Striving To Belongby BruhdudeChaptersPrologueChapter 1: Away from HomeChapter 2: In The DepthsPrologueBeep! ... Beep! ... Beep! My eyes groggily open slightly as I'm rudely awaken by my digital clock, that somehow still works after the many times the I've tried to smash it. Beep! ... Beep! ... Beep! A low groan emanates from somewhere inside my chest as I shut my eyes again. My right hand slowly drifts above me up onto my headboard, sleepily trying to find my alarm clock. Beep! ... Beep! ... Beep! "Ugh, c'mon..." I'd breathe out, sounding more like a croak than actual words. My hand would gain more energy, and I'd quicken my search for the annoying machine that was beeping ruthlessly. Beep! ... Beep! ... Be ... I grasped the digital clock and, with all of the strength I have in this weakened state, yanked on it as hard as I can, ripping the cord out of the wall in the process. I held it up for a few seconds before dropping it, letting it hit the floor. As it struck the wooden surface, I heard a nasty smashing noise. I winced as I heard it, knowing that the clock had finally met it's doom. "Should've just shut up..." I said flatly to myself. Rolling over onto my right side and half-heatedly pushing myself up with my right forearm, I shot glance off the side of my bed. My ears were had been correct, the clock had shattered into the small bits all over the floor. It was hard to see how badly it was messed up in the dark, but it didn't really matter. Now I gotta buy a new one, a thought rattled in brain for second, before being dismissed. It wasn't THAT expensive of a clock, but I'm not in a place to be throwing money around. I recently got fired from my dead-end retail job for coming into work with a hangover and telling my manager to shut the fuck up when she accused me of being hungover. Wasn't the smartest of moves, but I didn't care in the moment. I sure as hell care now though, because that's on my resume permanently now. I'd drop back down onto my back, and, not before huffing, sit up and throw my legs over the right side of the bed, doing my best to avoid shattered bits of clock. I'd stand up and stretch, popping my joints with a happy sigh. I'd step around the remnants of what used to be an alarm clock and stagger my way to the bedroom door. Pushing it open, I'd find myself blinded from the light of the hallway. I'd rub my eyes and push forward, ignoring my the discomfort the light gave to my eyes. Shuffling down the hallway, I'd make my way to the bathroom. But upon trying to open it, I find that it's locked. "Ocupado!" A high, but defiantly male voice called out. Growling slightly, I instead make my way towards the opening in the hallway, to the room that's used as our kitchen, dining room, and living room. Upon entering, two heads turned to greet my entrance. "Good morning!" An overly chipper voice called out. It was a female voice, a little bit on the higher side. The voice belonged to Gabriella, a friend I've had for the better part of my life. Her hair was long, and had a couple of dyed purple streaks mixed in with her blonde hair. "Mm... Morin'." A gruff voice emanating from the man sitting on the other side of the breakfast table said casually, after having downed the mouthful coffee. This voice belonged to Jared, Gabriella's boyfriend. He's a chill dude, the type of guy you sit down and have a beer with. "Morning." I sighed, because it was defiantly not a good morning so far. "What was that noise coming from your room? Did you break something?" Gabriella asked, a slight tinge of concern in her voice. "Alarm clock." I croaked out, shuffling over to the coffee machine and grabbing a mug from a nearby cupboard, I'd pour some of the dark fluid into the mug. She's chuckle softly and shake her head. "About time. How many times have tried to the smash it before?" Jared asked in an amused voice. "I dunno, four times maybe?" I deadpan, taking the closest seat at the table. "Quite surprised it lasted that long." "Heh, fifth time's the charm, huh?" Gabriella said in her usual chipped voice. I nodded, and she went back to sipping her coffee, which was a light chocolate colour, turned that way because of all the cream she adds. I drink my coffee black, but that's mainly because I'm used to drinking good coffee, not the shit that's massed produced. After pondering on when I should get some real coffee for a few seconds, I heard a door open from the hallway. I heard it close behind him, and after a few seconds in walked Patrick. "Morning, fuckers!" Patrick called out in his higher pitched voice, while holding up both middle fingers and aiming them the the group, while walking over to his spot at the table. Gabriella would roll her eyes, and Jared would nod in Patrick's direction. "I hope you didn't just take a shit in there." "Nah, all your Blake," was the only response he gave me. I nodded at once at him, and took a big gulp of my coffee before standing up. Walking over the kitchen sink I'd dump the rest of it down the drain, before depositing it into the same side the the drain. "Anyone need the bathroom?" I asked while turning my head to the group, walking in the direction of the hallway. Everyone shook their heads and I exited the common room into the hallway, making my way to the one bathroom. Opening the door, I stepped inside before closing it behind me. Ripping off the pale green, baggy v-neck I had been wearing for the past two days, I stupidly took a sniff at it.. Gagging a little, I tossed it onto the floor. Stepping in front of the bathroom mirror, situated on the wall behind the sink, I inspected my current. My shaggy, medium length dark brown hair had a bad case of bedhead, strands sticking out ever where, but I really didn't care. I had a fair amount of stubble, having not shaved in a month seeing as there was no need to. My dark blue eyes had slight bags underneath them, which was natural for me. I was pretty much tired no matter the circumstances. After inspecting my face, I turned my attention to my body. I wasn't the fittest person that you'd ever met, but not the scrawniest either . I don't seem strong or able to hold my ground in a fight, but I'm naturally stout, considering my previous job consisted of a lot of heavy lifting. Nothing else could have been said about me. I didn't really have any body hair, but I had a small scar on the top of my right forearm from falling on a patch of ice. "Ugh, enough self-loathing." I mutter under my breathe. Ripping my eyes away from the mirror, I turned my attention to the shower. The tub was pretty shallow, and the shower head was just a little too low. Stripping out of my worn, but still slightly fluffy blue and green plaid pajama pants and tossing them into the hamper, I took a step into the shower and turned on the water to hot, but was blasted with cold water. "Should I have told him I used all the hot water?" Patrick asked the couple as Blake closed the door to the bathroom. "Why tell him when he can just find out?" Jared said with a slight chuckle. "Shit!" A shout rattle out from the bathroom. The three roommates burst out laughing at the perfect timing. "Twiiiighliiiiight! A raspy, but feminine voice cried out. "What is it now, Dash?" The purple alicorn sighed, obviously sounding annoyed. "I'm boooooored!" The same raspy voice cried. A pale blue pegasus with rainbow mane and tail swooped down in front of the purple pony. "We've been here for hours and we haven't done anything! There's not even any Daring Doo books!" She whined. Before Twilight could reply, she was cut off by a white unicorn with a purple, frilly mane. "Rainbow's got a point, dear. He have been here for a long time, and haven't found a thing!" She said while casting a foreleg into the air, letting her glasses tip down her muzzle. "Surely we could come back tomorrow, no?" She asked as a small grin spread across her muzzle. Twilight's only response was a small sigh, but soon, a smile came to her face as well. "I guess we could come back tomorrow..." "Hey.. Um, I think I-" "It's just a large trek to go from Ponyville, then back to the castle back and forth. Especially since we nee to go through the the Everfree." "Ahem, girls I fou-" "Oh, don't worry about a thing darling! We'll be fine! If your worried, we could get Apple Jack to escort us." "Girls I-" Twilight sighed, and placed the book she was skimming through back on the shelf. "Alright, guess we should get pac-" "GIRLS!" Every head in the room whipped around to look at the yellow pegasus mare. She seemed to shrink in size upon their gazes. "I think I found the book." Twilight's ears perked up, and she hopped out of her seat and trotted over to the pegasus. "Why didn't you say something before, Fluttershy?" Twilight asked. Fluttershy only squinted her eyes slightly, and Twilight got the message. "Can I see it?" Twilight asked the timid mare. Fluttershy mover her head to left, revealing the tome on her back. The purple alicorn surrounded the book in the rosy aura of her magic, and levitated it over to herself. The book itself was a foliage green with a gold trim bearing the title, "Court Jester's Pranks and Spells Vol. III" Rainbow Dash swooped back down behind Twilight and observed the book, but after a second she snorted. "Why would Princess Luna need a book on pranks when she knows someone as awesome as me?" She said with a huff, crossing her forelegs across her chest as she bobbed up and down in the air. "Because they're spell based pranks, and I'm pretty sure pegasi can't do magic." Twilight said with a small smirk. Rainbow muttered something to herself before fluttering back into the air, nearing the ceiling. Twilight's magic increased around the books cover, and it flew open. Stepping out of the shower, I reached with my left hand towards the tower rack situated next to the shower and grabbed a teal towel, immediately wrapping it around my head trying to dry off my soaking hair. After a couple of minutes of relentless scrubbing, I was finally satisfied and moved the towel to the the rest of my body. It took me another minute to finally dry myself off to a point where my fresh set of clothes won't be drenched. Wrapping the towel around my waist, I stepped out of the bathroom to hear a wolf call from behind me. "Dayuuum girl! You lookin' fiiiine!" Patrick would call out, him having just exited his room. "If you grab my ass I'm going to rip your arm off and shove it down your throat." I said to Patrick in a grunt. "What a witty come-back." "Wasn't supposed to be witty, I was just stating facts." I said casually, walking deeper into the hallway towards my room. I opened the door and stepped inside, flicking the light switch on as soon as I stepped foot in the room. My room was a mess. I mean, even before the obliterated alarm clock it was still pretty cluttered. There were empty cans everywhere, dirty clothes, and other types of trash. At that point I had been searching for a new job for about a month, and kinda stopped caring. Taking another step inside, I closed the door behind me and stamped over to my closet. Pulling on both of the doors, it open with a small creak, but no resistance. There weren't many clothes inside, as most of my clothes were dirty. Didn't matter though, mainly because I wasn't doing anything today and had no one to impress. Unwrapping the towel that was around my waist, I threw into a hamper that was leaking dirty clothes. Turning my head back around to the closet, I began to ponder at which clothes to wear today. "Man these pranks are laaaaame..." Rainbow Dash said in a whine. "I mean, turning wine into the grape juice? What kinda prank is that?" "This book is old, Rainbow. Pranks were tamer back in the day. I bet there's some good ones in here," Twilight would pause to look up at Rainbow Dash, who was floating lazily on her back in the air. Her forelegs were behind her head and her hind legs were crossed. "Why do you care anyways? This is a book for magical spells." "Because if Luna's going to prank somepony, she better do it right!" Rainbow would say while rolling her eyes and casting a fore leg into the air. "Pranks aren't supposed to be tame!" Twilight would just smile and shake her head, returning her attention the book. Flipping one of the pages, one spell would catch her eye. "Here we go," Twilight said while adjusting her position in her seat, "There's a spell her that supposedly turns the destined pony into a foal." Rainbow Dash's eye would shoot open, and in a blur of rainbow, she was immediately be standing at a attention in front of Twilight. "Does it work?!" Rainbow Dash yelled. This caused Twilight to wince a little, but she regained her composure quickly. "Well, probably. I can copy the spell and learn how to do if you'd like." Twilight's eyes would shoot open. "Why did I say that?" "Why not just use it now, and see if it works!?" Rainbow blurted out, jittering like a filly on the morning of Hearths Warming. "Wait, you want me to test in on you?" Twilight asked Rainbow, tilting her head