An unexpected visitby PorqupineChaptersChapter 01: First Impressions (v3)Chapter 02: A week after arrival (v2)03: Getting your bearings.04: The Dream05: The unexpected surprise06: Control and the request07: A new style08: The Sun and Restrictions09: Safety first?10: Jinxed King11: The MasterChapter 01: First Impressions (v3)An Unexpected Visit Chapter 1: First Impressions (v3) By: Porqupine As you walk down the stairs to get something to snack on you notice something’s off. You feel a small breeze pass your neck while you are certain you closed the windows before you went upstairs. You slow down your decent and try to focus if anything else might be off. And it is. As you carefully walk around the corner to your living room you notice that certain items are missing. Your television, gone. Picture frames, smashed face-down on the floor. Drawers opened with force. It’s a total mess. ‘The hell happened?’ you think to yourself. You walk through the room, completely distraught and you feel like killing someone with your bare hands. They really did a good job on making everything as messy as possible. After having stood in the room with your hands on your head for a full five minutes you take notice of the draft again, making the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You search for the source and find it. It was pretty obvious really. The window to the back of your house, looking out over the little garden which you had neglected and never worked on, was gone. It wasn’t broken or shattered, you would’ve heard that, but it was just completely missing. You walk over to the empty frame to see if there are any marks on it. ‘Of course there have to be some marks.’ You think to yourself. But no matter how hard you try to find any, you fail. ‘No marks… How is that even possible?’ You start to become more and more agitated while you’re thinking about it. ‘This is impossible. I’m going crazy. This is probably just a dream. A rather vivid one at that.’ After a while you come to your senses and you start to investigate more. You decide to go outside and see if there are any visible marks from that angle. You open the door to the little garden and take a step, but you forgot that there was a little edge there and you trip. You fall face first toward the earth and try to catch yourself before you hit the ground, unsuccessfully. You feel stone hitting flesh and try to scream, just to have it silenced by the ground. You use your hands to get up, and you start to feel something warm trickling down over your mouth and chin, down your neck and onto the ground. ‘Great.’ You think. ‘and now I’m bleeding.’ ‘It can’t get any worse than it already is.’ Just as you think that thought you regret it. The world seems to start turning around you , slowly at first but it speeds up after ten seconds or so. You try to go back inside your house to sit on your already ruined couch, but yet again you forget that stupid little edge that is inconveniently placed under the door. This time, however, you manage to get your other foot inside and you stumble forward. The only problem now is that all of your belongings are still on the floor, and you trip, again. You feel yourself falling, but you know that if you go down face-first again, you’ll definitely not be getting up for a while. Just before you hit the ground you see something unexpected. It seems like the whole world slows down just so that you have the time to look at it. You see a few stacks of paper lying in messy heaps covering your living room. One of the papers on the floor contained many strange markings which you can't recognize, and yet they seemed awfully familiar. As you look more closely it seems as if the drawings and marking are shifting, as if they are removing themselves from the paper. You suddenly know that this is the reason your place was trashed, but you didn’t understand why this piece of paper was so important, and who would want it. The next thing you realise is that you’re still falling. Just before you hit the ground though you notice that the ink has somehow indeed removed itself from the paper and is rapidly coming closer to you. They also start to give off light and then everything goes white. You still feel that you hit the ground and now not only does your nose, mouth and chin hurt like hell, but you are being blinded by the flash of white light which originated from the symbols. The pain makes you dizzy and although the light is so bright, you start to see black splotches in your vision. You pass out. The first thing you notice as you regain consciousness is that you feel bad, you feel really bad. Your nose hurts like hell and you have a terrible throbbing at your forehead. Then you remember what happened. You feel that you’re still facing down, which is probably the reason why your nose still hurts so bad. You’ve been lying on it for god knows how long. You try to get up but as you do you feel a great pain shoot through your left arm. ‘What the hell!?’ You think. ‘Why does my arm hurt so bad?’ Then you think about what you did before you passed out. You remember that you tried to catch yourself the first time you fell, and horribly failed. You guess that you must have damaged your left arm in the process, so you try to get up with your right arm. This also doesn’t work out well as you notice that another shot of pain goes right through your right shoulder. ‘Fucking hell, how messed up is my body?’ You think as you let out a grunt of pain. All you can think of doing is to roll over, so you so that. Then, feeling surprised, you notice you are actually able to roll over. Didn’t you land in a pile of rubble when you passed out? There is a strange noise coming from your right but it sounds far away and you don’t mind it. All you are concerned about is to how you were able to roll over. You decide that now might be a good time to open your eyes. Slowly you try to open them, but the light shining into your eyes is too bright. You try to squint just to see your whereabouts, but the light is still too overpowering. Trying to cover your eyes with your arm also didn’t seem like a good idea, with the way they're feeling. You try to sit up but you realise that not only are your hands, arms, eyes and face messed up, your back also seems to be working against you. The sharp pain originating from your lower back as you try to sit up gets the best of you and you let yourself fall down again. 'Fine, I'll just lie here for a few minutes then I guess.' The sound you were trying to ignore a few minutes ago now started to get louder and louder. It seemed like it was getting closer, which it probably was. The sound is unfamiliar and the best you can compare it to is the beating of hooves on soil. ‘What in tarnation is THAT!’ You hear someone, with an extremely Texan accent, exclaim. ‘Oh, that is a very good question darling. I really wouldn’t know. It looks rather beat up though, don’t you think so?’ you hear someone else say with the most posh British accent you have ever heard. ‘The hell is going on?’ you think. ‘Can’t they see I’m hurt. Go get me a doctor or something.’ "Maybe we should go get Twi. She might know what this thing is." The Texan said. "Is it alive? It looks badly hurt, so maybe we should hurry." The British replied. ‘I hope this ‘Twi’ is a doctor ‘cause I can surely use one at this point.’ You feel your headache getting dizzy worse and you wonder if maybe you shouldn’t have rolled over. You hear the strange sound again as the two women move back from where they came. ‘I hope they’re back soon, ‘cause I don’t think I’ll survive for long out here.’ By now you’ve noticed that you aren’t home any more, and you presume that the same people who messed up your home came back and dumped your body somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Although lying on a dirt road meant that they have to have taking you very far from home. After about two minutes you hear the strange hooves-on-soil sound again, and you still can’t open your eyes. ‘What is this about girls?’ you hear another woman say with your average American accent. "Well we found this 'ere strange lookin' creature n' we thought ya might know what it is exactly." The Texan replied. 'Did she just say strange looking creature? What’s that all about' you wonder. "Oh wow." the American said. "It really does look strange. When did you guys find it?" "Well we just stumbled across it and then we directly went to get you. We thought that maybe you'd know what it was." The British said plainly. "Well, I can tell you what it isn’t. It isn’t from around here certainly, but I haven’t got a clue on what it IS." You try to open your mouth, but your chin hurts so much, and all that you manage to do is cough. The shaking movement makes you hurt even more, and you notice that you’re coughing on blood. "OH DEAR Celestia!" the British exclaims. "We have to get it to Fluttershy immediately." ‘What the hell is a Fluttershy?’ You think, but the more you cough the more it hurts and you begin to get dizzy now. You hear the three women start to close in on you. After a few seconds you are lifted in the most uncomfortable way making everything hurt, something is pulling on your arm, something else is pushing into the lower end of your back and then someone decides to smash something really hard into the back of your head. For a few seconds you see stars in front of your eyes, even though they're closed, and then the world goes dark again. This time when you wake up you notice that it isn’t as bright as before. You still can’t manage to open your eyes though, but you think that is because you’re so damn tired. You also feel a lot warmer than you did before you passed out for the second time. It seems you’re somewhere indoors in a bed under a blanket. It’s not the most comfortable bed, but you guess it’s just the standard hospital bed. "How’s it doing?" you hear someone say from what seems like another room. "I think it’s doing fine, it probably just needs it's rest." you hear a very soft voice reply. You really had to strain your ears to understand what she said. As you move a little to get into a comfortable position you notice that you’re covered in band-aid. You’re as immobile as a new born kangaroo. You feel really thirsty and you try to get up. It hurts at first, although not as bad as it did before, but it al goes away as you sit up straight. Now you manage to open your eyes. It takes some time to adjust to the light but after a minute or so you start to inspect the room. It’s completely different from what you expected to see. The walls are rounded, not square, they are yellow of colour, not hospital turquoise, and most disturbingly, they are covered with photos of abstract, multi-coloured, pony-ish creatures. You don’t know if you’re dreaming but it feels pretty real, although the sight of all this makes you wonder. "Uhm… Excuse me." You say from your room. "Could I maybe have some water? I’m rather thirsty." You hear multiple gasps of surprise from the other room. "It can speak!" A women says excitedly. You thought you heard something like pen on paper but you’re not sure. "Uhm… Yea I can speak English, but can I have some water?" You ask again. "Oh, yes, of course." You hear the woman with the soft voice reply. After about a minute of waiting the door slightly opens, and in walks the thing you least expected to. You can’t believe what you’re looking at. It’s just like from the pictures on the wall. A multi-coloured pony-ish creature. This one was yellow with a pink mane and tail. You also notice three butterflies on her butt. "I’m going insane." you mutter silently while your face has the most blank expression. ‘I must be. It’s either that or I’m dreaming.’ "Am I dreaming?" You ask out loud, although you know what they’ll answer. Of course they’ll say no, even if it is a dream they’ll say no. "Oh you’re not dreaming." Another ‘pony’ enters the room. Probably the one who answered your dumb question. This one’s purple with a darker purple mane and tail, with pink highlights in them. She also has something on her butt, which looks like a star with little sparkles around it. As they both move closer you feel intimidated. You already think you’re insane, because seriously, talking brightly-pastel-coloured pony thingies? This can’t be happening. Even if it is just a dream, you still think you’re insane. Who the fuck dreams about this kind of crap! "What’s wrong?" the purple one asks you. And now you notice the four inch dagger placed atop her head. It looks like that thing could kill. They get even closer to you and you do the one thing that you think will wake you up again. You grab the closest photo frame and you hit your head as hard as you can with it. It hurts for only about a millisecond before you pass out… Again. When you wake, again..., your head feels like exploding. It’s as if you’ve drunk twenty bottles of vodka and then drank some more. You figure that that is what must’ve happened because of the strange dream and all. As you try to get up though, you feel yourself being pushed back into the mattress you’re lying on. You try to move your arms but they also are being held in place by some sort of strap. You open your eyes to look down, but it seems you’re blindfolded. "What’s going on!?" You almost scream as you feel panic creeping up on you. "Get me out of here!" You start to actually panic as you don’t have a clue on what the fuck is going on. You hear the sound of hooves again, coming closer to you. There is an irritating beeping noise coming from somewhere beside you, and it starts to speed up the closer the hooves get. Then there’s something touching your foot. It doesn’t feel cold but is also doesn’t really feel warm, it’s just there. After whatever touched you moves back you start to feel a warm sensation where it touched you. The warmth slowly rises up your legs and you feel then become relaxed. As it reaches your midsection you calm down significantly and you also notice the beeping sound slowing down. This makes you realise that you’re probably on a heart monitor, which means that you’re in a hospital. 