Chapters Author's Note
My first time writing, please give your honest opinion I can't improve unless I know what I'm doing wrong. I wanted to take my own twist on a human in equestria since "I personally" haven't seen any that start at the beginning. So again leave feed back, and thanks for giving it a read.
Edit 1 April,10,2018: Reread and reworded a few paragraphes so it would flow smoother
The Accident
It was another great night for Nick, he, his coach and the rest of his gym had just finished celebrating him earning Rookie of the Year in the welterweight division boxing tournament. He quickly reminisced the last bout he had that won him the tournement, it was the fifth round of their six round match, he was ahead on points but could see that his opponent was barely standing, once the ref started the match, he had dashed across the canvas and began hammering through his opponent's guard. It took him thirty-four seconds and countless body blows to get his opponent to let up his upper guard in an attempt to protect his body. Having found his opportunity he delivered a sharp right hook to opponent's lower jaw sending him straight to the mat, earning him his seventh knock out victory and the title of rookie of the year.
Nick was immediatly ripped from his thoughts as he noticed the driver coming straight towards him, out of instinct he pulled the wheel of his car hard to the right and straight towards the lake. He slammed his foot into the brake in a useless attempt to slow down before jumping off the embankment. Seeing the water rushing towards him, he braced for impact, feeling the car make contact with the water he was lurched forward in his seat, feeling a pain sear through his head before his vision faded to black.
Nick awoke with the worst headache of his life, as he sat back in his seat. “I thought I’d be used to getting hit in the head by now?” he groaned out as he tried to quell the throbbing pain in his head. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he tried to stock of his situation. First his car was submerged in the water at an angle with the front end under water up until the door, second his watch told him it was about half past midnight and lastly that his parents were going to kill him for wreaking the car they had given him the car last year for earning his boxing license.
“Holy shit how am I going to explain this to mom and dad? That can..that can wait for later I need call for help first,” he thought to himself as he dug his phone out of his pocket and dialed 911 receiving only dial tone before noticing, he had no signal. “This is what I get for using all my luck at the tournament,” he mumbled before releasing a heavy sigh.
Reaching back and fishing around for his duffle bag which contained some extra clothes, his boxing gear, some hygiene products, along with a copy of the book he wrote himself. Although they were fine with him pursuing a career in boxing, his parents both reminded him to have a fall back career in case it didn't pan out, they were happy to hear that he had took writing as a fall back. Checking to make sure everything was still there, he unbuckled his seat belt, opened the door and stepped out, shutting the door behind him, hearing it self lock.
Looking down at the water that went up to his knee, he sighed as something terrible dawned on him. He scrunched his eyes shut before peeking over his shoulder into his car and there, hanging in the ignition were his keys, he took a deep breath before turning and trudging his way to the shore. Once he had reached the shore Nick looked back at his car before letting out a small whimper. He loved that car, even with the insurance and his savings he couldn’t afford a new one at the moment. Releasing a heavy sigh he hitched his bag a little higher on his shoulder before turning towards the road, only it wasn’t there.
“I must be hallucinating, I probably just hit my to hard and now I’m just seeing things...or not seeing things,” Nick said aloud while staring into the depths of the forest that surrounded him and the lake. After looking around he determined that the best course of action was to find a way out of the forest. Looking at his watch it told him it was quarter to one pm. Hitching up his bag one las time, Nick began his walk in what he believed was north west.
A few hours into his trek and he was begining to wonder if he may have actually died in the accident and that this forest was the after life. Nick was pulled from his pondering as the light from the morning sun peeked through the leaves of the canopy into his eyes, blinding him. It was great seeing the sun again, and based from where it was coming at least he new he was heading north west for sure. Even though he new which way he was going, he still had no idea how close or far he was from the edge of the forest. After another half hour he decided to take a short break to get his head on straight and rest his weary legs.
Sitting down next to a tree Nick contemplated on what he was going to tell his parents and grandfather. "Twenty and I still live my parents," Nick thought, "Maybe I should have went to college like sis did?" he knew with his grades he'd flunk out of college in a year, although mom and dad had offered to pay, he had listened to his gramps and had gotten his boxing license instead. Nick sat there trying to think of a way fix his bad luck a few more minutes, before a high pitched scream broke his train of thought.
Hearing the scream caused Nick to jump to his feet as two thoughts went through his head first that he found his way out of this god damn forest, second and most prevalent what the fuck is going on. Nick bolted as quickly as he could towards the screams. As he approuched the source of the screams he could begin to makeout what looked to be wolves. He had no clue as to how he was going to help whoever they were attacking, but he couldn't just do nothing. Nick crashed through the brush in time to see the wolves begin to circle their prey, with no time think he ran up to the closest wolf giving it a swift heavy kick to the ribs. With a loud yelp the wolf burst into a pile of stick, Nick was left stunned at what he just witnessed. He didn't have time to figure out what happened as the rest of the pack turned their attention towards him.
Nick faced toward the remaining wolves, what he was meet with was five large wolves made from various sticks and branches, their eyes glowed like bright green flames as they approuched him, he could smell their breath that was somewhere between old garbage and rotting fish. Nick readied himself for the impending skirmish as one of the stick wolves leapt at him, quickly sidesteping the beast it soared into the tree that was right behind him shattering into pieces, he would have found the scene hilarious as he had only ever seen something like that in happen in cartoons as a kid. Nick turned back just in time to another as it jumped on him causing him to stagger back into a tree, he wrapped hands around the wolf's neck to keep it from biting him in the face. The wolf struggled in his grasp to free itself all the while snapping it's jaw inches from his face, the wolf's paws flailed as it tried to dig it's claws into him, eventually finding home deep into the left side of Nick's face, causing him to scream out in pain. Letting go with his right hand, he delivered a series sharp right hooks to the wolf's side before in too explode into a pile of sticks.
After recovering from the attack, Nick took a couple of steps forward before putting his fists up. "Come on, who's next!" he shouted. As if on queue the remaining three wolves charged all at once. One jumped at Nick, forcing him duck underneath it, while another lunged for his ankle it's fangs digging deep in Nick's lower right leg. Nick clenched his teeth together as he feel to one knee as searing pain coursed up his leg. As he reached over to pry the wolf's mouth open, he felt several teeth dig into his shoulder and another set of jaws lock around his left forearm.
