My name is Max Bishop, your average 19-year-old college student living in a cramped house my parents bought for me. I grew up in a nice homely abode. Family was nice, I had a couple of good friends, and life was generally easy. As I progressed through school, I became somewhat of a nerd, especially around computers. One day, during my sixth grade year if my memory serves me, I stumbled upon the fandom of Bronies. I was skeptical at first, me being a boy and MLP supposedly being for girls, but one of my friends recommended it, so I tried it out. It was love at first episode, and I was hooked after that. Life progressed, and finally it was time for college. And that's where my story begins.
It all started 3 weeks ago. I was walking home from yet another uneventful day at school. The weather outside was horrible and I was soaked to the bone from the torrents of rain.
As my house came into view, a slight twinge of relief ran through me, and I quickened my pace. As I walked up the sidewalk, I took another look at my house. It was quite simple, just a small space where I could survive. I walked up the steps, slid the key into the knob and twisted it slightly. The door made a familiar click sound as I walked into the house.
The front door entered into a compact living room filled with a small flat screen TV and a couple of armchairs. There were only three other rooms in the house -- my bedroom, the bathroom, and a kitchen -- and they were no larger. Thankfully, my teacher had decided to not be a jerk today, so there was no homework. Instead, I walked into the bedroom and threw my bag down on the bed, then walked over to my desk and logged onto my computer. After a few boring minutes of randomly browsing the web, I decided to check on my FIMFiction account.
There were the normal three or four comments someone had made on the story I had released a few days ago, but there was a particular message that piqued my interest. It was from someone claiming he knew of a way to cross dimensions. I quickly passed this on as just some crazy kook that didn’t know what he was talking about. As I was looking at the newer stories, the same message from earlier kept tickling the back of my mind. In the end, my mind got the best of me.
I clicked around until the message popped up and read it to myself. “Dear Max,” it read, “you don’t know me, but I know you. I’ve been watching you for a while, and you’re just what I’ve been looking for.” Watching me, I thought to myself, who would want to do that? I kept reading. “You may not fully believe what I’m about to tell you, but trust me, it’s all true. I have built a certain device, one only heard of in science fiction novels. I call it the Dimension Hopper. This gadget is no bigger than an iPod and will work as long as there is a power source. Meet me in the park at precisely 7 tomorrow night and we’ll talk more.” As I reached the end of the message, my head was spinning with possible reasons why someone would want to talk to me about this. I decided to worry more about it tomorrow and went into the kitchen to make some dinner.
I awoke with a start the following morning. Luckily, today was Saturday, and I had the whole day to myself. I walked into the kitchen, made a bowl of cereal, and ate in silence, pondering the events that were to transpire later that night. After all was said and done, I decided to sit around and watch TV all day. There was a marathon of Doctor Who that I just couldn’t miss.
The Doctor wept as Amy and Rory died, and the marathon ended. A few manly tears rolled down my face, but I quickly wiped them off. I gazed down at my watch to check the time and was surprised to find it was already 6:30. I stood up, walked into my bedroom, and looked around until I had found the Little Slugger bat from my 7th grade baseball championship. If I was going to meet a stranger, I figured I might as well be armed in case things went south. After I was sure I had everything, I stepped out the front door and locked it behind me. With a little pep in my step, I headed briskly toward the park a few blocks down.
It took me several minutes to finally arrive at the front gates of the park, which seemed quite desolate. There was only one person I could see, and that was the homeless guy that slept on the park benches. I stepped through the gates and looked around. I didn't see anyone suspicious, so I continued down the path. A few minutes had elapsed, and there was still no sight of the mysterious stranger I was supposed to meet, so I decided to leave and began my trek toward the exit.
On the way there, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and turned around to investigate, but saw nothing. As I was turning back around, something stepped in front of me. As if on instinct, I reached for the bat and swung with all of my might. I braced myself for impact, but surprisingly, my swing was interrupted mid-flight by a force unknown to me. The bat was wrenched from my hand and floated there in mid-air. I was staring slack-jawed at the floating piece of wood when I noticed the hooded figure standing with its arm outstretched. It was wearing a dark grey hoodie along with a pair of faded jeans. The figure released its hold on the bat, and it fell to the ground with a clank. That’s when the figure spoke.
“Hello Max,” it said in a more feminine tone than I expected. I gave the figure a quizzical look.
