Its a beautiful day, and I cant see it.by BudinskyChaptersBeautiful TragedyWaking up.. AgainA Precious GiftA Perfect WorldFitting InRecoveryExplanationsWish GrantedBeautiful TragedyIts a beautiful day and I cant see it. Have you ever had a day where you took your senses for granted? I’ve had plenty until that one cold November day. It started out like a normal day, a breakfast of corn flakes and milk and watching T.V, and then I started watching cartoons like always. Then this show called My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, I’ve never watched it before so I decided to watch a few minutes of it. It didn’t appeal to me so I turned it off thinking it was nothing special, oh how wrong I was. After breakfast I went to the garage to do my job, it was a simple one, repair small metal thing, be it desks or small projects I made myself, I loved it. It made decent money, I was good at it, and I loved doing it. My life was perfect, until I got careless. I had forgotten to flip my welding mask down and had started welding, sufficient to say it didn’t end well. “Ahhhh, Shit I can’t see” I bellowed holding my face screaming. I couldn’t see, I was disoriented and in immense pain. I stumbled around for a while, which felt like hours to me. Soon my neighbours had heard me and rushed me over to the Hospital and on the way the pain took over and I blacked out. As I awoke I only saw darkness, the pain had receded but was still present, I couldn’t see but I could still use my other senses and I intended to use them. I smelt clean sterile air, tasted dryness, could move my body but decided against it because it hurt, felt soft bed sheets, and heard footsteps. “Who’s there” I asked slightly alarmed. “Calm down there son, my names Doctor James and I’ve got some bad news and some good news”. I was slightly excited to hear the good news but at the same time, terrified at the bad. “The good news is that your friend brought you here just in time to stop the pain from being worse”. Hardly my friend, I only knew him as my neighbour, I wasn’t a very social guy, not a lot of people I trusted but I decided to let him continue, hopeful that the bad news wasn’t as bad as I thought. “And now for the hard part”, I heard him mumble, “It seems we couldn’t save your sight, sorry son but you’ll be blind for the rest of your life”. Shock, sorrow, anger, acceptance, disbelief, and anguish. This is all I felt for seconds, and then the tears came. I couldn’t grasp the realization that I was blind, I can’t believe it, I won’t. But then I just sat there and cried, realizing that my perfect life was crushed by that little incident, I never felt so angry, mostly at myself, but partially at James too, but all I could do is cry. A few hours later and the tears had stopped falling, and the realization had sinked in, I Greg Hassles, was blind. My welding, my sketching, my simple life was gone just because I forgot to flip my mask down. A few months later I had adjusted to life as a blind person, I had figured out a way to get around with a cane and had gotten help from my neighbour but the one thing I hadn’t figured out to cope with the depression that came with me being blind. Every day I could hear the kids laughing and asking their parents why the strange man had sunglasses on in December. I couldn’t take it much longer. So that night when I went to bed, I made a silly Christmas wish. “I wish I could have a perfect life again” I knew the cry fell on deaf ears but it brought me relief anyways. As I closed my eyes I whispered to myself “Merry Christmas” then let sleep take me. Waking up.. AgainAs I awoke once again I couldn't shake the feeling of knowing, the feeling that lingers in the back of your head and bugs you until you figure out that what escapes your memory. "Whoo boy, you better not black out on us again, y'hear" spoke a very western accent. " Ya , you had us worried silly billy pants" the obnoxious voice giggled. " Applejack, Pinkie pie, hush now, you'll scare the poor dear" a very regal voice exclaimed. Applejack, Pinkie pie, I knew those names but where. That's when I realized the very slim chance of me being in a perfect world had been in my favour. I was I Equestria. Of course how could I not realize, how could I not forget. How could I forget anything that happened that day, that was the day everything in my life changed. My perfect little world flipped upside down. My love of welding, my passion for the guitar, my simple care free life destroyed by a simple little mistake. The funniest part in this whole tragedy was that I remembered a show about horses for girls.'Huh must have left more of an impression than I thought' I debated with myself. But then the sadness sinked in, the sadness of my life being fucked over and then getting dumped in a strange world in habited by ponies that in my world was viewed by millions of people. It was funny in a way but the sadness overpowered the silliness. " Uhh dude? You okay" that sounded like Rainbow Dash. " No, no I'm not, I'm stuck in another world, in an unknown bed, and I cant see cause I'm blind" I exclaimed! Gasps shot through the air then making an uncomfortable silence. " Well sir I'm sorry to hear that but I guess introductions are due, I'm Twilight Sparkle. These are my friends Applejack". " Howdy". " My friend Rarity" " Why hello dear" " My friend Rainbow Dash" " Sup" " My friend Fluttershy" A small eep could be heard. " And my friend Pinkie Pie" "Ohmygosh, its so totally nice to meet you we should eat cupcakes sometime, or go play with hoop-de-loops". 'These ponies sure are impolite' I thought. " Uhh you know I cant see you right" I asked slightly annoyed. The tension suddenly felt like it could be cut with a knife. " Sorry about that Sir, but we couldn't help but wonder how you came about being blind" I instantly recognised the voice as Twilight Sparkle's, being blind for a couple of months can do that to you. " Call me Greg, Twilight, and ill tell you as long as you've got time". I then proceeded to tell them about who I was and who I came from, including how I was blinded and how I didn't know how I got here. Proceeding to my story was a long, uncomfortable silence. " Wow that's harsh, sorry to hear that" Rainbow spoke solemnly. " Indeed, but I do believe I can solve your sight problem" Twilight said. I froze thinking ' Did Twilight Sparkle, the element of Magic, just say she could fix my blindness'? I then began to speak but Twilight cut me off. " I can begin right away If you wish". I didn't know what to say, I was being offered the opportunity to have my sight enabled. I was at a loss for words, but instead of saying anything, I just nodded yes. A Precious GiftI closed my eyes as Twilight begun her spell to bring back my sight. Memories of the show reminded me that she was inept in magic so I trusted that she knew what she was doing. Granted she was helping me on her own free will but I couldn't help but feel selfish