I awoke one morning...

I opened up the seemingly impossible-to-exist message and read its contents. The more I read the more twisted and distorted my view of reality became. Everything was fading as though I was waking from another dream, although this one seemed far too real for my liking. The ground beneath my feet tore open with a mighty crack and revealed to me the fires of Hell itself. The flames engulfed everything and the world burned as I scanned over the text. The language I was reading was not my native tongue and even looked alien in appearance, but somehow I understood every word of it. I was horrified by what had been revealed to me as the universe around me dissolved into a bright white plane of existence. It was as if I had been sent to limbo myself.

Honestly, I'd like to say that happened, but all it read was 'WHERE ARE YOU?'. It was a little bit disappointing really. Flicking through the inbox of my phone, the sender of the message had remained anonymous. Hmm... Who was it then? My internal monologue was interrupted by Apple Bloom, reminding me that I was still in her family kitchen.

"So what are ya doin' in Ponyville? Cuz' you don't look like you're from round these parts."

"Just visiting. A little something had came up back at home, so I needed to fix over here. You wouldn't happen to know how to trace unknown numbers, would you?" It was worth a shot. For all I know the CMC could have tried 'Cutie mark crusaders telephone operators'.

"Uh..."

"That's a 'no' then?"

The young filly nodded. I pocketed the device in my hands. "I have to get going then. Twilight might be able to explain this..." I cringed as the thought of having to talk with the librarian surfaced, especially after what I had done. "Bye."

The young filly waved me off as I walked out of her home, as I planned the exact words for my following conversation with Twilight.

It turns out that my actions as a monkey had earned me a free 'get-through-Ponyville' pass. As soon as I approached the edge of the small town, I was welcomed by another one of the locals. This time it was the cross-eyed mare known as Derpy.

Having walked the long path from Sweet Apple Acres to Ponyville, I had walked past a couple of houses that looked a little run-down. I did however; notice a mint-green unicorn building the foundations to what looked like a log cabin. I had slipped past her, keeping to the shadows of the surrounding trees, only to collide head-first into a ditzy pegasus as she dived in through the branches and leaves.

After picking herself up from the ground, the star-dazed mare eyed me up. "Hey, you're the monkey from earlier! You were really funny." She giggled as she remembered my poor attempt at a disguise.

"Um... Thanks, I guess?" I replied.

"Oh wow, you can talk!" I've never seen a talking monkey before."

I looked around the area in which the cross-eyed pegasus had crashed into me. A few letters were fluttering in the breeze as we talked. "Are these yours?" I asked as I grabbed an envelope floating past my head.

"Yeah, they are. I was just about to drop off some mail to Sweet Apple Acres..." The grey pegasus paused mid-thought, before digging around in her saddle bags. To my surprise, she pulled out a letter with my name on it. "This is for you!" (I believe that's what she said; it was a little muffled through her clenched teeth). She then gathered up all of her post and flew off, presumably to her next stop.

I looked the envelope over. It was barren, bar from my name and a stamp. I tore it open, only to find a ticket. It looked like it was for the Friendship Express. I read the information on the paper in my hands, the ticket headed to Canterlot at mid-day as of tomorrow. I pocketed my mail and carried on getting back to Ponyville. The text I received was odd enough, but now someone wants me to head to the Equestrian Capital? Something was going on, and I was determined to find out.

I was able to walk through town without a single hitch in my plans. With everypony believing I was still a chimp, all I had to do was begrudgingly get back into character. Although I was now accepted by the citizens of Ponyville, I still kept to the back streets and alleyways I had became so accustomed to over the past few days. With the layout of the area memorised, making my way to the library was easy. I was stood for what felt like the umpteenth time at the large oak door of Twilights' home. Rather than feeling like I was about to walk into a place of calm and learning, the door seemed more a like a symbol of fear as I raised my hand to knock upon the wood. The librarians' reaction seemed more scary than funny as I played it over in my head, wincing at the thought of what pain was and could be inflicted on me in the following few moments.

Having finally summoned up the courage to strike the door, I knocked. Three times was all it took for a reply.

"Who is it?" Spike called out, alleviating me of some of my worries. Clearing my throat was enough to tell the young dragon that it was I standing at the entrance, causing him to say "Oh. It's you." before opening the door.

"Hey Spike," I spoke hesitantly, unsure if he was mad at me for leaving him with Twi after my 'little incident'. "Is Twilight in?"

