Part I: Awakening

Part I: Awakening

"Derrick, don't you think you should've just gone to detention? Mr. Peterson's gonna go apeshit on your ass when you come into class tomorrow."

Derrick, who's sitting right next to me on the bus home, snorts, "Mr. Peterson can go fuck himself, for all I care. There's no way in hell I'm staying after school for two hours and miss my show."

It is the middle of the fall semester of my senior year in high school, and Derrick and I are finishing off our usual rants for the day. Somehow, he always managed to piss off our history teacher, Mr. Peterson, and consequently got himself another slip to go to detention, which he never went to, which in turn, got him even more days stocked up for detention. I wasn't even sure how he got this far in his school career. I'd known the guy since third grade, and he was always a troublemaker and the class clown. But, underneath all that, he was a decent fellow.

After a boring, hour-long bus ride, we get off on the corner just ten blocks away from my apartment. I live in Los Angeles. It must be pouring five inches of rain today, which is completely unusual for Los Angeles, despite freaky weather occurring all over the globe.

"Anyways," Derrick continues, bringing his umbrella out of his backpack and raising his voice just enough for me to hear over the downpour, "I can always find a way to keep this shit from reaching my dad. Otherwise, I wouldn't be standing here, talking to you, Mikey."

"You don't have to tell me twice," I chuckle. We fist bump. "See you tomorrow, man," I tell him.

"Alright, peace," he replies, and walks off in the opposite direction. I start at an even, fast-walking pace. I enjoy the rain, but I don't want to catch the flu, especially with midterms right around the corner. I had forgotten my umbrella (calling myself "dumbass" when I realized it as soon as I got to school), and so make do with my hoodie, which gets soaked from the unnaturally thick rain in seconds.

Keeping my head down and my hands in my jacket pockets, I only walk about three blocks until I began to see a dispersed, faded light as I make my way to the fourth block. At first, I think it's a streetlamp, so I shrug it off, but then I hear an angry engine coming closer through the hissing shower.

When it gets a little too close for comfort, my head turns to the right, just before an SUV can slam into me.

"SHIT!" I shout, falling backwards on my ass onto the wet road as the SUV swerves to avoid me. As I get up, the car drives away. "Asshole!" I shout, but the rain and a thunderous boom that came out of nowhere mostly drown it out. I continue my way home, grumbling a little on the way.

*

* 1 *

*

I insert my key into the front door of my apartment, turn it, and swing open the door. I take a look around my apartment for a second before throwing my backpack off to the side and hanging my completely drenched hoodie on the coat hanger right next to the door, revealing my red T-shirt. I had no idea it would rain this badly before I left for school, so I didn't bother bundling up all that much. I woke up before my parents did—as I usually do—so they can't really enforce what I wear. I look down at my watch. It says three-thirty. I then go to the kitchen, placing my cell phone on the countertop, and open up the fridge, searching for a snack.

I hear something fall over somewhere in the two-bedroom apartment. It's enough to distract me from my cravings, and I go to investigate.

"Hello?" I call out. No response, of course. My parents are still at work.

Why did I call out? I think to myself. No one else should be home. Maybe Mom got sick and stayed home, or something.

"Mom, that you?" No response, again.

I walk into my parents' bedroom. Their queen-sized bed is neatly made, no sign of recent use since the early morning. There are two nightstands that flank the headboard, each proclaiming a different family photo. There was one of my father and his parents, one of my mother and her parents, and a third with my parents and me and—

THUMP CRACK

My head turns to my bedroom door, standing right beside this one. I cautiously approach it and press my ear against it. I am . . . paranoid like that, let's say. I may have watched a little too many horror flicks in my life, and my mind kinda figures there's now a strange, almost paranormal presence in my room.

Jesus Christ, calm down, I think to myself irritably. Those were just movies.

Boldly, I swing my door open, and am met with nothing but solitude and my bed.

See? Nothing. Probably came from the next apartment over.

I almost turn away to go back to snack scavenging when another thump resonates. I turn stock-still. After a moment of thinking, I realize it's coming from the bathroom that's conjoined with my bedroom. Turning around, I walk under the little doorway, nearing the bathroom door.

THUMP CRACK

I stop again. I turn to my left, and I look at my reflection in the mirror that hovers over the sink right by the bathroom door. Directly in the center, the genesis of web-like cracks stretches to all four corners of the mirror.

How the hell did that happen?

