Pink Heartby Spazz KidChapters2 - Welcome to Ponyville, scrub3 - An Introduction to Madness1 - A World Unfamiliar2 - Welcome to Ponyville, scrubJames woke with a start, quickly clutching the sides of... a bed? He quickly sat up, looking around him. He was in a hospital room! Had he been dreaming? That would explain it.. To confirm his hypothesis, he looked down at himself and... "God dammit..." James muttered angrily as Spinel, gripping the sides of the bed tightly in panic. "So it wasn't a dream.. What the hell is going on??" He muttered some more. He looked around the room again, only more closely, noticing that there were several contraptions he had never seen in a hospital room before. Several voices could be heard outside of the room, on the other side of the door to his right. They seemed to be having a very fast paced conversation. The door opened, revealing another anthropomorphic horse thing, this one wearing a doctors uniform, and holding a clipboard. It had a horn on its head, and wire framed glasses on its face. Its eyes widened at James' awake-ed-ness. "Ah, you're awake." It said, it's voice sounding male. It turned to the pink haired nurse, who was right beside him. "You can go tell Pinkie that her friend is fine." The nurse nodded, then walked away. The doctor horse-man-thing continued into the room, closing the door behind him. He stopped next to the bed as James stared at him with wide eyes. They both made eye contact, the doctor looking curiously and James looking back at him in silent horror. The doctor made a quick note on his clipboard, before clearing his throat. "Hello there. My name is Dr. Pheelgood. Nice to meet you." He held out his hand for a shake. James stared at the hand, contemplating where he should take this. If he were to shake the horse's hand, what would he introduce himself as? James? Spinel? He shouldn't have to really think about that, but now that he is in a new body that he only just barely understands, that happens to belong to a fictional character, he should really take in consideration what he says. Or.. should he? Is he overthinking this? He's probably overthinking this. Quickly deciding his fate, he grabbed the doctor's hand. "Spinel. It's.... nice to meet you, too." James said slowly. He decided he would wait to reveal who he actually is, and only to the right person; someone who could probably send him home. The doctor nodded, pulling up a chair, and sitting in it. He took another quick glance at his clipboard, adjusting his glasses while he did so. He looked back up at James, who sat there, completely still, staring back at him unblinkingly. He ignored this, and cleared his throat. "Well, Spinel, I gotta say, you've kinda stumped me." James furrowed his brow, scratching his head. "What? How?" "Well, I'm gonna be blunt, you have no skeleton." Dr. Pheelgood rubbed his head tiredly. "And we've tried everything to to find out why, and help, but..." He looked up at James, who was looking back with a neutral expression. "Well it didn't work. But, it didn't seem to matter in the end, as you're alive, and probably feeling well... you are feeling well, right?" Pheelgood leaned forward, eyes wide. "....Yeah. I'm fine." James replied, setting his head into his left hand. "So, then, could you please explain... why?" Pheelgood gestured to James' body. "Well..." James thought for a moment, realizing there wasn't a really easy way to explain it. He pointed at his heart gem. "You see this gemstone?" "Ah, yes, the upside down heart!" Pheelgood looked thoughtful for a second. "Do you have any relation to the Crystal Empire?" "Uh..no, what's that?" James asked, raising an eyebrow. "Oh. N-nothing, please continue." Pheelgood gestured for him to, well, to continue. "Okay..." James stared for a moment, before getting back to his explanation. "Alright so basically, my body is made of some sort of solidified light, which all comes from this gem right here." He explained, which caused the doctor to hum in interest. "So, you're actual body is the gemstone?" Pheelgood pondered, getting ready to write on his clipboard again. "Yeah, I guess you could say that." James shrugged. "Fascinating." Pheelgood scribbled quickly on his board, before looking back up at James. "What are you then, if you don't mind me asking." "I'm something called a gem, which is a species comprised of millions of beings all based of different gems, or really any mineral you can think of." James said, gradually gaining speed the more he spoke. "They are led, you could say, by the Diamond Authority, a small group of gems all based off of diamonds. They are seen as the most powerful gems; the most flawless beings in the galaxy. I, as you could probably guess, am a Spinel gem, grown to serve the youngest of the Diamonds, Pink Diamond, who ended up abandoning me for 6,000 years without me realizing it, and then I went after her son, who turned out to be a half gem. How that works when gems are made of light, I do not know, but it happened." James stopped, realizing he was venting trauma that wasn't his. "I'm gonna stop now." "Uh-huh..." Pheelgood nodded slowly. "6,000 years? Are you really that old?" "Hey!" James said, smirking for the first time in a while. "Didn't your mama ever tell you that asking a lady her age was rude?" He crossed his arms, trying his best to look angry. