Faithful Forever

Chapter 6: Defying Logic

I ran as fast as I could manage. It felt weird running on all fours, I had never done it before and on a couple of occasions tried running on two legs to see if I could balance like the old me, but to no avail, I just ended up hitting the ground face first after the first few paces, so giving up I continued on all fours again. I had to catch Twilight and ask her about what had happened to me, I had to know, I couldn’t escape that thought it cycled around in my mind around and around without ever giving me a break.

On a few instances along the way I got lost and had to ask directions to the Library, I admit that I thought having seen the show so many times that I would be able to navigate without any difficulty, but seeing the streets and running through them was a whole other story in itself, they were winding, confusing and had many back routes and four way crossings that ended up in a game of blind roulette. There was no way I could do this without some help.

I came to the end of another dirt road to find myself in the town centre near the town hall, and to my amazement I spotted Sweetie Belle across the street, without hesitating I raced over. As I ran I remembered the fact that I was new to Ponyville and therefore she would have no idea who I was and where I came from, it wasn’t worth scaring a young filly as a stranger so I slowed down and trotted over, trying to put on a friendly smile.

“Excuse me, are you Sweetie Belle?” I asked a little impatiently, I had been running in circles for ages and was hoping to get to the Library soon.

The Filly was a little taken aback, she looked at me curiously, and raised an eyebrow slightly before shyly replying “yes”.

“Oh great, you see I’m a little lost, can you help me find the Library” I said my smile widening.

“Um…Ok” she uttered “follow me”.

I obediently did so and walked behind her letting her lead the way. As we walked I thought it a civil idea to talk to her, get to know her a little more than I already did, though it was never going to be an easy thing to do seeing as that meant I had to pretend to know nothing about her at all.

“So… Um… Sweetie Belle… is it far from here to the library?” I asked nervously.

“Not really, you were quite close the first time” she said over her shoulder.

“Oh right, I’m glad you see I’m trying to find Twilight, I have to talk to her about how…”

  I stopped dead in my tracks, I knew that I had almost said too much, it would have been the wrong thing to say and until I could explain myself to the young filly more clearly, and had been properly introduced, I figured it was best not to say about my current affairs.

“Talk to her about what?” asked a now curious Sweetie Belle

I had to think on my feet to detract her attention from what I had almost said so I made something up.

“I have to talk to her about how many Daring Do novels she has left, you know in case Rainbow Dash still has them all” I lied

It didn’t feel right lying to her like that but it was for the best for now.

My thoughts were soon distracted from my lie to the tall tree that now stood in front of me. Sweetie Belle had obviously been true to her word, we had been close before, and now we were here and I was finally getting close to finding out what happened.

I thanked Sweetie a thousand times before racing up to the door and knocking on it as if it were a drum.

“Come in!” shouted Twilight from inside.

I didn’t hesitate and entered into the tree house for get some answers.

Twilight turned around to face me, she had been studying and seemed a little annoyed to be distracted from her precious books. She looked at me as if she was trying to remember something for a moment, then her eyes lit up and she said “Jack!! Good to see you’re up and about, what can I do for you?”

“Twilight, I’m so confused, what happened to me, why am I like this now?, how come my old form was somehow invalid in this world?”

Twilight seemed to understand what I was saying, she offered a comforting smile and replied “well you see Jack, when you crossed through; this change had to happen to ensure the security of our world as well as yours".

I blinked in bewilderment as the thought of unbalancing a world felt a little extreme for me to believe. Twilight seemed to have expected this and added “When two different worlds meet or connect such as ours briefly did such things like weather patterns and time differences all begin to change as the two worlds intertwine. To prevent this we had to remove any evidence of you being from another universe, therefore we transformed you to cover up your old identity”.

I couldn't believe my ears, I twitched as the gravity of the words she spoke hit me like a sledge hammer, It hit me hard enough to send me to the floor in shock.

So I had seen Celestia, I couldn't have dreamed it only some pony as powerful as her could possibly, have pulled off such an incredible feat of alteration. I looked over my Pony body and felt even more shocked at how well she had achieved this super natural change, though the more I thought about it the more sick I felt.

“I know this is hard for you to take in, but we had no choice”, Twilight said apologetically, “Is there anything that I can do that would help you feel, better?”

“No” I whispered, getting up slowly, though I wanted to fight back and let her know how I really felt, but I could see that what she was saying made sense to me, though only really in the same way that Twilight understood the pinkie Sense’s.

“I think I just need a little time to get used to all this”, I said sighing heavily.

My mind was blown and now I was not only having a new start but was now living as a new person, or pony for that matter, even with Twilight's Words of comfort, I just wanted to be able to digest what had been said.

This event had truly defied my grasp of logic, then again I believed everything I saw in front of me without question, the fact that I was talking to Twilight face to face already had me both, amazed and excited to be doing so in the first place. I looked around the room I now stood in at the colours of each item and the texture I perceived them to be. It seemed as though they had changed, their bright colours were now a little bolder and the texture came through much more clearly, Things like the books, I could see a more real material covering them. It looked like leather, and twine binding, the floor had a more ridged feel and the boards had deep grooves in them as if they had dried out over many hundreds of years.

I decided to put the tremendous day I had had behind me. I took a deep breath and slowly the shock began to fade and my mind wandered back to its original calmer state.

I looked at Twilight with a slightly forced smile and said “do you have any Daring Do books I can read? I’d love to have something to help me distract my head for a bit”

Twilight sweetly smiled back at me and trotted over to the book shelves labelled “D”.

“Rainbow Dash, originally took them but she has returned a few, If you like you can start with this one”, her horn began to glow as she picked up a well-thumbed, or more accurately, well hoofed book off the shelf.

It had a little dust on it and I recognized the pale green cover and the jungle styled picture on the front with a heroic looking Daring Do, swinging on the vines of a tropical jungle.

“Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Statue!” I exclaimed with excitement, “I hear that’s Rainbow’s favorite book I can’t wait to read it”.

“Well then you’d better take it”, Twilight giggled

I smiled back at her feeling released from the worries of my day. The extra-terrestrial change to myself had been silenced, and all I could now think about was getting somewhere where I could read in peace.  I didn’t want to damage the book so I balanced it on my head, which oddly was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Once I was satisfied that I could hold it on my head without dropping it I gave a word of thanks to the purple mare and turned to leave, a new found comfort leaving with me. Once out of the grand maroon painted door of Twilight’s library, I galloped off back to Fluttershy’s cottage with hopes that I wouldn't get so lost on the way back.