Seeing is believing

After a painkiller from Fluttershy's medicine cabinet and several apologies, introductions were in order.

It's kind of Surreal being introduced to someone you already know, but knew you would never meet. Several thoughts ran through my head. 'This was impossible', 'you're hallucinating', and 'why are you playing along with this?'. Even against all logic, there was a small hope that made itself be heard with a whisper.

What if this is real?

"Hi, my name is Twilight Sparkle, this is my number one assistant Spike, she's Fluttershy and-".

"I'm the one and only Rainbow Dash!" the pegasus exclaimed as she shot into the air, "best young flier to come out of Cloudsdale, future captain of the Wonderbolts, and the only pegasus who-"

"Can't miss an opportunity to toot her own horn?" Twilight injected with a slightly annoyed look on her face.

Rainbow stopped her rant mid flight as a sheepish look crossed her face.

"Heh heh, sorry Twilight," Rainbow said.

"So Michael, you're not from around here are you?" Twilight asked.

I froze.

"Nope," I thought, "I'm just an alien from another world that watches you without you noticing."

"No, not really," I said as my eyes drifted to the window.

Twilight paused for a second.

"Not really?" Twilight repeated.

"Uh huh," I replied still awkwardly looking out the window.

"Nice conversation skills you got there Michael," I thought to myself.

"So are you, or are you not from around here?," Twilight asked.

"I- uh," I continued pathetically

"Um, I can tell you," Fluttershy piped up.

"Go on"

"Well I was at Froggy Bottom Bog counting the frogs for the census, when all of the sudden I heard a big splash come from the distance. I rushed over to make sure all of those nice little frogs were ok, that's when I noticed you floating in the water. I got you out as quickly as possible, and when you weren't breathing I knew you were in trouble so I had to push the water out."

I rubbed a spot below my ribs to find a sore spot which would likely come in the form of a bruise that would undoubtedly take the form of hoof prints.

"After you woke up, you were in no condition to walk so I took you back to my house to recover, you know, if that wasn't a problem for you."

"I appreciate it Fluttershy, you saved my life back there."

She gave a small smile from behind her mane.

"That still doesn't explain how you two got here," I said, turning to Twilight and Rainbow.

Rainbow Dash quickly picked up where Fluttershy left off.

"That's easy, Fluttershy went to Twilight when she didn't know what animal she had dragged out of the bog. An animal that Fluttershy didn't know, I mean come on, that's like me coming across a cloud I don't know. Seriously she hangs around all kinds of animals, there was this one time-"

"All kinds of animals?" I interrupted.

I had just realized that the room we were in was devoid of any animal life. I knew from the show that her whole house was practically a mini zoo.

"Where are they?" I asked.

"I had to move them out of this room," Fluttershy mumbled, "you were making them all nervous."

"Oh"

For a moment I we shared an awkward silence.

"So how did you wind up here Dash?" I asked if only to break the silence.

"I was napping in Twilight's tree when I found out and I wasn't about to miss the chance to miss out on something that cool"  she replied.

"Ok now you have to tell us where you're from," Twilight said, leaning forward in anticipation.

I looked down at my hands which had taken on a very cartoon-y quality since the last time I took a good look at them.

"I'm from another world"

A series of shocked gasps ranging from twilight's sharp gasp to Spike's "GAH!" to Fluttershy's eep all echoed through the room.

"The implications from this are absolutely mind-" Twilight began.

"Ohmygosh! ohmygosh! ohmygosh! a real life alien!" Dash exclaimed, "this is so AWESOME, I mean you hear about the NEIGHS all the time with their really long legs and unnaturally small eyes and the stretched out faces, but an actual alien!"

"RAINBOW!" Twilight exclaimed.

"What?"

"First off I doubt that Weekly Equestria News is a good basis for ANY form of scientific knowledge, and second you just interrupted Micheal's story."

Twilight turned to me with an expectant smile, completely unaware that she was also about to burst into a rant before being stopped by Rainbow's own rant.

"Well," I began, "the entire world looks different,"

"How so?"

"I can't explain it really, just everything is different."

"Ok? Go on"

"Well the world I'm from doesn't have any magic"

Another collective gasp was shared among my captive audience.

"That must be simply awful," said Fluttershy.

"Well we managed to get by without it," I replied.

tell them about the part where you kill each other

"Are you ok Michael, you got really pale just now," Twilight said.

"Did I offend you? I"m sorry"

"No it's alright Fluttershy," I said "It's just- I have to go to bed soon."

Time had definitely gotten away from us. The sun had begun it's decent on the other side of the house revealing the moon coming up on the horizon.

"Oh wow, I didn't realize how late it was, Maybe we should all get going to bed," Twilight said.