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't realize-" "Nah, it's fine." James leaned on to the back of the bed, his smirk quickly leaving. "It doesn't really matter how old I am, considering I'm probably not even from this universe." "Wait, REALLY?" A new voice exclaimed, coming from the doorway. James looked over, eyes wide. "That is, like, so crazy!" It was the horse thing that he remembered seeing before collapsing. He barely had time to properly process that, however, as she zoomed over to the side of the bed. "I've never met an alien before, is it okay if I call you an alien, I don't want to be offensive. Oh! If you're an alien, have you ever been to a party before? If not I can throw you one, I mean, not like I wasn't going to throw you one already, but it's just nice to know, right? Oh! I have so many questions. So many,in fact, I had to put them all in this notebook." She pulled a notepad out of her hair. "Alright, question number 1 of 3,456, do-" "How about you just tell her your name, and we'll move from there." The nurse said walking up behind her. "Mmmmmmm, okay." The Pink One said, shoving the notepad back into her hair, before grinning wildly back at James. Or Spinel, or, whatever. "Hi! My name is Pinkie Pie! What's yours?" "Spinel." James squinted at 'Pinkie'. He didn't this one's energy. Not that she was suspicious or anything, he just didn't like her energy. It was too much, even for him. "OOOOOHHHHH, It's great to meet you, Spinel!" Pinkie gushed, bouncing up and down. Literally. "I can't wait to show you around town, and throw you a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party and -" She was actually vibrating at this point. Pheelgood stopped her. "Pinkie, before you and Spinel do anything, we need to make sure she's feeling good enough to do anything." He looked over at Spinel. " You are fine, right?" "Yeah. I just fainted." James deadpanned. "Are you... willing to go?" Pheelgood asked hesitantly. James looked over at Pinkie, who was grinning broadly. He looked back at Pheelgood. "...... sure." "YES!" Pinkie exclaimed loudly, wrapping her arms around James. "Let's go! I need to show you around town." She somehow zoomed out of the room, dragging James along with. Needless to say, he immediately regretted his decision. 3 - An Introduction to Madness3 - An Introduction to Madness "They're all.... horses?" James asked, looking around. This looked like the type of thing his little sister would have dreams about. They were in what appeared to be a town, with lots of conflicting architecture. Like, the main buildings and shops and stuff all had this really old, rural look to them, but there was certain places, like the hospital and the random burger joint a few yards away, that had a very modern appearance. It was very weird to look at. "No, Spinel, they're ponies." Pinkie corrected, leading James through the street, bouncing. She was still smiling. 'Okay, that makes me feel... so much better..." James really hoped he could leave this sometime soon. "OH! Look, it's Applejack!" Pinkie exclaimed, pointing at a cart a few feet away. Behind it was a hulking mass of red, wearing denim overalls with a green shirt underneath. Standing beside.. him(?) was a shorter pony person, wearing a traditional cowboy hat, and a plaid red button-up that looked tied at the bottom. The rest of her outfit was hidden behind the cart, which had an insane amount of apples sitting on top of it. As James was taking all of this in, Pinkie grabbed his hand. "C'mon! I want you to come and meet her!" "Uh, wait a minUTE!" Pinkie shot forward once again, dragging James along with her. If she kept doing this, James was probably going to be sick... 'if gems could get sick that is. Can gems get sick? Did it say that somewhere in the show..?' James put a gloved finger to his chin as he visibly thought about it. Suddenly, Pinkie stopped defying the laws of gravity, and stood in place in front of the cart. This sudden stop caused James and his newly rubbery limbs to tumble to the ground. "Hi Applejack!" Pinkie beamed, hands behind her back. "Uh, hi, Pinkie." Applejack sounded concerned. She leaned over the apples in the cart, trying to look at the noodly form of James/Spinel on the ground. "Are they alright?" "Spinel? Oh, she's fine!" Pinkie was smiling still, but it had suddenly shrunk as she ducked down. "You are okay, right?" Pinkie sounded worried. "Yep. Never better." James stood up, slowly scratching his head. "Good!" Pinkie looked relieved, standing up as well. "Spinel, eh?" Applejack also began smiling. "You must be new in town!" She put her fists on her hips. "Well, in that case, howdy! Ah'm Applejack, and this feller right here is named Big Mac!" He gestured her head over at the big red guy. "Eeyup." Big Mac grunted, giving his own slight smile. "That little one over there is Applebloom!" Applejack pointed over at a small, red haired pony, who was conversing with two other small ponies. "She isn't really old enough to help with the business quite yet, so we just let her tag along so she can talk to her friends. Speaking of which..." Applejack looked at Pinkie again. "What're you buying?" "Oh, nothing right now! I'm showing Spinel around Ponyville." Pinkie said, waving her hand. "Alrighty then. Well, Spinel, feel free to swing by Sweet Apple Acres if your looking for a job, or heck, even a friend to talk to." Applejack smiled warmly, tipping her hat. "Oh. Well, I definitely think about that." Spinel... I mean, James said, pleasantly surprised. He liked this girl's vibe a lot more than Pinkie's. She seemed like a decent... person? Does that term fit here? "Nice! You two are already friends!" Pinkie cheered, before grabbing Spinel's hand. "Anyway, I gotta go and introduce Spinel to the others. See ya around Applejack!" She took off at reasonable speeds this times, waving at Applejack, who waved back. "See y'all later!" Applejack then went back to standing there, waiting for customers. Pinkie was powerwalking while holding James' hand, and he was kinda starting to get used to it. He still didn't like it, though. "So, what do you think so far?" Pinkie asked, looking back at James. "About what?" James asked, looking at Pinkie with a confused expression. "About Ponyville, silly!" Pinkie gave an exaggerated snort that James had only heard in cartoons. Maybe it happened all the time in real life, James didn't know, he didn't know enough people to have a proper scope of their laughs. "Oh. Well... it's nice." This much was true. Despite the weird architecture, and multi-colored pony people walking around, Ponyville was a very nice town. The streets were clean, the locals were kind, the shops seemed to be selling things at reasonable prices, and there didn't really seem to be anyone homeless. Wait, hold the fucking phone, is that a castle sticking out the side of a mountain in the distance?? "Wait, hold on, Pinkie-" "Yeah?" Pinkie stopped her pursuit, and looked back at Spinel. James pointed at the castle in the distance. "... Wot" Pinkie looked confused, before looking over at the castle. She