because of it. On Earth, no optometrist would ever heal anyone's eyes for free, but this wasn't Earth, far from it. As the spell continued I began to feel a slight tingling in my eyes and burning as well. I then began to worry as the burning sensation began to grow at a rapid pace. I then was screaming the pain was so bad, it felt like my eyes were being clawed out. I then calmed down as I felt the gentle touch of hooves on me, holding me down, comforting me down. I then felt relief as the burning sensation melted away. I then preceded to open my eyes slightly to see light, excitedly I forced them all the way open only to close them once more, the new light was too intense for my new eyes. " I would advise not to open yours eyes too much now, given how long you've been without them" Twilight lectured. I decided that she new what she was doing and trusted her and slowly let my eyes adjust to the new found light. After awhile I could see perfectly again. Then the tears came. The colours, the shades, the hues, the shapes, oh how id missed them. I then began to cry harder. Being so long without sight can make you hopeful that you can see anything ever again. Right now ever thing looked beautiful, even more than I remembered, the vibrant ponies before me, my Nirvana t-shirt, even the dull wood colour of Twilights house seemed to leap out at me. Speaking of the ponies, their colours of the various mares drew my attention. First there was the one I remembered as Twilight, she was a various array of purples, the mark on her flank being a shape that reminded me of an old time compass mark and jutting from her bangs was a purple horn that was swirled. Secondly there was a cyan coloured pony with wings that I could only call a pegasus caught my attention, but it wasn't the wings that caught my attention, it was her mane. It was a mixture of various colours ranging from blue to red to yellow, it was a fit sight for my first sight in awhile. Then there was a pony who couldn't seem to keep still, bouncing up and down either due to caffeine or natural hyperness. All I could think was pink, she was like a living piece of cotton candy, sugary and pink as hell. Then there was a very white unicorn looking pony with a purple curled mane, for a horse she sure was stunning to look at. The next one that I stared at was this sherbert coloured pony that was adorning a Stetson cowboy hat that seemed to belong on her naturally. She reminded me of the fem-fatal cowgirls I used to read about in my dads stories when I was young. The last pony I noticed was a pale yellow pegasus that was shivering behind the cowgirl pony, I noticed as well that she was also hiding behind her curled pink mane with 3 butterflies adorning her flank. As I awoke from my self indulging bliss I could only look at Twilight and squeak out a small- " Thank you"! A Perfect WorldA few days had passed since Greg got his sight back and he made every moment of it count. He had become wonderful friends with Applejack since they both shared similar interests. Greg had learned that Applejack was a great drinking buddy and a good poker player, after he taught her about it of course. Greg had also helped Rarity with her fashion work by telling her about some Human fashion fads and in return had made him some clothes and shoes. In his spare time he would spend time with Twilight telling her tales and information about his world. Mostly stuff like math and science and also a little history. By the end of the fourth day he found that he had some people had taken a little more liking to him then others, name one rainbow maned pegasus. He decided to ignore her for the time being. Also he discovered he had missed his love for music, so he decided to take action into his own hands. He asked Twilight to take him to a carpenter in town and request if a guitar could be constructed. After explaining to her what exactly a guitar was she happily obliged. After he got his guitar constructed he then needed to find a pony who could make him some guitar strings, this proved to be a much daunting task then he anticipated. He then gave up until Twilight offered to magically produce some guitar strings for him. He felt even more guilty at this. First she healed his blindness and now help him with his little requests, it was almost to much. He then decided to make up to Twilight and her friends by playing a song for them. " Thanks for everything Twilight". " No problem Greg". " No I don't think you understand how grateful I am for everything you've done, you've took me in, healed my blindness, and done silly little requests for me, So I decided I will play guitar for you and your friends" Greg insisted. " Wow that would be great, lets make it tonight in Applejack's barn okay?" " That sounds perfect Twilight" A few hours later the six colourful ponies and Greg had gathered in the barn at Twilights request. " Heya Greg, ooh what's that fancy thing you got there" a curious pink pony questioned" With pride instead of explaining to the ponies what it was, he decided to show them instead. Then decided to play a little System of a Down for them, Roulette to be exact. After he had played a pretty well done cover of SOAD's song, the ponies just sat there in awe. " That was AMAZING Greg" Rainbow Dash exclaimed " Boy howdy Greg, that's some fancy playing skills ya got there, you gotta teach me some time" Applejack said. " Quite ravishing I Must say Gregory, I say you do have quite a talent there" Rarity complimented The rest of the ponies just sat there nodding their head to the onslaught of compliments. He had never felt so proud in himself for a long time, the first being his perfect welding's for a client he had. " Well girls its getting late, I think we should head back to our respective homes" Twilight said. It seemed to be an unanimous decision by all, it had been a tiring day for all of them. After the goodbyes had been said and everyone had left the barn to receed into their own homes. As Twilight and Greg had arrived to the tree that they called home Twilight had seemed to be anxious for some reason. Greg then decided to act on this observation. " Hey Twi"? " Yes Greg"? " Is everything alright"? " Actually no, there's this thing I've been meaning to ask you" " Shoot" " Do you actually want to go home"? Twilight asked. He then paused for a moment to think, did he really want to go home? This world compared to his had been paradise. He didn't have a shitty life but there was still no violence, drugs, rape, or anything wrong with this world. True he did feel singled out being the only human around ponies, but he also felt accepted by his new pony friends as well. He missed his old home, his bed, his food, and the delicious hamburgers. To be honest, he didn't know what to think. " I don't know if I can give you an answer right now Twi". Greg responded " That's okay Greg, now it'd be wise to get some sleep" Twilight advised. In truth, that did seemed like