So far from home
By HyperBlastBrony
A soft pitter-patter of rain could be heard inside the library. Matthew looked at the time on his watch, which read 6:05. The library will close in an hour. Hopefully the rain would let up by then. He turned through the pages of an old book. Perhaps I should leave. I don’t want mom to worry. And with that thought he picked up the old book, checked out, and walked outside. The rain had let up and now fell gently on his face. He smiled and then quickly ran home. After about 15 minutes he reached the front door. Taking out his key he unlocked the door and went in.
As he entered, his beagle named Martin greeted Matthew. “Hey boy, how you doing?” The dog licked his face with joy. He walked over to check the calendar. May 14th. Only two more days until his birthday. He would be 13 soon. But he wasn’t very sure what he wanted. Nothing really seemed to please him anymore. Well at least most “normal” gifts. He preferred practical things like food, books and cool T- shirts.
He didn’t fit in well with the other kids at school. All they were interested in was first-person shooters, girls, and card games. Why did puberty make every one so strange? He had always been kind of the loner. He didn’t have a best friend, much less a group like the other students.
Heck, he didn’t even know if his dad was even going to be home for his birthday. He was super busy with work. Ever since the war in Iraq got bad, he was up to his neck with intel. Even his mom was busy, but at least she’d be home by 5:00.
He set his book down and took a look in the fridge. “Hrmm, not much to eat.” He grabbed a can of chili and got the rice ready. Rice. Everyone in his family said he was strange for eating rice but it went better with chili. Rice went better with a lot of other foods too. He started the rice cooker and sat down in front of the TV.
CSI Miami was on so he watched that until the bell rang on the rice cooker. He poured out the contents of the can in a bowl, then microwaved it for a minute and added the fresh, steaming rice.
He sat at the dining table with his dinner and book, reading as he ate. He was careful not to get food on its yellowed pages. This book particularly interested him. It was all about spells and casting them. He knew his parents would think it was stupid. Most of the things he read about, his parents didn’t really care for.
He finished dinner just as his mom’s car pulled in to the driveway. “Hey Matthew, I’m home.” “Hi mom,” Matthew responded. “What did you do today while I was gone?” she asked. “Spent most of the day at the docks and the library,” Matthew said, not looking up from his book. “Did you make dinner?” his mom asked. “Yeah, it’s on the stove.”
He went up to his room and threw himself on the bed. He sighed. His parents never really took much care of him. They were always too busy with one thing or another. The only good thing about their indifference was that it taught him to be very independent. He opened up his book and continued reading.
He had gotten to the chapter that explained how to use teleportation spells. It was amazing. The instructions were so detailed and intricate. You could travel anywhere you wanted or even to other worlds. These couldn’t possibly be for real, could they? “No. It’s a fiction book,” Matthew told himself. Magic didn’t exist. Or did it?
After he could stand it no longer, Matthew grabbed a piece of paper from his desk. He copied a circular image from the book and laid the drawing on the floor. He pulled out his drawer and found his pocketknife. Wincing in pain, he cut his index finger and wrote his name on the symbol with his own blood like the book instructed. “Here goes nothing,” he said out loud. Take me some place where I will be truly happy and people actually care about me for once. Then he spoke the words from the book: “Per transmaritanus de cruor capissivi meus procul!” He waited. For the next few minutes nothing happened. Well, it was worth a shot. Matthew stared glumly at the circle and then went to pick it up.
As soon as his fingers made contact with the paper, the page started to burn. Ow! He cried out and withdrew his fingers. The flames burned around the mark as it lit up and enlarged to about ten feet wide in diameter. “Oh my God!” were the only words that he could get out of his mouth as the sphere of light enveloped him. The world began to spin around him and he blacked out.
He didn’t know how long he had been out, but the next thing he knew was that he was lying on his back in some grass. His eyes shot open and he instantly sat up right. His vision cleared and he stopped hyperventilating as he slowly took in his surroundings. He was in a grassy area underneath. Wait. Was that an apple tree? He realized trees, all carrying fresh apples, surrounded him.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye he saw someone staring at him. More accurately, something. He came to realize it was a small horse. It was about two feet tall and had a yellowish coat with a red mane. “Um, hello?” Matthew said with a weak smile. “Aghhhhh!” the small horse cried out in shock and quickly ran off without a trace. Wait, did that horse just talk !? He did a 360 of his surroundings once more and finally the words tumbled out of his mouth: “Where am I?!”
Chapter 2: Where Am I?
“Where am I?” Matthew was confused. The last thing he remembered was the sphere of light and then blacking out. Was this the result of the teleportation spell? He wondered. Was this some kind of world that the book mentioned? Matthew had so many questions that needed to be answered.
Suddenly, he heard voices coming towards him. “Hurry up, Applejack, it’s right over here!” “I’m coming, Applebloom, and what was it you saw again?” “I don’t know and I figured you would!”
Matthew quickly looked around for a place to hide. In the trees? No. Didn’t have enough time. In a bush? The bushes were too small. Crap. He thought. The voices were almost on top of him now. Just act friendly and don’t do anything stupid! He braced himself as the two figures arrived.
