Stuck Together

Chapter 1: Who, What, Where?

It had started out as a normal Saturday for the residents of Ponyville. The day’s weather had been scheluded to be sunny with some slight cloud cover after noon, thus everypony who didn’t have anything important to do was enjoying the glorious day outside. This included a certain tightknit group of six ponies, who were having a small picnic in the meadows surrounding Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle was a having a conversation with Fluttershy, Rarity was trying to give Pinkie Pie’s mane a new look (unsuccessfully, as the pink cotton cloud of a mane returned to its original form with a ‘sproing’ after each attempt, much to the amusement of it’s owner), and Rainbow Dash was, unsurprisingly, hoofwrestling with Applejack. Everypony was having a great time, and everything was going just fine…

That is, until Rainbow Dash noticed the storm clouds forming over the Everfree Forest.

Everypony in Ponyville knew that the Everfree was an unnatural place. It would’ve been bad enough with just the monsters and other ferocious creatures which lived under its shadowed eaves, but the whole place simply didn’t work like the rest of Equestria. With the both wildlife and fauna of the forest managing itself without any interference by the ponies, it seriously unnerved ponies who lived close enough to feel its presence. But perhaps most crucially, the weather over Everfree seemed to adhere to the unruly attitude of the forest beneath it. Indeed, it took real skill for pegasi to control even the small clouds that had been born over the forsaken place. And now there was a small storm forming over it.

And it was moving right towards Ponyville.

Rainbow Dash quickly excused herself from the group and gathered couple of other members of the Ponyville’s weatherteam that had been hanging around the meadows and the sky above, before moving to intercept the stormclouds. Though the storm wasn’t that large, Rainbow Dash and the rest of ponies weren’t really willing to risk the damage it might cause if it got close enough to the town. Besides, it would be a great workout.

After almost half an hour of trying the weather ponies hadn’t managed to disperse, blow apart, or change the course of the storm. If anything, it was now even more ferocious, spewing lightning bolts and rain to the forest. However, just as it was getting unnervingly close to the border of Everfree, it dispersed with one last flash of lightning. The pegasi were more than just little bit baffled by this sudden turn of events, since their previous attempts of stopping the said storm had contributed for nothing. Nevertheless, it had been, after all, a storm of the Everfree Forest, and strange behavior (as far as clouds were involved) was to be expected. After making a brief glance at the forest in case anything had caught fire (unlikely, but possible), the weatherponies left the Everfree’s airspace.

If even one of them had taken a better look at the spot where that last lightning had hit, they might had seen the abnormally large blast crater left by the lightning. They might have had even seen the two figures lying in the crater. But alas, they didn’t look. And thus the situation underneath the trees went unnoticed by pony-eyes.

The rain-soaked forest was silent for a good while after the freaky storm had dispersed itself on the thin air. Not even the more ferocious creatures of the Everfree dared to break the silence that had befallen the forest that usually had its very own cacophony of weird and frightening sounds going on 24/7.

That is, until there was a groan emitting itself from the lightning stricken crater.

There were two figures lying face down at the opposite edges of the soot-blackened crater, of which the smaller was starting to show signs of awakening. The smaller figure seemed to be a reasonably young and slightly small sized unicorn colt with dark blue coat and a messy, long bright blue mane with a very dark blue streaks going through it. His eyes were golden yellow in color, and at the moment looked like he hadn’t had sleep for week. He was covered in strange clothing that seemed to be more than a couple of sizes too big, not to mention shaped wrong for anything equine-like, and they seemed to have signs of burning in them. His cutiemark was still hidden underneath the strange articles of clothing.

The colt was slowly reaching the level of consciousness universally accepted to be proper for rational thinking, but not without making unintelligible sounds to indicate his displeasure of the current situation. Namely, waking up unwillingly. Just as he was, however, he heard another set of sound voicing its own displeasure in similarly unintelligible muttering, but at a much lower voice. The colt froze for a moment, before turning his head SLOWLY to the opposite edge of the crater.

What was laying opposite to the unicorn, was something far less easily recognizable. It could have been mistaken for an unusually large pegasus stallion at the first glance, save for the fact that instead of fore hooves this thing had fore paws not much unlike some cat-like creature. Instead of a pony’s tail it had a long cat’s tail with large tuft of weird, waving black hair, of which its mane seemed also to be composed of. Even its coloration was strange, with a coat that looked to be a mix between light grey and turquoise, with off-white wings and the afore mentioned strange black mane. It too was covered in unusual clothing, but it seemed to be only a couple sizes too large for him, although it too seemed to be burned of at places, with great tears on the back where his wings had pushed through the fabric.