a good idea, so he took his makeshift bed on the couch and proceeded to fall asleep, the question still lingering in his mind. Fitting InAs I awoke the smell of toast, orange juice, and eggs filled my nostrils. As I kept smelling I decided to take care of my ever growing hunger problem. While I descended down the staircase I saw Twilights assistant Spike. Since I got here Ive grown a friendship with Spike for two reasons, one he's a dragon and that's pretty cool and secondly, when the day was done we would stay up and talk about our problems. I vented about how it was being blind and the stress among other things while he told me about his crush on Rarity. I have to admit it was pretty admirable to see such a strong love in a different world, even if it was one sided. " Morning Greg, you sleep well" the little dragon asked " Yes I did thanks for asking" I replied " Mmmm that smells amazing". " Thanks but taste it before you decide that". " If its not cooked by Twi' I'm good" We both shared in a rather long and hard laugh only to be interrupted by a throat being cleared by a rather annoyed looking Twilight standing in the doorway, that shut us up. " Sorry Twilight but its kinda true" Spike said " You have many talents but cooking isnt one of them" I agreed " I guess you right but enough of that, lets eat" Not another word was spoken for our mouths were being filled with Spikes delicious food. When we all finished Spike excused himself to do the dishes and Twilight headed out to go hang out with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie to do god knows what. As I was thinking about what to do for today Spike told me that he was going to help Rarity go gem hunting for this new order of dresses, leaving me nothing to do. I was contemplating on either playing guitar or working out a little. I had gone a little pudgy from the months of being blind and not really being able to work out or unleash on a punching bag. Then a knock came on the door,and when I pulled the door open there was the sherbert pony Applejack. " Heya Greg is Twilight in"? " Sorry Applejack she just left actually, any reason". " Naw no reason at all, just bored is all" " Think we can help each other out there, I was just going to head to the edge of the forest to work out, you wanna come" I asked. " Well I think that's a mighty fine idea sure ill come" On the way to the edge of the Everfree, Applejack and I started to ask each other about what we did for entertainment and about each others world. She had told me she and her friends just hung out and told each other stories for entertainment and that the world was controlled by the two alicorn princesses. I had asked her why they had the status of princess when a queen and king weren't present and told her that it should be the two Queens not princesses. I just got a weird look and I just decided to ignore it and move on. I told her about television and other things like that and about sports, even the less popular one like Nascar. I had found it funny that the southern country girl had found Nascar interesting. After some time we finally arrived at the edge of the Everfree. " So shall we begin AJ" " What should we start with then" I decided to start with a warm up then some cardio and finish off with some sparring. All throughout the exercise AJ had kept up with me surprisingly well, even better in fact but when we started sparring and wrestling is when things got bad. As I got AJ in a headlock I heard a voice yell " Get off of her" then a sharp force hitting my head followed by darkness. RecoveryAs I awoke once more I had a blast of deja vu, I was in Twilights library, house, tree thing with a pounding headache. 'This has to stop' I thought to myself. As I rose I regretted it as my headache was worse than I thought and I was tired from the injury. ' Wow whoever hit me had a real hard kick, must be AJ or Dash'. " Hello" I shouted, I was quite tired of being left out of the know by now and I wanted answers. " Hold on dude ill be up in a second" 'Spike, good, someone I can get an honest answer from'. As Spike entered the room he took one look at my bandages and cringed, but he managed to put on a reassuring smile and said " So how you holding up". " Oh you know, a concussion here and there no big deal, but I would like some answers as to how I ended up in this situation". That's when I felt really bad. Spike looked up at me with the saddest eyes I have ever seen. He opened his mouth but ran off before I could even get an answer. At this point I couldn't decide on being sad or angry. Sad on account that something happened that involved people being sad and me being with out a clue. The anger was from being in the dark for so long. " What the hells going on here" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I'm pretty sure I gained a curious look to Twilights tree from that, even if I couldn't see them. And I heard the flutter of wings and a startled pegasus starting to fly away. " Hold it" I commanded " Get your ass in here right now". A very sullen looking Fluttershy hovered in as well as a Rainbow Dash, who looked like a scolded child, followed close behind. " Yes Greg" they replied. " I want answers and I want them now" " Umm, well, I dont know if, oh Greg Im so sorry" Fluttershy said whilst leaping onto my chest sobbing. Okay now I was just confused to all fuck. I was laying in Twilights spare bed, with bandages, and a crying yellow pegasus on my chest. " Uhh Dash, mind giving me an answer" I asked. " Umm are you sure you want to know". " Of course I want to know" I yelled, startling Dash an sending Fluttershy into another fit of sobbing. " Okay then". Rainbow Dash then proceeded to tell me about how she was flying over Ponyville and heard a commotion near the forests edge and she decided to see what it was. When she arrived to the scene there was a very shocked Applejack with an unconscious Greg witth Fluttershy bearing over hi. She then held the pegasus back snapping her out of her angry friend protecting stupor. After Flutttershy got pulled off, she began to tear up looking at the slightly mangled human. Applejack then explained that they were just training together and that it all was a big misunderstanding. After hearing this Shy( its easier than Fluttershy) started sobbing harder and flew off to her hut with Dash close behind. After Dash stopped explaining I just sat there stunned. Fluttershy, the kind timid creature that wouldn't hurt a mosquito, had effectively knocked me out and pummelled me. Granted she had her moments of courageousness, like standing up to a dragon. But she didn't beat the stuffing out of it, even though she could if needed to. All I could mutter was a small " wow". I looked down to Shy who was still soaking my shirt with tears, I realized I couldn't be mad at her, she was just trying to protect her friend from a alien who arrived just a week ago. ' Wow I need to stop making my self seem like the bad