Texas Twilight

Twilight was laying on the ground, her eyes shut and her head was aching. She groaned as she slowly lifted her head, and began to open her eyes. The sunlight stung her eyes, causing her to shield them with her hoof. She was finally able to open them up a bit more, and what she saw, froze her to the bone. Miles upon miles of desert. She slowly and wobbly begins to get to her hooves, shaking off the dirt that had stuck to her. She looked all around her, all she could see was hills in the distance, and dirt and bushes all around her. The sun was directly overhead, and the heat was excruciating.

"Wh-where am I? I... I don't know where I am..." She said to herself. At first she thought she may have been sent to the San Palomino Desert, but nothing looked even remotely familiar. She began to quicken her breath as panic was beginning to set in.

"I... I need to find help... I... I need to find somepony..." Twilight began to look in different directions, trying to determine what way would be the most productive for her to travel in. She settled in on one direction and slowly began to walk. The sun was bearing down on her back, making her very uncomfortable as sweat began to pour off of her. Insects began to swirl around her, to which she resorted to try and swat them away with her tail. She walks for around 3 excruciating hours when she begins to hear some rustling in front of her. She sees a bush moving, and she could see something digging around it. whatever it was, it was on four legs. She sighs in relief, hoping that she had finally found somepony.

"Oh thank Celestia. Excuse me, I'm lost... could you please help me?" Whatever was digging in the bush was startled by her voice and quickly turned to look at her. Whatever it was, it wasn't a pony. It looked like a large tusked pig with black fur. It squealed angrily at her. Twilight gulps and begins to back away.

"I-I-I'm sorry!... I didn't mean to... disturb you..." Twilight begged but the hog dug at the ground with its foot. Twilight sensing the danger turned and began to run. She looks back and sees the beast chasing her. She lets out a scream as she continues to run. The beast chases her for a good distance as Twilight's legs begin to burn. She trips over a large rock and falls hard to the ground.

"OUCH!!!" There was a large throbbing pain in her hoof. She looks down at it to see it has been cracked. She then quickly looks up to see the rushing boar still charging her. "G-Get back!"

Twilight yells as her horn lights up brightly, she fires a beam of magic at the monster which causes it to fly backwards a few feet. The boar scrambles to its feet and begins to run away squealing. Twilight breathes a sigh of relief and tries to stand, but her hoof surges in pain. She crumbles back down on the ground and looks at her hoof. She was in no shape to travel. But as she stares at her hoof, her vision goes blurry. She blinks a few times as exhaustion was overtaking her. She pumped a lot of magic into her horn to ward away the boar, but for some reason, her magic wasn't charging back as fast as it should. It was charging back at a fraction of the speed it normally does. Using so much magic, and it not recharging has her physically drained. She lays her head back down in the dirt as she tries to control her breathing. She could see the sun, which would only be in the sky for a few more hours, shading her in its light. She tries to force herself to stay awake, but it is no use. Her vision fades to black as her senses begin to numb.

-one hour later-

Travis was at his stove, deep frying his Rattlesnake. He was proud how they were turning out and his dogs sat down close by hoping he was going to share with them. With his plate full of rattlesnake, he reaches into his fridge to grab another can of his favorite beer when his shoulder locks up. He winces in pain as he grabs his shoulder and massages it, to try and ease the pain. This was something he had to deal with a long time, ever since he came home from serving in Afghanistan.

"Fuckin' arm..." He cursed himself as his shoulder finally released. He sighs in relief and grabs a beer. He takes his plate and beer to the couch and sits down. He takes a hardy bite out of his snake, pulling the bones out of his mouth. He tosses a couple of pieces to his dogs, who eat them pretty quickly. He opens his beer and takes a sip before looking out his window. in the distance, he could see a few buzzards circling around something. He lets out an annoyed grunt as he sets his plate down. If something is dead near his house, it could bring predators around his property. He sets his beer down and goes to his closet. He grabs his Remington 11-87, and his matte black Stetson hat. He then whistles for his dogs.

"Come on now." He encourages them as he approaches the door. They all quickly scramble outside as he opens the door. He rests the shotgun on his shoulder as he begins to approach the buzzards in the distance. His dogs keep near him, not going out too far away from him. When he was 30 feet from the birds he looked to his dogs.

