Four Corners

Celestia was the first to come to her senses. The first thing she knew was that something was broken. What or how it was broken didn't register in her head, as she soon realized she was trapped under something heavy. And furry. Then there was the smell. Something smelled like metal and sweat. Cracking an eye open painfully, Celestia saw in the dim light that whatever was covering her was... black. Pitch black. In fact, everything was pitch black. At first, Celestia thought that she had been blinded, but after the figure on top of her shifted, she could see outlines moving.

Sighing with relief, she attempted to shove the creature on top of her off. It wouldn't budge. It felt to be the same weight and size of her sister, Luna. No matter how hard Celestia tried, it wouldn't give an inch of clearance.

Something's wrong.

Celestia knew that alicorns had the benefits of all three pony races, the Earth Pony's strength being one. However, Celestia felt as if she had lost this ability. Reaching out with her telekinesis, she found that her magical grasp had been weakened greatly. Her face felt significantly wet, as if somepony had splashed a bucket of water on her face, much like Luna had done when they were younger.

"Sister?!" Celestia heard a muffled voice cry from somewhere. "Sister, where art thou?!" It was Luna!

"Luna, over here!" Celestia cried. She noticed that her voice had sounded parched, as if she hadn't drank anything in days.

Celestia heard several gasps and cries of shock, but she also heard the telltale sound of Luna's horn igniting. The figure on top of her was enveloped in a deep blue glow as Luna lifted her sister's assailant off of her. Light met Celestia's eyes, and Celestia saw Luna tossing... whatever it was... aside.

"Tia!" Luna cried, before rushing forward to embrace Celestia in a hug.

"It's alright, little sister. I'm fine."

Luna gave her sister a final squeeze before standing up and offering her older sister a hoof. Celestia kindly took her sister's hoof and heaved herself upright. Now standing on her hooves, Celestia smiled down at her sister. However, something else was painted on Luna's face. Instead of happiness, Celestia saw... horror.

Peering around the room, Celestia saw that emergency crews, guards and servants were all rushing about, tending to wounded ponies and searching for Celestia. Smashed pieces of rubble, glass and Celestia's throne littered the floor, strung about like a foal's messy room. Celestia suddenly noticed that all of the other ponies had stopped rushing about when they saw their Princess helped out of the rubble by her younger sister. Celestia was beginning to feel worried; all of the ponies now had their eyes glued to Celestia's face, staring in mixed expressions of fear, sadness and shock.

"What?" Celestia asked aloud. "What's wrong?"

Celestia checked over her body. Her chestpiece was dented in, as if a pony had smashed it with a hammer. Her crown was nowhere to be seen, and she was missing one of her regal horseshoes. Small cuts and bruises adorned her body, but they would heal. She felt blood trickling down her forehead, presumably from one of her small injuries.

"S-s-sister..." Luna stuttered out, tears welling in her eyes.

"What is it, Luna?" Celestia asked, now feeling a slight pinch of panic with her mixed emotions.

Luna pointed towards Celestia's face. Looking more closely, Celestia saw that Luna was actually pointing at her forehead. Celestia suddenly realized with dread why her magic and strength seemed taken away from her. Her eyes widening, Celestia forcefully snatched a piece of shattered mirror from her throne and held it up to her face. Her suspicions were confirmed instantly.

Her horn had been cleanly snapped off.

"Horseapples," She swore.

Celestia heard several cries of surprise as she fell to the castle floor, unconscious.

Twilight paced nervously around the outside door of Celestia's bedchambers. Luna was sitting against the wall adjacent to the door, her rump planted on a plump cushion. Her eyes were struck with worry, as were Twilight's. Several other ponies, including guards, servants and simply friends of Princess Celestia flanked the door on all sides. Inside was Celestia, presumably on her bed, being treated by doctors. When she had awoken from her unconciousness, she had remained strangely calm and even managed to get to her bedroom without any help from guards. Her horn had been retrieved from the floor, not too far from where Celestia had crashed.

Suddenly, the door to the bedchambers creaked open. A dozen pairs of eyes fixed on a single doctor with a lab coat, orange fur and an even oranger mane stepped out. His mane looked like it belonged on a muffin rather than on his head.