Desperation filled the entirety of Nick's being to escape, using his free hand he dug his thumb into the eye of the wolf holding his arm hostage. Nick could feel the wolf let go, freeing his left arm, and yelp in pain but he refused to relent until the wolf exploded in his hand. With left hand free he gave a quick jab to the snout oh the wolf attacking his leg, he followed his assult with heavy right causing the wolf to shatter into a heap of firewood. Gripping the wolf tearing into his shoulder, Nick threw it over his shoulder into the ground in front of him and began pummeling away until it too burst into a pile of twigs.
Collapsing to his hands and knees panting heavily, Nick could feel something warm trickle down his arm, face and leg. Looking at his arm he saw all the blood running down to his hands and seeping into the ground. "If I wasn't dead before I'm going to be soon," Nick thought " guess savings someone's life is a pretty good way to go, although I wish I could've at least met them first." His vision began to blur as his breathing slowed, boy was it cold, was it this cold while he was walking, he didn't know? Nick didn't even notice the people rush up to him until they started speaking.
"Hey mister are you alright?" Said a female voice.
"Is he alright, look at him. Fly and get some help, Scoots" said a second girl.
"I'm on it." said Scoots or whom Nick assumed was Scoots.
"What did she mean by fly?" Nick thought as he gathered his remaining strength to look up. Before him stood two small, colorful talking horses with another flying off, wait weren't small horses called ponies. "Great, I'm dying and the last thing I think about is linguistics." Nick thought to himself as he collapsed into the dirt, the world fading away in front of him.
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.
Author's Note
Here's chapter 3 hope you like it and if you don't please tell me why. I didn't know if Equstria had electricity or not since in a few episodes they have electronics like holiday lights and stage lights even a hydro-electric plant as well as in the episode "It isn't the mane thing" you hear a light switch being flipped so I assume they do but i couldn't confirm so I'm going to go with that they do or I can just use the supreme answer to all my question"Magic".
Edit 1 April 11,2018 rewrote some paragraphs after rereading found they were pretty sloppy still have more to do but it's 3 a.m so i'll fix that later today hopefully.
A New Life
Nick had no idea where he was running to but that didn't stop him,he ran until he collapsed on the ground panting, his legs felt like lead and his lungs were on fire. He slowly crawled to a nearby tree using it to get himself up and there he stood leaning against the tree for for support. "How could this happen to me? This had to be some kind of sick, cruel joke right? Why!?" Nick internally shouted to himself, slamming his fist into the tree. "Why!?Why!?Why!?" his internal struggle raging on, each of his questions were responded with the resounding thud of his fist against the tree. Taking his wieght off the tree and looking at it with rage.
Where were his answers, what was he supposed to do!? The tree gave no response to his unsaid questions, he wanted answers, no he demanded answers and he was going to get them. He slammed his fist into the tree still no answers, he punch again and again one blow after another. His assault on the tree raged on as if this tree contained the anwsers to all of his questions, but no answers came. His barrage soon end with him panting heavily, as he leaned on the tree once again to try and catch his breath, tears welling up in his eyes. "What am I supposed? I don't know what to do. Pops what should I do now?" He softly cried, lost on what to do, he was so used to having his grandfather there to give him advice and point him in the right direction if he ever felt lost or was stuck trying to solve a problem but now faced with the most difficult situation of his life, he was all alone.
He tried to imagine what advice he would give him in this situation. "Nico, life is like boxing, no? Each day is like a new opponent, some days are like sparring, simple easy, where others feel like your being punched into a corner with no way out, but either way do you know what you have to do?" Nick shook his head, "You keep your fists up and keep fighting, and if there is no way to win then you go down swinging," He could perfectly picture his grandfather speaking to him with a large smile on his face.
"Alright Pops I'll keep fighting," Nick said to himself.
"Fightin' what?" said a familiar voice scaring the shit out of Nick, he turned to see who was speaking to him, look down to find Applebloom. "Sorry, ah didn't mean to sneak up on you like that, it's just that it was getting late and we got worried about where you may have gone off to so Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and ah went out lookin' for ya. Are you doin' alright now?"
"Ya I think so, knowing I may never see my home again is just a lot to process all at once, "
"Ah bet if you give Twilight some time she'll find a spell that can get you home," she said in an attempt to comfort him.
"You really think so?" he asked, recieving a series of nods from her as his answer. "Alright I'll take your word for it, let's go find your friends then get back so everyone stops worrying," stepping towards Applebloom to begin heading back he noticed she was starring at his hands, curious as to why, he looked down to see he'd cut up his knuckles pretty good. "That's what I get for thinking a tree was a good replacement for a punching bag," he'd need to bandage them later but he'd be fine. "I'm fine," he told Applebloom as she looked up at him with a bit of worry in her eyes.
Walking back to the castle the ran into Sweetie belle and Scootaloo, making sure to keep his hands in his pockets to keep them from worrying. Once they returned they saw Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow dash and Spike waiting for them right outside the castle, along with a pony he hadn't met earlier who was a light pink unicorn whose mane and tail were a few shades of purple with an aquamarine stripe running through it. Approaching the group he smiled sheepishly "Sorry about running off like."
"With everything that you just learned it's more then understandable that you would need a little time to yourself to sort things out, dear," said Rarity.
"ah'd reckon if any of us were in your position we woulda done the same thing," stated Applejack.
"Twilight, you said something about being able to possibly finding a spell to get me home before," Nick recalled from their earlier conversation.
"Yes, it's possible that given enough time Starlight and I could come up with a spell that would work," she confirmed pointing a hoof over to the pink pony with the purple mane, "and until we have a spell that works you are more then welcome stay here in the castle with Starlight, Spike and I,"
"I don't want to intrude in your home like that Twilight,"
"Well I insist, we have plenty of rooms in the castle and besides where else are you going to go?" she asked, she had a point he didn't have anywhere else to stay and as weird as it would be to stay in that castle, it was preferable then sleeping outdoors especially sinse he had no idea how long it would take to come up with a spell that would work, he nodded his head in acceptance having been beaten by logic. "Alright with that all settled, why we all have dinner here at the castle,"
With general acceptance of the idea the group proceeded inside with Nick and Starlight taking the rear of the pack, as the walked she would occasionally glance up to look at him with great interest."I don't think we've been properly intoduced I'm Starlight Glimmer," introducing herself with a friendly smile extending a forehoof towards him.