A moment of silence from the colt. Then he did the sensible thing and said:

“OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL!?”

The thing jolted up at the voice, saying something in a language the colt didn’t understand, though it seemed to be a question. Then it turned its head and looked at the distraught unicorn in too big clothes.

“What. The. Fuck?” The thing deadpanned with some foreign accent. Now that it was looking right at the unicorn it could be seen that even its face was abnormal for a pony; it was slightly elongated, looking little cat-like. Its ears were almost ridiculously long and pointed, and as it spoke, rows of small sharp teeth could be seen filling its mouth. Its eyes were bright green and slitted like a housecat’s, and they too looked as if they hadn’t had sleep in far too many days.

“OMG WHAT THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOU!?” The unicorn continued speaking in the same calm manner as before.

The thing first looked at the colt for a moment before taking a good long look at its own paws. A moment passed. Then in a similarly calm manner to the unicorn the thing replied:

“GAAAAH WHAT THE SHITTY PIECE OF FUCKING HELL WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MEEE!?”

The creature might had continued its raving (not the kind usually associated with parties) had it not fallen face first on the soot-blackened dirt of the crater in its haste to see just WHAT it currently was.

“…Ow.” the thing replied evenly after a moment, laying face-down in the dirt.

“…Just what are you?” the colt asked in a slightly calmer manner.

And just as things seemed to settle down a bit, the thing decided to reply (still face-down on the ground):

“…I can’t believe that question is coming from a little blue unicorn.”

And at those words, the colt seemed to take stock of its own situation. And as it has been proven by the few moments before, he decided to look at this situation just as objectively and calmly as before.

“OMG WHAT THE HELL I AM A PONY OMG THIS IS SO COOL-“

“…what?” the thing replied amidst the tirade of rambling coming from the unicorn, having finally gotten its face of the ground, which now bore a very confused expression.

“- OH MAN THIS IS SO AWESOME I’M A PONY WOOT LOOK AT THESE HOOVES OH WAIT YOU SAID I WAS A UNICORN-“

“…hey.”

“- OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH THIS IS SOOO AWESOME I WONDER WHAT SPELLS-“

“Hey, listen up.”

“- I CAN USE HOW DO YOU USE MAGIC I WONDER I WHAT MY TALENT IS OH WAITWAITWAIT WHAT’S MY CUTIEMA-“

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!!”

The unicorn stopped his incessant rambling to see an almost painful look
on the creature’s face.

“Finally. Okay, first things first, who are you, where exactly are we, and do you have any idea how we got here, and just to be clear, were you something other than a pony before being here?” , it asked in a single breath with a strained look in its eyes.

After thinking for a moment, the colt started speaking:

“Well my name is Jason, I come from Wisconsin, USA, I think we are in Equestria OMG SO AWESOME, and I have no idea how we got here. Oh, and before I fell asleep and woke up here, I was a human. Why’d you ask me that one, anyway?”

“Because there was a possibility that you WEREN’T a human before, and if that was the case then I would have had to come up with something from revealing that I was a one. But USA? Figures. That doesn’t explain my presence though…”

“Huh? What you mean?”

“I mean, that I’m not from America, I’m from Europe. And I assume from that outburst you had that you’re a brony, too. How old are, by the way?”

“You’re a brony too? Then why are you so gloomy?”

“Because I have absolutely no idea how we got here, considering that we are from two completely different places, with seemingly the only thing in common being gender and bronydom, I don’t know why we are here, and I am not even sure that we are in Equestria. And even if we are, there’s no way of telling as of now that we are in THE Equestria, and not, say, some grimdark version of it. I’m also unsure if I am really here, or lying on a hospital bed in coma, though your presence makes that possibility slightly less plausible. Also, it looks like that I’m in the land of ponies YET I AM NOT A PONY. I’M NOT EVEN A HUMAN ANYMORE.” The thing looked kind of exhausted after that tirade, and they both were silent for a moment, thinking what he had just said.

Finally Jason broke the ice: “…Sooo… what’s your name then?”

The thing seemed to think about a moment, and replied, “…Eh, my name is Samuel. But just call me Sam. It’s easier that way.”

“Why did you want to know how old I am?”