“Who are you, and how do you know me?” I asked. The figure started to lift its arms and I took a defensive stance. Its hands reached its hood and slipped it off. What I saw next astounded me even more than the floating baseball bat. Standing there before me was none other than Princess Celestia herself, with her unmistakable magenta eyes and blond hair with pink, green and cerulean highlights.
As I stood staring at her in awe, Celestia stifled a giggle. “Y-you’re Princess C-celestia…” I said with a stutter in my voice. She nodded.
“That I am, and I’ve been looking for you.” I raised my eyebrow and pointed to myself.
“Why me?” I asked. “I’m just some average college student. I’ve got no special talents.” Celestia shook her head.
“That is where you are wrong,” she said. “It may not seem like it, but you’re just what Equestria needs right now: someone who cares about the well-being of others.” She saw that I still didn’t understand her point and explained further. “In the few months that I’ve been watching you, I've noticed you helping the homeless, even though they were filthy and a bit disgusting.”
I still couldn’t pick up what she was putting down. “Lots of other people do things like that, so why’d you pick me out of all human beings on Earth? I’m nowhere near special.” She moved closer to me.
“That’s exactly why I chose you -- because I felt you had something special. It might not be clear now, but it will reveal itself in the future.”
I pondered Celestia’s statement. “Yah, maybe you’re right. But if it is true, I still have no clue as to what you actually want me to do.” She smiled slightly, obviously happy at my acceptance to her ‘plan’.
“If you’ll just follow me back to Canterlot, I’ll tell you all about my plans. Maybe you can even tour the castle.” The thought of actually traveling to a fictional world created in the confines of another’s mind seemed impossible. But to be offered it by someone who had actually been there was more than enough incentive for me.
“Just let me pack my things and tell my parents.” I turned away from Celestia and started walking toward the exit. That’s when everything went black.
I hate Mondays. The sky was clear and the sun shone brightly on the ground. I slowly opened my eyes, flinching at the intensity of the sun’s light. When my sight adjusted enough, I took some time to take in my surroundings. Trees, grass, it was all quite normal. That is, until I saw the pastel colored pony thunder through the sky above me. The pony flew swiftly through the air, leaving only a trail of rainbows in its wake. I rubbed my eyes a few times, but nothing changed. I’m definitely dreaming, I thought, there’s no way this can be real. As if in response to my conclusion, a roar rang through the forest behind me. I turned around and examined the forest. It was definitely dark and foreboding. This forest matched every description of the old, creepy forests you would find in horror novels. I took one last look at the open fields to my right.
“Buck it,” I said to myself, “It’s just a dream, so here goes nothing.” And I ran into the forest.
“LEEEEEROY! JEEEEEENKINS!” Is all that could be heard as I sprinted toward the darkness. As caution was thrown to the wind, I felt like nothing could stop me. As soon as I stepped into the forest, the air around me fell into a deep darkness. I could barely see and was about to turn the other way when I remembered the pack I had on before ending up in the world. I reached around my back and to found the familiar pack on my back, confirming my suspicions. After a little rummaging through it, my hands touched the cold metal of the flashlight I had brought. The flashlight turned on with a click of the power button and I had a constant beam of light in front of me.
The darkness danced around me like fog on a gloomy day. I started walking around, shining the light around to catch any anomalies. The same roar from earlier echoed through the trees and caused me to jump. In any normal circumstances, I would have ran as fast as my legs would carry me away from the roar. But since this was just a dream my mind created, I was determined to find the creature causing the noise. With a skip in my step, I headed for the emanating point of the sound. That’s when I came face to face with the strangest wolf I’d ever seen. The beast’s entire body was comprised of various sizes of wood and its eyes glowed an eerie green. Even though the legs looked as though they should stay completely stiff and unmoving, the wolf moved as smooth as any ordinary wolf would. I’d have ordinarily curled into a ball and cowered in fear, but I knew I could wake up if things went south. That’s when I decided to talk trash.
“Ha! This is it?” I said, “I’ve been around bigger Chihuahuas!” The timber wolf took offense at this and roared as loud as he could. Its breath smelled like raw sewage and saliva covered my face, but I wasn’t fazed. I took the biggest breath I could and roared right back. By this time, the timber wolf was furious and batted me away with a powerful sweep of his foreleg. I flew fast through the air and impacted with a tree a few yards away, knocking the breath out of me.
