Equestria's Martial Warrior

Chapters

Chapter 1: Spacetime Journey
Chapter 2: Breathe In The New Air
Chapter 3: Unwillingness To Die
Chapter 4: Hospital Madness
Chapter 5: Getting Acquainted
Chapter 6: A Welcomed Guest
Chapter 7: Forgotten History
Chapter 8: Sowing Seeds of Power

Chapter 1: Spacetime Journey

Loading a box in the back of a white delivery truck, a young man heaved a sigh of relief. "Finally, the last box... Time to clock out and head home," he said to himself with a content smile on his face. At an average height of 5'10, the young man sports mediocre looks, being fairly unnoticeable in a crowd. Wearing a somewhat messy undercut of black hair, and graced with a pair of blue eyes, he wiped his forehead of all the sweat from lifting the boxes into the truck all morning. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath.

Due to working this laborious job, he was fairly well off physically, sporting a lean yet well-built physique. Although he wasn't big, he gets the job done without much hassle. Being at the ripe age of twenty contributed as well.

Opening his eyes and gaining focus once again, he looked around the warehouse. It filled with other coworkers, boxes, and forklifts scattered around. All of them fulfilling a purpose, no matter how small.

Eventually, the young man's eyes land on a woman in particular. She was dressed in a uniform that makes it easy to distinguish them from the rest. Taking somewhat quick strides in an attempt to get home quicker, he closes the distance between them.

"Ma'am, just wanted to let you know I finished loading up and gonna clock out." He states, doing his best to leave no room for discussion.

The woman, with a somewhat short and stocky appearance, turns around to face the young man. "Alright, thanks for letting me know beforehand, Leo," she says in a very business-like manner. Waving his goodbyes, Leo quickly makes his way to clock out, not wanting to draw much attention to himself.

However, things don't go quite according to his plan as a female co-worker of his slowly paces up to him with a scowl. "So, how're you gonna fix this prick?"

If looks could kill I'd be dead for sure. I feel like she gets off at making my life less enjoyable.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Leo's home-bound grin instantly fades into a grimace, as he knows he might not be leaving soon. Shaking his head, he looks at her like she's crazy

"You were supposed to cover for me, but now I have to work instead of going out with my friends! Meanwhile, you get to go home and wallow like a loner!" She lays out her first-world strife, perhaps trying to scrounge for any sort of sympathy she can get from the poor sod in front of her.

Never mind, she IS crazy.

"Listen, I don't have time to listen to you whine about not being able to eat out your girlfriends tonight just because of work. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with my bed, and let's face it, we both know not to keep a girl waiting," he says with the biggest shit-eating grin he could pull off.

Shamelessly, he moves her aside from the computer, punching in his numbers in faster than a blink of an eye. Opening the exit door, he turns around to the insufferable woman, taking in the features on her face as they scrunch up in anger. Finally, he exclaims, "GOODBYE!!"

Out of the woods, Leo gets to his car, an old but well-kept Toyota Corolla, and, unable to stifle his laughter, finally bursts out. "Pffft... AHAHAHA. She seriously thought I would work just so she could PARTY? What a joke HAHAHA. Maybe I should have told her to do stand-up!" he jokes to himself while pulling out of the parking lot. "Maybe I should pick up some food... Ehh, I'll just grab whatever's at home."

The scenery as Leo drives around isn't too noteworthy, just the everyday landscape of the suburbs. Thankfully it isn't rush hour whenever he gets off work, giving him an easy drive home.

About 20 minutes later, Leo pulls up to his apartment complex's parking lot that's filled to the brim cars. Finding a place to park, he then gets out and slowly makes his way to his room number.

The apartment complex is a fairly nice place, with clean sidewalks, healthy trees, and well-trimmed grass. It also had some nice, trimmed hedges here and there and a swimming pool not too far off.

Appreciating the view, he finally makes it to his destination. Unlocking the door and opening it he's greeted by the scent of familiarity. Not the cleanest scent however there was one word for it, home.

Walking in, the apartment is fairly well-kept, with little to no dust on anything. It was a studio, a one-room apartment, so Leo didn't have to take care of anybody but himself, which he very much preferred. However, that also made it lonely. To the point where the apartment was only filled with necessities, besides the things in his room. It was a very minimalist setting, to say the least.

Approaching the kitchen for his dinner, Leo is overcome with a slight dizziness, one that he has never felt before. It wasn't fierce but rather soft and oddly comforting. However, it went away as fast as it came, confusing him in the process. Shrugging it off, he grabs some leftover pasta from the night before and throws it into the microwave haphazardly.

-Ding!

Once done, he scarfs it down, not even giving himself time to enjoy the mediocre dish. After all, no one was watching and he was excited to be home. Putting his plate away in the wash, he lightheartedly whistles on his way to his room.

Unlike the rest of his apartment, his room wasn't nearly as barren, filled with posters of different bands and artists of varying genres from rock, to metal, to pop-rap. A black guitar is sitting in the back right corner, worn with age and use, was sitting on a stand. The strings and neck, however, are very well taken care of in contrast. Next to it is undoubtedly an amp with pedals for said guitar, with stickers all over it from different bands such as "Pink Floyd" and "Dragonforce."Along with them was also a simple-looking keyboard sitting on a stand. In the other corner to the left was a PC setup on a desk with subwoofers hooked up to it underneath included with a chair in front. The rest of the room was fairly clean, with only a set of casual clothes strewn across the bed. Finally, at the foot of the bed are some weights, mostly dumbbells with a few plates.

I could use some music right now, maybe some weed as well.

Leo changes clothes from his workwear before anything else. It's nothing but a collared shirt and jeans, but it gets somewhat nasty with the constant sweat.

Plopping on his chair, he opens up a drawer in his desk, inviting a somewhat rank smell into the room. Looking into it, he pulls out a grinder and opens it up, revealing the treasure of already ground marijuana. Grabbing a pipe that's in the drawer as well, he loads up a bowl into it. Finally, he gets the lighter in the stash and lights the bowl, taking a nice pull.

Maaaaannn, this is some nice flower.

After finishing, Leo turns on some music to play and sing along to on his guitar. Being in the mood to sing more than anything, he turns on "Asia - Who Will Stop The Rain", one of his favorite progressive rock songs.

This song never gets old!

Leo spends most of his afternoons like this, usually playing music, messing around on his PC, watching an occasional anime, or reading web novels and manga. It was mostly a lonesome activity with occasional activities with friends here and there. However, he liked it this way since it was familiar and he didn't need to listen to needless drama.

This mindset led to Leo being very particular about friends, having only a handful. However, this handful was very close-knit, leading to close bonds between one another.

Family, on the other hand, was something Leo had distanced himself from, being because of mostly mismatched values and expectations. This, however, unfortunately, lead to an intense estrangement between them. He hoped someday they could see eye to eye, but for now, it was like talking to a wall so he decided not to waste his breath.

Time slowly passed into the evening, with the sound of music filling the room.

Seeing it get dark, Leo decides it's time to get some much-needed sleep, beings that he was quite worn out from lifting boxes all morning. Crawling into bed after he strips down to his boxers, he gets nice and comfy. However, that same feeling of dizziness and comfort cover him once more, but even more evident, startling Leo. It was bizarre because the body seemed to welcome this outside force, frightening Leo even more.

Ultimately unable to do anything, he decides to get it checked out tomorrow, hoping it won't affect him while driving on the way to the clinic. "Nighty night Leo," he whispers to himself before losing consciousness.

///Next Morning///

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"FUCK," Leo screams, "YOU RUINED MY BADASS DREAM!" Hitting his alarm to make it shut up, Leo raises his body, revealing his terrible case of bed head.

Early bird gets the worm or whatever hehe.

Leo goes through his usual morning schedule of working out, eating cereal, showering, hygiene, and dressing up. Thinking he'll be out for a bit while he gets this dizziness checked, he decides to bring his charger and headphones along with his usual phone and wallet.

I think that's everything!

Leo makes his way to the door, checking his pockets on the way just in case. Grabbing the doorknob, Leo is suddenly swallowed up by that same feeling of dizziness from last night. However this time it's different than before, very different, as though he could fall asleep right then and there.

Without warning, he's flung through the ceiling into the air, constantly accelerating upwards. The sky, beautiful as it was on that bright sunny day, passed through his vision like a blur. Leo's face contorts into one of disbelief.

What the hell is going on!?

Leo is experiencing extreme speeds, heat clinging to his body. He's constantly speeding up going through first, the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, then the thermosphere. Once past the thermosphere, one of the last atmospheric layers, the heat encasing him begins to dissipate. Suddenly, he reaches an abrupt halt, all of this happening in a split second. Looking down, he's terrified.

HOW IN THE FUCK!? I DIDN'T TAKE ANY DRUGS, I SWEAR!!!

Under his feet is nothing, however, he can see the whole Earth, as though he's on the moon! If anything was comparable to the view, it would be those pictures of Earth as astronauts do a spacewalk. Floating in space, Leo is completely taken aback. There, he slowly floats around, taking in the view.

Am I just stuck like this?!

Suddenly, Leo is sucked back, even faster than before, into his body. Scared of what's to come, he's speechless. After all, this isn't exactly his first rodeo, having taken DMT a few times.

Then, there's a sort of rubber band effect. Flung so fast into space, he has no time to even take in what's happening around him.

The space-time around him is physically warping from his speed, causing the things in his vision to visibly warp and contort into an almost incomprehensible way. The only thing he can think of causing this is that's he's somehow moving faster than light. The lights then morph into a tunnel of ever-changing colors, a rainbow, where he's then being stretched and thinned out from his speed.

The tunnel itself, colors as it was, was almost indecipherable, like an optical illusion in the way the colors change from changing through the process of a wave to it changing instantaneously into different colors. And, although Leo could only see the surface, he knew there was so much more he wasn't seeing just because of how fast he was moving and his perception being as small as it was. Like an ever escaping dream. Leo was in there for what felt like a few minutes, but in reality, was a split second.

FUCK, it hurts but yet it's so damn beautiful! I don't even know how to feel!

The colorful tunnel then leaves his vision, only for a giant shape to come into sight.

Leo sees what he can only presume to be a fractal, a deep dark red, the same color you'd find on the bottom of a butcher's bucket, one that brings an instinctual fear, one he's relatively fast approaching. A never-ending spiral, constantly drilling through space. It was a truly magnificent sight, with complex maroon shapes that were swimming in the sea of blood with indescribable directions, splitting off as the fractal drilled further and further. However, as he approached the center of the fractal, it broke apart to reveal more and more layers. It just kept going, and going, and going, and going. Like petals upon a rosebud. His eyes are filled with the red scene of impossibility.

The maroon geometric shapes come in and out of perception, leaving even more unanswered questions. He was stuck descending the bloody gorge in space for what felt like hours. Realizing this could possibly never end, Leo starts to panic.

Is it going to keep going? Am I going to be here forever? Why did this have to happen now? Is this it?! Is this how I end?! Stuck?! GOD DAMMIT!

As Leo is overcome with hysteria and indignation, the space around him begins to shatter and crack. The red scenery falls like glass, transforming everything into a vacuum of space, devoid of anything. Completely and utterly black. Like an abyss, all-consuming. He felt his very soul quake, his pupils waver.

Slowly, eyes start to appear everywhere, looking into the deepest depths of Leo's soul as he's caught in possibly the most vulnerable moment of his life. They look down on him, as though he is merely dirt. He can feel his ego slowly crumble under the intense gazes.

I'm scared. They won't stop looking at me. They won't stop. Why? Why?! Just leave me alone like everyone else! STOP!

In the ensuing insanity, Leo slowly caves into himself, feeling as though he is becoming something he isn't. It mattered not how sinister or virtuous, but that the thoughts were different than the norm. A horrifying feeling, having the mind overcome with thoughts unwanted. However, Leo suddenly has a train of thought that's saved him through situations like this.

Leo, it'll be okay, it's temporary.

Breathe

The eyes are still there and are staring, but Leo "removes" himself from his mind through his breathing. He focuses on simply taking in what is around him and nothing more. His stray thoughts were as loud as before, if not more so, but it was perceived as white noise to Leo's consciousness. Unneeded information.

As he approaches the never-ending space of watching eyes, he witnesses it morph. The space is filled with a bright white light, the eyes closing themselves from the radiance.The light envelops an image of what looks like a celestial fox. A god. It was like looking at the sun with how bright it was.

A god.... fox?

As the celestial being graces Leo with its appearance, Leo swiftly approaches the fox, a feeling of warmth bathing his body all the while. The heat slowly becomes more intense, rising to an unbearable temperature, forcing Leo to bite his tongue just to keep conscious. He wants the pain to end so terribly, that he feels the moments reach a point of becoming an eternity.

Closing the distance between the two, Leo notices the fox begins to form a more solid body, taking on a soft white coat of fur, pulsing and burning like a white-hot sun, with the ends of its limbs tinged with red flowing flames. Behind the fox, Leo becomes aware that there are nine white tails, each with the same red tint on the ends as the other limbs. Suddenly, he's brought to a stop within an arm's reach of the fox. As he stares at it, the god slowly moves its gaze towards Leo, sending shivers down Leo's body from the sheer pressure of the diety. Then, it speaks.

"North."

A fathomlessly powerful vibration distorted the space-time around Leo. The word carved itself within Leo's very being. Just one word. However, Leo didn't need anymore to understand what it wanted. After speaking, the divine fox quickly fades out of existence like a blur. However, right before it fades completely, Leo makes out a weird expression on its face, almost like a smirk. Once completely gone, Leo is all alone once again.

This is so crazy man hahaha.

Leo thinks to himself as he laughs internally from the stress. Suddenly, the void is filled, the black background is replaced by a breathtaking view. Looking around, he sees all these beautiful nebula clouds, something that simply couldn't be experienced in any other setting. The clouds were of a golden sheen with a purple and green backdrop. The view was ephemeral.

There, he accelerates once again through a multi-colored space-time tube again. However, at the end of it, he can see Earth. The only thing Leo couldn't seem to put his finger on is why the planet looked so vibrant compared to before. It was both familiar yet completely different.

I just don't understand...Maybe it's drugs, but I didn't take any. Even if I was on any, it should've been just as vibrant before as it is now... Life lesson, don't ask questions I guess...

Stagnant above the planet, Leo begins to feel the same warmth from the godly being from before, but this time it starts to get hot. Uncomfortably hot in fact.

Wait why does it BURN SO MUCH!! DAMMIT, IT'S SO HOT!!

Slowly advancing towards the planet, Leo begins to lose consciousness from the immense heat attacking his body and mind. He can feel the heat in his muscles, his bones, the marrow of his bones. A truly excruciating pain. It was like he was being burnt alive. He feels as though he is becoming ash itself.

To maybe combat the heat, his body forces his eyes shut, but this just makes his mind shut down that much faster. Leo's mind slows down, so much so that it comes to a halt.

Just.. why... is.. th..is.. ha...pp...e...n...i...n.....g......

Completely out cold, Leo leaves the will of the universe to take care of him.

Author's Note

With the dmt scene in this chapter i was trying to go for the doctor strange dmt scene. LMK what you think :)

Chapter 2: Breathe In The New Air

"Aughhhh," Leo's voice comes out roughly as he rouses himself up from his unforeseen slumber.

It was damp underneath his back, with a slight breeze flowed over Leo's body. Feelings of cool strings running along him, brushing against his body, he abruptly opens his eyes. Unbeknownst to him, while he was asleep, he was sprawled spread-eagle on an open section of grass. He stood up, albeit somewhat roughly, and brushed off the grass that had stuck to him. Looking around, his breath is taken away.

How in the world did I end up in someplace as beautiful as this! Holy crap!

To his right is a forest lush with trees of varying heights, their colors ranging from a darkish green to a bright orange. To his left is a humongous ravine, like a blade had sliced through the ground, leaving its mark on the world's surface. Inside of the ravine was a river running through with the steepest cliffs down to it that Leo has ever seen. Off into the distance is a range of mountains with ice and snow lining the top of them. Also, Leo notices that the colors pop out like the contrast got turned up a little. It was very odd, to say the least.

What time is it?

Checking his pockets hastily, Leo confirms the contents. He has everything he was going to go to the clinic with. His phone, wallet, headphones, and charger. Leo pulls out his phone. It was a fairly clean phone, with only one crack in the top right corner of the screen. It wore a solid black case to protect against any unplanned falls. Turning it on, it reveals it's about noon. However, he also notices that he has no service here. For the better, Leo turns off his phone to conserve battery until he can find a better place for service.

Great, now I have no clue where I am with no ability to find help right now... What's next!?

Noticing he's losing his temper, Leo sits down and focuses on his breathing, as it always seems to calm him down. Slowly he gets his bearings.

An odd feeling slowly began to encase his body.

What's this??

A calming but energetic feeling begins to build up in Leo as he continues to regulate his breathing. He can feel it circulate in his body, going through his blood, muscles, and bones. It was like his body was being injected with energy, slowly accumulating. It filled his body with its warmth.

This is such a.. euphoric feeling...

As Leo keeps breathing, he feels the energy start to reach a point of it being uncomfortable, almost like he NEEDS to let it out. If he didn't send it out, he was scared it might explode inside his body. Standing up, he feels the energy pool up in his belly, flowing through his back, abs, his right shoulder, and finally down his arm. He punches the air with all his strength.

pfff

The fist flies through the air, ripping the space apart. If the air was somehow alive, it was most certainly in great pain.

Taken aback, Leo stares at his fist, contemplating what just happened. Coming off his fist is a stream of barely visible steam, dissipating as fast as it appeared. Although he consistently worked out to be healthy, he knew he was never this strong! This train of thoughts was put to a halt by a realization of his situation.

I'll figure this out later it seems. I need to focus on survival right now.

Suddenly, Leo's body was overcome with a sense of lethargy. As though his body suddenly became that of lead, he slumped down, falling to one knee. His breathing became somewhat labored, but not too harsh. Just noticeable. It seemed that punch took it out of him. Breathing slowly, he begins to build up that energy once again until the tired feeling goes away.

Without a goal, Leo decides to find which way is north first.

Maybe that god had the right idea... I need to find civilization. After, I can see about finding my way home...

Looking up, he sees the sun directly overhead. It was not harsh, but it still beat down on to Leo's body. The heat pulsed onto the Earth, indiscriminate of who or what it was shining down on. Unfortunately, the Sun being straight overhead didn't work in Leo's favor, as it was hard to tell which way the Sun would set at the moment.

I guess I might just have to wait to find which direction is north... too bad I don't have a compass app.

Smiling bitterly, Leo decides to follow the water in the deep crevice in the crust upstream, hoping he can find a source of water that isn't exactly out of reach. He might even find a civilization upstream as well! Meanwhile, for shelter, he decides to hold off for now, concluding that going into the forest would be his best bet.

Food might be a bit rough, I could try for fish when I find the water I'm looking for upstream, but that's not guaranteed. I could forage for grub and berries once I go try to find shelter. Worst case scenario, I'll have to go without...

Coming to a consensus, Leo finally has a survival plan. After thinking though, he realizes he'll need a weapon in case he's cornered. Seeing a nice, straight branch, he picks it up and looks at it observantly. It was sturdy with just some twigs branching off on some of the sides, but he could work with it.

This'll have to do it seems, thank god I have a pocket knife in my wallet.

Walking along the massive gorge on Earth, Leo sharpens his stick with his knife while carefully monitoring his surroundings. It was truly a surreal sight. The closest thing comparable to his knowledge would be the "Grand Canyon." More than likely, this crevice was eroded through thousands of years due to the running water that was deep within its depths. As he walks down the edge of the canyon for what was an hour or two, a welcome sound enters Leo's ears.