in the process. Rainbow's only response was a quick burst of nodding. "I don't even know the spell, Dash! It could end up with some dangerous results!" Twilight said, clear concern in her voice. "Danger's my middle name, baby!" Rainbow said, bracing herself for the spell she thought was incoming. Twilight sighed and read over the spell a few times to get a basic grasp on it. "Fine. But if you die, it's not my fault." Twilight said flatly. Rainbow Dash just shrugged, and resumed her bracing position. Twilight sighed, and hopped out of her seat, and stepped in front of rainbow dash. "Hold still." Twilight said to Rainbow, more of a demand than a request. Rainbow's demeanor didn't change, and just squinted her eyes as a response. Twilight began to concentrate, feeling a tingling sensation from withing her core. The feeling spread up to her chest, up her neck and into her head. She concentrated harder, and soon the tingling spread to her horn. A bright flash of white light spread through out the room, temporarily blinding the four mares in there. After picking out the clothes I was going to wear for the day (and probably tomorrow, too), I quickly adorned them, looking in the mirror to make sure there were no hole in them. I didn't care what I wore, but I had the decency to not wear ratty apparel. I had on a pair a pale blue jeans and Metallica t-shirt, even though I don't listen to Metallica. I shrugged and turned back to my bed, making my way over. I plopped my ass on the edge of the bed and reached up onto my head board, grabbing my cell phone. It was a Samsung Galaxy S8. Not top of the line, but still pretty good. The only factor that mattered to me is that it worked. I unplugged it from it's charger and open the phone to the lock screen. It was 9:46 A.M, so I had woken at about nine. My lock screen was a picture of me and my friend, Dave, drunkenly wrestling. It was in a backyard near a bon fire, I had him in a bulldog choke and he was forced to tap. Smiling at the memory, I turned my phone on to sleep mode and tossed it onto my be bed. I stood up and began to make my way around to the other side of the bed to clean up the larger bits of alarm clock when and ear-piercing ringing filled my brain. Instinctual, my hand flew up to my ears to try and protect them from the noise, but to no avail. I dropped to my knees and began to scream, my brain felt like it was going explode at any moment. I fell back onto my right side and began to spasm, but I felt something else too. It was the vibration of my door being smashed in, and Jared ran into the room followed by Gabriella and Patrick. They were all screaming, but I couldn't hear them. The last thing I saw was all of them backing up away from me, a look of horror on their faces. After that, I saw nothing but white. Upon opening her eyes, she was greeted with a pair of large reddish-magenta eyes staring down at me. She recoiled out surprise, but sighed a second later. "It didn't work, Twilight!" Rainbow pouted as she sat back on her haunches. Twilight closed her eyes, and began to rub the back of her head with a hoof. "I thought you said it would work!" "Yeah, after studyinghow the spell actually works!" Twilight shot back, glaring at Rainbow. "I probably just used some random spell! We're lucky we didn't just explode!" A headache began to swell in the back of Twilight's brain, a result of having used too much magic at once. "Are you okay, darling?" Rarity asked in a kind tone. Fluttershy was behind her, still a little wobble from the flash. "Yeah, just used to much magic..." She trailed off, looking to the side. "I wonder what kind of spell warranted that much magic?" The sensation of fall struck me for a second or two, before I landed on the ground with a loud thud. I groaned loudly, my tailbone having taken the brunt of the fall. "Ugh... What happened?" I asked, but got no reply. "Jared? Gabby, Patrick? You there?" I planted my left hand on the ground to push myself up, but I froze. My hand didn't touch the cool surface of woof in my apartment. I struck patch grass and dirt. As I slowly open my eyes, I felt my heart and stomach switch places. I was laying in clearing of short grass, and the outer perimeters of the clears couldn't be seen, as there we tall and trees everywhere. My heart began to beat rapidly as the situation dawned on me. "Fuck." Author's Note This is my first time writing an actual story, and having it put up onto the internet to be read. MLP lore isn't my strong suit, so please correct me if I get something wrong. I took a lot of inspiration from MadMaxtheBlack with his story Your Human and You. I've been recently getting back into the MLP fandom after a few years of hiatus, and he's currently one of my favorite fanfic authors, and has inspired me to write my own HiE story! Chapter 1: Away from HomeI gazed around the dark and looming woods that surrounded me, In a complete state of shock and confusion as I took a few steps around. My breathing started getting heavier and heavier, nearing a borderline panic attack. The taste of bile slowly crept up my throat, my eyes went wide and I started to dry heave. I couldn't stop it. Bending over quickly, I threw up everything that was in my stomach, which was only the coffee I had about twenty minutes ago. I covered my belly with my arms, as I continued to wretch even when nothing was coming up. Spitting out one last glob of bile-flavored saliva, I stood back up and began to further investigate the woods that surrounded me, and the clusterfuck that just landed in my lap. Every tree was tall, and had vines cascading down from the branches everywhere. It seemed like a swamp, but it was pretty dry, the only water being a small puddle pooling around a particularly larger tree. It also didn't help that it was dawn, and the sun was about to set. I could barley see the sun at all, but what I did see of it interested me. It seemed... bigger. Not massive, but definitionally noticeable. I also didn't see the moon at all, even though it was supposed to be a full moon tonight. It was probably hidden behind a tree, or one of the scarce clouds. But after watching the clouds move for a few minutes, there was nothing behind any of them. Snapping back to reality, I remembered the the ordeal I was in. My heart sank a little thinking about it, but I couldn't stand there and ponder about it. "I've gotta find help. There must be a highway, or some other kind of civilization around here." I muttered to myself. Looking around one last time, I slowly started to walk East. I mean, I don't have a map or a compass. Hell, don't even have shoes on! I have nothing but the clothes on my back, and my knowledge from all the camping I did. So, at the very least, I could make a fire if I can't find help. Nearing the end of the clearing, and the start of the clogged forest, I stopped to circle around one last time, taking in my surroundings, then pushed my way through the vines. Well, it certainly was a full moon after all, as without it it would be pitch black right now. Only that the moon wasn't the one I was used to, neither were the constellations. The moon was nearly devoid of any and all craters, as the only one's present were very shallow and barley visible. None of the constellations were recognizable, but I could defiantly make out a few unique shapes. This is about the exact point when I realized that I probably wasn't on Earth anymore, but I didn't have time to panic. I needed to find help, if there was any kind of intelligence on this world Even with the moon being so bright, it was still quite dark, as the leaves from the trees blocked out most of the natural light. I wasn't able to find anything non-organic. No trails, trash, or previous campsites. Now that I think about it, I didn't even see any animals, aside from some insects (some weirdly familiar, and some not). That's when I heard it. Or rather, didn't hear it. All noises had stopped. No owls, crickets, or any other type of critter (All of which I had heard previously). It was dead silent, aside from the slight breeze. I knew what this meant. There's a predator around. But one question crossed my mind. Am I the predator? I mean, it would make sense. None of the resident animals know what I am, so they would naturally fear me. But this line of thought was cut off by the some rustling in a nearby bush. Whipping my head around to look at what had caused the noise, I froze. I stared directly into it's glowing green eyes. It seemed to be a wolf, but it was made out of a mismatch of different twigs and logs. Heh, a timber wolf? What a fitting name. Shaking my head slightly, I directed my gaze back to the strange wood-wolf. It was large, but not massive, probably a runt. It was also alone, most likely a lone wolf. Lucky for me. It lowered itself into a battle position and began to slowly move towards me with a snarl on it's wooden face. Running wasn't an option, as I didn't know what kind of speed it possessed. I was also not going to lie down and let this thing have it's dinner either. I didn't come this far in life to give up without a fight. Squinting my eyes, I spread my legs slightly and bent my knees, placing my left foot slightly in front of me in a battle stance as as we began to circle each other. I stared into it's green glowing eyes and contorted my face into a nasty snarl, trying to hid my fear. Growling slightly, I build up the courage to taunt it. "Come get some, motherfucker!" I shouted, before pounding both of my fists on my chest twice, signaling to start the fight. At my words, the beast charged. It ran a few feet before leaping at me, jaws wide open looking to chomp down on my throat. I quickly ducked down and dove underneath it, rolling midair to land on my side. I took a second to recover, but the monster had leapt for me again. I wasn't quick enough to dodge this time, so I instinctual threw my forearms in front of my face. As the creature landed on me, I felt it's wooded teeth dig into my left forearm. I fell backwards, taking it with me. I felt blood ooze through it's teeth, and the pain made me yelp. I tried to shake my arm out of it's grip, but it wouldn't relent. I raised my right fist and hooked the wolf in the temple, the punch affecting both of us. I mean, it was made of wood for fuck's sake, but it was my only option. My throbbed, and it felt like some of my knuckles might have split open. The beast was affected to, as the punch had sent it into a wobble. It had released it's grip on my arm, and that's when I saw my opportunity. I used to be a wrestler in high school, so I was familiar with this kind of fighting. I wasn't national level good, but I did make it to regional a few times. Leaning up, I grabbed and pushed it's wooden head down with my left hand, and wrapped my right arm around the things neck, putting it into a guillotine. Immediately, the wolf began to struggle and try to break free, but I had set the choke in nicely. I squirmed around, growling and whimpering as it desperately. I felt it's wooded claws scratch my skin, and some of them hurt more than the other, probably deeper wounds, as I felt the warmth of my blood trickling out of them. Straining my face, I squeezed it's neck with all of my might. It began to yelp and howl, but was cut off buy an audible pop. Instantly, it had turned into nothing but a pile of wood. I scrambled back, pushing the ruble of the wood-wolf off of me. I just sat there, dumbfounded. I just fought a wolf, one made of fucking wood mind you, and won. Pain started to creep it's way into my left forearm, and I looked down at it. The bite was deep, and blood was flooding out each tooth mark. Quickly realizing that the wound was serious, I gripped the collar of my t-shirt and lifted it off of me. Wrapping the shirt around my right bicep, I tried to tighten it as much as I could with one hand. I ended up using my teeth to help with the tightening, making sure that the tourniquet was tight. It was uncomfortable, but I just had to suck it up. Simply wrapping it around the wound wouldn't get me anywhere, so I had to stop the bleeding. If I couldn't find help, I'd resort to using my pants as a bandage, or larger leaves. Looking over the tourniquet one more time, I steadily rose to my feet, leaning my right hand on the ground while I rose. Seeing as there was nothing else here for me, I looked at the pile that used to be the wolf one last time, I continued to wander into the woods. I was exhausted. I had been walking for hours on bare feet in search of anything aside from trees and bushes. I was hungry, thirsty, and tired. The adrenaline from the fight had worn off rather quickly, so I had been feeling like this for a while now. The bite had stopped bleeding, but I had gotten some other injuries in the fight other than that. Mostly small cuts, but I had a few deeper ones from the wolfs claws that dug into my legs and lower abdomen. They stung like hell, and one particularly nasty one on my stomach bled for a while. I had