Equestria's champion

Nick awoke feeling like complete shit, his mouth was dry, mind was fuzzy and his entire body ached. On the up side he wasn't dead which was a major plus. Nick heard some noise from across the room before a voice spoke up.

"Ah you're awake, good, based on your charts you should make a full recovery and be out of here in once we get your blood tests back later today," exclaimed a male voice.

"That's great to here but I must have hit my head real hard Doc because I had a really bizarre dream," said Nick as he began rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Oh, what was it about?" asked the doctor.

"It's hard to explain but it felt so r-real," Nick stuttered out as he stared wide eyed at the doctor in front of him. He wore a white doctors coat and had a stethoscope around his neck, only he was a small caramel cream colored horse with a brown mane and tail with a horn in the middle of his head.

"H-horse doctor," stammered Nick.

"What was that?" asked the doctor.

"Horse doctor," Nick said a little louder this time.

"My names actually Doctor Horse, but that was really close for someone I've never met before," said Doctor Horse.

Nick open and closed his mouth a couple of times before giving the doctor a confused look and asking."So your a horse doctor named Doctor Horse?"

"No I'm a pony doctor named Doctor Horse," Doctor Horse corrected.

"I see," Nick replied as calmly as he could. He didn't know why he was taking this so smoothly, Nick chalked it up to the fact that he nearly died twice in the last day. "Hey, umm doc how long have I been out for?" he asked trepidly.

"Only a few hours, your wounds weren't to severe so we used magic to close your wounds we would have had you healed sooner but magic doesn't seem to work on you like us ponies," explained the doctor.

"Wait, magic? Like as in spells and wizards and what not?" asked Nick.

The doctor rocked his head back and forth before he gaving his answer. "I guess you could say that though I wouldn't call myself a wizard only a unicorn whos special talent is healing," the doctor replied his eyes distant, as though he were recalling a moment in time."But seeing as your up and talking I guess I should go let your visitors know that they can come see you now, if you'd like that is?" said Doctor Horse.

"Wait, who'd want to see me?" Nick asked.

"Well that would be the three fillies you risked your life to save, along with their families," explained Doctor Horse.

"Ya, I guess that's fine but first can you tell where my clothes are?" asked Nick as he looked down seeing that they had taken his shirt and pants but had thankfully left him his underwear.

"Your clothes were pretty mangled and soaked with blood so we had to disposed of them though we got that strang object out of your pocket," said the doctor while point with his hoof, "and the girls said you had that bag with you as well."

Looking over to where the Doc was pointing, seeing his dufflebag and his phone laying on a table near the far wall, along with his boots on the floor. Nick took a moment to thank himself for not being a complete moron and leaving his spare clothes in the car. "Could you tell them that I need to get dressed first then they can come in," said Nick.

"Alright, I'll give you a few minutes alone before i bring them along," said doctor horse, with that he walked out shutting the door behind him leaving Nick alone with only his thoughts. Not one to leave people waiting he swung his legs over the side of the bed, stepping with his left first to make sure he could stand, his right leg was still a bit sore but could stand and walk just fine.

Crossing the room, he unzipped his duffle bag reaching to pull out a pair of socks, jeans and a solid black t-shirt. Picking up him boots, he walked back to the bed and began getting dressed. His shoulder flared with pain as he raised his arms to put on his shirt. Rolling his right shoulder to relieve the pain, he knew that one was going to smart for a while. Slipping his shoes on before sitting down to wait for the doctor to come back with his guests, Nick began to assess his situation. Having no idea what his exact predicament was besides that fact he and Toto weren't in kansas any more.

Nick could almost hear the cogs in his head whirring about uselessly as he tried to figure out how he ended up in here. A knock on the door saved him from a complete mental break down. "You can come in," Nick called out. The door slowly opened as nick stood to greet whomever had come to see him. In stepped six ponies, two regular ponies, two unicorns and two pegasi slightly smaller one of which had an orange coat with a dark pinkish purple mane tail he assumed this was the scoots that had flown off to get help.

Seeing as the ponies were about waist tall, Nick knelt on one knee to try and match their eye level. Nick took a moment to clear his throat before speaking. "Thanks for saving my life out there, if you hadn't gotten help when you did I'd probably be dead right now," said Nick hesitently.

