Jumping Blind

Chapter 3: Lost and Found

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(The Equestrian Wasteland)]

Vigil and Spike stood on a hill overlooking the wasteland as the sun began to set.

Spike appeared none the worse for wear despite the last few failed jumps. He watched the both familiar and unfamiliar landscape with unease, unsure of could have caused the ravaged landscape before the pair.

Vigil, on the other hand, looked much worse. His hair was greasy and unkempt, tufts spilling out in every direction only kept out of his eyes by his scratched and beaten flight goggles, still perched on his head. His eyes were sunken and unfocused, with dark bags under them, a steady funnel of blood ran out of his nose and over his chapped lips before dripping onto his torn and already stained shirt. His clothes were blood splattered and torn, revealing the scarred, pale, and hairless flesh beneath now bruised and beaten. His once pristine coat was now shredded and whipping in the wind behind him.

He refocused and examined their surroundings. “This place seems familiar.”

Spike didn’t respond, only pointed at the scene unfolding in front of them. They watched as a group of figures followed a lone one, rapidly heading their way.

Vigil peered at them. “Are those ghouls? Oh good they are! I love a good ghoul. They have a surprisingly good sense of humor once you get past their gruff exterior and the whole ‘they look like zombies’ thing. Unless they’re feral. You don’t want to mess with ferals.”

Spike just stared at his odd companion before shaking his head and ignoring the outburst. Though entertaining and lead to some interesting stories, they were common and rarely helped in a direct way. The group ran closer and he began to notice some details.

The lead figure appeared to be a barded female unicorn fleeing from the group behind her. She was tiring quickly but still kept moving in sheer panic. The group behind her was a different story.

They were earth ponies, that much was certain, but after that any resemblance to what Spike knew was gone. Their skin was rotting and falling off, revealing muscle in the same condition. Their eyes were cataract filled, it was a wonder they could even see! Whenever one would get in range of the fleeing unicorn it would snap at her, trying to drag her to her doom.

“Z-z-z-zombie ponies!” Spike cried out.

“Yep, those are ferals.” Vigil’s voice cut through Spike’s fear, before he reluctantly added “I guess we should help her.”

He scooped Spike up and placed him in his usual perch, on Vigil’s shoulders, before sprinting headlong into the group.

Vigil leapt towards the feral ghoul ponies, his wings springing out and extending the jump over the group. Their decayed minds noticed the larger target, immediately going after him instead allowing the unicorn to escape.

Spike noticed this redirection and urgently tapped on Vigil’s head. “What are you-”

His sentence was cut off as Vigil hit the ground running for all his life was worth. His longer legs easily outdistanced the ponies, but they had endurance while he was already exhausted.

Spike noticed this too and leaned down to speak in Vigil’s ear. “Now would be a good time to jump!”

“I’m trying.” Vigil responded, out of breath. His right hand was raised before him, odd energies coalescing around it.

The ravenous ghouls were steps behind them when a rift of searing white light sprung up in the air in front of them. The rift swallowed them as they dove through, then disappeared, leaving a hungry and confused pack of rotting ponies.

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(Twilight’s Library, 5:40 pm)

A tiny mote of light floated in the air of the foyer, dancing in the air currents of the empty room while gradually brightening. The moat grew as its brightness increased, rotating until a nearly blinding orb stood a few feet above the floor. It froze in the air, remaining completely still despite the drafty area, then a low hum filled the library. The orb shuddered then detonated with a sound similar to thunder and a flash of blinding white light. The light faded after a few moments, the orb now replaced by two unconscious figures and a light coating of sand on the floor.

Oddly enough, no one in the tiny town thought twice about the flash of light or the sudden noise coming from their library. Ever since a young mare was sent by their princess to stay there a few days ago, odd occurrences seemed to happen with a nearly alarming frequency. Most of the town assumed that the mare was simply practicing a new spell or settling a particularly heavy piece of furniture into place.

Six young mares, however, did hear the noise and took an interest, running quickly to confront the source of the noise.

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The fairly new group of friends stood just inside the room, unsure of what they were seeing. A tiny dragon lay curled up against an odd stallion, partially laying on his chest and using one of his speckled, orange wings as a makeshift blanket. The stallion in response, had his forelegs wrapped protectively around the baby dragon. Both were on their backs, unconscious against a bookcase in clear view of the entrance.

“Who is that and why does he have Spike?” The cyan colored pegasus was the first, as always for everything, to shake off her confusion. She leapt into the air and floated closer to the unmoving pair, inspecting the large one. She dropped to the ground again within reach of the newcomer. “His wings are huge! But he’s really skinny. Looks like a wimp.” She judged before inspecting him further.