been stumbling around for hours now, not wanting to rest, mainly from being on edge from the incident. It proved to me that I was no longer on Earth, and that more creatures like that, some probably worse, are kicking are this area. I could barley feel me feet. They'd gone numb a while ago, as I didn't arrive here with shoes, and had been walking for hours. The sky was starting to brighten, signifying that morning was almost here. I stopped, seeing as there was no opening in the thick foliage around me. I staggered up to one of the thick bushes and pushed myself thought it, getting my foot caught on a root in the process. I tripped, staggering a few steps, then fell flat on my face. My chest had taken most of the impact, resulting in my being winded for a good minutes. As my staggered breathes returned to me, I rolled onto my back and stared up. I stared at the sky, the clear sky. There were no trees blocking my view. I felt the ground around me, for there to only be dirt, no grass. I was on a path. A new spark of life shot up within me and I jumped to my feet, taking in the newly discovered area. It was definitely a path, as I stared down to the right side I saw no trees on it, and even a bridge. Looking in front of me, I saw that there was a deep ravine a couple yards ahead, and there was another path on that side too. Something on my path caught my eye, though. Looking closer at the ground, I noticed that there were some tracks. Fresh tracks. I couldn't identify what had made them, but they were definitely not paws. Looking to my left, which was the direction they were going, my jaw dropped. There, in all of it's glory, stood the ruins of a monolithic castle. It was old, like, really old. Trees, moss, and vines were growing all over the outer was of the ruins. But I couldn't stand there and gawk at it all day, I need to see who was here, I they were even still here. Rushing as fast as I could (which wasn't very fast, more like a staggered speed walk), I made my way to the entrance of the ruins. There was a small stair case leading up to a massive pair of double-doors. I slowly ascended the staircase, but about halfway up, I fumbled and fell forward, catching myself with my hands before eating a stone step. Pushing myself back up, I quickened my pace, noticing that my exhaustion was worsening. After taking about three minutes to climb the short staircase, I limped over to the door. The doors were cracked open slightly, and there voices coming from inside, but I couldn't tell what they were saying. But what I did know, is that they were speaking English. It puzzled me that an alien planet bore the same language, but I didn't care. I need help. Holding a hand on door, I hesitated only for a second, before pushing them open wide. The conversation ceased, and was replaced by momentary silence, before several gasps came from everyone in the large room. They were... horses, I think. They seemed more like ponies with their small sizes. They barred some resemblance, but only a little. They looked cartoonist, and had almost human sized heads, and big eyes. There were five of them. The first one I saw was orange with piercing green eyes, freckles, and a stetson hat. It seemed to squint it's eyes when I eyed it. There was a light blue horse with a messy rainbow mane, and matching tail. It was also bore wings, making it a pegasus. It also squinted when I observed it. There was another pegasus, but this one wasn't flying. It had a yellow coat, with a beautiful pink mane and tail. It seemed to shrink when my eyes landed on it. The pony standing next to the yellow one was pure white, had a frilly deep purple mane and matching tail, and a Goddamn horn. It was a unicorn. It somehow turned even paler when I eyed it, it's eyes going wide, pupils shrinking. Then, at the center of the group, was a purple pony. It had a horn AND wings. It inhaled sharply when I gazed upon it. We stared each other down for about thirty seconds before the orange one spoke up. "Twilight... You know what that thing is?" It said in a heavy southern accent. It's voice was feminine, so I guess it's a female. The purple one shook it's head. "I... I've never seen anything like it before." The purple pony said. It was also female. Looking at the rest of the group, I noticed female feature on all of the, such a long eye lashes. "It looks hurt, maybe it needs help." The yellow one said in a quite manner. She began to slowly walk towards me when the purple one, "Twilight," I'm guessing, put a foreleg in front of her. "It may be dangerous. Everypony stay put. Applejack, Rainbow Dash. You two detain it if it tries to attack any of us." The orange mare and the blue pegasus nodded at Twilight. My breathing became staggered, and my eyelids fluttered open and shut. This didn't go unnoticed though, as they all got uneasy looks. "P..Please..." I whimpered. All of their eyes flew open, and all of their mouths dropped. I couldn't hold myself up any longer. I fell onto my knees, my palms on the cool stone floor. More gasps came from the crowd when I fell. Looking up at them, they all had worry on their faces. "H..Help me." With that, I collapsed onto the floor. The last thing I heard before passing out was hooves on stone galloping towards me. Chapter 2: In The Depths"Fluttershy, what's taking so long?" Rainbow Dash asked in a cry. She propelled herself into the air with one big flap of her wings. Flying high into the tall room, she tried to spot the timid pegasus, but to no avail. "Dash, will you camp yerself down?" Applejack said in her southern accent. "We been here for abou' five minutes." "Where could she had left it? It's not like we went all over the castle," Rainbow Dash said in a puff. "You really need to argue about everythang, don' cha?" "Well what else are we gonna do in this place?" "Oh, enough!" Twilight shouted in annoyance. Both the pegasus and the earth pony looked at her with their ears splayed back. "Just stop it! You two have been arguing since we left Ponyville! What are you eve arguing about?" Applejack and Rainbow Dash shared a glance for a second before turning away from Twilight in embarrassment. Applejack crossed one of her forelegs over the other. "Am mighty sorry Twilight, just a bit of tension between us right now," Applejack admitted, avoiding eye contact with Twilight. Twilight's gaze softened and she sighed. "I won't push any further. Just stop arguing, please. I feel a headache coming," A light fluttering of wings came into hear shot and a soft voice was heard just above it. "I found it," Fluttershy said in here usual soft voice. A saddlebag was wrapped around her flank as she fluttered to the ground next to the girls. "Fabulous, darling. Did you lose anything?" Rarity asked in a helpful tone. "No, everything's how I left it." As the words left Fluttershy's lips, the doors to the castle flew open. All head turned to see who, or what, had opened them. Gasps came from each pony. There, standing in the doorway, was a creature never seen by pony-kind. It was bipedal, standing at about a staggering six feet. It had two long arms with five fingers on each hand. No fur covered it's body, only a pale skin. It wore pants, made from a material that looked like denim. It had a button and zipper to keep them from falling down. It didn't have hooves, and had feet with five and varying sized toes. It had brown, shaggy hair, looking like it hadn't been brushed before. Facial hair was starting to cover it's cheeks, jaw, chin, and around it's lips. It deep blue eyes seemed to pierce every soul it gazed upon. But the most scary thing about it was the state that it was in. It was covered in scratches, dried blood, dirt, and the large bite mark on it's left forearm. The bleeding had long since stopped, since it had tied a black, cloth looking materiel around it's upper arm as a makeshift tourniquet. That meant that it had basic medical knowledge, and could possibly be an intelligent species, on that has never been recorded on Equis. It stood there and didn't move. It seemed to be observing them, just as flabbergasted as the girls. Not taking her eye off the bizarre creature, Applejack slightly turned her head towards Twilight. "Twilight, you know what that thing is?" She asked in a slightly fearful manner. Twilight shook her head. "I... I've never seen anything like it before," Twilight responded. Fluttershy stepped forward. "It looks hurt, maybe it needs help," she said while trying to creep towards the bipedal being. Twilight's right foreleg shot up in front of her before she could proceed. "It may be dangerous," Twilight said while looking at Fluttershy, "everypony stay put. Applejack, Rainbow Dash. You two detain it if it tries to attack any of us," Twilight said in a slightly authoritative voice. Applejack and Rainbow Dash nodded at the demand. It's breathing became heavy and trouble, and it's eyes seemed like they were struggling to stay open. All the girls gave each other uneasy looks. "P...Please." It said in a wheezy whimper. Everyponie's eyes shot open, gasps coming from each pony. The creature fell to it's knees, barley catching itself with it's hands on the ground in front of it. It pushed itself back up as straight as it could on it's knees. "H.. Help me." It's eyes rolled back into it's skull, and it fell backwards. Everypony, except for Rarity and rainbow Dash, rushed forward to assess the creature, even thought it could be dangerous. It needed help. Hay, it asked for help. The first pony by it's side was Fluttershy, she was instantly checking it's breathing, pulse, and the nasty bite wound on it's arm. She looked up at Twilight. "It's alive, but just barley," she said in a unusually louder voice. "It needs help, ASAP. If it has any chance at survival, it needs to get to a hospital." "We can't get it back to Ponyville in time!" Twilight almost shouted. "You need to attend to him here!" Fluttershy looked away fro Twilight, instead focusing on something behind here. Twilight followed her gaze and looked where she had been looking. A stack of scrolls sat on a desk, accompanied by a couple of sealed jars of ink and a few loose quills. "I... I can't," Twilight said with a slight blush. "Why not? It need's help, and the only help we'll be able to get is from Princess Celestia." Fluttershy shot back. "She's... She's too busy," Twilight said, not looking at Fluttershy. "Too busy to save an unknown creature? He could die within the hour if he doesn't get help!" Twilight chewed on her lip for a second before sighing. Looking at the creature one last time, she trotted over to the desk. I was a awake, but my eyes weren't open. My entire body was fatigued and sore, and it felt like I hadn't gotten any sleep in days. I wanted to go back to sleep, but just couldn't. Something was wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on. I was on a semi-comfortable bed that seemed to just fit me. If I outstretched my legs to the max, then my feet would dangle off the edge. There was a thin blanket covering my body, going from my feet up to my pecs. Wherever I was, it seemed to be dark, as no light was shining through my eyelids. The temperature was comfortable. Not too cold, and not too warm. The smell almost seemed... sterile. It almost smelt like a hospital. Wait a minute... That thought seemed to awaken me a little. Am I in a hospital? A beeping noise caught my attention. It had been going the entire time, but I hadn't noticed it in my paralysis-like state. I studied it for a few seconds before coming to the conclusion that it was a heart beat monitor. The beeps matched up with my heartbeat. What happened? Why am I in a hospital? I need to know why. Slowly, I opened my right eye to peek out at my surroundings. I was wrong, it wasn't pitch black. There was window on the right wall covered by a curtain, only a small amount of light shining through the white fabric. After adjusting to being awake, I gradually opened my left eye. The room seemed like a normal hospital room. The bed I was in sat in the middle of the room. A wooden nightstand was placed to right side, and some medical equipment sat on the left. There was the heartbeat monitor I heard and an IV stand holding an IV bag that was connected to somewhere on my left arm. A small vase with a variety of colourful flours sat on top of it, and a small glass of water next to it. The walls were a very light beige or white, with a sky blue line running through the middle. The floor was a tile-like materiel, the tiles were a pristine white colour. On the far wall was a sleek, wooden door that was painted white. The doorknob was made out of some kind of metal, and was a shiny bronze or brass colour. A small armchair sat next to it, and on the other side sat a large potted plant. A small painting of a bay sat above the armchair. It's frame was made out of a dark wood. Looking down at my body, I then realized why I was in this hospital. My left forearm was bandaged to all hell, the IV drip pierced in a vein on