THUMP CRACK

I jump back a little, startled. It was more violent this time, and whatever was causing this created even more branching cracks along the mirror.

"Jesus . . .," I mutter, then I proceed to slam my fist into the wall next to the mirror. "Hey! Cut that out! You're breaking my damn mirror!" I yell, thinking someone on the other side may be doing this. "If you don't stop, I'm gonna get the land—!"

I am interrupted when a growl resonates from nowhere. It was a deep, threatening howl, as if my pounding on the wall had awoken a sleeping beast. I stare back at my cracked and distorted reflection, watching in creeping fear of what the hell is going on. I wait for several seconds. Nothing else happens.

"What the fu—"

CRASH

"GAAHH!"

*

* 1 *

*

Ho . . . Holy shit . . . what the . . . ? My . . . head . . . face . . . nnnnuuuuggghh . . . What the fuck happened?

"O-Oh my goodness, are you alright?"

Who said that? I-I don't . . . wait, th-that voice . . . I-I can't see who it is. . .

"Oh my gosh! Y-you're bleeding!"

Bleeding? I-Is she talking to me? Ow! God damn it, my head! OW! Quite poking me! That hurts!

"I wonder if it's conscious. Hello? Are you awake?"

Dear God . . . I-I think . . . my everything . . . is broken . . . uuugghh . . . Can't think straight . . . Was . . . was that a gr-growl. . .? D-Did something just . . . roar . . . ? Where the . . . fuck am I . . . ?

"You're breathing, that's a good sign, at least. My goodness, just look at these injuries. Were you attacked?"

Sorta . . . I think . . . what . . . I remember . . . my mirror . . . exploding at me?

"Here, maybe this'll help . . ."

Wha . . . oh . . . oh that feels nice . . . really nice, actually . . . My everything doesn't feel . . . broken, at least . . . Whatever this lady's doing, I hope it doesn't stop . . . There's that roar again . . . It doesn't sound . . . very . . . good for my health. . .

"Um, I think we should get out of here."

How . . . ? Wait, what the . . . Am . . . am I f-floating? This person . . .

"Hmm, I can't take you to the hospital, there'll be too many questions. Not to mention your anatomy is completely different than that of an equine's. They probably wouldn't know what to do with you."

. . ."Pony's"? Did this girl just—nnnnnnnuuuuhhhhh! Fuck! M-My head! M-M-My head . . .

"Don't worry. I'll take care of you until you wake up. But first, I'll need to clean all of this blood and mud off if I'm going to bring you inside my home."

H-Home . . . ? That . . . voice . . . Sue . . . ?

*

* 1 *

*

My eyes shoot open after what seemed like an eternity of pitch-black emptiness. For a moment, I can't tell where I am. The last thing that I remember is walking home from school. It was rainy-as-hell, so I couldn't see six feet in front of me. I made it home, but, when I got there, I heard... something, coming from my mirror. And then it... exploded? Then I remember hearing a voice while I was in pain. But from what?

But thankfully, that was over. As I become more conscious, there is a slight pounding in the back of my head, some soreness all along my entire front of my body. But nothing to severe like broken bones. I feel weak too, like I haven't used my muscles in years. My vision at first is blurry, but after several seconds of pointing them this way and that, I adjust. I'm in a bedroom. Not my bedroom, though. I sit up, a little too quickly and am immediately met with a dizzy spell. The pounding intensifies.

"Careful!" Said a voice to my left, one that was hauntingly familiar. I could've sworn I heard it more recently, though. "Wouldn't want to upset that slight concussion in your occipital lobe, would you?"

I turn to see who was addressing me. When I see who -- or rather, what -- it was, I double-taked, further aggravating my head.

"Careful, I said! Concussion, remember? Oh, wait..."

Did... did I just... was that a... a... unicorn?

Slowly turning my head this time, I get a better sight of the figure standing before me. Lo and behold, a unicorn is right there, gazing at me with a mixture of concern, caution, and amusement. She isn't very tall. Probably four feet total, excluding the purple horn protruding from her forehead. Her coat is a light lavender, her mane and tail are mostly dark purple with a streak of violet and pink. What makes me even more confused was the fact that she looks like a cartoon. As in, she has thick outlines surrounding her figure like a drawn-on-paper cartoon character. Another trait that stuck out was that on either side of her flank is a six-pointed light-purple star with five surrounding smaller white stars.