The next to recover was the pristine white unicorn. She carefully stepped next to the pegasus, eying the creature’s clothes. She scoffed “I don’t care who it is, but what is he wearing?! Trench coats went out of style three seasons ago.” She circled around the sleeping pair, stopping when she could see the stallion’s chest under Spike. “And why does it have a hole in the middle of… Oh dear, is that blood?” She was nearly knocked over by a blur of pale pink and yellow.

The blur turned out to be a pegasus that was now floating inches from the apparently wounded male, inspecting every inch of him and the now quietly snoring dragon for injuries. She first checked Spike, then the stallion. She carefully moved Spike fully off his chest, dodging flailed forelegs and making comforting noises until he settled back down with one foreleg still curled protectively around the young one. She examined his chest, the dark grey scales and surrounding fur were splattered with dried blood. Under that the scales were scarred and marked with odd lines of color swirling in no particular pattern. She leapt back from the odd male, a quiet “Eep” escaping while she fled back behind the others.

The lavender unicorn, the most knowledgeable and unofficial leader of the group, snapped out of shock. She rushed over to her brother and started a thorough examination of what held him. He looked like a pony. Mostly. He was above average height, nearly as tall as Big Macintosh who was a colossus among ponies, and very skinny compared to normal stallion. Grey, nearly black, coated with a greenish tint, and his mane was the same light brown with blonde and dark orange-ish highlights running through it. That’s where the non-pony traits started. Darker grey scales covered his furless stomach and chest, under the fur on the rest of his body more scales lay hidden.

She tried to use her magic to move him, but a sapphire field would appear where ever she applied force, disrupting the magic in contact with it before slowly fading. She was forced to physically examine him further. She gently opened his muzzle, his forked tongue lolled out from between a combination of sharp and flat teeth with slightly lengthened and very sharp fangs. She carefully pulled an eyelid up, noting the nearly imperceptible scales layered over those too, his eyes were unfocused and shaking, betraying his sleeping state. The eyes were a light grey, like an overcast sky, with slitted pupils similar to a reptile’s.

 She tried to pry the dragon out of the stallion’s grip. The unicorn stopped when he raised a forelimb and waved her off in a protective manor. She let out a frustrated groan. “Girls, I could use some help.”

“Why don’t you try waking him up, silly?” The girls stared in horror as the pink bundle of pure energy stood carelessly on his head. “I wonder if he likes cake.” She jumped off of him and disappeared into the kitchen.

“Umm… Why did she just go to my kitchen?” The lavender one stared at the hallway, bewildered by her friend.

“’S just Pinkie bein’ Pinkie.” The orange mare answered sagely.

“I guess we could try, just be ready if he tries anything”

The rainbow and orange ponies stepped up to flank the odd stallion, lowering into aggressive stances.

The lavender unicorn prodded the creature with a hoof, leaning close to its face. “Excuse me. Excuse me mister.”

He yawned as he slowly raised his head and opened his eyes. His voice was a surprisingly quiet and dark baritone which rapidly shifted from tired to total confusion. “HelloooOOUNICORN!”

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Have you ever woken up to a face full of unicorn? If so, please check the dosage of whatever medicine you’re on and go see a psychiatrist. If not then let me tell you, it’s an incredibly disconcerting experience. While trying to recover from the sudden, sanity questioning shock, I had apparently forgotten to turn off the autopilot for my mouth. “I haven’t seen a unicorn in YEARS. I think the last time I did was the last time I visited Merlin. Now he was a fun guy to hang out with, putting the whole ‘god of magic’ thing aside. Taught me how to use magic, too. Terrible poker player though. I miss him and Arthur.” My rambling must have confused the poor thing, she had backed up and was now sitting with a perplexed look on her face. “You know, you are suprisingly gentle with those hooves.” I took a moment to look around.

I was in a library apparently, books and shelves lined every wall leading off into other rooms. That explains why sound is being muffled here. I’ve always liked libraries, quiet and full of knowledge. Not many people in a library. All in all, not the worst place I’ve woken up in. I felt something warm against my side and looked over. Spike lay curled up against my side, fast asleep. Good, he’s safe. Not sure if this is his home, though. I addressed the unicorn in front of me. Something about her seemed familiar, like I had met her or a family member who held a resemblance.

“Um, miss? Is your name, by any chance, ‘Twilight Sparkle’?”

That snapped her out of her confusion, which immediately switched to suspicion. I pulled Spike a little closer, moving my wing to cover him more, under her glare. “Yes it is. How do you know that?”

“He told me” I gestured at him. I finally noticed my lack of hands with the gesturing. “… I have hooves? What?” I jumped up, leaving Spike on the floor while I started freaking out. "What?!"