then smiled. "Oh, of course you wouldn't know about Canterlot!" "That... didn't answer my question." James muttered. "Don't worry, my good friend Twilight will be able to answer all of your magical and Cantorlogical questions later. But for now, you still got the rest of my friends to meet!" Pinkie then got into a sprinting position. "Fluttershy, here we come!" "Pinkie..." James pleaded. "Hold on!" "Pinkie, NO-" They were now in front of a cottage, outside of Ponyville. It was surrounded by various streams of water and birdhouses and gardens and other nature shit. James wasn't really paying attention, because he's pretty sure if he had a heart right now, his chest would've exploded. He's still on his feet, but he's leaned over, panting heavily, despite his lack of lungs. "Here we are!" Pinkie gestured with her hands, towards the cottage. "Awesome..." James groaned, trying not to die. Pinkie knocked. "Oh, and, I'm going to tell you right now, Fluttershy scares pretty easily, so use a soft voice." She muttered. James sighed, rubbing his head. "Of course, her name's literally Fluttershy..." He muttered. The door to the cottage opened, revealing... Is that a rabbit? "What the..?" Spinel asked, leaning over. He squinted at the small demon. "How did a rabbit open the door?" He looked over at Pinkie questionably. "Is this Fluttershy?" "Nope! That's just Angel Bunny." Pinkie said, before leaning over as well. "Hello, Angel!" She put on a baby voice. "We're here to see Fwuttershy, can you go get her? I want her to meet Spinel." She motioned to the gem in question, who stood there awkwardly. Angel stared at Pinkie for a few seconds, before rolling its eyes, and waving for the two of them to come inside. It hopped away. "Oh. We're just.. going in, okay, let's go!" Pinkie said, motioning for James to go in first. "O...kay...." James shuffled into the cottage. Pinkie walked in as well, shutting the door behind her. James looked around them; they appeared to be in a living room, with a very nature-based aesthetic. It had a couch, coffee tabl- IS THAT A FUCKING LA-Z-BOY?? Okay, this is probably the best place so far. "Huh, I've never seen that chair before." Pinkie said, looking at the recliner chair. She then shrugged. "Eh, probably nothing." She went over to sit on the couch. "Can I sit in it?" Spinel asked, staring at the chair. He looked desperate, and he was. He's never sat in a La-Z-Boy before, but he's had literal dreams of this. "Why are asking me? I don't own it, silly!" Pinkie said, laughing slightly. "Oh, I dunno... can you?" Said the chair. ... WAIT- "Did the chair... did it just say something?" James looked over at Pinkie, horrified. "OH!" Pinkie gained a look of realization, before giving a neutral expression. "That's just Discord." "...Pardon?" The chair poofed into a multicolored cloud of smoke, filling the room. Pinkie started coughing lightly, but James simply stood, unaffected by the weird smoke surrounding him. After a few seconds, standing, no, floating in the chair's place was... WHAT THE FU- "Hello, Spinel." The thing said, smirking. "What the fuck are you?" James asked, an awestruck expression slapped across his face. "That was... rather rude..." His smirk was gone, replaced by an annoyed grimaced. He suddenly went back to smirking. "Eh, whatever. You're trying to adjust to this new world. Oh, I can't imagine how... difficult it's been for you." He put on a weird, mournful expression. "Trust me bud, I've been through a lot worse." James lied, crossing his arms, trying to look... well, not like a teenage boy trying to mimic a cartoon character. "Oh, I'm sure you have..." It leaned forward, its smirk deepening. Does this guy know something? "Oh, where are my manners! I am, as I'm sure you've realized, am Discord, the spirit of chaos!" He did it a weird pose, prompting James to deadpan. "DISCORD, WHY IS THERE SMOKE EVERYWHERE?!" Another voice called from upstairs. Discord suddenly looked like he made the biggest mistake imaginable."Uh, NO REASON! JUST, um, PUTTING ON A MAGIC SHOW FOR THE ANIMALS"! He looked at James and Pinkie, the latter of which staring off into space and the former... well, still deadpanning. "OH, eh, YOU HAVE VISITORS! PINKIE AND J- I MEAN, SOMEONE SHE'D LIKE YOU TO MEET!" 'Pinkie and J.' James ran that through his mind a few times... This guy definitely knew something. 1 - A World UnfamiliarJames opened his eyes, effectively waking up. He quickly sat up, and immediately noticed something wrong. Like, for instance, he was in the middle of a grassy field, when he should probably be in his bed. He shook his head, trying to remember what happened. He had walked to a local store that was known for selling things from all sorts of franchises, and they even had some stuff from random one-off stories and stuff. It was run by a guy cosplaying as the Merchant from Resident Evil 4, and the guy always seemed to be in character, no matter what. All of the stuff was well made, which was cool, considering all of it was probably made by him. James remembered he had watched the Steven Universe movie earlier that day, and wanted to see if the place had anything related to it. "Hello, sir." James had said, walking up to the main counter, where the store's owner sat behind. The man was currently examining a helmet that looked like it came from an anime or something. "Well, good afternoon, young man." The Merchant, which is what James had settled on calling him, said, putting the helmet under the counter. "How may I interest you today?" James set his hands on the counter, and looked around. "You know what Steven Universe is, right?" The Merchant looked up for a second, thinking. "Ah! Yes, I have heard of it. Not my cup of tea, but I see why people like it." He looked back at James. "What exactly are you lookin' for?" "I don't know, anything you may have." James removed his hands from the counter, before reaching into his pocket. "But, I only have about... $20, so anything up to that price." He pulled out the bill, showing it to the man. "Hm..." The Merchant stroked his chin in thought. "I may have something. Hold on a moment." He turned around, and headed through a door that had a label that said 'Backroom - Do Not