"Nice to meet you Starlight, I'm Nick," returning the gesture by gentle shaking her raised hoof.
"Twilight and the girls told me what happened and I promise Twilight and I will come up with a spell to get you home as soon as possible," exclaimed Starlight it made Nick feel bad that all these ponies were going out of the way to help him and he'd hardly done anything to deserve it, giving her a smile he nodded his head in thanks. They walked a short while before reaching what he assumed was the main dining, it contained an immense table that could seat twenty comfortably, everyone was taking a seat on the far side near a set of doors on either side of the table, that most likely lead to the kitchen. Spike stood to the side of the table as everyone found a seat, once seated Spike spoke up.
"Does hayburgers and fries sound good to everyone?" Spike asked with the girls giving him their approval.
"Did you you say 'hay' burgers?" Nick asked making sure he heard had correctly.
"Ya, do you not like hayburgers?"
"Humans can't eat hay, we can't digest it," stated Nick.
"Oh, it hadn't occurred to me that humans have different dietary needs. What do humans normally eat? Twilight asked
"Well humans can eat most fruits, vegetables, along with grains, dairy and meat," as he finished speaking he noticed everyone was starring at him apprehensivly. It took him a moment before it dawned on him, ponies don't eat meat and he was in a room with creatures that thought they could potentially be on the menu. "We don't need to eat meat often just occasionally some human go their whole live without it they just find vegatables rich in protien to make up for it,"
"Would a salad instead be alright everypony?" Twilight asked breaking the tension in the air, recieving nods of approval all around and with that Spike was off to go prepare the food.
"So uh Nick tell us a little about yourself seeing as how you'll be spending some time with us here in Ponyville," asked Starlight.
"Uh what would you like to know?"
"Well what did you do for a living?"
"I worked part time in a restuarant as a busboy, as well as a part time author, but mainly I box for a living,"
"Your in the package delivery business well that's uh neat," she said giving a fake smile.
"Starlight I think he means hoofboxing, as in competitive fighting," Rainbow clarified.
"That explains why you took down those timber wolves so easily, you gotta show me your moves some time," Scootaloo asked excitedly slightly bouncing in her seat.
"Oh I'd like to see that too, then maybe we can go a round or two," Rainbow Dash chimed in seaming eager to see what he could do.
"I don't see a reason why I couldn't show you a few moves, just tell me when you have some free time I'm sure we can hang out,"
"What about tomorrow? There's no school since it's saturday and you don't have any have any wonderbolt or weather duties right Dash?" she asked with pleading eyes.
"I've got some paperwork to turn in for the light rain scheduled next week but besides that I'm free," said Rainbow.
"Oh oh you think Sweetie Belle and ah could come along, then we could show him all around ponyville and introduce him to everypony," Applebloom chimed in, Nick wasn't to sure that meeting 'everypony' was a good idea based on how the other ponies were looking at him but if he was going to be here a while it would be for the best, at least just so they knew he wasn't a threat anyways.
A moment latter Spike walked in pushing a cart loaded with everyones food, walking around the table passing out plates and silverware before setting down a plate for himself which had a salad with gems in it, which he promptly took a bit out of, leaving Nick bewildered. "He's eating the most expensive salad I've ever seen," he thought as he reached down to grab his fork which had a strange strap on it, he was about to ask what it was for but saw that all the ponies without horns were straping them to their hooves with his unasked question answered he picked up his fork and began eating, silence falling over the room with everyones mouth's full.
Rarity daintily dabbed he mouth with a napkin before speaking. "Nick darling I couldn't help but notice your ensemble it's practical yet it suits you quite nicely, it gets me thinking about some new designs for a line at my boutique. Who designed it if you don't mind my asking?" she asked politely.
Nick looked down at his cloths he knew his jeans were levi's but he had just picked up his shirt at some clothing store, so he didn't know how to exactly answer that question. "I don't exactly know who designed my cloths," another issue dawned on him as he spoke, he only had one extra set of cloths and then his boxing shorts, he didn't mind doing laundry before but with how often he'd had have to do it now just to have a clean set of cloth to wear he knew he would grow to hate the chore.
"What's wrong dear?" concern in Rarity's voice.
"Oh uh just a small problem you reminded me of depending on how long my stay here will be,"
"Well perhaps we can help,"
"Well unless you know a store that sells human clothes, I'll just have to deal with what it," he answered trying to dismiss her concerns.
"Why you worried about clothes for?" Applejack asked curiously. looking around he noticed that the only ponies wearing any form of clothing were Applebloom with her bow and Applejack with her hat, of course they didn't see his problem.
"Well uh in human society it's seen as inappropriate to uh go outside without clothes and where I'm from it's actually illegal, because of that it's become a social norms so having only two sets of clothes means I'll have to do quite a bit of laundry," he explained.
"You humans sure are strange. Wearing clothes all the time ah couldn't do it," Applejack stated.
"I wished ponies would dress up more often, but your issue with clothing is easily solvable. Once you girls have finished showing him around town stop by my boutique and we'll get some measurements so I can design you a few outfits. Oh this is so exciting I don't often get to design for non-ponies," rarity cheered, clapping her hooves together happily.
"I don't have any way of paying you for them,"
"After what you did for the girls I would never ask payment from you, especially knowing you situation,"
"Well girls I better get going if I want to finish that paperwork to turn in tomorrow," Rainbow Dash said before letting out a large yawn.
"Ah think we should be getting home as well," said Applejack as she checked that Applebloom was ready to go.
"It is getting late, come Sweetie Belle, we need to get home to sketch a few rough drafts of the designs before I forget them," said Rarity as she got up to leave.
Scootaloo stood from her seat before turning to those who remained. "Thanks for the food guys, and thanks again for saving us back there Nick,"
"Anytime Scootaloo but try not to make a habit of it okay," he joked.
"I won't I promise, see ya tomorrow," with that she was off, leave just Twilight, Spike, Starlight and Nick.
