Chapter 1: What are you? "Human".
There I was, I was looking down at me. I had developed a terrible cough, I couldn't get enough air, my blood pressure was low, I couldn't eat, or drink. I was resting peacefully in my hospital bed. I had to guess I was a ghost at this point, looking down at my body, or this was a dream. I've had dreams like this before. And then I woke up. All I could see was light in my vision, then it cleared away. I was once again in my hospital bed, no longer floating above my body. I pressed the buzzer next to me to alert a nurse.
A nurse entered the room, I knew her, she was Sophia, we were like best friends.
"Hey". My voice was a croaked whisper.
"Hello dear, what do you need?" She asked. I explained what I had seen to her. She remained calm as she listened, telling me it was probably just a dream and that it was natural for my body to begin shutting down as I neared... death. I had asked her to be frank with me, and she was.
"How close am I, would you say?"
She sucked air in through her teeth
"Well.. you might make it to your birthday next week, hun"
This was fine with me. I felt a certain sense of peace about it, I had been feeling this peace for a month now. "Ah. OK, then. I'm not upset, so don't worry about me". Sophia smiled at me and nodded, tears in her eyes. We were good friends after all. I felt worse for others than myself. If only there was a way for me to stay longer, just for them.
"Hey, I'm sorry that I've gotta go so soon-" Gasp. "But ya gotta go when ya gotta go". I utterly failed at consoling her, but I couldn't bare to say more without passing out from lack of oxygen. Yes I was hooked up to a machine that gave me pure oxygen, but my lungs were just... deteriorating.
"So I've got... 5 days, would you say?"
"Yeah, yeah probably". She patted the top of my head and rustled my hair.
"Ah.. so uhm.. 432,000 seconds? Sounds good. I can do plenty in that time. Like uh," A wave of nausea and tiredness washed over me. "Like sleep".
I woke up almost 2 days later. Sophia was sitting next to my bed, as well as my dad. He looked to have been crying, and Sophia was trying to reassure him. My eyes were barely open and it was clear that they couldn't tell I was awake. I gave a little wave.
"Daniel? How ya feeling, buddy?" My dad asked worriedly
"Pretty good. better than last time I woke up. most of the pain is gone".
My dad offered me warm hugs and lots of his time over the next few days. I was only half conscious really, and cared less and less about the outside world and more about dying peacefully. After a while, I could feel my last moments slipping away, in the dead of night. I chuckled to myself in my mind. dying alone wasn't so bad after all. Better this way actually, I wouldn't have to feel so bad for the crying people around me, there were no people around me.
And then I woke up.
Bright white light was all that I could see, and then it cleared away just like last time. Unlike last time, I was in a field, and I was very much alive.
"What the hell?" I stood up. My body and mind were in complete working order again. I nearly had a psychotic break from all the theories I had made up a year before I died. I was slightly - no - VERY insane. I had tried to combine mathematics and magical systems to find a grand "Theory of Everything"... there was a reason all the people that tried to do that before me became fucking insane. I should have learned from other's mistakes. However, I held myself together and slapped myself in the face, thinking I was in a dream. No pain, so yes.
"I spoke to myself out loud, wondering through the field in a single direction. "So I'm dead, or dying, and this is my brain's last ditch effort to feel alive again... I'm fine with this I suppose. HEY SUBCONSCIOUS WHERE ARE YA? Can we talk?"
No response. That was weird. typically Subby was down for a chat any day. I saw a sign up ahead. Just plain wood. "I can usually read in my dreams" I thought to myself. So I began walking in the direction of the sign.
"Ponyville: 2 kilometers"
I groaned. Pony town was 1.25 miles away but, like, seriously? WHY AM I DREAMING ABOUT DAMN PONIES? I had watched the show when I was 8ish. that was 8 and a half years ago, So why was my brain pulling THIS memory of all the others? Anyway. Decided to take a left and walk to Ponyville.
I giggled a little. My body felt great and my mind was working once again, or so it seemed. I decided to run, since it appeared I was once again in shape in the dream. Everything felt very real, except for the no pain part and, ya know, I was probably dead. That got me thinking about past and future lives. I quickly ignored the thought pattern, as it would lead me down the path of insanity if I let it get too far. No hyperfocusing, Daniel.