Enter.' As he waited, James looked around at his surroundings. The shop's walls were decorated with various memorabilia from different franchises, mostly posters. Official or fan artwork, James couldn't tell, but it was all still pretty cool. He looked at the shelves, filled with both licensed merchandise, and things that the Merchant probably made himself. James could tell the difference because of the various labels that were on the shelves, one having the "Mass Produced" label, and most of the other ones having a label stating what franchise they were from. There was a very wide selection of things to choose from. It was weird, James never heard anyone ever talking about this place. In fact, he was the only customer as of that exact moment. But, the Merchant man had to have some patronage. How else could he keep this place open? The door to the Backroom opened, and the Merchant was back, holding a small, polished wooden box. He set it on the counter, and looked back up at him. "Well I was going to go get you the replica of Steven's jacket I had, but it appears I have already sold it, so this'll have to do." He spun the box around, revealing latches on the side. "You like Spinel?" "..Yeah." James looked at the box, interest beginning to peak. "Well.." The Merchant unlatched the box, and opened it. Inside was what looked to be a pink, crystalized heart. It was probably made of some sort of resin, but it was very convincing. "I made this replica a bit ago, and I must say, I kind of out did myself." The Merchant seamed to be smiling behind his face wraps. "Now, normally, this would go for around $25, but I'm willing to lower the price." "Wait, really?" James asked, looking at the Merchant with disbelief. "Yep." The Merchant removed the replica from the box. "I'm feeling rather... generous today." He held up his free hand."That'll be 20 dollars , please." "Yes, sir." James said, handing the bill over as he was given the heart. "Thank you." "No, thank you." The Merchant put the $20 bill into the cash register. "You have a good time now." "I will!" James said, turning around to exit the building. He had left the building, and made his way home. He felt odd though, not just because he just got a life sized replica of something for $20, when other independent would raise that over one hundred, no, halfway back, he was beginning to feel incredibly tired, and after that.... nothing. James finished recounting the events in his mind, and looked around once more. He, in fact, was not in the middle of a field, like he initially thought, no, he was laying in the grass next to a beaten dirt path, which led into an incredibly thick forest behind. How did he get here? He lived in the middle of an urban area, and the closest forest he knew of was miles away. Was he kidnapped? And just... dumped somewhere??? Instinctively, he brought his hand up to rub his head in annoyance, but before he did he noticed his hand. He was now wearing large pink gloves. "What the-?" He began, but clapped his newly gloved hands over his mouth. His voice, it sounded... different. It sounded, familiar.... He uncovered his mouth, before clearing his throat, and started once more. "Voice test, 1, 2, 3. What the hell?" His voice was definitely different, and it sounded feminine. Not that he was the most masculine man on the planet, but it was very noticeable. "I need to call someone." He reached for his cellphone in his pocket, he couldn't find it. He looked down. "HUH?" He looked completely different! He immediately who he now was after looking at the upside down, heart-shaped gem in his chest. "I'm Spinel????" He began to hyperventilate, and stood up, rapidly looking around, panic beginning to spread throughout his system. "How? How is this possible? Why is this happening? Where am I? Am I dead?" He muttered quickly to himself, before taking a deep breath, attempting to calm himself down, which was working, to a certain degree. "Okay, James, okay.. Panicking isn't going to help anything, it's only going to make things worse...." He clapped, and began to look around. "Okay, time to put that information from that Youtube I watched two years ago to good use! Now, to see if I can get a grasp of where I am..." His thought process was interrupted by a low growling behind him, coming from the forest behind him, prompting him to turn to the source. He Immediately notice bright, yellow eyes staring at him from the underbrush. "Yeah, no, fuck that." James swore in Spinel's voice, which sounded really odd, before spinning around, and began to sprint off down the dirt road. He noticed how weird his limbs now felt. They didn't seem to have joints, moving around freely without any restrictions, which all probably culminated into a very odd looking run. Or maybe it didn't, James wasn't entirely focused on how he looked right at the moment. After what seemed like a full ten minutes of running, only then did he begin to feel tired. This amazed him, because normally, he couldn't go a full five seconds without getting somewhat winded. He stopped, panting slightly, and looked behind him to see if that thing was chasing him. He saw nothing, then sighed, then looked at his feet. Pink boots with their pointed toe upturned that went up to his thighs. He also wore some puffy shorts. He reached to the back of his head, and felt two large, messy tufts of hair. He let arms go limp at his sides, before sighing again. "What the hell is going on...?" "Hey!" A voice said, sounding a few feet away. "You okay?" "Uh..." James thought of what he was going to say, still looking at the ground. How was he going to explain everything that happened? He didn't even know what happened! He looked up, coming face to face with- "Whoa! You don't look like a pony.." Said a weird anthropomorphic horse-thing, pink in color with a long, puffy mane. It was looking at him with large, deep blue eyes, appearing confused. Not as confused at James, though, who began to wobble on the spot. "What... what the fu...." He collapsed to the ground, having fainted out of pure exasperation. "Oh, sprinkles!" The Anthro Horse exclaimed worriedly. "I should get you to the hospital..." It grab James' arms, and threw him over its shoulder effortlessly, then began to jog back the way it came from.