'Thank God.' "Good morning." A man said from the bottom of my bed. "How are you today? It seems like you’ve had quite a rough time the last couple of days." "Why am I blindfolded?" My answer isn’t very polite, but I really don’t understand why I’m tied up like this. "And why am I tied to the bed?" You hear another set of hooves moving toward you. "Well, the last time you saw any of us you freaked out real bad. So see this as a precaution just for your own safety." This was definitely the voice of the purple armed-with-a-dagger-on-its-head pony. You feel like you might panic any time now, but it seems that your body is completely at rest. "Can someone please take off the blindfold?" You ask, feeling annoyed. Although you’re not sure that may be the best idea. "Promise me that you won’t freak out again like last time, ‘kay?" She says with a strict tone. 'I’ll try.’ you think to yourself. ‘I mean who wouldn’t freak out when they saw these strange looking pony things talking to you, as if they’re human themselves.’ You feel that the cloth covering your eyes is slowly lifted off of you and you can see that the room is dimly lit. You open your eyes and look up at the ceiling. It looks like a hospital ceiling, square pattern with lamps every now and then. The only problem is that it looks like the ceiling is way too low. You think that if you would stand up and stretch your arms out over your head you could easily touch it. "So how are you feeling?" you hear someone, or something, say from beside you. You try not to look in the direction from where it came before you answer, but your head just lolled over to the side against your permission and you see the pony again. Bright purple with a dagger sticking four inches out of her head. But for some reason, you don’t know why, you don’t feel panicky. "I-I feel fine. Great really." You reply with surprise. "It’s probably the work of Doctor Feel-good." It says in reply "Wait, what. Doctor ‘Feel-good?" 'You’ve got to be kidding me, what kind of name is that?’ "He put a simple spell on you to keep you calm in all situations." She said, as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. "A spell?" you ask, raising an eyebrow, not knowing if it’s being serious or not. "Yes, a simple spell. Magic." She’s saying this as if it’s the most common thing, as if magic really exists. Then a questions pops into you mind. The question you should’ve asked first. "What are you?" You ask carefully. "I am a unicorn, one of the four pony races of Equestria, of course. And so is doctor Feel-good." 'A unicorn? Oh now things are starting to get good. Firstly, strange hue'd ponies and now magical unicorns that can actually do magic. Man I’ve really lost it haven't I.’ You still don’t want to admit that all this might be real, for some strange, unexplained reason. Next question that you think of is also a rather important one and one you’ve already asked. "So, where exactly am I?" You probably should have left out the ‘exactly’ part. The purple thing starts to talk. "Your location is -21.0056341 degrees longitude and 57.9460821 degrees latitude. Which is in Equestria, situated below the Northern Provinces and Crystal Empire. You are currently in Ponyville in Doctor Feel-good’s practice, which is near the centre of this town." Now you realise that you’re very far from home, farther than you expected. "So what’s your name?" the purple unicorn continues. "Uhm… my name is…" Dammit how could you forget your own name. It was probably due to that fact that you had hit your head a least three times within three days. "I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to remember." You say with a defeated sigh. "It’s okay, you’ve had a rough time so it’s understandable." It said with a tone of compassion. Now you remember that you’re tied to the bed you’re lying on, and it’s getting really uncomfortable. "Can you please take of the restraints?" you ask uncertainly. "Of course! You don’t look like a threat at all, now that you’ve calmed down a bit." What happens next is something you didn’t expect to happen. It’s horn started to glow and so did the restraints. Slowly the restraints were taking themselves off. You were looking at the scene with amazement. "What’s wrong?" Purple asked. "Have you never seen magic before?" It said incredulously. All you could do was keep on staring at the restraints, which were now fading again, as was its horn. You try to sit up straight, but you feel something pressing you back again, although it can’t be any restraints. "Oh no you don’t." the Doctor, who was still standing at my feet, said strictly. "You shouldn’t get up yet. Your anatomy may be a little different from ours, but I know when someone has broken bones and when they shouldn’t move around. And you mister, you shouldn’t be moving around." There’s only one problem to that. You want to move around, you want to find a way to get out of here, try to get back home. You have no idea how you’ll ever manage that but if you don’t try then you’ve already failed. Right? "You need to rest. If you rest enough you may be able to walk again at the end of this week." The doctor said. "Also, Twilight here will stay with you to keep watch. You wouldn’t want any unwelcome guests in your room, now would you?" it seems like he’s joking, but something tells you that this Twilight really will stay with you for the rest of the week. "But doctor." Twilight says. "I still have so many questions to ask." "You can ask them tomorrow, now it needs it’s rest and I think you could use some too." The doctors answer seems final and then you try to rest again. Tomorrow is probably going to be a rough day, so you better get your rest. Although you’re still not sure if this is all just happening in your head. A.N.: Hi, This is my first attempt at a fanfic, and I hope you all enjoy it. Please give me some feedback on my writing style etc. And don't worry about being a critic, that's what I want. Anyway I hope you all enjoy, and if so I'll try to continue this story for you. Yours faithfully, Porqupine /) Chapter 02: A week after arrival (v2)An Unexpected Visit Chapter 2: A Week After Arrival (v2) By: Porqupine The day starts out differently than they have the past week. You wake up without pain. Nothing hurts. It’s a miracle. You feel really good, until you open your eyes and remember what had happened. And that it is still happening. You’re still lying in the hospital bed and you see that the unicorn has indeed not left the room. It’s wide awake and now you notice that there’s a piece of parchment floating in front of her. Just floating, nothing is touching it, except for the quill, which is also floating and writing down something on the parchment. The floating items seem to have a slight glow to them and so does the horn. You quickly see the connection between the two. When the horn glows she’s doing magic, you finally realise. "What are you writing?" You ask and the unicorn looks up in surprise. "Oh you’re awake. Good." She replies. "I’ve got a few questions for you if you don't mind. Can I?" "Sure, ask away." You say without a second thought. "Okay where should I start…" It mumbles and then all hell breaks