Strange Hooves

In human #1's equestria, not mike's

Mike and Applejack make their way through Ponyville. Mike expected some weird glances but the looks he got told him that his contact with pony society was minimal at best. Eventually, Mike and Applejack arrived at Twilight’s house, and she tapped a hoof on the door. There was some noise, and Twilight opened the door.

“Hey, Applejack! What brings yo—“

She sees Mike standing behind Applejack, the coat slightly swaying in the breeze. She looks at his face, and then looks back at Applejack, expression turning sour.

Applejack says,

“Eeyup.”

Twilight facehoofs and quickly shows them inside. She closes the door, and closes the blinds on the windows. She quickly shows them both to a table, which they sit at. Mike sits at the end, with Applejack and Twilight Sparkle next to him, on the opposite sides of the table.

They eye each other, and then they eye Mike. He looks to the both of them and says,

“What?”

Twilight says,

“What did you do to Storm?”

“Who?”

Applejack cuts in,

“He might not be responsible for Storm’s leaving, Sugar cube.”

Twilight thinks.

“You might be right, Applejack.”

“My name is Mike, by the way.”

“Right. We’ll need to send him to Canterlot. Mike?”

Mike makes eye contact with Twilight.

“Can you please come with us to Canterlot so we can meet the princess?”

“I can manage.”

He gets up and starts walking to the door, and the ponies follow. Outside, Mike looks to the distance and spots Canterlot in the distance. He points at it.

“That it?”

Applejack and Twilight nod.

“Thanks. I’m good.”

Mike uses his jets to shoot off into the sky, unopposed as he was fading rapidly into the distance. Applejack and Twilight gawk at each other, and then they run back to the library to send word to Celestia.

Okay, Mike. You’ve just re-introduced yourself to some ponies that may very well not like humans. Let us see what happens next.

Mike senses something amiss and looks behind him. A familiar, blue-rainbow Pegasus was making chase, along with another yellow-pink one. He adjusts himself so that he stops dead in the air, the jet wash keeping him afloat. The blurs speed past then circle around. He waits as they come into recognizable view. They come to a stop, panting as they maintain their altitude. Rainbow Dash says,

“What-what are you… doing here?”

“…Flying.”

He shoots off again, the sudden movement causing the pair of pegasai to spin around in circles. He was already gone by the time they recovered. They look at each other, and they decide that it was better to see Twilight.

Mike’s vision was blurred by the sheer speed of his journey. The green hills, valleys, and forests whoosh by without a thought given to their existence other than to recognize it. The castle grows bigger as it becomes closer.

Princess Celestia had not been in a very normal situation lately. Not only had she lost the human in a mysterious teleportation, but she had just received a letter from Twilight that there apparently had been another human sighted. Was there no end to this? She waits on her balcony with Luna, both looking to the sky. They were curious as to why exactly one would arrive at another’s departure. Sure enough, a black dot manifested itself on the horizon. Luna panics a bit and tries to remember what Twilight had said anything about its intentions. She didn’t. So that was worrisome. Luna looks up at her bigger sister, and she was looking at the black dot on the horizon absent-minded. Luna finally says

“Shouldn’t we get some guards?”

Celestia seems surprised at this simple question.  She turns to her younger sister and says,

“Don’t worry little sister. I’m sure if he had bad intentions, then he would’ve done something bad already.”

“Whatever you say, Celly.”

Mike makes out the royal sisters perching on their balcony above their courtyard.

This is where Human #1 disappeared.

Mike lands carefully as to not disturb either of the princesses. The three stand there, each not knowing what to say to each other despite the need to communicate if there is to be any interactivity besides them staring at each other. Mike raises his hand in a strange salute.

“Hello, Celestia and Luna. My name is Mike Alpha. I have come from a world not unlike yours. In fact, they’re nearly the same. The only difference being the lone human who arrived there.”

They seemed stunned by this revelation, but Mike takes this opportunity to continue.