"Saved your life, you're the one who saved us from those timber wolves," exclaimed the sunshine yellow pony with a bright red mane and tail with a large pink bow sitting atop her head. She looked so adorable Nick had to resist the urge to reach out and pet her.

"it was like a scene from a fairy tale were the hero saves the damsal from danger," said the smaller of the two unicorns they both had snow white coats though this one's mane and tail were a swirl of pink and light purple, where as the larger one's mane and tail were a dark purple that seam to be well taken care of.

"No way it was more like a Daring Do book Sweetie Belle, like how he came dashing out of the forest and kicked that timber wolf, then when he hit the wolf three times as it tried to bite his face off," she proclaimed as she mimiced the scene giving three quick punches, " then he said a cool one liner, it was amazing Dash I wish you could have seen it."

"Me and you have two different definitions of amazing because I was freaking out the entire time," said Nick, thinking back on what he said while fighting for his life was pretty cool although he had said it in a futile attempt to frighten them off.

"Ladies we mustn't forget our manners now. We should introduce ourselves to the gentlecolt who risked his life to save our little sisters, I am Rarity. You have my eternal gratitude for what you did for my sister Sweetie Belle and her friends," sincerely stated the snow white unicorn with the well kept mane in a voice that indicated a person of higher class.

"I'm Applejack, and this here my little sis Applebloom. I'll say it was mighty brave of ya to go and do what ya did," said the pony with an orange coat and blonde mane and tail in a calm southern accent.

"It's great that you came when you did because I don't know what I would do if Squirt here got hurt," said the sky blue pegasus with rainbow colored mane and tail as she tousled Scoots mane, "Squirt's name is Scootaloo and I'm Rainbow Dash the coolest pony ever."

It was funny seeing Rainbow Dash call Scootaloo squirt seeing as they were both about the same size. But I guess that's how nicknames worked once you got one you were stuck with it.

"Well it's nice to meet you all I'm Nicholas Lee Williams the fifth, but you can just call me Nick " Nick stated as they looked at him awkwardly, of they thought his name was the weird one here.

"What a peculiar name. You said you were the fifth, the fifth what exactly?"asked Rarity.

"The fifth of my name, you see my father is also Nicholas Lee Williams but he's the fourth. My family on my father's side weren't to original when it came to naming their sons," Nick explained.

"Now if you don't mind me asking can you girls tell me where I am exactly? The last thing I remember is that I was heading home, crashed into a lake, woke up in the middle of a forest and now I'm here," Nick explained the best he could.

"Your in the hospital duh, thought that was obvious," stated Rainbow Dash.

As Nick went to ask if RainbowDash thought she funny, Applejack spoke up. "You're in Ponyville the friendliest town in all of Equestria," Applejack proclaimed proudly.

"Would any of you know how I could get home, perhaps? Nick asked with a spark of hope in his voice.

The girls looked between each other with nerviously before looking down and shaking their heads. "Wait, Twilight may know way for him to get home. She has to have a spell that will work somewhere in her castle," said Sweetie Belle.

"Did she say magic? Why out of all of that has happened is them having magic the unbelievable thing here, they're talking horses for crying out load. I must have lost half my brain cells in that crash." Nick thought to himself.

Nick was pulled from his thoughts as a knock could be heard from the door with Doctor Horse entering the room right after holding a clip board in his hoof, how he could do that Nick had no idea. "I've come to inform you that we have gotten the results from your blood test and everything seems to be in order, so your free to leave but make sure you visit your physician in a week or so for a check up to make sure everythings still in order," Doctor Horse explained, "But before you leave, could you tell me what exactly you are so I can add it to our records? It's not everyday that a new sentient species of appears"

"uuuh yeah I guess that makes sense, I'm a human," replied Nick.

"Hooman got it," Repeated Doctor horse as a light orange aura covered his horn and the quill on his clip board causing it to levitate before is scribled down what he had told the doctor as he took his leave. Standing back to his full height and walking across the room to retrieve his thing, hanging his bag on his left shoulder and stuffing his phone into his pocket. He looked at the ponies before giving them a slight node of his head to indicate he was ready to leave. Ducking his head as he exited the room following right behind the girls, as they walked through the hospital Nick couldn't help notice the looks the ponies they passed were giving him. Looks of fear, curiosity and disgust, of course they were going to give him looks, he was a strange new creature that no ones seen before, at least if he was lucky he wouldn't have to put up with it for long.

