Undesired Assimilation

Undesired Assimilation

Chapter One - Oh, the Places You’ll Go

How much is there? Is our planet the only source of life? If there is a sort of God, how narrow is our viewpoint of his creation?

All of these questions deserve an answer.  The answer is thirteen thousand infinite universes. The proper term for these universes in english would be "dimensions."

These dimensions are parallel to each other, occupying the exact same space, yet separated just enough so as not to crush all the dimensions. These are governed each by a deity, or a group of deities, and they in turn must be directed by their superiors: the Council. Each of the thirteen members of the council preserve balance throughout the dimensions, interfering in a deity's work when they deem necessary. The Council exists outside of the dimensions, but are forced to obey the set of rules they determined when they first decided to create the dimensions. Because of these rules, they can not always deal with a problem when it first appears. The most common one being dimensional convergence.

When two dimensions begin to converge upon each other, one will pull something from the other. Most commonly, knowledge. Some people make this kowledge known, by spreading this new form of math or create some story on the events of the other dimension. On other, rarer occasions, an abduction occurs. Sometimes a plant or animal, but every so often an intelligent life form is ripped from one dimension and thrown into the colliding one. Often the victim can cope and adapt to the new environment, but sometimes they simply cannot exist in the new dimension where different laws of physics apply. After 26 billion years of abduction, the council unanimously instilled a sort of charity, a way of survival rather than non-existence. Upon entering another dimension, the authoritive deity must convert the life form into a species capable of the level of intellect pertaining to the abductee.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

"So bored."

Nate raised his head a few inches above the fold-out table, and then dropped it again.

Thunk.

Apart from the old air conditioner, Nate was the only sound inside the pop-up camper. The camper wasn't very roomy, considering benches, tables, drawers, a mini fridge, and a counter took up most of the room, but it was the only active A/C unit available for half a mile.

Thunk.

Nate dropped his head on the table again. A healthy fourteen year old boy, he stood about five foot ten, but was as pale and skinny as they come. No doubt that was due to his lack of physical exercise. He would much rather play Minecraft or browse Memebase than play frisbee or join a team. In fact, he found himself missing video games and internet in this 100 degree dead zone of a campsite.

Thunk.

Sure, he could go outside with the rest of his family and stave off boredom with his seven siblings, but to interact with them, he had to leave the cool shelter and brave sunburn territory. No, suffering from boredom was much better than cringing from sunburn for a week after a few hours of risking dehydration and/or heatstroke. Texas was great and all, but the heat isn't exactly to die for. Dying from it isn't the plan either.

Thunk.

So here he was, dropping his head on the table repeatedly while his little brothers and sisters played outside in the campsite.

"Hey Nathan!" Nate's Dad called. "Can you bring out the hot dogs?"

Nate scowled. Not only did he now have to leave his sanctuary, but he now knew that one of his least favorite dishes was coming up for lunch. Slowly sitting himself up into an upright position, he tilted the table back onto two legs so he could squeeze past the minifridge on the cabinet next to him. After squeezing through, he dropped the chair leg onto his bare foot.

"Shiiieeah!" He growled ill-temperedly. He really was usually a nice happy person, even apologizing to people he trolled on occasion, but camping really wasn't his thing. At all. Combine that with his short temper, and the outcome is, well, not a happy camper. After lifting the table off of his foot, he grabbed the hot dogs out of the mini-fridge and slammed the door.

Stepping outside, the blonde squinted in the brighter light. After giving himself a second to let his eyes adjust he took a step forward, then fell into oblivion.

It was the strangest thing really. One moment he was stepping on a patch of grass surrounded by gravel, the next he was nowhere. Well, not nowhere but not exactly somewhere either. There was only darkness, but at the same time only whiteness. He couldn't tell if there was nothing or everything all at once. Then there was thirteen. Nate didn't know what, only that there was thirteen of them. He couldn't see, feel, or hear them, or anything for that matter, but he knew they were there. It was as if some sixth sense told him of those presences. Not of their intent or purpose, only of their existence.

As quickly as it all happened, it ended. Nate's eyes snapped open. The first thing that came to mind was that this was not the camper, or anywhere else familiar. It was a hospital. But it was... wrong. Nate couldn't tell why, but it was. He heard the beeping of a heart monitor and the tell-tale sound of nurses tending to patients or talking to each other.