SHHHHHHH

Hearing running water, Leo becomes excited, knowing his goal is coming up ahead. If it was as loud as it was, it more than likely meant there was a waterfall. Upping the pace in his step, Leo continued forward. The pathway then began to slope up, reaching the point of climbing big steps. Leo looks down towards the canyon to get a good view, not that he had a prime vantage point.

After a few minutes, eventually, Leo comes across an arch bridge with a railroad running across it over the ravine. Behind the bridge is a waterfall, leaving a very surreal picturesque landscape in view. Seeing this, he takes out his phone and snaps a picture of it.

NICE! Now I have a nice picture AND a source of water!

Grinning ear to ear, Leo rushes up to the railroad to see if he can find any information. Unfortunately, there aren't any signs to go off of. However now with it being somewhat later in the day, Leo can see which way the sun is setting in the sky. Using this, he can conclude the railway is running across the east and west. Although neither way is leading north, this doesn't wipe the smile off of his face. After all, this means he's been going north this whole time!

HELL YEA!! Talk about lucky!

Instead of following the railway, Leo decides to keep following the water northward. After all, it fits the bill for keeping him hydrated and goes the direction he needs to. Two birds with one stone!

I could use some water though, good thing it's flowing fairly quickly! I can just drink straight from the stream.

Walking over to the waterfall, he can see another forest further upstream with the trees being a different breed. They almost give off an ominous feeling with how dark and dense they are, the canopies seemingly not letting much light reach the floor and undergrowth of the forest.

Scooping up some water with his hands from further upstream of the waterfall, he finally gets some much-needed refreshment. "Ahhhh much better," he mutters to himself. Getting his bearings he then notices some movement in the water. It was a slender shadow, slowly moving upstream against the current.

"FISH," Leo exclaims, grabbing his makeshift spear he makes a break for the shadow in the water. He takes a throwing stance, holding the spear over his shoulder.

Feeling the sensation of the energy within his body, he focuses it first to his back, letting it flow through to his chest and shoulder, then eventually the length of his arm. His spear shoots out from his grasp.

ftooom

Soon after, the fish is pierced through, leaving a light trail of blood seeping into the stream of water. Walking over the spear slightly sticking out of the water, Leo wears a contagious smile on his face. Lifting the spear reveals that it's a good-sized salmon.

Still wearing his grin, Leo checks the time, revealing it to be about three-thirty in the afternoon.

Good job me hehe, now all I need is a shelter with fire. It's gonna get late before I know it.

For better judgment, Leo decides to trust his gut and not go in the ominous forest but instead into the one he has been walking beside all day. Slinging his dinner on his spear over his shoulder, he sets off.

Always trust your instincts kids *wink* hehe.

Walking into the more vibrantly colored forest, he systematically checks off places he can and can't camp out at for the night. It's a very good place for a makeshift shelter, with a nice amount of sticks, a bunch of old leaves that are perfect for making the cover for it, and of course plenty of trees to serve as a good foundation.

This is perfect!~

Walking around he also sees critters here and there, from squirrels to birds. They were all busy bodies, setting off on their own errands or preparing for the next day. Since it's getting a bit late, he can even hear some of the bugs chirping. The cicadas were especially noticeable, making a noise most similar to a shrieking.

Leo finds a nice stump that can be assumed to have snapped from a fierce storm, having splintered. It was fairly tall, reaching up to Leo's waist. This, however, worked in his favor. "If I can find a sturdy stick I can lock it in where it's splintered..."

Making a mental note of where the stump is, he then walks around to gather sticks to lay atop a stronger sturdy branch. Thankfully there are plenty lying around, ripe for the picking.

After hauling branches back to the stump and going off to look around, he finally comes to a nice sturdy log which is most likely from an uprooted young tree. Once he has it back at his base of operations, he's set.

Starting, he lodges the young log within the splinters to serve as a solid foundation for his overnight stay. Then, he starts to lean the other branches he found littered in the forest perpendicular to the aforementioned log.

Nice, it's all coming together

Once all those sticks are in line, he then lays some of the leaves and dirt on the forest floor on top of them, insulating the shelter in a sense. That'll help make sure rain doesn't come through as easily if there is any. Clearing up the leaves also made space for Leo to make a temporary fire pit to cook his mouth-watering salmon. and keep himself warm for the night

No seasoning, unfortunately... I think my hunger can look past that though.

To start the fire, Leo first builds what's called a tinder nest, made of thin wood shavings and leaves. This is to help jump-start the fire in a sense once he's able to get an ember.

Now with that out of the way, he picks a split log found scouring earlier and makes a v-shape cut into it. This is where the ember will fall into, that way it won't be suffocated from the rubbing that he'll be doing. There he also places the tinder made from before. Next, he makes a depression at the end of the "v" for the stick to not veer off the path.

Leo then begins to strip two branches of its bark, making sure one of the sticks has a pointy end. The pointy one meant to skewer the fish while the other for kindling the fire. Now with everything set, he builds up a pile of sticks for the fire.

"Time to get to work," Leo yells to himself while he gets the stick between his hands. Putting it into the indent at the end of the "v," he begins to spin the stick vigorously, putting pressure down on it as well.

Eventually, his hard work pays off, as he's gifted with a little boon of hot embers. Quickly he begins to blow softly onto the ember and tinder, where it slowly begins to smoke.

"Fuuu, fuuu," Leo delicately blows, hoping for good results. Reaching the breaking point, the tinder combusts into a little flame. Swiftly but carefully, he puts the baby flame into the pile of sticks.

According to plan, the sticks around the tinder begin to catch, making a beautiful fire for the night. It begins to dance within the slowly dimming afternoon.

Sick! It all worked out first try!

Fish time!

Taking his fish, he pokes the pointy end of his carved stick into the mouth, pushing it out of the other end of the fish. Then he plunges the other end of the stick into the ground near the fire, letting the fish roast from the heat of the fire.

"Finally, now I can figure out just what the hell is going on. First I'm transported from my door to the middle of nowhere. Then I can feel a sort of energy course through me whenever I focus on my breathing." He continues to himself, "I just don't understand, it makes no sense!" He punches the ground, gritting his teeth with a vein popping out on his forehead. He began to feel very frustrated from the lack of information he had to his current situation.

What the hell should I do?!... Sigh

I guess my best bet right now is to see what's up with this energetic sensation...

Getting into a comfortable sitting position, he then focuses on his breathing once again. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Slowly but surely, he begins to feel the energy pool within him. It's very erratic at first glance, but after careful study, it seems to flow from his lungs to his abdomen, where there it pools, spins, and flows haphazardly to the rest of his body.

Can I move it?

Focusing on it, he's able to alter the flow slightly. Deciding to experiment, he tries to make it flow up and down his right arm. First, the pool begins to spin, then the energy leaves the pool of the abdomen, goes up through his heart, through his shoulder, going down to his fingertips, and then finally flowing back the way it came.

"AWESOME," Leo bursts out. Trying what he did earlier in the day, he punches out with all of his strength. Feeling the energy flow with it and then...

POP!

"Holy crap, it's even a little stronger than before!" Unlike before as well, the feeling of lethargy isn't nearly as strong, but Leo feels a change. Focusing inward, he realizes what it is.

So it takes up an amount of energy from my abdomen and exerts it out of my body. The next step is to figure out how I can control how much I use.

Letting the energy build-up, Leo takes a few minutes to breathe. It's like a feeling of bliss and calmness comes with breathing in the energy. A warm feeling but to the point of being comforting. While doing this, Leo focuses on containing, but also circulating the energy within his body.

Wow, this is so refreshing. Almost like the feeling after working out.

Deciding to see what would happen if he doesn't contain the energy while circulating it, he lets go in a sense. There, it begins to seep out of his pores, radiating a slight heat.

Interesting, the only thing I can think of it being is, in the purest sense, energy...

Closing off his pores, he then begins to let the energy build up once more. This time though, he tries to let the energy flow to his brain, which he hadn't tried yet. Beginning in his abdomen, it goes to his heart, then up to his spinal cord, directly into his brain.

As soon it goes into his skull, he feels like a curtain was lifted from his perception, causing Leo to become deeply aware of everything. Looking around he begins to notice things that didn't reach his perception before, such as the direction of the slight breeze that washes over him, and just how beautiful the world is. His brain was no longer clouded as much with needless thoughts and notions.

However, his mind also caught onto something else.

Mmmm, smells delish...

Looking over, Leo sees his fish is done. It was dripping liquid from the moisture of the meat and the rendered fat. Around the edges were crispy laces of well cooked skin. Pulling the stick it's on out of the ground he digs in, eating like he hadn't eaten in days. Although it wasn't salted, it was pretty good. Leo however, notices something else as well.

Does the fish...have the energy in it too!?

...

"IT DOES," he screams out. "Although only very slight, this isn't something I can ignore! Maybe different foods have more of the energy within them?..."

Finishing his food, he licks his fingers and lets out a good belch. Out looking over the trees he can see the sky is tinged in a crimson color, indicating it's almost nighttime.

One last test and then I think I should rest up for the journey tomorrow

Leo wastes no time. He begins to regulate his breathing and flows the energy within his body. Feeling the blob of energy that's pooled together, he begins to try to portion a piece out. He comes to the realization that it's somewhat hard to do since it's like a fluid. However, patience pays as he gets a blob on its own.

Now, one last time!

Standing up, he moves that blob through the same process as before. Spinning, the energy first goes through his back, abs, up to his shoulder, and then out his arm.

poooom

Although not nearly as strong as the punch before, it's still stronger than without the energy.

HOLY CRAAAP!! This has endless possibilities! I wonder how far I can go with this...

Time to call it in though. Today has been a long day hehe.

Getting ready for sleep, he first clears out the ground under his shelter from leaves and other waste. After, he plops down and clears his mind, but one thought comes through.

I wonder what tomorrow has in store for me...

Chapter 3: Unwillingness To Die

-Chirp
-Tweet
-Chirp

"AUGHHH, fuuuuuck..." Leo is roused from his rough sleep, waking to the erratic songs of the birds. If Leo had a choice, he would never sleep out like this ever again. His sleep was off and on throughout the night, but fortunately, the mysterious internal energy staves off most of his fatigue. Once Leo fully woke up, he frowned deeply.

I thought maybe it was all just a dream, but I guess I was mistaken. Maybe it's one of those coma dreams I've heard of... hopefully not... Well, since I'm here, I need to focus on what's in front of me. First things first is to smother out this fire.

Although it wasn't truly a fire anymore, it was still extremely hot with leftover embers and ash, having the potential to cause a disaster if left unattended. Leo had always heard stories of huge wildfires happening because of someone's incompetence. Grabbing handfuls of dirt, he slowly covers his makeshift fire pit, making sure to cover every inch.

-tssss

Now that Leo had no more reason to stay, he set off towards the waterfall to get a swig before heading off north into the other forest. Grabbing his spear, he thought he was perhaps being paranoid towards the forest. But for some reason, it was giving him really bad vibes, as though there were unknown dangers lurking within. However he quickly stomped out these thoughts, after all, he needed to go north according to what that god told him before he woke up here.

Checking his phone, the screen lit up. Although he had no bars, it would still show the time, which happened to be about five.

Man, I don't even wake up this early for my job...

Letting out a sigh, Leo trudges along. Slowly approaching the flowing water, he takes in the surreal environment. Looking down at the gorge, to his left was the waterfall. Flowing down, it reaches the bottom of the massive ravine, indicating that it might be the cause for the massive trench into the earth. On both sides of the cliffs are woods and forests that go as far as the eye can see. Along the cliff walls, there are a few trees dotted around, but other than those, they're mostly a flat, almost vertical wall of stone.

Turning around, Leo is faced with the task of climbing up some rocky edges before truly confronting the forest. Spear in hand, he slowly goes up. He notices that the internal energy is helping him, as before this would've been a bit exhausting, but he doesn't feel the physical activity getting to him in the least. However, he still feels the warm feeling flowing through his muscles.

I still have so much I don't know about this mysterious energy. It has so much potential... I can't even begin to fathom.

Reaching the top, he turns around to get one last look. Leo felt as though he was at the tallest point of the world.

Holy shit, I feel soooo... tall hehe. Sadly, I can't see my house hehehe.

Laughing to himself, he turns back around and goes in with a confident attitude. Nothing is going to happen... After all, that God told him to come here...

With a nervous smile, Leo takes in the environment. The forest was full of trees with thick canopies, letting minimal light through. Lined along the trees are vines, ferns, and other parasitic plant life. Along the ground were bushes of many kinds, with the occasional patch of mushrooms scattered around. There were also many dead trees lying around, becoming a home for any creature able to assume control. The air, much to Leo's dislike, was very humid and almost heavy feeling. There was also an occasional light fog hovering, putting the cherry on top for the ominous feeling.

Can this place be ANY creepier?

Now fully aware of his surroundings, Leo sets off northward, making sure not to lose his sense of direction. Although somewhat lacking, Leo took pride in his sense of direction for the most part.

Walking cautiously, Leo occasionally will hear the noise of life. Bugs chattering, looking for mates most likely. Snakes hissing, defending their territory. Birds screeching, fighting over food. Surprisingly, he'll even hear some howling occasionally, even with it being so early in the day.

-Clack
-Clock

Further down, Leo starts to hear an odd noise. It almost sounds like wood clattering against itself.

Maybe someone's out here... I'll check it out, but I need to play it safe just in case.

Being careful, Leo moves tree to tree, acting like he's in a "Metal Gear Solid" game.

Too bad I don't have a box hehe

Internally giggling to himself, he slowly makes his way towards the noise. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees what's creating the ruckus, making his blood run cold. It's a wolf... but it's made of wood. Goosebumps filled Leo's skin.

What in the... No such thing should exist!!!

I have to be dreaming... And to top it off, they're HUGE

With glowing green eyes, the wood-wolf is traveling with three others. Made completely out of wood, they appear somewhat powerful. Although Leo doesn't understand how they're moving, they seem genuinely sturdy, with thick logs acting as their legs and their main body encompassing many sticks and branches.

Although I need to get out, I can't risk making noise. Thankfully they're not heading this way... Talk about lucky.

Staying behind the tree for cover, Leo takes slow, quiet breathes to not alert the predators. Although he might be able to escape if he was attacked by one, four is out of the question. Biding his time, they slowly walk away.

With a sigh of relief, Leo makes his way back to where he was before he trailed off and continued northward. Along the way, he doesn't spot or hear anything too noteworthy for a while. That is until he stumbles upon a new type of scenery.

Although I don't need to go through it, it still gives me the chills.

To the left of his path, somewhat far off, is a swamp. It was very murky, with muddy waters that would spell the end if one got themselves caught in it. Within it he can see what were presumably alligator noses, poking up to breathe while they stay hiding under the incredibly opaque waters as they wait for their next meal. Their numbers were astounding as well, with twenty of them being in the vision of just the little section he could see. It could be seen as a blessing they weren't fighting among each other.

I'm so glad I had the foresight to not stay here last night...

Hugging himself while a shiver runs down his body, he continues forward. Up ahead he can see what appears to be a little clearing. So far the foliage has been dense, so Leo is somewhat surprised. Looking around though he sees no creatures or anything scurrying around. Walking into the clearing, he notices some nice flowers and some undergrowth that's outpaced the rest due to the excess sunlight in comparison with the rest of the forest.

I wonder why there isn't anything over here though...

Noticing something strange, Leo stops his inner monologue and listens around. Much to Leo's dismay, however, there is no sound. It's deathly quiet with no birds, bugs, or snakes having ambient chatter. Without the thought even registering, Leo jumps away with all his strength, letting his internal energy envelop his legs for the extra push.

BOOOOM

Right where Leo was standing before, there's a loud bang, with all sorts of clouds and dust picking up. A huge silhouette is hiding behind the dust and debris. It was a towering beast, standing at an astounding ten feet!

FUCK, this CAN'T be good!!

Seeing the dust settle, he's able to make out his pursuer. Wearing an orange coat with a dark red mane, it sports a scorpion tail with wings to boot. It's a manticore, the one from fantasy books and stories Leo had seen. But why was it here? Never before has Leo experienced such a guttural and instinctual fear, causing his eyes to waver.

Do I fight?! DO I RUN???!!!

-Clench

Leo tightens his grip unto is spear. "COME ON YOU BASTARD!!" Shaking intensely, Leo focuses on his internal energy, circulating the blob that's in his abdomen as intense as he can. Running up, he decides to confront it to see if his spear can do anything.

At the same time, the manticore seems unfazed. If anything, he becomes more hungry, drooling on the ground while he faces his prey.

Wasting no time, the manticore swipes at Leo, leaving almost no time to react. However, Leo preemptively ducked inward towards the strike, leaving only a graze on his right shoulder.

Ignoring the stinging right shoulder, Leo stabs at the manticore's arm with his spear. His energy erupts throughout his body, his strike hisses through the air.

PSHOOooo

Leo can feel his spear make contact, but to his shock, nothing more. The spear, if anything, just poked the manticore, going only an inch or two in. It was truly abysmal. In that split moment, Leo was overcome with despair. He stood no chance! He bit his lower lip.

FUCK! WHAT DO I DO?! I might be better off just making him walk on legos!! I should-

Before Leo could even finish his thought, the manticore swipes at him once more, sending him soaring through the air. The air whistled in Leo's ears. Time seemed to slow in the moment within Leo's eyes.

Is this really happening?

FUUU

BANG

After rolling a couple of times, his body finally stops after hitting a tree somewhat hard. "AUGHHH," He half groans, half screams out. The air was knocked out of him with that impact. His vision, that became hazed over with stars from the impact, slowly began to clear up. He moves to a kneeling position, posturing up with his right arm.

-Cough, cough

Blood sprinkles from his mouth to the ground. Leo's mouth fills with the taste of iron. Leo had been in a few fights before, but nothing as serious and life-threatening as this. His heart was filled with indignance.

Groaning, he looks down to see the damage, only to be left startled. His left side is a mess. With a clear claw mark running over his shirt and body, it's already leaking enough blood to make someone queasy. To make matters worse, Leo knows a rib or two broke whenever he heard that popping noise. He can't stop coughing, but he kicks it into high gear, gritting his teeth. Quickly, he gets on his feet, grabs his spear, and runs full speed, sparing no room for hesitation.

I don't wanna die here!! I can't die here!! I WON'T DIE!

LEO! YOU STUPID BASTARD! GET UP!!!

Determined, the fire in Leo's eyes flutter. His fist, clenched with the spirit to overcome this cruel fate. His blood boiled with the passion to strive onward! Using his internal energy without reservation, he speeds off the way he was originally heading.

Maybe something north will have something to lose this guy on!

Looking behind him, Leo confirms that the manticore isn't going to let him go. After all, he might make a good meal.
"ROOOOOOOAAR!!!" It screams, letting Leo know there's no escape.

Thankfully this energy is here! Without it I'd be dead before I know it! Although I can't outrun it at least it isn't able to outpace me!

Not letting up his speed, Leo slowly sees a wonky bridge come into vision. With old wooden planks to walk on, the whole thing is held up by thin ropes. All around it seems to be a dense fog that he hasn't seen in the earlier parts of the forest, including under the bridge, giving no indication of safety. It looked like the bridge could break at any form of tension onto it.

Maybe this could do it!!

Without hesitating an instant, he starts to cross, trying to get the manticore to stand on the bridge. Without knowing any better, the manticore slowly approaches, making sure to be cautious of any hidden cards the human may have up his sleeve.

Twang

As if the noise was a signal, Leo bolts the other side of the bridge, causing the manticore to follow suit. The monster, being unaware of the situation, sprints full speed towards Leo, causing the bridge to take on more stress than it can handle.