my left hand, slowly feeding it to me. My right arm had small guts on them, and a few bruises here and there. I didn't have my shirt on, and saw that there was also bandages around my abdomen. A few cuts crossed my chest as well. "What the fuck happe-" I cut myself off. My eyes widened in horror, remembering what had happened. I though that was a vivid dream or something.. I though to myself, as visions of that horrid wood-wolf was on top of me, gnawing at my arm, and it's claws digging into my abdomen, desperately trying to escape as I crushed it's neck. If... That really happened, that means I'm probably not on Earth. Then where the hell... My thought was cut off by a beeping noise, louder and more erratic than my heartbeat monitor. It was an alarm. I realized that my heartbeat had been skyrocketing while I was remembering the situation I had been in, triggering some kind of safety alarm. It seemed to be coming from the heartbeat monitor. Movement outside the door caught my attention. It sounded like hooves on tile, or stone. My widened as I remembered the castle, and the weird, talking ponies inside of it. The doorknob was encased in a maroon aurora before flying open. A cup of coffee levitated up off of the counter, encased in a red glow and lazily floated over to a pony who was flipping through a magazine. It floated over to a unicorn mare in a nurse uniform. Her coat was a light maroon, and her mane was a dark gold colour with slightly lighter gold highlights. Her cutie mark was a golden cross that was mostly covered up by her uniform. She brought the mug up to her lips and took a sip, not taking her eyes off of her magazine. Flipping the page, she found a particularly juicy picture of Princess Celestia gorging herself with cake. Her cheeks were stuffed, crumbles surrounded her mouth as she stared wide eyes at the camera. The pony choked slightly, trying to hold back laughter with a mouthful of coffee. At that same moment, a beige stallion with a reddish-orange mane trotted through the main entrance to the wing. She looked up from her magazine at him as he came closer. Swallowing the coffee in her mouth, she set the mug and magazine down. "How can I help you, doctor?" She asked, trying to suppress her giggles. "You can help me by not slacking off while on shift," he said sharply. She rolled her eyes, but the action went unnoticed. "Alright," she correct her posture, and took her back hooves off of the front desk. "What do you need?" "How's the... 'patient' doing?" The doctor asked, almost in a whisper. There was no pony else in the room, so there was really no need. "Stable. His condition hasn't changed at all." She in confidence. She lifted the mug into the air with her magic and brought it back to her lips, taking a small swig. "Nothing's different? No signs of consciousness?" The doctor asked with falling hope in his voice. The nurse simply shrugged. "Nothin'. Why, what's the matter? He's only been here for a day," She asked, slightly cocking her head to the side. The stallion sighed, but digressed. "Celestia's been on my flank constantly, always asking if there's a change in his condition. Same as Twilight Sparkle. Just want him to wake up so he's out of our manes." "Sorry," The nurse said in a semi-apologetic voice. "Thank you, Golden Cross." The doctor said, before trotting off down the hall. She nodded once at him, and took another sip of her warm coffee. She levitated the magazine back over to her and began to sift through the pages again, ignoring what the doctor had said to her about "slacking off." As she turned to a page that was completely taken up by a new Wonderbolts branded cereal, a small beeping noise came from a console to the right of her. Immediately, Golden Cross dropped the magazine and whipped her head over to the console. It had many individual numbers on it, just above each one was a little red light. All of the them were off, except one. It was flashing over the number "#142," each beep coinciding with the red flash. Golden's eyes widened. She knew who, or rather what was in that room. She dashed out of her rolling chair and rushed out out from behind the desk. She ran down an adjacent hallway, leaving the office chair spinning in place. Please don't be dead, please don't be dead... Was the only though racing through her mind as she galloped down the hall Golden Cross ran straight for about twenty seconds before taking a left, then a right. She saw a room labeled "#142." "Where are his guards?" She asked to nopony. She skidded to a stop outside of the room, almost landing on her flankk in the process. Scrambling to her feet, she went to open the door. Her magic sputtered for a second before the handle to the room was surrounded by her maroon coloured magic. She whipped the door open, almost taking it off it's hinges. Stepping inside, she flipped on the lights with her magic, but froze a second later. The creature was sitting upright in it's bed, it was breathing heavily as the loud beeping of the machine next to it only seemed to increase. It was staring right at her. It's eyes were a deep, piercing blue. There was only one emotion on it's face. Fear. As I stared into the maroon ponie's dark golden eyes, my breathing started to become even heavier than before. She took one step forward. "Are... Are you okay?" She asked, much like a mother asking is her child was okay after a nasty fall. I didn't move or respond, but my breathing and heart rate slowed down a little. She tried to take another step forward, but I held up a hand defensively. "Don't... Just... Please, stay there," I said, my voice quivering with fear. Her eyes seemed to widen even more somehow. "You can speak Equestrian," She whispered to herself. We stared each other down for a few seconds before I built up the courage to speak. "Where... Where am I?" I asked, a little less fear in voice. "Canterlot General Hospital," She said while glancing down at her name tag. It displayed the name "Golden Cross," and above it had some barley visible words that read "Canterlot General Hospital." I blinked slowly, giving her an amused look. I had no idea what to do or say with that information. She opened her mouth to say something, but a larger pony with a beige coat hurried into the room. "What's going on.. in... here," His voice was deeper than the other "ponies" that I've met so far, and his frame was bigger, so I guessed that this was a male. His jaw slowly dropped and eyes slowly widened the longer he stared at me. I only stared at him cautiously, not knowing my next move. He began to walk over to me, but the maroon pony stuck her foreleg in front of him as he tried to pass. "He doesn't want anypony near him right now. He's scared, and rightfully so," She said, giving me a pitiful look. He seemed a little defeated, but stayed put. His eyes lit up, and he leaned down into the mare's ear and whispered something that I couldn't hear. She nodded, and he trotted out of the room, a look of determination on his face. The mare's head followed him as he left. "What are you going to do to me?" I asked in a flat tone. Her ears perked up upon hearing voice, but splayed back as she took in what I heard. "W-what do you mean?" She asked, cocking her head to the side in a cute manner. Her voice sounded hurt, as if I had said she couldn't go trick-or-treating on Halloween. "Are you going to hurt me?" I asked. I felt a frog creeping up my throat, and my eyes started to water a little. I didn't know if they were going to hurt me, dissect me, or just flat out kill me. I felt hopeless. I didn't want to die. Even though my life hadn't been going the way I wanted it to, I still had hope that I'd make it somewhere. And now, I might be killed by some mythical beings. Her whole face contorted into a horrified, and hurt emotion. "W-why would we hurt you? If we wanted to kill you, we wouldn't have saved you," She said in an angry tone. I felt a huge weight lift off of my chest, knowing somehow that she was telling the truth. Tears began to run down my cheeks. I was in so much relief that I wasn't going to die. The mare's face took on a sad emotion, and she said, "Are you okay?" I simply nodded, felling tears trail down my jaw and onto my chest. I wasn't balling, but a few little weeps escaped from me every now and then. She walked up to me slowly, as to not alarm me. I didn't stop her as she walked over to the left side of the bed. "You aren't going to hurt me, are you? I've never seen anything like you before, so I don't know what to think of you." I shook my head, not making eye contact with her as I stared at the floor, tears coming out of my eyes. "Good. Now, I need to take the IV out. Can you show me your arm?" She asked in a polite tone. I held out my left arm, using my arm to wipe away tears. "I'm sorry." I said, my voice cracking halfway through the sentence. She looked up at me with a reassuring look and smiled. "There's nothing to apologize for." Her horn lit up with a maroon aurora, and the same glow was on the needle attached to the needle in my hand supplying me with IV. I stared at the mist surrounding the needle as it slowly slid out of my hand, and small piece of cotton and roll of tape levitated over with the same maroon glow. She looked up a me and raised and eyebrow. "Not used to magic?" "Magic?" I asked, bewildered. Before she could respond, two sets of footsteps could be heard coming down the hall. One set sounded like the one I heard before, but the other was different. It almost sounded like metal clicking on the bottom of the floor instead of hooves. My suspicions were confirmed when I saw the two ponies enter my room. The first one was the stallion I saw before, but the other one was drastically different. I was right about the metal, as there were golden gauntlets on her, at lease I believe it was a her, hooves. Her coat was white, and her mane was teal, green, blue, and pink. It also seemed to flow in an invisible breeze. She had a horn that was about a foot long, and had a pair of massive wings. Her eyes were magenta, and seemed warm and loving. She wore a large golden tiara with a purple gem embedded into it, with a matching golden necklace with the same gem. Not to mention, she was fucking huge. Well, compared to the other ponies I've seen so far that is. She stood a good three to four feet above them, and was about as tall as me, maybe a little taller. She stared at me intently, with no emotion on her face. She studied my face, and her eyes softened, a little frown on her face. I had just remembered that I was crying, my eyes were probably bloodshot. My face was also pretty wet with tears as I rubbed away some tears with the back of my right hand. As this mighty being entered the room, the nurse next to me bowed down, showing respect. This is when I realized she was a powerful being, probably a ruler or something. She definitely looked the part at least. "Everypony please leave the room. I need to have word with him." She said in a slightly authoritative voice. The nurse and the doctor left the room at her command, the nurse having closed the door behind her. Looking away from the closed door, I looked up into her eyes. She moved closer to me, standing about a foot away. The arm chair in the corner of the room was encased in a golden mist and slid over to her. Her massive spike of a horn was covered in the aurora as well. The chair stopped just behind her, and the glow dissipated. She sat down on the chair and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breathe. "What are you." She said. It wasn't a question, more of a demand. I was taken aback by the question, almost offended for some reason. I wanted to give cocky answer, but my better judgement came over me as I knew this wasn't the time for shit like that. "I am a human," I answered, a slight tinge of nervousness in my voice. She narrowed her eyes. "How do you know Equestrian." "Equestrian?" I asked, squinting slightly, cocking my head to the side. "The language we're speaking right now," She replied , raising an eyebrow. "We're speaking English. I have no idea what this "Equestrian" is," She raised her eyebrows, and her eyes widened a little. "Where... Where are you from?" She asked, the authoritative voice replaced with a curious one. "Actually, how about I ask a question," I said in slight annoyance. "Where the hell am I? I asked that nurse and she didn't answer me. I deserve some answers." "You are in Canterlot, the capitol of the kingdom of Equestria," she replied. "I am Princess Celestia, one of the two rulers of this land." My jaw dropped. Not at the fact that she was one of the supposed rulers, but at the name of the country. Her eyes studied my shocked state before her eyes opened up wide. "W-what's the name of this planet." I said. "Equis." She responded. She also realized what was going on. "Show me a map." The tip of her horn glowed bright white, before there was a flash. A rolled up map levitated in the air surrounded by a golden glow. Slowly, it unrolled itself. What it showed, was not Earth.