loose. "Who-are-you-what’s-your-name-how-did-you-get-here-why-are-you-here-where-did-you-come-from…" And it just kept going on like this for about five minutes, until she realised I hadn’t actually answered any of her questions. "Slow down please." You plead. "I can’t keep up with you." "I’m sorry." It said. "I’m just so excited. I’ve never seen your species before, so I guess I just want to know all about you." "Okay, well I already told you that I forgot my name, so I don’t really know who I am. I do know that I’m not from Equestria, but that I am from Earth." you say, doing your best to answer her questions from the beginning. "Earth… hmm… Where have I heard of that planet before?" The unicorn is frantically writing on the parchment and you can see she’s thinking real hard. It seems that it knows just as much about Earth as you know about Equestria. Suddenly you realise that you have a question for it and you decide it is a good time to ask it, the unicorn being quite and all. "So what are you? Male or female?" you ask, you already guessed female with her voice being such a high pitch. The unicorn responds rather offended. "I am a mare of course. Isn't it obvious?" She looks at you as if you're the dumbest creature on the planet. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. It's just that I'm not used to being around talking animals." Again she looks at you, but now with anger in her eyes. "I am not an animal! I am a PONY, for Celestia's sake! What's WRONG with you!" "Sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry that I said that. I really didn't mean it like that. But you look so much like the ponies we have on my planet, but they can't speak, or do magic. In my world they really are animals." You try to talk yourself out of the awkward situation you've gotten yourself into. "Hmpf..." She replies with her eyes pointed to the far wall. You still hear the scribbling of quill on parchment, but the silence seems to stretch out in front of you. It just keeps on extending and you can barely take it any more. "So..." You're surprised she spoke again. "Which are you?" She asks. It takes a while before you understand what she means, but then you realise that she's referring to the question you asked her ten minutes earlier. "I am a male, or as we say it on Earth, a man or a guy." "Interesting..." You hear her softly say as she focuses on the parchment again. "How did you get here?" She asks you. You think about it but you really don't know. How did you get here? You think about what happened before you got here. Your house was trashed, the window was mysteriously missing, and you fell down, twice. Then you remember the piece of paper, with the strange markings. "I-I'm not exactly sure of how I got here." you say to Twilight, you remembered her name. "But I do remember seeing something before I woke up here." "What was it?" She's looking really interested in your story. "I'm not exactly sure but it looked like a piece of paper or parchment with strange markings on them, it started to glow just before I fell. I can't exactly remember what they looked like but I have a rough idea." "Please." She says. "Draw them for me." She gently floats a quill and a piece of parchment your way. You really have to focus on your memory but you manage to make a rough copy of the markings. A star-like figure in the middle, surrounded by five other thingies. You don't exactly remember what they looked like, but you think you've got it about right. "Oh. My. Celestia." You hear Twilight say. "What's wrong." you ask, feeling rather concerned about the reaction she got to your drawing. "Do you know what this is?" she asks you, but doesn't wait to tell you, not that you know what it is. "You made a drawing of the Elements of Harmony. Do you know what that means?" again she doesn't wait for your answer. "You were brought here by magic, not from your world but from this one. Somepony or something wanted to get you here." "This is important. I need to inform the Princess immediately." Twilight states and then just trots out of the room. You are left baffled by what just happened. Why would any Princess want to know about anything, why not inform the King? But if there is a Princess that means that this is a kingdom. You wonder how a kingdom could be so technologically advanced. And they have magic for Pete's sake. Why would you ever need to have technology? A few minutes after Twilight ran out of the room Doctor Feel-good walks through the door. "How are you feeling today?" he asks you. "I feel really good now actually." you say with a happy voice. "Good, I think I will allow you to try and stand again, but do it carefully." the doctor sounds serious so you decide that it is probably wise to take it slow. You sit yourself up before you continue. It feels good to sit straight again and you start to stretch your back. You still feel a small pain in your lower back, but to stretch out like this feels heavenly. "Oooh man that feels good." You let out a loud contented sigh as you hear your joints make a little 'pop' sound. You continue with moving your legs to the right side of the bed and you feel the floor touch the bottom of your feet. "Sorry, most of my patients aren't quite as tall as you are." the doctor says, but you don't really mind and you slowly shift you weight forward. It's been a week since you last stood on your legs and they feel weaker than they used to. You slowly start to rise, holding the little desk at your bedside with your mostly uninjured right hand. It feels great to be standing up straight again. The familiar feel of your legs comfort you and you start to walk around the room. When you reach the other side of the bed you notice how small doctor Feel-good actually is. The top of his head barely reaches your chest, but since he also has a horn, which reaches up to your chin, he looks taller than he actually is. The doctor starts walking toward the door. "Want to walk around a bit? I can show you the hospital if you like, you seem well enough." You don't only seem well enough, you feel great too. You think you'll just go with the flow and do whatever you're asked. You walk toward the door and the doctor opens it, using magic, which still creeps you out a bit. At first you thought the door was electric until you noticed the glow around doctor Feel-Good's horn and around the door nob. You have to bend your back forward a bit in order to go through the door, it's designed for ponies, lower than you're used to, but also wider than you're used to. Even when you bend your back you almost hit your head. There's still a small yellow mark on your forehead, reminding you of the past week and how you hit your head. You wouldn't want to make that blue again. You walk into a hallway which is also designed for ponies. Rather low hanging ceiling and much more space between the walls. Of course everything is designed for ponies, you're in 'ponyland' for godsake, but it all still manages to surprise you how everything is so well adapted to the ponies. Or well, how the ponies adapted everything to them, just like humans did, but it seems like the