"Starlight I'm going to prepare a letter for Starswirl, could you show Nick where he'll be staying while he's here?" Twilight asked, recieving a nod as her confirmation from Starlight as Nick picked up his bag and followed her out of the room. Walking up the main stair case then down the west wing corridor she led him for a few minutes before stopping and entering a door on the left.
"Here we are, the bathroom is three doors down on the right and if you need anything my room is right across the hall," she told him pointing a hoof at her door.
"Thank you Starlight I'll keep that in mind,"
"Well I'm going to go so you can get settled in, sleep tight," with that said she left to her own room. Nick stepped forward into the room shutting the door behind him throwing his bag on the bed, looking around the room was rather large containing a dresser with a night stand on the right of the full-sized bed it was a little short for his hieght but he could make it work if he scrunched up a bit. He sat down next to his bag looking over his hands feeling glad no one noticed the cuts.
"I better cover these up," he thought as he dug through his bag for his gauze roll, once found he got to work tending to his hands before reaching into his pocket for his phone. Turning it on and going through his photos, recalling why each photo was taken. "It's only day one and I'm already getting homesick, I really hope this doesn't take to long," turning it off he set it down on the bedside table, with any luck tomorrow would might be pretty fun.
Nick's eyes opened to the darkness of his room, sitting up on the edge of his bed before checking his watch, it was almost half past four. "Great, even with everything that's happened my internal clock won't let me sleep in. Well just because I'm here I shouldn't skip out on my morning routine, Pops would kill me if he found out I'd been slacking off," He looked around finding his bag on the floor grabing out his soap and shampoo along with his extra clothes, a plain white t-shirt and sweatpants, he really was going to hate doing laundry every day for two sets of clothes. Setting his stuff on the night stand for later he stretched out his arms and legs, his shoulder still stung quite a bit but he could work through the pain. He decided it was probably best that he skipped out on the run with how everyone reacted to his presence the other day, he'd have to settle with whatever he could do in this room.
Having finished his morning workout, he grabbed his things and began heading to the bathroom. The bathroom was a decent size but the shower itself was definitely not made for someone his size. Letting out a sigh he began to undress, this was just something he would have to deal with while he was here. Stepping into the shower he turned the water on fiddling with it until he found the right temperature, even in the cramped space the water still felt relaxing on his skin, reaching out for his soap he began washing up and it wasn't long before he was all clean. Turning off the water he stood in the shower thinking over everything that has happened so far and boy did he have a story to tell when he got home. Deciding that he'd better get dressed and head down stairs to get ready for this tour around Ponyville but first he was going to grab his book from his room it would give him something to do while waiting, sure he had read it like a million times, he wrote the damn thing but he loved the old gritty noire detective novel, he wished it had sold better though. Exiting the bathroom fully dressed he hurried to his room to get his book and phone, perhaps he could get some photos to take back home with him, with everything he needed Nick decided that the library would be a pretty good place to wait if only he remembered the way there, eeh he'd find it eventually.
====
"Listen to your gut you can find the library, I mean you found your way out of that forest easy enough," he grumbled to himself as before spotting his salvation in the form of a scaly purple tail, running towards it before it was gone forever.
"Morning Nick, you're lost I'm guessing," spike asked.
"It seems to be a running theme for me lately," Nick replied.
"Well I was about to go make breakfast wanna tag along?"
"If you wouldn't mind and perhaps I could lend a hand," Nick offered.
"Ya I wouldn't mind some help," with that Spike waved him to follow ledding him to the kitchen.
====
"Anything you want for breakfast oatmeal, pancakes, eggs?" Nick was really craving some bacon but knew that wasn't likely going to happen so he settled for just eggs. With breakfast picked out they got cracking, preparing omelettes for everyone everyone along with toast, coffee and orange juice, once everything was finished Spike grabbed a serving cart to load all the food before they walked to the dining room seeing Twilight and Starlight chatting both looking like they had just got out of bed.
"Morning Nick, I hope you slept well," greeted Twilight as they approached the table.
"Uh yeah I slept fine," Nick replied as Spike gave the girls thier breakfast. "So how's the whole.. uh spell to get me home going, were you able to get in contact with this Starswirl?" he asked anxiously, hoping for some good news.
"I did, recieve a message from him and he sent me what notes he had on extradimensional and planar travel," she replied, raising Nick's hopes only to have them crushed again, "But it's mostly theories and hypotheses,"
"I see," sounding dishearted as he pushed his food around a bit before taking a bite.
"We'll find a solution as soon as possible," said Starlight in an attempt to cheer Nick up.
"I know, even where I'm from extradimensional travel is seen as science fiction, so I understand that this will take some time. Personal I didn't think it was possible guess I was proven wrong," they sat in silence after that while they ate until Twilight noticed the book Nick had on the table.
"Is that a book from your world?" she asked sounding curious
"Uh ya it is,"
"Oh no, here she goes again," said Spike before he scarfed down the rest of his food and taking off for the door.
"A what type of of book is it?" she asked as she stretched her neck out to get a look at the title.
"It'sa noir style detective novel," laughing slightly at her enthusiastic curiousity.
"Who wrote it?" continuing her questioning as she moved her seat closer to get a better look.
"I did actually,"
"Oh you did say you wrote part time so this is one of the books you wrote huh," said Starlight joining the conversation.
"It's the only one I've written actually. It didn't sell very well but I enjoyed writing it,"
"Any ideas for future books?" Starlight asked.
"I had a few I was hoping to work on but I had a tournament I needed to train for so I've had to put it hold for a while, but once I get home I think I'll take it easy for a while and do some writing, who knows I may find something here that'll inspire my next story,"
"Already finding the silver linings to all this, that's good. Why don't we wait outside for the girls to get here what do you think, Twilight," Starlight asked looking at Twilight who looked up from reading Nick's book with an embarrassed smile, closing the book and handing it back to him.
Nick looked at the book for a moment before shaking his head, "Why don't you go ahead and keep that one, I've got another copy at home and it's not like I haven't read it a million times," upon hearing that Twilight's face brightened up like a kid on christmas, she instantly reopened the book to where she left off and began reading again, it was adorable how passionate she was about books. Nick and Starlight gathered up the dishes taking them to the kitchen to be washed later before heading for the entrance leaving Twilight to read in peace.