TWONG-SNAP

With a loud snap, the bridge breaks and collapses! With it, the manticore falls in the fog, seemingly erasing it from existence. However, Leo knows better.

Holy crap, I barely made it! I need to hurry though!

Knowing that the manticore will fly up, Leo makes a break for it, making his way down the winding forest pathway.

"ROOOOOOOAAAARRRR!!!!"

Sounds like someone isn't too happy!!

Scared out of his wits, Leo comes around a corner. Walking out of the treeline, he sees a calmly flowing river. The water seems somewhat shallow, with some rocks jutting out.

Without further ado!!"

With no other path, he crosses the water. On his way to the other side, Leo tries to clean off his wound to his side.

Although it's a somewhat shallow cut, it stings like a bitch! Plus there's some internal damage with how hard that fucker hit me...

Four lines splayed across his ribcage; any lower and the cuts would've spilled guts more than likely. It was a miracle to say the least. Cleaning the blood off, he was ready to go full speed again. Looking behind him he sees an orange figure come out of the treeline from before.

"Grrrrrr," snarling, the manticore takes to the air.

Hehe, seems like the kitty doesn't like water much.

Leaving no regrets, Leo makes a break for the forest once again. In contrast to the other side of the forest, this side is denser. Leo, being more maneuverable, like this since it gives him the advantage.

CRASH... BOOM

Looking back, Leo spots the manticore who's plowing through the forest with brute force.

Wow... isn't that a little unfair!?

While wallowing in indignance, Leo comes up towards another clearing. Around the clearing are slopped walls, giving little to no room for escape. Although the walls are climbable, it would take too much time during a fight.

This is my only chance!!!

Deciding this isn't the time for scruples, Leo grabs a handful of dirt, getting ready for the final confrontation. Running into the middle of the clearing, Leo puts all his eggs in the basket.

I HAVE to succeed!

Following somewhat close behind, the manticore breaks out from the tree line and into the clearing. "ROOOOOAAAAR!!"

Swallowing his saliva, Leo's determination hits an all-time high. Finally, in a hasty fashion, he makes his attack. Same as before, he preemptively dodges the manticore's first attack, this time not grazing in anyway way.

However, this time, instead of attacking, Leo throws his handful of dirt into the manticore's eyes. Never been faced with such a situation, the manticore lets out a bloodcurdling roar of annoyance. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARR!!" With dirt in its eyes, it starts to sway and back away, shaking its head all the while.

OH NO YOU DON'T!!

Leo, waiting for an opportunity, finally sees it. The manticore reaches up to rub its eyes. Gripping his spear, Leo gets ready for the finale. Stepping back and getting into a throwing position, Leo gets ready to launch the spear with all the energy he has left.

IT'S NOW OR NEVER!!

Initializing the energy within, he first sends it to his legs, then up to his back and abs, his right shoulder, and then finally down his arms to his wrist.

FEEEEWWWW

The spear shoots out of his hand, easily exceeding a hundred miles an hour. It's target? The manticore's hand and eyes.

With its target in sight, the spear whizzes towards the manticore's vulnerable stance. Reaching the monster, it pierces first the paw, going through the gaps of bone. After exiting the hand, it pierces the left eye, extracting a scream from the monster.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

However, Leo isn't able to hear anything. His ears are ringing with his vision becoming wavy and distorted. Losing his senses, Leo decisively bites his tongue!!

I WILL see this to the end!

Regaining whatever sense of reality he can, Leo stands and watches. The manticore, out of decisions, pulls the spear out of its eye. Just looking at its face, he can make out the fury within the monster right now. However, Leo can't back down so he screams, "RAAAAHHH, if you don't want it to happen to your other eye, DON'T FUCK WITH ME!!!"

With a look of resentment, the manticore slowly backs off, but not before one more swipe! Sweeping with his left foot, Leo has no time to react. Sent flying once again, Leo screams in pain.

BOOOM

Leo's back slams into the sloped cliff, the breath knocked out of him

Gasping for air Leo tries his best to yell "*gasp* you *gasp* BASTARD *gasp* !!" But before he can even get a word in, the manticore was already flying off with the spear still stuck in his paw.

Now that the fight is over, Leo's face washes over with anguish. On his right shoulder is a huge gash, bleeding profusely.

I... I need to get the hell out of here and find help!

Getting up, he grabs his torn-up shirt and ties it around his shoulder to try and stop some bleeding. Fatigued and injured, Leo can't do anything but shamble north.

Dammit... it's always gotta be hard as fuck huh???

Sluggishly, Leo goes up the slope, grabbing onto a rock after rock to hoist himself up. As he reaches the top, his adrenaline wears off. His body screams in agony.

"Haaa....haaaa," Leo's breathes came out extremely labored. It was becoming incredibly hard to breath, with a stabbing pain accompanying each intake. His body couldn't seem to get the air it needed. He was shambling, like a zombie. However, he trudges onward.

I... don't want... to die...

Slowly but surely, he kept going, and going, and going.

After walking for what felt like an instant yet an eternity, Leo finally saw light through the tree line. His eyes sparkled with hope, but they also began to tremble.

Come one body, don't fail me now!

In a trance, he kept going. Finally, he escaped the forest. Vision blurry, he saw what looked like a cottage. A nice cozy abode with birdhouses strung across. Slowly, he reached the door, and not standing at ceremony, knocked.

Please answer...

However, the fatigue finally caught up, stealing his senses. Leo's vision closed with dark clouds, blocking out anything and everything. The weight of the world crashed onto his shoulders. His body became the heaviest thing imaginable. He felt like he was Atlas, holding up the heavens from crashing down. But Leo was not Atlas. His body began to collapse.

The door, much to his surprise, flung open, revealing a blurry figure.

Please....help....

Before closing his eyes to the darkness, he sees the figure approaching, appearing yellow and pink, but can't make it out completely.

So..... tir....ed...

With those thoughts, Leo was out cold.

Chapter 4: Hospital Madness

It's black.

Mind scared and filled with worry.

Did I fail?

Did... I die?

Leo is stuck within oblivion, his vision being consumed by the abyss. It was lonely. So deeply and utterly lonely. Isolation consumed Leo's soul. It was suffocating.

But, that's how it's always been. No girl... No meaningful relationships... I just wanted to play my music for someone to hear, yet, it never reached anyone's ears, let alone someone's heart. Dammit... it can't end here!

Leo flailed in the darkness, masking his loneliness with rage. If he could find what or who caused him this strife, he would do everything in his power to destroy. But, Leo knew thinking like this right now was useless.

With a sigh, Leo slowly drifts through the darkness, pondering where his choices have landed him. His regrets and unused opportunities began to pile onto his heart. All the goals and ambitions he had could have very well gone up in flames. Like ash, he will dissipate into the air and be forgotten.

Maybe I should've been more outgoing... Maybe I...

Suddenly he feels something gentle within himself. The energy creeps softly from his abdomen to the rest of his body. Sending a warm feeling across his body, wall the way down to his fingertips and toes. Slowly the veil of darkness lifts, replaced with a blinding light. With it, Leo feels the surging pain return from his injuries.

"AHHHhh, fuuuck, it hurts..." Opening his eyes, his vision is clouded over, blurring everything around. Spots of black were also scattered around his perception, as if he had stared at the sun for too long. Slowly, his eyes begin to focus.

Looking around, he appeared to be in a hospital, with clean white walls encasing the room. In the middle, he sat in a bed that wasn't too noteworthy. Standing beside him was an I.V., with the tube for it running to his somewhat uninjured left arm. His right arm, however, was heavily bandaged up.

I'm surprised my shoulder is still in one piece... Thank goodness.

As for his other injuries, they caused him to wince a little if he moves the wrong way. Somehow the injuries didn't seem nearly as bad as they were before, almost like they were just flesh wounds to begin with. Although the cuts on his ribs for example weren't very deep per-say, the ribs underneath were in shambles before.Leo ran his fingers down the cuts on his ribs, feeling a rough sensation. scabs Now, it was just slight scabbing more than anything.

But it was a huge gash on my shoulder, with the bones almost shattered like glass... How is the internal damage almost already healed? A fractured rib cage and shattered shoulder should've put me out of commission for months, but it's almost completely healed now. How am I alive anyway? I lost an absurd amount of blood...How... I... I'm... alive!

Without realizing it, Leo began to cry.

Holy crap, I'm actually alive!

Unfortunately, Leo's time alone was cut short. A voice cut into through the room.

"Are you awake?" Came a soft voice, presumably a woman. Looking over, Leo gets a look at who's talking. Over to the left of him stood some...thing.

She wasn't human. It was a quadruped, an equine, with a coat of fur white as porcelain, and a mane and tail that were baby pink, with the mane put into a bun. She wore a classic nurse cap with a medical red cross on it with four red hearts on the corners of the cross. Matching it was the same red cross with hearts on both sides of her flanks. Her gradient blue eyes were also huge compared to anything Leo's seen before.

It all comes crashing down. Leo's skin, began to form small bumps all along. His blood froze, his breath halted completely. Panic.

"What... are you!?" Leo exclaims, staring wide-eyed at the nurse. "This can't be real! I'm just dreaming HAHAHA!"

I NEED to get out of here, NOW!

In his severe delirium, Leo rips out the I.V. in his arm, causing a small trail of blood to roll down his arm. He abruptly stands up, starting with a wobble. Thankfully, he was able to stabilize himself on the railing on the side of the medical bed. Coming to grips with his body once again, he moves for the door.

"Sir, please, you must sit down!!" She cries out, trying to get the man's attention. Her eyebrows raised from his seemingly unwarranted response.

Unfortunately for her, Leo's adrenaline has already reached peak levels, drowning out the noise around him. He grips his arm to stop the bleeding and rushes out the door, creating a large amount of noise throughout the hospital.

Where THE FUCK am I?! First, there are monsters, and now there are talking HORSES?!! Just where the hell am I!?

Leo bites his lip from his frustration of the unknown. Spilling into the hallway, Leo hastily glances around for any sign of an exit. Down the hallway, there's a red sign on the ceiling pointing to a door at the end of the corridor. He doesn't check to see what it says, but rather the direction it points in.

THERE!

Sprinting full speed, Leo almost trips on himself before reaching the door. Wasting no effort, he throws himself at the door. Oddly, the door feels somewhat heavy.

My body is still fatigued...Dammit.

Once the door opens, Leo's vision is overtaken by the bright sunlight. Putting his arm over his eyes, he glances around.

...Fuck...

All around, there are these horses, appearing sapient. Like people, they're all doing their own thing. From walking around and talking, to running a stand selling wares. Unsurprisingly, however, they all begin to turn and stare, wide-eyed, at the human. This doesn't go well with Leo, making him feel like an animal on display.

They won't stop looking at me... stop... Stop... STOP!!

"STOP! You're injured! You need to get back before your injuries open back up!" The nurse from before shouts from behind.

Seeing that she's tailing him, he takes off once more. He doesn't know where he's going, but he has the guttural urge to go forward.

"Somepony, stop him PLEASE!" The nurse yells towards the crowd. With her eyebrows furrowed, she has visible worry written on her face.

At the command, the other "horses" start to congregate towards Leo, trying to block off his path. However, he keeps his momentum. His face distorts into almost a vengeful expression.

These bastards better stay out of my way!!

"S-stop!" A meek feminine voice comes from one of the pursuers, but he pays no mind as he rushes forward.

"MOVE," Leo screams out as he pushes one of them out of the way. He barely had the energy to throw her aside, but he did it.

THUD

"Owwww," comes out the feminine voice, but Leo doesn't look to see who it came from but instead keeps running. His legs start to feel heavier from exhaustion.

I just pushed one and I'm already reaching my limit!

"Haaaa...haaaa...haaa," Leo's breaths come out labored as he keeps rushing forward. He starts to feel a dull pain in his injured shoulder and along his scratched ribs. They pulse with pain, his body sending its agony to Leo's brain. Luckily, it seems that pushing that one aside has stopped the others from blocking him.

I just...wanna...go home

Leo bites his lip, causing blood to trickle down his chin as he causes all the commotion. He can't stand those eyes, staring at him like some freak.

Soon enough, his body can't keep up. His vision begins to blur; he doesn't know how long he's been running. It felt like an eternity, an inescapable nightmare.

*Stop Music*

"WHAT THE BUCK ARE YOU DOING!?!" He hears a voice screaming at him from up above.

Just... get out of my way!

Leo doesn't have the energy to speak, but he makes his answer clear as he continues onward. The voice, however, doesn't seem to like it.

A blur tackles him, pushes him to the ground with a loud thud. Out of everything, Leo's wounds seemed to not like this approach the most, the injuries' screams overtaking his mind.

Writhing in pain, Leo's eyes clamp shut as he howls in pain, "FUUUCK AHHHH!!" Over on his shoulder, the previously pristine bandages begin to transition into a slight shade of red.

It hurts so bad!!! FUCK!!! I need to calm down!

Slowly, Leo tries to calm himself down. However, how could it be so easy? His eyes are wavering with many emotions clouding them. Rage, indignance, fear, sorrow. He slowly opens his eyes to one of those horses, presumably a female, standing over him. She was a cyan-blue one with a rainbow tail and mane, the mane being somewhat unkempt and windswept. Her eyes were a magenta, matching her mane and fur. On her sides were even wings!

"I'll ask you again! What the buck are you doing!?" She says with a scratchy voice, its pupils dilated to a pinprick due to rage.

What am I doing? I'm taken from my home, beaten to a pulp, and thrust into the unknown. HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW!?

Choking back tears, he just says," I-I don't know." He couldn't seem to ground his emotions; he was under the most stress he had been under in his whole life. No one could possibly understand.

"So, you're telling me you pushed my friend over and freaked everypony out because YOU DON'T KNOW?!" She rebukes as her face distorts even further with disdain.

Leo snaps, "HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?! I got dumped in the middle of bumfuck NOWHERE, I fought for my LIFE, and now, it turns out there are sentient FUCKING HORSES everywhere! SO NO, I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!"

After holding it in, the dam finally breaks, his emotions spilling out for all to see. After seeing the talking horses he didn't want to admit and acknowledge it, but now it finally sunk in. He was not home, and he might not be able to get home. Life was truly cruel to him it seemed.

Speechless. She had no clue how to even respond to that, opting to wear a look of sympathy.

"I-I'll take you to the hospital, those wounds must've opened back up," she breaks the silence. Pointing her hoof at Leo's shoulder, the gauze is a very visible hue of red.

Leo hesitantly nods, steadily getting back on his feet. Absentmindedly, he stared at the prismatic horse.

...Just what is going ON?! Why is she being nice to me? Why are they speaking English? It's like they're humans, but not at the same time...

Human...

I didn't notice until now but her voice is scratchy and honestly kinda... cute... too bad she's... whatever she is...

"You're still not excused... for pushing my friend over that is. Uhh, my name's Rainbow Dash, what's yours?" She looks up, wearing a curious expression.

"Leo... Do you know where your friend is? I wanna apologize." he says, looking somewhat worried. He was never really the violent type against the undeserving, but this time he let his emotions take him over, leaving him feeling deeply ashamed.

"Yeah! Do you want me to bring you to her?" She asks with a smile. Leo seemed remorseful so she was willing to forgive him, and she knew her friend would aswell.

"A-actually, can you bring her to the hospital?" I'm feeling a bit woozy... Leo begins to slog towards the hospital. Although it's only a dull pain in his shoulder, it's still bleeding.

"Sure, we'll meet you at the hospital!" She waves as she takes off. Leo stared wide-eyed at how fast she flew off, not expecting a whole 'horse' to move at such speeds.

I must be anemic... Fuck, why did I do that?! I shouldn't freak like that again, I need to think about everything carefully. I can't put myself in a bad situation when I don't even know where I am.

As Leo makes his way to the hospital, he gets plenty of glares and gasps from the side of the road. Gripping his fist, he decides he needs to ignore them for now.

Once I'm out of the hospital, I DARE THEM TO GLARE AT ME!

After a few minutes of walking, he spots the nurse. She's sitting at the exit he ran out of prior, with a frown glued on her face, although he can't blame her.

Up close, Leo then bows his head, "I'm sorry I freaked out... Could you please treat me once again?" With only hope in his heart, he still expects to hear a 'no' from her mouth.

"Thankfully, you didn't harm any staff, or I would turn you down..." She says, her frown shifting into a soft smile. She then turns around, waving towards Leo, "Follow me."

Thank god...

Opening the door, Leo's greeted with a familiar scenery, but this time taking it in. It's a corridor with heavy wooden doors with windows lining the walls. Next to the doors are plaques that are numbered. Other than those features it's very bland and simplistic, but also very clean and easy on the eyes.

"In here," the nurse continues, "let me redress your bandages and then I'll give you an overview of your injuries." She reaches into a cabinet in one of the corners, pulling out gauze.

How does she grab that with her hooves?! This place is so similar to earth, but it also makes it even more bizarre.

To help the process, Leo takes off his "shirt", if it could even be called that with the damage it's sustained, revealing his injured ribs and well-toned body. Although the gauze on the ribs isn't as deeply colored red like the ones on the shoulder, it still took on a tinge of red. "Should I sit on the bed?" He asks the nurse in compliance.

"Yes please, you can lay down if you need, but I'll need you to sit up for some of it." She tells him, her voice taking on a hue of sympathy.

"Okay, by the way, what should I call you?" He asks as she makes her way to him with all of her necessities.

"You can call me Nurse Readheart," she introduces herself, wearing the same soft smile from before. "Before I start on your shoulder, what's your name?"

"Just call me Leo," he says, opting to wear a soft smile as well.

"What an odd name," she murmurs to herself as she slowly takes off the dirty bandages on the shoulder. Underneath, although all scabbed over, appears to be the aftermath of a gnarly gash, with scar tissue lining the outer edges slightly. Leo winces a little as she puts on the new bandages

Reaching down, Redheart slowly takes off the bandages on Leo's ribs, revealing four long cuts with scar tissue lining the outside of the scabs there as well. Somehow most of it is healed, with only two opened scabs leaking a little blood. Although they looked so much better compared to prior, something felt off to Leo.

How did they heal so quickly? I remember my ribs being fractured and my shoulder being basically turned to mush... It can't be this energy... can it?

With Readheart finishing up the bandaging, the door begins to open. In the doorway, there were two 'horses,' one Rainbow Dash, and the other that Leo presumes to be her friend. She has a soft yellow-colored coat, with a pink mane and tail that curl near the ends. Her eyes were a deep aqua green, almost like the color of a deep forest green, but not quite. She also had wings to the side like Rainbow Dash.

"Please, come in," Redheart allows the visitors into the room.

As they step in, Leo decides to keep his shirt off. After all, from his encounter, the black shirt was turned into rags. Rainbow Dash gets a full view of his injuries, going wide-eyed, "Holy buck, Leo are you alright?" Leo was initially embarassed from being shirtless, but he realized he had been this whole time with that war-torn shirt of his.

Chuckling, Leo retorts, "you should've asked me that before you tackled me." Rainbow Dash draws back, but Leo continues, "I'm alright. Before that though, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for pushing you over," Leo says, turning to Rainbow's friend.

"I-it's fine, I forgive you. Ironically, I was on my way to check on you," she says rather meekly, hiding her face behind her pink mane. "W-when I found you coming out of Everfree like that, I thought you might've... I'm glad you're okay."

"You're the one who saved me!? Ahhh, now I feel even worse... I can't say anything besides thank you. What's your name?" Leo voices his sincerity towards the meek savior.

"Fluttershy," she states, a warmhearted smile shaping her lips.

"Mm, I'm Leo" he nods, "Miss Redheart, could you tell me the injury summary or whatever?"