guy here' I thought. I then started coaxing her by petting her. When she looked up at me with puffy eyes I just embraced her. " Its okay Shy, im not mad, you were just trying to protect your friends and that's nothing to be ashamed of. I also doesn't help that im this big scary alien guy which you've only met a week ago, I'm not mad Shy I hope you wont beat yourself up to bad for this, your an amazing pony". And with that I spent the next 20 minutes with a sobbing pegasus on my chest with a very approving look from a certain colourful maned mare across the room from me. ExplanationsGreg woke up feeling quite chipper which was off for him since he usually felt like death in the mornings but he just dismissed it as eating more veggies than usual. This reminded him of something, there was no meat in this world. None, nadda, zilch zero, and it was kinda bringing him down. He loved meat, all kinds of it, chicken, turkey, ham, he'd even tried some deer meat and it was amazing, hell he'd even tried some turducken and it tasted like it was a god among meat foods. There was one kind of meat he would miss the most, bacon. Oh yes bacon, the sweet, amazing, crunchy, soft, mouth watering food of ecstacy that was bacon. Reflecting on it, it seemed that every stereotypical man had a love affair for bacon. He had no shame in indulging in this stereotype though, its bacon, what's not there to love. Sure its seared pig flesh but it still tasted amazing, huh never thought of it that way had you, in a world where veggies and sweets was law, the very idea of bacon would land him in some deep trouble, even explaining what a turducken is would get him banished in his mind. In hindsight he left a lot of gruesome parts out of his explanation to Twilight, at the time it was for the best at the time though. They had just met and giving the circumstances of him being a creature they had never seen before, telling them that he and billions of others like him enjoyed feasting on the flesh of creatures. War would be a tough one to explain as well, the reasons for war are stupid to him and probably to them as well. Greg sees like war like two grown men who were having a squabble over something and resorted to using weapons to solve their differences instead of slap fighting. Greg pondered this some more and came to a conclusion, he had to tell them. They didn't know the full extent of who or what he was and it was killing him inside. There he is in a new world inhabited by creatures he only heard about and they have never seen anything like him and they just help him like it was nothing. He felt like he was lying to them and he couldn't bear it any more. Even stuff like cannibalism and child prostitution, He would feel like a jerk but he would he would feel a lot better. In the great words of Kurt Cobain, " Id rather be hated for what I am, than loved for what im not". He lived by those words and he intended to keep it that way. With wasting about and hour muddling this over in his head, he got up and went downstairs. As he tromped down the stairs, he saw Twilight and Spike there as always but now they seemed more innocent than usual. " Hey Twilight" " Oh hey Greg, I was wondering when you were going to come down" " Sorry I was just thinking". " About what?" " That's what I wanted to talk to you about, do you think youll be able to round up your friends today?" " Ya sure Greg, what for?" " In due time Twilight" With a shrug she told Spike they were leaving and as they left the room Greg was feeling worse than ever but he was still taking to it. About 15 minutes later he heard the clopping of hooves out side and the door swinging open to reveal 6 happy ponies and a bored looking Spike. He was going to feel bad at first for what he was about to say but they were full grown mares, Spike however, was not and Greg couldn't bear to ruin his innocence. " So Greg, why'd you all want us to meet here" asked Twilight. " Well my dear ponies" Greg responded" Do you all consider me your friend?" After a round of nods and various yes's Greg sighed and continued " Well my friends it pains me to say all what im about to say but I feel like I should say it all before im ripped apart inside and I cant take it any more, so sit down get comfy and get prepared to hear some things that might make you ate me, so get ready". And then he began. Wish GrantedI awoke to a massive headache and a sore body, not only that it was colder than usual. "Merry Fucking Christmas" I muttered to myself As I started to wake up more I realized things were different. It didn't smell like my apartment or feel like my bed, it felt like grass? I then started to panic while grabbing for my cane and finding nothing, then I felt it on my other side. " I swore I left it on my right side" I pondered but shrugged it off as my usual forgetfulness.I then realized I wasn't in Kansas any more or so to say Calgary,Alberta. I then realized it. I was in a weird place, no idea where I was and I was freezing,pretty bad situation for a blind guy. I then paused and took a minute to relax and use my working senses to try and find out where I was. Being blind for so long, your other senses can heighten themselves to pretty impressive levels. " Okay Greg" I said to myself " The ground is grassy and soft, so you must be in a field or park, the air smells non polluted so it cant be Calgary". I also smelt the faint scent of apples. The only other useful sense was hearing so I listen closely. I heard birds chirping in the background and the occasional bee buzzing by. Then I also heard something along the line of something familiar, it kinda sounded like.. hooves clopping?. "Please help me" I screamed " Help" ! I then heard more rapid hoof steps then the sound of screaming, then a sharp pain, then nothing. I awoke feeling woozier than before, 'My headaches back and worse than before, and I'm feeling bed sheets again, what's going on' I thought to myself! "Shh girls Its stirring" said a feminine voice. " Excuse me sir but are you okay"? " Ugh" was all I could mutter, my headache was getting pretty bad. "Ugh, please my head hurts" "Fluttershy, could you please get some bandages and herbs for this things head" the voice said. Another quiet, almost inaudible said a hushed "okay" and I heard clopping hooves run away. "Thank you, now can you please tell me where I am"? " First of all can you tell me who or what you are first" said the feminine voice again. 'What a weird question' I thought to my self, but decided to go along with it. " Well my names Greg Hassels and I am human". Weird I then heard a gasp and some muttering. " Well mister Hoooman" a obnoxiously high voice said "your in equestria so your new here right"? "ohmygoshIshouldtotallythrowyouapartyandweshouldmeetsomeoftheotherponiesandthatwouldbesuperawesome"! Through the brutal onslaught of words only the important stuff sunk in. Equestria, ponies, parties?! "Oh my god" I thought. Then everything went dark.