Once they stepped out of the castle they each took a seat at the top of the stairs with Starlight sitting irectly next to Nick, while waiting and without thinking he starting petting and running his hand through Starlight's mane. he hadn't even noticed until she started nuzzling up against him. "Is this this weird or is this normal for ponies? She doesn't seem to mind but I should probably stop ," he thought to himself pulling his hand away.
She turned her head up to look at him curious as to why he stopped. Seeing the questioning look in her eyes, he looked around for an excuse before finding it in the form of the three ponies they were waiting for, pointing a finger in their direction and thanking the gods of good timing, glad to not be in a weird position.
"Morning girls, How are you doing today?" Starlight asked once they approached.
"We're doing great thanks for askin', woulda been here sooner but I had some chores to finish up on the farm first," Applebloom explained.
"So where's Rainbow Dash?" asked Starlight.
"She didn't finish her paperwork last night, so she's going to meet us later at Sweet Apple Acres, she was probably reading the new Daring Do instead of doing her work," explained Scootaloo.
"Ya, sounds like Rainbow. Well I'm going to leave Nick here in your capable hooves so Twilight and I can get to work on a spell," Starlight said recieving a confirmatory nod from the girls before heading back inside.
"So uh where are we off to first?" he asked suddenly feeling nervous about going out sight seeing.
====
Reaching the edge of town Nick could see the ponies staring at him again, he was used to being stared but usually he was busy trying to beat the shit out of someone without them doing the same to him. The way they stared at him was also different like he was some kind of strange alien which he was, but that didn't make him hate it any less and it was starting to really piss him off, luckly it wasn't long before they reached their first destination.
After taking a good look at their first stop the place kind of reminded him of a gingerbread house with it's frosting like decor on the outside and candy looking chimney, and with the smell of baked goods coming from indoors made the whole place seem like a well planned joke. Following the girls inside and peering around the place had an open store front that led up to the counters where various confectioneries were on display, right behind the counter was a light pink pony with a bright curly pink mane and tail, she was currently pulling something out of the oven.
"Hey Pinkie, we brought somepony here that we thought you should meet, since he'll be in ponyville fo while," Scootaloo yelled from across the counter, pinkie set down the cake she had just taken out of the oven on a cooling rack before turning to respond.
"Where is he?" she asked as she stretched over the counter to look for this new pony.
"He's right here," Sweetie said pointing her hoof at Nick. Tracing her eyes up his legs, her eyes went wide when she finally saw who the extremities belonged to, Nick gave her an ackward nervous smile as she stared up at him. Right as Nick began thinking that they had just broken this ponies psyche did a flurry of questions spew from her.
"HiI'mPinkiePie,what'syourname? What'syourfavoritesnack?Howtallareyou?Doyoulikeredvelvetjalapenomuffins?What'syourfavoritecolor?Howlongareyougoingtostayinponyville?,' she blurted out faster then what Nick could process, before she took a large breathe and began making face like she finally realized what the meaning of life was before zipping off as fast as possible to who knows where.
"Well that just happened. Can any of you tell me what just happened?" Nick asked totally confused by what just transgressed.
"We try not to question anything that pinkie does, but we did come here for a reason that you'll understand later," Applebloom stated.
"Gotcha," he understood having that one weird friend, that has their special way of doing things that just makes you laugh, "So where to next,"
"Next stop is the market and city hall then we're off to Sweet Apple Acres," Scootaloo explained.
====
After exiting sugar cube corner the girls guided Nick around town pointing out a few shops in particular like Sweetie Drops, Carousel boutique where we would meet Rarity this afternoon so she could get his measurements, Quills and Sofas, and the Day spa, once the tour around town was over they took him down a dirt path leading to a large apple orchard. At the end of the path was a large red farm house somewhat resembling a barn.
"Bout time you guys got here, me and Applejack have been waiting here forever," Rainbow Dash shouted to the group as they approached the farm house.
"Dash you haven't been waiting that long, you just got here a minute ago yerself," said Appledash.
"A minute is a long time," Dash replied causing Applejack roll her eyes at her friends impatients.
"So you enjoy you tour of the town?" asked Applejack, gazing up at Nick.
"It's a quaint town you girls have here," he said.
"Well I thank you you kindly, now show us a few of those moves from yer run in with the timber wolves before Dash here blows a gasket," said Applejack, this caused Rainbow Dash's face to brighten up with excitement.
Nick stepped to the side and stretched a bit before getting into his usual out-boxer fighting position, he was a stronger in-fighter then out-boxer but his long reach and fast feet allowed him wear down his adversaries before jumping into close range and hammering away at his opponents, his grandfather would often call him 'raganella' or treefrog for how he would jump around the ring. Nick began imaging a past match he had fought and began shadow boxing his previous opponent, recalling the match perfectly in his mind, it was his first knock out win, the fight only lasted one minute fifty-eight seconds, his opponent had got extremely agitated with his out-boxing and charged in setting himself up for a series of combinations and a clean left uppercut to his chin.
"What do you think?" he asked after finishing his reenactment.
"That was awesome!" squealed Scootaloo.
"That was pretty cool but I think I could take him," said Rainbow Dash a cocky grin on her face.
"As fun as taking a hoof to the gut sounds I think I'll pass as well as the fact that I don't hit girls," he replied not really feeling up to the idea of fighting someone half his size and a pony none the less.
"Come on just one round I'll go easy on ya," Rainbow pleaded.
"Well if you're going to go easy on me I guess one round won't be that bad," he said getting back in position and facing towards Rainbow Dash, everyone clearing a space for them to start.
Rainbow crouched down as if ready to pounce which is what she practicly did as she flew straight at him, he quickly took a step back to the left and faced her again as she hovered in the air in front of him with her wings. She flew up to him using her front hooves like fists and tried hitting him to no avail as he bobbed and weaved to avoid her much shorter range.
Rainbow's attacks were getting her nowhere quickly as he ducked underneath another of her punches, sidestepping around behind her, when she turned she saw him bouncing on his feet waving a single hand at her as if taunting her to come get him. "If you'd just hold still," she muttered as she attacked him again, repeating the process of him dodging and walking out of her range forcing her to come to him.