“Yes. I am from another Equestria. I’ve made friends with Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, and have saved their lives from several monsters. I have been observing this Equestria as the human here whisked himself off to the Equestria next door. I tried to sense where he was going, but I had outstretched myself too far. I have fallen into this Equestria, and now I humbly request that you help me find this human.”

Luna is the first to speak again.

“What do you require of this human?”

Mike shrugs.

“I haven’t seen many healthy, passive humans in a long, long time. Those I know who were kind are all dead now.”

Celestia did not expect this.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that my civilization was destroyed by forces still not understood. I was forced to kill my family, friends, and everyone I thought I knew in order to survive.”

The two digest this idea, and they attempt to imagine what that must’ve been like.

“If you like, I can try looking for him again. I just need some space.”

They lead him into the main hall, where they dismiss all the guards currently holding duty there. Mike takes up a meditative position in the center of the hall, facing the thrones. Legs crossed, and with his hands on his knees, Mike begins. He closes his eyes in concentration, and he lifts into the air. Luna and Celestia sit down on the throne, curious as to the nature of the magic being used here and how much is really being used at the moment.

Mike’s mental image of the world around him seemingly detach themselves from his head, no longer corporeal and no longer constrained by the physical body he resides in, his focus turns to outside the blue shell of the atmosphere. Fields of stars fill his mind, and the invisible boundaries of this dimension are in view. The walls of the dimension end where there are no more stars and universes. Mike looks for the tiny, unique trace he had placed on Human #1. He sees it, and it resides on a little blue ball much like the ones he had visited. When the cloud cover broke away before his vision, he looks around. The vision that filled his mind was that of the Everfree forest. He tries to sense the trace, and he succeeds. Finding it between the edge of the forest and the edge of town, he zooms in. Human #1 was conversing with another—

Why does this human have blue hair?

Luna and Celestia become increasingly worried about Mike, as his eyes were glowing behind his eyelids and the sounds he made indicate an excruciating amount of concentration required for this spell to be a success.

Mike observes the pony lying around Human #1 and Human #2. They seemed to be talking about something.  Mike so dearly wishes to hear what they’re saying. He only hears the somewhat quiet breathing of himself, Luna, and Celestia back in Human #1’s universe. An unsettling feeling comes across Mike, but he doesn’t have to wonder why for long. Mike was being looked at by Human #1. This was disturbing, to question wither or not he could actually see me. The human’s eyes fixed on my point of vision no matter where I shift it.

Oh boy.

Get over here.

Mike feels himself being seized by a force more powerful than his untrained self, and his vision breaks to his normal eyesight. He sees some concerned Princesses approaching him, using their respective magic to attempt to anchor him to their world. Mike looks down at himself, and he sees several magic forces clashing around himself. Two of these forces were attempting to interfere with the third’s attempt to teleport Mike. He starts to panic, screaming as he fades away from the princesses. They stand in the chamber, aghast at their failure. They were perhaps the most powerful beings they knew of, other than Storm. They don’t know about Mike, and they quickly decide that he was teleported just like Storm was. Celestia at last breaks the long silence.

“At least nopony died this time.”

“What happens now?”

“We move on.”

…

Mike wakes up on the ground. His head hurts, and so he concludes that he’s in another Equestria. Human #2’s, perhaps? Mike gets up, and starts walking.

At least it’s peaceful this time of day.

Mike thought too soon, as he sees a lighting storm high above his head. He also heard the deep growl of an approaching predator. Mike spun around, and he gasped. Before him was the biggest monster he had ever seen. It looked to be a purple bear made of stars, towering above him and the forest. It roars, and attacks.

Mike was forced into the air, where it was just as dangerous as the ground. Lightning arced all around Mike, and he was forced to the ground, where the jaws and paws of the Ursa Major were waiting. Several fireballs, lightning strikes, and even a few scratches from his Kukri did nothing to slow the beast. Mike keeps dodging the repeated attacks of the monster.

More and more attacks hit the thing in the head and body repeatedly, but the thing seems to not care. It could be half-dead and it was still fighting as if it was in the best shape of its life. Mike was considering running altogether, when it roared loud enough to stun him. Mike fell on his face, turns over to see the big star bear raise a paw to end it.

