Ok, so this is not my fault; I didn't ask for any of this. I know it is early in the morning when I leave for school, and dark most of the school year. I have band, so I have to take a zero period class and that means early. And I didn't want to live in this city; even walking my dog near my house is dangerous. And I take the bus to school, but the bus stop is in a parking lot across the street from my house, a busy 4 lane street with a raised center divider of course, then back down that same road even farther. The center divider is probably there to reduce crashes, but is more of a trip hazard than anything else, trust me. I have tried taking my life in my hands and running across, like when I am late, but that... Traffic is always heavy, even early. It is just a little safer to walk up the dark, deserted sidewalk, all the way to the closest intersection, wait for the signal, then walk across in the cross-walk, hoping those pulling up right at me are awake. Some mornings, I am not very awake either. And I still have to walk back down a different dark sidewalk, back towards my house and beyond, then into the slightly less dark parking lot and wait for the bus. Others are usually there waiting for the bus too, though. And it might be windy, raining in the winter, and cold. Me and cold are not friends. And after rain washing my make-up off a few times... Whose idea was all this? Well, it wasn't mine.
Typical windy cold, drizzly, late fall morning and it was very dark. Still half asleep, I made it all the way to the stop-light at least. There were two older boys there already waiting, so I just waited behind them, followed them through the cross-walk. They stopped at the island, to cross the other way I guessed, so I walked carefully around them, carefully across the right-turn lane, stepped up to the sidewalk, then started walking back down the same road towards the bus stop. I sighed anyway; at least those boys didn't cause me any trouble. Just then, I felt my back-pack, my ton of books get noticeably lighter, realized right away one of those boys had wrapped a hand around the grip at the top of my back-pack. "This was not good" I remember thinking.
I didn't have time to even turn and look. "Hold up there little girl. You're comin' with us."
The only thing I could think of, started to say "I can't, I have to go to sch--"
He stopped abruptly. Since he was holding my back-pack, I stopped, had to. I was pretty awake at this, realized, had some idea what... The other boy added right away "Come with us little girl. And if you are really nice, we may even--"
The first one cut in right away, said "Shut up, you moron, you know we can't let her go."
Well, one of them was holding my back-pack. He could have it if he wanted it. I quickly pulled one arm out of the strap, (other strap was broke, yay) tried to transfer my flute case to the free hand in the process, ended up dropping it, but still quickly pulled my arm free as I heard pieces of my flute scatter and tinkle all over. But free from my ton of bricks, I took off running.
At first they laughed, but then quickly "Hey wait, come back here. Wait 'til we catch up with you..."
Well, I am slight, short, short legs, can't run blazing fast. I reached for my cell, pulled it out of my pocket, then turned to look back, realized they were catching up quickly. When I turned forward again, I almost ran into a random decorative small tree in the middle of the side walk, dodged that, slipped 'cus it was wet, and barely didn't fall, but my cell went flying. Hearing it land with the sound of shattering glass seconds later, I just knew... Mom was gonna' kill me for that. I was running as fast as I could, but... This would be over soon, I realized. All I could think "Oh God, help..."
Dark alley off to the left out of nowhere; I took it, slipped and almost fell again making that turn too, was running again soon as I could. Except... the alley was painfully short, ended in a blank wall, I mean totally flat, dusty gray maybe. High fence on either side; I didn't think my morning would end well. Sliding to a stop before I face-planted on the wall, I realized there was a maybe 1 foot square hole in that wall, about high enough for me to climb in. I heard them running, very close -- I climbed up and started scooting myself in. I stopped before I was all the way in, worried about black widows. Just then I heard "Over here", was quickly scooting further in, as fast as I could scoot. I sighed too, realized that pulling me out of here would be very hard for them. But I kept scooting. Just then, I heard, very close "Where the ___ did she go?" I tried to scoot a little faster. I had no intention of scooting backwards out of here; they would wait for me, rape then kill me for sure. I saw brightness vaguely up ahead, so I kept scooting. I was pretty sure this long-sleeved top would be toast, but that would be a small price to pay in my book.
Sooner than I expected, I reached the end, found myself somehow propping my chest and head over thin air. I took a deep breath, rolled forward like in gymnastics and pretty much fell out of that tunnel, the 1 foot square hole at the other end. I landed in grass felt like, was laying on my side. Then I cried, buckets and for a while. I didn't like my city anyway, and after that...