PrologueBeep! ... Beep! ... Beep! My eyes groggily open slightly as I'm rudely awaken by my digital clock, that somehow still works after the many times the I've tried to smash it. Beep! ... Beep! ... Beep! A low groan emanates from somewhere inside my chest as I shut my eyes again. My right hand slowly drifts above me up onto my headboard, sleepily trying to find my alarm clock. Beep! ... Beep! ... Beep! "Ugh, c'mon..." I'd breathe out, sounding more like a croak than actual words. My hand would gain more energy, and I'd quicken my search for the annoying machine that was beeping ruthlessly. Beep! ... Beep! ... Be ... I grasped the digital clock and, with all of the strength I have in this weakened state, yanked on it as hard as I can, ripping the cord out of the wall in the process. I held it up for a few seconds before dropping it, letting it hit the floor. As it struck the wooden surface, I heard a nasty smashing noise. I winced as I heard it, knowing that the clock had finally met it's doom. "Should've just shut up..." I said flatly to myself. Rolling over onto my right side and half-heatedly pushing myself up with my right forearm, I shot glance off the side of my bed. My ears were had been correct, the clock had shattered into the small bits all over the floor. It was hard to see how badly it was messed up in the dark, but it didn't really matter. Now I gotta buy a new one, a thought rattled in brain for second, before being dismissed. It wasn't THAT expensive of a clock, but I'm not in a place to be throwing money around. I recently got fired from my dead-end retail job for coming into work with a hangover and telling my manager to shut the fuck up when she accused me of being hungover. Wasn't the smartest of moves, but I didn't care in the moment. I sure as hell care now though, because that's on my resume permanently now. I'd drop back down onto my back, and, not before huffing, sit up and throw my legs over the right side of the bed, doing my best to avoid shattered bits of clock. I'd stand up and stretch, popping my joints with a happy sigh. I'd step around the remnants of what used to be an alarm clock and stagger my way to the bedroom door. Pushing it open, I'd find myself blinded from the light of the hallway. I'd rub my eyes and push forward, ignoring my the discomfort the light gave to my eyes. Shuffling down the hallway, I'd make my way to the bathroom. But upon trying to open it, I find that it's locked. "Ocupado!" A high, but defiantly male voice called out. Growling slightly, I instead make my way towards the opening in the hallway, to the room that's used as our kitchen, dining room, and living room. Upon entering, two heads turned to greet my entrance. "Good morning!" An overly chipper voice called out. It was a female voice, a little bit on the higher side. The voice belonged to Gabriella, a friend I've had for the better part of my life. Her hair was long, and had a couple of dyed purple streaks mixed in with her blonde hair. "Mm... Morin'." A gruff voice emanating from the man sitting on the other side of the breakfast table said casually, after having downed the mouthful coffee. This voice belonged to Jared, Gabriella's boyfriend. He's a chill dude, the type of guy you sit down and have a beer with. "Morning." I sighed, because it was defiantly not a good morning so far. "What was that noise coming from your room? Did you break something?" Gabriella asked, a slight tinge of concern in her voice. "Alarm clock." I croaked out, shuffling over to the coffee machine and grabbing a mug from a nearby cupboard, I'd pour some of the dark fluid into the mug. She's chuckle softly and shake her head. "About time. How many times have tried to the smash it before?" Jared asked in an amused voice. "I dunno, four times maybe?" I deadpan, taking the closest seat at the table. "Quite surprised it lasted that long." "Heh, fifth time's the charm, huh?" Gabriella said in her usual chipped voice. I nodded, and she went back to sipping her coffee, which was a light chocolate colour, turned that way because of all the cream she adds. I drink my coffee black, but that's mainly because I'm used to drinking good coffee, not the shit that's massed produced. After pondering on when I should get some real coffee for a few seconds, I heard a door open from the hallway. I heard it close behind him, and after a few seconds in walked Patrick. "Morning, fuckers!" Patrick called out in his higher pitched voice, while holding up both middle fingers and aiming them the the group, while walking over to his spot at the table. Gabriella would roll her eyes, and Jared would nod in Patrick's direction. "I hope you didn't just take a shit in there." "Nah, all your Blake," was the only response he gave me. I nodded at once at him, and took a big gulp of my coffee before standing up. Walking over the kitchen sink I'd dump the rest of it down the drain, before depositing it into the same side the the drain. "Anyone need the bathroom?" I asked while turning my head to the group, walking in the direction of the hallway. Everyone shook their heads and I exited the common room into the hallway, making my way to the one bathroom. Opening the door, I stepped inside before closing it behind me. Ripping off the pale green, baggy v-neck I had been wearing for the past two days, I stupidly took a sniff at it.. Gagging a little, I tossed it onto the floor. Stepping in front of the bathroom mirror, situated on the wall behind the sink, I inspected my current. My shaggy, medium length dark brown hair had a bad case of bedhead, strands sticking out ever where, but I really didn't care. I had a fair amount of stubble, having not shaved in a month seeing as there was no need to. My dark blue eyes had slight bags underneath them, which was natural for me. I was pretty much tired no matter the circumstances. After inspecting my face, I turned my attention to my body. I wasn't the fittest person that you'd ever met, but not the scrawniest either . I don't seem strong or able to hold my ground in a fight, but I'm naturally stout, considering my previous job consisted of a lot of heavy lifting. Nothing else could have been said about me. I didn't really have any body hair, but I had a small scar on the top of my right forearm from falling on a patch of ice. "Ugh, enough self-loathing." I mutter under my breathe. Ripping my eyes away from the mirror, I turned my attention to the shower. The tub was pretty shallow, and the shower head was just a little too low. Stripping out of my worn, but still slightly fluffy blue and green plaid pajama pants and tossing them into the hamper, I took a step into the shower and turned on the water to hot, but was blasted with cold water. "Should I have told him I used all the hot water?" Patrick asked the couple as Blake closed the door to the bathroom. "Why tell him when he can just find out?" Jared said with a slight chuckle. "Shit!" A shout rattle out from the bathroom. The three roommates burst out laughing at the perfect timing. "Twiiiighliiiiight! A raspy, but feminine voice cried out. "What is it now, Dash?" The purple alicorn sighed, obviously sounding annoyed. "I'm boooooored!" The same raspy voice cried. A pale blue pegasus with rainbow mane and tail swooped down in front of the purple pony. "We've been here for hours and we haven't done anything! There's not even any Daring Doo books!" She whined. Before Twilight could reply, she was cut off by a white unicorn with a purple, frilly mane. "Rainbow's got a point, dear. He have been here for a long time, and haven't found a thing!" She said while casting a foreleg into the air, letting her glasses tip down her muzzle. "Surely we could come back tomorrow, no?" She asked as a small grin spread across her muzzle. Twilight's only response was a small sigh, but soon, a smile came to her face as well. "I guess we could come back tomorrow..." "Hey.. Um, I think I-" "It's just a large trek to go from Ponyville, then back to the castle back and forth. Especially since we nee to go through the the Everfree." "Ahem, girls I fou-" "Oh, don't worry about a thing darling! We'll be fine! If your worried, we could get Apple Jack to escort us." "Girls I-" Twilight sighed, and placed the book she was skimming through back on the shelf. "Alright, guess we should get pac-" "GIRLS!" Every head in the room whipped around to look at the yellow pegasus mare. She seemed to shrink in size upon their gazes. "I think I found the book." Twilight's ears perked up, and she hopped out of her seat and trotted over to the pegasus. "Why didn't you say something before, Fluttershy?" Twilight asked. Fluttershy only squinted her eyes slightly, and Twilight got the message. "Can I see it?" Twilight asked the timid mare. Fluttershy mover her head to left, revealing the tome on her back. The purple alicorn surrounded the book in the rosy aura of her magic, and levitated it over to herself. The book itself was a foliage green with a gold trim bearing the title, "Court Jester's Pranks and Spells Vol. III" Rainbow Dash swooped back down behind Twilight and observed the book, but after a second she snorted. "Why would Princess Luna need a book on pranks when she knows someone as awesome as me?" She said with a huff, crossing her forelegs across her chest as she bobbed up and down in the air. "Because they're spell based pranks, and I'm pretty sure pegasi can't do magic." Twilight said with a small smirk. Rainbow muttered something to herself before fluttering back into the air, nearing the ceiling. Twilight's magic increased around the books cover, and it flew open. Stepping out of the shower, I reached with my left hand towards the tower rack situated next to the shower and grabbed a teal towel, immediately wrapping it around my head trying to dry off my soaking hair. After a couple of minutes of relentless scrubbing, I was finally satisfied and moved the towel to the the rest of my body. It took me another minute to finally dry myself off to a point where my fresh set of clothes won't be drenched. Wrapping the towel around my waist, I stepped out of the bathroom to hear a wolf call from behind me. "Dayuuum girl! You lookin' fiiiine!" Patrick would call out, him having just exited his room. "If you grab my ass I'm going to rip your arm off and shove it down your throat." I said to Patrick in a grunt. "What a witty come-back." "Wasn't supposed to be witty, I was just stating facts." I said casually, walking deeper into the hallway towards my room. I opened the door and stepped inside, flicking the light switch on as soon as I stepped foot in the room. My room was a mess. I mean, even before the obliterated alarm clock it was still pretty cluttered. There were empty cans everywhere, dirty clothes, and other types of trash. At that point I had been searching for a new job for about a month, and kinda stopped caring. Taking another step inside, I closed the door behind me and stamped over to my closet. Pulling on both of the doors, it open with a small creak, but no resistance. There weren't many clothes inside, as most of my clothes were dirty. Didn't matter though, mainly because I wasn't doing anything today and had no one to impress. Unwrapping the towel that was around my waist, I threw into a hamper that was leaking dirty clothes. Turning my head back around to the closet, I began to ponder at which clothes to wear today. "Man these pranks are laaaaame..." Rainbow Dash said in a whine. "I mean, turning wine into the grape juice? What kinda prank is that?" "This book is old, Rainbow. Pranks were tamer back in the day. I bet there's some good ones in here," Twilight would pause to look up at Rainbow Dash, who was floating lazily on her back in the air. Her forelegs were behind her head and her hind legs were crossed. "Why do you care anyways? This is a book for magical spells." "Because if Luna's going to prank somepony, she better do it right!" Rainbow would say while rolling her eyes and casting a fore leg into the air. "Pranks aren't supposed to be tame!" Twilight would just smile and shake her head, returning her attention the book. Flipping one of the pages, one spell would catch her eye. "Here we go," Twilight said while adjusting her position in her seat, "There's a spell her that supposedly turns the destined pony into a foal." Rainbow Dash's eye would shoot open, and in a blur of rainbow, she was immediately be standing at a attention in front of Twilight. "Does it work?!" Rainbow Dash yelled. This caused Twilight to wince a little, but she regained her composure quickly. "Well, probably. I can copy the spell and learn how to do if you'd like." Twilight's eyes would shoot open. "Why did I say that?" "Why not just use it now, and see if it works!?" Rainbow blurted out, jittering like a filly on the morning of Hearths Warming. "Wait, you want me to test in on you?" Twilight asked Rainbow, tilting her head in the process. Rainbow's only response was a