A Bond That Exceeds Dimensions

Hoyt rose from his bed with a yawn, the day he had been waiting for had finally come. Today he was finally going to become a mage, and he was ecstatic. He hopped out of his bed and landed on the floor with a soft thump, pivoting around slightly, Hoyt flicked his hand and let his magic flow through his body. A deep purple light flashed from his palm as his bed began making itself. After his bed was made Hoyt snapped his fingers and the room filled with magical light. Hoyt walked over to his dresser and slipped on a black shirt and dark blue jeans. Moving to his left he grabbed his spell-book and began flipping through pages. After deciding everything was in order, Hoyt walked to his rooms door and gave the knob a gentle twist. Opening his door showed a large octangular room, the walls were made of grey stone bricks and the floors were made of polished dark oak wood. All around the room were door's similar to his own.

The room looked like it always had, except for a white chalk circle in the center of the room. Within the outer white ring was a smaller red ring, the red ring glistened as if it was on fire. In the center was a singular golden rune, the rings were comprised of multiple large runes. Each one was evenly spaced, and glowed slightly in the dim light of the room.

Standing at one side of the ring was a man, he was clad in a dark purple robe, the sleeves were long and wide towards the end. His hands were clasped together, the sleeves concealing them. His hood was drawn over his face, completely masking his identity. On the hood, right above where the man's forehead was a white triangle. The man himself had an almost ominous aura, the man looked up slightly, and seemed to peer through Hoyt.

"Greeting's Hoyt, I will be your proctor," said The man.

"My proctor," questioned Hoyt curiously.

"Each of The Awakened are tested individually, right now we stand in a pocket dimension of my own creation, here I will commence the ritual that will make you a full fledged mage," said the man with a flat, booming tone.

"I am ready when you are master," said Hoyt respectfully, giving a little bow to the senior magician.

"Good, I can tell you are eager, I must tell you to please pace yourself, we have a long day ahead of us," said the man with a slightly softer tone.

"Right sir," said Hoyt with a more level tone.

"Now, I must ask you to stand in the center of the magic circle, on the golden rune," said the proctor gesturing towards the center of the circle with one arm.

Hoyt nodded curtly and began walking towards the center of the circle. The second Hoyt crossed the white runes he felt a large amount of pressure pushing down on him from above. Hoyt's breathing increased and deepened as he tried with all his might to stay on his feet.

"You must push through it, this is a necessary evil," said the proctor coldly.

"Y-yes sir," choked out Hoyt.

Hoyt continued his walk, with every step the pressure grew. Finally, after what felt like an eternity Hoyt finally reached the red ring. Right when he though his pain was over a deep agonizing burning feeling ripped through his body. Hoyt cried out in pain, all the while the proctor just gazed through him. As Hoyt forced himself to go further the burning feeling grew and increased, but as this happened the pressure lessened.

Hoyt finally made it to the center, he was panting heavily and sweating buckets, but he still made it.

"You did that faster than I thought you would," said the proctor with a flat tone "I honestly didn't expect you to succeed."

"What," asked Hoyt with a tone of disbelief.

"I thought you'd crack and give up, anyway we should begin the ritual," said the proctor.

The proctor spread his arms out wide and began chanting.

"Exors detho egre launk drecos plethy brethos mo-de-la extrusum bleth OMUNDUS," bellowed the proctor.

The circle's around Hoyt began glowing and shimmering, the sound of thousands of bells filled the air. Before long the light became blinding.

"W-what... this isn't what's suppose to..." the proctor tried saying but was cut off as the light from the circle turned him to ash.

The light kept growing in intensity, soon the light was so intense it actually began burning Hoyt's skin. Hoyt stood in silent terror as he awaited what he thought would be his inevitable doom.

But his doom never came, Hoyt stood with his eyes closed, waiting for something to happen. But nothing did. Hoyt slowly opened one eye and was surprised to find he was now in a dense dark forest. Panicking Hoyt rapidly glanced all around himself, trying to find something that was familiar, but found nothing.

Hoyt was about to sit down but he heard a loud feminine scream come from his left. Reacting on instinct Hoyt ran to where the scream came from, only to find a small, pale purple, trembling unicorn.

"Aren't unicorn's mythical," questioned Hoyt.

"S-stay away," said the unicorn with her back turned towards Hoyt.

Hoyt wondered who she was talking to, but quickly noticed the five wooden wolves standing across from the adorable little equine. Hoyt rolled his eyes and jumped over the pony, landing right in front of her. She seemed terrified of him for a moment but Hoyt quickly cast her a comforting smile. The little pony seemed to understand he wasn't a threat and tried to relax. Hoyt turned back towards the wooden wolves and quickly began channeling his magic, raising up both his hands Hoyt watched as fire began dancing across them. With a quick motion Hoyt pushed his palms out facing the wolves and released spouts of flame at them. The wolves were consumed by magical flames and within seconds they were nothing more than smoldering mounds of ash.