I immediately crashed back onto the floor, tripping over my suddenly doubled legs. "WHAT?!" Going from biped to quadruped is not easy or remotely fun. I gingerly got back up again on shaking legs."Ok, not the worst thing to ever happen to me. I guess there's no humans in this reality. Or at least not yet. Gah, divergent realities give me a headache. And why am I ORANGE of all colors? I don't remember ever being ginger." I flapped my wings to stabilize myself before gingerly taking a step forward. It took a few tries before I remembered the pattern for walking. Front right, back left. Front left, back right. I walked in a slow circle. keeping that pattern and trying to figure out my new balance and muscle movements. Every muscle and joint was stiff from the involuntary shapeshift.  Then I looked up.

Six small horses stood in a line, staring at me. I blankly recognized them from Spike’s narrative of his life. The pale yellow one on the far left, hiding behind the orange one must be Fluttershy and the aforementioned orange one should be Applejack, the Stetson on her head giving away her occupation as a farmer. The middle left one had already been introduced as Twilight, why does she seem familiar? The middle right one was porcelain white with purple hair, or was that mane? She must be Rarity, judging by her apparent cleanliness and well-kept mane, Spike went on for hours about this one. The pink one bouncing in place with a smile that had no business fitting on her face would be Pinkie Pie. My sanity flinched a little when my gaze swept past her. And finally, hovering above the group, was a cyan colored pegasus with rainbow colored hair. I wonder if she dyes it. That one must be Rainbow Dash if the hair color gives any indication. Spike didn't mention the whole ‘they’re small horses’ thing. They all continued to stare at me while I examined them.

Their gaze started to get to me. I started shifting around uncomfortably as terror started to build in the back of my mind. “Um… Excuse me, but could you all look at something other than me? I don’t like being stared at…” They all realized what they were doing and quickly looked away. I relaxed once they did, the fear dying back down. Oh thank you whatever Gods are watching me, that could have ended badly.

Twilight looked back at me and noticed the sudden drop in tension. “Are you ok?”

I raised an eyebrow. “You’re asking someone that you've never met, who by all evidence available probably broke into your home, and appears to have kidnapped your adopted little brother, if they’re alright?” She nodded. I considered it before replying, “A little stiff and sore, but I've had much worse.”

She shrugged and asked, still clearly suspicious “How did you get here?”

I settled back down next to the dragon, draping a wing over his sleeping form again. “I found him in an alley, scared and confused. I offered to get him home and here we are. Though he forgot to mention this world being inhabited by small horses, I hope I got the right dimension this time.” I looked around again. “Where is here exactly?”

Her expression changed again, now somewhat offended and wondering about my sanity. “Equestria. Specifically my library in Ponyville. And we're ponies by the way, not horses. What do you mean ‘the right dimension’ and where did you find him? He’s been missing for hours after something interfered with a teleport spell.”

I frowned, that didn't sound good. “Alright, 'ponies' then. Actually from our perspective, it’s been about a day and a half since that happened. Dimensional travel is odd like that.”

“What do you mean dimen-?”

I lost track of what she was saying as pain lanced through my body. I let out a low groan as the pain continued, starting at my chest and spreading outward. I wheezed urgently through gritted teeth. “S-s-s-s-spike. Wake up. NOW.”

He sprung up at the sound of my strained voice. “Vigil! Are you ok? What’s wrong? Are we being attacked?” He stopped and stared at my new body. “What happened to you?”

I pushed him off of me. “Seven foot peri-” I gasped as the pain flared more intensely before returning to spreading down all four of my legs now. I strained against the pain “Perimeter. Mind the wings this time!”

He ran to the other side of the room, grabbing the cyan mare and Twilight as he went dragging them away from me. He turned back around and stared at me worriedly.

“I’ll be fine. I think.” I rasped. I shot him a weak smile that probably ended up looking more like a grimace “Welcome home hatchling.” I was forced into a ball as the pain increased, now reporting from every part of me. My wings flapped pitifully, beating against the floor as I tried to stay conscious.

Pain ripped through me, slamming aside all of my mental blocks. Darkness swallowed me once again.

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The girls and Spike sat around the table in the kitchen, each sipping tea and munching on cookies that Pinkie had made. Twilight was still confused how she had accomplished this, considering that the kitchen currently had none of the ingredients stocked.

Spike sat close to his adoptive sister, hugging her and happy to be back home.

“So…” Spike broke the awkward silence that had settled in the room since leaving Vigil in the foyer. They really couldn’t do much else with the energies arcing off of his thrashing body.

“Who’s yer new friend?” Applejack asked, always trying to be friendly.

“His name is Vigil, or at least that’s the one he likes. He has a lot of different names.”

“What is he?” Rainbow this time, she was lazily flapping her wings to keep herself airborne above the table.