quick burst of nodding. "I don't even know the spell, Dash! It could end up with some dangerous results!" Twilight said, clear concern in her voice. "Danger's my middle name, baby!" Rainbow said, bracing herself for the spell she thought was incoming. Twilight sighed and read over the spell a few times to get a basic grasp on it. "Fine. But if you die, it's not my fault." Twilight said flatly. Rainbow Dash just shrugged, and resumed her bracing position. Twilight sighed, and hopped out of her seat, and stepped in front of rainbow dash. "Hold still." Twilight said to Rainbow, more of a demand than a request. Rainbow's demeanor didn't change, and just squinted her eyes as a response. Twilight began to concentrate, feeling a tingling sensation from withing her core. The feeling spread up to her chest, up her neck and into her head. She concentrated harder, and soon the tingling spread to her horn. A bright flash of white light spread through out the room, temporarily blinding the four mares in there. After picking out the clothes I was going to wear for the day (and probably tomorrow, too), I quickly adorned them, looking in the mirror to make sure there were no hole in them. I didn't care what I wore, but I had the decency to not wear ratty apparel. I had on a pair a pale blue jeans and Metallica t-shirt, even though I don't listen to Metallica. I shrugged and turned back to my bed, making my way over. I plopped my ass on the edge of the bed and reached up onto my head board, grabbing my cell phone. It was a Samsung Galaxy S8. Not top of the line, but still pretty good. The only factor that mattered to me is that it worked. I unplugged it from it's charger and open the phone to the lock screen. It was 9:46 A.M, so I had woken at about nine. My lock screen was a picture of me and my friend, Dave, drunkenly wrestling. It was in a backyard near a bon fire, I had him in a bulldog choke and he was forced to tap. Smiling at the memory, I turned my phone on to sleep mode and tossed it onto my be bed. I stood up and began to make my way around to the other side of the bed to clean up the larger bits of alarm clock when and ear-piercing ringing filled my brain. Instinctual, my hand flew up to my ears to try and protect them from the noise, but to no avail. I dropped to my knees and began to scream, my brain felt like it was going explode at any moment. I fell back onto my right side and began to spasm, but I felt something else too. It was the vibration of my door being smashed in, and Jared ran into the room followed by Gabriella and Patrick. They were all screaming, but I couldn't hear them. The last thing I saw was all of them backing up away from me, a look of horror on their faces. After that, I saw nothing but white. Upon opening her eyes, she was greeted with a pair of large reddish-magenta eyes staring down at me. She recoiled out surprise, but sighed a second later. "It didn't work, Twilight!" Rainbow pouted as she sat back on her haunches. Twilight closed her eyes, and began to rub the back of her head with a hoof. "I thought you said it would work!" "Yeah, after studyinghow the spell actually works!" Twilight shot back, glaring at Rainbow. "I probably just used some random spell! We're lucky we didn't just explode!" A headache began to swell in the back of Twilight's brain, a result of having used too much magic at once. "Are you okay, darling?" Rarity asked in a kind tone. Fluttershy was behind her, still a little wobble from the flash. "Yeah, just used to much magic..." She trailed off, looking to the side. "I wonder what kind of spell warranted that much magic?" The sensation of fall struck me for a second or two, before I landed on the ground with a loud thud. I groaned loudly, my tailbone having taken the brunt of the fall. "Ugh... What happened?" I asked, but got no reply. "Jared? Gabby, Patrick? You there?" I planted my left hand on the ground to push myself up, but I froze. My hand didn't touch the cool surface of woof in my apartment. I struck patch grass and dirt. As I slowly open my eyes, I felt my heart and stomach switch places. I was laying in clearing of short grass, and the outer perimeters of the clears couldn't be seen, as there we tall and trees everywhere. My heart began to beat rapidly as the situation dawned on me. "Fuck." Author's Note This is my first time writing an actual story, and having it put up onto the internet to be read. MLP lore isn't my strong suit, so please correct me if I get something wrong. I took a lot of inspiration from MadMaxtheBlack with his story Your Human and You. I've been recently getting back into the MLP fandom after a few years of hiatus, and he's currently one of my favorite fanfic authors, and has inspired me to write my own HiE story!
Chapter 1: Away from HomeI gazed around the dark and looming woods that surrounded me, In a complete state of shock and confusion as I took a few steps around. My breathing started getting heavier and heavier, nearing a borderline panic attack. The taste of bile slowly crept up my throat, my eyes went wide and I started to dry heave. I couldn't stop it. Bending over quickly, I threw up everything that was in my stomach, which was only the coffee I had about twenty minutes ago. I covered my belly with my arms, as I continued to wretch even when nothing was coming up. Spitting out one last glob of bile-flavored saliva, I stood back up and began to further investigate the woods that surrounded me, and the clusterfuck that just landed in my lap. Every tree was tall, and had vines cascading down from the branches everywhere. It seemed like a swamp, but it was pretty dry, the only water being a small puddle pooling around a particularly larger tree. It also didn't help that it was dawn, and the sun was about to set. I could barley see the sun at all, but what I did see of it interested me. It seemed... bigger. Not massive, but definitionally noticeable. I also didn't see the moon at all, even though it was supposed to be a full moon tonight. It was probably hidden behind a tree, or one of the scarce clouds. But after watching the clouds move for a few minutes, there was nothing behind any of them. Snapping back to reality, I remembered the the ordeal I was in. My heart sank a little thinking about it, but I couldn't stand there and ponder about it. "I've gotta find help. There must be a highway, or some other kind of civilization around here." I muttered to myself. Looking around one last time, I slowly started to walk East. I mean, I don't have a map or a compass. Hell, don't even have shoes on! I have nothing but the clothes on my back, and my knowledge from all the camping I did. So, at the very least, I could make a fire if I can't find help. Nearing the end of the clearing, and the start of the clogged forest, I stopped to circle around one last time, taking in my surroundings, then pushed my way through the vines. Well, it certainly was a full moon after all, as without it it would be pitch black right now. Only that the moon wasn't the one I was used to, neither were the constellations. The moon was nearly devoid of any and all craters, as the only one's present were very shallow and barley visible. None of the constellations were recognizable, but I could defiantly make out a few unique shapes. This is about the exact point when I realized that I probably wasn't on Earth anymore, but I didn't have time to panic. I needed to find help, if there was any kind of intelligence on this world Even with the moon being so bright, it was still quite dark, as the leaves from the trees blocked out most of the natural light. I wasn't able to find anything non-organic. No trails, trash, or previous campsites. Now that I think about it, I didn't even see any animals, aside from some insects (some weirdly familiar, and some not). That's when I heard it. Or rather, didn't hear it. All noises had stopped. No owls, crickets, or any other type of critter (All of which I had heard previously). It was dead silent, aside from the slight breeze. I knew what this meant. There's a predator around. But one question crossed my mind. Am I the predator? I mean, it would make sense. None of the resident animals know what I am, so they would naturally fear me. But this line of thought was cut off by the some rustling in a nearby bush. Whipping my head around to look at what had caused the noise, I froze. I stared directly into it's glowing green eyes. It seemed to be a wolf, but it was made out of a mismatch of different twigs and logs. Heh, a timber wolf? What a fitting name. Shaking my head slightly, I directed my gaze back to the strange wood-wolf. It was large, but not massive, probably a runt. It was also alone, most likely a lone wolf. Lucky for me. It lowered itself into a battle position and began to slowly move towards me with a snarl on it's wooden face. Running wasn't an option, as I didn't know what kind of speed it possessed. I was also not going to lie down and let this thing have it's dinner either. I didn't come this far in life to give up without a fight. Squinting my eyes, I spread my legs slightly and bent my knees, placing my left foot slightly in front of me in a battle stance as as we began to circle each other. I stared into it's green glowing eyes and contorted my face into a nasty snarl, trying to hid my fear. Growling slightly, I build up the courage to taunt it. "Come get some, motherfucker!" I shouted, before pounding both of my fists on my chest twice, signaling to start the fight. At my words, the beast charged. It ran a few feet before leaping at me, jaws wide open looking to chomp down on my throat. I quickly ducked down and dove underneath it, rolling midair to land on my side. I took a second to recover, but the monster had leapt for me again. I wasn't quick enough to dodge this time, so I instinctual threw my forearms in front of my face. As the creature landed on me, I felt it's wooded teeth dig into my left forearm. I fell backwards, taking it with me. I felt blood ooze through it's teeth, and the pain made me yelp. I tried to shake my arm out of it's grip, but it wouldn't relent. I raised my right fist and hooked the wolf in the temple, the punch affecting both of us. I mean, it was made of wood for fuck's sake, but it was my only option. My throbbed, and it felt like some of my knuckles might have split open. The beast was affected to, as the punch had sent it into a wobble. It had released it's grip on my arm, and that's when I saw my opportunity. I used to be a wrestler in high school, so I was familiar with this kind of fighting. I wasn't national level good, but I did make it to regional a few times. Leaning up, I grabbed and pushed it's wooden head down with my left hand, and wrapped my right arm around the things neck, putting it into a guillotine. Immediately, the wolf began to struggle and try to break free, but I had set the choke in nicely. I squirmed around, growling and whimpering as it desperately. I felt it's wooded claws scratch my skin, and some of them hurt more than the other, probably deeper wounds, as I felt the warmth of my blood trickling out of them. Straining my face, I squeezed it's neck with all of my might. It began to yelp and howl, but was cut off buy an audible pop. Instantly, it had turned into nothing but a pile of wood. I scrambled back, pushing the ruble of the wood-wolf off of me. I just sat there, dumbfounded. I just fought a wolf, one made of fucking wood mind you, and won. Pain started to creep it's way into my left forearm, and I looked down at it. The bite was deep, and blood was flooding out each tooth mark. Quickly realizing that the wound was serious, I gripped the collar of my t-shirt and lifted it off of me. Wrapping the shirt around my right bicep, I tried to tighten it as much as I could with one hand. I ended up using my teeth to help with the tightening, making sure that the tourniquet was tight. It was uncomfortable, but I just had to suck it up. Simply wrapping it around the wound wouldn't get me anywhere, so I had to stop the bleeding. If I couldn't find help, I'd resort to using my pants as a bandage, or larger leaves. Looking over the tourniquet one more time, I steadily rose to my feet, leaning my right hand on the ground while I rose. Seeing as there was nothing else here for me, I looked at the pile that used to be the wolf one last time, I continued to wander into the woods. I was exhausted. I had been walking for hours on bare feet in search of anything aside from trees and bushes. I was hungry, thirsty, and tired. The adrenaline from the fight had worn off rather quickly, so I had been feeling like this for a while now. The bite had stopped bleeding, but I had gotten some other injuries in the fight other than that. Mostly small cuts, but I had a few deeper ones from the wolfs claws that dug into my legs and lower abdomen. They stung like hell, and one particularly nasty one on my stomach bled for a while. I had been stumbling around for hours now, not wanting