"There, there, little one, you are safe here. You don't need to cry. We will take care of you." That was the first thing I heard after crying for a few minutes. And from the voice, how she said it, I was pretty sure I would be safe, wherever I was.
As I worked on calming down, I heard a different voice say "Oh my goodness Crystal, she's terrified..." Given the last maybe 5 minutes before I fell into their grass, that sounded about right. But I did work on trying to calm down. It seemed pretty dark here too though, about like dusk or something, I don't know. I was facing the wall, so I couldn't see who was talking to me, but I did notice what looked like... a branch or something under me, worked on moving to see better. Except that... when I moved, tried to move, that branch moved too? Wow I was confused. With some effort I worked my way to my hands and knees, only to hear one of the two voices behind me say "There you go, now just relax." My eyes were doing strange things I think, but I ended up looking down at my hands, only they were... hooves now? I said, sounding almost exasperated I think "I'm... a horse..."
"Well, sort of a small horse. We call ourselves ponies." I heard this behind me. Well, I couldn't argue with the hooves I had now.
"And you are beautiful mare at that" I heard another voice add. That made me sigh. Guess I would need to take their word about the beautiful part. No-one else ever...
Looking down again, I saw dimly that my arms, well front legs now I guess, they were a nice medium blue. I liked the color right away. Trying not to cross my eyes, I noticed my nose was that same medium blue, and huge. I also saw a wisp of hair, and... yup, it was my brown. Still, I sighed again. I had no clue where I was, how on earth I got here. But at least those boys were gone. Realizing that I was now standing on all 4 like a pony, and I had not moved at all, I decided I should try and turn to see those that were helping me. I had to take that slow, and almost fell a few times. Moving just one... hoof at a time, and just a little, that seemed to be the safest approach, but absolutely not what I was used to. It took a few minutes, but I managed to slowly turn myself around. I smiled huge when I was done with that simple task; I felt that. They laughed, then I did too.
"Welcome to Equestria(1) precious."
She was bigger than me, and a Unicorn with a beautiful horn centered in the middle of her forehead. She was blue too, a darker blue than mine though. But there seemed to be depth maybe to her fur, and a definite irridescence. Before I could even think, my brain fast-forwarded "You are Crystal Ponies!(1)"
Both looked at each other, smiled, looked back at me, put their heads down some, to bow I think, and one of them said simply "Yes."
The one who had been talking with me, the dark blue one, she said quietly "My name is Sapphire." And after a brief delay, she looked over at the other mare and added "And this is my friend Crystal." Then both bowed again. Crystal was also a Unicorn, but a much lighter, almost white with a very faint blue-ish. Also a Crystal Pony, her fur had the same depth and iridescence. My mind flashed immediately back to a younger time when I was watching an episode about the Crystal Ponies, and I remember wondering then, what it would be like to see one up close. Well, now I knew; they were beautiful.
Well, I also knew it was my turn for introductions, so I put my head down, said quietly "My name is Malyssa, and I'm from... well... never mind." I was talking quietly at the end. Like I said, I was not fond of where I had to live.
Crystal said quietly after that "Well, Malyssa, welcome to Equestria. You are a beautiful Pegasus, and we are glad to be able to help you." Wait, what? Me, a Pegasus? I laughed loudly and sarcastically right away. I mean... no way. They have wings, but I... Still, I slowly turned my new head to look, gasped loudly when I saw them. For the next 10 minutes, Crystal and Sapphire patiently helped me move away from the wall so I had room. That alone took a while because I actually had to learn to walk, on all 4, without falling; not as easy as it sounds. Like before, I had to take that slow. Then they coached me through finding, then slowly stretching out my beautiful blue wings. I felt them, turned my head and saw them, and oh, my goodness! I am sure I was laughing and crying all at the same time! Based on how much effort it took to hold them up, I seriously doubted I would be able to fly any time soon. Still... I had wings... I was a Pegasus... in Equestria... What more could I want? And just last night (early this morning), I remember stressing about my 3rd period American History test that I didn't study for. Whatever... After a little more feeling around, I was able to move my wings up then down, but just a little. Yes... actually flying would have to wait. A few minutes later, I carefully pulled in, folded, tucked my beautiful wings up against my sides, moved them a little so they felt comfortable. I liked my wings. I smiled again at that, but ended up starting to cry. I knew I still had... to go... back.
