"This is it," said the man in the long white coat, "there's no turning back now."
The whole metallic room was trembling, and all the equipment was falling from the desks and shelves. As shaking began to slow down, the man in the white coat stood on a tall and round platform, looking down, immutable. When the trembling stopped completely, a flash of intense light gradually filled the room. A strange and warm feeling ran through it. After the last spark chirped, the person who was on the tall and round plataform was nowhere to be seen.
On an unknown land, (maybe) far, far away from earth, a short, high pitch, noise echoed through the dark woods. A man appeared there, with his lower body buried in the ground. .
"What is this place?", he said to himself, "This doesn't look like Chicago at all..."
The man tried to figure out where, exactly he was, but his sight was very limited because of the darkness of the place. Suddenly, a bush near the human, started to move and to make noises. Trough it, a chicken came out pecking around the ground. Checking the place out, the creature saw the man, it froze at his sight and stood still, looking straight at him.
"Huh...", he thought ", a chicken in a forest, that's weird..."
The animal began to approach him, looking directly into his eyes. It didn't look like a chicken, really. It had red eyes and a green dragon-like tail. Once the chicken-dragon thing was two feet from the confused man, it turned around and fled from there, then, the head that once was made of bone and flesh, was now a cold stone.
"What do you think about?", a white pony asked. "I'm not entirely sure,", responded the purple pony next to her, "none of my books has information about this creature."
The front door suddenly opened and two ponies entered the room.
"We found it gals!" said the orange one, she was carrying a bag with something struggling inside.
"Oh please, don't hurt it Applejack!", the yellow pony asked the orange one. "Don't you worry girl, your friend is safe 'n here."
"We're... here...", exclaimed exhausted someone from outside the house. Two more ponies got into the room, one was winged and blue, and the other one was pink.
"Sorry we're late," said the pink one, "but Dashie wanted to make a stop."
"Shut it you...", replied the blue one.
"Okay everypony, let's do this," announced the purple pony "are you ready Fluttershy?" "Umm... yes", answered the yellow mare.
The orange pony with the hat, slowly, untied the knot. The animal inside the bag was furious. As soon as the bag got opened, something jumped out from it, it had white feathers and a green tail.
"Oh! mister Cockatrice, please, calm down..!!", Fluttershy begged the wild creature who was wrecking the place. In response, the animal turned to her and stared firmly into her eyes.
"Fluttershy, watch out! It will turn you into stone too!" shouted the purple pony. "Don't worry Twilight, I will be fine." She replied.
Fluttershy stared back at the creature intensely, without blinking or moving. The cockatrice, began to feel intimidated, as Fluttershy was progressively overpowering it. "Now mister," she firmly declared ",stop being such a bully and turn this creature back to normality.”
The monster stepped back, trembling, and fled from the place. Seconds later, chunks of stone started to fall from the human's body.
"Uh... my head hurts." He mumbled.
His mind had regained stability, but his eyes were fooling at him. A bunch of technicolor ponies were surrounding him, with worried faces.
"Umm.. are you okay?" asked Fluttershy timidly.
The man tilted his head in confusion, and, remain silent for a few seconds.
"Can you talk? Do you understand us?", Twilight inquired.
The man still couldn't believe his eyes, or ears, he just kept staring at the talking equines.
"I don't think he understand us girls, maybe you should keep it, Fluttershy", said Applejack.
"I hope it can get along with the other woodland creatures", she replied.
The man in the white coat, rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index fingers, trying to get some sense of the whole situation. As far as he knew, those ponies could talk, so, maybe it was a good opportunity to clarify some things.
"What year is this?", the dark-haired man asked, with his head still down.
"Oh goodie, it can talk!", exclaimed enthusiastically the pink pony.
"I-It's the year one thousand," Twilight answered "not too long ago we had the summer sun celebration..."
"I see"... said the human.
"What are you anyway?", inquired the flying rainbow colored pony.
The man raised his head and with calm he answered: "I'm a human, my name is Arnold."
All the six ponies remained silent for a moment.