Spike scratched his head. “I don’t know. He called himself a chimera, but I don’t know what that is. He looked like a human before we got here though, those were what lived in the place I was teleported to. Just be careful when he wakes up. He’s weird, almost like Pinkie, but he doesn't handle new or groups of ponies very well and I'm not sure how he'll react. He's been looking worse each time we jumped worlds.”

They all agreed on his dislike of groups before quieting again as they thought about what the young dragon had to have gone through. Alone, scared, confused in a place utterly and completely alien to him with a weakening alien as the only one to help him.

“What was it like there?” Fluttershy asked, the shy and quiet pegasus thinking about the condition of the being in the next room. She was thoroughly scared of what could inflict that kind of scarring.

Spike stayed quiet for a few minutes, considering everything he had seen and heard about before giving his response. “Everything was... different. Parts of it were cool, fun even. Like the trains, they were actually living creatures. But some it was scary.” Spike shuddered at the thought of Jack and his monsters. “I know Vigil tried to keep those parts away from me, but he couldn't stop some of it spilling through.”

“Like what?” Twilight questioned while wrapping a foreleg around the shivering child.

Spike went into the story of everything that happened starting at when he was chased through the streets and ending with Vigil’s first jump into the void between realities. The story went on for hours, extended by questions here and there about various details. They all enjoyed the parts about the different technologies and magics. They smiled at the part on the train but were terrified of Jack and his monstrous creations. Twilight was particularly interested in the parts about Vigil and his abilities. As Spike’s story closed, a quadrupedal figure leaned against the doorway leading to the rest of the library.

“You missed the part where Jack took me out without any particular effort.”

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“But you captured how incredibly annoying and enigmatic Eddie is.” I finished, smirking and leaning heavily against the wall. Every muscle in my body was reporting pain in a loud, distracting manner. On top of that, my magical reserves were completely gone. “And you missed the part of where my aim isn't that great. How many alternate realities did we jump through before we got here?"

The effect was better than I expected, all of them had expressions of pure shock. If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s how to make an entrance.

“What are you?” The lavender one asked, surprised.

I winked slyly at Spike. He stifled a laugh as he realized what I was doing. I kept smirking and answered her in the most boisterous tone I could manage while prancing in place, “I’m a stallion, baby.” I stopped and wiggled my eyebrows for effect.

Spike, Rainbow, and Pinkie burst out in laughter, apparently they caught on to the joke. The yellow one eeped and dove behind the orange one, who was blushing and looking everywhere but at me with Twilight. The white one, Spike told me that would be Rarity, held an affronted look.  Which suited me just fine, I’d be back in the library hiding if they were all paying attention to me. I chuckled and shambled stiffly over to Spike. He watched me, evidently surprised I could stand, much less walk.

“How are you walking that well? I’d expect you to be tripping over yourself. And what happened back there?” Spike’s laughter cut off and a serious look replaced it.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve been a quadruped, first time I’ve been equine before though. How did you know it was me earlier?”

“Only you sound like that.”

“Too true.” I regarded Spike seriously. “How bad’s the damage?”

We both examined my new features. My tongue flicked across my fangs, "Hmm... New teeth. That's weird." I muttered, absently while wondering if I’m venomous.

“It’s not that bad, you’re tall and probably too skinny. You look exhausted though, and weird too. How did that happen? You could probably pass for a lunar guard to most ponies.” He said, settling back against Twilight.

I nodded, having no idea what he was talking about. “First, why didn’t you tell me your friends were horses?”

“Ponies. They’re ponies.” Spike interrupted. “Calling them horses is a bad insult.”

“Ah, alright then. To answer your question though, dimensional travelers like me have to abide by certain rules. This world’s storyline apparently follows ponies, so I ended up one. The draconic influence probably has to do with my own draconic genetics and the fact that you were the closest being to me when we arrived. My innate magic is wild, chaotic, even unstable at times, it tried to turn me into whatever the closest sentient being was as a camouflage while the universe was trying to make me a pony. Usually a member of the dominant species is the closest to me so the magic eases the transformation. Obviously, the universe won.

“As for what just happened. That was this world’s magic trying to tap into and convert my own. It was partially successful, I’m connected, but my magic is still somewhat separate and completely drained.”

The girls had recovered from my entrance and were now all staring at me as I gave my explanation to Spike, most of it went far over his head though. I had the urge to dive under the table and hide there until they all left. I didn’t, instead I chose to slowly start backing towards the hall, body held close to the ground with my wings covering my head. I started shaking as I moved, terror and exhaustion finally catching up to me. I turned to Spike as I noticed a feeling that was becoming alarmingly familiar to me. “Spike, want to see something before I have a panic attack?”

The girls’ gaze intensified as the little dragon nodded rapidly, excited at the prospect of seeing something new from me. “Sure, what is it this time?”

I gestured grandly, “I will now show you how to pass out like a boss.”

I was out before I hit the floor