"Yeah, yeah she is. Have you come to apologize for the flowers, and leaving me to clean them up?"

"Yes, I have. Sorry man. Hey, at least I didn't throw up on anything inside the library."

The reptilian shrugged. "Yeah, you're right. Come on in, I'll go get Twilight from upstairs."

I made my way over to the couch in the centre of the room. Merely hours ago I was sleeping here welcomed as a guest, now feeling like I no longer belonged. I watched the purple dragon walk up the stairs, before returning with the mare in question. If looks could kill, I would have been burnt alive.

"You." The unicorn spat out the word. "You're going to regret..."

"Ah-ah-ah. I've come to apologize," I said while interrupting her, "I'm sorry for what I did earlier. I didn't realize the value of the flowers at the time, so it was purely accidental. If I knew that they were valuable, I would have picked a more suitable place to empty my stomach. I'll do whatever I can to make up for it"

Twilight calmed down considerably, but I could still see the hate in her eyes. I was hoping my following question could divert her attention away from the hatred of me to something else, with that something else being my phone.

"If I told you that I had something from my world to study, would you be interested?"

"Oh." She replied casually, attempting to wave off my statement as if it was nothing. I could tell that she was intrigued by my offer. "So what would this 'thing' be?"

I pulled out my phone, flicking through menus to get to the mysterious message I had received. I held the device up to the mares' eye-level, allowing her to get a better look at the text. "So what's so special about this?"

I pocketed my phone before replying. "I received it while out cold at Sweet Apple Acres. Last time I checked, Equestria has no mobile reception, so how did I get this?"

"You mean to tell me that wasn't already stored on the phone when you arrived?" Twilight seemed as perplexed by the text as I had been when I first read it.

"That's exactly what I'm telling you. How could something like this travel across a dimension without any magical help? While I'm on the subject of questioning you..." I reached into my other pocket to pull out my train ticket, "I got this today as well. It's destined for Canterlot tomorrow."

Twilight was confused as I handed (or hoofed) her the envelope and its contents. She grabbed onto them using her telekinesis, causing a light-purple glow to form around my hand. I pulled away, slightly agitated by the strange sensation of the magic.

She looked over the envelope rather quizzically, viewing every detail. She stopped looking over every little thing when she noticed the stamp. A satisfied 'ahh' escaped the librarians' lips she solved the puzzle. "This was sent by Princess Celestia."

"Huh?" I asked, un-knowing as to how she figured that out, "How did you come to that conclusion?"

Twilight levitated the mail up to my face and showed me the stamp, this time I gave it a more scrutinized look. A small, white image of Celestia's silhouette could be seen on a black background. "That's the royal stamp. Only one of the three princesses can send a letter with one of these on. She must want to talk with you about something important."

A royal stamp? "I take it that that image changes for each princess, right?"

I grabbed the letter out of the air. As I looked it over yet again, Twilight spoke up. "Exactly. It's one of the ways the princesses can send letters without them being intercepted. Only a few ponies know of those stamps."

"But why would Celestia want to talk with me? The last time I met her I was shouting at you and she slammed the door in my face as she left."

Twilight shrugged. "I wouldn't know. The last time we talked about you was last night, and that was before we knew you were here."

"I guess I have to find out tomorrow then." I was considering leaving there and then, but when I looked out of the observatory window upstairs Luna had other plans. "Hey Twi, I know that after everything that's happened you probably still hate me, but could I stay here again tonight? It's already pretty late out and I don't want to venture to my hammock in the Everfree at night."

"I can't see a problem with it," the mare replied, "Just make sure you get up early tomorrow."

"Huh? Why do I have to get up early? The train leaves at twelve."

The unicorn grinned. "You have a library to organise in the morning. As a way of 'paying me back', you have all of Spikes' duties for a week." The young dragon, who had been listening to the whole conversation, celebrated a silent victory as he was relieved of work for the next seven days.

I opened my mouth to protest, but nothing came out. Twilight started making her way up the stairs to her bedroom. "Anyway, I'm heading off to bed. Spike, you may have the day off tomorrow but you still need to sleep. Off to bed with you." I smirked as the dragon stopped his celebrating and grumbled something in protest too quietly for Twilight to hear.

As I watched the two head upstairs, I laid out on the wooden slab of a couch yet again. Getting comfortable, I yawned before falling asleep. I had a long day ahead of me.