Beams of light began to smother Johns face, making him stir a little. One eyelid opened spying to the clock on the left of his bed. 7:00a.m it said, he woke a little more early as he planned as he had a pretty good day to look forward too. It was his day off today from his job as a greeter for one Ponyville's biggest convenient stores,Convenient (yes that was the name of the store and owner) and he was going to a theater play in Canterlot. Rarity and Pinkie had invited him to go 2 weeks ago since it was last performance for one it's actors and they wanted to do something nice for John since according to Pinkie it would be an 1 year anniversary of them being here.
John sat up from his bed studying his surroundings. His room was comfortably spacious and cozy decorated with the miscellaneous gifts the locals had given him to help fit in. There were some posters of various clubs, comic books, famous singers etc. Dresser and closet was full apparel that the denizens also gave. Though most of it was either infeasible or awkward to wear since most of it was meant to be worn by ponies rather than humans. Luckily rarity came to the rescue and made 6 sets of clothing for him to wear. All of it was gaudy but it had that Equestrian charm to them and he appreciated it.
It had been a whole year since John and Leo had been transported to Equestria. He remembers that day as if it was yesterday.
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He used to live in a small town in the mountains of West Virginia. He had been working an 8 hour shift at Walmart on a Friday. He was working in the Electronic section where he was suppose to be maintaining his station or helping the customers. However it had rained the last night and got incredibly cold so there was black ice all over the roads. People couldn't really go out to shop since the roads were slippery and slippery plus the roads being the mountains is not a good combination. Of course that didn't stop a couple of stubborn mountain men from trying to travel down the mountain to get that morning breakfast which to John was a little insane; but hey some of the restaurants around here were to die for.
The only reason he had been working at all is because he was in walking distance of the store. Of course he could have stayed home and said he couldn't make it because of the road conditions. Management didn't know where he lived because he tended not to tell people where he lived so it was shaping to be free day. He decided to go anyway; he needed money ever since he moved out of his parents house plus he didn't have anything else better to do. Then again if he was going to be on his phone all day at work like he was doing then he could have home, but hey money less labor.
Leo however was also in walking distance and had showed up at the store to get himself a new laptop for himself. Leo had walked up to John as he was on his phone in his own little world. John quickly put it away and luckily Leo was nice enough to pretend not to notice and ask for help in picking one. That was all good for John unfortunately he knew nothing about computers and nobody else was around to help; so he no choice but to drag Leo around the whole electronic section failing miserably to pretend to know what he is doing. Before he could make a fool of himself any further the lights in the store began to flicker a little catching both of their attention.
Then there was a very loud noise and a flash. It was as if he was hit with a flashbang, of course he didn't really how one felt like but he couldn't help but think it feels like that. He felt himself shift into somewhere else, like when you slide off an escalator. His head hurt and he was blind, he had to take a knee to recover. For some reason he could hear a waterfall nearby. He felt like he was standing on grass rather then the hard Walmart floor. He could hear Leo groaning next him, sounded like he was shuffling on the ground. His vision began to return to him and he began to see the bright colors of the morning sky. It was cloudy and grey wasn't it?
Somehow they had been out of the store; but why? They never really felt themselves moving, it was as if both had been teleport, not that he knew how that felt either. As Leo began to sort himself out, John began to study his surrounding as more of sight returned. It looked like they were in front of a ..... castle? He didn't remember a castle being near the Walmart, or in West Virginia for that matter. As a matter of fact as looked around he could see nothing but greenery. He barely saw mountain that he had recognized What was going on? He took out his phone to see if there some kind of alert but there was none plus it looked like he no service of any kind; great.
He Considered heading towards to see if anyone was there that could help him. Though first he should probably see if Leo is ok. He went up to Leo as he began to pick himself up and asked if he was ok. Leo looked at in pain and confusion but before he could saying anything Leo seemed to notice something at the back. His eyes widening in terror and yelled RUN!!! and ran into the forest nearby. Confused I did a full 360 behind me to see what it was and saw something that in hindsight turned out to be a very friendly yak who wanted to meet them; but to John at that moment looked like a yak charging at them wanting to crush for being in it's territory.
John curled up on the ground, hoping the technique that is suppose to work on bears works on Yaks. Although John screaming in terror probably wasn't suppose to be part of the strategy. Luckily starlight had teleported in front of Yona and told her and the group of friends that had followed her give John some space. After 10 minutes of consoling on where he was and what was going on, John began calm down a little, but not much. Eventually Twilight Sparkle had arrived to assess the situation. apparently the castle he was looking at was actually a school. John took another 20 minutes to sort himself out, all the while Locals waited patiently for him calm down. Some of the creatures had actually comforted him throughout. That moment was probably why he remembers it so clearly. These creatures had come into contact with new species and a complete stranger they showed him more kindness then he had experienced for most of his life.
After 3 more minutes and a whole adventure in the forest trying to find Leo later, they were in Canterlot in front of the two princesses that rule this land. Though John was the one in the throne room with them, Leo still hadn't calmed down from the shock of it all and needed to be seated in another room to calm down, with Cadence who happened to be in Canterlot helping him. After explaining to the princesses what had happened they understood their plight and decided give every possible accommodation they could give. They were given a house to live in, a 2 year stipend and a liaison for them (who turned out to be Twilight since they were going to be living in Ponyville, she volunteered of course). The only thing they asked in return was that ponies from the Equestrian research department would come to their house every month to conduct interviews and test for knowledge of human diet, culture, biology etc. Of course twilight wanted sit in on these sessions, Twilight became Johns favorite princess.
They also promised to find how they got here and if they could get back to where they came from. John made sure to tell Leo that last part first as soon he could. That turned out to be a good decision because Leo finally had calmed down enough to actually converse. It was pretty obvious the person most affected by these developments was Leo, because throughout his episodes of panic and despair he would say that needed to get back home. To John that was pretty rough, he couldn't imagine what Leo was feeling because he practically didn't really have a life, at least not yet. He had moved out of his parents house, or more like kicked out as soon as he was 18. He had taken a job at Walmart and had planned on going to community college to get life back on track. Leo looked like he was moderately wealthy and 28, at least that is how John saw Leo, he didn't really get know him. He probably had an actual family to get back to two. What happened next in the castle become a little more hazy.
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John realized he been going down memory lane long enough and got up to do his morning routine. He went to the bathroom to wash up and get ready for day. It was pretty sweet that the princesses decided to build them a whole new house rather then giving them a pre build. That meant the house was built for humans to live in and they didn't have to worry about the common house hold things being either too small or too big. John had been in a pony house before and he could see how difficult it would be for them to live there. The door entrance was too small, Bathroom was too awkward, most of the sinks were too low etc.
As John got out of the shower he began to think of what he should do while he waited for rarity to fetch for the event. He might as well make breakfast in the meantime and made his way to the kitchen in his morning robe. He hadn't really given the kitchen a go and wondered what he could make up. He remembered that he could make some pretty mean pancakes, who know maybe Leo would like them. Leo had been pretty down lately and was sure he needed to be cheered up a little. Now that he thought about it when was Leo going to get up anyway?
Author's Note
Next Chapter will be with Leo and his prospective.