"Of course, when you came in you were a mess, with a shattered shoulder, fractured ribs, and open wounds on each site. Emaciated, you were out cold for a week. We didn't do a blood transplant in case something went wrong, but we had you on I.V... Now, somehow, your bones are completely healed with only scabs on each site.

WTF?! A WEEK??? It took a WEEK to heal a shattered shoulder? There's no way it was anything besides that internal energy! I honestly can't think of anything else.

Following the diagnosis, the room was filled with silence from the shock. All the 'horses' besides the nurse had their jaws dropped.

Cutting through the silence like a knife, Rainbow Dash's voice comes out first. "How the hay did you end up so messed up?!" Leo could tell how worried she was just from her voice cracking at the end.

Biting his lip, Leo comes out with it. "I ran into a manticore in that forest... I almost died. Honestly, it was a miracle I didn't. All I could do was run, but I ended up having to make a last stand."

Rainbow rebukes, "yeah, but, why in Celestia's name were you in the EVERFREE?! That's the most dangerous place EVER!"

"Well that explains the vibe I got from there, and to answer you, I don't even know where I am," he continues, turning his gaze to Fluttershy, "so exactly where am I? As far as I know, I might not even be on planet Earth."

Fluttershy responds, "Earth? This is umm... Equis. More specifically, we're on the continent Equestria. A-and our town is called Ponyville." Her face shifts into one with much more concern than before.

Leo doesn't even need to say anything, just heaving a deep sigh instead.

Fuck...I'm on a whole 'nother planet... just.. wow. HAHAHA, welp, I'm absolutely screwed...

Which bastard brought me here?! I'LL FUCKING SKIN THEM!!

"Okay so then going by the name of your town, y'all are ponies, and not horses?" Leo asks, but he still can't hide the deep grimace on his face.

"NO! We're not whorses, you jerk! You never seen a pony?!" Rainbow answers, somewhat sharply at Leo. Taken aback, he looks at her like she grew two heads.

Did she not hear what I just said?..

"What the hell are you talking about?! If you couldn't guess by now, no, I haven't seen a fucking pony that can talk before. And why are you getting so defensive? Aren't horses just ponies but taller?" Leo tries to explain himself, obviously misunderstood.

"Uhh, right, sorry. And no, whorses aren't tall ponies, they're ponies who get around, if you know what I mean." Rainbow says, breaking eye contact and blushing from embarrassment.

"Alright, anyways," Leo says changing the conversation, "Redheart, when can I get out of here."

"I would've said today, but because your wounds reopened, I'll have to ask you to stay until tomorrow just in case, then you'll be discharged." She says, causing Leo to scratch the back of his neck from embarrassment.

At least there won't be any experiments and the works.

"Ahh, I understand," Leo then turns to Rainbow and Fluttershy, "If it's not too bothersome, could I talk with y'all tomorrow? I honestly have a lot of questions that need answers, but I need to get some rest. I'll answer any of your questions you two have since I know you're curious."

"Uhh, sure. I'll come find you tomorrow and we can go to Fluttershy's place," Rainbow tells Leo, turning to Fluttershy and receiving a nod. They then begin to turn towards the exit.

"I'll look forward to it." Leo, wearing the most genuine grin since he's been here, waves towards the duo. "Bye!"

"See ya, Leo!" The prismatic pony calls out.

"I'll s-see you tomorrow, Leo," Fluttershy speaks softly.

As the door closes, Leo ignores Redheart as he begins to drift into his thoughts.

So I guess the first order of business is to adjust to this new place and look for a way home. Hopefully, it won't be too complicated. I also need to figure out how to become stronger so I don't end up in a vulnerable situation like that again... uhh I'll save it for future Leo.

Closing his eyes, Leo drifts into the comforting darkness of sleep.

-Snore

Chapter 5: Getting Acquainted

Author's Note

Decided to try and use images, let me know what y'all think! :3

P.S. Grammarly is GOATED :rainbowlaugh:

Chapter 5: Getting Acquainted

Bland is the best word to describe this place.

Terrible food that includes only bread and flowers (which he picks out), nothing to do, and nothing to look at.

It seems hospitals are universal.

Looking over at a clock, it reveals it's about six in the morning. Although he doesn't usually wake up this early, he got quite a good amount of sleep.

I was asleep for fourteen hours, holy crap. Hopefully, I'm not waiting here for Rainbow Dash for too long.

With a look of contempt, Leo was quite impatient to get out of here, though he could understand why he was kept overnight. Thinking back, he realizes there's one thing he could do.

I guess I could see what's up with this energy again. Nothing better to do.

Leo focuses on breathing through his diaphragm, causing the energy around him to slowly enter his body. His thoughts include nothing but circulating the energy through his body and keeping it in. Slowly, it begins to accumulate.

Within his body, in his abdomen, it begins to pool together, eventually becoming the same amount from before he fought the manticore. Surprisingly, however, it doesn't stop there. Instead of reaching a wall of sorts while giving him a restless feeling like before, the pool keeps expanding.

It's so much bigger than before... that's what she said.

Eventually, it stops expanding, the pool reaching the size of about twice of what it was before the encounter with the manticore.

Is it because I pushed myself to the limit? It's almost like an exaggerated muscle... there's still so much I don't know. Time for some testing hehe.

Getting out of the bed, Leo glances at the clock before starting, reading '6:20.'

Was I really just breathing for that long?

Surprised from the passing of time, Leo shakes his head and readies his stance, getting ready to punch the far end wall with his left arm.

Taking all the energy within his body, he lets it flow from his legs to his back, abs, chest, left shoulder, and then down his arm like before. Although it felt relatively slow to Leo, in reality, it was a split second in reality.

FOOM

woah...

On the other side of the room, although there was no damage, there was a blast of wind that hit it, making a weird sort of soft breeze flow through the room. Thankfully, he didn't cause any property damage. Breathing a sigh of relief, he takes a moment to inspect the energy in his body. Within his abdomen, the pool is close to nonexistent.

Holy crap... that one punch used almost all of it...recharge time.

Taking a cross-legged posture on the bed, Leo begins to breathe in again, taking in energy. His mind transitions into a state of complete focus on the internal energy. Somehow he's able to circulate it in his body just a tad faster than before, barely being noticeable to Leo.

This improvement is crazy! Is it beginner gains?

Casting his thoughts aside, he begins to accumulate the energy once more, building it up into a blob. The only noise filling the room was Leo's quiet breathing.

Eventually the blob forms to the same size as before the earlier punch, but it keeps building, eventually settling to a slightly larger blob than before.

I couldn't have been more spot on with the analogy of this energy in my body being like a muscle... not only is my body becoming more proficient with manipulating it, it also builds in "strength," leading to a bigger pool of energy.

Now the main issue is figuring out how to be more efficient with it. I can portion it into smaller blobs, it doesn't seem very practical with how much focus and time it takes. Hmmmm... Maybe I can just limit my strength this time and see how that goes, after all, it is very muscle-like.

Wasting no time, get back up out of the bed and postures for another punch. This time, however, he more or less holds back. He doesn't pull his punch, but he does a quick jab rather than a haymaker. This also leads the energy to not pass through his legs nearly as much.

Fooo

A slight breeze goes through the room, although not nearly as drastic as before. Immediately, Leo notices something else.

I see... Since I used fewer muscle groups and strength, my body used not nearly as much internal energy as before, leaving me about half of the original pool. The first order of business is definitely building up the maximum size of the pool. Maybe by then, I can control more specifically how much energy I want to use since I'll have more room to work with.

Putting my body under stress seems to be the way to go after the results of the manticore encounter. I'll think about good ways to do that, but for now, I'll just do what I can while I'm here.

Content from his discoveries, Leo continues to train like this for the rest of the morning, charging up energy and then using it all up with a haymaker.

///3 hours later///

By the time '9:30' rolls around, the pool of energy has increased by quite a sizable margin, about '25%' or so.

Awesome, now I can do three jabs! It seems that using the energy also makes my body stronger when I'm without it, however, it's not near as noticeable as the maximum size of the energy blob expanding.

In the middle of his meditation, Leo hears someone open the door. Opening one eye, he peers at the doorway to see Nurse Redheart, followed by cyan pony from yesterday.

"Hey, Leo! What's up?" Rainbow starts, strutting in the room with a swagger.

"It's sooo boring here," Leo says, chuckling to himself. Turning to Redheart, he continues, "am I good to go?"

"Of course, just make sure your wounds don't open back up. Also, don't worry about the bits, it'll be on the house because of your not-so-fortunate situation." She replies, her voice carrying her sincerity on the last comment.

"Mmm, thank you so much. Both for the service and hospitality." Leo nods, somewhat taken aback by the kindness.

I'll definitely make it up to her... as for now, time to get the hell outta here.

Leo turns to Rainbow, "alright, let's blow this popsicle stand."

"Popsicle stand? Uh, Just follow me," Rainbow leads the way out of the hospital chuckling to herself. Opening the door, they take to the outside.

"Uhh, it's just an old saying where I'm from. Anyways, where is Fluttershy's place?" Leo asks while taking in the infrastructure off in the distance.

The houses around were generally pretty big, with a good portion being three stories, often overhanging the lower floors. The roofs were thatched, giving a sense of coziness, like a cottage. Most of the windows seemed stained, some being pink while others being blue. The houses seemed built around timber, emphasizing that cozy feeling even more.

Looking down, the roads were made of hard dirt. It's almost stone-like, transformed from the years of use from the ponies. On the sides of the road were trees and bushes here and there.

"It's on the other side of town... it would be faster if I were flying, then I could reach there ten seconds flat! Speaking of, I never formally introduced myself, ahem." Leo turns his head to look at her incoming dramatic introduction. "I'm Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier in all Equestria AND future Wonderbolt!"

Well she can certainly talk it, but can she walk it? I wonder just how fast being the fastest here is...

Raising his eyebrow, he asks, "and what in the world is a Wonderbolt?"

GASP

"ONLY THE COOLEST, MOST AWESOME FLIERS EVER!!! They're a group of pegasi that do the most awesomest air stunts!" She declares, her eyes gleaming with enthusiasm.

"So... like an airshow but, with ponies? That does sound pretty badass... You know any tricks?" Leo asks genuinely.

I bet it's the best, being able to fly. She seems to be pretty into these guys... she'd definitely make a good saleswoman for them haha.

"Oh, you BET I have some tricks, but they can wait. Now's the time to tell me about you!" Grinning with anticipation, she looks up at Leo.

"YEAH TELL US!"

huh?

Leo turns around to see a completely pink pony with a slightly darker shade of pink for her mane and tail. On her face is a big ass grin, with bright blue eyes. Her eyes, wide, as though she's able to see right through him.

I guess getting close with these ponies won't hurt, I just hope I'm not stuck here for too long...

"Uhhh... I'm Leo, a human from Earth? I like to play music..." Leo introduces himself, shrugging at the end. God, I feel like I'm introducing myself in front of a classroom like I'm the new kid.

"LEO? That's a weird name! I'm Pinkie Pie, but my friends call me Pinkie. Everyponie's my friend in Ponyville. NICE TO MEETCHA!" Her eyes seemed to be glimmering from her excitement. She holds out her hoof for a handshake, minus the hand part.

"Mmm, nice to meet you too Pinkie..." Leo keeps it brief, shaking her hoof and nodding.

"Oh, those things on your hoof feel weird! Anyways, it was nice meeting you! I'll see you next chapter!!" She says, practically shouting, before zooming away.

huh?

Leo turns to Rainbow, "what in the wor-"

Rainbow cuts him off, "YUP! That's Pinkie for ya," she says, chortling at Leo's confusion.

Although Leo didn't take notice of their glares before, the ponies' expressions who witnessed the scene seemed to soften towards the human. He didn't think everyone should like him, but it did rub him the wrong way that everyone seemed to hold ill feelings toward him.

"Hey, I got a question I forgot to ask until now. What are bits? Are they your currency here? I heard Redheart mention them before we left." Leo asks, wearing a curious look on his face.

"That's exactly what they are! They're gold coins with Celestia's face on them," answers Rainbow.

"Who's Celestia?" Leo scratches his chin in curiosity.

"She's the one who basically runs Equestria, she's the princess. She's been for more than a thousand years, she even raises the sun for us!" Her is voice full of admiration towards the princess.

Okay, so first, it's a matriarchy here? Second, how can someone live that long, and third, is this a giant cult? The sun 'rising' is physics, not THIS mumbo jumbo. I feel so out of the loop... hmmm

"Do you think she has my ticket home?" Leo asks, feeling not quite hopeful, but hopeful nonetheless.

"If anyone does, it's her. In fact, she should be coming here next week for the 'Summer Sun Celebration!' The Wonderbolts will even be there!" Leo looked over to see she had a spring in her step.

She takes every chance she can to talk about them. hehe

"Oh yea, by the way, we're about to exit town and get on the path that goes to Fluttershy's house. Over there is the town hall. That's where we'll be for the Celebration!" She says as she points to our left.

Where she was pointing was a somewhat tall tower. The structure almost looked like a gazebo on steroids with walls. It even had some multicolored flags on pointed arches on the higher levels, making it stand out from the houses.

Down the path that they were walking on was a bridge going over a river that seems to flow down the whole side of the town. On the other side of the bridge, the road changes to more of a trail, with trees and grass growing more freely than in the town.

Far off in the distance to the left, there was a small lake, with a stream flowing into it from the opposite of where Leo was viewing it. A sharp right after the bridge leads to a very 'elaborate' tower, with pony mannequins on the outside of the second floor, presumably being a boutique. Finally, off to the side of it, away from the town, was a nice little park.

Breaking the silence while Leo looks around, Rainbow looks at Leo with a glint in her eyes. "So you said you like to play music... What kind of instrument do you play?"

Well, isn't she nice... I guess I can humor her.

"Mostly the guitar with some keyboard." Leo answers, but can't help but ask, "do y'all have those here?"

She nods, "yea, there are guitars that do and don't take magic, and we have keyboards too but they all take magic to use. What type of music do you play?"

"A bunch of stuff actually! There's Rock, Progressive Rock, Metal, R&B, and my personal favorite but unpopular pick, Eurobeat. I also like to sing along while I play..." Leo scratches the back of his neck, a little embarrassed from the last part.

"I love Rock! I wonder what Earth music sounds like..." She says, muttering to herself near the end.

"If I can get my hands on a guitar, I'll be happy to play." Honestly, he'd been missing playing, so this was a golden opportunity to satiate that desire.

"Awesome! Is that what your hooves with those thingies are called? 'Hands?'... Maybe Fluttershy or somepony has an acoustic lying around, I doubt it though..." Rainbow pauses, shaking her head, and then continues, "uhh, we're just about there..."

Chuckling, Leo replies, stretching out his hand for her to see, " yeah, the whole thing is a hand while the five pokers are what are individually called a 'finger.' I'm honestly surprised y'all can do so much without 'em... If I'm gonna be honest, I dunno what I'd do without 'em."

"Well, we can grab stuff with our hooves, silly," she looks at him quizzically.

Once a bit further, he could finally see it.

Up ahead appeared a somewhat familiar cottage, but this time much less blurry. Leading up to the home was a small bridge going over a somewhat stagnant stream. On and around the passageway up to it was filled with critters, from rabbits to so many different colored birds, they could make a rainbow. The roof on the house was thatched like the other houses in the village, but instead of it being dead, it was an alive and vibrant green. Lastly, all around the landscape, were birdhouses and rabbit holes, filling every nook and cranny.

Just how many animals are there?!

Walking up the path, they reach the doorstep, with Rainbow reaching over to knock.

-Knock-Knock-Knock

"It's us!" Rainbow yells, hoping to reach Fluttershy.

Seconds later, a muffled voice comes from inside, "c-coming, just a moment."

-Clop-clop

The walking noise comes closer until eventually the door swings open, revealing the yellow pegasus. "Come in, let me uhh, make some tea."

Fluttershy goes towards the kitchen off to the left while Rainbow motions Leo to the couch that's straight ahead from the front door.

There is a chair on the right, a couch on the left, with a little table in between. Behind the couch is a window, with a painting of two butterflies and a rainbow to the right of it. To the left of the window were a lamp and a bookshelf, matching the one behind the chair. Finally, in front of both the couch and chair were two small beds for a pet, with a rug filling the floor in between them.

BOOKS! Hopefully, I can read their language.

Walking over to them, he scans the spines of the books, only to be sorely disappointed.

Are you fucking kidding? So you're telling me they speak English but have a different written one? Fuck... this is so frustrating. Hopefully, it won't be so bad to translate.

Meanwhile, Rainbow plops on the left side of the couch when facing it, looking at Leo with an unreadable expression. "Are you an egghead?"

"The hell is that supposed to mean? By the way, It seems I can't read." Leo grumbles, turning towards Rainbow.

"It's somepony who reads, duh," she answers, giving Leo a funny look.

Leo's face changes to a look of contempt, "If you didn't know anything around you like how it is for me right now, You'd scrounge for all types of information. Since I can't read, I'm gonna play '21 Questions' about Equestria with you two."

"Ohh, I- sorry, I should've been more considerate..." she says, facepalming. "Well, while we're waiting on the tea, what stuff you wanna know?"

"Oh yea, I thought about it earlier when we were talking about Princess Celestia. Is it a matriarchal society here? Usually, princes or kings ran monarchies back at home. Although it wasn't too common to run one in the first place as of recent," Leo mentions for comparison, sitting in the chair in the process.

"Matriarchal? What the hay is that?" Rainbow questions.

"A society where females are in charge basically," Leo explains to the confused mare.

"Oh, yea, usually the mares are the ones in charge of relationships and government, but it's not too drastic. There are a lot more mares than stallions, so I guess it makes sense since we want to keep the stallions safe," Rainbow states, justifying the role of the dynamic.

So it's almost the opposite of what home was. This is pretty interesting, to be honest, I've always liked learning about different cultures and societies. Though I don't know if I'll be able to conform too well...

Oh RIGHT, she said something about magic earlier?

"Okay, then next question, magic. You're telling me there is such a thing as magic here?" Leo raises his eyebrow.

"What, you never had magic at, what was it, 'Earf?' How do you think the weather gets done, or how the sun rises, or even how your instruments work?!" Leo felt like a knife was stabbing him at each question.

Shaking his head he responds, "The weather is done naturally with the water cycle and air currents! The sun rises by the planet rotating! And my instruments work with and without electricity! I can't believe you all actually believe in that magic malarkey..."

Fluttershy makes her way to the room Leo and Rainbow are in with the tea just as Leo is mid-argument, only to see Rainbow's jaw drop to the floor. She gives Leo a confused look.

"But we have to MOVE the clouds to MAKE the weather, and to do that, we use MAGIC. If we didn't have it, we'd be bucked! We have unicorns who can CAST SPELLS! It doesn't get more magic than that!" Rainbow's at the point of almost yelling at the end, making Leo slightly frown.

Did I not notice any unicorns? Holy shit, I feel like my head is going to explode. Everything I know is being thrown in the trash like it's worthless...

Leo bites his lip from his frustration. Looking for a way to calm himself, he glances over to Fluttershy. "Can I have some tea?"

"O-of course," she pours some into a cup, handing it to Leo, "it's still hot so be careful... I-if you don't mind, can you tell me why you seem so frustrated?"

"It's just," Leo starts, "Everything I know seems to not fit here... My facts and knowledge have become obsolete, like it wasn't even worthwhile to learn, shoved down my throat that all of it is completely and utterly wrong here. If someone said magic was real back home, everyone would look at them like they were insane."

"Leo, don't say that. Although things are different here, that doesn't mean that you don't fit. All it will take is time and patience with yourself," Fluttershy tries her best to cheer Leo up.