"Go! Go get em'!" To which his dogs began to charge at the birds, howling and barking at them. This causes all of them to scatter, flying in all different directions. Travis chuckles at the sight as his dogs begin to sniff and investigate whatever the buzzards were picking at. "Alright ,alright. Get back you three."

He ushers them aside so he could see what has died and to his shock, what he found left him dumbfounded. It was a small, purple horse with wings and a horn. He looked to the sun, it was just now sitting, so it wasn't the heat making him hallucinate. Perhaps it was the rattlesnake, maybe he should toss it out. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the poor thing whimper. He looks back down at it, slinging his gun on his back and he crouches. He gently placed his hand on its cheek, it was still warm, hell, he could feel it still breathing.

"It's still alive, but what in the hell even is it? I ain't never seen a horse like that before." He scratches his beard with his other hand as he tries to figure out what to do. With it still being alive, it would be cruel to leave it out here. He didn't want to put it down either, as it didn't look too badly injured, and as something unique as this, it was out of the question. He sighs as he finally comes to a conclusion.

"Alright, come on now. I got ya." Travis bends down and picks up the strange creature in his arms. It was limp, and weighed a decent bit. He looks back towards his house and began to carry the creature back to his home. His dogs walked next to him, just as curious about the thing as he was. He opens the door with his foot, and enters his house. The coolness of his air conditioner was instant relief. He walks into the hallway and into his bedroom. He didn't know where else to set it, so he placed the creature on his bed. Feeling the cool air, and some place comfy to lie, he could already see the creature begin to relax, still with its eyes closed. Whatever this creature was, it was adorable. Probably one of the cutest animals he has ever seen. He got a much better look of it now, its coat was purple, and its hair had pink and purple streaks in it. It had large wings and a long horn. It's flank was adorned with some sort of star, what was it?

"Is that supposed to be some sort of brand?" He asks himself, but he had no real idea what it was. He turns and exits, placing his gun back in his closet, and stepping back into his kitchen. He pulls out a jug of water from his fridge, it was cold. He pours some water into a glass bowl, and grabs a pack of carrots out of his fridge. Horses love carrots right? He turns and enters his bedroom again, when he hears a frightened gasp. The voice was feminine, and he looks up to see the horse has its eyes open. She was scooted all the way up near his headboard, and she looks on at Travis with scared unblinking eyes. Travis couldn't help but notice the all to human expression on the creature's face. He held up one of his hands in a peaceful manner.

"Easy there, I ain't gon' hurt ya." He spoke to it, but it did nothing to calm her down. He sets the bowl of water on the side table next to his bed and pulls out a carrot from the pack. "Here, ya hungry?"

The creature looked afraid to accept the food from Travis, so he just set it down on the bed near it and backed away with his hands up. The creature looked at the carrot, still a bit reluctant to take it. However, it did look at the bowl of water next to it.

"You want some water? Here, let me...." Travis's eyes widen when he sees the bowl light up with an aura surrounding it. The bowl then suddenly levitates. Travis looked at the creature, whose horn had the same aura surrounding it. The creature had a pained look on it's face, like it was struggling. Finally, the bowl reached its lips and it began to drink, like a human. Finally, the bowl was set back down, empty. The creature licked it's lips, satisfied with the water. It also appeared to be a lot calmer now as it looked back to Travis. He had pinned himself to his back wall as he saw the whole thing happen.

"...What the fuck?" He said with a confused expression. The creature widened it's eyes at his words, like it could understand what he just said. "How the hell did ya'll just do that!?" He asked, but really wasn't expecting an answer, but one did come.

"...Uh... magic..." The creature spoke, it just spoke to him. It spoke to him in English.

"How the fuck!?" He shouted, which frighted the creature. "You can fucking talk!?"

"Y-Yes..." She meekly responded.

"How the hell!? Why!? How!?" Travis himself was now beginning to panic. "This better be a goddamn dream!"

"...I'm hoping for the same thing..." She responded. She sounded female. "What happened? How did I get here?"

"I...I... I saw you... passed out in the desert. I thought you were just some animal... so I brought you here." Travis responded, still pressed firmly against his wall.