I liked talking to myself. For some reason. "It's been what, 10 minutes? Well there's some buildings up ahead and.. No.. No please no. Don't tell me there's characters here. Damn you, Subby. Cringe my dude. I don't WANT to talk with ponies.. but I'm really bored and I don't know what else to do...".
"It's like Character.ai.. In VR.. run by my subconscious so it's a better quality" I told myself. "But like, I couldn't have dreampt of Minecraft or ROUNDS or something? That would be way more entertaining in my last moments. Although I guess if it's a dream, 'my last moments' could last days".
Every single pony stopped what they were doing and stared me right in the eyes. All their heads snapped in my direction, some in fear, some in curiosity. I started to speak but the ones that were afraid ran inside and the ones that were curious walked in after them.
"Well that's creepy. Please stop. Okay good, y'all are going inside. just don't stare at me-" They stared at me through the windows. "Nevermind". One pony approached me. I mentally died. cuteness overload, and social anxiety. It was now that I realized that the ponies were 3 dimensional. interesting. I could have easily mistaken this place for real life. It might even... I must not think that way.
"Hi. Pink One".
"OOO! I like that title, "Pink One", but my name's Pinkie Pie!"
"Yeah? What do you do for a living?"
"I Bake pastries at the shop, SugarCube Corner, and I get donations to celebrate parties here in Ponyville! I have a question for you though, what exactly are ya? Imma pony!"
"I can see that you're a pony. I'm surprised you don't know what I am. My species is recognized as "Humans". I'm a human. The others appear to be frightened by me. why's that?"
"It's because I don't think we've ever had a human before! Where are ya from?"
"Welllll... uh, I'm from.. another uhm.. Listen. This is gonna sound a little strange. I'm not exactly from this world, as a whole. you're just gonna have to believe me on that one. My place is called Earth, a Planet. I live in a state called Tennessee".
She blinked, but smiled and shook her head. "Okey dokey lokey! Well, this is Ponyville! A super-duper friendly town full of friendly ponies in a friendly country called Equestria on a not-so-friendly-but-still-pretty-good planet!" Pinkie explained in a chipper voice. I was surprised it was a planet. And i was surprised she acknowledged it's darker nature, to an extent
"What makes it not-so-friendly-but-"
"Let's not talk about that, Mister! Oh, where are my manners, what's your name? Do you want a cupcake?!" She shoved a cupcake down my throat. I began vomiting, of course. She looked slightly worried.
"No cupcakes? You don't like them?"
"PLEGH... I don't like them being shoved down my throat, no. I like to enjoy them at a slower pace".
"sorry..."
"All is well. I'm Daniel. so.. I'm dreaming right?" Except vomiting felt awfully real.
She tilted her head. other ponies began walking outside onto their porches, listening and observing. "Nope. Why would it be? this is all totally real. I think. I hope. Oh no.. No. I read the newspaper this morning. You can't read in dreams".
"Sometimes.. nevermind. You have the attention span to read a newspaper?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Sorry, no, it's just.. I thought.. nevermind". I reached out a hand and scratched behind her ears and basically pet her like one would pet a dog. she vibrated slightly, which I guessed was a type of purring. A couple other mares walked up to me in curiosity and let me pet them as well. No stallions came up to me. I decided they must not want to be seen as 'cute'.
Most of the ponies went back to doing their own business, deciding I wasn't a threat of any kind. I continued petting Pinkie. She blushed and stepped back.
"That's enough for now. I think I'm all rubbed-up for today!"
"Please don't say that".
"What?"
" 'rubbed-up' ".
"Why not?"
"It sounds weird Pinkie".
She blushed more. "I hadn't thought of that".
I laughed.
I started walking with her. "I don't have any money. you guys use bits I think? Could I maybe.. have some food?"
She gasped. "You don't have money? And you need FOOD?! Come on in to SugarCube Corner quick! We'll getcha up and running on some deliciousness in no time!"
I wondered when the dream would end. I also hoped it wasn't a dream very, very badly.
Author's Note
More chapters in a couple days.