But her voice is what really freaks me out. I remember that voice all too well. I must be staring because she seems to get a little uncomfortable after a minute of awkward silence.

"Um... Thirsty?" She asks.

I hadn't noticed until then but I am extremely parched. I try to speak up, but a croak was all that came from my throat. My mouth, lips, and throat feel like deserts. Just how long have I been unconscious? Wanting to answer this unicorn, I simply nod.

"Alright, I'm going to go to the kitchen and bring back some refreshments. Back in a sec." She turns and casually trots out the door and down a staircase.

My brain is trying to process what the hell was going on. My mirror exploded, I grasped that much, but now I'm in a strange bedroom of a mythical creature, who conveniently speaks English, and who is going to get me something to drink. Does this happen often?

I decide to study my surroundings. I am on a bed -- a bed that is way too small for me since my feet dangle at the end -- in a room that looks like it's on the inside of a tree. There's a window to my right, but the sunlight is so strong, I can barely stand to look at it for more than a second or two. On the opposite wall, there's a mirror and a bookshelf built into the wall. Right next to the bed, lay a small basket with a pillow and blanket tucked in it. Is that a bed too? Does this unicorn have a kid or something?

There's a tingling sensation running across my face. I trace my fingers along their paths, and I discover several raised portions of skin. It takes a moment to process, but I realize that those are scars. Scars... that came from the mirror explosion that sent shards of glass flying at my face. I can recall some of it now, but it happened so fast, my eyes could barely process that it was happening. I heard a growl, then my mirror exploded out to me, sending little blades of reflective death.

But there was something else. A split second--no, a millisecond before it exploded, I saw something within the mirror. It was multiplied from the cracked surface, but it was consistent across the whole thing. It was a golden eye. It was also slitted, like a snake's eye. And I had the vague assumption that all those eyes were looking directly at me. Remembering that ephemeral sight makes me shudder.

I look at my person, but saw nothing unusual or out of the ordinary. I was still wearing my red t-shirt and jeans. I still had my shoes. My right hand goes unconsciously to my left wrist where I wore my watch. When it reaches my wrist, it's met with only bare skin. I look down in a hurry -- again, upsetting the concussion -- and see that my watch was gone. I instinctually reach for my back pocket where I kept my wallet. Nothing.

Great, I thought. Well, it doesn't look like I'll be needing them anyway, now that I've...?

That lingering thought brought the question back to mind, What the hell happened to me?

Before I could ponder on that question, though, the lavender mare returns with cup of tea and a large glass of water that she is seemingly levitating. Yeah, levitating. Her horn is glowing in a pinkish aura, and the two cups that she held in her magical grasp are also surrounded by said pink aura. She trots over to the side of the bed and brings the cup up to me. I gently take it from her magic, which dissipated as soon as I grab the cup. Without waiting, I gulp half the cup down in five seconds. The unicorn chuckles slightly as she sips her tea.

Thanks to the water, I feel like I could speak again. I bring my hand up to my neck and clear my larynx several times. I take several sips in between. I look over to the equine sitting next to me. She cocks an inquisitive eyebrow. She probably knows I'm going to try and say something. After several more attempts, I finally manage to say something.

"Thanks."

She smiles and says, "My pleasure." She raises a hoof to me. "My name is Twilight Sparkle. And you are?"

Twilight Sparkle. I barely stifle a snort. A purple unicorn named Twilight Sparkle. How appropriate.

I take her hoof in my hand and reply, "Michael."

"Pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Michael. Allow me to introduce you to my home, the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville."

I can barely contain myself after that last word, but manage to do so in order to be polite. Ponyville?! Are you kidding me? So there are more talking unicorns and ponies? What next, talking reptiles?

Just then, another voice comes from the door. This one male, but young. "Oh, hey, it's awake!"

I look at whoever just spoke and my jaw hits the floor. A three-and-a-half foot tall baby dragon comes waddling into the room with a basket of apples. It was purple and green for the most part, with green-irised dragon-slit eyes.

Unbe-frickin-lievable, I think to myself.

It--He sets the apple basket on the foot of the bed and turns to Twilight. "Here are the apples you asked for, Twilight." He looks at me curiously for a second then turns his attention back to the unicorn. "Chattin' up the creature from another world?" He asks sarcastically while jerking a thumb at me.

Twilight nods gracefully towards the baby dragon. "Thank you, Spike. And yes, I was just about to get to know Michael here and welcome him to Equestria."