"Animal?" She raised an eyebrow like she was offended.

"Yes! You look like a fucking horse!" Travis said, narrowing his eyes at her.

"I'm not a horse, I am a pony!" She replied, narrowing her eyes as well.

"Horse, Pony. Same fucking thing! That doesn't explain how you can fucking talk, and move shit without touching them!" Tavis was becoming more frightened than the creature was by now. He saw that the creature was only getting more stressed out the more he began to panic. He took a deep breath and let out a long sigh to calm himself down. "Ok... I need to chill. You have a name pony?"

"...Tw-Twilight... Twilight Sparkle" She responded quietly.

"Twilight Sparkle? Okay... I'm Travis. Travis Shaw." Travis finally pulled his back away from his wall.

"Where am I? How do I get home?" She asked in sad sounding voice.

"Well... You're in my place, which is a bit outside the town of Van Horn." His answer did not satisfy her.

"Van Horn? Where... where in Equestria is that?" She sounded even sadder, like she had no idea where she truly was.

"Van Horn is a town here in Texas. A state here in the U.S." He responded.

"T-Texas? I don't know where that is? Am I even on Equis anymore?" She almost seemed to ask herself that as well.

"Equis? I have never heard of that." Travis was calming down a bit more. He could see the ever growing sadness on Twilight's face.

"What is this planet called?" She asked, looking at him with puppy dog eyes.

"It's called Earth." He responded. Twilight looked down at the bed. His words have done nothing to comfort her. She began to break down in tears, her hooves covering her face as she began to cry. Despite the weirdness of the situation, Travis's heart shattered at the poor pony crying on his bed. She was adorable, and seeing her cry was depressing. He slowly began to approach her, and sits down on his bed. She paid him no attention, until she feels his hand being gently placed on her back. She gasps again and looks up at him. Tears rolling down her cheeks as she met the kind and gentle gaze of Travis.

"Hey there, it's goin' to be ok. I have no idea of the kind of situation yer in, but it's goin be alright." He spoke in the most soothing voice he could muster. She sniffles and begins to wipe her tears away with her hooves. She winces in pain as she looks down at her hoof, it still has a crack in it. Travis notices and grows more concerned. "Ya alright? How'd ya go and do that?"

"I... I was being chased by this... this monstrous looking pig... and I tripped." Her voice still sounded pretty sad. Travis shook his head and sighed in response.

"Fuckin Javelinas." He swore. "Mean bastards. Would you like for me to take care of that for you?"

"It's ok... it can heal on it's own." Twilight looked up at Travis quizzically before asking him a question. "What... what even are you?" She asked.

"Me? You mean my species? I'm a human." He told her.

"Human?... I have never seen or heard of a human before." She admitted. Despite her situation, the curious part of her still wanted to learn.

"Well, I've never seen a weird purple-talking-winged-horned pony before." He said. "Just how the hell did you even end up here?"

"Well... I was in my castle... when this mean unicorn named Starlight Glimmer used this spell to banish me to this place. But I was able to grab at least half the scroll before I was sucked in completely." She told him, but her eyes quickly widened upon realizing something. "The Scroll!!! I forgot! Half of it's still out there! I need to find it! It's my only way back home!" She tried stepping back down but yelled when she used her hurt hoof.

"Easy there, you're in no condition to be looking for anything right now." He told, but she whimpered.

"But.. but I need to find it..." Her eyes were growing watery again.

"It's too dangerous at night, the predators are out. I'll help you look for it tomorrow." He assured her to which she looked up at him with a hopeful expression.

"You... you promise?" Her bottom lip was twitching.

"I promise, you can sleep here tonight, and we'll look tomorrow morning." He promised her. She slowly began to nod and she laid her head back down. Her eyes were still watery and she was sniffling. "You need me to get you anything?"

"...more water please..." She spoke in a sad tone.

"Alright, I'll be back." He stood and grabbed the bowl and headed for the door. He opens it to see his dogs at the door. They wanted in to see what exactly Twilight was. He keeps them back as he exits his bedroom. She used her magic to pull the carrot he had laid down near her and began to much on it. Travis was back in his kitchen, pouring her another bowl of water. "Tomorrow, I'm gonna wake up and realize this was all a fucked up dream."