The banana split and salad the day before had been really good. I experienced all the normal bodily and mental sensations. eating, taste, hunger, fullness, tiredness, and light feel-good-fuzzies from a nice rest in a guest bedroom. As I woke up and reflected on how everything felt, including my sleep, I decided that whatever happened, I had been transported to an alternate reality after death. I wasn't born here, just transported, and somehow healed of... whatever was causing my body to shut down. The doctors back on Earth didn't actually know what it was, which is weird because they were doing tests on me for over 5 months.
I walked downstairs to the bakery section of the resturant, SugarCube Corner. I grabbed a sugar cube and approached Pinkie. She was a lot calmer than most memes of her I had seen on the internet, which just made her personality more real.
She waved to me, smiling. She asked for a hug and I gave her one. Her eyes became fixated on the sugar cube.
"Can I have that please? Pretty please??"
"Sure. you can have it," I wave it in her face "But first, sit". She looked confused but obeyed my order. I tossed her the sugar cube. I pulled out two more.
"Now roll over". She obliged, and got two more. I laughed. Apparently I could train her if I really wanted to. I wondered about the rest of the ponies or if it was just her that acted this way. Probably just her. Or maybe, if I found a thing each of the ponies liked, I could get them to do cute things in order to have them. Ah. I knew what I'd be trying to do while I was here.
"Good pony. I have a question though".
"Aww, thank you! What's your question?"
"In my world we use paper money as a currency. you could buy ten kilograms of apples for roughly 20 dollars. How many bits would it take to buy 10 kilograms of apples?"
"Umm... 12? I think".
"So can we say that 1 bit is 1.67 dollars? That would make minimum wage on Earth 9 bits an hour. How much do you make if you don't mind me asking?"
"I make roughly 5 bits an hour, plus tips. but ponies also donate to me for throwing parties. AND Mr. and Mrs. Cake pay for my room, electricity, water, and food!"
"If you guys hire me will I make about that much as well?"
"Well... after a month or two. I think it's a month of free living, then a month of 3 bits an hour on top of it, 2 weeks of 4 bits an hour, and then you graduate to 5 bits after that! It's not a hard job, and I'd love workin' with ya!"
"I'll work here if that's okay with the managers". "With 6 hour days, it would only take... " I thought to myself. Pinkie waved a hoof in front of my face.
"Of course you can work with us! We're always looking for a helping hoof and.. ya there friend?"
"Huh? Yeah, I'm here, after a year I'd make like 8400 bits!"
Pinkie's eyes widened. "You did that in your head? WOW! I know the pony you need to meet!" She ran out of the building full speed. I followed her to a library.
Pinkie Pie galloped up to the library door and knocked quickly and loudly. Twilight opened it to find her standing next to a creature she'd never seen before.
"Hi Twilight! This is my friend Daniel and he said he's a *human* from another world called Earth and he said he's gonna work at SugarCube Corner with me and he's also super good at math so I wanted to introduce you guys!!"
"Sup". I said
Why hello, Pinkie Pie! And who is this handsome fellow with you? Twilight noticed Daniel's very different appearance.
"Like I said, this is my human!"
"Your human?! What's that?"
"Me is human. An intelligent species like you ponies. Nice to meet you.. Name?"
"Right. I am Twilight Sparkle. Nice to meet you.. Daniel human. Where did you come from?"
"Technically I come from a different world entirely. I died and somehow reincarnated here instantly, with the same body and mind and age, just not whatever disease killed me. I'm 17 by the way. gonna be 18 in like.. tomorrow actually".
Pink electricity shot out from Pinkie's mane and she bounced around the room like a pinball for a good second. I shook my head in disbelief. Twilight just rolled her eyes and used telekinetic power from her horn to grab Pinkie and still her in midair. This was a strange world to be a part of, but I was happy about the existence of magic as well as physics.
"Well, you definitely caught me off guard, Pinkie. Now, human, were you saying that you were reincarnated right here? In Equestria? As you are now?"
"Yup. The doctors said I had some strange disease that was shutting down my brain's communication with my vital organs over time, and that they couldn't cure it. I died peacefully 7 months later, yesterday in the very early morning".
"This is definitely unexpected. And to say that you had no previous knowledge of Equestria before... what were you doing before your untimely demise?"