Beautiful TragedyIts a beautiful day and I cant see it. Have you ever had a day where you took your senses for granted? I’ve had plenty until that one cold November day. It started out like a normal day, a breakfast of corn flakes and milk and watching T.V, and then I started watching cartoons like always. Then this show called My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, I’ve never watched it before so I decided to watch a few minutes of it. It didn’t appeal to me so I turned it off thinking it was nothing special, oh how wrong I was. After breakfast I went to the garage to do my job, it was a simple one, repair small metal thing, be it desks or small projects I made myself, I loved it. It made decent money, I was good at it, and I loved doing it. My life was perfect, until I got careless. I had forgotten to flip my welding mask down and had started welding, sufficient to say it didn’t end well. “Ahhhh, Shit I can’t see” I bellowed holding my face screaming. I couldn’t see, I was disoriented and in immense pain. I stumbled around for a while, which felt like hours to me. Soon my neighbours had heard me and rushed me over to the Hospital and on the way the pain took over and I blacked out. As I awoke I only saw darkness, the pain had receded but was still present, I couldn’t see but I could still use my other senses and I intended to use them. I smelt clean sterile air, tasted dryness, could move my body but decided against it because it hurt, felt soft bed sheets, and heard footsteps. “Who’s there” I asked slightly alarmed. “Calm down there son, my names Doctor James and I’ve got some bad news and some good news”. I was slightly excited to hear the good news but at the same time, terrified at the bad. “The good news is that your friend brought you here just in time to stop the pain from being worse”. Hardly my friend, I only knew him as my neighbour, I wasn’t a very social guy, not a lot of people I trusted but I decided to let him continue, hopeful that the bad news wasn’t as bad as I thought. “And now for the hard part”, I heard him mumble, “It seems we couldn’t save your sight, sorry son but you’ll be blind for the rest of your life”. Shock, sorrow, anger, acceptance, disbelief, and anguish. This is all I felt for seconds, and then the tears came. I couldn’t grasp the realization that I was blind, I can’t believe it, I won’t. But then I just sat there and cried, realizing that my perfect life was crushed by that little incident, I never felt so angry, mostly at myself, but partially at James too, but all I could do is cry. A few hours later and the tears had stopped falling, and the realization had sinked in, I Greg Hassles, was blind. My welding, my sketching, my simple life was gone just because I forgot to flip my mask down. A few months later I had adjusted to life as a blind person, I had figured out a way to get around with a cane and had gotten help from my neighbour but the one thing I hadn’t figured out to cope with the depression that came with me being blind. Every day I could hear the kids laughing and asking their parents why the strange man had sunglasses on in December. I couldn’t take it much longer. So that night when I went to bed, I made a silly Christmas wish. “I wish I could have a perfect life again” I knew the cry fell on deaf ears but it brought me relief anyways. As I closed my eyes I whispered to myself “Merry Christmas” then let sleep take me.
Waking up.. AgainAs I awoke once again I couldn't shake the feeling of knowing, the feeling that lingers in the back of your head and bugs you until you figure out that what escapes your memory. "Whoo boy, you better not black out on us again, y'hear" spoke a very western accent. " Ya , you had us worried silly billy pants" the obnoxious voice giggled. " Applejack, Pinkie pie, hush now, you'll scare the poor dear" a very regal voice exclaimed. Applejack, Pinkie pie, I knew those names but where. That's when I realized the very slim chance of me being in a perfect world had been in my favour. I was I Equestria. Of course how could I not realize, how could I not forget. How could I forget anything that happened that day, that was the day everything in my life changed. My perfect little world flipped upside down. My love of welding, my passion for the guitar, my simple care free life destroyed by a simple little mistake. The funniest part in this whole tragedy was that I remembered a show about horses for girls.'Huh must have left more of an impression than I thought' I debated with myself. But then the sadness sinked in, the sadness of my life being fucked over and then getting dumped in a strange world in habited by ponies that in my world was viewed by millions of people. It was funny in a way but the sadness overpowered the silliness. " Uhh dude? You okay" that sounded like Rainbow Dash. " No, no I'm not, I'm stuck in another world, in an unknown bed, and I cant see cause I'm blind" I exclaimed! Gasps shot through the air then making an uncomfortable silence. " Well sir I'm sorry to hear that but I guess introductions are due, I'm Twilight Sparkle. These are my friends Applejack". " Howdy". " My friend Rarity" " Why hello dear" " My friend Rainbow Dash" " Sup" " My friend Fluttershy" A small eep could be heard. " And my friend Pinkie Pie" "Ohmygosh, its so totally nice to meet you we should eat cupcakes sometime, or go play with hoop-de-loops". 'These ponies sure are impolite' I thought. " Uhh you know I cant see you right" I asked slightly annoyed. The tension suddenly felt like it could be cut with a knife. " Sorry about that Sir, but we couldn't help but wonder how you came about being blind" I instantly recognised the voice as Twilight Sparkle's, being blind for a couple of months can do that to you. " Call me Greg, Twilight, and ill tell you as long as you've got time". I then proceeded to tell them about who I was and who I came from, including how I was blinded and how I didn't know how I got here. Proceeding to my story was a long, uncomfortable silence. " Wow that's harsh, sorry to hear that" Rainbow spoke solemnly. " Indeed, but I do believe I can solve your sight problem" Twilight said. I froze thinking ' Did Twilight Sparkle, the element of Magic, just say she could fix my blindness'? I then began to speak but Twilight cut me off. " I can begin right away If you wish". I didn't know what to say, I was being offered the opportunity to have my sight enabled. I was at a loss for words, but instead of saying anything, I just nodded yes.
