”
“No, I’m a human, strange blue bird-horse thing,” said Alex.
“My name is Rainbow Dash and I am the fastest pegasus in Equestria!” shouted Rainbow Dash as she grimaced at Alex.
“Uh-huh. Can I speak to the Celestia again? She was a lot nicer,” said Alex, with a slight roll of the eyes.
Rainbow Dash huffed before she was pulled down by a purple aura and Celestia cleared her throat. “Well Alex, I can assure you that this is real".
“To be fair, Celestia, if you were a hallucination I don’t think I would be able to tell".
“Well if this is a hallucination will you lose anything by pretending it is real?” said Celestia.
Alex shrugged. “Fair enough”.
Celestia threw her head back and proclaimed regally “Let me welcome you to Equestria! My student Twilight Sparkle will take care of you".
“Thank you Celestia. Which one of them is Twilight Sparkle?” asked Alex, pointing to the three small horses at his feet.
The purple unicorn smirked and teleported onto Alex’s hand
“I am Twilight Sparkle,” said Twilight.
Celestia smiled and vanished in a flash of bright yellow light.
Alex felt something on his foot, he looked down to see the orange pony nudging him, Alex reached out and picked it up.
“And what is your name?”
“Well, howdy-doo, Mr Lambert. I'm Applejack. Sorry about bucking you in the hooves, thought you were a monster,” drawled Applejack.
“It's Ok, I didn’t even feel it, and to be fair I am a monstrous sized creature you’ve never seen before. I would have done the same thing in your situation".
Twilight teleport next to Applejack while Rainbow Dash landed on her other side. “So what are going to do now, Alex?” asked Twilight.
Alex thought for a moment and took a long look around the area. The forest he had walk out of was now only comprised of trees shorter than he was, so whatever route he took that lead him to this place was gone. None of the plants in the area were anywhere big enough to feed him nor was there any large animals. It dawned on Alex just how much bigger he was then everything around him, what would be large lakes were now mere puddles. Things looked bleak.
Alex thought for a moment. “Die most likely,” he sighed.
“WHAT?!” shouted all three of them.
“I doubt I will last more than a week,” answered Alex.
“What do you mean you're gonna die? How ya going to die?” asked Applejack.
“Starvation is a likely outcome, of course I might have to be put down by the army,” said Alex slowly.
Applejack laughed a little at that. “Don’t yah worry about going hungry, my family makes the best apples in Equestria”
“And the princess would never kill you,” said Twilight looking at him with shock.
Alex sighed and looked down. “Applejack, how much would you say you eat in a day?’
Applejack thought for a moment. “Counting everything, hmm... maybe twelve apples and a full bale of hay,” she said as she pulled out an apple from under her hat to eat.
Alex looked at the tiny red thing in the pony’s hoof; it look like a small berry. “Well I can’t eat hay, so If I were to survive on only apples I would need thousands a day just in order to survive".
The three mares stared and their jaws dropped. “That ridiculous, no pony could eat that much!” shouted Rainbow Dash
“I’m not a pony, I am an oversized human, and it doesn’t have to be apples, but I would still need to eat that much food everyday in order to survive. Then there is how much water I would have to drink, I would drain your reservoir in a few days. I just have no place here, or anywhere in Equestria. Wherever I go, famines and droughts would follow".
Looks of shock transformed into looks of horror “Is there anything we can do?” asked Rainbow Dash turning to Twilight.
Twilight had a look of determination on her face and shouted, “There must be a way, there is always a way!” her voice quieted “Surely at some point in Equestrian history somepony has shrunk down something. There must be some spell that can do it, I just have to do the research to solve this problem,” before loudly and brightly flashing away.
The other two ponies steadyed themselves from the flashy explosion. Applejack looked up and asked, “So what are you doing to do now?”
Alex looked around. “Sit here and wait, I guess, the less I move the less I have to eat. Soon I’ll have to figure someway to eat something. When you see Twilight Sparkle tell her she has twenty hours to find a solution before I’m going to leave, if she can’t my only slim hope is to wander and hope to find enough food".
After watching the two ponies walk back towards the town, Alex leaned back and looked up at the rising moon and stars and thought about his situation. He honestly didn’t know what to do, looking around at the size of everything he knew he would never be able to eat enough in order to survive. Elephants and whales have to eat all the time just to maintain their body weight and knew he wouldn’t be able to find food as fast as they could nor in enough quantities. He could probably eat the entire apple orchard in one sitting and still be hungry, maybe even all the food in the town.
‘I bet my family is worried sick about me’ thought Alex as he began to drift off into sleep, ‘and they are never going to be able to find me here, not even a body, just another missing person’.
Alex soon fell asleep and started dreaming of a dirt field, looking down there wasn't even a single blade of grass to break up the brown field. Letting out a loud sigh he dropped his head, when he lifted his gaze back up to the horizon he managed to catch a whiff of oranges. He ran as fast as he could in the direction of the scent until he saw a small bit of green peeking up over the horizon. As he ran closer he saw it was an oasis with a small orange tree pushing up on an island in the middle of a pond. Alex leapt right into the water and swam to the tree. He pulled himself out of the water and leaned against the tree reaching up to get one of the low hanging fruit, but just as he was about to wrap his fingers around the orange the branch pulled itself up, keeping out of his reach. He reached for another fruit, but again he was denied.
