Gateway to Harmony

Rainbow Dash slowly walks over to my position and lowers her head under my arm. Twilight does the same on the opposite side of my body. They begin to count down.

“3, 2, 1!”

The two ponies lift with all their strength attempting to support my weight. They start forward and drag me into the house. I am laid against a stump protruding from the center of the room. The two ponies begin to try and catch their breath. Now that my body is supported I begin to look around the hollow tree.

All I see are dozens of shelves filled to capacity with hundreds of books. I start to ponder the amount of information I could find on their culture, maybe get a clearer understanding on how these things came to be here. My fantasizing is cut short by a distraught purple unicorn attempting to gain my attention. Still keeping a moderate distance from me Twilight begins to speak.

“So um…what is your name?” Twilight asks rather nervously.

“My name is RJ Bellitto.” I say in a calm tone.

“What a strange name.” Twilight’s face flourishes with fascination.

“You say you hurt your back, let me see what I can do.” I stop Twilight before she can advance.

“That is not necessary.”

Twilight begins to look confused. I reach for the console on my left arm and press down on the audio command interface. I slowly move the speaker closer to my face and voice my command followed by a violent coughing fit. Twilight and Rainbow Dash begin to walk towards me, but I signal them to stop.

“Voice command invalid,” the computer responds.

The two ponies step back wondering who had just spoken.

“It is okay it is just the suits artificial intelligence.” Their fascination only increases as they lean closer to observe my actions. I try and clear my throat for a second attempt. I once again press down on the mic.

“Proceed with full system reboot.” I say in a raspy voice.

“Proceeding with full system reboot.” A familiar blue light forms and travels up the crevices of the suit.

“System reboot complete, oh hello sir.”

“Computer I need a full medical assessment right now.”

“Yes sir.” A red light forms at the bottom of my suit and ascends to the peak of my helmet before returning to its point of origin.

“Medical assessment in progress… medical assessment complete.”

“And?” I say impatiently.

“Scan shows severe electrical burns centered in your lower back. It would seem that the electrical surge that passed through the Nano suit did more damage than originally anticipated.”

“Can the suits on board medical systems help in any way?”

“I could administer a low power inhibitor to decrease the amount of pain, but we would require a fully outfitted medical center to actually treat burns such as these.”

“Dammit.” I yell furiously.

“What is wrong?” Rainbow Dash says in concerned manor.

“Unless you can get me a medical facility in my home dimension I am not going anywhere!”

“Sir, please let me see what I can do. Maybe I can heal you.”

“No offense but I am not really comfortable with some talking unicorn using magic on me. I am a little new to this!”

“R.J. think, it is either that or be stuck here unable to move.” Twilight speaks in a surprisingly powerful tone.

I think for a second considering the odds. I try to come up with other options but my mind keeps drawing a blank. I finally after a few moments of thought come to a conclusion.

“Fine.”

“I think it might help if you take your armor off.”

“I can’t exactly take it off.” I say in an annoyed voice.

“I mean the suit is literally linked to my nervous system. If I tried to just blatantly take it off it could cause terrible irreparable damage to my cerebral cortex! The only way we could take it off is once again if we could get to a medical bay in my home dimension to break the connection! My home.” My voice begins to slow.

I gently begin to look down at the ground and close my eyes. My breath begins to stutter. I lower my face into my palms. I almost break into tears but my sadness is quickly replaced by anger.

“How the hell did this happen!” I scream at the top of my lungs. “It was supposed to be routine, I should be home right now. I just went into cryo and was told when I woke up I would be at Saturn. Well this isn’t fucking Saturn! No, I wake up strapped and bound to a god damn mattress!”

At this point sadness overwhelms me and I begin to break down into tears. Twilight and Rainbow dash slowly approach me. Rainbow lays her wing over my shoulder.

“R.J. I am so sorry this happened to you.” Rainbow Dash chimes in.

“We both are, and I think I can speak for Rainbow Dash that we won’t stop until we find a way to get you home.” Twilight says in a confident tone.

I begin to calm down as the tears stop. I slowly raise my head to be greeted by two smiling mares staring at me. “Thank you, thank you both.”

“Alright let’s see what we can do about your back.” The two ponies lower me to the floor gently. They then flip me over so the backside of my body is facing upwards.

“Put you hand over the area where the pain is most intense.” I lift my arm up and lay my palm on my lower back; slowly feeling around for the burned area. As I move my hand upwards a massive welling pain formed in my mid back. It felt as if someone had driven a crank into my muscles and started tightening. My arm snaps back to my side.

“There, I pause to catch my breath, definitely there.”

“Alright I am going to try and use an advanced mending spell. It might twinge a bit, but you need to stay still.”

I nod to show my approval. Twilight closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, after a couple of seconds she exhales her eyelids still shut tight. She bows her head forward until her horn is directly over the burned area. She takes one last breath before beginning her spell. All of a sudden a bright violet luminescence builds around her horn. As she does this a similar light begins to form on my back. I suddenly feel a warm sensation build up on my body. A few moments after this warm sensation transforms into burning pain under my skin. I begin to convulse unable to bear the pain.