Sapphire interrupted those thoughts, said quietly "There, there, Malyssa, you are not ready for that yet." I... had to agree, didn't really want to go anywhere. I was standing facing away from the wall that held that 1 foot hole I had fallen through to get here, and I had no intention of crawling back, worrying about those boys still waiting there, to kill my heart first then my body. I didn't even want to turn around. Sapphire and Crystal slowly moved, stood together next to me, facing the same way I was. We were all gazing out across... some sort of green plants that stretched off as far as I could see; looked like an endless meadow. Maybe Sapphire read my thoughts, said quietly "They are oats, and taste very good. There is a pond further out if you need a drink too." Eating... wow, I hadn't even thought about that. But I guess they had to eat and drink to survive too. It looked to me like they were doing ok.
It was quiet for a few minutes as we gazed out across the meadow. Like I said, it looked like almost dusk here. There was a low cloud bank overhead extending far out across their oat meadow. I could see sunlight beyond the end of the clouds, but that was very far away. I was thinking to myself, said out loud "I'll bet it's beautiful here when those clouds are gone."
This made Crystal sigh, say quietly "That'l be the day..."
Sapphire sighed too, explained a little more. "Well, those low clouds never leave, and extend almost as far as our meadow does, almost as far as we can go. We think the dark clouds are caused by our proximity to..." She turned slowly to look at me, then finished "...your world."
That made me snort with disgust; snort was loud, and that surprised even me. But I... my world seemed like just one selfish bully after another to me. Guess those dark low clouds seemed about right. After not enough thought I asked "Why don't you go out where the sun is?"
Crystal put her head down some, shook it side to side a little. "Sapphire and I, we would love to go, enjoy the sun, find us good Stallions, have a family. But..."
Sapphire turned slowly and looked back at that 1 foot square hole, then looked over at me, finished. "This is... I think we need to be here right now. We are sort of an oasis of help and caring for... cast-off treasures from your world."
That made me cry again right away, say "...like me..." And at that I realized, they could go out where the nice warm sun is, but... we, us "cast-off treasures", we needed them here in this constant dusk spewing from my city, I guess. These two Crystal Ponies were true friends, and I remember seeing once that friendship was supposed to be magic. Well, Sapphire and Crystal, their friendship was real... true... And, oh my goodness, I needed them. Still crying, I turned carefully, moved, hugged them both, thanked them for being here to rescue me. This made them cry some too. And when I hugged Crystal, she said quietly "We both love you Malyssa, don't ever forget that."
Well, I didn't want to ever go back. I wandered slowly forward, put my head down some, tried to look, bit off a piece of the green plant right below me. Well, it wasn't a french fry, so I spit it back out right away. Then just as quickly, I realized these green things tasted really good, so I bit off some more, chewed... We all munched on yummie fresh oats for a while. Then they led me out to the pond for a drink. That trip wasn't short, but I guess I was learning quickly, and so was able to keep up with them, or they with me, I don't know. Then we laid on our bellies together (very comfortable) and relaxed, talked some. I guess there was no day and night cycle here; just this constant early dusk. Crystal laughed, said they could sleep whenever they wanted. Well, they tried to walk a bunch every day, well often, so they could stay healthy she said. And evidently Equestria, or something, alerted them to the arrival of another precious treasure. I must have been tired though; maybe the stress of my morning took more of toll than I thought. I smiled, curled my neck around some, and turned my head a little, rested it on my pretty wing. Guess I took a nap, but I think they did too.
When I was awake, they were talking quietly together, about their Princess of all things. Well, I remembered, said out loud "Princess Cadance(1)!" Both smiled, put their heads down out of clear respect, said "Yes." I think they were going to explain a little more, but something else... I don't think they had many visitors here, well, besides us precious treasures. They both saw another Pegasus flying towards us just then, were watching intently right away. That just made me want to fly though, at least to try... The other Pegasus flew effortlessly up close, did an amazing 2 wing-flap and step landing, wow. Yes, I wanted... My two new friends both got up, so I did too; not the most graceful thing I have ever done either, but I managed. The Pegasus mare was white, with soft golden blond hair. She walked up to us, and my two friends immediately bowed down on their front legs! Well, I tried that, almost fell over... The mare answered right away "Oh girls, you can get up... I'm not a Princess... I have a Princess, Princess Twilight(1)." Of course; I absolutely remembered that name.
Crystal answered right away "Summer, what I have heard, you should be a Princess. You could blast us all..."