"Good news!" He exclaimed. "The princess is stable. She'll make a full recovery!"

Several sighs of relief echoed around the room. Twilight was the first to speak up.

"What about her horn? What happened?"

"Simple old horn break," the doctor replied smoothly. "We handle it all the time. Even if she's an alicorn, we can easily put 'em back on in a jiffy."

Murmurs of excitement and approval were heard amongst the small crowd. Luna leaned back against the wall happily, drawling out a long sigh.

"Great!" She said. "How long until she recovers?"

"About a week."

"What?!" Twilight shrieked, before quickly covering her mouth with a hoof, blushing profusely. "I mean, why?"

"Well," the doctor said, "She is an alicorn, and alicorns have a lotta magic. So we gotta keep her in bed for a week just to make sure she'll be alright."

"Look on the bright side, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said, patting Twilight on the back. "At least you will not have to write a friendship report to her this week!"

"Yeah..." Twilight mumbled. "That's what I was afraid of."

"Guards!" A voice called. All eyes turned to a single butler with a finely groomed mustache. "There are wounded in the throne room. We need all the help we can get."

Twilight bid a quick farewell to Princess Luna before trotting off, following the butler.

Milvar let out a loud groan as he woke from his slumber. His cold, metal helmet lay partially removed over his face, blocking his view and generally being a nuisance. His chest was in agony, like he had been punched by a troll, and his rump felt as if it was laying atop someone's dropped dagger. Moaning in pain, he reached under him to pull out... a shard of glass. How surprising. He suddenly heard several surprised gasps from around him.

Great! I'm saved!

"Hello?" Milvar called. "Who's there?"

Whimpers and the scuttling of boots was all he heard. Perhaps he had been carried out to be buried, only to wake up again. It's not everyday you walk away from being sucked into a daedric realm.

"Answer me, please," He moaned. His pained chest forced him to stay relatively quiet. "I'm a guardsman."

Milvar caught hushed voices and whispers.

"... seen anything like it..."

"... some kind of evil beast..."

"... think it's male..."

"... but I think it's alive..."

"Please!" Milvar called, before groaning in pain. "I'm still alive, just hurt. I won't hurt you."

Milvar felt someone poke his side with something hard. Thinking quickly, he snatched whatever it was and heaved himself upright with it. His partially removed helmet slid down thanks to gravity and, at last, he could see!

... And now he wished he couldn't see.

Flanking him on all sides were tiny, multicolored horses. Some bore clothes, some bore armor and spears, while some were completely naked. He said nothing, for fear of scaring the creatures off. He saw that what he had grabbed hold of was a spear, and now he was leaning on it, blade pointing down.

The first thing he thought was that he was in a dream, and that he could wake up. After a few moments of him thrashing about, caring not about the multicolored horses that were staring at him with awe, he found that he wasn't dreaming. He could be in a daedric realm, but he never heard of a prince that held pastel horses as pets, let alone ones that wore clothing. Then again, he could've just been going crazy.

"U-u-uhm... excuse me?"

Milvar whipped around, reaching for his battleaxe, only to find it missing. Not that it mattered, he was skilled in fist fighting as well. However, instead of finding a priest or bandit facing him, he found a purple... horse. It was similar to the others, but now Milvar realized that it had a horn on its forehead, much like a unicorn from ancient folklore. It sounded female, and it had a very peculiar tattoo on its left flank.

"Uhh... Was that you?" Milvar asked, pointing to the lavender unicorn.

"Y-yes. It was me." The unicorn backed away nervously as Milvar stretched his sore chest muscles.

"You know, I'm not scared of you," Milvar said, turning his head toward the unicorn, his helmet's black, lifeless eyes staring into her soul. "If I'm in a daedric realm, so be it. I might as well accept it."

The unicorn stood bewildered. "Daedric whatnow?"

"A daedric realm," Milvar repeated. "Isn't that where I am, apparition?"

"Nooo..." The unicorn replied. "You're in Equestria. Canterlot, to be exact."