Stepping out of the hospital and steeping into the light of the midday sun, the small town did suprise nick very much but the huge crystal castle did, it was massive and kinda looked like a tree. Nick wondered what type of person or uh pony, this Twilight was if she lived in a castle like that. Was this Twilight royalty, would she even allow him an audience? Well the ponies leading him seemed pretty confident enough that she would but Nick wasn't so sure. " You all are positive that this Twilight is even willing to meet with us?" Nick questioned.

"Well of course she will, she's one of our best friends and would never turn away a pony in need," Applejack stated, "an' she'd be more then happy to help after hearin' what ya did for our sisters." This did little to ease his worries but he still didn't know what he was supposed to do when he met this Twilight was she royalty, you were supposed to bow when you meet royalty right, he wasn't to sure but he was gonna go with that and be as respectful as possible the last thing he wanted to do was insult someone who could help him get home.

As they walked through town Nick could see all the looks he was getting and it was starting to get on his nerves, he knew that they were going to think he was strange and weird but they didn't have to make their distaste of him so blatantly obvious. As he tried to avoid looking at their stares he couldn't help but notice that each pony had some sort of mark on thier hindquarters, each one was different and unique kinda like the tatoo he had on his right arm although having the words "The Big Gun" permanently printed on his arm right underneath an assult rifle seemed like a good idea when he got the tatoo that was until all the guys at the gym saw it and made fun of him. Before he knew they were standing at the base of the large crystal castle it's size made it look a bit menacing but the bright colors of the castle nullified all fear that it invoked. Nick stood back as the others proceeded up the step, he was beginning to think this wasn't a smart idea but he wasn't to eager to try out his own stupid idea just yet so he quickly followed after the others.

Once they reached the top Rainbow Dash pounded her hoof against the door giving three loud knocks before shouting "Hey Twilight you in there!"

"Rainbow Dash there is no need to shout," Rarity said giving her a mildly irritated look.

"What it's a big castle. I wanted to make sure she heard us," Rainbow Dash replied shrugging her shoulders. She did have a point but surely one of her servant would be positioned near the door, then again she didn't have and guard posted here either. Luckily they didn't have to wait long as one of the doors opened revealing a short slightly tubby purple and green lizard, that smiled brightly as he saw who was at the door not noticing Nick who was a few steps to the right of the door he opened.

"Hey girls what brings you all here, pinkie throwing another party together last minute again?" asked the small lizard guy. He almost reminded Nick of a dragon he used to see in a video game from when he was younger called spyro, only spyro was purple and had a yellow underbelly instead of green as well as wing and horns, his little guy had what looked to be horns just barely sprouting from his head.

"Well you see Spike darling, our friend here needs a way home and we were wondering if, perhaps Twilight had a spell that could get him home," explained Rarity.

Looking around Rarity, finally laying his eyes on Nick giving him a slightly shocked look, Nick gave Spike a nervous smile and small wave. See the slight trepidation in Spkies face caused Applejack to speak up. "So you think she can help him Spike, we owe him a lot for savin' Applebloom and the girls here," asked applejack as she waved a hoof over to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

"I'm sure Twilight has something that can help. Follow me she in the library like usual," Said Spike as he waved us in to follow him. The foyer was large room with doors and hallways along the right and left walls with a grand stair case running up the center the led to the upper east and west wings. Spike lead us down a corridor to the left of the main entrance, walking down a short distance before opening a door on the right. Upon entering the library Nick was mesmerized by all the book flying around, books going here and there, being taken off the shelf, being put back, it was a spectacle to behold.

"Wow is the library always li...aaah," Nick cried out as a book struck him in the head as it rushed off the shelf towards a large central table.

"Careful it tends to be a little dangerous in here when Twilight's in one of her big study sessions," spike pointed out.

"I see," said Nick as he kept an eye out for any more hazardous flying books.