“I was trying to think of anything we had in common, in case it might be something relevant to us being here. Where is here, by the way? And what do I look like? I don’t think I’m a griffon, but then what am I?” Sam said with a concerned look in his eyes and a paw held experimentally on his face.

“Ummm, you actually look a little like a cat. I mean, your face looks a little bit, I don’t know, angled like a cat’s. Your ears are really long, and you look like you have sharp teeth. Like, a predators teeth. Also, you got something going on with your mane. It actually reminds me a little bit of Celestia’s mane, only it’s black, and doesn’t wave over your face, just over your back.” Jason answered, his initial feeling of awesome slightly subdued by Sam’s questions.

As Jason went on with this description, Sam was gingerly touching his face with his paws, his facial expression going through several looks of worry and anxiety. Just as his paws went through his mane his expression changed to that of surprised.

“Wow… This feels really WEIRD.”

“Really? How does it feel?”

“It’s like… I don’t know, it’s like wind blowing through my hair lightly, but without the wind. And it’s so freaking long. I’m really not sure what to make of this…”

Sam then craned his neck and took a good long look at his body.

“ Wow, my neck is really long.. Do all ponies have this long neck? Hey, WINGS! I GOT WINGS! OH YEAH! Hey and I got paws, or are they claws, whatever, anyway, so I also have thumbs! And fingers! YES! I HAS FINGERS! AH AM THE SUPERIOR BEING!!”

Jason looked in a kind of excitement and a little bit shocked as Sam was getting into the same euphoria induced rambling he had been just a moment ago. This didn’t last long, however, and Jason saw his expression of glee to turn into that of worry in a moment.

“… But how did we get here? Is there any way back for us? And would we still look like this if we get back…” Sam kept muttering for a minute.

Jason waited for a moment, not quite sure what to do or say next.

“… Sooo… what do I look like?”

“huh?” Sam seemed to snap out of his thoughts.

“I asked, what do I look? How my face looks like?” Jason asked again, quickly descending back to the blessed state AWESOMNESS (capital letters mandatory) where he was just a minute ago.

“… Ummm… Well, um, you look, like, just a normal unicorn. No wait, scratch that. Your face looks kind of a hybrid between human and equine in terms of bone structure, with a small snout, large golden yellow eyes, though they don’t look quite as large as they appeared on ponies in the show, a small horn, which seems to be covered in a thin layer of skin, much like the antlers on some of the deers and their relative species on Earth. Fur is thick but short, with a colouration of dark blue, and your mane, along with your tail, are light blue in coloration, with two dark blue stripes that seem to go through the length of both mane and tale, which are also somewhat longer in length than what was seen on the show. Physically speaking, you look nothing like a normal pony from Earth, but you look almost like a pony from the show… except more realistic and not cartoony. And for the record, I find the fact that we are NOT cartoony at the moment to be both surprising and a little bit frustrating.”

Jason proceeded to close his unhinged jaw that had dropped during the extremely detailed and analytical observation (Jason himself didn’t believe that ponyfication could be described WITHOUT epic levels of awesome bronyism dripping from it). He started to find this ‘Samuel’ to be an exceedingly disturbing when it came to his sudden changes of mood, going from annoyed to near hysterical, to cheerful, to melancholy, and at least currently, to coldly analytical. As Jason thought of himself as a cheerful optimist through and through, he found such quick mood switches to be somewhat strange.

And from the look on his face, Sam’s mood had changed again, this time to great levels embarrassment, likely from his detailed description (with a side order of scientific analysis).

“…Aha,” Jason replied evenly after a few seconds, and added, “ Hey, what my cutiemark looks like?”, craning his neck as he said it, getting back to his cheerful self.

“Don’t know, your flanks covered by your clothes…” Sam trailed off, with a worried look on his face (again).

“Exactly what happened to us?” Sam asked silently. “I mean, look around us. We’re sitting in a CRATER, in a forest, we still got our clothes on, but they seemed to have BURNED, for heaven’s sake. Did we get hit by a lightning or something?”

Jason thought at that for moment (instead of concentrating to feeling generally awesome and 20% cooler than normal), and realized something.

“..Hey.. If we ended up here with our clothes...”, Jason thought out loud, “Then what else did we bring with us?”

Sam’s eyes widened with surprise, only to look down at his person and to deadpan, “I am not wearing any pants.”

“What, you didn’t notice?”

“Well excuse me, I was busy freaking out for having CAT PAWS, thank you very much.” Sam replied with an annoyed look. “ But enough with that, where ARE our pants? And my backpack, for that matter. I had it when that light flashed-“

“Your backpack?”