ponies are doing a much better job at it. As you walk down the hallway it appears that the hospital is abandoned. You can only hear your own and the doctor's footsteps, or 'hoof-steps', whatever. "Is this place abandoned?" you ask him carefully, as not to upset him. "Oh it certainly is not. We just put this wing in lock down since we weren't sure if you're a threat." the doctor replied. You don't have to think long about why they would see you as a threat. You're at least a foot taller than them, maybe even two. They've obviously never encountered a human being before so you're an alien to them. Suddenly you feel extremely lucky to have been brought here and not another earth-like planet. Humans wouldn't react well to aliens, but these ponies, they've been very nice to you and they seem very friendly. "Thank you." you say to the doctor. "For what?" He asks. "I only treated you like any other patient, as is my job to do so." "You've all been so nice to me, although I am an alien to your kind." "You are welcome I guess then. But you seem to forget that there are three different species of ponies on this planet and I have to treat all of them equally. We even have other creatures, who aren't ponies, which I will treat just as well. We're all equal." these words the doctor said are something you can only imagine Jesus saying back on Earth. "I can see that you've accepted our kind, so I'm asking you now. Would you like to go outside?" The doctor said this in such a way that you had to think it over, but you already made up your mind. "Yes, I would love to." you really did want to go outside and get some fresh air, but you wonder why the doctor seems so on edge about your decision. You walk through a set of doors, and quickly find out why the doctor is nervous. As the doors close behind you every pony stops dead in their tracks and stare at you. There's even one pony who was looking at the floor and she walks straight into another paralysed pony. "Just keep walking." The doctor almost whispers at you. So you just continue walking, feeling very awkward about it. You can feel the eyes of the ponies you've passed by burn into the backside of your head, but you don't dare look behind you. "Turn left here and then the third lane right." Everywhere you pass all work stops and all eyes focus on you. You don't like it one bit. Was it even a good decision to go outside? After having walked through the Labyrinth of hallways you finally spot what you think has to be the main entrance. You know your guess is correct as the doctor leads you through them, out into the open air. It feels wonderful to be outside. The air smells fresh and the temperature feels perfect. You notice that you closed your eyes because of the great sensation, but when you open them you're up for a surprise. "SURPRISE!" You can't see which of the fifty ponies said it, but you can guess which. It's probably the only pony that is moving, not only moving though, she's jumping around like a little kid on Christmas morning who has accidentally drank his fathers coffee. You see she's bright pink with a little bit darker pink mane and tail. The other thing about her is that her mane and tail are fluffy, very fluffy. They look like cotton candy from this distance. All the other ponies are just staring at you with big, and I mean BIG, eyes. You have no idea what you should do, but you feel rather awkward just standing here. "Uhm... hi?" You say with a little vibrato in your voice. "HELLO!" The pink one replies full with excitement. "Wooow-You-look-weird-so-tall-such-a-flat-face-how'd-THAT-happen-Did-ya-walk-into-a-wall-or-did-the-wall-run-into-you?" She was so full of energy you didn't know what to do. You just look at all the other ponies, who obviously didn't expect you to stand there. Then you spot the purple unicorn, Twilight, walk out of the crowd toward you. "Don't mind Pinkie, she's always like this." Oh dear god, how can anybody ever be like that for even more than a millisecond? "Listen up everypony." Twilight started. "This here is a Human, from Earth. I'm still trying to find out how he got here, but before I figure that out, I want you all to be kind to him. He had quite a rough first week here, so I would like to make it up to him." "Don't worry." she says personally to you. "They'll get used to you soon enough, just give it a couple of days." You're happy about the reassurance, although you aren't too sure if this can all work out. You thought saw a few nasty faces in the crowd before, although now every one of these ponies just looked at you with great interest. "So what do we call you?" one of the ponies asked from within the crowd. "I-uhm.. I don't know really, you can just call me 'Human' for now, until I can remember my name." You answer, although you're not too sure you want to be called 'human' everyday. It would feel like you're an animal, like a dog, or something similar. "How did you get here?" another pony asks you, but since it seems like you've answered all these questions already, so you decide to just tell them everything you've told Twilight. After about an hour of talking or so you notice that the ponies look tired as much as that is even possible, but hey, you're in a world with talking, magic-doing, unicorns and ponies. So you've figured that they've had enough of your talking and you're about to finish anyway. "...So that's what happened, and now you all know." You end your story, but unexpectedly you're soon bombarded with questions you can't answer. Haven't they listened to a single thing you've said? You decide the best thing to do is just to ignore them and you walk toward Twilight, who's gone back to the crowd to listen to your story. "That was quite the story." she says as you come closer. "Well you've already heard all of it though." you reply. "It was still interesting to listen too. A story is never told the same way twice.'" You liked talking to this pony, although she freaked you out the first time you saw her. And you're still a bit uncomfortable with the potential skewering. "Let me introduce you to my friends." Twilight offers as she starts to walk further through the crowd, which has started to thin out, thankfully, as ponies start to walk back toward there homes. Or at least so you think. You follow along and all ponies move out of your way. You still look rather intimidating to them and you can't blame them. But it still feels wrong to have them move away from you as if you are royalty. As you reach the back of the crowd the first thing you notice is the pink pony that was so overly excited when you walked out of the hospital. 