Nate turned his head to look around at the room. A bedside table and a chair next to a wall met his eyes, but something else caught his attention. Turning his head felt wrong. It was almost like he had to use different neck muscles to do it. Turning it back toward the ceiling repeated the same queerness. Nate closed his eyes and reached his arm up to rub his face like he always did when something confused him, but froze when he realized something else very wrong: not only did his arm feel thicker and shorter, but he couldn't feel his fingers. Reopening his eyes, he saw that his arm was now something right out of a cartoon. His arm was that of a blue, furry, cartoon, elephant arm. Raising up his other arm showed the same thing.

"What the...!" Nate said, his tone a cross between confusion and fear. "What's going on?!"

Pushing himself upright with his revised appendages, he felt pain shoot up through his back. Grunting from the pain, he dropped back onto the bed, sending another arc of pain through him. Letting out another grunt, he lay down for a moment and panted. The small attempt seemed to wear him out. Sure, he never was one for any sort of stamina, but this was ridiculous!

After getting his breath, he decided to change tactics. Lifting up a leg, and discovering that  this appendage felt very similar to his arms, he kicked the blanket off of himself, bit by bit. Letting panic fuel himself, he lifted up his head and looked at himself. He wasn't a hairy elephant. He was a cartoon pegasus. The blue and yellow tail between his legs and the plain blue wings flayed out on either side behind his bandaged torso said it all. Hypervenilating, Nate reached his right hand, or hoof as it were, down to the wing and tapped it. Frighteningly enough, he felt the tap. At this point he lost it. Screaming, he desperately tried to throw himself out of bed. He had to get out of there! Twisting himself so that his hind legs touched the floor, he pushed forward to stand up. Unable to balance as he formerly would, Nate fell flat onto his face, effectively shutting him up. As his face smacked painfully into the floor, the door swung open and slammed into the wall.

"He's up!" A woman exclaimed. "Hurry, get him back into the bed!"

Turning his head so that he could see the door, Nate saw another pegasus- no, just a pink horse with a purple mane wearing a nurse cap- standing in the doorway. She hurriedly took a few steps towards him and tried to nudge him up with her head. A blue horse and two equally strange colored unicorn trotted into the room, one of which had a stretcher in it's mouth. After the stretcher was laid on the floor next to him, they pushed him onto it and hoisted it up... without touching it. Instead, a green aura surrounded one side, and a blue aura encased the other. Nate couldn't take it anymore. He fainted.

Falling. Nate was falling with the sun shining directly in his eyes. The sky seemingly endless before him as he was dragged away from it by gravity. It seemed almost peaceful, borderline serene, but with a tinge of panic tainting it all. All that was forgotten when the pain struck. Excruciating pain, more that he could have imagined. It felt as though he was being stretched and squeezed like clay in the hands of a child. Unlike clay, however, he felt every pull, every hellish twist of pure pain. His nervous system was active while it was being split and stretched itself, sending all the painful information to his brain. Writhing and twisting in torment, he started rolling in the air, the ground coming closer and closer while the pain never altered. Then, just as it seemed he would hit the ground, Nate lurched forward in a cold sweat.

Nate remained motionless for a while, listening to the frantic beating of his heart in time with the beeping. He was still in the hospital. Which meant it wasn't all a dream. Just as the gravity of the situation hit him and he began trembling, the door swung open.

"Are you awake?" The pink horse said as she trotted into the room. She sounded like any other nurse would, and the heart monitor sounded like any other, but beyond that, there was nothing normal about anything. Trying to bring himself to believe that all this was happening, Nate opened his eyes. Upon seeing the nurse and his arm, or rather his front leg, he grew sick to his stomach.

"Oooohh," he groaned. "Why...?" Trailing off, he closed his mouth to try to prevent himself from relieving the contents of his stomach.

"You suffered a rather nasty fall," the nurse said, hoping to answer him. "Miraculously, only a few ribs were fractured, and nothing else was too heavily damaged. You should be up and around by the end of the week. You really should be more careful up there."

It took Nate a minute to realize what she meant by that. 'You should really be more careful.' It's not as if he flew up there and fell down... unless he was a pegasus...

"Are you hurt?" She asked in response to another groan. Her voice sounded concerned. "The herbs should have numbed the pain. Is there something else wrong? If there is we need to know about it."

Nate looked up at her with a pained expression. "I'm a pegasus," he moaned. Just admitting it out loud sent another wave a nausea through him. He felt rather pathetic, considering that he was sick for that, but he couldn't just stop being nauseous. It was similar to a crying child. A child can't stop crying at will, not even with bribery. But of they are distracted and forget they wept at all, then they refuse to shed a single tear. Right now, unfortunately, there was nothing to distract Nate.