“Yeah, I was walking to the.. oh god damn it, what’s the word, ummm… University! Yes, I was just walking to the university, when I saw a bright flash of light, and then everything went dark and quiet.”

“There was a flash? I just remember going to bed, and then woke up here.”

“Have you thought about different timezones? I mean, we are like, at least seven hours ahead of the time in the America. It might have happened to us simultaneously.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Pffft. Knowing that is pretty important, if you want to watch MLP, or any other streamed show at our end. I have to wait for till 5 pm. for the show to even start, and usually for a lot longer to get a decent stream.”

“Oh. So it was, what, morning at Europe, when that flash happened? So, I was probably still sleeping… Wait a minute, what country are you from? And university? How old are?”

“…I’m from Finland. And I’m 21.”

“Finland? Isn’t that in Asia or something?”

*sigh* “No, it’s NOT.”

“Then where-“

“Look, it’s in North Europe, but that isn’t the matter at hand right now. The matter is, where are my other stuff?”

With that sentence, Sam started to pat down his clothes and generally wriggle around in his too large clothing. This didn’t last long, as he once more fell face first to the ground due to lost balance.

“…You know, this doesn’t hurt nearly as much as I think it should,” Sam replied from his face-down posture (yet again).

“At least it’s entertaining,” Jason replied with a grin.

“…Hardy har har. You try standing on these legs. I haven’t seen you move at all yet.”

Jason was immediately in the land of Never-Ending Awesomness (mentally), and scrambling to his hooves (physically).

…Only to land on his face just as Sam got back to his sitting position.

“Heheheh. Not as fun when it happens to yourself, is it?” Sam asked with a hint (bucket full) of gleeful malice in his voice.

“Are you kiddin’? This is the best day EVER, no matter how many times I might land on my face!” Jason replied with grin as he scrambled back up, simply refusing to look at the situation from any other view than that of a sheer concentrated awesomeness. “Plus,” he added, “we need to learn how to move ourselves around, right?” he said with a ever widening smile. It was then that he pulled his clothes up enough to see his flank (not as easy as it sounds), and with that, proceeded to squeal in happiness.

“YES!! I HAVE A CUTIEMARK!! NO BLANK FLANK FOR JASON!!”

There was indeed a shape adorning his flank that could only be a cutiemark. It was 3 four-pointed, yellow stars in a tringle over crescent moon. Jason chose to continue his giggling, and feeling awesome.
Meanwhile, Sam himself proceeded to shift his own articles of clothing from his flank to have a look to the space normally reserved for a cutiemark.

“Huh. I almost thought that I wouldn’t have one…”

On Sam’s flank was indeed a cutiemark; a black swirl with 5 streaks of different color (blue, red, yellow, green and violet) surrounding it.

“Wow, that’s a really cool cutiemark! What does it mean, though?” Jason asked with a gleeful expression.

“I’m really not sure… What does yours mean, anyway?”

“Oh that’s easy. I’ve always been into the stargazing business; It’s something that I’ve done like, forever! Anyway, enough with staring at each other’s flanks, lets start walking!” Jason replied as he stood up on his legs, only to smack down on his stomach.

“…I really don’t get you. But you got the right idea; we really need to learn how to walk with these legs.”

With that said, they both scrambled up to their feet, and spent next several minutes trying to figure out how to move their new set of limbs laughing (at least Jason did) and swearing in a foreign language(that would be Sam). After over half an hour of tumbling around they finally had gotten the most rudimental control of their own limbs. Jason had already thrown of his clothes (he had had only a white t-shirt on him anyway) along with Sam (who had first been against it, followed by a long struggle against his own clothes as they didn’t get off of him as easily; after all, he had a pair of wings poking out of them).

“So,” Sam mumbled as he was pulling of the last of his clothing (red, burned up t-shirt), “I didn’t have any of the stuff I had before that flash. My jacket pockets were empty, and I don’t see my backpack anywhere.”

“Yeah, and I don’t see our pants anywhere, either.. Let me take a look around..” Jason muttered, as he scrambled out of the crater.

Just as Jason was making a triumphant pose at the edge of the crater due to his newly gained basic motor control, he took a look at the land surrounding the crater, and his face fell for the first time since he had awoken.

“..Ah crap.”

“What? What is it?” Sam asked as he scrambled himself from the crater.

“I just realized that we are in the Everfree Forest, and it’s starting to get dark.”

“..Ah crap.”