to rest, mainly from being on edge from the incident. It proved to me that I was no longer on Earth, and that more creatures like that, some probably worse, are kicking are this area. I could barley feel me feet. They'd gone numb a while ago, as I didn't arrive here with shoes, and had been walking for hours. The sky was starting to brighten, signifying that morning was almost here. I stopped, seeing as there was no opening in the thick foliage around me. I staggered up to one of the thick bushes and pushed myself thought it, getting my foot caught on a root in the process. I tripped, staggering a few steps, then fell flat on my face. My chest had taken most of the impact, resulting in my being winded for a good minutes. As my staggered breathes returned to me, I rolled onto my back and stared up. I stared at the sky, the clear sky. There were no trees blocking my view. I felt the ground around me, for there to only be dirt, no grass. I was on a path. A new spark of life shot up within me and I jumped to my feet, taking in the newly discovered area. It was definitely a path, as I stared down to the right side I saw no trees on it, and even a bridge. Looking in front of me, I saw that there was a deep ravine a couple yards ahead, and there was another path on that side too. Something on my path caught my eye, though. Looking closer at the ground, I noticed that there were some tracks. Fresh tracks. I couldn't identify what had made them, but they were definitely not paws. Looking to my left, which was the direction they were going, my jaw dropped. There, in all of it's glory, stood the ruins of a monolithic castle. It was old, like, really old. Trees, moss, and vines were growing all over the outer was of the ruins. But I couldn't stand there and gawk at it all day, I need to see who was here, I they were even still here. Rushing as fast as I could (which wasn't very fast, more like a staggered speed walk), I made my way to the entrance of the ruins. There was a small stair case leading up to a massive pair of double-doors. I slowly ascended the staircase, but about halfway up, I fumbled and fell forward, catching myself with my hands before eating a stone step. Pushing myself back up, I quickened my pace, noticing that my exhaustion was worsening. After taking about three minutes to climb the short staircase, I limped over to the door. The doors were cracked open slightly, and there voices coming from inside, but I couldn't tell what they were saying. But what I did know, is that they were speaking English. It puzzled me that an alien planet bore the same language, but I didn't care. I need help. Holding a hand on door, I hesitated only for a second, before pushing them open wide. The conversation ceased, and was replaced by momentary silence, before several gasps came from everyone in the large room. They were... horses, I think. They seemed more like ponies with their small sizes. They barred some resemblance, but only a little. They looked cartoonist, and had almost human sized heads, and big eyes. There were five of them. The first one I saw was orange with piercing green eyes, freckles, and a stetson hat. It seemed to squint it's eyes when I eyed it. There was a light blue horse with a messy rainbow mane, and matching tail. It was also bore wings, making it a pegasus. It also squinted when I observed it. There was another pegasus, but this one wasn't flying. It had a yellow coat, with a beautiful pink mane and tail. It seemed to shrink when my eyes landed on it. The pony standing next to the yellow one was pure white, had a frilly deep purple mane and matching tail, and a Goddamn horn. It was a unicorn. It somehow turned even paler when I eyed it, it's eyes going wide, pupils shrinking. Then, at the center of the group, was a purple pony. It had a horn AND wings. It inhaled sharply when I gazed upon it. We stared each other down for about thirty seconds before the orange one spoke up. "Twilight... You know what that thing is?" It said in a heavy southern accent. It's voice was feminine, so I guess it's a female. The purple one shook it's head. "I... I've never seen anything like it before." The purple pony said. It was also female. Looking at the rest of the group, I noticed female feature on all of the, such a long eye lashes. "It looks hurt, maybe it needs help." The yellow one said in a quite manner. She began to slowly walk towards me when the purple one, "Twilight," I'm guessing, put a foreleg in front of her. "It may be dangerous. Everypony stay put. Applejack, Rainbow Dash. You two detain it if it tries to attack any of us." The orange mare and the blue pegasus nodded at Twilight. My breathing became staggered, and my eyelids fluttered open and shut. This didn't go unnoticed though, as they all got uneasy looks. "P..Please..." I whimpered. All of their eyes flew open, and all of their mouths dropped. I couldn't hold myself up any longer. I fell onto my knees, my palms on the cool stone floor. More gasps came from the crowd when I fell. Looking up at them, they all had worry on their faces. "H..Help me." With that, I collapsed onto the floor. The last thing I heard before passing out was hooves on stone galloping towards me.
Chapter 2: In The Depths"Fluttershy, what's taking so long?" Rainbow Dash asked in a cry. She propelled herself into the air with one big flap of her wings. Flying high into the tall room, she tried to spot the timid pegasus, but to no avail. "Dash, will you camp yerself down?" Applejack said in her southern accent. "We been here for abou' five minutes." "Where could she had left it? It's not like we went all over the castle," Rainbow Dash said in a puff. "You really need to argue about everythang, don' cha?" "Well what else are we gonna do in this place?" "Oh, enough!" Twilight shouted in annoyance. Both the pegasus and the earth pony looked at her with their ears splayed back. "Just stop it! You two have been arguing since we left Ponyville! What are you eve arguing about?" Applejack and Rainbow Dash shared a glance for a second before turning away from Twilight in embarrassment. Applejack crossed one of her forelegs over the other. "Am mighty sorry Twilight, just a bit of tension between us right now," Applejack admitted, avoiding eye contact with Twilight. Twilight's gaze softened and she sighed. "I won't push any further. Just stop arguing, please. I feel a headache coming," A light fluttering of wings came into hear shot and a soft voice was heard just above it. "I found it," Fluttershy said in here usual soft voice. A saddlebag was wrapped around her flank as she fluttered to the ground next to the girls. "Fabulous, darling. Did you lose anything?" Rarity asked in a helpful tone. "No, everything's how I left it." As the words left Fluttershy's lips, the doors to the castle flew open. All head turned to see who, or what, had opened them. Gasps came from each pony. There, standing in the doorway, was a creature never seen by pony-kind. It was bipedal, standing at about a staggering six feet. It had two long arms with five fingers on each hand. No fur covered it's body, only a pale skin. It wore pants, made from a material that looked like denim. It had a button and zipper to keep them from falling down. It didn't have hooves, and had feet with five and varying sized toes. It had brown, shaggy hair, looking like it hadn't been brushed before. Facial hair was starting to cover it's cheeks, jaw, chin, and around it's lips. It deep blue eyes seemed to pierce every soul it gazed upon. But the most scary thing about it was the state that it was in. It was covered in scratches, dried blood, dirt, and the large bite mark on it's left forearm. The bleeding had long since stopped, since it had tied a black, cloth looking materiel around it's upper arm as a makeshift tourniquet. That meant that it had basic medical knowledge, and could possibly be an intelligent species, on that has never been recorded on Equis. It stood there and didn't move. It seemed to be observing them, just as flabbergasted as the girls. Not taking her eye off the bizarre creature, Applejack slightly turned her head towards Twilight. "Twilight, you know what that thing is?" She asked in a slightly fearful manner. Twilight shook her head. "I... I've never seen anything like it before," Twilight responded. Fluttershy stepped forward. "It looks hurt, maybe it needs help," she said while trying to creep towards the bipedal being. Twilight's right foreleg shot up in front of her before she could proceed. "It may be dangerous," Twilight said while looking at Fluttershy, "everypony stay put. Applejack, Rainbow Dash. You two detain it if it tries to attack any of us," Twilight said in a slightly authoritative voice. Applejack and Rainbow Dash nodded at the demand. It's breathing became heavy and trouble, and it's eyes seemed like they were struggling to stay open. All the girls gave each other uneasy looks. "P...Please." It said in a wheezy whimper. Everyponie's eyes shot open, gasps coming from each pony. The creature fell to it's knees, barley catching itself with it's hands on the ground in front of it. It pushed itself back up as straight as it could on it's knees. "H.. Help me." It's eyes rolled back into it's skull, and it fell backwards. Everypony, except for Rarity and rainbow Dash, rushed forward to assess the creature, even thought it could be dangerous. It needed help. Hay, it asked for help. The first pony by it's side was Fluttershy, she was instantly checking it's breathing, pulse, and the nasty bite wound on it's arm. She looked up at Twilight. "It's alive, but just barley," she said in a unusually louder voice. "It needs help, ASAP. If it has any chance at survival, it needs to get to a hospital." "We can't get it back to Ponyville in time!" Twilight almost shouted. "You need to attend to him here!" Fluttershy looked away fro Twilight, instead focusing on something behind here. Twilight followed her gaze and looked where she had been looking. A stack of scrolls sat on a desk, accompanied by a couple of sealed jars of ink and a few loose quills. "I... I can't," Twilight said with a slight blush. "Why not? It need's help, and the only help we'll be able to get is from Princess Celestia." Fluttershy shot back. "She's... She's too busy," Twilight said, not looking at Fluttershy. "Too busy to save an unknown creature? He could die within the hour if he doesn't get help!" Twilight chewed on her lip for a second before sighing. Looking at the creature one last time, she trotted over to the desk. I was a awake, but my eyes weren't open. My entire body was fatigued and sore, and it felt like I hadn't gotten any sleep in days. I wanted to go back to sleep, but just couldn't. Something was wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on. I was on a semi-comfortable bed that seemed to just fit me. If I outstretched my legs to the max, then my feet would dangle off the edge. There was a thin blanket covering my body, going from my feet up to my pecs. Wherever I was, it seemed to be dark, as no light was shining through my eyelids. The temperature was comfortable. Not too cold, and not too warm. The smell almost seemed... sterile. It almost smelt like a hospital. Wait a minute... That thought seemed to awaken me a little. Am I in a hospital? A beeping noise caught my attention. It had been going the entire time, but I hadn't noticed it in my paralysis-like state. I studied it for a few seconds before coming to the conclusion that it was a heart beat monitor. The beeps matched up with my heartbeat. What happened? Why am I in a hospital? I need to know why. Slowly, I opened my right eye to peek out at my surroundings. I was wrong, it wasn't pitch black. There was window on the right wall covered by a curtain, only a small amount of light shining through the white fabric. After adjusting to being awake, I gradually opened my left eye. The room seemed like a normal hospital room. The bed I was in sat in the middle of the room. A wooden nightstand was placed to right side, and some medical equipment sat on the left. There was the heartbeat monitor I heard and an IV stand holding an IV bag that was connected to somewhere on my left arm. A small vase with a variety of colourful flours sat on top of it, and a small glass of water next to it. The walls were a very light beige or white, with a sky blue line running through the middle. The floor was a tile-like materiel, the tiles were a pristine white colour. On the far wall was a sleek, wooden door that was painted white. The doorknob was made out of some kind of metal, and was a shiny bronze or brass colour. A small armchair sat next to it, and on the other side sat a large potted plant. A small painting of a bay sat above the armchair. It's frame was made out of a dark wood. Looking down at my body, I then realized why I was in this hospital. My left forearm was bandaged to all hell, the IV drip pierced in a vein on my left hand, slowly feeding it to me. My right