'Don't, please don't tell me that's one of your friends.' You think pleadingly. "These are my very best friends." Twilight says and just like you feared the pink one is part of it. "This is Applejack." She says, pointing to an orange mare with yellow mane and tail. You also see that she has three apples painted or her ass. The only really strange thing is that she's wearing a hat and that it doesn't fall off. You wonder how she manages that. "Applejack here was the one who found you, together with Rarity." Now she's pointing to a white mare with the most stunningly styled mane you've ever seen. Coloured a deep purple and perfectly contouring her face. You gulp audibly as you try to move your eyes away from the beauty. You notice that all the ponies have something painted on their butt and so does Rarity. She has three diamonds. Why do all those things seem so familiar to you? "This here is-" she started. "PINKY! I'm Pinky." The pink one, who welcomed you so hyperactively, said, now bouncing up and down again. You already know that she's going to be really tiring. "Anyway... moving on." Twilight continues, while ignoring Pinky's rambling. "This here is Fluttershy." She gestured to a yellow mare with a pink mane. You think she has the most adorable look on her face. "hi my name is [size=8]Fluttershy[/size]" it sounds like she's trying to say something but you can't really hear what it is. "Sorry, what was that." you ask her. "Oh don't mind that." Twilight interrupts. "Fluttershy's always like that. She probably just has to get used to you." "And finally we have-. Hey, where's Rainbow Dash?" apparently there's one more pony you need to be introduced to, but she's not here. Oh well, it's not like you really mind. You hear a soft whistling sound come from behind you, which is rapidly getting louder. Before you have time to think you feel something crash into you back. You fall forward and almost crush Rarity, who just manages to get out of the way, and you fall to the ground... again... only this time you are able to catch yourself with your arms. "The fuck was that!" you say out loud. "Well now we know where Rainbow Dash is." Twilight says matter-of-factly. You turn around and find yourself staring into two big dark pink eyes. Then you feel four hooves, well they must be hooves since ponies don't have feet, land on you chest. "Didn't see that one comin' now did ya." The blue pony said with a smirk and a voice that sounded a little hoarse. You guess that this is Rainbow Dash and you understand why they'd call her that. Her mane could only be described as an actual rainbow. The colours were perfect and seemed to shift as she moved. You know that it's a she but you think she resembles what you'd call a tomboy back home. After about ten seconds she stands up straight again and then you notice that she has wings, WINGS. How magical can a place be. You remember from TV and history class that on Earth they'd be called a pegasus. You wonder if it might be the same here, just like with the unicorns. "Are you a pegasus?" You ask her. "Well of course I am. And I'm the fastest pegasus in all Equestria at that." She says with a big smile on her face. She bends her knees, then kicks off, pushing the wind from your lungs. She leapt about two meters up into the air and then she spreads her wings, as if to display them to you. She slowly glides back down to earth, as you start to get up again. "Well now that you've met my friends, how about we go and give you a tour of the village?" Twilight offered. "A TOUR, A TOUR, I LOVE TOURS!" This pinky was going to make you insane, if you weren't already. Is it possible to go insane when you're insane? You don't know, but you also don't want to find out. 03: Getting your bearings.Since the hospital was near the town square it's the first place they take you to. It looks like the tallest building in Ponyville is in the centre of the town square, so you guess that that is the town hall. You still feel awkward as every single pony stops in their tracks to look at you, but you try not to pay them any attention. When you reach the building, which is about the size of a three storey house, you wonder how they managed to build something like this. It seems that this is the biggest building in the village, but it still seems small, thinking about skyscrapers and such. Nevertheless, just like all doors here, this one was just a little to small for you to walk through without arching you back a little. The inside of this place, however, was huge. It looked much bigger on the inside than it did on the outside, but luckily there weren't too many ponies hangin' around here. "Nopony comes here too often." Twilight explains as if she were giving a real tour to a tourist, which she was doing in a sense. "This place is mostly used to receive complaints, or if there's a disaster happening." You look around the circular room and see that what looks like another floor from the outside, is just a small balcony from the inside. You can see the roof all the way from where you're standing. There's a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling and it looks really expensive. Crystals, which refract the light to create rainbows on every surface, seem to be endless. So many crystals must be worth a fortune. "That chandelier you're looking at, it was designed by our very own Rarity." Twilight said proudly, while putting Rarity in the spotlight. "Oh, yes, well. It wasn't that big of a deal really." Rarity says awkwardly while you stare at her in amazement, yet again bedazzled by her gorgeous mane. You see a little blush appear on her face. 'Did her fur just change colour?' You feel that you should stop paying attention to these kind of things. There are too many weird things happening here, you just can't stop to think about every single little thing. You pull your eyes off of her again to look back at the chandelier. "Where did you get all those crystals?" you ask. "They were supplied by the mayor, they all come from the mines underneath Canterlot." Rarity didn't seem to understand what kind of value this thing had. "What's Canterlot?" you wonder, but you guess it's just another village. "Canterlot is Equestria's capital city. It's the most magnificent place to be with a marvellous castle which is built into the side of the tallest mountain in Equestria." Twilight stated. "It's also where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna live, and where I used to live, before I came here, to Ponyville." Okay, so Canterlot is not a village. It's where the royalty lives. Not wanting to feel even more stupid you decide not to ask who these princesses are, although you would like to know eventually. After standing in the town hall for ten minutes Twilight decides that it's a good time to move on to the next location. You step through the little doors leading out of the town hall and you get directed to your left. You walk for several minutes and pass quite a few houses, which you expect are homes, until you reach a small dirt road leading to a small shack in the distance. Behind the shack you see a dark, dense forest. It makes you feel intimidated. You even think you see eyes lurking at you from the dark bushes at the edge of the forest. As you get closer to the shack you notice that it is actually much larger than a regular shack. And it even sort of resembles a tree. The roof is covered in leaves and moss. There are bird houses all over the building and in the trees around the not-so-average shack. "This is Fluttershy's home." Twilight says, as she nudges you forward. "Oh, yes, would you like