"Where am I going to sleep?" I asked.

"Well you could stay here if you wanted, Michael," Fluttershy offered.

"I appreciate the offer Fluttershy, but I would rather stay somewhere not so cramped," I said tapping on the ceiling.

"Oh, ok then" Fluttershy said, looking downtrodden.

"Oh crap, she's even more painfully cute when she's sad!" I thought.

"I'm pretty sure your animals wouldn't be too happy if I stayed" I said quickly, trying to cheer up the dejected looking pegasus.

"The Library has tall ceilings," Twilight said.

***

Spike had fallen asleep on Twilight's back as we walked to the library. The streets of Ponyvile were a lot less lively at night than in the day. If I hadn't known better, I would have sworn that this was actually a ghost town with no real inhabitants. Twilight had been lost in thought ever since we left Fluttershy's cottage. The silence was eerie, so I decided to try to spark up a conversation.

"Wow, there's nobody out after dark, huh?"

"Nobody?"

Play dumb Michael.

"Yeah nobody, it means a lack of people"

"People?"

"It's what we call ourselves; humans if it's in a scientific context."

"Interesting."

"So what do you call a lack of ponies?"

"Nopony"

"Well I guess that makes sense"

"Equestrian must be different from a people's point of view"

I snickered a little.

"What?"

"The singular form of people is person"

"Oh."

"So what does Equestrian mean?"

"It's the language we're speaking."

"It's called English where I'm from."

"Interesting."

Suddenly a thought occurred to me.

"Kind of remarkable we're both speaking the same language. Heck It's remarkable that I can even survive here."

Twilight gave me her full attention.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what would have happened if I ended up in a world covered in water or a world without water? What if the air was made up of different gases? What if the physics of the world were so different that I disintegrated as soon as I got here? Apart from a few cosmetic differences, I can't tell the difference."

Twilight was silent for a moment.

"I suppose you're right Michael, I can't imagine what you must be going through right now. You're probably having a hard time accepting that this is even real."

Her words scared me to my bones.

As Twilight turned a corner, something slammed shut from the street behind me.

I jumped and whipped my head around.

The street was deserted as it was when I had walked down it the first time.

"Must have been the wind" I muttered under my breath.

"Come on Michael, the library is just up ahead"

"Be right there"

***

I practicably had to crawl through the door in order to get inside, but once I was in, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could stand up without a problem.

"Whew, this is much better than having to hunch over all the time.

"Wait here Michael, I'm going to cast an expansion spell on the guest bed, make yourself comfortable in the meantime"

"Sure thing"

Twilight wandered off into another part of the library.

"Spike, wake up I have... important...."

"Yes, now!"

"Dear Princess Celesti-"

The rest of the conversation was cut off by the door closing.

"Must have been a friendship report or something," I thought.

Twilight had left me alone with the books, so I did what any sensible person would do. I picked one up and started reading it. Well attempted to read it anyways. The stupid thing was written in hieroglyphics.

"What the..."

"Having trouble?" a scratchy male voice asked.

I spun around only to see an empty room.

The wooden horse head statue opened its mouth. "It's not surprising, you are in another dimension after all."

"I really need to go to bed and take my-"

My eyes widened in fear as realization gripped my stomach.

I my hands searched frantically across my person in an attempt to locate the white paper sack I had picked up from the Pharmacy.

A reassuring crinkle from my coat pocket lets me release a breath I didn't realize I was holding.

"He he he, scared ya huh?" the wooden statue said with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, I thought I would have to listen to you every time I walked into this room"

"Aww that hurts, you know we're not all out to get you, right?"

"It doesn't matter, you're not real"

"You're right, but then again, nothing in this world is"

"How can you be so sure?"

The statue's face contorted into a wicked expression.

"Don't you remember? Books are full of gibberish in dreams."

"Who are you talking to?" a confused Twilight asked as she walked into the room.

I looked to Twilight and when I look back, all I see is a wooden horse head.

"Myself"

I'm not technically lying.

"Can I have a glass of water?"

***

The paper thin walls only serve to make us more aware of the sounds.

"So which one is your favorite?"

"Hmmm, I'd have to go with Pinkie Pie."

Cotton balls, if their mouths were filled with cotton balls, we could be in the same room

"Huh, I would have pegged you a Fluttershy fan"

"Oh, how so?"

Something crashes against the wall, making us both flinch.

"Well, you both like animals for one."

"Well yeah, but Pinkie is always so happy, plus she was able to giggle away the ghosts"

An audible smack brings an immediate and unpleasant silence.

I look at Lily and see the tears that aren't falling.

An unspoken signal is issued and I make my way to the fire escape.

We will never talk about what happened.

But then again, we don't talk about a lot of things.