Equestria? What kind of little girl fantasy world am I in?

If this Twilight character was a mindreader, then she must've heard my inquiry because she then says,

"Equestria is my home. It's the land my family and friends and I and all sorts of ponies live in. Where are you from? I know you're not from around here; that much I can tell because in all of the history books and mythical creature guides I checked, there wasn't any description of a creature of your type at all."

I take a few seconds to formulate an answer without making it too complicated. Finally, I respond.

"Um, well, I'm from a city called Los Angeles," I pause, thinking about what else to say. "And I pretty sure I'm definitely not in my world anymore," I finish, flying my eyes across the room around me as I say it.

The lavender mare's ears droop. "Oh, well, I'm sorry to hear about that." She levitates an apple from the basket and hovered it in front of my face. I look at her quizzically. She encourages for me to take it. I thank her and take the bright red fruit and biet down on it. It was quite possibly the most succulent apple I've ever had.

"Hmm, not bad," I say between bites.

"They're from Sweet Apple Acres," she continues. "It's the local apple orchard run by my friend, Applejack, who occasionally brings baskets of apples here for me."

Applejack. Another ridiculous name. Though considering I'm apparently in another world populated by talking cartoon horses and dragons, I guess my name would be considered the weird name.

"Is this Applejack a unicorn too?" I ask.

"No," she laughs. "She's just a regular earth pony."

I nod understandingly, with a touch of skepticism. Okay, I think to myself. So there are unicorns and "regular earth ponies." I bet that there are pegasi in this world, too.

"I have a friend, Rarity, whose also a unicorn, and Pinkie Pie, another earth pony. Two of my other friends, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, are pegasus ponies."

Called it.

"I'll introduce you to them soon, assuming you have nowhere to go, but first I'd like to get to know you better."

I wonder what she means by that. I guess she wants to make sure I'm not dangerous or something before showing me to anyone else. I can understand that. There was something, though, that came to the surface of my mind. I turn to her and ask,

"Where did you find me?"

Finishing her cup of tea, she places it on the nightstand next to the bed. She then starts her tale.

"Well, I was on my way home earlier this morning from my friend Zecora's hut -- she's a zebra, by the way -- after picking up a book on special herbal medicines. I was trotting through the Everfree Forest when I noticed something -- you -- laying on the ground. When I got close to your body, you were unconscious, not to mention bleeding heavily from face and on parts of your torso. I didn't want to get too close to you, but you looked like you were in a lot of pain from the shallow breaths you were taking. I then came up to you and poked you a few times, trying to see if you'd react in any way. You groaned slightly, but it didn't sound like the groan of something dangerous. I used my magic to heal the bleeding wounds and some broken bones, then carried you here where I cleaned you up and put you in my bed so you could rest. You were only asleep for about five hours."

I stare blankly at the unicorn as she finishes her explanation. "How did you know if I had broken bones?"

Twilight's face winces. "You sure you want to know?" Thinking for a moment, and considering her less than encouraging reaction to the memory, I shake my head.

"Well, isn't there a hospital around here you could've taken me to?" I ask.

"Yes and no," the mare replies, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. "Yes, Ponyville does have a hospital, but if I brought in a strange creature that nopony else had ever seen, it would've probably caused a commotion, and if you got better there, you would've been bombarded with all sorts of questions, whose answer's would not have made sense to anypony. Not to mention your skeletal, muscular, and cardiovascular structure is almost in no way similar to ours, so I wasn't sure if any of our medical techniques would work on you."

I continue to stare incredulously. And yes, she did honestly say "nopony" and "anypony." Those were one of the few terms I would refuse to ever say. Ever.

"So you decided to bring a complete stranger, in identity and species, to your home," I say. "You're strangely trusting of a creature you no nothing about. Why did you help me?"

She shakes her head almost condescendingly. "Well, I wasn't about to leave a helpless living thing to bleed to death in the middle of the Everfree Forest. And you just seemed so..." She brings a hoof to her mouth as she contemplates a worthy vocabulary term. "Harmless." She finishes.

I almost say: "Looks can be deceiving," but I don't want her to get the wrong idea. She saved my life, and I don't want to seem ungrateful. So I promptly say, "Well, thanks for being so... trusting, I guess." I finish my water and place the cup next to the other cup on the nightstand.

"You're very welcome," she says. "Spike?" She calls.

At this point, the young drake had already left, but comes back as soon as the unicorn calls.