2 - Welcome to Ponyville, scrubJames woke with a start, quickly clutching the sides of... a bed? He quickly sat up, looking around him. He was in a hospital room! Had he been dreaming? That would explain it.. To confirm his hypothesis, he looked down at himself and... "God dammit..." James muttered angrily as Spinel, gripping the sides of the bed tightly in panic. "So it wasn't a dream.. What the hell is going on??" He muttered some more. He looked around the room again, only more closely, noticing that there were several contraptions he had never seen in a hospital room before. Several voices could be heard outside of the room, on the other side of the door to his right. They seemed to be having a very fast paced conversation. The door opened, revealing another anthropomorphic horse thing, this one wearing a doctors uniform, and holding a clipboard. It had a horn on its head, and wire framed glasses on its face. Its eyes widened at James' awake-ed-ness. "Ah, you're awake." It said, it's voice sounding male. It turned to the pink haired nurse, who was right beside him. "You can go tell Pinkie that her friend is fine." The nurse nodded, then walked away. The doctor horse-man-thing continued into the room, closing the door behind him. He stopped next to the bed as James stared at him with wide eyes. They both made eye contact, the doctor looking curiously and James looking back at him in silent horror. The doctor made a quick note on his clipboard, before clearing his throat. "Hello there. My name is Dr. Pheelgood. Nice to meet you." He held out his hand for a shake. James stared at the hand, contemplating where he should take this. If he were to shake the horse's hand, what would he introduce himself as? James? Spinel? He shouldn't have to really think about that, but now that he is in a new body that he only just barely understands, that happens to belong to a fictional character, he should really take in consideration what he says. Or.. should he? Is he overthinking this? He's probably overthinking this. Quickly deciding his fate, he grabbed the doctor's hand. "Spinel. It's.... nice to meet you, too." James said slowly. He decided he would wait to reveal who he actually is, and only to the right person; someone who could probably send him home. The doctor nodded, pulling up a chair, and sitting in it. He took another quick glance at his clipboard, adjusting his glasses while he did so. He looked back up at James, who sat there, completely still, staring back at him unblinkingly. He ignored this, and cleared his throat. "Well, Spinel, I gotta say, you've kinda stumped me." James furrowed his brow, scratching his head. "What? How?" "Well, I'm gonna be blunt, you have no skeleton." Dr. Pheelgood rubbed his head tiredly. "And we've tried everything to to find out why, and help, but..." He looked up at James, who was looking back with a neutral expression. "Well it didn't work. But, it didn't seem to matter in the end, as you're alive, and probably feeling well... you are feeling well, right?" Pheelgood leaned forward, eyes wide. "....Yeah. I'm fine." James replied, setting his head into his left hand. "So, then, could you please explain... why?" Pheelgood gestured to James' body. "Well..." James thought for a moment, realizing there wasn't a really easy way to explain it. He pointed at his heart gem. "You see this gemstone?" "Ah, yes, the upside down heart!" Pheelgood looked thoughtful for a second. "Do you have any relation to the Crystal Empire?" "Uh..no, what's that?" James asked, raising an eyebrow. "Oh. N-nothing, please continue." Pheelgood gestured for him to, well, to continue. "Okay..." James stared for a moment, before getting back to his explanation. "Alright so basically, my body is made of some sort of solidified light, which all comes from this gem right here." He explained, which caused the doctor to hum in interest. "So, you're actual body is the gemstone?" Pheelgood pondered, getting ready to write on his clipboard again. "Yeah, I guess you could say that." James shrugged. "Fascinating." Pheelgood scribbled quickly on his board, before looking back up at James. "What are you then, if you don't mind me asking." "I'm something called a gem, which is a species comprised of millions of beings all based of different gems, or really any mineral you can think of." James said, gradually gaining speed the more he spoke. "They are led, you could say, by the Diamond Authority, a small group of gems all based off of diamonds. They are seen as the most powerful gems; the most flawless beings in the galaxy. I, as you could probably guess, am a Spinel gem, grown to serve the youngest of the Diamonds, Pink Diamond, who ended up abandoning me for 6,000 years without me realizing it, and then I went after her son, who turned out to be a half gem. How that works when gems are made of light, I do not know, but it happened." James stopped, realizing he was venting trauma that wasn't his. "I'm gonna stop now." "Uh-huh..." Pheelgood nodded slowly. "6,000 years? Are you really that old?" "Hey!" James said, smirking for the first time in a while. "Didn't your mama ever tell you that asking a lady her age was rude?" He crossed his arms, trying his best to look angry. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't realize-" "Nah, it's fine." James leaned on to the back of the bed, his smirk quickly leaving. "It doesn't really matter how old I am, considering I'm probably not even from this universe." "Wait, REALLY?" A new voice exclaimed, coming from the doorway. James looked over, eyes wide. "That is, like, so crazy!" It was the horse thing that he remembered seeing before collapsing. He barely had time to properly process that, however, as she zoomed over to the side of the bed. "I've never met an alien before, is it okay if I call you an alien, I don't want to be offensive. Oh! If you're an alien, have you ever been to a party before? If not I can throw you one, I mean, not like I wasn't going to throw you one already, but it's just nice to know, right? Oh! I have so many questions. So many,in fact, I had to put them all in this notebook." She pulled a notepad out of her hair. "Alright, question number 1 of 3,456, do-" "How about you just tell her your name, and we'll move from there." The nurse said walking up behind her. "Mmmmmmm, okay." The Pink One said, shoving the notepad back into her hair, before grinning wildly back at James. Or Spinel, or, whatever. "Hi! My name is Pinkie Pie! What's yours?" "Spinel." James squinted at 'Pinkie'. He didn't this one's energy. Not that she was suspicious or anything, he just didn't like her energy. It was too much, even for him. "OOOOOHHHHH, It's great to meet you, Spinel!" Pinkie gushed, bouncing up and down. Literally. "I can't wait to show you around town, and throw you a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party and -" She was actually vibrating at this point. Pheelgood stopped her. "Pinkie, before you and Spinel do anything, we need to make sure she's feeling good enough to do anything." He looked over at Spinel. " You are fine, right?" "Yeah. I just fainted." James deadpanned. "Are you... willing to go?" Pheelgood asked hesitantly. James looked over at Pinkie, who was grinning broadly. He looked back at Pheelgood. "...... sure." "YES!" Pinkie exclaimed loudly, wrapping her arms around James. "Let's go! I need to show you around town." She somehow zoomed out of the room, dragging James along with. Needless to say, he immediately regretted his decision.
3 - An Introduction to Madness3 - An Introduction to Madness "They're all.... horses?" James asked, looking around. This looked like the type of thing his little sister would have dreams about. They were in what appeared to be a town, with lots of conflicting architecture. Like, the main buildings and shops and stuff all had this really old, rural look to them, but there was certain places, like the hospital and the random burger joint a few yards away, that had a very modern appearance. It was very weird to look at. "No, Spinel, they're ponies." Pinkie corrected, leading James through the street, bouncing. She was still smiling. 'Okay, that makes me feel... so much better..." James really hoped he could leave this sometime soon. "OH! Look, it's Applejack!" Pinkie exclaimed, pointing at a cart a few feet away. Behind it was a hulking mass of red, wearing denim overalls with a green shirt underneath. Standing beside.. him(?) was a shorter pony person, wearing a traditional cowboy hat, and a plaid red button-up that looked tied at the bottom. The rest of her outfit was hidden behind the cart, which had an insane amount of apples sitting on top of it. As James was taking all of this in, Pinkie grabbed his hand. "C'mon! I want you to come and meet her!" "Uh, wait a minUTE!" Pinkie shot forward once again, dragging James along with her. If she kept doing this, James was probably going to be sick... 'if gems could get sick that is. Can gems get sick? Did it say that somewhere in the show..?' James put a gloved finger to his chin as he visibly thought about it. Suddenly, Pinkie stopped defying the laws of gravity, and stood in place in front of the cart. This sudden stop caused James and his newly rubbery limbs to tumble to the ground. "Hi Applejack!" Pinkie beamed, hands behind her back. "Uh, hi, Pinkie." Applejack sounded concerned. She leaned over the apples in the cart, trying to look at the noodly form of James/Spinel on the ground. "Are they alright?" "Spinel? Oh, she's fine!" Pinkie was smiling still, but it had suddenly shrunk as she ducked down. "You are okay, right?" Pinkie sounded worried. "Yep. Never better." James stood up, slowly scratching his head. "Good!" Pinkie looked relieved, standing up as well. "Spinel, eh?" Applejack also began smiling. "You must be new in town!" She put her fists on her hips. "Well, in that case, howdy! Ah'm Applejack, and this feller right here is named Big Mac!" He gestured her head over at the big red guy. "Eeyup." Big Mac grunted, giving his own slight smile. "That little one over there is Applebloom!" Applejack pointed over at a small, red haired pony, who was conversing with two other small ponies. "She isn't really old enough to help with the business quite yet, so we just let her tag along so she can talk to her friends. Speaking of which..." Applejack looked at Pinkie again. "What're you buying?" "Oh, nothing right now! I'm showing Spinel around Ponyville." Pinkie said, waving her hand. "Alrighty then. Well, Spinel, feel free to swing by Sweet Apple Acres if your looking for a job, or heck, even a friend to talk to." Applejack smiled warmly, tipping her hat. "Oh. Well, I definitely think about that." Spinel... I mean, James said, pleasantly surprised. He liked this girl's vibe a lot more than Pinkie's. She seemed like a decent... person? Does that term fit here? "Nice! You two are already friends!" Pinkie cheered, before grabbing Spinel's hand. "Anyway, I gotta go and introduce Spinel to the others. See ya around Applejack!" She took off at reasonable speeds this times, waving at Applejack, who waved back. "See y'all later!" Applejack then went back to standing there, waiting for customers. Pinkie was powerwalking while holding James' hand, and he was kinda starting to get used to it. He still didn't like it, though. "So, what do you think so far?" Pinkie asked, looking back at James. "About what?" James asked, looking at Pinkie with a confused expression. "About Ponyville, silly!" Pinkie gave an exaggerated snort that James had only heard in cartoons. Maybe it happened all the time in real life, James didn't know, he didn't know enough people to have a proper scope of their laughs. "Oh. Well... it's nice." This much was true. Despite the weird architecture, and multi-colored pony people walking around, Ponyville was a very nice town. The streets were clean, the locals were kind, the shops seemed to be selling things at reasonable prices, and there didn't really seem to be anyone homeless. Wait, hold the fucking phone, is that a castle sticking out the side of a mountain in the distance?? "Wait, hold on, Pinkie-" "Yeah?" Pinkie stopped her pursuit, and looked back at Spinel. James pointed at the castle in the distance. "... Wot" Pinkie looked confused, before looking over at the castle. She then smiled. "Oh, of course you wouldn't know about