Patience... I guess that wouldn't hurt. Maybe it isn't all bad, I have the energy too... wait... IS THAT MAGIC?! But why would I have magic? I want answers but I know I won't find them from these two.

With a warm smile, Leo speaks up again, "Thanks, Fluttershy." Leo pauses before switching the topic, "do you have a map of Equestria?"

"Mhm," she nods, getting up and reaching between two books, pulling out a folded map. Unfolding it revealed the unfamiliar world to Leo. It was labeled, but in the language that Leo couldn't read.

Rainbow leans over to follow along, meanwhile, Fluttershy points to Ponyville. "This is where we are," she then moves her hoof southward, "you came from this direction, the Everfree forest."

"What about this place? This is where I woke up," Leo says, pointing to the ravine he saw when he first opened his eyes here.

Rainbow cuts in, "you came all the way from Ghastly Gorge?! Awesome... Sometimes I go there to race, it's pretty dangerous there though."

"What about the princess, where is she at on the map?" Leo asks, not bothering to hide the impatience in his voice.

"She stays a little north of us, up in this city in the mountain," Fluttershy points to the mountain with a castle sticking out on the side. "It's the capital of Equestria, Canterlot."

"Canterlot... you mean Camelot? Scratch that, does that mean I can go there and ask the princess to see about getting me home?" Leo can't hide the enthusiasm in his voice.

Maybe I can go home earlier than I thought!

"I don't think so, she's been busy with teaching somepony recently along with dealing with her normal duties as the princess. We'll have to wait to see her next week for the 'Summer Sun Celebration,' sorry," Fluttershy answers, her ears dropping near the end.

"Hmm, I should've expected as much, it's fine. I'll just have to find something to do in the meantime. What exactly is the 'Summer Sun Celebration' anyways?"

I got this one," Rainbow takes the initiative, "ahem it's to celebrate the princess for protecting Equestria. A long time ago she defeated somepony who wanted Equestria to be under permanent nighttime! Fluttershy is even composing with some birds to sing for the celebration!"

Leo raises his eyebrow at that last part, "Sounds pretty cool... How are the birds smart enough to sing in tempo and rhythm?"

Fluttershy, taken aback and confused, answers, "I just talk to them and tell them what needs improvement when we practice together. They understand as long as you're patient with them and speak kindly."

Is it because of the magic here that they're more intelligent? It's the only reason I can think of...

"While I'm stuck here, you should show me sometime," Leo says, smiling at the yellow pegasus.

"Okay, I'd be happy to. Is there anything else you'd like to know?" Fluttershy asks.

"What are those on your butts?" Leo asks somewhat crudely. He never cared to take notice until now but on Fluttershy's flank were three pink and blue butterflies, while on Rainbow's flank was a cloud shooting a red, blue, and yellow lightning bolt.

"HEY! Quit staring!" Rainbow exclaims, her wings flaring out defensively.

Fluttershy turns to Rainbow, putting her hoof on her shoulder and shaking her head. Turning to Leo she answers, "These are called cutie marks, they're magic that tell us what our special talent is. Everypony earns one once they learn what that talent is, representing that they've grown out of foal hood. Mine means my talent is taking care of animals while Rainbow's talent is that she's fast and can do a 'Sonic Rainboom.'"

"Okay, that makes sense I guess... Sorry if I was rude Rainbow." Leo apologizes, smiling bitterly.

Maybe I'll ask her to show me what that "Sonic Rainboom" is to make it up to her sometime.

"Is there anything else you want to ask?" Fluttershy asks again.

I have a plan of how to get home, I know where I am and have basic knowledge... hmm.

-Grrrooo

Suddenly, Leo's stomach let out a loud growl. Embarrassed, his face flushed.

"How about food?" Leo asks while glancing off to the side.

"Sure, what type of food do like to eat?" Fluttershy asks, trying her best to make Leo feel comfortable.

"Uhh, I'll eat about anything, but I could go for some meat... all I've eaten is bread recently," Leo replies while wearing a bitter smile.

"You eat MEAT!? Please tell me you don't eat ponies!" Rainbow yells, warily eyeing Leo.

Should I mess with her?

Putting on his trademark shit-eating grin, he looks over to Rainbow. "I've never tried it, but fried pegasus wings sound like they'd hit the spot!" Leo gets up and slowly makes his way towards her.

"NOOO STOP IT!!! I'LL BUCK YOU UP, I'M SERIOUS!!" Rainbow screams out, her eyes watering.

Sitting back down, Leo let out a hearty laugh, "You thought I was being serious?! Pfff HAHAHAHA, man, I got you good." Looking over, he saw Rainbow's brow furrow, face tomato red. "Rainbow... are you good?"

She super pissed... Maybe I went a bit too far... Nah, she'll be fine haha.

Rainbow looks over at Fluttershy with a weird glint in her eye, "Let's take Leo to Sugarcube Corner Fluttershy." Her face became unreadable, but Leo paid no mind.

"Actually," Leo says, he sniffs his pits. His head reels back with a look of disgust on his face, "Can I use your shower? I reek to high heavens."

"Of course, follow me," She replies, going through a doorway opposite of the one leading to the kitchen. Further down, they reach a split off to three doors, with Fluttershy opening one of the doors. There, a pristine bathroom is revealed, with a sink, mirror, and a shower. In the shower is a rack with soaps and other hygiene products.

Perfect! Looks exactly like the ones back home.

"Thank you Fluttershy, I won't be long. I'll meet y'all in the living room once I'm through," Leo says, seeking back his greasy hair.

"Alright, let me know if you need help using the shower," she replies while turning to leave.

"Thanks, mom," Leo chuckles, closing the door behind her.

Without wasting a beat, he undresses and turns on the hot water, checking with his hand to make sure it's a nice warmth. In front of the mirror, Leo takes off his bandages, revealing much scarring. A lot of the scabbing is gone, mostly replaced with scar tissue. The area the scar tissue takes up though had gone down slightly.

So this energy, or magic, is making my body heal like crazy... Maybe by the end of this week, the scarring will be completely gone.

Tearing himself away from his reflection, Leo steps into the shower, basking in the long-needed warmth.

mmmmm

Chapter 6: A Welcomed Guest

It's been over a week since Leo has been able to shower. Filthy didn't even begin to describe his situation. Although he was wiped down at the hospital by the workers, his B.O. simply couldn't be wiped away. It needed to be washed out. His hair, on the other hand, was the worst he's ever seen it. It was extremely greasy, to the point of looking wet, and somewhat stringy.

Leo was content while the warm water washed over himself, letting out a cooing noise. He hadn't gotten the chance to really slow down and relax until now. Although the hospital was nice, it still kept him on edge a little. He closed his eyes, thinking to himself about everything that's happened.

So right now I'm in a world with ponies, ruled by a princess. Instead of common physics, the world runs on magic. But why? Why is there magic here, and not at home? Also, the biggest thing I can't seem to wrap my head around is that fox I saw while being transported here... Maybe I'll be able to find something at the library about all these things. Hopefully Rainbow or Fluttershy are willing to translate for me.

Snapping out of his stupor, Leo grabs the bar soap in a corner of the shower to wash his body. It was a simple worn-down block of pure white soap, smooth due to constant use.

Hopefully this works on skin.

Shrugging, he runs it over his body. Looking down, he sees all the filth washing off, going down the drain in a brown and black color. Most of it was just dirt and sweat, but there was also some blood.

Putting the soap bar back, he then grabs the bottled soap for his hair. Getting a whiff of it, it smells of flowers, like lilac. A super sweet smell, similar to vanilla, with a hint of roses mixed in. It was a very soothing and attractive smell.

...I swear, if this makes some dude come up and sniff me, I'm gonna sock someone in the jaw.

Running the soap through his hair, once again, the bottom of the shower shows some filth going down the drain. Leo made sure to lather it through his hair well, getting all of the gunk out. Satisfaction filled Leo's mind.

Finished, he turns the water off and reaches around the corner for a towel. He vigorously drys off his hair with it, wiping down the rest of his body after. He then wraps it around his waist and goes to look at himself in the mirror.

I have been reborn! Though, I do have a little stubble. Would they even have the stuff to shave here in Equestria?

He thinks as he scratches his chin, filled with little scratchy hairs. Leo wasn't particularly fond of his facial hair since it wasn't too full looking, opting to have it shaved most of the time.

...What in the world... is that smell?!

Leo then looks at his underwear and pants, frowning. Picking up the underwear with just two fingers, he holds it as far from his face as possible, holding his nose as well. Somehow, there was almost a visible trail of green smoke, snaking its up into the air.

Holy CRAP! I might have to burn these! These are a biohazard!

Leo's face changes into a sneer towards the underwear as he slowly puts them on. Next were the pants, though, they weren't nearly as bad.

His shoes and socks, like his underwear, were another beast altogether. The socks were deeply brown from the grime of being out in the wild, combined with the stench of a pigsty. Truly horrid. At this point, Leo didn't see the point of bathing if his clothes were this filthy.

Once done dressing, he makes his way back to the living room, where he finds the two pegasi lounging around and talking amongst themselves, as well as a white bunny. The girls seemed to be in a good mood, giggling with each other. The bunny, however, didn't seem two friendly, giving Leo quite the stink eye.

He looks like he needs to be kicked like a football...

Leo didn't bother hiding his thoughts, wearing a villainous grin, causing the bunny to flinch. Leo then turns to the two mares, putting on a poker face. He starts, "yo Fluttershy, whenever we come back, could you help me find a way to wash my clothes? I also have something else to tell you, but that can wait for later." Leo wanted to go to the library soon as well but decided it would be best if he asked about it on the way to lunch.

"Uhh sure, I was wondering about those, if you don't mind me asking," Fluttershy says, looking for Leo's approval. He nods, to which she continues, "how come you wear clothes?"

...That was... Unexpected. Never in my life did I think I would be asked why I wear clothes.

"I guess it's many things. Let's save it for when we're walking to, what was it, 'Sugarcube Corner?' I gotta think about it for a moment, plus, I think it'd make for a good conversation." Leo answers, who then looks towards Rainbow, "are we set?"

She almost seemed to be stifling a laugh as she calls back, "yeah let's go, maybe you'll even get to try some new food."

This can't be good... Ahh, whatever.

The trio set off towards the town with their destination set, with Fluttershy waving at the white bunny. Rainbow then turns to Leo, "so, clothes?"

Leo's expression turns a little awkward, "uhh, right, ahem so clothes serve many different purposes for us. I'll start with the most obvious. They protect us from the elements. Since we don't have fur like you guys, we need clothes to help regulate our temperature as well as cover us from the sun. Because of this, the clothes are also very comforting. Next is societal or religious. Basically, it's hammered into us that not wearing clothes is verrrrry bad. They're to hide our bodies from each other. Personally, I think that idea came from us wanting to differentiate ourselves from animals. Next is cul-"

Rainbow cuts in per usual, "does that mean we are like animals to you?" Leo looks over to see her somewhat frowning.

Ahh here we go...

Sighing, Leo gathers his thoughts, "it's more complicated than that. After all, you all are much more human-like than ANYTHING on Earth, besides physically. Most of the animals on Earth can't even perceive speech or think non-instinctively. That's honestly why I was so taken aback whenever Fluttershy was just talking to her birds like they're people."

I sound like such a dork. I can't believe I'm explaining myself.

"Ohh, I get it... But were you always this much of an egghead?" Rainbow says, somehow reading Leo's thoughts.

...

Pursing his lips, Leo continues, "so, as I was saying before I was RUDELY interrupted," glaring at Rainbow. "The last part is cultural and economic. With so many different places on Earth, there are bound to be different types of clothes in different regions of the world. Because of this, there is a HUGE global market just for clothes. All of this is surface level though."

At the last few words, Rainbow and Fluttershy go wide-eyed. Rainbow then speaks out, "GLOBAL?! How have y'all been around an entire planet?! Equis hasn't even been fully EXPLORED!"

Leo furrows his eyebrows, "but how? Y'all have magic and can fly naturally! We had to make machines to do it... They move and transport, both goods, and people." Leo's expression changes to a look of pity.

Are they that incompetent?... No, that can't be it... There's just one question after another.

Rainbow looks at him like he's stupid, "because there are MONSTERS you egghead! It's so dangerous, I wouldn't even go to some places, and danger's my middle name!"

Who the hell is she trying to kid! "Danger's my middle name" my ass! HAHAHA

Welp, it's no skin off my back that there are unknown dangers here since I'm gonna be leaving here soon.

Leo shrugs it off. As the trio enters town through the dirt path that leads back to Fluttershy's place, Leo notices that it's strangely quiet. There's almost no traffic of ponies to speak of, with only the sound of birds chirping and trees rustling filling in the gap of sound. It left an odd feeling in Leo, but Leo brushed it off for the most part. He thought it was presumably fine since the duo didn't bring it up.

Shaking his head, Leo shifts the conversation, "before the next question, could either of y'all take me to the library and translate for me tomorrow? There are a few things that I want to figure out..." Leo decides not to elaborate since they'd most likely look at him funny for talking about some "god fox" nonsense.

Rainbow's face changes to a poker face, trying to hide her prejudice towards books. Fluttershy answers instead, "I-I can go with you if that's alright, though I might not be much help with finding stuff for you..."

Leo slightly frowns from Fluttershy's slight self-doubt but soon smiles again. "Thank you, Fluttershy. And that's fine, I have an idea of what I want to know so don't worry."

"So, was there anything else y'all would like to know?" Leo asks, keeping the conversation moving.

"Hmmm," Rainbow puts her hoof on her chin. "What are the machines you mentioned?" She wears a genuinely curious expression.

How technologically advanced are these ponies anyway?

"For the water, we had boats which I'm assuming y'all have," he looks towards the duo, to which they nod. Leo continues, "then for the ground, imagine a boat but with two pairs of wheels. That's what we called, 'cars' and 'trucks,' trucks being bigger and able to move bigger and heavier things compared to cars. Now for the air, we had what was called planes, kinda like a giant bird that can't flap its wings but uses a propeller instead."

Leo then tries to tie all these ideas together, although very roughly. "Almost all of these use what are called 'engines' which burn gas to power a pulley system that makes the whole machine move. Of course, I'm horribly oversimplifying everything and there's much MUCH more that I'm leaving out. For example, some boats are powered by electric motors rather than gas. Or jets, planes that use a certain type of engine that pushes a force outward to fly. In fact, they can even go faster than the speed of sound."

"I can do that too! I call it the 'Sonic Rainboom,' there's even a giant rainbow shockwave!" Leo looks over with a raised eyebrow, only to see Rainbow wear a genuine smile. She notices his gaze and continues, "yeah, I AM pretty awesome!"

She's full of it today!! SHAMELESS!!... I guess it wouldn't hurt to humor her.

Leo starts, "you should show me sometime!" Rainbow doesn't miss the very slight sarcasm in his voice. Fluttershy also frowns a little towards Leo.

"You! You don't believe me, do you!?" Rainbow's smile turns into a scowl, "FINE! I'll show you before the 'Summer Sun' thingy, got that!?"

Oh boy...

Leo throws his hands up near his ears, contempt written on his face. "Alright, alright, I get it..." Leo turns to Fluttershy, "are we almost there?"

Fluttershy nods, "mhm, not too much further..."

An odd silence fills the conversation. Rainbow looks to Fluttershy with an odd grin, but Leo doesn't catch it. He seemed to be lost in thought, with his hand on his chin while he looks down towards the path.

There's just no way a living creature could break the sound barrier... right? Hmmm, wait... Where am I gonna stay for the rest of the week?

"Fluttershy, could I stay at your place for the nights?" Leo looks over at Fluttershy, seeking approval.

However, before she can answer, Rainbow teases Leo, "ahh, shooting your shot already?"

Leo gets flustered, not expecting ANYTHING like that to come up. After a slight pause, he facepalms, "I didn't mean it like that... I don't see you guys like that."

Fuck, I just dug myself another hole, didn't I?

"What, so is Fluttershy not good enough for you?" Rainbow catches Leo's slip up. Leo looks at her as though she grew another head.

Is that how you wanna do this? Hopefully, Fluttershy doesn't take this the wrong way.

"Sorry to let you down Rainbow, but I'm not the casual type," Leo counters, wearing, of course, his trademark shit-eating grin. Even though he used it as a comeback, it was completely true. Although he wasn't a prude, Leo wasn't the type of person to go and get around so to speak. Rainbow wasn't expecting such a response, causing her to clam up.

Fluttershy, seeing her chance to speak, answers Leo, "s-sure you can stay, just no funny business." Leo looks over to see her stifling a laugh. Leo purses his lips with slight frustration.

JUST WHAT DO THEY TAKE ME FOR!? I haven't even made that many crude sex jokes!

Leo lets out a defeated sigh. He was getting double-teamed!

Where are the bros when you need them...

Amid his thoughts, Sugarcube Corner slowly came into view. It was like the rest of the houses, architectural-wise, but it was like a gingerbread house, with a yellow cupcake with pink icing and candles on the tippy-top. The walls were vanilla-colored, while the shingles on the roof looked like they were made from cookies. Decorating the corners of the roof was what looked like white icing. The windows and door were also the same pinks as the cupcake icing on top, a hot pink. Finally, there was a sign of a pink cupcake hanging off from the side of the building, indicating it was a bakery and or pastry shop.

However, Leo also notices the lights were out on the inside. It struck him as odd because nobody would be able to make out what was inside the shop to see the goods.

"We're here!" Rainbow yells at Leo, taking him out of his musings. He has a funny look on his face.

"Are you sure this place is open? The lights are out..." Leo asks in earnest. He was honestly quite nervous about causing trouble since he didn't exactly leave the best first impression.

"Yea, don't worry, come on!" Rainbow exclaims to the anxious Leo, taking the lead towards the doorway

"It'll be fine Leo," Fluttershy reassures him, doing a much better job at comforting than Rainbow. She also follows suit.

"...Okay, if you say so." Leo follows the two mares towards the door. As Rainbow opens the door, it reveals an almost pitch-black room.

Did they bring me here to murder me or something?? Are they... gonna turn me into cupcakes?! ...I'm just being paranoid... right?!

As he walks through the doorway, there's a slam right behind him.

BAM

"Uhhhh, guys?" Leo asks, nervousness creeping its way into his words.

Nothing. Goosebumps crawled onto Leo's skin.

...

Suddenly, a switch flicked, flooding the room with light. Leo hastily shuts his eyes, wincing from the sudden illumination. After a split second, Leo opens them back up, revealing a huge mass of ponies within the building.

Am I getting jumped?!

Inside, the colors of the room popped out, the walls mostly consisted of vanilla and the beams in the walls and ceiling were brown. A support beam running across the middle of the room and in the trim in the corners were hot pink, also having images of candy painted on. The store looked almost like a candy and bakery shop, with various sugary sweets lining the wall to the right, with a rolling ladder to reach the higher-shelved ones. Straight ahead from the front door was the front counter, sporting a pink window that let the shopper peak at the delicious treats and pastries inside. On top of the counter were two labeled punch bowls, but Leo couldn't read them. To the right of the counter was a table, lined with cupcakes and cookies. To the left of the counter in the corner was a whole DJ turntable setup with record players along with a pair of big subwoofers. All around the room were, much to Leo's surprise, balloons, streamers, and plenty of chairs and tables.

"SURPRISE!" Everybody screams, bright-colored confetti flying everywhere and party horns stretching out towards him. Pinkie, the pink pony Leo met from this morning, then speaks out, "WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!!!"

huh?

Leo was speechless, he never had a surprise party before. All of these ponies, who had no clue who or WHAT he was, came together to throw HIM a party. It gave Leo a really warm feeling in his chest, causing his face to shift into a gleeful expression.