to come inside?" You hear the yellow pony say as she approaches the door to open it. "This's where we initially brought ya to getcha treated. See, Fluttershy's th' best veterinarian in all o' Equestria n' 'cause we didn't know what ya were, we jus' brought ya right 'ere." It was the pony with the apples on her butt who was speaking, with her overly Texan accent. "I would love to see your home." you say sincerely. As you walk in, you see a lovely home. There is a small stove to your right and all around are small stairs and pathways, of which you didn't know why they were there. A red carpet with a flower print is lying over the wooden floor. There is an archway to your left which leads into another room. "So, uhm, this is the living room." Fluttershy says with her adorably tiny voice. You're led through the archway into the other room. There's a wooden table placed against the back wall under a window. Looking through the window you can see a path leading from Fluttershy's home out into the dark forest. You notice that instead of chairs, there are pillows laying on the floor. Seems logical. It would be weird to see a pony sitting upright on a chair. There is a couch, however, placed against the right wall. You can't really imagine how that would work for ponies, but you figure that they can manage, somehow. "And, uhm, this is the dining room." again with that soft voice, you really have to strain your ears to hear what she's saying. To your left you see two doors, of which you expect on to lead to Fluttershy's bedroom. Of the other door you're not to sure. You noticed from the outside that there was a second floor, so you expect the door to lead to a staircase. You don't need to wait long to find out as Fluttershy starts to walk toward that door. You follow her through it and indeed find yourself in a little hallway with a staircase going up. But there's another door at the opposite wall in the hallway and Fluttershy's walking, or trotting, towards it. She goes into the next room, which seems oddly familiar. You instantly remember that this is where you had your 'first encounter' with the ponies. The bed, which you were put in, is sitting against the far wall and there is a little desk to the right side. You notice that there are some wooden scraps on the desk, accompanied by some broken glass. The memory smashes you in the face, mentally. "I'm so sorry." You say apologetically to Fluttershy. "I was just so freaked out, I-I didn't know what to do." You then see the picture, now without frame, laying next to the broken pieces of wood and glass. It's a picture of the six ponies, which were now all standing pretty close to you. It's a pretty nice picture. "Oh, it's okay, it's not like you did it on purpose." She replies with a voice you'd expect from a mother, who's just punished her child. Problem is that you did do it on purpose, even if it was to try and wake yourself up. Still feeling guilty, you get led back to the dining room. "Would, you like something to drink?" Fluttershy asks. "I haven't got much. I hope you don't mind." Her voice started getting smaller again. "No, thank you. I'm good." you say, hopefully not insulting your host. After about a minute you start to notice Pinky again, which you have so desperately tried to ignore al this time. She's just randomly bouncing around the house. One moment she's in the dining room, the next she's standing in the living room, and a second later she's outside, waving at you through the window. "Can we go now, I'm starting to get bored." You hear from above you. It's the blue pegagus, Rainbow Dash the boaster, if you remember correctly. "Wanna continue the tour?" Twilight asks you. You don't know how much there's left to see and you haven't got a clue on how much time is left, so you decide that you want to continue the tour. "Sure, what's next?" You ask her. "We can either go visit Carousel Boutique, Rarity's place, or we can go and try to get a glimpse of Dash's home, Cloudsdale." She's giving you the choice. You don't feel like going somewhere where you might see something, but you want to be able to see it for sure. And you don't mind to see what Rarity's home looks like, although you don't think you'll be paying much attention to that, seeing how distracting her mane is. 'I would like to see Carousel Boutique, you don't mind do you?' You ask Rarity, while your stare is being caught again by her mane. 'Of course I wouldn't mind. On the opposite, I would be delighted to show you around my boutique, and home.' Boutique? Oh yea, she makes clothes, you remember. You walk back along the dirt road, which led to Fluttershy's place, and try to make a map in your head. You don't know how long you'll be stuck here, so you better make yourself at home. It seems that Fluttershy still has to take care of a few things at her home, so she won't run along with the rest of the tour. It's not like you really noticed her that much in the first place. After you've walked for a few minutes and passed some of the houses, you take a sudden turn to your right. This is a different road, probably behind the row of houses which make up the town square, and has a slight curve to the left. The road is pretty wide, you expect that you could probably fit two cars side by side, and still have space to open the doors fully. All the houses look pretty much the same, all very colourful and happy, except one. This one really stands out, it looks like a small castle in comparison to the other houses. The decorations on the outside show that this is definitely a clothing shop, and in this case, definitely Rarity's boutique. The first thing you notice about the place is that the door is a little bigger than any you've seen so far in Ponyville. It's probably even big enough for you to walk through normally, standing straight up and not having to bend over to refrain from hitting your head. You walk along the small path leading up to the shop's front door, which is framed nicely by a well kept front garden. As you reach the door you wait patiently for Rarity, and when she arrives you feel like you should be a gentleman towards her. Why? You haven't got a clue. 'Ladies first.' You say while making an overly exaggerated bow. You feel really stupid for doing so, but you try to hide your shame by ripping your stare from the enticing deep purple mane and looking at the ground. 'Oh well thank you kind sir.' Rarity says in all formality, also making a little bow before opening the door with her magic. You're surprised at her reaction. You expected her to just look strangely at you. You did hear some laughing though, from somewhere above you. It was the blue pegasus with the rainbow coloured mane, Rainbow Dash. You haven't really figured out what the deal is with her though. You just think that it has something to do with being a pegasus. Up until now all pegasi you've seen, which is only two, are very weird. As you walk through the door which is, like you expected, tall enough for you to walk through when standing straight, you first enter a little hallway. 'Please clean you hooves before you enter.' Rarity says to you and your company. 