Canterlot!" "That... didn't answer my question." James muttered. "Don't worry, my good friend Twilight will be able to answer all of your magical and Cantorlogical questions later. But for now, you still got the rest of my friends to meet!" Pinkie then got into a sprinting position. "Fluttershy, here we come!" "Pinkie..." James pleaded. "Hold on!" "Pinkie, NO-" They were now in front of a cottage, outside of Ponyville. It was surrounded by various streams of water and birdhouses and gardens and other nature shit. James wasn't really paying attention, because he's pretty sure if he had a heart right now, his chest would've exploded. He's still on his feet, but he's leaned over, panting heavily, despite his lack of lungs. "Here we are!" Pinkie gestured with her hands, towards the cottage. "Awesome..." James groaned, trying not to die. Pinkie knocked. "Oh, and, I'm going to tell you right now, Fluttershy scares pretty easily, so use a soft voice." She muttered. James sighed, rubbing his head. "Of course, her name's literally Fluttershy..." He muttered. The door to the cottage opened, revealing... Is that a rabbit? "What the..?" Spinel asked, leaning over. He squinted at the small demon. "How did a rabbit open the door?" He looked over at Pinkie questionably. "Is this Fluttershy?" "Nope! That's just Angel Bunny." Pinkie said, before leaning over as well. "Hello, Angel!" She put on a baby voice. "We're here to see Fwuttershy, can you go get her? I want her to meet Spinel." She motioned to the gem in question, who stood there awkwardly. Angel stared at Pinkie for a few seconds, before rolling its eyes, and waving for the two of them to come inside. It hopped away. "Oh. We're just.. going in, okay, let's go!" Pinkie said, motioning for James to go in first. "O...kay...." James shuffled into the cottage. Pinkie walked in as well, shutting the door behind her. James looked around them; they appeared to be in a living room, with a very nature-based aesthetic. It had a couch, coffee tabl- IS THAT A FUCKING LA-Z-BOY?? Okay, this is probably the best place so far. "Huh, I've never seen that chair before." Pinkie said, looking at the recliner chair. She then shrugged. "Eh, probably nothing." She went over to sit on the couch. "Can I sit in it?" Spinel asked, staring at the chair. He looked desperate, and he was. He's never sat in a La-Z-Boy before, but he's had literal dreams of this. "Why are asking me? I don't own it, silly!" Pinkie said, laughing slightly. "Oh, I dunno... can you?" Said the chair. ... WAIT- "Did the chair... did it just say something?" James looked over at Pinkie, horrified. "OH!" Pinkie gained a look of realization, before giving a neutral expression. "That's just Discord." "...Pardon?" The chair poofed into a multicolored cloud of smoke, filling the room. Pinkie started coughing lightly, but James simply stood, unaffected by the weird smoke surrounding him. After a few seconds, standing, no, floating in the chair's place was... WHAT THE FU- "Hello, Spinel." The thing said, smirking. "What the fuck are you?" James asked, an awestruck expression slapped across his face. "That was... rather rude..." His smirk was gone, replaced by an annoyed grimaced. He suddenly went back to smirking. "Eh, whatever. You're trying to adjust to this new world. Oh, I can't imagine how... difficult it's been for you." He put on a weird, mournful expression. "Trust me bud, I've been through a lot worse." James lied, crossing his arms, trying to look... well, not like a teenage boy trying to mimic a cartoon character. "Oh, I'm sure you have..." It leaned forward, its smirk deepening. Does this guy know something? "Oh, where are my manners! I am, as I'm sure you've realized, am Discord, the spirit of chaos!" He did it a weird pose, prompting James to deadpan. "DISCORD, WHY IS THERE SMOKE EVERYWHERE?!" Another voice called from upstairs. Discord suddenly looked like he made the biggest mistake imaginable."Uh, NO REASON! JUST, um, PUTTING ON A MAGIC SHOW FOR THE ANIMALS"! He looked at James and Pinkie, the latter of which staring off into space and the former... well, still deadpanning. "OH, eh, YOU HAVE VISITORS! PINKIE AND J- I MEAN, SOMEONE SHE'D LIKE YOU TO MEET!" 'Pinkie and J.' James ran that through his mind a few times... This guy definitely knew something.
1 - A World UnfamiliarJames opened his eyes, effectively waking up. He quickly sat up, and immediately noticed something wrong. Like, for instance, he was in the middle of a grassy field, when he should probably be in his bed. He shook his head, trying to remember what happened. He had walked to a local store that was known for selling things from all sorts of franchises, and they even had some stuff from random one-off stories and stuff. It was run by a guy cosplaying as the Merchant from Resident Evil 4, and the guy always seemed to be in character, no matter what. All of the stuff was well made, which was cool, considering all of it was probably made by him. James remembered he had watched the Steven Universe movie earlier that day, and wanted to see if the place had anything related to it. "Hello, sir." James had said, walking up to the main counter, where the store's owner sat behind. The man was currently examining a helmet that looked like it came from an anime or something. "Well, good afternoon, young man." The Merchant, which is what James had settled on calling him, said, putting the helmet under the counter. "How may I interest you today?" James set his hands on the counter, and looked around. "You know what Steven Universe is, right?" The Merchant looked up for a second, thinking. "Ah! Yes, I have heard of it. Not my cup of tea, but I see why people like it." He looked back at James. "What exactly are you lookin' for?" "I don't know, anything you may have." James removed his hands from the counter, before reaching into his pocket. "But, I only have about... $20, so anything up to that price." He pulled out the bill, showing it to the man. "Hm..." The Merchant stroked his chin in thought. "I may have something. Hold on a moment." He turned around, and headed through a door that had a label that said 'Backroom - Do Not Enter.' As he waited, James looked around at his surroundings. The