"Yeah, sure," Milvar said. "I've gotta get off the skooma... Been having creepy dreams like this for weeks now."

"Skooma?" The unicorn questioned again. "I don't - but..."

Milvar felt his chest muscles unravel deliciously as he finally worked out the kink that had been causing him agony since his arrival into... wherever he was. Equestria, had she called it?

"Uhh... So, um, who are you?" The unicorn asked.

Milvar chuckled; it was as if the hallucination had never seen a human before. "I'm Milvar. And you, mule?"

"Pony!" The unicorn corrected. "I'm Twilight Sparkle... And it's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Milvar."

"Indeed," Milvar scoffed.

Turning his head to observe that a furry... thing was lying in the middle of the room, but there were too many ponies crowded around them to see it clearly.

"So," Milvar asked, staring into the distance. "How long will this hallucination last?"

"Hallucination?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, hallucination."

"Umm..."

"Well?"

"This isn't a hallucination."

"What?" Milvar turned his helmed head towards Twilight menacingly.

"I'm afraid this is all entirely real."

Milvar stood, astonished. The crowd of ponies around them had dispersed somewhat, leaving only a few armed guards and Twilight to stare at Milvar in anticipation. Milvar knew that every time he asked if he was dreaming, his mind told the truth. After asking himself several times if this was real, he confirmed it.

It was all real. He was surrounded by pastel, candy-flavored horses with wings, horns and pictures on their butts.

"I'm going to need some ale..."

"Ale? What's-"

Their conversation ended as small gasps of surprise erupted in the center of the room.

"Milvar," Twilight said nervously. "Are you fine by yourself over here? I'm going to find out what's going on by that group of ponies."

After a nod from Milvar, Twilight galloped over to the small crowd and pushed her way in.

Moaning loudly, Naughty's senses slowly returned to him. First his smell, then his hearing, then his feel.

The smell of sweat, ale and rust assaulted his sensitive nose. Even if he was a teddy bear, he could still smell a piece of steak a mile away. He'd never smelled anything like this before, but he easily recognized the smell of rust as blood. Blood wasn't common on Perfection Island, but he'd seen it in some horror films and smelled it once when he defluffed Cherry. By the Unibear, he hated Cherry.

The quiet murmur of several voices surrounded him. He heard fear, anger and sadness in their voices. He'd heard other bears talk before, but never like this. He could understand what the voices were saying, but at the same time, he didn't. It was like the high-pitched babbling of his sword enemies had been replaced by male and female versions of the voice he constantly heard in his head. Minus the accent.

The feel was pain. Constant pain. Naughty felt as if his entire body had been torn asunder, with bits of fluff hanging from every orifice on his body. He also felt several pokes and prods of curious bears around him.

Naughty took all of this into consideration.

I must be in some kind of parallel dimension filled with strange, otherworldly bears! They probably want to gut me and eat me for supper!

Naughty tried to jump up, but only succeeded in slightly jumping a bit, as if he had been jolted awake by a bad dream. An idea quickly formed in Naughty's head. Gathering as much air into his lungs as he could, he let out his loudest scream possible.

"... Boo."

Pathetic.

The voices around Naughty escalated in surprise as he tried again and again, to no avail. Naughty was exhausted, and instead of trying to jump up and murder everybear in the vicinity, he decided to play it safe and slowly open an eye. Maybe these bears were friendly, and would give him cake or somethin'?

Bright light attacked Naughty's right eye as he opened it slowly. Becoming accustomed to the light, he began to make out something in front of his face. Something... purple? Something... furry? Something... with really big eyes? As he blinked the tears of pain from his eyes, he saw what it was more clearly now.

Not that it mattered. Whatever it was, it jumped back in surprise as Naughty gasped in equal alarm.

It was a horse. A very deformed horse. Naughty had read about them in his children's books. Tall, quadrupedal creatures with funny tails and faces. They looked like Beara Jessica Parker, but this horse didn't. It was purple with huge eyes and a small horn jutting out from its forehead, much like the Unibear. In fact, he'd read about this creature before. Unicorn, if he recalled correctly.