The big bear stumbles as it gets hit with several loud attacks from behind. It seemed to be a human with a grenade launcher. It turns to see its new attacker, and Mike stands up to fight again. He’s going to try something new. Instead of an instantaneous lightning strike that arcs from his hands to his target, Mike instead goes Emperor Palpatine on the monster. A blanket of lightning covers the bear with volts that even it wasn’t expecting. Mike’s eyes were glowing with powerful energy.

Even Mike is surprised at how much focus and magic is required for this attack, but continues it. Electricity courses all over the body of the purple ursa, and it stands up with a painful roar. The other human keeps attacking it with his grenade launcher. Mike drops his hands, electricity still arcing between his fingers. He reaches to the sky and waits. A lightning bolt is seized by Mike and is redirected towards the beast.

It vaporizes through the skull of the Ursa and continues down the spine, vaporizing as it descends towards the ground. It leaves the ursa dead, and it falls over. Mike walks around the corpse,

inspecting it. He’s walking alongside the other human that had assisted him. They eye each other, and they introduce

themselves.

“Name’s Storm.”

“Name’s Mike.”

"Well it certainly looks dead at least..."

"Thanks for the assist, man."

"No problem, always willing to help one in need."

"I guess I owe you one."

“Nah, for now, are you injured? I can patch you up right quick."

"Nothing I can't walk off."

"You would not believe what a relief it is to see a human that doesn't want to eat me or kill me for my loot."

“Well I've been through that before... Why I chose to visit a 'Dead Rising' alternate universe, I'll never know..."

"Eh?"

"Long story, let me just say I can travel to any universe I choose, video games included."

"Ah. I've been through two dimensions myself. They're only Equestria universes. I was looking for you 'cuz I needed human

interaction."

"I understand... I left a friend back at our campsite, let's head back shall we?"

"Yes. I'll have to return to my Equestria later. Do you have bacon?"

"Why sure, let me just conjure some up..."

Mike raises an eyebrow, wondering what Storm means by that.

Storm cups his hands together tightly, before gently bringing them apart. In the previous spot, there is a plate of some bacon strips. Mike practically squees at this, and shouts,

"BY NOTCHES’ BEARD! ACTUAL BACON!”

"Bon appetite!"

Mike takes the bacon strips off of the plate, eager to satisfy the craving he’d had for so long. After he is done, he inspects the plate still in Storm's hands. He says,

"What about the plate?”

Storm throws the plate like a Frisbee, letting it ricochet off several trees before disappearing into a puff of smoke. He says

"What plate?"

"Never mind." Mike says with rolling eyes.

"So then, should we just stand around here, or what?"

"Bah. I hope you don't mind the tracker I put on you. It’s how I found you here."

They walk alongside each other in the forest, cape and coat trailing behind them. Storm says,

"Wait, so you're the disturbance I felt that was watching me a while ago?"

“Sorry. Like I said, I wanted human interaction. All these different sentients have me homesick."

Storm gave a short nod. He replies,

"I understand that, in my sixteen million years of life, I've encountered far more sentients beings other than humans... at least some are more innocent, like these ponies."

"I've met only the humans and ponies-- you're how old now?"

"Ya heard me, sixteen million years. Yeah I know I look 15, but the Editor helped keep my youth."

"Who's Editor?"

"Mine. To explain it, it's a pain. To put it simply, it's a piece of alien technology that basically makes me both a God and an

Inter-dimensional Traveler."

"If you can read my mind, then I won't need to tell you my story, then."

"The Editor basically alters these strands that basically allow me to bend the laws and fabrics of any universe to my will....

mostly."

"So you could send me back to where I came from?"

"Sure. Would you like to depart now?"

"Yeah. I'm sure to be missed. If you need me, you'll know where to find me."

They shake hands with warm smiles on their faces. Storm says,

"I'll keep an eye out on you. Like a guardian Angel I suppose. Arreviderci my friend!"

And with that, Storm snaps his fingers and warps Mike away.