A Precious GiftI closed my eyes as Twilight begun her spell to bring back my sight. Memories of the show reminded me that she was inept in magic so I trusted that she knew what she was doing. Granted she was helping me on her own free will but I couldn't help but feel selfish because of it. On Earth, no optometrist would ever heal anyone's eyes for free, but this wasn't Earth, far from it. As the spell continued I began to feel a slight tingling in my eyes and burning as well. I then began to worry as the burning sensation began to grow at a rapid pace. I then was screaming the pain was so bad, it felt like my eyes were being clawed out. I then calmed down as I felt the gentle touch of hooves on me, holding me down, comforting me down. I then felt relief as the burning sensation melted away. I then preceded to open my eyes slightly to see light, excitedly I forced them all the way open only to close them once more, the new light was too intense for my new eyes. " I would advise not to open yours eyes too much now, given how long you've been without them" Twilight lectured. I decided that she new what she was doing and trusted her and slowly let my eyes adjust to the new found light. After awhile I could see perfectly again. Then the tears came. The colours, the shades, the hues, the shapes, oh how id missed them. I then began to cry harder. Being so long without sight can make you hopeful that you can see anything ever again. Right now ever thing looked beautiful, even more than I remembered, the vibrant ponies before me, my Nirvana t-shirt, even the dull wood colour of Twilights house seemed to leap out at me. Speaking of the ponies, their colours of the various mares drew my attention. First there was the one I remembered as Twilight, she was a various array of purples, the mark on her flank being a shape that reminded me of an old time compass mark and jutting from her bangs was a purple horn that was swirled. Secondly there was a cyan coloured pony with wings that I could only call a pegasus caught my attention, but it wasn't the wings that caught my attention, it was her mane. It was a mixture of various colours ranging from blue to red to yellow, it was a fit sight for my first sight in awhile. Then there was a pony who couldn't seem to keep still, bouncing up and down either due to caffeine or natural hyperness. All I could think was pink, she was like a living piece of cotton candy, sugary and pink as hell. Then there was a very white unicorn looking pony with a purple curled mane, for a horse she sure was stunning to look at. The next one that I stared at was this sherbert coloured pony that was adorning a Stetson cowboy hat that seemed to belong on her naturally. She reminded me of the fem-fatal cowgirls I used to read about in my dads stories when I was young. The last pony I noticed was a pale yellow pegasus that was shivering behind the cowgirl pony, I noticed as well that she was also hiding behind her curled pink mane with 3 butterflies adorning her flank. As I awoke from my self indulging bliss I could only look at Twilight and squeak out a small- " Thank you"!
A Perfect WorldA few days had passed since Greg got his sight back and he made every moment of it count. He had become wonderful friends with Applejack since they both shared similar interests. Greg had learned that Applejack was a great drinking buddy and a good poker player, after he taught her about it of course. Greg had also helped Rarity with her fashion work by telling her about some Human fashion fads and in return had made him some clothes and shoes. In his spare time he would spend time with Twilight telling her tales and information about his world. Mostly stuff like math and science and also a little history. By the end of the fourth day he found that he had some people had taken a little more liking to him then others, name one rainbow maned pegasus. He decided to ignore her for the time being. Also he discovered he had missed his love for music, so he decided to take action into his own hands. He asked Twilight to take him to a carpenter in town and request if a guitar could be constructed. After explaining to her what exactly a guitar was she happily obliged. After he got his guitar constructed he then needed to find a pony who could make him some guitar strings, this proved to be a much daunting task then he anticipated. He then gave up until Twilight offered to magically produce some guitar strings for him. He felt even more guilty at this. First she healed his blindness and now help him with his little requests, it was almost to much. He then decided to make up to Twilight and her friends by playing a song for them. " Thanks for everything Twilight". " No problem Greg". " No I don't think you understand how grateful I am for everything you've done, you've took me in, healed my blindness, and done silly little requests for me, So I decided I will play guitar for you and your friends" Greg insisted. " Wow that would be great, lets make it tonight in Applejack's barn okay?" " That sounds perfect Twilight" A few hours later the six colourful ponies and Greg had gathered in the barn at Twilights request. " Heya Greg, ooh what's that fancy thing you got there" a curious pink pony questioned" With pride instead of explaining to the ponies what it was, he decided to show them instead. Then decided to play a little System of a Down for them, Roulette to be exact. After he had played a pretty well done cover of SOAD's song, the ponies just sat there in awe. " That was AMAZING Greg" Rainbow Dash exclaimed " Boy howdy Greg, that's some fancy playing skills ya got there, you gotta teach me some time" Applejack said. " Quite ravishing I Must say Gregory, I say you do have quite a talent there" Rarity complimented The rest of the ponies just sat there nodding their head to the onslaught of compliments. He had never felt so proud in himself for a long time, the first being his perfect welding's for a client he had. " Well girls its getting late, I think we should head back to our respective homes" Twilight said. It seemed to be an unanimous decision by all, it had been a tiring day for all of them. After the goodbyes had been said and everyone had left the barn to receed into their own homes. As Twilight and Greg had arrived to the tree that they called home Twilight had seemed to be anxious for some reason. Greg then decided to act on this observation. " Hey Twi"? " Yes Greg"? " Is everything alright"? " Actually no, there's this thing I've been meaning to ask you" " Shoot" " Do you actually want to go home"? Twilight asked. He then paused for a moment to think, did he really want to go home? This world compared to his had been paradise. He didn't have a shitty life but there was still no violence, drugs, rape, or anything wrong with this world. True he did feel singled out being the only human around ponies, but he also felt accepted by his new pony friends as well. He missed his old home, his bed, his food, and the delicious hamburgers. To be honest, he didn't know what to think. " I don't know if I can give you an answer right now Twi". Greg responded " That's okay Greg, now it'd be wise to get some sleep" Twilight advised. In truth, that did seemed like a good idea, so he took his makeshift bed on the couch and proceeded to fall asleep, the question still lingering in his mind.