"W-Well, howdy-doo Mr Arnold, I'm Applejack, a pleasure, makin' your acquaintance", said the orange pony while taking off her hat.
"Yeah Arny," added the pink pony "I'm Pinkie Pie, well...."
Without finishing her sentence, the pink mare jumped in surprise, opening widely her eyes and mouth, and left the room as fast as she could, leaving a cloud of dust behind. Arnold's jaw fell, opening his mouth in astonished gesture, at the speed of the colorful creature.
"What was that again? A human?", inquired the white one. "I must say, I've never stumbled upon anything like you darling. My name is Miss Rarity, by the way.”
"And I'm Rainbow Dash!" added the blue pony "fastest pegasus in ponyville!"
"Pegasus huh...", mumbled the human.
"And this is Fluttershy," said Twilight, pointing at the yellow pegasus, "she found you in the forest and brought you here."
"Hello Mr Arnold human...", said Fluttershy timidly.
The man raised his hand in sign of greet.
"I haven't introduced myself yet, have I? my name is—."
Twilight was interrupted by the loud sound of the door getting kicked opened.
"WELCOME TO PONYVILLE ARNY!" Pinkie Pie shouted.
She brought with her some sort of firing device, resembling a cannon, pointing directly towards Arnold. His legs didn't respond quickly enough to the situation, so, at the moment he heard the shot, it was too late to escape, the only thing he managed to do in such a short time, was to cover his face and close his eyes. A second later, he realized that the sound that came from the device, was quite weird. He slowly opened his eyes and saw confetti and balloons falling from the sky.
"Welcome, welcome, welcome, we´ll throw you to a party! welcome, welcome, welcome, there´re lots of things to see!"
Pinkie's singing, confused him even more. He wasn't even listening to anything she was saying.
"Welcome, welcome, welcome, I´m your new friend Pinkie! wel—."
Twilight stuffed her hoof in Pinkie´s mouth and looked into Arnold's eyes.
"I'm so sorry for this," she said, "Pinkie, you are scaring him!"
"No I'm not!", she replied, "look how happy he is!"
Arnold's face was pale, his pupils were constricted and his hands were shaking.
"Hmm, I guess I AM scaring you huh...", said the pink pony to the human's face.
"Okay!", exclaimed the human while standing up. "I don't know what do you plan to do with me, but... stand back!"
"Hey, we've just saved you!", exclaimed from above the rainbow maned pegasus.
"From what?!" Arnold shouted "the last thing I remember was an hybrid between a chicken and a snake, then all of you appeared, how would I know that you weren't the ones who knocked me out in the first place?!"
"That monster was a cockatrice sugar-cube," said Applejack in a calm tone, "it turns things into stone by watchin'em into the eyes."
"It's true Arnold," added Twilight "it's a rare monster that lives in the ever-free forest."
The human was still doubtful. He accepted the possibility that a monster like that could exist in a world where horses could talk, but, it wasn't enough to calm him down.
"Umm... Mr Arnold ,sir," intervened Fluttershy ,"you don't have to be afraid of us, we won't harm you, honestly."
A look into the eyes of that yellow pegasus was enough to open a gate in the man's heart.
"Fine," he finally said "I believe you..."
"Oh good!",said Rarity breaking the silence ,"now , can I ask you who designed that stylish coat?"
"I think there are more important questions to ask ,right now, don't you think so?" said the purple unicorn to the white one.
"Uh! uh! like, what's his favourite cake flavour, right?", asked Pinkie.
"No! like where he comes from ,for example!", Twilight replied.
"But Twi!", the pink pony said, "we must know his favourite kind of cake! his welcome party is today!"
"Wa—that's not important right now!", Twilight said.
"Yes it is!", Pinkie answered, "how would YOU feel if we got you a coconut cake for your birthday, huh? Yuk!"
"I happen to like coco—it doesn't even matter!" she replied.
Pinkie and Twilight argued a little more, with some interventions from the other ponies. Arnold was there, stunned, watching the scene.
"Can I say something?", he said cutting through the discussion, "look, Pinkie Pie was it? I appreciate your gesture, but I should be searching for a way to go back home."