This Pegasus mare was not a Unicorn which made me wanted to scratch my head but I quickly realized that wouldn't work. Summer was her name I guess, and she smiled, answered quietly "Girls, you both know their is more to leadership than power."
Sapphire chuckled at that, added "Yes, but it helps!" This made Summer smile again.
Still, it was clear Summer didn't come here for that, for them. Soon as she could, she walked over to me, hugged me sincerely, said quietly "Oh little girl, what are you doing here..."
I tried to describe being almost taken by the boys, couldn't say much more, was crying hard again as Summer hugged me. She cried with me some, then we both calmed down. Then I just had to add "I am safe here, and I have wings even, and don't ever want to leave."
Summer smiled at this, backed away, said quietly "Well, you will need to go back at some point, at least for now I think." She hugged me again, then added quietly "Your world is very dangerous. Please be very careful. And Shysage and I ask true friend to protect you every day." She was in thought some, turned to look over the meadow in the direction she came, then said quietly "Well, I need to get back to him. He didn't think he should... was allowed to... Nevermind..." I think she was shaking away tears as she turned, took to the air and flew gracefully away.
Sapphire had this really quizzical look on her face, said quietly "Wierd..." then, looking over at me "Malyssa, she must know you."
Then it was my turn for quizzical. All I could say "...no clue..."
But Crystal frowned, I saw that. "Malyssa, we really need to send you back. Those boys are long gone, but I know it will be hard."
Shaking away tears, I said "Yeah... mom's gonna kill me when she finds out about my cell..."
Crystal smiled, mentioned quietly at this point "We'll get all your stuff back, Malyssa." She was in thought briefly, then she added "Come." We all turned and headed back towards the wall that I had fallen through. When we started getting close, Crystal and Sapphire veered us to the right; we weren't headed back to that 1 foot square hole, not just yet anyway. I doubted I would even fit in there as a pony anyway. Some distance away, there was a small dark colored tent or something, parked right up against the same wall. While Sapphire waited outside with me, Crystal walked carefully into that tent thing, through some sort of curtain or something. As dark as it was out here, I was sure she couldn't see a thing in there. After a minute or two Crystal asked "Ok, so what do we need to find?" Wait... my stuff? It took too long to pull my mind back there, ugh. Well, I could care less about my lead filled backpack, but Crystal somehow... "Ok, backpack, on it." After a minute maybe, she said again "Wow, it's heavy... at the entrance now." Well, I looked along the wall to my left, saw it leaning on the wall near that hole. I knew it was mine, pink and with one of the shoulder straps broken, dangling. I was going to ask them if they could fix that, but watched it right then somehow join back to the lower anchor. I was amazed. Well, Crystal was a Unicorn...
Crystal chuckled, then said quietly "Next?"
Think I was dreading, so I said "Flute case..." then I added "Everything probably broke beyond recognition though." That flute was pretty finicky, and very prone to getting bent and such. And after bouncing across the sidewalk...
Maybe Crystal read my mind. Less than a minute later, she said very matter-of-factly "Eh, wasn't too bad. Everything back in the case now, should work fine."
That made me chuckle. I don't think that flute has ever worked fine. But I did look to my left again, saw it leaning against my backpack. No clue how... Well I sighed at this, didn't wait, said quietly "cell phone..." I felt I should explain some, tried to not cry as I added "Mom said she would kill me if I broke it again..." Me and cell phones have a habit of parting ways like that. I would consider this time and exception, but after the last few... I was pretty sure what the result would be.
It was a few minutes. Sounding perplexed, Crystal said quietly "I don't... can't seem to locate it. It's not coming up in the list even.
I laughed, said carefully "Look under i..."
Crystal laughed too, said "of course..." then only 30 seconds later, she asked "That it?"
I thought right away, said "Well, my sanity, but that..." I didn't bother looking for my phone, was pretty sure it was there, and fixed even. Shaking away tears, I started saying over and over "Thank you both so much..." Crystal came back out, and we hugged, cried together for a while. I was not fond...
...The next thing I remember, I was sitting in class taking that American History test. Guess I paid attention during boring lectures; I felt I was doing pretty well. I had left one answer blank, but after looking everything else over, I took a stab, realized that was the right answer. Then I put my test down on my desk, heard the teacher say right then "Time's up, pencils down." He worked his way back collecting our tests from us. As I reached to give him mine, I saw my hand, looked at it strangely...
c2024 by Shysage
- c/tm Hasbro inc.