"What's up?" He has a half-eaten apple in his claw as he comes in.

"Can you get me the bag with Michael's things in it? It should be at the bottom of the staircase."

"Sure, no problem." The little dragon then promptly runs off down the stairs, munching juicily on his snack.

"You have my things? My watch and my wallet?" I ask.

The unicorn turns back to me and nods. "I hope you don't mind, but I took them off your person so you would be more comfortable while you rested."

"It's fine, thanks." I reply. In my mind, I can't shake how eerily familiar her voice sounded. I haven't heard that voice in a little over two years by this point, not since...

A few seconds later, the drake returns with a small paper bag, the apple completely gone now. He comes up next to the bed and extends his little dragon arms as far out as he could to me. I take the bag, thank him, and rummage through the contents. My watch is there, somehow still working. The time says two o'clock in the afternoon.

"I used my magic to figure out how your clock worked. After I managed that, I reset the time accordingly to my time. It was a little tricky getting it off your wrist. I actually thought it was part of your anatomy for a minute there." She chuckles, but I only smirk. I place the watch back to its rightful place on my left wrist. I then continue to go through the bag, and I bring out my wallet from the bag. It was a simple black leather wallet. Twilight appears to get uncomfortable at the sight of it.  I ask her what was wrong. She bites her lip and rubs the back of her head with a hoof. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, she says,

"Well... um... it's just th-that... um... that's... l-leather... i-if I'm not mistaken?"

After several seconds of pondering, it suddenly dawns on me what was bothering her. Genuine leather is made from dried animal skin. Dead dried animal skin. And she is, in a sense, an animal. I quickly try to reassure her of what it was.

"O-Oh, no, um, it's okay, it's just fake leather, totally synthetic." She relaxes at that statement, relief pouring through with a sigh.

Having taken care of that little bit of awkwardness, I open up the wallet. I have about five dollars left, not that it would do me any good in this world.

I really doubt they have dollars as the local currency. Other than the money, there's my library card, my school ID, and-

Something is missing.

I reach back into the paper bag, scavenging for... it. I look into the bag but see nothing else there. I start to panic.

No, no, no, please no!

"Are you looking for this?"

I swivel my head and see Twilight levitating a small square in front of her face. She's smiling at it. "What a cute photo! Is this you and--"

I cut her off before she can finish by quickly snatching the small photo from her magical grasp. She and Spike gasp as I stare daggers at her, holding the photo as close to me, and as far away from them, as possible. Anger boils in my stomach, but I keep myself from yelling like I usual do when someone takes my photo.

"Do. Not. Touch. This. Photo. Got it?"

After several seconds of leaving her mouth agape, Twilight closes her mouth and eyes and says calmly, "I'm sorry. I didn't know that photo meant that much to you. I didn't take it out of your wallet, though, it just fell out, I swear. It fell out when I removed your things when I first brought you here." She opens her eyes and looked at me calmly. I'm still glaring back at her purple eyes. "But that didn't give me the right to keep it. For that, I am sorry. I won't do it again, I promise."

My anger cools down slightly, but still holds. "Damn right, you're not," I muttered.

I place the small photo back into its usual slot in my wallet, not even bothering to take a look at it. I've looked at that photo so much, I've memorized every detail about it. But I still keep it, so I could have something physical to hold onto whenever I think of...her. I then put the wallet back into my back pocket and proceed to get up from the bed. I stand up, slightly dizzy but not so much so to make me fall over. My bones feel rattled, but functional, albeit not at one hundred percent. As I stand over the unicorn, I get a sense of how small the room actually is. My head nearly hits the ceiling when I try to stand up completely.

I look over at Twilight and say, "And I would appreciate it if you could forget about the photo."

She slowly nods. "I understand." Twilight then looks me over, like she's assessing my appearance. "You're tall."

"You're short."

"I'm average height!"

"So am I."

After a small chuckle, she stands up on all fours and heads for the door. Spike follows, though he keeps looking back at me, as if he's making sure I kept my distance me.

"Well, since you're apparently feeling better, how about a tour of Ponyville?"

"No thanks. I think I should find a way home from here."

"How?" She replies with another cocked brow.

I think it over. She's right, I have no clue. "Good point."

She smirks in victory. "Now, how about that tour?"

I nod, my anger gone, and follow the lavender equine.

A tour of "Ponyville"? Ah Christ, why not? It's not like I've got anything better to do...