Chapter 1

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The mare and I just stare at each other for several long moments.

“So… are you going to use the bathroom, or can I?” she asks, breaking the silence.

I cock an eyebrow, before blinking and blush, lowering my head and hurrying out.

She closes the door and, after a few seconds, I hear a showing running.

Slowly, I walk back over to the couch, taking in the décor.

It’s a decent apartment, with several doorways, suggesting more rooms. The living room is spacious, with enough room for two couches, a fireplace and a large coffee table between them.

Sitting down, I just stare at the empty fireplace for several long moments as everything fully hits me.

I’m in Equestria. Equestria… as Max? How in the world is that even possible?

I frown, scratching my head. Something is nagging me in the back of my brain, but I can’t properly remember.

Shaking my head, I glace around, noticing pictures of a smaller pony that looks like Clear Skies with a blueish colt with a dark blue mane and tail haphazardly placed above the fireplace, as if it wasn’t normally there.

I frown, looking more closely, before something clicks in my brain. Clear Skies? She’s that mare from Tanks for the Memories who was part of that Three Stooges reference joke. That mean, the colt in the picture is Open Skies.

I cock my head. This is too weird.

Shaking my hand, I focus on my reflection in the picture frame’s glass.

It’s so weird, not seeing my face staring back at me.

I start to study my features more closely. Aside from being longer and the blonde streaks, my hair’s not really any different than before. The eyes, on the other hand. I definitely didn’t have chocolate-brown eyes before this.

I frown. Wait. What was my old eye colour?

I blink, my panic threatening to take over.

I don’t remember my old eye colour. Shit! I don’t even remember who my family were before waking up as Max!

I put my hands on my head, my eyes widening in fear.

I don’t remember my mother, my father. I don’t remember any of my siblings! What in the world is going on?!

As if that isn’t enough, my panic is increased when I feel two large somethings connected to my back pull out, the sudden shift in weight causing me to fall backwards and crash into the coffee table.

Glancing back wildly, my eyes widen further when I see a large pair of pale tan wings with freckles and white streaks.

I just stare, my mouth hanging open as I register the feeling of my two new limbs and where they attach to my body.

Part of my brain is screaming at me that this can’t be real. That these wings have to be fake in some way.

…

But there is no mistaking that feeling. It’s as real as the feeling of my arm connected to my shoulder. These wings are mine.

“Max?!” Clear Skies worried voice calls from the bathroom, her voice muffed through the door.

“I-I’m okay… I think?” I call back, trying, and I’m pretty sure failing, to keep the uncertainty out of my voice.

I slowly get up, being careful off my wings and fighting the squirming feeling in my stomach as I feel them moving and the ease with which I can do it, just like my arms or legs.

Standing up straight, I glance back at my wings. They’re not fully outstretched, this room isn’t big enough for that, but they’re several feet long at the very least.

I take a few deep breaths, trying to calm my nerves so I can just think for a few minutes.

“Okay,” I tell myself, it unsettling hear Honey’s voice coming out of my mouth as I do. Hearing it without his signature joy is odd enough, but hearing it from the mouth I’m using makes it far worse. “Okay, just think. You left work and somehow you’re now in Equestria and you’ve turned into Max from the Maximum Ride books. That’s… not easy to explain, but you can’t get answer if you don’t assess the situation first.”

“What do you mean, you’ve turned into somepony else named Max from some books and—? Sweet Celestia, Max. You have wings?’

I whirl around, wincing as my wings knock a lamp over and launch my hand out to grab the photo I’d been looking at earlier, catching it before it hits the ground.

I just stand there uncomfortably, holding the picture as the purple Pegasus mare just stares at me, open mouthed.

“I… think I can explain?” I grin nervously.

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“So, if I’ve got this right, you’ve turned into a fictional character from a book series in your world, but you don’t know how it happened or how you ended up here in Canterlot last night?” Clear Skies asks about half an hour later.

I nod, fiddling with my hands on the dining room table.