"Thank you," said Twilight, "see Pinkie? the most important thing right now, is to find out what happened".
"Hmm, you hit me as the chocolate cake kind of guy" stated the pink pony while tilting her head.
The purple one sighted and asked: "anyway, what's the name of your land?"
Arnold sat in indian position, put both hands on his knees and answered "Earth I guess..."
"Earth you say, I think I've heard that name before...", said Twilight as she raised her head, as if she were searching for her memories.
She ran through the upper level of the library, waving her head as she walked, searching for some book.
"Well, seems like it's goin' to take a while," said Applejack ,"'till morning fellas!"
All the other ponies started to leave, as Twilight was focused on the search of some book. Arnold raised his head, and watched how the purple pony emitted some sort of purple light around her horn, identical to the one that the pile of levitating books above her had.
"How are you doing that?" The human inquired.
"Doing what?" she asked.
"That... light, what is it?" he asked
"Oh! Humans doesn't use magic?", she asked in surprise ,"I thought you just were an earth human!"
"We can't make things fly like that" Arnold answered "our magic is more like... entertainment, and all humans live on earth, we can't fly"
"Huh...", Twilight vaguely replied as she took in her magic filed another pile of books.
"Wait," she said ,"if you humans don't use magic, who rises the sun and the moon?"
Surprised by the question, the man in response said, "we don't, it all occurs by itself."
"That's not possible!", said the purple pony while turning to Arnold, "there must be a force that moves them from it's place to begin with!"
"There is...", he said while frowning ,"it's called gravity"
"Don't be ridiculous!", she exclaimed ,"gravity can't—Oh! Here it is!"
Twilight dropped the pile of books that she was currently holding except for one. She made it levitate to the lower level, where Arnold was sitting. He opened it and, as expected, it was written in some strange language, similar to Greek hieroglyphics.
"What's this book called?", he asked her.
"It's the story of our land," she answered ,"and it says that one of the three tribes, the earth-pony tribe to be precise, named their land earth. What I'm thinking is that maybe you are from one of their previous territories, far from—."
"Twilight," he interrupted, "I think that I'm from other time, maybe even from another universe, not from another place in this time."
"What makes you think that?" she curiously asked.
"Well, for starters, I've never seen anything like you," Arnold answered, "and you haven't seen anything like me before, right?"
"That's weird...", she said, "there are ponies all over Equestria, it's not possible not to notice them..."
"As I said, I must be from—.," Arnold interrupted himself and stayed silent for a second.
"Now that I think about it, it's possible that humans had met ponies like you before...", he said as he put his wrist under his chin "it's common knowledge that unicorns and pegasus are legends, myths, fantasy, but maybe they aren't... maybe pegasus and unicorns did exist on Earth at some point."
"That would mean that we are on the same place, but on a different time!" Twilight exclaimed enthusiastically.
"This is crazy", he said as he looked at Twilight, making sure that he wasn't dreaming.
"You know what this means, right?", she said ,"there's a lot of research to do! come on, help me to find my book about pony history, maybe we'll find something."
The human, concerned and curious about the things that they might discover, stood up and helped her to find the book called :"The year zero".
The insistent knocking made Twilight get up and answer. Her drowsy face and messy mane gave her the look of a walking dead, not to mention, her eyes were still closed.
“Hi Twi!”, the pink mare yelled, “is Arny around? I want to take him to his surprise party!”
“Pinkie Pie...?”, the unicorn murmured, “don’t you think it’s a little early for that...?”
“I know! I planned Arny’s surprise welcome party early so we can make up for not doing it yesterday!”
The purple pony, with her eyes barely open, answered: “how is supposed to be a surprise if you are yelling it...”
“Well duh!”, Pinkie giggled, “because the surprise is AT the party.”
The pink pony just noticed Twilight’s red eyes and asked her: “where you up all night?”
“Yes,” she replied, recovering some sense, “I was looking for a book, but I couldn’t find it…”
Twilight let go a wide yawn, and fell asleep, standing, right there at the door, then Pinkie went in, playfully hopping, directly to where Arnold was sleeping. She stared at him with a cheerful smile for a couple of minutes, without blinking or moving.