Fitting InAs I awoke the smell of toast, orange juice, and eggs filled my nostrils. As I kept smelling I decided to take care of my ever growing hunger problem. While I descended down the staircase I saw Twilights assistant Spike. Since I got here Ive grown a friendship with Spike for two reasons, one he's a dragon and that's pretty cool and secondly, when the day was done we would stay up and talk about our problems. I vented about how it was being blind and the stress among other things while he told me about his crush on Rarity. I have to admit it was pretty admirable to see such a strong love in a different world, even if it was one sided. " Morning Greg, you sleep well" the little dragon asked " Yes I did thanks for asking" I replied " Mmmm that smells amazing". " Thanks but taste it before you decide that". " If its not cooked by Twi' I'm good" We both shared in a rather long and hard laugh only to be interrupted by a throat being cleared by a rather annoyed looking Twilight standing in the doorway, that shut us up. " Sorry Twilight but its kinda true" Spike said " You have many talents but cooking isnt one of them" I agreed " I guess you right but enough of that, lets eat" Not another word was spoken for our mouths were being filled with Spikes delicious food. When we all finished Spike excused himself to do the dishes and Twilight headed out to go hang out with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie to do god knows what. As I was thinking about what to do for today Spike told me that he was going to help Rarity go gem hunting for this new order of dresses, leaving me nothing to do. I was contemplating on either playing guitar or working out a little. I had gone a little pudgy from the months of being blind and not really being able to work out or unleash on a punching bag. Then a knock came on the door,and when I pulled the door open there was the sherbert pony Applejack. " Heya Greg is Twilight in"? " Sorry Applejack she just left actually, any reason". " Naw no reason at all, just bored is all" " Think we can help each other out there, I was just going to head to the edge of the forest to work out, you wanna come" I asked. " Well I think that's a mighty fine idea sure ill come" On the way to the edge of the Everfree, Applejack and I started to ask each other about what we did for entertainment and about each others world. She had told me she and her friends just hung out and told each other stories for entertainment and that the world was controlled by the two alicorn princesses. I had asked her why they had the status of princess when a queen and king weren't present and told her that it should be the two Queens not princesses. I just got a weird look and I just decided to ignore it and move on. I told her about television and other things like that and about sports, even the less popular one like Nascar. I had found it funny that the southern country girl had found Nascar interesting. After some time we finally arrived at the edge of the Everfree. " So shall we begin AJ" " What should we start with then" I decided to start with a warm up then some cardio and finish off with some sparring. All throughout the exercise AJ had kept up with me surprisingly well, even better in fact but when we started sparring and wrestling is when things got bad. As I got AJ in a headlock I heard a voice yell " Get off of her" then a sharp force hitting my head followed by darkness.
RecoveryAs I awoke once more I had a blast of deja vu, I was in Twilights library, house, tree thing with a pounding headache. 'This has to stop' I thought to myself. As I rose I regretted it as my headache was worse than I thought and I was tired from the injury. ' Wow whoever hit me had a real hard kick, must be AJ or Dash'. " Hello" I shouted, I was quite tired of being left out of the know by now and I wanted answers. " Hold on dude ill be up in a second" 'Spike, good, someone I can get an honest answer from'. As Spike entered the room he took one look at my bandages and cringed, but he managed to put on a reassuring smile and said " So how you holding up". " Oh you know, a concussion here and there no big deal, but I would like some answers as to how I ended up in this situation". That's when I felt really bad. Spike looked up at me with the saddest eyes I have ever seen. He opened his mouth but ran off before I could even get an answer. At this point I couldn't decide on being sad or angry. Sad on account that something happened that involved people being sad and me being with out a clue. The anger was from being in the dark for so long. " What the hells going on here" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I'm pretty sure I gained a curious look to Twilights tree from that, even if I couldn't see them. And I heard the flutter of wings and a startled pegasus starting to fly away. " Hold it" I commanded " Get your ass in here right now". A very sullen looking Fluttershy hovered in as well as a Rainbow Dash, who looked like a scolded child, followed close behind. " Yes Greg" they replied. " I want answers and I want them now" " Umm, well, I dont know if, oh Greg Im so sorry" Fluttershy said whilst leaping onto my chest sobbing. Okay now I was just confused to all fuck. I was laying in Twilights spare bed, with bandages, and a crying yellow pegasus on my chest. " Uhh Dash, mind giving me an answer" I asked. " Umm are you sure you want to know". " Of course I want to know" I yelled, startling Dash an sending Fluttershy into another fit of sobbing. " Okay then". Rainbow Dash then proceeded to tell me about how she was flying over Ponyville and heard a commotion near the forests edge and she decided to see what it was. When she arrived to the scene there was a very shocked Applejack with an unconscious Greg witth Fluttershy bearing over hi. She then held the pegasus back snapping her out of her angry friend protecting stupor. After Flutttershy got pulled off, she began to tear up looking at the slightly mangled human. Applejack then explained that they were just training together and that it all was a big misunderstanding. After hearing this Shy( its easier than Fluttershy) started sobbing harder and flew off to her hut with Dash close behind. After Dash stopped explaining I just sat there stunned. Fluttershy, the kind timid creature that wouldn't hurt a mosquito, had effectively knocked me out and pummelled me. Granted she had her moments of courageousness, like standing up to a dragon. But she didn't beat the stuffing out of it, even though she could if needed to. All I could mutter was a small " wow". I looked down to Shy who was still soaking my shirt with tears, I realized I couldn't be mad at her, she was just trying to protect her friend from a alien who arrived just a week ago. ' Wow I need to stop making my self seem like the bad guy here' I thought. I then started coaxing her by petting her. When she looked up at me with puffy eyes I just embraced her. " Its okay Shy, im not mad, you were just trying to protect your friends and that's nothing to be ashamed of. I also doesn't help that im this big scary alien guy which you've only met a week ago, I'm not mad Shy I hope you wont beat yourself up to bad for this, your an amazing pony". And with that I spent the next 20 minutes with a sobbing pegasus on my chest with a very approving look from a certain colourful maned mare across the room from me.