I’ve finished explaining as best I can to Clear Skies what I am, who I am and what I can’t explain.

She’s also explained a few things to me that helped me figure out when I Equestria’s timeline I’ve landed, which is good, because that weird memory blank I’m having is also effecting my memory of the show.

From what I can gather from what Clear Skies told me, I’m somewhere in the middle of season 5. Her mentioning of visiting Rarity’s Canterlot Boutique tells me I’m in shortly after that episode, so I at least know that.

She shrugs. “Well, weirder things have happened.”

Knowing this universe, you have no idea. There’s a lot of things one episode characters wouldn’t know about.

Still, the fact she can so casually wave this away is… worrying.

“So, how come you live in Canterlot?” I ask after a few minutes.

She blinks, before shaking her head. “Oh, I don’t live here. I’m just housesitting for a friend. I live in Cloudsdale.”

Oh, yeah. I think I vaguely remember hearing something like that while I was out of it. I just didn’t connect the dots back then.

“Anyway, I don’t have any experience with… what did you call yourself again?” Skies cocks her head.

I sigh, resting my head on one hand. “I’m a human. Or, I was. I guess now I’m a human trapped in Avian-Human Hybrid’s body.”

Skies frowns, rubbing her chin as she looks me over. “How old are you?”

“Before?” I ask, frowning for a second. “I was almost thirty. Now?” I pull back, glancing down at myself. “I dunno. Ten or twelve, maybe? This body is definitely younger than Max was in the first book and... Wait.” My eyes widen as my hands fly to my head. “Shit! In the books, Max and the others look older than they really are because of their biology! Crap, am I actually six or something?!”

“Whoa. Whoa! What the hay have I come back to?”

I turn around to see another Pegasus walking in from the living room. She’s yellow, with a light-blue main and tail and a light-grey cloud and orange butterfly for a Cutie Mark.

Her mane immediately tells me she’s a Wonderbolt.

“Misty,” Clear Skies gets up, moving over and hugging the other mare.

I blink and it clicks. Misty Fly must’ve been the Misty who found me and saved me from whoever those assholes were last night.

“Glad you’re back,” Skies says, pointing to me. “We could use a hoof. Max is better but, her memory’s… well…”

We both repeat the exact conversation we’d just had with each other.

Once we’re done, Misty Fly has a stern expression, deep in thought. “My cousin’s right. This doesn’t sound all too weird compared to other stuff that’s happened over the last year, but I don’t know how we could help.” She gives me a sad look. “Sorry, kid.”

I sigh, slumping in my seat.

Man. If the ponies at the castle she’d been performing at could help and weren’t, ya know, clearly royalty, I’d ask them if…

I raise my head, looking right at Misty.

“Misty?” I ask slowly. “That castle you mentioned performing at last night. That wouldn’t be Celestia and Luna’s castle, would it?”

She nods, seeming confused. “It’s the only castle in Canterlot. What’s your point, kid?”

I shoot up and rush to her, grabbing her forelegs and looking pleadingly at her. “Can you take me there, right now?! Maybe Celestia and Luna can help me figure out how I got here! Or maybe they could send me to Twilight and she could find out for me!”

“Whoa, whoa! Easy, kid,” she says, pulling out of my grip and looking me over. “I mean, I can try, but the princesses are pretty busy ponies. They can’t just drop everything for every… um, what did you call yourself again? Hue-Man?”

“Avian-Human Hybrid, if we wanna get technical,” I say quietly.

She nods. “They can’t just drop everything for every random Avian-Hue-Man Hybrid that asks.”

I actually pause, before folding my arms, deadpanning. “You really think Celestia and Luna wouldn’t be concerned about a being from another reality somehow just ending up in their world as a fictional character? What if I’m not the only one who came here? What if the rest of The Flock are here? Or worse, the Erasers?”

I actually get chills just saying that, as if my mind had been ignoring the possibility of those monsters being here too until I’d spoken the words allowed. As if doing so somehow made it more likely a possibility.