As they came in to view the older one gasped. The horse was about four and a half feet tall, had a light orange coat, and blonde mane. She also wore a cowboy hat. “Hi there mah name’s Applejack, what’s yer’s?” the taller of the two said nervously. Matthew instantly took notice of her southern accent and the fact that these horses could speak English.
“ I’m Matthew and since when did horses speak English?”
“Ponies,” the “pony” named Applejack instantly said. “It’s ponies, not horses.”
“Oh.” said Matthew.
“So what are you exactly?” asked Applejack.
“I would like to say the same to you, but you asked first, so I’ll answer.” “ I’m something called a human being, or in scientific terms a Homo sapiens. I come from a place called planet Earth.”
“ But that’s impossible!” exclaimed Applejack. “We’re on Earth right now!”
“What?” Matthew was confused. This was earth? It couldn’t be. Unless it was some alternate universe, or Planet of the Apes happened but with ponies.
“Well I sure as hay don’t know who yer are but I do know somepony that might be able to help.” Applejack said. “But we’re probably gonna put you in the farm house so that nopony sees ya.”
“Okay, and just one more question.” Matthew asked. “Just where the heck am I, exactly?”
“Yer in the land of Equestria of course!”
Matthew sighed, he had no idea where he was but he strangely felt welcome here. It was like he knew he would fit in. After viewing his options he finally said, “Let’s go.”
“Okay then, we’ll take you around back so that nopony sees ya.”
As Matthew followed Applejack through the sweet smelling orchard, he thought about what he was going to say to his parents. Then again, he didn’t even know how he was going to get home.
They hurried in to the painted brick farmhouse and quickly closed the door behind them. “Okay now, I’m gonna put you in the closet,” said Applejack.
“What?” Matthew gave her the WTH look.
“I don’t want any other pony to see ya.”
Matthew thought about the decision for a second and then said “Fine, but this better be quick, I’m not a fan of enclosed spaces.” He entered the dark closet, which was filled with assorted farm tools and such.
“I’ll be right back, okay? I’m going to get a friend of mine named Twilight. She might be able to help you.”
“Promise?” asked Matthew with a concerned look on his face.
“Promise,” confirmed Applejack. With that, Applejack closed the closet door.
Okay, now I have something called a human in my closet. Was the first thought that went through Applejack. I really need to get Twilight. “Applebloom, make sure that nopony sees him okay?” “Yes ma’am” said Applebloom with a salute. And with that Applejack ran off to get her good friend.
After about 10 minutes Applejack reached the library. She let herself in and saw Twilight at the front desk. “Twilight!”
“Oh, hi Applejack. What’s going on?”
“I really need your help right now!” said Applejack.
“What happened?”
“I found something on the farm, but I have no clue what the hay it is and I need you to identify it for me!”
“Well I’m kinda working right now, but I think I can leave Spike in charge,” said Twilight.
“Thanks so much, sugar cube, I’m sure you’ll be able to help.” With that, Twilight called Spike and she and Applejack sped off to the ranch.
Matthew fidgeted nervously in the dark musty closet. Are they here yet? Matthew thought to himself. “Ugh.” The enclosed space was finally starting to get to him. While he was waiting he had heard a lot of the other ponies outside. He assumed that Applebloom also had a big brother. What was the name again? He couldn’t remember, but he did know he didn’t speak that much. Pretty soon he heard Applejack’s voice again. She came back! A wave of relief went through him. Matthew hoped that her friend Twilight could help him.
Twilight. What kind of name was that anyway? It sounded rather hippieish.
Then again, Applejack was a kind of alcoholic drink.
As the voices got closer he could hear the voice of the pony that must have been Twilight. “So what does it look like?” the voice said.
“It’s similar to an ape,” replied Applejack.
An ape! Matthew knew for a fact that he was not hairy, smelly, and picked bugs out of other people’s hair and ate them!
He quickly opened out the door to tell Applejack that he did not look anything like an ape, but the moment he opened the door he realized his mistake. The purple unicorn just stared at him, mouth open with shock. Slowly she closed her mouth.
“I’m gonna get this reaction a lot today, aren’t I,” Matthew said.
“Yes, I do believe that is a reaction that you will be receiving throughout the day. Oh, and by the way, my name is Twilight Sparkle.”
The pony unicorn that was apparently Twilight Sparkle had a light purple coat. Her mane and tail were a dark indigo color with a purple pink stripe running through it.
“Well, it appears to me we have a lot to talk about, Ms. Sparkle. You did come to help me right?”
Twilight gave him a nod yes.
“Then let’s start by telling you about where I’m from.”
For the next hour or so Matthew and Twilight talked about each other’s homes. The purple unicorn was quite interested in Earth, well, at least the technology and society of Matthew’s version of Earth.
Matthew also learned a lot. Twilight told him how the country was founded, and how it was ruled. There were apparently three types of ponies in Equestria: Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns. She even told about some of her exciting adventures with her friends as they fought against Discord, Nightmare Moon, and Queen Chrysalis with her changeling army. By lunchtime, Matthew, Applejack, and Twilight had become good friends. Eventually, Matthew met Applejack’s family. At first they all kind of stared at him, but quickly welcomed him warmly with lunch and the best apple pie Matthew had ever tasted. Well, this is turning out rather nicely. Maybe this place is the answer to my wish, he thought to himself, and then continued to laugh with the other members of the Apple Family.