shop's walls were decorated with various memorabilia from different franchises, mostly posters. Official or fan artwork, James couldn't tell, but it was all still pretty cool. He looked at the shelves, filled with both licensed merchandise, and things that the Merchant probably made himself. James could tell the difference because of the various labels that were on the shelves, one having the "Mass Produced" label, and most of the other ones having a label stating what franchise they were from. There was a very wide selection of things to choose from. It was weird, James never heard anyone ever talking about this place. In fact, he was the only customer as of that exact moment. But, the Merchant man had to have some patronage. How else could he keep this place open? The door to the Backroom opened, and the Merchant was back, holding a small, polished wooden box. He set it on the counter, and looked back up at him. "Well I was going to go get you the replica of Steven's jacket I had, but it appears I have already sold it, so this'll have to do." He spun the box around, revealing latches on the side. "You like Spinel?" "..Yeah." James looked at the box, interest beginning to peak. "Well.." The Merchant unlatched the box, and opened it. Inside was what looked to be a pink, crystalized heart. It was probably made of some sort of resin, but it was very convincing. "I made this replica a bit ago, and I must say, I kind of out did myself." The Merchant seamed to be smiling behind his face wraps. "Now, normally, this would go for around $25, but I'm willing to lower the price." "Wait, really?" James asked, looking at the Merchant with disbelief. "Yep." The Merchant removed the replica from the box. "I'm feeling rather... generous today." He held up his free hand."That'll be 20 dollars , please." "Yes, sir." James said, handing the bill over as he was given the heart. "Thank you." "No, thank you." The Merchant put the $20 bill into the cash register. "You have a good time now." "I will!" James said, turning around to exit the building. He had left the building, and made his way home. He felt odd though, not just because he just got a life sized replica of something for $20, when other independent would raise that over one hundred, no, halfway back, he was beginning to feel incredibly tired, and after that.... nothing. James finished recounting the events in his mind, and looked around once more. He, in fact, was not in the middle of a field, like he initially thought, no, he was laying in the grass next to a beaten dirt path, which led into an incredibly thick forest behind. How did he get here? He lived in the middle of an urban area, and the closest forest he knew of was miles away. Was he kidnapped? And just... dumped somewhere??? Instinctively, he brought his hand up to rub his head in annoyance, but before he did he noticed his hand. He was now wearing large pink gloves. "What the-?" He began, but clapped his newly gloved hands over his mouth. His voice, it sounded... different. It sounded, familiar.... He uncovered his mouth, before clearing his throat, and started once more. "Voice test, 1, 2, 3. What the hell?" His voice was definitely different, and it sounded feminine. Not that he was the most masculine man on the planet, but it was very noticeable. "I need to call someone." He reached for his cellphone in his pocket, he couldn't find it. He looked down. "HUH?" He looked completely different! He immediately who he now was after looking at the upside down, heart-shaped gem in his chest. "I'm Spinel????" He began to hyperventilate, and stood up, rapidly looking around, panic beginning to spread throughout his system. "How? How is this possible? Why is this happening? Where am I? Am I dead?" He muttered quickly to himself, before taking a deep breath, attempting to calm himself down, which was working, to a certain degree. "Okay, James, okay.. Panicking isn't going to help anything, it's only going to make things worse...." He clapped, and began to look around. "Okay, time to put that information from that Youtube I watched two years ago to good use! Now, to see if I can get a grasp of where I am..." His thought process was interrupted by a low growling behind him, coming from the forest behind him, prompting him to turn to the source. He Immediately notice bright, yellow eyes staring at him from the underbrush. "Yeah, no, fuck that." James swore in Spinel's voice, which sounded really odd, before spinning around, and began to sprint off down the dirt road. He noticed how weird his limbs now felt. They didn't seem to have joints, moving around freely without any restrictions, which all probably culminated into a very odd looking run. Or maybe it didn't, James wasn't entirely focused on how he looked right at the moment. After what seemed like a full ten minutes of running, only then did he begin to feel tired. This amazed him, because normally, he couldn't go a full five seconds without getting somewhat winded. He stopped, panting slightly, and looked behind him to see if that thing was chasing him. He saw nothing, then sighed, then looked at his feet. Pink boots with their pointed toe upturned that went up to his thighs. He also wore some puffy shorts. He reached to the back of his head, and felt two large, messy tufts of hair. He let arms go limp at his sides, before sighing again. "What the hell is going on...?" "Hey!" A voice said, sounding a few feet away. "You okay?" "Uh..." James thought of what he was going to say, still looking at the ground. How was he going to explain everything that happened? He didn't even know what happened! He looked up, coming face to face with- "Whoa! You don't look like a pony.." Said a weird anthropomorphic horse-thing, pink in color with a long, puffy mane. It was looking at him with large, deep blue eyes, appearing confused. Not as confused at James, though, who began to wobble on the spot. "What... what the fu...." He collapsed to the ground, having fainted out of pure exasperation. "Oh, sprinkles!" The Anthro Horse exclaimed worriedly. "I should get you to the hospital..." It grab James' arms, and threw him over its shoulder effortlessly, then began to jog back the way it came from.