The human was saying something in his sleep, so, out of curiosity, she put her ear closer to the man’s mouth. Most of his words weren’t clear enough, but one in particular was unmistakable:
“Betty...”
The pink mare cocked her head in surprise, then, Arnold’s eyes began to open.
“WOW!”
The human gasped while falling from the bed and on his arm, taking the bedsheets with him.
“Ha!”, shouted triumphantly the pink pony, “and Twilight said you wouldn’t be surprised!”
Arnold sat fumbly, covered by the white bedsheets, and gave her a clueless look.
“What’s up with that face Arny?”, Pinkie chuckled, “now come on, we’re going to be late!”
“Late?” the man cluelessly inquired “late for what?”
“Obviously for you SURPRISE WELCOME PARTY! Oh, but you came yesterday so today should be your post-welcome surprise party, uh! but that means that you didn’t have a welcome party, but you´re going to have one right now, but…”
The curly haired mare blabbered a little more, while Arnold was noding half sleep.
“...And everypony is waiting for you! it’s very important for every new folk in town!”
“...Important you say?”
“YES!”, yelped the pony. Then she darted towards him and looked him straight in the eye, “IT’S SUPER-DUPER-UPPER IMPORTANT!”
Arnold’s eyes opened wide and his lips trembled, the remaining doziness left his body instantly.
“Uhh... fine” he muttered.
“Goodie-woolie!”
Pinkie put herself behind him and pushed him towards the door. Arnold didn’t want to get on the bad side of the creature who pointed a canon at his face, so he played along for the time being.
Ten minutes later, they were at the door of “Sugar-cube corner”. In the way, several ponies were turning to see the weird alien. He was expecting that of course, but it didn’t made it any less uncomfortable.
“Here we are, everypony!” Pinkie yelled after kicking open the doors of the store.
Dozens of colorful equines roared in excitment, welcoming him into the party, while lots of balloons fell from the roof as he entered the place. In order to move him to the center, Pinkie gave him a push, making him bump into some of the other ponies, who were surprisingly not as freaked out as he was. Feeling pressure, and tallness, he made his way through the noisy crowd, with pinkie at his side.
Arnold thought that this ritual could be as important as the pink pony said, mostly because of the attendance, so, he had to be very cautious about his behavior. He couldn’t be sure of what were this ponies capable of if he did something out of place.
“Hey Ponyville! This is my friend Arny! And he is a human!” Announced cheerfully the pink pony.
A big “Ohh!” echoed in the room, followed by the sound of hundreds of hoofs hitting the wooden floor.
“Speach!”, she exclaimed enthusiastically.
The man stood there for a while, looking at the petite multitude, wondering what was the best thing to say to them.
He slowly raised his right hand and said: “Hello everyone.”
Many whispers ran through the place, most of them containing the words: “humans can talk.”
Arnold cleared his throat and continued: “I’m honored by this ceremony, and glad that we can interact in peace. I most certainly don’t intend to harm you in any way, so, I expect you to do the same”
The ponies looked to each other in confusion, wondering what he could possibly mean by that. The idea of violence never crossed their minds.
As he watched the reaction of his public, he felt the need to correct himself.
“I know that I must look strange and maybe dangerous to you, but I promise you that I will be available for any questions or requests that you may--.”
“Uh! Uh! Here! I have a request!”, Pinkie interrupted him while rising her hoof.
“Uh... yes?”
“Party!”
Suddenly, loud music came out of nowhere, and everyone in the room began to dance along with it, except for the human, who rose his sight, looking for the source of the sound.
The crowd scattered over the place, chit chatting, dancing and tasting the local snacks.
“Let’s dance Arny, this is my jam!”
Pinkie shook her flank in front of him and turned around, inviting him to do the same. Of course, Arnold was too weirded out to loosen up. But then again, maybe it was an important part of their ritual.
The curly maned mare stood on her two back hooves and took the man by his hands, making him move at the rhythm of the music.
