From Hell to Heaven

"Owww..." I could hear myself moaning as I began to come to.

"Oh dear, he's still alive girls." The voice... I'd heard it before, but the pounding in my head kept me from opening my eyes. I kept them shut tight, trying to block out the pain that was pounding in my head.

"Ohohoh! I wonder who he is! Hey, hey Mister, wake up, who are you? Huhuhuh?" I could feel a hoof poking me in the chest, and then a slight scuffle of someone being tackled.

"Hey, don't touch him! To be able to make a crater like this, who knows what he might do!" This voice was harsh and quick, almost over protective.

"I already sent off a letter to the Princess letting her know what has happened." All these voices, it felt like I knew all of them, but still I couldn't get my brain to function past the fact that it felt like splitting in half. All I could register was what they were saying.

"Princess..." I flinched as I spoke, but all movement and voices stopped as I spoke. "I..." Memories began to spill from my brain as though I was trying to hold water in my hooves. "Where... AUGH! Please... It hurts..." My voice cracked as tears spilled down my cheeks from the agony of the intense migraine.

"Where is the location of your pain?" said the last voice to speak before I did. She began to slowly move her hoof across my forehead and around my mane, waiting for me to speak.

"At the base of my skull and up my mane..."

"Ah, you must have landed on your neck." She pulled her hoof away, and spoke to the others. "Hey AJ, Dash, would you 2 mind carrying him back to my tree house so we can help him and then find out what's going on?"

"I'm not touching him! I mean, we don't even know where he comes from or why he's here! Look at his horns, that reminds me of Queen Chrysalis and that whole ordeal. I don't trust him."

"Well, if he is, and ah ain't sayin' he is, we'll be able to keep an eye on him while he's at Twilight's. Better that than to let him roam around if you're so concerned about it."

"..... Well, alright. Hey, you!" I could tell she was yelling at me, but there was little I could do but stay curled up on the ground in pain. "Try anything funny, and you'll be answering to me, got that?" I nodded just enough so that I didn't cause another wave of pain to go through me, and that seemed to satisfy her as she snorted and I could hear movement next to me as they lined up to put me on their backs.

"I'll lift him up with my magic, just get under him when I lift him. 1... 2... 3." I could feel myself levitated off the ground, but unlike being picked up as a child where my body would flop around, I stayed in the exact position that I was lying in. I was set down upon the 2 backs of the mares that had been speaking, yet the magic that picked me up still held me in place. "I'll keep him steady by magic, but let you 2 bear the weight so I don't exhaust myself on the way back."

"Okay sugar cube, let's get a move on. I wanna know more 'bout this stranger." With that, we began to move. I could feel the soft breeze along my bare body, through my mane, and across the hairs on my tail. It was an odd sensation, and I could feel myself begin to get nervous, but I couldn't seem to remember why I was feeling so. Plus, it's not like I was hanging out or anything, so there was nothing to excite myself over and cause myself more problems. The magical barrier held me in place, but still allowed me to feel the 2 mare's bodies. 1 had a pair of wings, much like myself, and although they were folded, they still had feathers that reached up and tickled my body. The other had no wings, so was either an earth pony or a unicorn, but based on the muscles that I could feel, I guessed earth pony. I wouldn't have imagined that with the power of magic that many unicorns would be so muscular.

We continued on for some time, the pain not ebbing away one bit, until we reached a cooler spot where everyone halted. I heard the creak of a door opening, and the first male voice I'd heard in a while, although prepubescent. "Hey gir... Who's that?!"

"Come on Spike, let's get him inside so we can all find that out." The sound of scraping claws shuffling across hard wood graced my ears, and then echoing clopping as the ponies that found me made their way inside as well. I was moved off of Dash and AJ, and placed upon a soft bed by the steady magic. "Alright, now just stay relaxed and I'll try my best to relieve your pain."

"Thank.... you...." The hoof of the mare that touched me before once again began to feel around my neck and down my mane. I could feel my skin tingling at her touch as she reached the end of my mane.

"Ah, there it is. This may sting a little..."

Before I could say anything, a hot and searing instant of hellish pain shot into the base of my neck, causing my body to spasm out and fully extend my legs. My mouth opened in a soundless yell, and cries and yelps from the other mares filled the space of wherever we were in reaction to me. The next moment, all pain left and I was filled with nothing to even remember it by. I sighed heavily in relief. "Thank youAAAUUGGGHHH!!!" As my eyes opened 6 mares stood around me, staring intently. In my surprise and confusion, I scrambled off the bed and slammed into the floor. "I... I'm sorry... I... You're all so close..."

"I apologize for that. My name is Twilight Sparkle and I'm the one that fixed your neck. You're lucky that I've read up on the skeletal system or that would have been a difficult hospital visit." A cute purple mare stood before me, a triumphant smile on her lips as she spoke. "These are the 2 that carried you, Apple Jack and..."

"Hey hey, shouldn't he be introducing himself before we start giving him all the information?" A blue mare with a rainbow tail and mane interrupted Twilight's introduction while glaring heavily at me.

"Rainbow Dash, relax. I had Spike," a little dragon hopped up on Twilight's back and gave me a small wave as his name was spoken, "set up barriers in case we brought anything back that we didn't understand and to be able to hold it until the Princess got here." Rainbow Dash grunted, giving me a snarl as she backed up to join Apple Jack and the other 3 mares that had yet to be introduced to me. "This is Rarity, she's the one who found you."