"You're... wait, is that all?" She asked with a confused tone of voice and an expression to match it. Giving him an odd look, she slowly turned and trotted out.

Nate grimaced and looked out the open door as she left. Across the hallway was another ward where an orange unicorn with a red mane lay. Arm and neck in a cast, she turned to see him grimacing at her. She smiled uncomfortably back at his grimace until the door closed between them.

'Oooohhh, this is so wierd,' he thought to himself. 'Was it something I ate? I've heard of food induced illusions, but this... Am I dreaming? No, whenever someone says that, they definitely aren't dreaming.  Besides if I was I could do whatever I wanted.'

"Bippity boppity boo!" He quietly said, sticlking a hoof in the air. Nothing happened. "By the power of grayskull I am Hema- erm, Hepegasus?" He dropped his hoof, somewhat dissappointed that it wasn't a dream.

'If it's not a dream... then where am I?'

As if in response, a knock sounded at the door, followed shortly after by the door swinging open to reveal the nurse. She slowly trotted over with a suspicious expression. She looked him over for a moment, and then spoke slowly, almost cautiously.

"I don't know who you are or what you did, but you seemed to have gathered some attention. Princess Celestia sent word that she is coming as soon as she knew you were awake."

Nate furrowed his brow (as best he could in his new body). The name sounded familiar. He'd heard it before. The question is: where? After a few seconds it hit him and a look of dread covered his face and he squeezed his eyes shut. Princess Celestia. How many times had his little sister said that? 'My favorite is Princess Celestia'

'... oh, God. I'm in My Little Pony. Of all the things it could have been. Naruto, Eureka, even the Marvel Universe, as deadly as it is to not have powers. I hardly know anything about this show.'

He had watched it before. Well, listened would be a better word. It played on the TV while six-year-old Tess watched an episode about Spike being a number one assistant. Nate had been playing Picross on the couch the while. And of course little Vinnie would try to play with him constantly. 'I'm Rainbow Dash and you're Applejack!'

'What do I know about this? There's a Princess names Celestia for one. Then somewhere there's a baby dragon named Spike and an owl named Owluwishus or whatever, an they're both an assistant to... I don't know. And then there's Rainbow Dash and Applejack, whoever they are. Other than that... Why couldn't this happen to a Brony?!'

A knock snapped him out of his train of thought. Opening his eyes hurriedly, he noticed that the nurse pony was no longer there. The door silently opened to reveal her current location. Nate had been so deep in though that he failed to notice her absence. She appeared a bit tense, sweat visibly forming on her brow.

"Your visitor is here." She said rigidly before stepping aside.

Nate nearly had a heart attack as the princess elegantly trotted forward into the room. When he heard the name Princess Celestia, he had pictured a pony/unicorn/pegasus wearing a tiara. What he did not picture was a  pure white pony twice the height of the others with both a foot long horn and wings wearing pieces of golden armor and a long multicolored flowing translucent mane and tail with a huge sun tattoo on her flank. The Princess was forced to bow her head to fit though the doorway before rising back up as tall as possible without impaling the ceiling. As intimidating as Nate found it, she gave off this calming feel, as if it were difficult to be afraid in her presence. He soon found himself calming down and become somewhat at peace.

"My name is Princess Celestia. Who are you?" Princess Celestia asked. She said it kindly, a verbal personification of her calming aura. Her tone of voice suggested a mutual conversation between equals rather than the expected Spanish Inquisition. Focusing so much on ther personality and intent, it took a moment for Nate to realize that her words formed a question that expected an answer.

"Ah, Nate," he responded, voice steady.

She gave a half smile, as if she was slightly annoyed that Nate only answered a fragment of the question.

"I mean to say," She rephrased, "where did you come from?"

Nate hesitated, wondering how he could answer this. How do you tell someone 'I came from outside the television?' Finally he settled on saying, "Texas."

The Princess responded with a frown. This gave her as much help as the last answer, which is to say, none at all. She took a deep breath before trying again.

"How did you get here?"

"To be honest, I was hoping you could tell me that," Nate replied, disappointed that one of the highest forms of authority couldn't even give him any clue. "All I know is that I walked outside and woke up here like this." He used his hooves to gesture at his body. The nausea came back as he once again remembered his current form.

"According to witnesses," Celestia informed him, "you appeared quite a distance up in the air. From there you just fell down to the ground. Nopony was close enough to break your fall, so they picked you up and moved you to a hospital."