They threw a surprise party for a stranger like me? I'm even an alien to them too...

Suddenly, Leo's eyes begin to water a little, touched by the genuine kindness. However, he holds them back.

"HEY LEO! It's me, Pinkie Pie! I got everypony together to welcome you to Ponyville! Were you surprised?!" Leo looks at her, only to see the most universally contagious smile he'd ever seen.

"HELL YEA I WAS! This is awesome! How did you get so many ponies together so quick?" Leo raises his eyebrow. Although Leo wasn't one for big parties, he knew how to get along and not be a buzzkill. Especially if that party was meant for him. Leo suddenly has an epiphany and looks over at Pinkie's flank, to which he sees three balloons.

That explains why the party is so well put together, her cutie mark is for parties more than likely... Still, how did she organize a huge party like this so fast?! It hasn't even been five hours since I first met her!

"I handed out invitations to everypony silly!" She looks at Leo like that was the obvious answer. "And I'm glad you like it! We have food, punch, one with and one without alcohol, and, of course, MUSIC! Scratchy, HIT IT!"

They're drinking so soon in the day?!

"You got it!" Leo hears a girl call out. Looking over where the voice came from, Leo sees a white unicorn at the DJ setup. She had two tones of blue for her mane and tail, one blue looks like an electric light blue, while the other looks like cobalt. Her hair was medium length, tailored in a haphazard, but stylish way. Over her eyes, she had black glasses with violet lenses. Finally, on her flank, was a pair of eighth notes for her cutie mark.

The powerful subwoofers fill the room with music, taking on the genre of EDM and Dubstep. Leo wasn't much of a fan of it as much as he was when he was younger, but he still vibed with it, bopping his head to it almost as soon as it kicked in. This just made Leo want to play his guitar even more than before. Along with the music, the room also fills with colored lights, giving off the vibe of a club.

So their technology is quite a bit advanced in entertainment...

Where did those two girls go?

Looking around the room for Rainbow and Fluttershy, he sees them seated near the table with all the cupcakes and cookies, stuffing their faces without a care in the world. Seeing the girls gorge themselves on food, Leo's stomach couldn't help but let out a loud rumble. Leo looks down at his stomach.

Alright buddy, I'll get you some good food finally.

As Leo walks over there, Rainbow spots him making his way to them. She turns and grins at him in a "happy-go-lucky" manner. "Hey, Leo! You like the party?"

"How could I not?! I honestly would've never expected something so nice," Leo says, matching Rainbow's expression.

"That's great," Rainbow pauses, her grin turns into something more sinister, but Leo didn't catch it, "try this cupcake!" She holds out a cupcake towards Leo. A VERY attractive cupcake. It was vanilla, with bright hot pink icing and with pastel sprinkles on top. It was a shame such a work of art was going to be consumed. Leo stared at it with a solemn expression.

I'm sorry, but it was inevitable. I shall end your suffering.

Without delay, he grabs the cupcake and promptly shoves it into his mouth. It was sweet. So sweet in fact, Leo was scared his teeth would decay right then and there, but it didn't happen. It was immensely savory. Leo bathed in the taste that graced his mouth. Leo could only describe it as perfection. "Mmmm," a soft moan comes out as he's chewing his new favorite dessert.

"Mmmm?" Something confused Leo after a moment. It was odd, a weird sensation began to fill Leo's mouth. It was similar to a burning sensation, like something spicy. It was a very slow and creeping burn, Leo's mouth was slowly encased with this sensation. The burning was also getting stronger by the second, causing Leo to sweat a little. "What did you put in this cupcake?!" He sounded fine at first but his speech trembled at the end of his question.

"Ohhh, nothing much. Just a little something for some 'kick,' ya know? I thought you'd like it... HAHAHAHA!" Rainbow stifled her laughter until eventually having a full fit of hysterics. She had used this opportunity to get back at Leo for teasing her about eating her wings.

"HAaaa, haaaa, I need to, haaaa, DRINK SOMETHING!!" Leo was having trouble grounding his breathing, eventually practically breathing flames out of his mouth. His face was drenched in sweat, with snot running down from his nose and his mouth-watering to an unimaginable degree. In a split-second decision, He runs towards the punch bowls at the front counter, grabbing a cup lying around. Picking the bowl to the right, he didn't stand on ceremony, scooping up punch and gulping it down. It was immediate relief.

After what he could only assume was four cups worth of punch, he finally feels the burning start to fade away. Thankfully, he didn't cause too much of a scene, with only a couple of ponies glancing his way. Letting out a sigh of relief, Leo barely escaped the clutches of death. He turns around to give Rainbow a piece of his mind.

"...How much did you drink?" Rainbow asks Leo when he turns to face her, not even letting him get the opportunity to speak. He couldn't understand why she sounded so concerned, after all, she did give him that deathtrap. Leo raises his eyebrow.

"Like four cups?... Are you trying to avoid my wrath?!" Leo makes his way to her, rolling up his imaginative sleeves. He was gonna get payback, one way or another. Unbeknowgst to him, his head started to feel a little hot...

"DUDE! That punch was spiked with ALCOHOL!" Rainbow exclaims. "You're not gonna be okay here in a few minutes, you need to sit down. NOW!"

Hehe, that just makes things more fun! Does she seriously think she can tell me what to do? PFFF What's the point if I make it too easy for her?!

Leo dawns his evil smile once again, maniacally laughing. "HAHAHA, YOU'LL HAVE TO CATCH ME!" He makes a break for it. Thankfully, he wasn't stumbling quite yet, but he knew it would get to that point soon.

The crowd was huge, making it hard to breakthrough. Without any direction, Leo keeps going through them, stopping at no cost. His vision lands on the pink party pony he was talking with earlier, Pinkie Pie.

He calls out, "Pinkie, save me from Rainbow! She's trying to take me captive for... 'unknown' reasons." Leo tells the pink pony his sob story. He does a pretty good job at playing his part in his opinion. Pinkie buys it, waving at Leo to follow her.

My acting is impeccable... hehe

Giggling like a little kid, he makes his way to Pinkie. He hadn't had this much fun in a very long time. The alcohol was starting to hit him pretty substantially.

HAHA Messing with these ponies, specifically Rainbow, definitely takes the cake in comedy!

"We gotta stay on the move sooooo, let me introduce you to some ponies!" Pinkie tells Leo, beaming at the opportunity to help Leo make new friends.

It wouldn't hurt to meet more people... Perfect!

Nodding, Leo follows her. As they move through the crowd, Pinkie is saying "hi" and greeting everybody. Leo gained
newfound appreciation after watching her be nice to so many ponies.

After walking around for a minute or two, they reached a certain table. Seated at it are two ponies, one of them presumably a mare while the other a stallion if he had to guess off of their features. The mare has an orange coat of fur, a long blonde mane and tail that are tied off near the ends, and a brown Stetson hat. Her eyes were a bright green, like emeralds, with pale freckles exaggerating them even more.

The stallion has a bright red coat of fur with a yoke around his neck for pulling carts as well as some freckles. His mane and tail were a simple orange, with his tail being on the short side. He also had the same bright green eyes as the mare. Being the first stallion Leo's seen, he sports a stronger jawline and an overall bigger frame. Oddly, his hooves stood out as a different color compared to all the other ponies, whose hooves matched their coat color. His hooves were almost like a pale peach or tan color.

He might be the designated first Equestrian bro... We'll see.

Leo didn't want to come off rude so he didn't glance at their flanks, but if he had to guess, they were some type of farmers.

Pinkie looks over to Leo, "this is Applejack," she points to the mare. Pinkie continues, pointing to the stallion, "and this is Big Mac! They run Sweet Apple Acres here in Ponyville! They also make the best apple cider and zap apple jam!" She then talks to the duo, "This is Leo, he's new here!"

"Well howdy, so you're the Leo Ah've heard about! Nice tah meetcha, ah'm Applejack!" The orange mare says, sticking out her hoof for a shake. Leo shakes it and nods. She then points to the stallion, "this is mah brother, Big McIntosh, but you can call 'em Big Mac." Leo and Big Mac both just nod at each other, acknowledging each other in a sense.

"It's nice to meet both uh ya..." Leo starts to slur his speech slightly, laughing at himself internally. He's grinning ear to ear with a hint of red over his face.

Holy shit, I'm pretty drunk... I'm such a lightweight!

Applejack looks at Pinkie and giggles a little, but Leo's too drunk to understand. It all sounds and looks a little hazy. He looks down and realizes he's shirtless. His muddle-headed brain kicks in.

I want a shirt...

"Less talk when I'm sober," Leo says to Applejack and Big Mac, to which they nod. Leo then turns to Pinkie Pie, "I gotta do somethin'. Hey Pink, you know some-, I need clothes." Leo half asks Pinkie. Although Leo liked looking at himself recently due to the new musculature, he hated not having a shirt and clean clothes.

"Sure, follow me!" Pinkie replies. She's not too worried about Leo being too drunk, as he seems to be having a good time. If anything, she just wondered how much he had to drink since the party had begun for no more than 20 minutes or so. Thankfully, he could still somewhat walk.

"You're the best, Pinkster," Leo says, feeling thankful he's found good friends since he's been here.

As he follows Pinkie, his mind wanders, thinking about all the cool ponies he's met since coming here. They've all been so nice, even throwing him a surprise party. Thinking about the party though made him kinda bitter a little, since he got drunk almost as soon as it started, but he was having a good time with Pinkie.

Following behind Pinkie, they come to a mare, a unicorn, with a white coat of fur. Her deep violet mane was all pampered up and curled along with her tail. She clearly spent a decent amount of time on them. Leo also realized she was wearing mascara and eye shadow, unlike any ponies he's seen thus far. Her eyes were a deep blue, like the ocean. Boundless. Looking at her flank, Leo sees three blue gem-looking things, matching the color of her eyes.

She seemed to have caught Leo's lingering gaze on her hind quarters. ahem "Who might you be? Although I'm flattered, your manners are somewhat lacking darling." She says in a very elegant manner.

...Oops...

Pinkie cuts in, "this is Leo! I'm introducing him to some ponies and he wanted some clothes! And, of course, that made me think of you! Leo, this is Rarity," Pinkie then leans into Rarity and whispers, "sorry he's a little tipsy."

"Uhh, nice to meet ya, ya make clothes?" Leo asks, cutting to the chase.

"Oh, of course! I would love to make you some if you don't mind! You are just so... unique! It's not every day I get a chance like this! Say, why not meet me at my boutique whenever you're feeling 'better' darling?" Rarity can't seem to hold herself back, taking Leo by surprise a little.

She must like clothes... wait.

"I'm broke," Leo tells her with a frown.

"That's fine! It'll be on the house darling, don't you worry!" Rarity says, wearing a sympathetic but also excited expression.

"Sweet, I'll swing by sometime," he tells Rarity. "Okay I'm gonn-, I need Rainbow and Fluttershy, where are they?" Leo turns to Pinkie, concern written on his face. He wanted to go home... Sadness and isolation began to worm their way into Leo's head.

Fuck, this is why I hate drinking...

Leo started to feel down in the dumps. He wanted to just go and lay down more than anything. He missed his home, his music, everything. This sensation made him feel like he was being ungrateful aswell, magnifying the emotions in his mind.

"Uhh, yeah, I'll help you find them," She looks at him in the eye. "Are you okay?"

She has no clue...

The homesickness hits him like a truck, but he grits his teeth. If Rainbow or Fluttershy asked this question though, Leo definitely would've choked up at the very least. "Yeah... I'm fine."

Pinkie deflates a little but shakes her head, regaining her bounciness. After a moment of walking, they spot Fluttershy and Rainbow walking around looking for who they would assume was Leo. "Will you be fine from here on?"

"Yea, thanksh Pinkster," Leo says, "for the party and helpin' me. Let's hang out when I'm shober." Leo begins to slur his speech more audibly. He turns to head towards the pegasus duo, stumbling a little bit.

"Okay!" Pinkie exclaims, bouncing off like a floating tumbleweed.

"Hey!" Leo calls out. The blue and yellow ponies turn towards Leo, rushing over to see if he's alright.

"L-Leo, are you alright?! You can barely walk straight," Fluttershy practically whispers near the end, but Leo can still hear her to a degree.

"Ohmygosh ohmygosh omygosh, Leo, where the hay were you! Why did you run off?! Do you know just HOW much alcohol you had?!" Rainbow chastizes Leo, surprising Leo with how worried she really was.

She sounds like a mom...

"Okay mooom, can we go now? I'm pretty out uh it," Leo asks. It takes a second to register with them but they nod. "Sorry," Leo says softly.

Rainbow then shoots back, "no, I'm sorry. I forgot you couldn't read... I shoulda got you a drink after I gave you that cupcake or something." She looks down at her hooves in shame.

But she would still give me the cupcake... HEARTLESS!!

"Less leave, I wanna go," Leo says again. The girls nod and lead him out. They weren't too far from the door, but Leo barely manages to not fall over before reaching it. However, it was a different story when they stepped out of the doorway.

BAM

Leo faceplanted right outside, "Aughhhh," he groans. His stomach also begins to feel upset. Rainbow and Fluttershy help him up, Rainbow on his right and Fluttershy on his left.

"Lean on me so you don't fall over," Rainbow tells Leo flatly, trying not to burst out laughing at his plight.

"Okay," Leo answers. Leo looks around as they slowly make it back to Fluttershy's house. Everything was different than home. No humans, different buildings, a different society. It was all different. Yet so similar all at once, it made no sense. Silence filled the air. "I want to go home," Leo says in a hushed tone.

Fluttershy doesn't hear him, but Rainbow does, causing her to bite her lip. She doesn't have the solutions for him, but she can help him feel at least a little better. "Tell me about your home," she says, her voice carrying a softer tone than usual.

Fluttershy looks over with interest to the subject as well, her ears perking up to listen. Leo start, "it was shimple, not much there really. Jus me, my mushic, and the people I know... I miss the familiarity..." Leo says, looking around at nothing in particular. Then something clicks in his head. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone.

Maybe, I can show them this...

"Hey, when we get back, I'll show y'all my mushic from home," Leo says, wearing a goofy grin. He was happy he could pay them back in some sort of fashion. They had been able to share all the wonderful things with him, but he had nothing to show until now.

"W-what? How? We don't have a guitar," Rainbow questions Leo, thinking he's spewing some drunken hysterics.

Do they have phones?

"Ahh, dun worry, it's uh surprise," Leo answers, "Anywaysh, do you think they're mad at me for being shitfaced? I feel like a ruined the party they worked so hard on." Leo chokes up, his drunken state heightening his mood swing.

Fluttershy cuts in unusually, "don't say that! As long as you enjoyed it, no matter how short, is what matters. After all, the party was for you."

"She's right, big guy, everypony had a good time. Besides, they can meet you another time." Rainbow reassures Leo.

Big guy?

Leo shakes his thoughts away, "thanksh guysh, for everything. Out of everyone that I haven't met, I wanna meet that DJ." Leo speaks his thoughts aloud. Suddenly, Leo feels his most hated sensation. He's going to vomit. Sprinting, he goes to a flowerpot housing a little tree near one of the houses on the path. "HURRRR."

It wasn't a pretty sight. Leo's face goes read from his body exerting itself, his veins popping out on his face and around his throat. His face began to drip sweat and snot onto the ground.

...And I just showered toooo...

"Better?" Rainbow asks.

"Yea, jus a bit," Leo responds, chuckling a little.

"Alright, let's keep going. We're almost there." Rainbow tells Leo, earning a nod.

... After this, I don't think I'm drinking for a long while... maybe.

Chapter 7: Forgotten History

Leo began to like Fluttershy's place more and more. It was warm and cozy, like a big cocoon of comfort. The couch swallowed him up as he sank within the incredibly soft cushions. Leo had been laying there for a few hours, recovering from his earlier "antics." He was feeling much better than before, with his muddle-headedness gone for the most part. It was somewhat later in the evening... Outside one of the windows, the sky was a beautiful tint of orange, slowly approaching dusk.

Leo wears a stupid grin on his face.

It Feeeeelss gooood. I'm living like a king haha.

I could get used to this.

Ever since the three of them had gotten back, the two mares had taken care of him. They had gotten him food to help stop him from getting a hungover later, ranging from yogurt to whole wheat snacks, to some type of broccoli soup. Surprisingly, he had no trouble keeping it down. The girls had also been giving him plenty of water, making sure he's plenty hydrated. Leo was feeling much better.

"And what are you smiling about, you dork?" Rainbow says, half pouting because she has to take care of the drunk fool. All that said, she still enjoyed his company, talking with him about simple, general stuff, like culture and sociology for ponies, and human technology.

Although the ponies had entertainment technology that used magic, like movies, music tech like at the party, and simple games, they still used simple industrial technology. For instance trains instead of cars, or hot air balloons instead of planes. Leo assumed it most likely had something to do with their infrastructure, most likely due to the focus on magic rather than electricity.

What really interested Leo though was the former, their sociology and culture. Maybe it was because he was somewhat removed from it, but he found it fascinating. Ponies got together in groups just like horses would back on Earth, forming a harem with one or two stallions. Although there was a stallion who was the main head, the "first" mare was in charge of the "herd" for the most part. From what Rainbow said, it was this way 'because there are so many more mares than stallions!'

Leo also began to notice that the ponies were VERY expressive. Oftentimes, the direction a pony's ears were pointing was a giveaway of what they were feeling. For example, they would droop when sad or pin back when angry. They also seemed to express themselves more physically, something very in contrast with humans. More often than not, humans were very reluctant to just touch each other, meanwhile, the ponies would nuzzle and stand up against someone they wanted to comfort, even if they might be strangers. Leo also saw their tails express some emotions, but he couldn't understand too much yet.

To Leo, it was both super interesting yet so strange. They also had many similarities to the physiology of horses on Earth as well, even to the gender ratios as said before. But they also had many similarities to the ways humans were, such as being a little more aggressive, which contrasted to the more passive approach horses took on Earth. They had little to no problems with blind spots, or depth perception as far as he could tell as well. However, they also kept features of horses that worked in their favor, like hearing and smelling ability that far outpaced a human's. It was truly intriguing.

However, now, they were just fooling around.

Huh? What type of question is that? Should I do something she could never expect?

...

Why, but of course!

"I'm in a good mood, is that so wrong, 'o miss pony?" Leo jests, taking on a flamboyant pose like he's acting for a play. He kneels down and reaches out to her with his left hand, the other covering his heart. "You see, I am but a humble king, traveling in foreign lands. On my quest to seek my way homeward, I have been taken in the care of such gentle mares! Now, if you'll excuse me, I must be busy grinning once more!" Leo sits back down as though nothing, in particular, had happened. He pulled off the best poker face he possibly could.

...

Rainbow was speechless. She squinted and looked at him, perhaps trying to find the "thing" that is making him act out of character. Her eyebrows were furrowed with confusion. Was he always this weird?

"Tsk," Leo clicks his tongue in ridicule.

What a boring response...

You're supposed to play along!

"Hey!" Leo calls out, breaking her out of her stupor, "wanna listen to that music I mentioned before?"

"Uhh, yeah sure. But how are you gonna play it? We don't have any instrum-," Rainbow inquired, only to be cut off by Leo.

"With this!" Leo declared, pulling out his phone from his pocket for the pony to see. "It's a phone. Basically, it holds a bunch of information and I'm gonna show you said information. In this case, music!"

Leo turns on his phone that has been off almost the whole time he's been here. Once on, it showed the same symbol on the top right for having no bars. Sighing inwardly, he opens up his "Spotify," showing all of his downloaded playlists.