"I give you Princess Twilight Sparkle," declared spkie as he moved aside a stack of books, revealing the pony hidden behind them, there sat a pony with light purple coat and dark mane with a single pink streak running through it.

"Heeyy, Spike I need those for referance. Oh hey girls, what brings you..all...here?" said Twilight as she looked from Spike and the girls to Nick who was half looking at her half watching out for unidentified flying books. Using her magic to put the remaining flying books before speaking again. "What is that?" Twilight asked the girls.

"Darling I do believe you mean "whom" is that, and that would be Nicholas, Did I get that correct?" stated Rarity as she turned towards Nick.

"You can just call me Nick for short, everyone else I know does," Nick chimed in before remembering that he was in the presence of royalty, quickly dropping to one knee then bowing his head and saying, "It's on honor to meet you, Princess Twilight Sparkle."

"Oh there is no need for all that, I don't really like it when ponies use my title. All my friends call me Twilight so just that alright?" Twilight kindly stated. Looking up Nick nodded his head in acknowledgment, moving to stand up he stopped himself remembering that while kneeling he was a little above eye level to the ponies so on his knee he stayed.

"So girl and umm Nick, what brings you all here?" repeated Twilight.

"Well this morning Scootaloo and I tagged along with Applebloom to help find some ingredients for a new potion Zecora was teaching her. So we went to the edge of the Everfree forest near the east field to collect some but we couldn't find any so we wandered in a little deeper to see if we would have better luck then before we knew it we got ambushed by timber wolves," explained Sweetie Belle with a look of shame on her face.

"Applebloom I've told you time and time again not to go into that there forest alone," scolded Applejack.

"I'm not a foal anymore AJ I'm nearly eighteen, I can look out for myself," replied Applebloom with agitation present in her voice. Nick never had this issue with his family except the first time he tried to was his own laundry and his mother thought he was having sex and was trying to hide the fact, god that was an ackward conversation. He had spent two hours that day trying to convince her that he wasn't and in the end he still didn't think his mother truly believed him.

"Well you're not and I'm your big sister it's my job to look after ya," Applejack replied in a motherly tone.

"I know," sighed Applebloom

Sweetie Belle waited for the sisterly moment to end before starting from where she left off. "Then..." But was immediately cut off by the over excited Scootaloo, which caused Sweetie Belle to let out a little groan of annoyance.

"Then out of the brush Nick came running, and giving the first timber wolf he saw a kick with one of those long legs of his, Whaam!" half shouted Scootaloo giving a kick of her leg to show what happened."After that all the wolves turned to him and stalked forward, before one leapt at him and side stepped as the wolf sailed through air into a tree turning into a pile of splinters..."

"Hey Scootaloo, it was scootaloo right? Anyways I know you want to tell them every detail on what happened but I'd really like to get home, so you think I could give her the sped up version?" Nick stated as nicely as he could.

"Of right of course, go ahead," chuckled Scootaloo feeling a little embarrassed by her rambling.

"So last night I was driving home in my car got distracted swerved off the road to avoid crashing flew into a the lake next thing i know i'm in my car thats submerged in a foot and a half of water in the middle of a forest I've never seen, I tried to find the edge of the forest, walked through it for a few hours thats when i heard these girls scream and ran to save them," explained Nick as he gave Twilight a pleading look. "After the run in with the wolves I passed out when i woke up the girls told me you know a spell that could get me home, and that's all I need a way home."

"It's a little difficult for me to teleport long distances but I promise I'll do what ever I can to help you get home," Twilight stated with a large caring smile.

"I don't think distance is the issue," replied Nick.

"What do you mean by that?" Rainbow Dash asked quizzically.

"Well every part of my world has been mapped with almost every living species has been recorded and no where on it is a land like this, there is no magic, and the only sentient creatures on my world are humans" Nick explained.

"You're from a different world? Oh my gosh do you know what this means? The alternate world theories are true. The realm of whats possible is infinite-"

"Twilight darling," Rarity spoke up.

"-Ushering in a new era of magic and science-"

"um Twilight" said Applejack in an attempt to get her attention.

"- I'm going to have contact the science and magic community to notify them of this discovery..."