arm had small guts on them, and a few bruises here and there. I didn't have my shirt on, and saw that there was also bandages around my abdomen. A few cuts crossed my chest as well. "What the fuck happe-" I cut myself off. My eyes widened in horror, remembering what had happened. I though that was a vivid dream or something.. I though to myself, as visions of that horrid wood-wolf was on top of me, gnawing at my arm, and it's claws digging into my abdomen, desperately trying to escape as I crushed it's neck. If... That really happened, that means I'm probably not on Earth. Then where the hell... My thought was cut off by a beeping noise, louder and more erratic than my heartbeat monitor. It was an alarm. I realized that my heartbeat had been skyrocketing while I was remembering the situation I had been in, triggering some kind of safety alarm. It seemed to be coming from the heartbeat monitor. Movement outside the door caught my attention. It sounded like hooves on tile, or stone. My widened as I remembered the castle, and the weird, talking ponies inside of it. The doorknob was encased in a maroon aurora before flying open. A cup of coffee levitated up off of the counter, encased in a red glow and lazily floated over to a pony who was flipping through a magazine. It floated over to a unicorn mare in a nurse uniform. Her coat was a light maroon, and her mane was a dark gold colour with slightly lighter gold highlights. Her cutie mark was a golden cross that was mostly covered up by her uniform. She brought the mug up to her lips and took a sip, not taking her eyes off of her magazine. Flipping the page, she found a particularly juicy picture of Princess Celestia gorging herself with cake. Her cheeks were stuffed, crumbles surrounded her mouth as she stared wide eyes at the camera. The pony choked slightly, trying to hold back laughter with a mouthful of coffee. At that same moment, a beige stallion with a reddish-orange mane trotted through the main entrance to the wing. She looked up from her magazine at him as he came closer. Swallowing the coffee in her mouth, she set the mug and magazine down. "How can I help you, doctor?" She asked, trying to suppress her giggles. "You can help me by not slacking off while on shift," he said sharply. She rolled her eyes, but the action went unnoticed. "Alright," she correct her posture, and took her back hooves off of the front desk. "What do you need?" "How's the... 'patient' doing?" The doctor asked, almost in a whisper. There was no pony else in the room, so there was really no need. "Stable. His condition hasn't changed at all." She in confidence. She lifted the mug into the air with her magic and brought it back to her lips, taking a small swig. "Nothing's different? No signs of consciousness?" The doctor asked with falling hope in his voice. The nurse simply shrugged. "Nothin'. Why, what's the matter? He's only been here for a day," She asked, slightly cocking her head to the side. The stallion sighed, but digressed. "Celestia's been on my flank constantly, always asking if there's a change in his condition. Same as Twilight Sparkle. Just want him to wake up so he's out of our manes." "Sorry," The nurse said in a semi-apologetic voice. "Thank you, Golden Cross." The doctor said, before trotting off down the hall. She nodded once at him, and took another sip of her warm coffee. She levitated the magazine back over to her and began to sift through the pages again, ignoring what the doctor had said to her about "slacking off." As she turned to a page that was completely taken up by a new Wonderbolts branded cereal, a small beeping noise came from a console to the right of her. Immediately, Golden Cross dropped the magazine and whipped her head over to the console. It had many individual numbers on it, just above each one was a little red light. All of the them were off, except one. It was flashing over the number "#142," each beep coinciding with the red flash. Golden's eyes widened. She knew who, or rather what was in that room. She dashed out of her rolling chair and rushed out out from behind the desk. She ran down an adjacent hallway, leaving the office chair spinning in place. Please don't be dead, please don't be dead... Was the only though racing through her mind as she galloped down the hall Golden Cross ran straight for about twenty seconds before taking a left, then a right. She saw a room labeled "#142." "Where are his guards?" She asked to nopony. She skidded to a stop outside of the room, almost landing on her flankk in the process. Scrambling to her feet, she went to open the door. Her magic sputtered for a second before the handle to the room was surrounded by her maroon coloured magic. She whipped the door open, almost taking it off it's hinges. Stepping inside, she flipped on the lights with her magic, but froze a second later. The creature was sitting upright in it's bed, it was breathing heavily as the loud beeping of the machine next to it only seemed to increase. It was staring right at her. It's eyes were a deep, piercing blue. There was only one emotion on it's face. Fear. As I stared into the maroon ponie's dark golden eyes, my breathing started to become even heavier than before. She took one step forward. "Are... Are you okay?" She asked, much like a mother asking is her child was okay after a nasty fall. I didn't move or respond, but my breathing and heart rate slowed down a little. She tried to take another step forward, but I held up a hand defensively. "Don't... Just... Please, stay there," I said, my voice quivering with fear. Her eyes seemed to widen even more somehow. "You can speak Equestrian," She whispered to herself. We stared each other down for a few seconds before I built up the courage to speak. "Where... Where am I?" I asked, a little less fear in voice. "Canterlot General Hospital," She said while glancing down at her name tag. It displayed the name "Golden Cross," and above it had some barley visible words that read "Canterlot General Hospital." I blinked slowly, giving her an amused look. I had no idea what to do or say with that information. She opened her mouth to say something, but a larger pony with a beige coat hurried into the room. "What's going on.. in... here," His voice was deeper than the other "ponies" that I've met so far, and his frame was bigger, so I guessed that this was a male. His jaw slowly dropped and eyes slowly widened the longer he stared at me. I only stared at him cautiously, not knowing my next move. He began to walk over to me, but the maroon pony stuck her foreleg in front of him as he tried to pass. "He doesn't want anypony near him right now. He's scared, and rightfully so," She said, giving me a pitiful look. He seemed a little defeated, but stayed put. His eyes lit up, and he leaned down into the mare's ear and whispered something that I couldn't hear. She nodded, and he trotted out of the room, a look of determination on his face. The mare's head followed him as he left. "What are you going to do to me?" I asked in a flat tone. Her ears perked up upon hearing voice, but splayed back as she took in what I heard. "W-what do you mean?" She asked, cocking her head to the side in a cute manner. Her voice sounded hurt, as if I had said she couldn't go trick-or-treating on Halloween. "Are you going to hurt me?" I asked. I felt a frog creeping up my throat, and my eyes started to water a little. I didn't know if they were going to hurt me, dissect me, or just flat out kill me. I felt hopeless. I didn't want to die. Even though my life hadn't been going the way I wanted it to, I still had hope that I'd make it somewhere. And now, I might be killed by some mythical beings. Her whole face contorted into a horrified, and hurt emotion. "W-why would we hurt you? If we wanted to kill you, we wouldn't have saved you," She said in an angry tone. I felt a huge weight lift off of my chest, knowing somehow that she was telling the truth. Tears began to run down my cheeks. I was in so much relief that I wasn't going to die. The mare's face took on a sad emotion, and she said, "Are you okay?" I simply nodded, felling tears trail down my jaw and onto my chest. I wasn't balling, but a few little weeps escaped from me every now and then. She walked up to me slowly, as to not alarm me. I didn't stop her as she walked over to the left side of the bed. "You aren't going to hurt me, are you? I've never seen anything like you before, so I don't know what to think of you." I shook my head, not making eye contact with her as I stared at the floor, tears coming out of my eyes. "Good. Now, I need to take the IV out. Can you show me your arm?" She asked in a polite tone. I held out my left arm, using my arm to wipe away tears. "I'm sorry." I said, my voice cracking halfway through the sentence. She looked up at me with a reassuring look and smiled. "There's nothing to apologize for." Her horn lit up with a maroon aurora, and the same glow was on the needle attached to the needle in my hand supplying me with IV. I stared at the mist surrounding the needle as it slowly slid out of my hand, and small piece of cotton and roll of tape levitated over with the same maroon glow. She looked up a me and raised and eyebrow. "Not used to magic?" "Magic?" I asked, bewildered. Before she could respond, two sets of footsteps could be heard coming down the hall. One set sounded like the one I heard before, but the other was different. It almost sounded like metal clicking on the bottom of the floor instead of hooves. My suspicions were confirmed when I saw the two ponies enter my room. The first one was the stallion I saw before, but the other one was drastically different. I was right about the metal, as there were golden gauntlets on her, at lease I believe it was a her, hooves. Her coat was white, and her mane was teal, green, blue, and pink. It also seemed to flow in an invisible breeze. She had a horn that was about a foot long, and had a pair of massive wings. Her eyes were magenta, and seemed warm and loving. She wore a large golden tiara with a purple gem embedded into it, with a matching golden necklace with the same gem. Not to mention, she was fucking huge. Well, compared to the other ponies I've seen so far that is. She stood a good three to four feet above them, and was about as tall as me, maybe a little taller. She stared at me intently, with no emotion on her face. She studied my face, and her eyes softened, a little frown on her face. I had just remembered that I was crying, my eyes were probably bloodshot. My face was also pretty wet with tears as I rubbed away some tears with the back of my right hand. As this mighty being entered the room, the nurse next to me bowed down, showing respect. This is when I realized she was a powerful being, probably a ruler or something. She definitely looked the part at least. "Everypony please leave the room. I need to have word with him." She said in a slightly authoritative voice. The nurse and the doctor left the room at her command, the nurse having closed the door behind her. Looking away from the closed door, I looked up into her eyes. She moved closer to me, standing about a foot away. The arm chair in the corner of the room was encased in a golden mist and slid over to her. Her massive spike of a horn was covered in the aurora as well. The chair stopped just behind her, and the glow dissipated. She sat down on the chair and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breathe. "What are you." She said. It wasn't a question, more of a demand. I was taken aback by the question, almost offended for some reason. I wanted to give cocky answer, but my better judgement came over me as I knew this wasn't the time for shit like that. "I am a human," I answered, a slight tinge of nervousness in my voice. She narrowed her eyes. "How do you know Equestrian." "Equestrian?" I asked, squinting slightly, cocking my head to the side. "The language we're speaking right now," She replied , raising an eyebrow. "We're speaking English. I have no idea what this "Equestrian" is," She raised her eyebrows, and her eyes widened a little. "Where... Where are you from?" She asked, the authoritative voice replaced with a curious one. "Actually, how about I ask a question," I said in slight annoyance. "Where the hell am I? I asked that nurse and she didn't answer me. I deserve some answers." "You are in Canterlot, the capitol of the kingdom of Equestria," she replied. "I am Princess Celestia, one of the two rulers of this land." My jaw dropped. Not at the fact that she was one of the supposed rulers, but at the name of the country. Her eyes studied my shocked state before her eyes opened up wide. "W-what's the name of this planet." I said. "Equis." She responded. She also realized what was going on. "Show me a map." The tip of her horn glowed bright white, before there was a flash. A rolled up map levitated in the air surrounded by a golden glow. Slowly, it unrolled itself. What it showed, was not Earth.