Thank god I'm a psycho. I don't think anyone sane downloads all their music.

Thinking back, Leo remembers that Rainbow said she liked rock. Wasting no time, he pulls up his "Rock" playlist, which included punk rock, classic rock, et cetera. It was an extremely inclusive playlist. Raising his eyebrow, he turns to Rainbow, "what type of rock do you wanna listen to?"

"Type? There's more than just rock? Just give me something that'll pump me up I guess," she blurted out, not putting much thought into it.

It makes sense music wouldn't be as fleshed out and diverse here. Without the internet, I can see why.

Unfortunate.

Shrugging off his thoughts, he looks through the playlist for some punk rock and the likes. Then a certain track catches his eye.

Perfect!

Although she might not understand some of the lyrics, she'll still feel it.

Pressing play on Kickstart My Heart by Mötley Crüe, the music begins to fill the room to Rainbow's amazement. "WHAT? How can something so small play music?!"

Human innovation is truly amazing...

"I'll tell you some other time maybe, just listen for now." Leo stated, closing his eyes. He let the music dance into his ears, filling him with the passion of the song. Rainbow followed Leo's lead and closed her eyes as well. The sensation of the music was intense.

Leo particularly liked the riff from the guitar at the beginning, it filled his mind with one word. Go! He didn't know where or what, but his body wanted to get up and run away to do something crazy. His body, throughout the song, had physiological responses to the feelings he was having. Beads of sweat filled his brow as he imagined doing the things in the song. His heart raced with anticipation. His skin rose with goosebumps, while a cold sweat went down his back.

He peeked open his eyes and looked over at Rainbow and her reaction. She was uncomfortable, fidgeting around. Her wings twitched like they were ready to blast off into the serene sky and stir up trouble. Her legs twitched a little as well, like a dog having a dream. Her brow, much like Leo's, also began to sweat. She bit her lip subtly too, chewing on it with excitement.

This is why he loved music so much.

The feelings expressed within the music transferred to him and resonated with his soul, body, and mind. This is what true immersion was.

This went on for a couple of minutes, with the two glancing at each other occasionally. They were trying to calm the fire within their hearts. Leo was glad Rainbow was enjoying it as much as he was.

After the song was done, the room filled with silence. No one uttered a single sound.

The silence shattered. "THAT WAS AWESOME!" Rainbow exclaims, beaming with satisfaction. "Is there more?!"

-Creeeeak

The front door opens, revealing a certain butter-colored pegasus. Fluttershy had been taking care of the animals outside, doing various daily chores she hadn't gotten to yet, such as feeding the chickens and cleaning their pen. Small but important things.

Fluttershy looked at the cyan pegasus and human with her eyebrow raised, "what's going on? I-if you don't mind me asking."

Leo assures her, "no, you're fine, I was just showing Rainbow some music from home. You wanna listen to some?" Leo inquires, doing his best to include the reclusive Fluttershy.

"I-I'd like that. How are we going to listen to it though?" Fluttershy wondered.

Ahh, don't worry you'll see," Leo began, continuing, "what type of music would you like?"

"Hmm," she puts her hoof to her chin and looks to the floor, contemplating her choice. After a few moments, she looks back up, "h-how about something melodic and calming? I've always liked music like that." Her face shifts to a soft smile, almost motherly.

"Alright, give me a second to find something." Leo begins to scroll through his phone. He began to think that progressive rock would be the best choice, as it's well-composed, melodic, and it might fit both of their tastes. His eyes land on a certain song.

Meanwhile, Leo looked at his phone, Fluttershy took a seat on her chair to the left of Leo and Rainbow. She tried to get nice and comfortable.

Leo, seeing that she was ready, taps on Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin. It was a classic. "Alright, just close your eyes and let it soak in." Leo drawled, to which the two followed.

It was an abstract piece of art, being able to be interpreted in many different ways and fashions. Even the artist himself has no clue what it truly means. It was simply a beautiful piece of work. It was well put together, with the piece eliciting emotion out of every line.

Leo looked over at Fluttershy's reaction. Her breathing was slow and calm, almost as though she was sleeping. A small, soft smile covered her lips, as though she was completely content with everything. Her face soon also had a tinge of sadness however, perhaps picking up on some loneliness radiating from the song.

He then looked over towards Rainbow, who was a little worse off. She was calm, yes, but she was also seemed a bit more downhearted, even beginning to tear up in the corners of her tightly closed eyes. Her lips were pursed, holding an unknown emotion. Her eyes were closed, but if they were open, Leo would think that she would be looking down with some type of sorrow.

They've been through a lot, haven't they.

Being around music so much, Leo had come to realize that people who had been through hardship and experienced a lot, tend to pick up on emotions like this more, especially on abstract pieces. Abstract music could act like a mirror of sorts. It truly brought out the beauty of emotions.

After a few minutes of listening, the music comes to a close. Silence, once again, filled the room.

Leo went first, "so? What'd you think?" His eyebrows were raised in a curious expression. His arms were crossed as he looked towards Rainbow and Fluttershy.

"...I hate sappy music," Rainbow complains, causing Leo to have a slight frown. She turned away, having nothing more to say.

I see, she must really not like what she was feeling... Which I can understand.

Still, is she running away from something?

Shaking his head, removing those thoughts for now, he waits for Fluttershy's take on the song. She takes a deep breath before she starts.

"I thought it w-was beautiful. T-thank you," Fluttershy murmured near the end. After a moment of pause, she continues, "Is all music like that from your home?.. Also, h-his voice, it was really calming."

Leo answers, "nah, we have a lot of variety of music at home with the global economy I talked about earlier today. That song was specifically in the 'progressive rock' genre. And I agree, that artist is a musical genius."

Rainbow turns back to the conversation, "could you show us more of the music like from before?"

Hmm, it'd be a good idea to save it for another time... can't show all of it at once after all.

-Yawwwwwwwn

Leo lets out, his mouth gaping wide. "Maybe another time, I gotta wash my clothes before the night is over. The couch is calling my name as well." He turns off his phone and puts it in his jean's pocket.

Fluttershy chimes in, "I can d-do your clothes for you if you'd like. It won't be too much trouble."

She has no idea...

I'd be terrible by making her do my clothes.

...

"Alright, but be warned, they stink like nothing you've ever encountered! I almost died when I sniffed them!" Leo chuckled at himself, "let me get a towel or something to cover up real quick." He takes out his phone and puts it on the little table next to the couch.

Leo then darts to the bathroom, leaving no room for discussion. It wasn't too far, just around the corner and down a short hallway. Quickly going in, he began to strip down buck naked. He was grinning at the idea of having clean clothes. Once his garments were completely off, he grabbed the towel he used before and wrapped it around his waist, making sure it was extra tight so it wouldn't fall.

Perfect!

Satisfied, Leo made his way back into the living room with his wad of biohazardous clothes in tote. "Where should I put these?" He asked when he made his way around the corner to the living room.

"In here," she states, wiggling a holding a wooden basket on her back. She then pointed to the couch, "I put a blanket and pillow for you there, if you need anything else, l-let me know."

"Alright sweet, thank you bunches, Fluttershy," Leo thanked Fluttershy, going over to the couch with Rainbow and getting comfortable in the blankets.

Rainbow gets up, "I'll see ya big guy, I gotta go home and get ready for work tomorrow. Once I'm off, you wanna hang out?"

"Sure, I'll see you tomorrow. If you can't find me, just ask Fluttershy," Leo answers, His eyes half-shut from sleepiness. "By the way, I forgot to ask but what day of the week is it, and when is the festival thing?"

Rainbow stops on her way to the door and turns around, "uhh, it's Wednesday today, and the celebration is Sunday night." She then makes her way to the door once more.

They use the same days too?! WTF!!!

And I thought they said a week, it's a lot sooner than I thought...

Alright, thanks. See ya!" Leo yells out to the already gone Rainbow Dash.

She seemed as though she was in a rush... Maybe she has to get up early?

Shrugging, Leo sinks into the couch, with soft tan blankets covering his half-nude body. The pillow was super comfy too, being made out of what Leo could only assume was memory foam. It was nice and cool as well, making it unnecessary to toss and turn for a colder spot on the pillow like at home. He lets out a soft groan in pleasure as he slowly doses off.

One sheep.

Two sheep.

Ten.. Sheep...

Twen-ty... Two... Sheep...

Thi-rty--

-Snooore

/// Thursday Morning ///

Leo's face was touched by the sunlight, causing him to squint one eye open, revealing the source. Out of the window, a ray of golden goodness was shining right onto his face. He groaned with displeasure but decided it was time to get up from his makeshift bed. He had never been a couch sleeper, but this time, he slept like a rock. A smile slowly formed on his expression.

Holy shit, I feel great! No hangover either, must've been all the good food I ate?

Shrugging, he got up and made his way outside. Opening the door, his ears are greeted with the singing of birds. Leo closed his eyes and slowly listened to the melody of the birds.

Suddenly, the singing stopped, followed by a quiet voice not too far away. Leo looks over towards the gentle voice, only to see the butter-colored pegasus hovering up to a tree full of birds. Leo didn't see her until now, but Fluttershy was talking with the birds!

Do they actually understand what she's saying?

After a brief moment of speaking with the birds, Fluttershy hovers a little back, to which the birds start to sing once again. It was a soft and calm melody, one that made the listener want to lean back and relax. Leo listened to them for a few more moments before having a revelation.

It was genuinely well composed! Leo's eyes went wide. He was shocked!

This is amazing!!

"Hey, Fluttershy!" Leo calls out.

-Eep

Frightened, she lands on the ground abruptly, but then gains her bearings. She looks over at the speaker to see Leo with his eyebrow raised. Leo, shaking his head, speaks first, "that's awesome Fluttershy! You've been working hard with them haven't you?"

She nods, "mhm, they're really talented, so it's not too much hard work. All they needed was some guidance."

"I'll let you continue what you were doing, but could you point me to where my clothes are?" Leo inquires. Although the towel did the job, it was fairly uncomfortable compared to the usual.

"Y-yeah, it's over there," She says, pointing over near the riverside, where they are hanging on a thin wire. On it, they looked like they were never a danger to society, completely clean with no blemishes or wrinkles for that matter.

... How are these the same clothes from before?!

I don't deserve to be treated this good!

"Thanks!" Leo exclaims, running off towards his clothes. He grabs them swiftly and heads inside to change. Using the living room, he puts on his clothes in a flash. Still shirtless, he puts his phone in his pocket.

Alright, time to head out!

Making his way back out, he goes to Fluttershy to tell her his plans. "Hey, I'm gonna head over to Rarity's while you work with your birds. You can come to grab me from there when you're ready to go to the library."

"Mmm, that's perfect," She nods, leaving Leo to his own devices.

Time to cause havoc... hehehe.

"Alright, I'll see ya later," Leo tells her before making his way down the path into town.

It was a pretty uneventful trek, with only pretty views coming into vision. Patches of trees lined the path, with critters coming into sight every so often. It was genuinely pleasant.

It's certainly a nice, scenic trail to walk on.

Slowly coming to Ponyville, he crosses a bridge to officially enter.

I guess I should ask around where her shop is just in case my guess is wrong.

Seeing a gray pegasus, Leo makes his way to them. They seemed to be delivering mail, albeit with a little difficulty. Coming closer, Leo could see she was a mare. She had a light blond mane and tail, with her mane styled similar to how Rainbow Dash's mane was, being in a simple windswept fashion. On her flank was a group of bubbles, to which Leo couldn't even begin to guess what they stand for. Finally, her eyes were the most "eye-catching" feature. They were a pretty golden color, but they were splayed in different directions. She was wall-eyed.

Don't say or do anything rude Leo, you dumbass.

Leo furrowed his eyebrow at first, but stopped and wore a poker face. Walking up, he grabs her attention. "Hey! Can you help me real quick?"

She turns around to the speaker, only for her expression to shift into slight horror. Her eyes went wide as she trembled slightly, frozen in fear. Leo scoffs to himself.

C'mon, I'm not thaaaat ugly...

This is gonna be a regular thing, isn't it.

After a few moments, she shakes her head and trots over. "Hi! I'm Derpy Hooves! What's your name?"

Wow, I'm surprised she even approached after being so afraid.

Leo answers, trying to hide his slight frown, "Just call me Leo, could you point me to where I can find Rarity's shop?"

"Of course! It's a pleasure to help out a pony in need! She lives just around the corner that way!" She points to where Leo entered the town from, causing Leo to inwardly face-palm.

So I was right...

"Alright, thanks! Pleasure meeting you Derpy," Leo waves before heading off back from where he came. Turning the corner at the edge of the town near the aforementioned bridge, he comes to the shop.

She seemed sweet enough...

Leo looks at it with contempt, with one word playing in his mind. Girly. If anything, it reminded him of a girl's dollhouse. It was the same as he remembered. However, this time, he noticed the sign that indicated it was truly a clothing shop. It was a sign of a pony wearing a dress and a bridle in the same pose as the mannequins on top of the building.

Surrounding it were more buildings with a similar "tent-like" structure. They sported very vibrant colors, from yellow, pink, to bright orange. Rarity's shop stood out though, being both taller, and having a variety of colors in it in contrast with the other buildings. There were also trees scattered, many taking on the structure of having a very thick trunk and branches that reached in all directions.

Walking up to the door somewhat reluctantly, he knocks. After a few moments, he hears who he could assume was Rarity. "Come in~!" She half sung half yelled out.

Taking a deep breath, he opens the door revealing an absurdly extravagant interior. Leo was somewhat awe-struck. It was quite excessive.

Along the walls were strewn curtains with elegant trimming lined along the edges. To the left looked like two booths with mirrors, with the before mentioned curtains set to close them in for needed privacy. Underneath the mirrors were a set of two drawers and a bucket for each, though Leo had no clue for what. In the middle of the room was a mannequin that had not too much on it, with only a bridle and a little dress. Back behind it was a staircase which Leo assumed led to Rarity's workshop of sorts. To the slight right was a swing door, but Leo couldn't see what was on the other side. Finally to the right was a pedestal that spun, accompanied by three mirrors surrounding it. It was a very beautiful room, illuminated by lights overhead, but Leo couldn't imagine the exorbitant price it took to put it together.

Rarity looks over at Leo, hesitating for a moment before starting, "welcome! Welcome! Oh, do make yourself at home darling. How can I help you?!" Her eyes gleamed with anticipation towards Leo's request.

Someone looks a little excited

"Uhh, yea, could I take you up on that offer from before? I need clothes, but I don't have any money," Leo pursed his lips from slight frustration due to his situation. He hated having things given to him, but he didn't have much of a choice at the moment.

I won't need too many clothes since I'll be leaving soon...

"Why, but of course darling! Did you have anything in mind?" Rarity asks, walking over to some measuring tools she had lying around.

"Uhh, just a little of everything if you don't mind, make them plain looking if you can. I just need spares of everything so I have something to wear while I clean the dirty ones. So two shirts, a pair of pants, underwear, and socks..." Leo states, looking upwards while he thinks to himself.

Maybe a hoodie would be nice? mmmm

"C-could you make me a hoodie too?" Leo hesitates before continuing, "other than that, I think that's it."

"Ahh, what a shame," Leo hears her mutter slightly, though to what, he has no clue. "Alright, that's perfect! Let me write your measurements down, then I'll ask some questions." Rarity pauses, taking a moment to think before continuing," after that's all done, I'll have them done by tomorrow and you can come by and pick them up. Does that sound good darling?"

Holy shit! That's fast!

Leo brightens up, "that's perfect! Where do you want me to stand?"

"Just stand on that pedestal right there," she points to the one that's surrounded by three mirrors on the right side of the room. While Leo makes his way to that, Rarity puts on a pair of red-rimmed glasses. She also has something else near her that completely shocks Leo.

They're... FLOATING?!! IS THAT THE MAGIC THEY TALKED ABOUT?!

Over Rarity's head was a soft tape measure meant for measuring body lengths. To her left shoulder was a clipboard with a pen. Enveloping them, however, was a soft light blue coating. The "coating" looked soft and malleable, like slime or silly putty, but it was non-tangible. It also seemed to give a slight glow, with a few sparkles cascading off at a time. This bizarre "coating" also seemed to surround the center of her forehead as well, waving and rippling up and down as it surrounded her pure white spiraled horn.

This... is.. so... COOOOL!

Leo's eyes visibly light up, going wide, "is that magic?! How does it work?!" He couldn't hold himself back any longer, as he was practically drooling. Although he was going to the library to learn about it, he couldn't wait any longer.

Rarity was taken aback, her head reeling away slightly. There was a slight hesitation in her voice," it's uhh, I don't know really. We just sort of do it."

"Tsk," Leo clicks his tongue, his face instantly shifts into one of contempt, "damn," he muttered. Her answer didn't help him one bit.

Looks like I'll just have to wait to hit the books.

"Alright, I'm ready when you are," he made known as he stepped onto the pedestal, to which Rarity nodded. She trotted over with her tape measure hovering overhead.

"Alright, first I'll start up here darling, then I'll slowly move down, taking the measurements I need," she tells Leo, pointing up to his shoulders. Leo nodded, letting Rarity do her work.

She moved the measuring tape towards his shoulders, wrapping around him taut. Nodding to herself, she jotted something down on her floating clipboard using her magic to move a pen to the paper.

Talk about convenience, they sure have it easy here huh?

She then moved the measuring tape down to his arms, measuring his sleeve length, to which she jotted down. This process repeated from his chest to his back, to his waist, and all the more. Rarity asked if he could remove his pants, but he refused. This caused Rarity to frown a little since it made her job a little more difficult. With his jeans on, Rarity continued to measure his lower body.

Near the end, Fluttershy came through the door, shyly waving at Leo and Rarity as they finished up. They waved back, silently greeting the yellow pegasus. Not after too much longer, Rarity came to a close.

"All done~! Thank you so much, darling! Come by tomorrow and I'll have the clothes ready," Rarity tells Leo, smiling with intense glee. She then turns to Fluttershy, who's standing near the doorway, "also, it's good to see you Fluttershy!"

-Eep

Fluttershy hides behind her mane before murmuring, "it's n-nice to s-see you t-too."

Seems she isn't too confident around others...

"Thanks for everything Rarity, I'll swing by sometime tomorrow." He then turns to Fluttershy, who's still hiding behind her mane, "you ready?"

"Y-yeah," she replies before opening the door, giving a pathway for the sunlight from outside to breach into the boutique. Taking the backseat, Leo lets Fluttershy lead the way. With Fluttershy in front, they slowly make their way from the outskirts to the main part of town.

"W-while we're on the way, why not tell me what type of stuff you want to look for in the library?" Fluttershy asks, a little hesitation creeping into her voice.

"Sure, I mostly want to find out stuff on magic, like the origin, exactly what it is, and stuff like that. There's also something else, but I'll probably sound crazy," Leo proclaimed, though coming off a little meek near the end.

"I won't think your crazy, what is it," Fluttershy reassures her human companion, her voice seeming softer than usual.

She's so nice...

"Well," Leo starts, "before I ended up here, I had a dream, or what I can only imagine as a dream, but it felt so real. Anyways, near the end of the 'dream,' there was this nine-tailed fox, who I can only describe as 'divine.' Its body was glowing white, with red tips on the ends of his legs, tails, and ears. The fox was almost like a sun, burning my body just from being close to him. I want to see if there is anything remotely related to it."

I bet I sound like a maniac...

After a momentary silence, Fluttershy answers, "a-alright! I-I hope we can find something on it. It sounds like you've been through a lot."

Yeah, no kidding!

... She definitely thinks I'm crazy.