"Where would the fun be in that," he mocked, avoiding the large haymaker she threw. "Well I guess I better end this before she gets to upset ," he thought to himself noticing she was getting more irritated as he avoided more of her attacks. "I just gotta wait for another one of those big punches she like to throw," with a plan in mind he didn't have to wait long for her to fall into his trap, and throwing a right cross and stopping an inch from her face, her eyes focusing on the fist right in front of her. Nick gave her a cheeky grin before reaching out a finger and booping her right on the nose, causing her muzzle to scrunch up from the unexpected move.
"Thanks for going easy on me," he said a hint of sarcasm in his voice, as he relaxed his stance and tousled her mane.
"Ya, well uh.. next time we go for real,"
"I don't know Dash that looked pretty real to me," Joked Applejack.
"Of course it would look that way to amateur fighter like you AJ,"
"Uh huh sure," Applejack rebutted.
"Aw man I wanna give it a go now, think you and I can go a round?" Scootaloo asked, standing on her hind legs and giving a few sloppy punches getting a few giggle from applebloom.
"Scoots we have to go to Rarity's so she can help him with his clothes problem, remember?" Sweetie Belle reminded her. "We should really get going, my sis got really excited last night about a few design so it's probably best we don't keep her waiting."
"Aaaaaw one round please?"
"We'll have plenty of time afterwards, Scoots. Besides we still have to show him the school," Applebloom spoke up, causing Scoots to let out a huff of disappointment.
==========
It wasn't long before they were all standing ouside the Carousel Boutique a two-story building that kinda reminded him of a fairy tale princess tower, upon entering Nick noticed were three tables with large mirrors he assumed they were to help put on makeup a few feet past that was a stair case that wrapped up and around the following the shape of the building, a few mannequins in the shape of ponies were scattered around the room some wearing elaborate dress while others remained bare, on the was a platform surrounded in a half circle with mirror and a dressing room slightly off to the side.
"Rarity we're here!" shouted Sweetie Belle as she looked around for her sister.
"I'll be down in just a moment," came Rarity's voice from up stairs, not a minute later she came down stairs stopping to flip her mane while giving a little pose. "I hope the girls were able to make your stroll around town this morning enjoyable"
"Ya I had a pretty good time," minus the stares he received but he was going to keep that to himself.
"I do hope you feel comfortable while your here so it's good to hear that you are enjoying yourself, speaking of comfort let's get a few measurements so we can make you a new set of clothes shall we? Right over there is our dressing room if you would kindly remove what your wearing so I may begin?"
Entering the changing room Nick quickly stripped down to nothing but his underwear before stepping out and seeing that the girls were looking at him as he exitted the dressing room, each with their own expression. Rarity looked at him like a canvas to which an artist would preform their craft, most likely thinking of various desings. Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at him quizzically, where as Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked curiously at his right arm but when their gaze feel onto his shoulder he could see the sadness and guilt in their eyes.
"Hey you know it's not your fault right, that I got hurt. Besides I think they make me look pretty badass," he saw them look up at him with a small smile.
"Ah got a question, were you wearing those underneath yer clothes?" Applejack asked pointing a hoof at his boxers, receiving a nod as her answer, "What's the point of wearing cloth under yer clothes? You humans sure are strange,"
"We wear thse to cover our genitals, it's an extra layer to keep me covered in case something forces me to take my pants off like the current situation. Anymore strange questions about humans?"
"Ya why do you have nipples, I thought you were male?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Wha..What? Of course I'm a male, all humans have nipple, they just don't function like a females do and aren't as big. God who asks questions like that?"
"Ah gotta question," Applebloom said as she raised a hoof.
"No, I am not going to prove I'm a male," he stated bluntly.
"That wasn't what ah gonna ask ya...though ah wouldn't mind you showing me." he couldn't hear the lst part she said but whatever it was caused Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to giggle, "Ah was gonna ask ya what yer cutie mark meant? Ah thought only ponies could get those but ah guess creatures from other dimensions can as well,"
"My tattoo? It doesn't really mean anything, I regret ever getting it,"
"WHAT!?" shouted the three girls, glaring at him.
"Yer cutie mark represents yer special talent, it's what makes you different from everypony else,"
"So that's what the marks you all have are supposed to mean, well my tattoo was a waste of money and two hours of my life just have it inked into my skin and now I can't get rid of it,"
"Wait somepony drew that on you?"
"Yeah, how did you get yours?"
"Ours appeared when we discovered our special talent was helping ponies discover or re-evaluate their special talents,"
"Wait so each of your special talents that makes you different then anybody..anypony else are exactly the same and they just appeared when you discovered what it was?"
"Well Applebloom's is also pretty good at farming apples, Scoots is great at scootering and I'm musically inclined, but that's pretty much how it works," with everything explained to him he still didn't really believe that a mark would just appear once you figured out what your good at. Having answered all their question he stood where Rarity directed while she took measurements and asked him various questions about human fashion many of which he was unable to answer, after a half hour Rarity finished collecting all the measurements she needed. After Nick dressed the seven of them headed on their way to finish the tour of the town.
As they walked through town Nick couldn't but notice the lack of ponies around, it was curious as why no one was out but no one was staring at him so he didn't question it. At last they were at their last stop on their tour the school of friendship the girls had told them it was called, they also told him it was for teaching all species the meaning of friendship, why you need a school to teach friendship he had no clue, the school also taught regular subjects like math, science and history. Having finished the tour the girls led him back to the castle, even though he did enjoy seeing the town it only reminded him of the fact that he may never see his own home town again and based on how most of the townsfolk looked at him he was sure a long-term stay was out of the question.
"They probably think I'm some sort of monster waiting to eat them. What if the reason all the ponies were all gone this afternon was to discuss how to get rid of me? Did that mean all of this was to keep him distracted while they set up some sort of trap? " not noticing they were already at the castle, he mindless followed them up the stairs towards the entrance as they opened the doors time seemed to slow, in front of Nick stood a whole herd of ponies all of whom turned towards him as he entered the castle taking a look around before his blood ran cold, he could potentially out run these small ponies but the four cannons they had pointed at him said he wasn't even going to get the chance, before he could even lift a foot to run a series of booms rang throughout the room.