What? You didn't expect Naughty to have no college education, did you? Of course he did! I'll have you know Naughty went to Bearopolis National Institute of Mythology, and... Ah, whatever. Back to the story.

"Hello?" The unicorn said.

Naughty grunted in response. He didn't know how, but for some reason he could understand what it had said.

"Are you alright?" It asked, leaning in closer to Naughty.

This elicited a growl from Naughty.

"I'll take that as a no..." Twilight said. "Would you like some help?"

Naughty had never really needed help in his line of work. Though he'd had his fair share of injuries, none had ever really needed anyone to help him. He could always solve his own problems. But now, with the immense headache and unreliable reflexes, Naughty wasn't sure if he could even breathe on his own. He nodded reluctantly at the strange unicorn in front of him.

Then, Naughty felt himself being helped upright by a strange force. He turned his head painfully and saw that nobody was holding him, but he was instead held in a queer purple forcefield. Judging by the same purple field around the unicorn's horn, Naughty guessed that she was the controller of the creepy purple film. When he was finally upright, he felt the fluff in his head flow downward, clearing his cloudy vision and reducing his headache somewhat. When he felt he could stand on his own, he grunted at the unicorn. Instantly, the field diminished and Naughty found himself standing on his own again, nodding gratefully to the unicorn that had helped him up.

Out of nowhere, strange new feelings erupted in his stomach.

What's this tickly feeling in my tummy? It's like I'm floating on a cloud of rainbow butterflies... Weird.

It didn't matter, as the unicorn was now walking cautiously towards him.

"Better?" She asked, smiling brightly. Naughty gave a curt nod in response. "Great! Now I can introduce myself."

Oh boy.

Naughty was never good at introductions. He'd never had a true friend before, and the only bears he really knew were his parents, who were long gone by now. Any bears he'd tried to make friends with had only ever laughed, stared or shrieked at his appearance. However, this unicorn, this friendly unicorn, didn't seem to want to hurt his feelings. Instead he saw a kindred spirit and a smile staring back.

Naughty had a good feeling about this unicorn.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, personal protege of Princess Celestia and the Element of Magic. Welcome to the Pony land of Equestria!"

Equestria? What the fluff?

Okay. Naughty was no new guy to creepy stuff. He'd seen bears torn apart by zombies, sliced open by chainsaws and beaten to death with telephones. But never, ever, had he left the safety of Perfection Island.

Except for that one time to Paradise Island, but that was a one-time thing.

Now he was in a completely different land, filled with talking horses and Unibear-knows-what.

"Hello?" Twilight asked, snapping Naughty out of his trance. "Can you speak?"

Naughty nodded his head. To be honest, he wasn't much of a talker, but he could speak much like any bear would. And if he could understand whatever language Twilight was speaking, he was sure he could speak it too.

"Yeh." Was Naughty's only word. His voice sounded as if it belonged to a biker bear.

"Alright, what's your name then?" Twilight asked. Naughty peered around nervously before speaking again.

"... Naughty."

"Naughty?" Twilight asked.

"Naughty."

"Well," Twilight mumbled. "That's an... interesting name. Where are you from, Naughty?"

"Perfection Island." Naughty's face took on a bored expression. He hated talking to other bears, or in this case, ponies.

"Where's that?" Twilight questioned again.

Naughty sighed. "I dunno."

"Well, Naughty, you're welcome to stay here with us pony folk until we find you a way home, okay?"

"Fine by me," Naughty's gruff voice said. "Long as I'm left alone. Last thing I want is a horse kicking my door in."

"Errmmm... Oookay, sure! I'll leave you be for now. If you ever need a guide, or just a friend, I'll be right here!"

"... Friend?" Naughty asked, turning to Twilight suddenly. "You're... my friend?"

"Sure!" Twilight beamed. "I'll gladly be your friend."

Naughty finally smiled for the first time in his life.

"Now, there's another fellow over there," Twilight said, pointing towards a tall creature in blue and gray armor. "I suggest you get acquainted. You might not get home for a little while."

Naughty nodded before waving goodbye to the pony and lumbering over to the large, muscular man.

Yeah, he had studied humans too.