"Tell me about it," Leo chuckles. He looks around and realizes they're going in a similar direction to where the hospital is, passing the Town Hall along the way. The streets were busy, but not jam-packed. Occasionally, Leo would get glances, both curious and cautious, but nothing unexpected. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as the last time they walked through the town.

The rest of the trip was mostly silent between the two, with the quietness being filled in by the noises of the crowd. The trip wasn't too long, being near half of what the trip from Fluttershy's to the hospital was. After a few minutes, Fluttershy came to a halt, indicating they had reached their destination.

It was a giant oak tree, with a thick trunk used as a building. The tree itself was massive, sporting what Leo could only assume were four or five stories, judging by all the windows poking out the side of it. On the top of the tree were dark green leaves, trimmed down to cover the top floors, but not extend out too far. Over the windows were leaves as well, but they were a brighter shade, seeming yellowish at a glance. On the top floor, Leo could see what was a telescope pointed at the currently slightly cloudy sky. Off to the right side of the tree, which made Leo a little nervous, was a beehive. Finally, to the left of the bright-red-colored door was a bright red sign with a picture of an open book, indicating it was a library.

Now this is sick... Who's the lucky bastard that lives here?

Leo takes the lead from here, swinging open the door for the two of them to enter.

This place looks even bigger on the inside!.. Wow

Leo liked this place more and more. Right next to the door were two potted plants, with little vines cascading off. Matching them was a lantern, perhaps to light up the doorway come night-time. It was a cozy library that used shelves cut out from the tree walls to hold books. They were cut unevenly, but yet it added to the flavor because the walls of the shelves were cut along the grain of the wood, making it feel very organic like it was meant to be. Within the shelves, the books came in all shapes and sizes. From short, to tall, wide, to thin. There were even some scrolls, wrapped in a neat bundles of parchment. Upon higher shelves that were unreachable were more disorganized, with only a few books laying untidily, assumedly put aside from the rest of the orderly bookshelves for notes and studying. To reach the higher shelves was a wooden ladder, laying against the wall from the left of the entrance. It looked makeshift yet sturdy, with many of the steps being unmatched in thickness.

There were two pedestals on each side of the room, most likely for the ponies to read, since they didn't have hands to hold the books. They looked like little stumps growing out from the floor, with a slanted, flat slab of wood on top. In the center of the room was a round table built around another stump structure, featuring a wooden carved pony head that was painted a gold color on the said stump, surrounded by a few open books on the table.

Up above the carved pony on the ceiling was a sun painted on, which was giving off a bright radiance, filling the whole room with its brilliant light. On the opposite side of the room from the door was a staircase leading upward. Every other step was lined with three pink hearts, coming off as somewhat cutesy. Leo also noticed a few flower designs were lining the walls, matching the potted plants hanging near the doorway. The designs weren't overwhelming, but they were scattered along the walls of the library. Once through the doorway, he closes the door, revealing a candle hanging on the door for whenever dusk comes around.

"Anyone here?!" Leo calls out to nobody in particular.

"Hold on, I'm coming!" A voice came from upstairs. It sounded like a guy's voice, having a deeper inflection.

-clop

Down the staircase comes a unicorn, wearing a slight smile. He was a unicorn with a somewhat small build compared to Big Macintosh, but still bigger than most mares Leo had seen, sporting a small horn on his forehead. His horn color matched his dark pale blue coat color, a blue similar to a pigeon blue. He had a pale lime green mane with bright blue tips that was tied back into a small ponytail. His tail colors matched his mane colors while also being tied together similarly. Looking down upon the duo from above, his deep green eyes were filled with glee. He also wore a pair of square reading glasses with black trim. Finally, on his flank was an open book, with the pages being occupied by a constellation of what Leo could recognize as the big dipper and small dipper on the left and right pages of the book respectively.

He definitely looks like a scholar. He even has some good fashion sense with that hair.

Leo nodded to himself with approval as the unicorn walked down the steps. Once the unicorn caught sight of Leo, his eyes went wide-eyed. Not from fear, but rather in bewilderment, interest, and excitement. He truly was a scholar. "It's nice to meet you! My name's Cluster Musing," he exclaims, practically screaming.

He acts the part too...

With a somewhat bitter smile, Leo introduces himself, "I'm Leo, this is Fluttershy, nice to meet you too. Could you help me find some stuff on magic?" Meanwhile, Fluttershy looked meekly towards the librarian as she stood behind Leo.

"OF COURSE! While I help you, would you mind if I ask you some questions? As you can tell, this might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, as I have not seen any mention of one such as you before!" Leo could physically feel the enthusiasm radiate from him. It was like he was undressing Leo with his eyes, sending a little shiver down Leo's body.

Mmm, why not humor him I guess...

"Sure, that's fine. But in exchange, you'll have to answer mine," Leo says with somewhat of a knowing smirk. Leo could relate to the thirst for knowledge deeply, especially now, given his circumstances.

Maybe he'll know something the books won't be able to tell me...

"Alright perfect! Before we begin, can I know what you want me to look for? Magic is a very broad topic," he explains, causing Leo to purse his lips in thought.

Well, since it's related to me, how about "the effect of magic on the body" or something along those lines.

"Could you find me a book about magic within the body? Specifically, something that explains how it affects the body," Leo answered, scratching his chin in thought.

"Hmm," he hums to himself, walking over to a bookshelf and scanning through the reading on the spines. His vision lands on a book in particular, "mmm, no," he mutters to himself, shaking his head. Suddenly, he paused, "aha!" He swiftly moves to the other side of that same bookshelf and grabs the book he had in mind. However, he doesn't grab it in the traditional sense, but rather with his magic. Instead of a light blue ethereal light like with Rarity's, it was a ghostly green goop encompassing the book, matching the color of his eyes and hair.

Moving back towards Leo and Fluttershy with the book in tote, Cluster Musing put the book on the table in the middle and motioned the duo to sit down. As they sit down, he starts "Okay, so this book will most likely have what you're looking for. It's a comprehensive book over magic, from talking about the basics of how it affects the world and us, to simple spells."

Hmmm, I hope he's right.

Leo opens up the book, only to realize he can't read. "Could we do those questions here once I find what I need? There are a few things I want to know at the moment." Cluster nods to his question. Leo could hardly hold himself back, with the potential answers to his recent questions right in his grasp.

Leo then turns to Fluttershy, "could you read out the table of contents? I'm looking for something that talks about magic inside ponies or something like that."

"Y-yeah," she says hesitantly. She starts by flipping over to the table of contents and scans over the chapter headlines. "Found it, maybe. I-it says, 'internal magic in ponies,'" she hesitates, looking towards Leo for approval.

"Perfect!" Leo yells out, surprising the other two ponies slightly. "Sorry," Leo smiles weakly, "let's start there, it seems to be very promising just from the title."

Turning to the listed page, Leo and Fluttershy are greeted to a diagram of what appeared to be a unicorn with weird lines marked across its body. Fluttershy starts to read off the book, "M-magic is in almost all lifeforms observed within magic communities. The magic is absorbed within lifeforms whenever they are born, appearing centralized within the abdomen, completely separate from any other bodily functions. Although it's separate, it can affect the body in many ways, such as physically. Additionally, with ponies, research is more in-depth, e-especially with the movement of magic within the body. Although it isn't for certain if it's the limit, as the princesses have reached higher stages as alicorns, p-ponies have three studied stages within the growth of magic within the body."

"The first stage is referred to most often within the magic community as 'Magic Integration,' where magic is slowly absorbed from the environment and slowly integrated into the body through the muscles, bones, and the h-hide of the studied ponies. This process starts when a filly is just born to around when the filly gains their cutie mark. D-during this process, the body of the pony slowly becomes stronger and more resistant to outer stimuli. This process can be both sped up and done to varying degrees of perfection. For example, when a filly exercises and does intense activity, the magic integrates itself more thoroughly into the body. When the magic is integrated more thoroughly compared to a normal filly, the former is both stronger, more resistant, and more energetic. Through observation of multiple cases, the progression to the next stage has been forced once the filly gains their cutiemark. This idea is simply theoretical as it has not been proven, but it is believed that the process of being forced to the next stage via cutie mark leads to future problems with progression. It has not been further tested, as putting fillies through intense activity would be cruel and against established regulations."

"In the second stage, the filly's body adapts to the magic after being molded by it, creating a makeshift 'container' for magic within the abdomen. We call this 'container' the 'Magic Core.' Once at this stage, often referred to as the 'Magic Gathering,' the body is able to absorb magic from the environment at a much more rapid rate and store it in the body more efficiently, as in the first stage, the magic was floating as a cohesive globule within the body. The body, now with a container, is able to store much more magic than before as well as use the magic more proficiently. Before, the filly could only use an instant of magic before tiring, but once reaching the second stage, the studied pony is both able to control how much magic they use much more easily as well as be able to use it for multiple instances. As the ponies gather magic within the body, over time, the 'container' or 'Magic Core' mentioned before slowly begins to expand. As the Magic Core expands, the body slowly reaches a bottleneck if it's not strong enough to contain the magic."

"Once at the said bottleneck, the pony will have much trouble reaching the third stage, which often leads to ponies being stuck on the second stage for their lifetime. The reason this bottleneck is put in place by the body is to limit the pony from harming themselves, as the body can handle and contain only so much magic. It's very comparable to why the brain won't let a pony use all of its muscle's strength; because too much magic can and will be very self-destructive. If forced to overcome this bottleneck without proper preparation, especially in the body, the pony has the potential to, in worse case scenarios, E-EXPLODE?!" Fluttershy shrieks out from fright, her ears pinned back. She looks towards Leo, who shakes his head and points at the book. She continues, "Though, often times, the pony with grow extremely weak for a variable period and experience extreme pain. However, with diligent training directed towards the body, the pony will overcome the bottleneck after reaching a certain point."

"Finally, this brings us to the third and last studied bodily stage of magic, often referred to as 'M-Magic Circulation and Realization.' Once a pony overcomes the b-bottleneck and goes under some sort of intense stimulus, the body adapts even further to magic, incorporating a circulation system all throughout the body. It works similar to the traditional circulatory system which delivers blood to organs and tissue, but instead of blood, this new circulation system delivers magic to the body. This allows the body to store more magic, as well as use more magic. The Magic Core goes under a qualitative change, becoming to what resembles a small lake of magic within the body while before it was only as sizable as a puddle. With much more magic on hand, the pony can then begin to learn spells and cast, hence in the name, 'Realization.'. Although only able to cast simple spells at the beginning of this stage, the pony can still cast spells nonetheless. Unicorns seem to reach this stage much easier in contrast to earth ponies and pegasi, as their bodies come with a 'head-start' with their horns. Before the third stage, the only ponies with what resembles a circulation system is unicorns. The unicorns are not born born with but rather gain very early within the first stage of what a appears to be a miniature circulation system, where their bodies have a magic pathway to and from their horns, which, in turn, allows the unicorn to cast simple magic much sooner. Although it is unknown how to proceed from this stage to an unknown fourth, this stage progresses similar to the second, where the pony slowly gathers magic from their environment and grows their magic core. The magic gathering is much faster compared to the second stage, as the body needs more to fill the space created within the Magic Core."

There, the chapter ends, showing a diagram of a pony at the third stage "Magic Circulation and Realization." At the abdomen of the pony was what appeared to be almost like a whirlpool, absorbing little particles floating around. All throughout the ponies body were what Leo could only describe as veins and arteries that all connected with the whirlpool. The circulation system looked intricate and systematic, like bodily circuits. It was truly a masterpiece of art. Leo scratched his chin, musing over everything that was read.

I feel like I've seen something vaguely similar to this.

Was it...

Eastern medicine? It's like the meridian system that originated from it.

Shaking his head at the thought, Leo looked to Fluttershy, "that was exactly what I was looking for, thanks Fluttershy!" Leo's brain was firing off dopamine, extremely happy about learning such new and intriguing information. He then turns to Cluster Musing, "alright, you want to do the questionnaire now? You can go first."

He'll probably ask something fairly boring from my perspective.

Cluster breaks out of his stupor, looking towards the human. "Yes, uhh," he pauses in thought before continuing, "where exactly do you come from? Could you describe it?"

Hoh?.. This is perfect!

"Hmm," Leo starts, "it's very similar to here, except instead of ponies, imagine more of us. On the planet, the population of humans is roughly seven billion. We're on the top of the world so to speak, to the point where we don't need to worry much about the wilderness and unknown, but rather other humans. The economy is massive, with global markets thriving in the last century. Most recently, we have been rapidly expanding in computer technology and space travel," Leo finishes, wearing a crafty smile.

That'll definitely hook him. He must like space with that cutie mark afterall... hehe

He goes wide-eyed in shock, "G-G-G-GLOBAL?! SEVEN BILLION?! COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY?! SPACE TRAVEL??!!" Even Leo was caught off guard by his reaction, reeling his head back slightly. He didn't expect his plan to work this good, but he wasn't complaining.

Leo puts his hand up towards the enthusiastic pony, "hold on, now it's my turn." Cluster pauses his dramatics before nodding his head. Maybe I should scope out this princess first... Leo continues, "Okay, how would the princess react to a creature like me? You ponies seem friendly and all, but I can't help but feel weary towards powerful political figures."

Cluster raises his eyebrow, thinking to himself for a moment. "That's an interesting one. I'd have to say that she would be very understanding, as she is a millenium old after all. As long as you aren't a danger, she will welcome you with open hooves," he says from a very objective viewpoint.

Thank god...

I like this guy, he's very concise and explains his thoughts well.

"Alright, your turn," Leo replies, unable to help himself from smiling due to the good news.

"What information have humans gathered on space?" His eyes were practically shining, looking at Leo similar to how a child would look at their parent.

What a broad question...

"Hmm, that's a hard one to answer, as there's simply so much within space. To give perspective on how far we've come, we've sent people to the moon and robots to a planet quite the distance away. Our planet orbits around a sun, which creates the day and night cycle for us, meanwhile the moon orbits around our planet. The sun is the reason we're able to exist, as it give off heat and other essential things for life. It's made up of atoms that go under nuclear fusion due to the immense gravity and heat, creating an absurd amount of energy. The stars in the sky are essentially different suns, with different sizes and even colors. Ask me specifics in the next question and I'll answer the best I can. Now, for my next question, how come there hasn't been any instances of ponies trying and going beyond the third stage in magic within that book? Seems like a waste in my opinion..." Leo speaks somewhat enthusiastically, before muttering near the end.

"Because it's genuinely dangerous. Equestria is a very peaceful nation, with little to no war in sight. The princesses, in theory, have gone to further stages, but they don't mention it, and nopony really asks," Cluster says with his face full of contempt. He hated not knowing such an expansive and world changing topic.

It seems I'm not the only one who's curious...

Leo snorts to himself before Cluster continues, "Honestly, as a seeker of knowledge, I think it's a waste aswell," he pauses, looking down in thought. Shaking his head he continues, "I'll say my question now. Did you, humans was it? Did you guys ever figure out how big space is?" His voice quivered with suspense.

Hmm, hopefully he won't be put down by the answer.

"Well, the universe is infinite as a whole, but somehow expanding at the same time. I think that answers your question, but I'll go more in-depth to the theoretical birth of the universe," Leo smirked, looking at Cluster who had long since gone wide-eyed. "I can't remember exactly how long ago the universe was theoretically 'birthed,' but it was definitely many upon many of eons ago, in which we coined the term 'the Big Bang.' 'The Big Bang' was not an explosion, but rather an expansion of space in respect to time, creating distance, because prior to 'the Big Bang,' the space of the universe was both within a singularity yet infinite. A contradiction by today's standards." Leo laughs to himself near the end due to the absurdity of reality. Meanwhile, not too far from Leo, Cluster Musing looked like he was frozen in time, almost unable to process what he had just learned.

Cluster only uttered one word, "Wow."

Should I ask about that god fox first? Or how they gained magic?

A long pause overtook the room before Leo took the initiative, "alright, question time, What are the origins of magic? Where did it come from? How is it here?"

Cluster snapped from his thoughts and waved a hoof in front of himself, "hold on, one at a time, I'll answer all I know that pertains to the origin of magic. To the general public, ponies think that we just sort of have it, but that is simply not the case. Long ago, the world was flooded with magic. Around the same time, a treasure came to this world, often referred to as the 'Elements of Harmony, though I don't know much about what it does.' When was this? We have no clue, as from a thousand years ago, history was practically wiped due to the spirit of chaos known as 'Discord.' The princesses in fact used the 'Elements of Harmony' to rid of him, turning him into a stone statue. However, for the how, only Discord knew, which he told the princesses thankfully. Although they keep this info somewhat under wraps, there are perks to being a scholar, and I'll be willing to tell since you've definitely earned it. Just don't go spreading this around. Long even before Discord's time, there was a deity sporting nine tails, who bestowed the world and perhaps many more with magic."

Leo's pupils quivered from this line. His thoughts instantly raced to what he remembered when he was transported to this world. To when he came in contact with a bright white and red nine-tailed fox, burning like a sun. A tingly feeling slowly starts from the tips of his fingers and ever so slowly creeps up.

Nine tails... It can't be, right?!

This is some kind of joke!

Biting his lip, Leo cuts in, "was it a fox deity?" His complexion darkened extremely.

"No one knows for sure other than that it had nine tails. Some would even think that the 'Elements of Harmony' came from it more than likely, which I lean towards believing," Cluster doesn't notice Leo's drastic change in expression, but Fluttershy seems to catch on, nudging him slightly. Meanwhile, Leo stopped listening soon after he heard the half-confirmation, his breathing increased, his ears ringing. Everything was drowned out while Leo's thoughts took front seat.

Why do they only know so little?! Am I in way over my head?!

...

But why... WHY?!

What could it have possibly wanted with me?!

Why the hell would I see what could potentially be what gave this world magic?!

I'm just a fucking warehouse worker for crying out loud! I DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!

I DON'T EVEN BELONG HERE!!!

Leo's nails dug into his palm from the emotions he could only describe as indignance and a deep, primal fear. His internal screams clouded his psyche. Complete and utter dread filled his body. His lip, which he was biting, almost got to the point of bleeding. He felt he could lash out at any moment. His mind was filled with self-doubt as he swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

W-What do I do now.

...

The weight of the world felt as though it was ontop of his shoulders, weighing him down. His body was made of lead, so heavy, his legs struggled to keep him upright. His vision began to darken as his body was overcome by the feeling of pins and needles, trembling uncontrollably. He was out of control. He could not control his body, nor his mind.

I-I need to lay down.

I need water.

I want to go home.

I NEED to go home...

With one sliver of sensibility left, Leo shambles over to the staircase where he simply lies down, waiting for this feeling of numbness, fatigue, and dread to wash away. Out of all the sensations Leo had felt throughout his life, this was his most hated. A panic attack. He hated this lack of control over himself. It made him feel crazy. Without anything else he could do, he focused on his breathing, closing his eyes in the process.

Why am I freaking out so much? Maybe I'm assuming something or there's something i don't know still...

Maybe it'll be just fine, after all, the girls said that maybe I could go back home soon.

Maybe...

After what had felt like a few moments to a few minutes, there was still a slight buzzing in his ear, but the ringing was gone. The numbing feeling in his body was completely gone, going to a place of normalcy. Once completely back to normal, Leo opened his eyes.

In front of him, Cluster and Fluttershy looked at him with great concern. Although Leo knows they were looking after him with goodwill, he frowned. He didn't know why, but he hated that look. It was suffocating.

I need to be alone...

"I need to go," he muttered, his face carried a deep grimace. Before the other two could even get a word in, he was gone, leaving the library behind him.

I need space to think... without all this pony and magic bullshit.

But where?..

Chapter 8: Sowing Seeds of Power

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