Author's Note
Don't know why it took me so long to write this, then i had to fix it becuase i'm retarded.
Having had seen his life flash before his eyes twice in the last two days Nick assumed that his mind had instead decided to just stretch out this moment in time to spice it up, not having none of that, he closed his eyes and waited for the cannonballs to come hurling into him, suddenly he felt something only it wasn't the crushing wieght of an iron ball no this was the light and small and it tickled his nose. He slowly opened eyes to his see what was tickling his face, he was greeted with the sight of multitude of various colored confetti in air. Before he could register what was going on Nick felt a wieght on his shoulder, turning his head to the right he was eye to eye with the pink pony from the bakery, her hooves on her his shoulder as she hung on to him.
"Welcome to Ponyville!" Pinkie shouted right into his face with the biggest grin on her face that he had ever seen, he starred back at her bewildered as to what was happening.
"I told you taking him to go see Pinkie was the best way for him to meet everypony," he heard Scootaloo say as he gentle pried the pink mare off of him, setting her on the ground. Nick cautiously looked around at the ponies around him nervously smiling before waving a hand at the group of ponies in front of him. "This way we won't have to keep repeating the same thing over and over agains to everypony all over town,"
"Follow us Nick we're goona introduce ya tah everypony," Applebloom said leading the way while Sweetie Belle used her magic to pull him along by the hem of his shirt, he soon found himself surrounded in a sea of waist high ponies all of who were either staring at him with various looks, asking him questions or introducing themselves as he was dragged through the crowd. He barely had time to reply back before another pony would speak, it was a lot to take in at the time but it was great finding out how friendly everyone was although a few still were nervous of him and would shy away as he approached.
Eventually the girls had introduced him to everyone willing to speak to him and he found himself at one of the various tables scattered around the room sitting with Twilight, Starlight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and their sisters along with Pinkie Pie, Spike and a light yellow pegasus with a long pink mane and tail whose name was Fluttershy and just like her name would have you think she was quite timid and quiet spoken, they were currently trading questions back and forth in an attempt to get to know each other.
"So there are three types of ponies earth, pegasi, unicorn, and a special type called alicorns which is a combonation of the three of which there are only five. Earth ponies have an innate magic that allows them to grow plants as well as having large amounts of strength, pegasi can fly and control the weather, and unicorn can use magic and cast spells, am I missing anything so far?" Nick asked trying to comprehend the answer to his latest question.
"Not so far," said Twilight.
"Not only do alicorn possess the abilities the three other races but they're all princesses, Celestia is the princess of the sun, her sister Luna rules over the moon and they both can literally control their respective symbol. Then there is your sister in law Cadance who is the princess of love and rules the crystal empire with your brother Shining Armor and their daughter Flurry Heart is also an alicorn and she's the princess of?"
"She not the princess of anything yet she's only just turned eight a few months ago,"
"Makes sense that might be a little to much responsability for a kid, and lastly there is you and you're the princess of friendship but why are the royalty all princesses except for your brother who's a prince?"
"It's most likely do to the ratio of mares to stallions being four to one,"
"Four to one really? That must make finding a husband pretty difficult...that is if you're not interested in other wo..mares,"
"It's why we have herds although it can still be a bit difficult to join a herd,"
"what do you mean by herd?"
"A group of ponies consisting of a stallion and three to four mares. Do you not have herds where you're from or is just called something different?"
"No we don't its actually frowned upon by most people to be in a romantic relationship with more than one person at a time, but then again or male to female ratio is about even fifty-fifty where I'm from. Well this conversation is getting weird. Mind if we switch topics, was there anything you guys wanted to know about where I'm from?"
"You briefly mentioned something called the internet what is that exactly?"
"You have the wrong guy when it comes to explaining what the world wide web is but I'll try," Fluttershy seemed to perk up at the word web for some reason.
"You must have rather large spiders if you have a web all across your world," she said barely above a whisper.
"The internet isn't an actual web it's just another way to describe it, the internet is like the worlds largest library, you can find anything you'd ever want to know about in the blink of an eye, although I mainly used it to watch silly videos and talk to my friends. That reminds me I was wondering if I could get a picture of all of you for when I get back, because no one's gonna believe what happened to me once I do," the girls took a quick look between each nodding in agreement.
"Spike could you go get the camara I'm pretty sure I put it in my study?"
"That alright I have my own," as he pulled out his phone and began switching it on the girls starred in wonder at the little device, he stood up and backed away from the table "Alright I have it all set up, now give me a big smile," and with a flash it was over, quickly saving it in his phone.
"Oh I do hope my mane looked alright. The last thing I want is for you to go around showing ponies a picture of me with a disheveled mane," Rarity said as she fixed her already perfect mane.
"Rarity the last thing anypony he shows that to is going tah notice is what yer mane looks like," Applejack ribbed.
"You all looked perfect thanks for the picture, I still can't believe this is happening though. I should still be freaking out about all this but uh I think I took to many hits to the head in my life which is probably why my brain isn't working properly but It did get me thinking, how are you guys taking this so easily?" Nick questioned.
"Oh that's because we have seen way stranger things around ponyville, like the time we defeated Nightmare Moon, then stopped Discord from turning the world into complete chaos or when we stopped Tirek from taking all the magic in equestria or when we rescued a pony named Stygian from the Shadow," Pinkie Pie emphasized 'shadow' by waving her hooves around, "and then we saved equestria the storm king. So we've seen a bunch of wierd stuff, it's great to finally have it be somepony nice for a change,"
As their conversation continued on a few ponies would come up to ask Nick a few questions about where he's from, or if he had any hobbies. Questions one would ask to try to get to know someone, that is until a mint green unicorn with an equally mint green and white mane approached him.
"Hi I'm Lyra, Lyra heartstrings I was wondering are you really a human?" She asked.
"Uuuh yeah," he replied. She let out a squeal of joy and started to dance about excitedly at his response, Nick was thoroughly confused by this reaction. How was he being human of any reason to be excited about he had no idea.
"Cou..could I perhaps take a look at your hands?"
"You want to look at my hands?" she nodded her head excitedly, he turned and gave a questioning look to the girls and spike who just gave him a shrug, "Sure I don't see why not," he slowly stretched his arms down to her palms faced up, she enveloped his hands in her magic and began careful inspecting them before running her hooves across his palm.