"I had no knowledge of Equestria's existence before I died," Totally didn't watch a show about it. "and before my death? I... I made theories that drove me to insanity... but for the most part!- I drew pictures and played piano and did plenty of math. I love math. i love piano. drawing is okay".
"What kind of theories? If you are comfortable saying, of course. If they led you to insanity, they must be very curious".
"Just... random things about directing aura energy and chaos and harmony blending into entropy and codes and symbols representing certain laws of physics in a grand code that I thought was behind all of reality. No 16 year old needs to be thinking about all that crazy stuff".
Twilight appeared surprised "I have to admit that I'm rather impressed. At your age, you were already thinking about things that I would have never considered as a young filly. And a grand code? That sounds like something straight from a story you might find in one of my books! These theories and concepts sound intriguing. Is... there anywhere I can read more about your research on these topics? You're already fascinating me!"
"Well.. I never wrote any books or anything. All of my research was done inside of my own body and mind. Hey, where'd Pinkie go?"
"Huh? she probably went to go set up a birthday party for you. she does that. Anyway, you never kept notes or journals?"
"Unfortunately, no". I was still standing at the doorway. "May I come in?"
"Oh! Of course, of course. come right in. SPIIIKE! Get some coffee going.. would you like some coffee Daniel?"
"Do you have creamer? If so, yes please".
"Make that two cups of coffee Spike! One with creamer one without!".
I heard a faint "I'm going, I'm going.. It will be ready in a minute".
"Spike is my pet dragon, but he's more like a brother".
She sat me down in a rocking chair and placed my creamed coffee on the table in front of me. She levitated hers with her horn and took a sip, then laid down on the couch adjacent to where I sat.
"So tell me, human, what is your origin story? How did you get here? What was your life like, if I may ask?" Twilight facepalmed. "Sorry, I should've asked that in reverse-order.. but you know what I meant".
"Of course! I gotchu". I take a deep breath and think on what I want to say. "Well, I had a childhood where I made and lost friends and played games, went to school, annoyed my parents and attempted sports (Although I wasn't very good),"
She chuckled.
"When I got a little older, 12 to 16 range, I started being able to see and feel auras, and I got super into spirituality. I can't even remember most of my ideas because they're either repressed or forgotten. The reason I had them in the first place was due to an abusive parent my mother had married. I looked for an escape from reality in spirituality. After I had healed from the trauma somewhat, when I was 15 and they were divorced, I started trying to combine the philosophies I had come up with with mathematics and science, but I ended up believing a bunch of contradicting information about the world and how it worked, and it drove me insane because I took it too seriously".
She winced. "I understand now, thank you for being so brave to share. Spirituality can probably never be expressed by traditional science, you know?" She asked softly. "Are you okay now? Mentally? I mean, besides getting whisked away to another dimension early yesterday morning?"
"I'm doing okay now that I've chosen not to believe in all that stuff and take it so seriously. As for that illness that caused me to die, It's probably unconnected to why I'm here. Maybe if a soul dies too young, it takes it's body to the new world as well? This is just my next lifetime, I'm sure, and the illness was simply uncharted. That happens. Earth's medicine is really good, and our tech is great, but sometimes 5 to 6 months isn't long enough to find out what's wrong and develop a cure".
Her eyes widened at your last answer. "You don't think you did anything to upset the natural order of life and death, do you? Do you think the illness was a sort of punishment?"
"Uh, no. Terrible things just happen on Earth sometimes, like me dying so young".
There was an awkward silence for a moment before Twilight tried to lighten the mood. "So, did Spike put enough creamer in there for you?"
I took a sip. it wasn't too hot so I drank more. "Yeah, this is great actually. You should give 'em a raise".
"Hah, no. He gets paid plenty of allowance. 1 bit per chore... there might be a lot of chores, but he's raking up some serious money doing it all".
"I'm going to be working at SugarCube Corner soon. I'll ask if I get to join the team tomorrow".
"Oh that's right! I remember Pinkie saying something about that. Are you excited to learn how to bake all their treats?"
"Um.. I guess. All I've had there was a banana split and a salad. And I've really only met Pinkie Pie. She was the first pony I met".