"It is a pleasure to meet you. I'm glad you weren't beat up too badly, it would be a shame if a stallion like you were injured irreparably." Rarity gave me a smirk and a wink, both of which earned her a lashing whisper from Rainbow Dash that I couldn't hear but Rarity seemed to not care about. My eyes lingered on Rarity, her shining, almost glowing white coat clashing wonderfully with her deep amethyst hair caused my mind to come to a halt for a moment, but I was knocked back from my reverie by Twilight speaking.

"And the one who poked you is..." Twilight began, but was quickly interrupted by a hyperactive, pink pony with an enormous grin on her face.

"Hi hihihi! I'm Pinkie Pie! Are you ok? What's your name? Where are you from? Do you like daisies? Or maybe you're a stallion who likes apples."

"Pinkie! Enough, let him breath."

"Oh, ok then!" The ecstatic pink pony bounced her way back again, and left only 1 mare left to be introduced.

"And this is Fluttershy. As her name suggests, she's not very outgoing, but she's a very sweet individual." A yellow mare with a pink mane leaned her head forward, covering her eyes with her hair as she did so, and I could only assume that she was looking at me. "Well, that's all of us. Now comes the question, who are you?" All 6 mares and little dragon looked at me expectantly.

I got up from the floor, my knees still a little shaky, and smiled at them. "My name is..." My mouth hung open as I tried to speak my name, but as I took a moment to think, nothing came to me. "Uhhh... I..." I closed my mouth so as not to attract flies, and furrowed my brow in concentration. "I can't remember..."

"Oh... Well, do you remember where you came from?" Twilight asked.

"No... I don't remember anything... except for groaning and then you 6 bringing me here..."

"I don't buy it!" Rainbow spit out, "He could be faking!"

"Now calm down there Rainbow, you're bein' a bit more dramatic than Rarity." Retorted Apple Jack.

"Girls! Enough!" Twilight spoke up, and her horn was glowing, which caused any of the other mare's responses to be swallowed. "I'll see if he's telling the truth." Twilight took a few steps forward, stopping right in front of me, her face a bit too close than I was comfortable with. "If you don't mind?"

"No... Not at all." My voice was barely a whisper as my throat began to dry up. She was very cute up close, and I couldn't remember being with any girl, and that made it even harder to deal with the situation. Twilight leaned forward, our noses almost touching, and then her gently glowing horn touched my forehead, stopping her mouth mere inches from mine. I stood stock still, beads of sweat beginning to form on my brow as I waited for her to finish. After a few agonizing minutes, she moved back and shook her head.

"I can't find anything. It's as though he just woke up today and nothing more. I don't know how that's possible, but it is. There's nothing before us finding him. He's ok Rainbow, he's not here to harm us or working for anyone. I even checked to see if it had been done to him in any way known to our world. It's not that it's been erased, his memories I mean. It's more like he never had any... It's eerie almost." She blushed and looked me in the eyes again. "Sorry, I didn't mean it that way."

"It's ok. So I check out?"

"As far as I can tell, yes... Wait a minute..." I had just finished relaxing my body from her being so close when I froze again.

"What is it Twilight?" Rainbow Dash and Apple Jack were by Twilight's side in an instant, Rainbow almost yelling as she shot forward.

"How curious..." Twilight ignored her 2 friends as Rarity and Pinkie Pie came towards me as well, Rarity with a graceful swaying walk and Pinkie with a bounce in her step, making her cotton candy-esque hair bounce with every step. Fluttershy stayed back, and moved over into a chair where she sat and continued to, possibly, look at me through her hair.

"What's curious darling?" Rarity inquired.

"Well, by looking at his intelligence, skeletal structure, musculature, and size, I'm assuming that he must be about our age but..."

"But what egghead, spit it out!" Twilight shot Rainbow a deadly glare at this comment, and it made Dash cringe slightly.

"Well, if you would use your eyes, you would see that he doesn't have a cutie mark." The 5 mares gasped or raised an eyebrow, and walked around me, looking at my flanks to see that they were quite bare.

"My goodness, you're right!" Exclaimed Rarity. "Has that ever happened before? Have you read about that anywhere Twilight?"

"No, never... I've read all about late bloomers, but never this late... This is extremely puzzling... and interesting." Twilight looked me over, eyes alight with wonder, as she moved around me. I began to blush as their wandering eyes examined every part of me, and I blushed deeper when Rarity took a quick peek lower, without being noticed, and gave me a blushing, yet devilish, grin.

"Ummm... Miss Sparkle..."

"Twilight is fine, Ms Sparkle is my mother." She said as she continued to examine me with her studious eyes.

"Twilight... What's a cutie mark?" Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, as did the others, at my question.

"You... you don't know what a cutie mark is?" Twilight asked with her eyes wide, as though I had uttered some horrible expletive.

"Ummm... No..."

"Oh dear... Well, they are..." Before Twilight could give me an answer, her door was opened by a tall, pure white Alicorn adorned with a crown, a golden necklace, and the most eye catching and enrapturing mane and tail that, to this day, mesmerized and dazzled me into a a stupor.

"I believe I can answer that."

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight cried, and all of the mare's knelt at the arrival of this new equine. I only noticed as they stood up that they had done so, as I was enraptured by the beauty of the new arrival. "I wasn't sure how long you were going to be. Did you have any trouble getting through my barriers?"

"They were very well done my student, but I did teach them to you, so they only hindered me a little." Twilight looked horror struck at causing any problems for the Alicorn. "But as I was saying, I believe I may be able to shed a little light on who this nameless stallion is."