Something in her story spoke to him, ringing a bell. Nate thought for a second, and then it hit him harder than his My Little Pony revelation: his dream. It was a memory. Suddenly he found himself living the epxerience over again, falling in excruciating pain for what seemed like forever. His heart raced as he gasped for breath, panicking as he feared for his life. Then, he hit the ground, breaking him free from his horrifying memory. Looking up, he saw the concerned face of Princess Celestia and the purple maned nurse rushed into the room with a similar expression.

"What is it? What happened?!" the nurse said frantically as she rushed over, checking the equipment behind Nate's bed.

"I'm f- I'm fine," Nate tried to reassure her, but his voice was too shaky and his heart raced too quickly to comfort anyone. "Just... panicking."

As Nate calmed down and the beeping slowed to a regular tempo, the nurse calmed down. She turned toward the princess as if she was going to tell her off, but froze when she her eyes met the Princess. After a moment's hesitation, she walked off to the hallway as if she had though better of it.

"Where am I?" Nate asked after a minute, parly to break the awkard silence that had fallen, and partly to answer the question for himself.

"You were found in Fillydelphia, but I requested that you be moved to the finest hospital in Canterlot," the Princess answered. She paused  for a moment to see if the name sparked some recognition. After seeing no notable show of it, she continued. "The capital of Equestria?"

"Hang on a minute," Nate said, a bit wary. "These are familiar. Philadelphia, Camelot, and Horse in Latin?" Nate bit his tongue and reminded himself that this was a little girl's cartoon. Correction, this was his new reality. He had to try not to take a jab at every ponified word. Especially now that he realized she said 'anypony.'

"Sorry, I mean that these places are not familiar, only... coincidentally similar."

Celestia gave him an odd look, decidedly confused at his interjection. She brushed it off, and then threw another question at him.

"Forgive me if I insult you, but is it a coincidence that you do not have a cutie mark?"

"I don't... wait, what?" Nate said with a bewildered tone and an expression to match.  "I figured as much," the Princess responded. "A cutie mark is the mark that appears on one's flank when one realizes his or her special talent. It is the outward sign of their talent."

Nate glanced to what he assumed must be her own cutie mark: the sun tattoo as big as his head. 'Wait a minute... Celestia, a sun talent... does she control space?!'

"So what would your talent be?" He asked, knowing that he is the embodiment of the 'assume' saying.

"I raise the sun each morning."

"So, you're a Ra pony?" Nate said, trying to make light of the situation in an attempt to calm himself.

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean,” Princess Celestia replied slowly. "And if your goal is to be specific, I am an Alicorn."

"No, Ra is... never mind, I was... yeah," Nate trailed off somewhat embarrassed. "Ah, while I'm thinking about it, do you know of someone- er, somepony named Rainbow Dash?"

The Princess started to open her mouth to respond, but stopped and gave him a curious look. "How is it that you are ignorant of all this, yet you know her name?"

Nate's heart skipped a beat. He really didn’t think that one through. He also really didn't want to try to explain, for if something came across wrong, or seemed contradictory, he could be in trouble.

"I uh, heard the nurses mention something about her... and someo- pony named Applejack...?" He tried to remain calm and collected, but he never was a good liar. As a matter of fact, he was a bad one. Attempting to remember the signs of a liar, he tried as best he could to not do any of those things.

She gave him a wary look, then answered a bit cautiously, "Rainbow Dash and Applejack are two of the weilders of the Elements of Harmony, and have Equestria several great favors in doing so."

Before Nate could say something in response, a female unicorn nurse stepped in the doorway. She was a baby blue color with a light green and yellow mane. Around the Princess she also seemed more nervous than the pink and purple nurse. She was visibly shaking as she turned to address Celestia.

"Visi- visiting hours are ov- over," she stated, then mumbled the rest incoherently.

Celestia, recognizing that she was flustered, glanced at me and said, still a bit wary, "I will be seeing you again soon." She then exit the doorway past that semi-cowering nurse and walked down the hallway.

After a moment, the Unicorn stood up and composed herself. She turned towards Nate and said with a calm voice, "my name is Moonlight  and if you need anything tonight, please let me know." Content with a mere nod in response, she trotted out, switching off the light and closing the door behind her as she left.

'All right subconscious, this is your last call!' Nate thought to himself in the now dark room, illiminated only by the light shining form underneath the door. 'Do something crazy or this isn't a dream!'

Of course, nothing happened