Twilight laughed. "Naturally. Well, they pay for housing, but if you want to talk about anything or just hang out, I'm usually not too too busy on.. Sundays. Which is today! And Pinkie is always down to talk to ponies, even though she might not be a great listener at times".
I said goodbye and went back to SugarCube Corner, asking Mrs. Cake if I could work for them starting tomorrow. She told me I would start today. I shrugged and put on a hat she gave me... They had no clothes for me, obviously. Pinkie had come up with a special treat called an Ultra Chocolate Delux. Basically a brownie with peanut chocolate chips in it and dark chocolate frosting, drizzled in white chocolate syrup with little mousse ponies on the top.
"So you bake the brownies with this recipe here, and you add the peanut butter chocolate chips as you mix the batter. Then apply the dark chocolate frosting and white chocolate syrup after cutting them into 2 by 3 inch squares once it cools. Refrigerate them for 10 minutes, then add the mousse ponies. They sell for 3 bits a piece, and we have a 2 for 4 sale a few days a month" Mrs. Cake explained. I nodded and made my first batch perfectly in under an hour. apparently I had a knack for it. We had to make at least two brownies for every local pony in Ponyville, so around 660 total, or 55 batches. We got done with them in less than 4 hours, and I was instructed on how to make other types of sweets like ice cream, cakes and chocolate-coated fruit.[i/]
The next day I woke up around 8 am to help take orders and report them to Pinkie Pie and others. There was a light blue stallion I joked with throughout the day called Sky Breaker. He was apparently the third-fastest Pegasus in Ponyville, with a break-neck record of Moch 2, roughly 2,000 feet per second. I told him this and I noticed him stare onto the distance, his pupils expanding. I read somewhere that pupils dilate when thinking about something you love.
"You must really love flying, huh?"
"Hm? Oh yes! I love flying. My cutie mark is-"
"Come on you two, we got 6 more Ultra Chocolates Deluxes to serve!" Pinkie called. Sky Breaker looked sad for a second but perked up pretty quickly once I gave him a large plate of the brownies to serve. He trotted off.
I finished my day at work, and got asked if I wanted to work overtime for a bit of money. I decided to work a few hours and got a bit. I also got a percentage of the tips, which came out to 2 bits, so 3 total. it was 5:00PM when I went into the guest bedroom I was using at the side of the building. I laid on my bed and chatted with myself.
Later, I decided to go into town a ways and look for a book to read. I had three bits, around 5 dollars, and I wanted something peaceful to do each time I got off of work. after searching for a while, I found a short book, only about 30 pages, for 4 bits. That was the cheapest one, so I decided to go back to the bakery and search around for an empty notebook and a pencil. Once I found them, I began drawing the shadow of a hypercube projected onto 2D space, the paper. I drew the cube at a slightly different position each time for a couple hours, before Pinkie came through my door with a plate of cookies and some milk.
"Hiya! Whatcha up to? How was your first day at work huh?"
"I'm drawing a thing, trying to make one of those flip book animations. My first day of work was really simple and fun! Thanks for accepting me onto the team".
She hopped onto my back lightly and peered over my shoulder. I had about 20 pages done by this point. I flipped through them at a slower pace to show her what was happening. There was a cube inside of a cube, and it's front four corners started growing apart and moving forwards, while the back four corners of the larger cube grew closer together and pushed the back four corners of the inner cube forward. The front four corners of the larger cube began replacing the position of the back four corners of the itself, but I had only drawn the animation to halfway through a cycle, which still looked pretty cool. The tesseract had basically just tilted 45 degrees at this point, but hadn't cycled through to the full 90.
Pinkie's eyes widened and fixated heavily on the motion of the object. "WOW! That's. SO. COOL!". She yelled. I smiled and nodded to her, then we grabbed a couple cookies and a glass of milk each and sat at a desk in the room, where I had been drawing. We chatted for a bit about our days. Then I had to go to bed. Pinkie hugged me, I flipped through the notebook for her again, and she left the room. I showered, went back to my room, and slept. Tomorrow, Pinkie would have a birthday set up for me... but I had no other details. That's OK, I'm fine with surprises...
Author's Note
Chapter two is done! My writing style is still developing, so you'll see some changes in the way I word things and do formatting for a little while, which is OK, means I'm growing!