Hoyt turned back to the equine.

"Are you okay," asked Hoyt worriedly.

"Y-yes... I'm fine," said the equine warily.

"My name is Hoyt, what's yours," asked Hoyt trying to start a conversation.

"Starlight Glimmer," said Starlight more confidently.

"Do you by any chance need anymore help," asked Hoyt.

"A-actually... could you by any chance walk me back to Ponyville, I don't feel to safe going back alone," said Starlight bashfully.

"Why'd you come out here alone in the first place," asked Hoyt.

"I was helping a friend, she had run out of herbs and asked me if I could get her some more," said Starlight with a smile.

"You seem to be a very trusting individual, I am a stranger after all, and an alien, " said Hoyt.

"Most, if not all, stranger's are merely ponies you haven't befriended yet," said Starlight with a smile.

"In that case, which way are we going," asked Hoyt.

"It should be this way," replied Starlight pointing to the left.

"Shall we," asked Hoyt politely.

"Mhmm," replied Starlight merrily skipping down the path.

Hoyt followed her, standing to her side with his hands in his pockets.

"So.... what do you do for a living," asked Hoyt awkwardly.

"I'm a student," replied Starlight cheerfully.

"Me too," said Hoyt with a smile.

"What are you exactly, and where are you from, I know it's rude to ask, but I must know," asked Starlight curiously.

"It's no problem at all, in fact I completely understand, Human is my species, and I think it's safe to say I'm from another world, or well, plane of existence at least," said Hoyt smiling.

"Wow," said Starlight in awe "so I could very well be the first pony to ever meet, and hopefully befriend an alien."

"I guess, I don't really know, but I'd like to be your friend, you seem interesting," said Hoyt chuckling.

"Really," exclaimed Starlight excitedly.

"Of course," said Hoyt smiling.

Hoyt and Starlight continued their back and forth conversing for about thirty minutes, and Hoyt started to really like Starlight. She was sweet, kind, and honest, but also determined, open minded, and outgoing. Traits he'd really like in a girl, if only she were human.

Hoyt and Starlight finally made it out of the forest and were immediately surrounded by six other ponies. All but one of them didn't even notice his presence. And the pony that had seemed very very interested in him, she was yellow with a pink mane and tail. She continued to stare at him, a curious smile plastered on her face, all the while her friends scolded Starlight for going into the Everfree by herself. The small yellow equine took four cautious steps towards him.

"H-hello," she said in the smallest, and sweetest voice Hoyt had ever heard "my name is Fluttershy, you are."

It was then that the other's noticed his presence, their reaction's were mixed, but most showed shock and even fear towards his presence.

"My name's Hoyt, it's a pleasure to meet you Fluttershy," said Hoyt trying to sound friendly.

"Oh my, where are my manners, girls this is my new friend Hoyt, Hoyt these are my friends, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and I guess you already know Fluttershy," said Starlight.

"Hello all, it's a pleasure to meet you all, I seem to be stuck here in this dimension, could you lot by any chance help me," asked Hoyt hopefully.

Twilight nodded eagerly "of course, though I'll have to send a letter to Princess Celestia, but I'm sorry to inform you that... if you're from another dimension we... we have no way of helping you," Twilight was close to tears at the end.

"She genuinly cares about my well being... how could I be upset, I mean yes I'll probably never get to go home but... it could be worse," thought Hoyt glancing around at his newly acquired friends, he felt warm... almost like, despite his obvious differences, he belonged. It made him greatly happy.

Hoyt held Twilight's gaze and smiled "thank you for giving it to me straight Twilight, I feel much better knowing how things really are."

Twilight brushed a stray tear away and sniffled "r-really, aren't you mad or at least upset."

"Of course not, how could I be, I've known you ponies for just about five minutes now, and yet I feel we've already became VERY close friends. For example, you Twilight, you knew that you couldn't send me home, and instead of lying to me in order to keep me from freaking out, you told me the truth outright. For that, I am grateful," said Hoyt with a comforting smile.

"If you need somewhere to stay, my castle has a plethora of spare rooms," said Twilight with a chuckle "I wouldn't mind having you stay there till we can figure things out."

"I wouldn't want to be a bother," said Hoyt shaking his hands dismissively.

"Nonsense," said Twilight firmly "I insist."

Hoyt knew he wasn't going to win this argument "fine."

Starlight squealed with glee, attracting Hoyt's attention.

"What," asked Hoyt with a confused expression.

"You said you were a student too did you not," Hoyt nodded "then we could study together, it'll be fun, study buddies forever," said Starlight with a dramatic flare.

Hoyt could only chuckle at the display, it was going to be a bumpy ride, but he was going to be happy.

Though he still didn't know why he was so trusting of the ponies, but he chalked it down to their overwhelming kindness.

Or contagious personalities.