Giving in, the man decided that the best course of action was to go with the flow, so he moved exactly how she wanted to. Arnold was trying his best to mimic her steps, but after one minute, she stopped him.
“That’s not good Arny!”
“Really?”, he said with concern, “what am I doing wrong?”
“You are not having fun.”
The man frowned and asked: “...Is that really important?”
“Of course it is!”, she yelled, “fun is the most important thing in the world! your party will be a fiasco if you don’t have fun!”
Arnold could see that the concern on her eyes was sincere.
“Emotions are really that important to these beings?” He thought.
"Aha", she exclaimed, “hey DJ! Smooth the tunes!”
At the other side of the place, a blue maned pony had its hooves on some sort of deck, filled with consoles and disc players. He wondered how he didn’t noticed it before.
The DJ pony threw the disc that was on into the air, and stylishly with a swift flip, put another.
It was a melody a lot more relaxed, almost romantic. All the guests sought out for a partner and, giving each other little nod as a sign of greeting, they stood on two hooves and grabbed each other by the shoulders
Pinkie climbed on Arnold’s shoes and showed him a joyful smile.
“Come on you, I want to see that smile.”
As she laid her head on his chest and put her front legs around his waist, Arnold slowly started to take some steps, from side to side, according to the music rhythm. A nostalgic feeling ran through his chest. A lot of memories came out to the surface of his mind.
Unconsciously, his expression went a lot more calmer, and his eyes had the deepness that only melancholy can cause.
“Shoot...” Pinkie pouted.
Arnold woke up from his trance and asked her: “What’s wrong?”
“You just went from serious to mopey...” she said as her ears dropped.
“I’m not mopey Pinkie.”
Her grin gradually got bigger as she saw the smile on Arnold’s face. He didn’t realized that he was smiling, until her smile got so big that it made him a little uncomfortable.
The sun was setting as the last guests left the store, waving at Pinke and Arnold who were at the door.
“I can’t believe it’s noon already” He said as looking at the horizon.
The happy pony next to him put herself in front of his face, even though there wasn’t anything to stand on, and asked: “Soooooo? Did you have a good time?”
“Yeah, I guess...” He said while arching his eyebrows.
“Yes! Mission complete private Pinkie!” The pink pony made a salute pose.
“Right...” Arnold muttered, “I should probably go back to the library, I’ve got some questions for Twilight.”
The man waved goodbye to her and set off for Twilight’s place. Pinkie smiled to him, satisfied, and went back into the shop.
He wandered aimlessly through the town for about thirty minutes, until he finally arrived to the library. Upon opening the door, a green flame burst through the room. It made Arnold fell on his butt.
“Oh, hi you!” Twilight welcomed him. Some kind of purple lizard was standing next to her.
“Have you two met? This is my assistant Spike”
“Nice to meet you Arnold.” Spike approached him to shake his hand. “Twilight told me everything about you.”
Arnold reached Spike’s tiny hand and shook it, his scales were rough.
“You are the dragon that Twilight was talking about?”
“That’s me.” the petite dragon sticked his chest out. “The fiercest dragon in all of Ponyville.”
“You mean the only dragon in all of Ponyville, right?” Twilight giggled.
“Exactly.” He answered, still feeling very proud.
“Anyway,” Twilight changed the subject while Arnold was standing up, “I just sent a letter to the princess. I told her about you and asked her if she’s got a copy of “the year zero”.”
“It’s so strange,” she said while turning around, “I could swear that it was right here.”
Then, she glared at Spike and added: ”You don’t have anything to do with it, do you Spike?”
“M-Me?”, he nervously answered, “why don’t you ask owloicious?”
“What’s the matter Spike? Why are you so nervous?”
“I’m not nervous! I’m just... Uh... hungry! That’s it!”
“Now Spike, tell me what happ—”
Twilight got interrupted by a blinding light that filled the entire room. From it, a white hybrid between a pegasus and a unicorn came out.
“So it is true” the being seriously uttered.
The fear that left his body earlier, came back twice as strong.