Misty’s expression doesn’t change for a moment, before it becomes concerned. My brief description of the Erasers and the possibity of them being here and what that could mean for everypony clearly only just that moment sinking in.

She shakes her head, before nodding. “Okay. Come on. We’ll fly there.”

She turns to leave, getting to the front door before noticing I haven’t followed. She pauses, glancing back.

“Max?” Clear Skies seems confused.

“You’re the one who asked, kid. Are ya coming or what?” Misty asks from the door, giving me a confused and annoyed look.

“Um, I will, I just…” I scratch behind my neck nervously. “I… don’t actually know how to fly? I’ve only had these wings for under twenty-four hours, after all, so...”

Misty blinks, before sighing and trots back over. “Then, before we head for the palace, you’re getting a quick crash course in basic flight.”

I wince. Oh, this is going to be painful.

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“If you’re stuck here a while, I’m asking the princesses if I can train you myself,” Misty says as we reach the castle. “You need it.”

I clumsily flap my wings, trying to lower my decent, before I flop face first into the stone floor outside the castle. “Ouch.”

When she said “crash course”, she didn’t know it would literally be a “crash” course.

“Misty Fly!” a grey male Earth Pony guard salutes her, his eyes trained on me with confusion and wariness. “Who’s this with you?”

“Her name’s Max,” Misty says, saluting back. “She needs to see the princesses, immediately. It’s a matter of national security.”

“Yes, ma’am!” he salutes, stepping back and letting us inside.

Within minutes, I’m standing in the throne room, staring nervously up at the princesses of the day and night themselves.

“This is very… confusing and troubling,” Celestia says, glancing to her sister. “Are you sure these Erasers, as you call them, are in our lands, Miss Max?”

I gulp, before taking a few deep breaths, clenching my fists at my side and look up at them, shaking my head. “I honestly don’t know, Your Highnesses. All I know is, with my being here, there’s the slim chance I didn’t come alone.”

“And you have no clue as to how you arrived,” Luna says.

I frown. She said that matter-of-factly, not as a question.

Celestia seems to have noticed this too, as she’s giving her sister a questioning look.

“I noticed an odd dream last night in the Dream Realm,” the Princess of the Night says simply, pointing to me. “It was her dream. I decided to investigate. Her mind is a jumbled mess of memories. However, she is speaking true when she says she is unsure of her situation and whether these Erasers are in our lands or not.”

Celestia frowns in thought, before looking to Misty Fly. “And you found her, Misty Fly?”

“Yes, Ma’am!” Misty salutes.

Celestia nods. “Very well then. For the time being, whilst Luna and I look into these matters, would you mind having Miss Max be entrusted to your care?”

“Just Max, please?” I ask, rubbing a hand over my face. “The Miss part is really not helping me cope.”

Misty looks surprised for a moment, before she frowns and nods, saluting again. “It would be my honour, Your Majesties.”

“Very well.”Celestia returns the nod, before looking to me. “Max, you will be living with Misty Fly in Cloudsdale until we can ascertain where to go next and whether or not your theory of these Erasers being in our world is correct. Do you object?”

“Don’t really have much of a choice, do I?” I ask, shrugging.

So I’m going to be living in Cloudsdale for a while. This should be interesting.

Author's Note

Hisotry repeats itself with this chapter.

like the day i wrote the proglue, it turns out another of my usbs became unusable due to encrypting a heap of folders, including one containing Derpypony22's readings of the My Little Dashie stories, which i lost and can't get back.

i even had to redownload several of Astro Brony's videos, which would've been impossible if not for the Astro Brony Archive channel, since Astro Brony himself just vanished from the internet several years ago.

And, like with the prologue, due to time running out at the library, I'm having to do the Author's Note via my phone again because I'm not waiting til next Thursday to post this.

Hopefully, this time I'll be allowed to publish, since the prologue alone didn't have enough mlp elements in it to qualify the story as an mlp one.

Hope you enjoyed the story so far and are intrigued enough to want more.

Til next time, stay safe, stay clean and later everybody.