“Rainbow Dash hold him down I can’t concentrate the spell with him moving around like that.”

“Got it!” The blue Pegasus dashes over to my front and lays her hooves down on my shoulders. She then puts her full body weight into me holding my body down. I continue to scream in agony.

“Twilight, how much longer is this going to take?” Rainbow asks with an un-confident look on her face.

“Just one more second!” Twilight’s volume slowly builds towards the end of the sentence.

The light emanating from her horn grows brighter and brighter as does the one on my back. The light comes to a point where it is blinding then slowly starts to dim down until it dissipates completely. I hear Twilight breathing heavily behind me. Rainbow still staring at Twilight neglects the fact that she remains standing on my shoulder blades.

“Excuse me could you please remove you hooves from my back.” I say in a muffled voice due to my face being pressed against the floor.

“Oh um sorry.” Rainbow dash says with a slight chuckle. I slowly begin to stand up. As I rise I notice that all the pain had gone. In shock I address the computer.

“Computer, conduct a full medical scan immediately.”

“Yes sir, medical assessment in progress… medical assessment complete.” I notice the other two ponies waiting contently for the results.

“No biological irregularities detected.” The two exhale a sigh of relief, and I too share in the moment.

"Thank you Twilight, I am more than grateful." I say enthusiastically.

"You're welcome." Twilight grins as she walks towards the stairs to the second floor.

"What happened I heard yelling." A frantic Spike came rushing down the stairs.

"I was just re-organizing the books on the sec..." Spikes eyes begin to lock on to my position.

"Ah what did I miss."

“Ah…yea I think it would be best if you went back upstairs for a little while Spike.” Twilight says with a nervous chuckle.

“Um…okay Twilight. I am just going to go finish organizing the books upstairs.” The small lizard then jogs up the staircase, his eyes still locked on the mysterious figure in his home.

I think about asking Twilight to verify if the creature that just wandered downstairs was a dragon, but I quickly realize the stupidity of the question. Also I have kind of learned just not to ask anymore.

Outside the sun begins to set.

“Ah is it night already. Princess Celestia is lowering the sun awful early.” Twilight acknowledges followed by a yawn.

My curiosity overwhelms me as I hear the remark.

“Wait, what exactly do you mean by “she” is lowering the sun awful early.” I say with a very concerned look on my face.

“Well, I mean the Princess is lowering the sun awfully early. It isn't going to set itself.”

“Yes it is. The sun is a force of nature and a powerful one at that.  It can’t be controlled.”

“What are you talking about; our princess has raised and set our sun for thousands of years. Just as Princess Luna has done the same for our moon.” Twilight begins to look confused while noticing my difficulty to comprehend what she is telling me.

“Our dimensions are far more different than I had originally anticipated.” I look down at the ground and pinch the sides of my nose.

“Wait, you said our dimensions. That doesn’t make sense. I thought.” I stop Twilight before she can continue. Rainbow grounds herself also shocked by the development.

“I have not been completely honest with you. Let me tell you both the whole truth of who I am.” I pause before clearing my throat.

“My name is Robert Bellitto. I am the current captain of the U.S.S. Ithaca a deep space vessel commissioned by the United States Air Force of the planet Earth. The Ithaca houses an experimental propulsion system known in laments terms as the Gravity Drive. I was assigned to the ship as the first man ever to test the device in the field. I was put in cryo stasus for the duration of the flight until my AI woke me for mission briefing. I was then put back into cryo, everything after that is lost with the ship I crashed here in.” I look up to see the two expressionless faces of the mares in front of me. “I can only imagine a malfunction in the Gravity Drive caused some form of disturbance during the slip space jump, I take a deep breath, causing me to be pulled into this universe.” Twilight is the first to speak.

“This is impossible.” Twilight says as she looks at the floor.

“I realize this may bring up many questions for you, but I may not be able to supply you with all the answers you need.” Twilight continues to look at the floor for several moments before responding.

“I think I am going to get to bed, it is getting late. R.J. there is a spare mattress upstairs. You can use it when you need to go to sleep.” Twilight speaks in a very low monotone voice.

Twilight slowly walks up the stairs looking down with her eyelids lowered. I think of trying to speak to her, but I realize that it would only cause more issues. I turn to Rainbow Dash.

“We are still going to find a way to get you home, don’t worry.”

“Thank you.”

Rainbow Dash grins as she nudges my arm. She then walks towards the door and exits the tree house. Rainbow spreads her wings and flies off into the night sky.

“Sir, I recommend you get some rest. You need to conserve your energy.” The AI emanates from the speaker.

I nod my head as I turn around and walk towards the stairs. As I reach the top I find that the small dragon from earlier is holding a blanket next to the bare mattress. He walks over and raises the quilt to the same elevation as my hands. I take the blanket from him gently.

“Are you really from another dimension?” The young dragon asks with a curious look on his face.

“Unfortunately, yes. Thank you for the quilt.” Spike forms a small smile before retreating to a now sleeping Twilight’s bedside.

I lie down on the mattress and pull the quilt over my body. I notice that my lower legs are left exposed. I sigh as I turn on my side facing the wall. I close my eyes.

“Unfortunately.” I drift off into sleep.