My lungs burned for air and my vision became a bit blurry. I steadily rose to my feet, wheezing in my attempt to gather oxygen. I swept the ground in an attempt to find my trusty flashlight, and was relieved when my fingers brushed its metallic surface. I flipped the light on and looked around for any sign of the timberwolf. When I finally mustered enough air to talk, I yelled at the timber wolf, “I didn’t want to fight anyway. You’re too weak for me.” My rant fell on deaf ears for the wolf was already sprinting through the forest to other things, leaving me all to myself.
Nothing was visible without the help from my light. I took in my surroundings, looking for my next course of action. I spotted a small path leading through the forest and jogged over towards it. The woods around me were eerily quite, and I didn’t like it one bit. A twig cracked a few feet to my left and I quickly turned my flashlight to face the noise. At first nothing caught my eye and I shrugged it off. Then another crack, and another. There has to be something following me, I thought. The light beam shifted from tree to tree, trying to determine the location of the noise. And yet I saw nothing.
The darkness was finally winning over my mind. I said to myself, “I’ve gone insane. There’s no other explanation.” And that’s when the voices started. At first they were quiet and I could ignore them. But then they got progressively louder and started driving me crazy. I couldn’t understand what they were saying and finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I grasped my head with both hands. “Get out of my head!” I screamed, “Get out and leave me alone!”
So I laid there for who knows how long. It must have been hours before I woke up. The sky was darkening and I could hear the sound of owls hooting in the distance. I sat up against a tree and stared off into the distance. The voices were very hushed now and I relished in the silence, finally free of the insanity that had almost driven me crazy just a few hours ago. An hour or so passed and darkness had fallen. With just the light my trusty flashlight to guide me, I slowly tried to find my way out of the crazy forest I had walked into.
Several minutes had passed, and nothing interesting occurred. I was about to give up and fall asleep where I stood, but something decided I wasn’t sleeping right now. A creature jumped out in front of me and took an offensive stance. With a quick lookover, I noticed this particular animal was obviously a quadruped and was about three to four feet tall. It wore a long, black cloak that covered its back from the neck down to the posterior. A hood was attached and covered a good amount of the creature’s face, but one thing that was unmistakable was the long five-inch knife held in its mouth. I wasn’t about to let some strange beast best me and I launched the first attack, the light in my hand the entire time.
The critter was small and agile, so it naturally dodged most of my punches. I tried to vary my fighting technique to keep the beast on its toes (if it even had them), but it was always one step ahead. I stepped forward to deliver a punch, and the creature rolled to the side while leaving a long cut from my wrist to my elbow. I stepped back and grasped my arm. There wasn’t much blood, so I recovered quicker than the animal anticipated. I swung with my off-hand and the creature let down its guard to block it. That’s when a vicious right hook from my injured arm connected with the beast’s forehead. It was sent sprawling across the ground, clearly unconscious.
My breathing was labored, me being exhausted from the battle. I walked over to the unconscious figure and removed the hood. The creature turned out to be a young colt with a jet black coat and mane. I knew it was a colt for obvious reasons, and I took off the colt’s cloak. The pony’s flank caught my attention. I took a closer look and realized that a bloody knife was depicted. I used my knowledge of the My Little Pony show to come to the conclusion that this was the colt’s cutie mark must have meant he was a skilled assassin. As to why he was attacking me, I had no idea.
Not wanting to just leave an unconscious body in the middle of the road, I drug the colt off to the side of the trail and hid him inside of some bushes. I then turned my attention back to the cloak. I felt around the entire thing until I came upon what I was looking for: a pocket. My hand rummaged around for a minute until I felt a papery substance. I pulled the piece of paper out and looked it over with my flashlight.
“Aha!” I exclaimed, “It’s a map!” As soon as I said that, the Admiral Ackbar scene from Star Wars ran through my head and I had a quick laugh. I unfolded the map until the entirety of Equestria was visible. Having no idea where I was at the moment, the map was a bit useless. But I knew I was in a forest, so there were only a few places that could be.
Well, I thought, it’s dark, and forest-y. I’m most likely in the Everfree Forest if memory serves me right.
My mind was set, and there was no stopping me. I folded up the map and shoved it into my pocket, shining the light in front of me. If I walk in one direction for long enough, then the end of the forest should be reachable. I nodded to myself as I set my plan into action and walked forward into the ever-increasing darkness of the Everfree Forest.