“Oh, I know what is going on,” said Alex flatly as he leapt down on to the ground. He went over to the water's edge and leaned down to take a drink, but when he got close the water receded. He got up and began to walk forward but the water pushed itself away from him like he was in a bubble.
Alex sighed “Yep, this is happening, I’m being Tantalused” said Alex as he stood up and brushed his pants “The only vegetation and water for miles and all I can do is look. It won’t be so bad tonight, but if this keeps up it could be a problem”.
Alex heard a squishing noise and turned around to see a blue horse with a horn and wings, standing next to the tree eating an orange. Surprisingly this one was as tall as he was.
“Hello,” he said, “I’m Alex. Who are you?”
“I am Her Highness Princess Luna, Lady of the Night, Guardian of Dreams, Mistress of the Moon, Defender of Equestria, Chief Mage of the Mares of the Night, Lord of the Dance and Friend of All Foals".
“WOW, now that is a mouthful. Mind if I just call you Luna?”
“That would be acceptable.”
“So if I might be so bold, what is going on?”
“My sister told me of your plight, and when I felt your emotions on the dreamscape I sensed it was important for me to make an appearance".
“Is there something you can do to help? I could use that orange if you can manage it".
Luna pulled a branch off of the tree with her magic and levitated it into Alex’s grasp. Alex quickly picked one of the oranges off and bit into it, tearing off the rind and sinking his teeth deep into the fleshy pulp. He closed his eyes as he felt the juices drip down his chin.
“Mmm, so good,” sighed Alex, as he licked the juices and shoving the rest of the orange into his mouth. “I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to eat an orange like this again".
Luna let out a giggle and raised a hoof to her mouth as she watched Alex gorge himself.
“I have lived for over three thousand years. I have eaten alongside griffins, dragons, elephants and serpents. I have eaten on battlefields and courts, but this is the first time I’ve seen such an intense reaction to an orange".
Alex wiped his mouth and smiled. “I guess when you fear you will never eat again, you enjoy even the illusion of eating".
Luna walked over and rested her hoof on his back. “Don’t worry Alex, we will find a way to help you, I guarantee it".
“I’m sure you will,” said Alex as he sat down.
The two spent the rest of Alex’s dream just being next to each other.
The next morning, Alex got up and looked around, after a moment he found what he was hoping for. He walked over to a body of water that looked like it was relatively clean. Looking down carefully to see if there were any ponies swimming or standing on the edge, he kneeled down and began to filter the water through his teeth as he drank. Within a few minutes he had drank as much water as he could and sat down. He then felt something brushing against his teeth. He spat into his hand and was about to see what he had almost eaten when he heard a shout from below. Standing there and looking angry was a white unicorn.
“You just drank the highland reservoir dry!” shouted the unicorn.
Alex looked at his hand to see a small pink pony with a ridiculously poofy mane shaking herself like a dog.
“And I almost swallowed who ever this is,” said Alex as he placed the pony next to the unicorn.
“PINKIE!” shouted the unicorn, pulling the pink one into a hug.
“RARITY!” shouted the pink pony.
“Alex,” said Alex, pointing to himself.
Rarity pulled Pinkie behind her and set her horn aglow and yelled, “Stand back, whatever you are! You’re not going to eat my friend!”
“No, I’m not, she wouldn’t even make a good snack, I was taking a drink and somehow she got into my mouth,” answered Alex, lifting one of his hands to rub his neck.
“I was going for a swim in my bathtub and when I came up for air I was inside your mouth Alex,” said Pinkie as she began to hop around Rarity and Alex.
Alex stretched his arms and leaned back. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, is there anything I can help you with?”
“Twi told me you were here, and I just had to see for myself” said Rarity.
“And my Pinkie sense told me that there was somebody new in town that means I had to throw a party!” said Pinkie. She had somehow appeared behind Alex’s ear.
Alex gently picked Pinkie up and placed her on the ground. “I don’t think I will be here long enough for a party Pinkie, I have to leave sometime today and I won't be able to come back”
Pinkie suddenly sneezed, scratched her knee, and stuck out her tongue, then gasped and dashed back to the town. Alex shrugged and turned to Rarity, and asked, “What do you do, Rarity?”
Rarity posed and tossed her mane. “I am a fashion designer and a seamstress” she said as she looked Alex over. “And I have to say I’ve never seen anything like you before".
Alex laughed a little. “Yeah, I don’t know how I got here or how to get home so I’m hoping Twilight could help me".
While he was talking he heard a loud pop and saw a bright flash. Standing in front of him was Twilight.
“Alex,” she said, “I have something to tell you."
Author's Note
and now I give you the chance to choose your ending
If you want Alex to live among the ponies go here
If you want Alex to live away from the ponies go here