"Wow they're so smooth and soft," those weren't the word I would have used but that's one way to describe them nick thought to himself as she continued to feel his hands. "So what all do you use your hands for?" she asked as she covered her face with one of his hand cause him to giggle at her goofy antics, pulling his hand off her face he began scratching behind one of her ears causing her to hum happily.
"Well I use them for pretty much everything I do which is why I have to wash them so often. Why the interest in my hands if you don't mind my asking?"
"Please don't get her started?" asked a voice to nick's right. He looked over spotting a beige earth pony with a blue mane that had a pink streak running down the center.
"But Bonny, it's a human a real live human, he has hands and everything," lyra whinned.
"I know your excited but we have to get going I still have candies to prepare for tomorrow and you have rehearsal in the morning. I'm sure he'll still be here tomorrow," bonny said turning her head towards Nick.
"Unless Twilight and Starlight figure out a way to get me home in the next twenty-four hours most I'll most likely still be here, I'm sure we can hang out for a while if you'd like,"
"Are you for real?" he gave her a quick nod she got up and trotted over to bonny "Come on bonny the sooner we get home the sooner tomorrow comes," bonny rolled her eyes and followed after her friend, Nick wasn't sure what was so exciting about him it was probably the whole he's an alien thing, he was pretty sure the whole novelty of it would fall off quickly, at least he had a way to distract himself while he waited for them to find him a way home.
The party started to wind down after that, ponies would approach and say goodbye to Twilight and the girls while giving Nick a final welcome to Ponyville before heading home for the night until the only ones left were Spike, the girls and himself, each pitching in to clean up after the party before going back to their homes. Nick followed Starlight back through the castle so he wouldn't get lost again, as amazing as the architecture was he didn't feel like admiring it all night long in a futile attempt to navigate the castle.
Once back in the room he was given, he sat on the edge of his bed trying to think over everything that happened in the last fifty plus hours, he'd been transported to a new world/universe, fought off wolves, meet magic multicolored ponies, been told that he could potentially never go home again, had a panic attack which was literally one of top ten worst experiences of his life, was then given hope again that he may see his home again, and the magic talking pastel ponies threw him a welcome party. Man did he have a weird story to tell when he got home.
======
The days went by quickly after that, his outting with lyra was fun even though she asked a lot of questions some a little more personal then he was comfortable with along with her slightly invading his personal space a bit much but from his observasion of the ponies he learned that was just how they were, the rest of his days were mainly spent in the castle helping where he could be it with any question he had to answer that would help with the spell, reading or he even helped Spike clean up the castle since he was staying there he may as well help out in some way, he was extremly grateful for the clothes that rarity had made for him for his time here and was suprised by not only how quickly she had made clothes for somone who wasn't a ponies but be how well made they were. But he still couldn't keep his mind off home it had been eight days and it seemed like Twilight and Starlight weren't any closer to finding him a way home.
He couldn't get mad with him if he had asked anyone back home to find a way to transport him to a different universe they would just laugh at him and call him crazy, at least here he had a chance and so he sat at the steps of the castle looking through the pictures on his phone of his family and friends in attempt to stave of his homesickness but only succeeding in making it worse and to top it off his phone was sitting at eight percent, he really hope that equestrian electricity was like what he had back home.
"Are those your friends?" asked a kind voice from behind him, looking over his shoulder he spotted Starlight curiously looking at the picture on his phone. It was a picture of him and his buddies back at the gym when he finally went pro, he was in the middle holding up his boxing license while his friend were beside him congratulating him with his grandfather in the back smiling proundly that was about two years ago man did time fly.
"Yeah, it was taken when I got my boxing license. My friends said that was the day I officially became a member of our gym, that there is Joe our gyms resident heavyweight slugger," he said pointing to a tall, bulky man with short spiky blond hair. "He doesn't box to fancy but if he does land a punch you were in for a world of hurt, and Trevon here could dance circles around any one in the ring, he got into boxing two years before I did and since he was about my age at the time we spent most our time together," he informed her pointing to a lithe figured guy with his hair braided in cornrows.
"Who's the older one in the back?"
"That there is my grandfather, he was the one who got me into boxing at a young age and is responsible for teaching me almost everything I know about the sport. I owe him more then I could ever repay for what he's taught me,"
"You miss them a lot don't you?" Nick gave her a small nod as his answer, turning of his phone he stood dusting off his pants before turning to face her.
"So I'm going to guess there was a reason you came looking for me?"
"That is correct, Twilight and I may have found a solution to getting you home," once he heard this Nick felt a rush of pure joy course through his body and before he knew it had wrapped his arms around starlight, nearly lifting her off the ground with his embrace.
"Hey..Nick..I..can't brea.." he quickly let her go and apolagized, taking a step back as he calmed down from hearing such good news, he waited for her tocatch her breathe before he spoke.
"So how soon till I get to go back?"
"Well you see we were trying to figure out how to locate your world and we came up with a solution all we would need is for you to think about a familar location from your home and we would use that as a locater, which is easy enough as long as the memory has strong emotional ties to you. The problem is with how much power a spell of that scale would take we would have to craft a catalyst to store enough magic to preform such a spell,"
"And how long would it take to make a 'catalyst' and store enough power to cast this spell?" he asked nervously.
"Umm sixteen to eighteen..."
"Days?"
"Months," Starlight said sheepishly.
Nick began running his hands through his hair as he took in this information, he wouldn't be able to get home for almost a year and a half at the least. What would his family and friends think they were porbably already worried as hell with him gone for this long, if was gone for another sixteen month and they would think he died or he'd run away without a word.
"Okay...yep..alright, so what am I supposed to do for the next year and a half?" he asked her trying to avoid having another panic attack.
"You could try taking it a day at a time and before you know it you'll be back home," she advised looking up into his panicing eyes.
"Hey, would you like to go for a walk around town with me? I think a walk would help calm me down and I would prefer to have someone nearby to stop me from having a complete mental breakdown in the middle of town," she gave a nod of her head as an answer and the two set off on their walk to help him come to terms with his current predicament.
Author's Note
Tell me what you think!