ExplanationsGreg woke up feeling quite chipper which was off for him since he usually felt like death in the mornings but he just dismissed it as eating more veggies than usual. This reminded him of something, there was no meat in this world. None, nadda, zilch zero, and it was kinda bringing him down. He loved meat, all kinds of it, chicken, turkey, ham, he'd even tried some deer meat and it was amazing, hell he'd even tried some turducken and it tasted like it was a god among meat foods. There was one kind of meat he would miss the most, bacon. Oh yes bacon, the sweet, amazing, crunchy, soft, mouth watering food of ecstacy that was bacon. Reflecting on it, it seemed that every stereotypical man had a love affair for bacon. He had no shame in indulging in this stereotype though, its bacon, what's not there to love. Sure its seared pig flesh but it still tasted amazing, huh never thought of it that way had you, in a world where veggies and sweets was law, the very idea of bacon would land him in some deep trouble, even explaining what a turducken is would get him banished in his mind. In hindsight he left a lot of gruesome parts out of his explanation to Twilight, at the time it was for the best at the time though. They had just met and giving the circumstances of him being a creature they had never seen before, telling them that he and billions of others like him enjoyed feasting on the flesh of creatures. War would be a tough one to explain as well, the reasons for war are stupid to him and probably to them as well. Greg sees like war like two grown men who were having a squabble over something and resorted to using weapons to solve their differences instead of slap fighting. Greg pondered this some more and came to a conclusion, he had to tell them. They didn't know the full extent of who or what he was and it was killing him inside. There he is in a new world inhabited by creatures he only heard about and they have never seen anything like him and they just help him like it was nothing. He felt like he was lying to them and he couldn't bear it any more. Even stuff like cannibalism and child prostitution, He would feel like a jerk but he would he would feel a lot better. In the great words of Kurt Cobain, " Id rather be hated for what I am, than loved for what im not". He lived by those words and he intended to keep it that way. With wasting about and hour muddling this over in his head, he got up and went downstairs. As he tromped down the stairs, he saw Twilight and Spike there as always but now they seemed more innocent than usual. " Hey Twilight" " Oh hey Greg, I was wondering when you were going to come down" " Sorry I was just thinking". " About what?" " That's what I wanted to talk to you about, do you think youll be able to round up your friends today?" " Ya sure Greg, what for?" " In due time Twilight" With a shrug she told Spike they were leaving and as they left the room Greg was feeling worse than ever but he was still taking to it. About 15 minutes later he heard the clopping of hooves out side and the door swinging open to reveal 6 happy ponies and a bored looking Spike. He was going to feel bad at first for what he was about to say but they were full grown mares, Spike however, was not and Greg couldn't bear to ruin his innocence. " So Greg, why'd you all want us to meet here" asked Twilight. " Well my dear ponies" Greg responded" Do you all consider me your friend?" After a round of nods and various yes's Greg sighed and continued " Well my friends it pains me to say all what im about to say but I feel like I should say it all before im ripped apart inside and I cant take it any more, so sit down get comfy and get prepared to hear some things that might make you ate me, so get ready". And then he began.
Wish GrantedI awoke to a massive headache and a sore body, not only that it was colder than usual. "Merry Fucking Christmas" I muttered to myself As I started to wake up more I realized things were different. It didn't smell like my apartment or feel like my bed, it felt like grass? I then started to panic while grabbing for my cane and finding nothing, then I felt it on my other side. " I swore I left it on my right side" I pondered but shrugged it off as my usual forgetfulness.I then realized I wasn't in Kansas any more or so to say Calgary,Alberta. I then realized it. I was in a weird place, no idea where I was and I was freezing,pretty bad situation for a blind guy. I then paused and took a minute to relax and use my working senses to try and find out where I was. Being blind for so long, your other senses can heighten themselves to pretty impressive levels. " Okay Greg" I said to myself " The ground is grassy and soft, so you must be in a field or park, the air smells non polluted so it cant be Calgary". I also smelt the faint scent of apples. The only other useful sense was hearing so I listen closely. I heard birds chirping in the background and the occasional bee buzzing by. Then I also heard something along the line of something familiar, it kinda sounded like.. hooves clopping?. "Please help me" I screamed " Help" ! I then heard more rapid hoof steps then the sound of screaming, then a sharp pain, then nothing. I awoke feeling woozier than before, 'My headaches back and worse than before, and I'm feeling bed sheets again, what's going on' I thought to myself! "Shh girls Its stirring" said a feminine voice. " Excuse me sir but are you okay"? " Ugh" was all I could mutter, my headache was getting pretty bad. "Ugh, please my head hurts" "Fluttershy, could you please get some bandages and herbs for this things head" the voice said. Another quiet, almost inaudible said a hushed "okay" and I heard clopping hooves run away. "Thank you, now can you please tell me where I am"? " First of all can you tell me who or what you are first" said the feminine voice again. 'What a weird question' I thought to my self, but decided to go along with it. " Well my names Greg Hassels and I am human". Weird I then heard a gasp and some muttering. " Well mister Hoooman" a obnoxiously high voice said "your in equestria so your new here right"? "ohmygoshIshouldtotallythrowyouapartyandweshouldmeetsomeoftheotherponiesandthatwouldbesuperawesome"! Through the brutal onslaught of words only the important stuff sunk in. Equestria, ponies, parties?! "Oh my god" I thought. Then everything went dark.