"Twilight!"yelled Spike and the girls breaking Twilight from her incoherent rambling and pacing.

"Sorry" squeaked Twilight.

"It's quite alright Twilight, we know how excited you get about science and magic," said Rarity.

"But if you are going to start rambling again can you give me a heads up first so I can find a good place to nap," Rainbow Dash said in jest, Twilight just rolled her eyes in response to this.

"Would have a spell that could get me back to my world?" Nick asked.

"I never opened a portal to another world before the only pony I know who might have is Star Swirl, and even if he knew how there is no telling how long it would take or if it's even possible without some form of gateway, and that's not factoring in the amount of power a spell of that magnitude would require," Twilight stated, "Do you remember when we fought the pony of shadow and how we needed all the elements of harmony along with the original bearers to open the gateway to Limbo and that was a space between dimensions."

"Oh," sighed the girls in unison.

"Wait!" Shouted Spike, "Remember when Discord brought the smooze to the Grand Galloping Gala?"

"Don't remind me, it took me days to get all of the goo out of my coat and mane," stated Rarity the look of disgust on her face. "Not to mention he ruined all of our dresses and I had to completely remake them."

"Well during the gala he opened a portal to another dimension and threatened to throw Tree Hugger through it" said Spike

"Of course, your genius Spike!" Twilight exclaimed excitedly, floating a piece of parchment and quill over to her to begin writing.

"I try," Spike replied feeling proud of himself.

"Alright Spike get this letter to discord right away," Said Twilight as she floated the ribbon tied letter over to Spike, who instantly set it aflame. Nick was about ask whe he would burn the letter that needed to be sent to this discord pony when he was interupted by Spike burping up flames that materialized into a small package covered with stamps. Nick begining to come to a simple conclusion to all his questions about the weird thing that went on in this world; magic. They all stood their and stared at the box for a few moments before it began moving and hoping up and down, before suddenly the box flew open spraying packing peanuts all over the place and something began climbing out of the box.

"Would have been here sooner but next second shipping is so expensive nowadays," Said the strange creature that climbed out of the box. It looked liked like a mash up of a bunch of different creatures combined together, part goat,lion,dragon.deer,and an eagle. Everyone seamed to roll their eye at the creatures comment like this was a consistent thing for them.

"Thanks for coming on such short notice, discord," said Twilight.

"No big deal, Twi. Now,what's this about opening a portal to a different world?" said Discord.

"Our friend here is from a different world and needs some help getting home, you're the only one we know who can open planar portals whenever they want so we were wondering if you can lend out a helping hoof," asked Twilight.

"I'd love to help Twilight but," he said as a deck of cards appeared in his hands,which he procced to fan out to show everyone the cards before drawing the queen of diamonds, which had Twilight's face on it, he then shuffled all the cards together, "my magic doesn't allow me to pick and choose which world I open my portals to and even if I could how would I know which one was the right one?" He emphasized his point by pulling out a random card from the deck which just so happened to be the queen of diamonds. "I mean, I just start opening portals and have him peek inside to check but I wouldn't know where in those worlds my portal would open up at, what if I found the right world but on the wrong side of the planet? We could put him in but if his world doesn' work like ours our magic not work their to actually get him home.

"I'm sorry Twilight, but unless your friend here wants to get stuck on a world with less help then he has here there's nothing I can do," said Discord his voice sounding downhearted.

Nick couldn't believe what he was hearing. This couldn't be happening, what had he done to deserve this. What did the universe have against him, yesterday was probably the greatest moment of his life, a day that showed everyone he was going places and had the talent to get there and today all of that work, all months of training, the pain he suffered, the things he missed out on so he could pursue his boxing career, all of it meaningless, everyone of the goals he strived for were pointless. Nick was begining to fill with panic and hopelessness, he could hear his heart beat as it began to pound faster and harder in his chest, his breathing was becoming more labored with each breath, as he looked around the room he saw everyone look at him worried expressions covered thier faces."I-I-I n-need to be alone f-for a minute" nick stuttered out before booking it for the door and taking a left down the corridor from which they origanally cam seeing the main entrance he opened one of the large doors before running down the stairs and away from the castle, he had no idea where he was going but he just had to get away.