'I wouldn't want my workshop to get dirty, now would I.' You don't mind to clean your feet, when you come to a sudden realisation. You're not wearing shoes, but you're wearing your morning slippers, and have been wearing them all the time. You now feel very aware of what you look like and you feel like a beggar. You're wearing your oldest pyjamas, which is very worn out, and your wearing slippers which you've had for at least six years. After you've cleaned your feet on the mat you decide that it doesn't really matter any more what you look like, since you've been walking around like this all day. You go through a little archway leading out of the hallway and straight into a little lobby. Everywhere you look is some kind of cloth or string. It looks even worse than your own bedroom, which you hadn't cleaned for a week. There's a sort of blueprint laying in front of a sort of mannequin, a pony style mannequin that is. 'Don't mind the mess.' Rarity says a little nervously. 'I just forgot I was working on this little project for one of my most trusted clients.' 'Please, try not to touch anything.' She added sincerely. 'Otherwise I won't be able to find anything.' You wonder how she's able to find anything at all in this big mess, but your brain remembers a very nice word for this, 'Organised Chaos'. You guess that this is the best example you'll ever have of that. 'Soooo...' Twilight said, probably not knowing exactly what we were still doing here, it being such a mess and all. 'Shall we move on.' You barely here her, you're too distracted by Rarity. In a way she's your complete opposite, but in another she's exactly the same. You try to think of something else to get your attention off of her, and it works, for about a tenth of a second. 'I think Rarity needs her space, so she can continue with her 'little' project.' Twilight seemed to notice Rarity getting a little awkward with you staring at her all the time. Against your will you go outside, but you guess that it's for the best. It seemed she still had to do a lot of work, which meant that, sadly, she won't be joining your not-so-little-any-more tour any more. Although you've only visited three places, you feel like you've already spent half the day doing that. 'Next up is Sugar Cube Corner. That's where Pinkie works and spends most of her time. It's practically her second home. And it's also, conveniently, on the way to Sweet Apple Acres.' Twilight seems really proud of herself at making this tour. After walking past only seven houses you smell something so sweet it almost hurts your nose. As you continue walking the smell only gets stronger. You understand why it's called Sugar Cube now. It's as if the air is turned into sugar. When you reach the source of the smell you feel like you could drop at any moment. You cover your nose with you sleeve, which doesn't help much. 'Can we skip this one, please.' You ask, while breathing heavily. Haven't ponies got a sense of smell, you wonder. How can they stand this. Suddenly it seems like it's very quiet, something is missing. You look behind you and are shocked to see that the pink coloured pony is looking at you with big eyes, tears welling up. Oh dear, now you've done it. You don't want the pony to start crying, but you know that if you were to enter the store with all that sweetness, you'd definitely pass out. 'It's okay pinkie.' The orange apple pony, Applejack said. 'Remember the first time I got here? When I entered the store for the first time I passed out, remember? I couldn't handle the strong scent. I guess that that is exactly what's happening to this human right now. He just has to get used to it a little. We can always come back later, 'kay?' This really seemed to cheer Pinkie up again, and before you realised she was bouncing again. After you that smell you're not surprised she can keep bouncing around all day. She's just high on sugar, and that combined with, probably, an energy disorder, you can understand. But that doesn't mean that you don't think it's annoying to have a pink pony bouncing up and down in the corner of your eyes all day long. You let Twilight continue the tour, and she leads you along the road, to the opposite side of the village. As you walk away from Sugar Cube Corner you feel that you're able to breath again, after almost being suffocated. After a few minutes of walking you notice that the village is pretty big, you could almost call it a little town. When you finally reach the edge of the village you see a really big orchard stretch out before you. It's huge. as far as the eye can see there are trees, apple trees. It's pretty obvious to you that this is Applejack's place. Somewhere in the distance, between the apple trees, you see a pink house, although it looks a lot larger than a regular home. You walk along the dirt road lead to the house, and as you get closer you see that it's not a house, but a barn, a rather large barn. You wonder how they'd be able to build this, since Applejack didn't have a horn nor did she have a set of wings. They must be more advanced then you initially thought. When you finally reach the barn you start to feel hungry. You guess that it's already late in the afternoon, and you haven't had any lunch. 'Come on in y'all.' Applejack says as she turns the doorknob and opens the door, with her hoof. You don't even mind asking how, everything here is weird. 'Granny Smith's just dun with makin' her delicious apple pie. I dunno 'bout you guys, but I'm starvin'.' It seems that Applejack just read your mind. And you wouldn't mind having fresh apple pie as lunch. After being fed through tubes for a week, in the hospital, you'd like to eat something solid again. The house-side of the barn is lovely from the inside. A large living room with four sofas placed against the walls. a small table in the centre of the room, decorated with flowers from the fields. A big fireplace, which is probably used in the winter to heat the whole barn, was the finishing touch to the picture. The whole place made sense, in this world where nothing makes sense. After a minute or two Applejack, who'd left to get the pie, came back with five monkey dishes on her back. She picked them up with her one of her hooves, again you don't know how, and placed them on the little table. Then she went to get the pie. When she returned it surprised you that the pie was already cut neatly into eight pieces. She'd brought a cake knife with her to server the pie with. She didn't use her hooves but her mouth to hold the knife, and she managed to neatly put one piece on each of the little plates. You feel so hungry you're only barely able to wait for the others to start eating their share of pie, but when you start you aren't prepared for what you're about to taste. The pie seems to melt on your tongue while the stuffing seems to explode in your mouth. It feels like small electric bolts zap the inside of your mouth, but they don't hurt. You feel absolute euphoria, and that combined with the fact that you're so hungry makes it even a bigger enjoyment. When you finish your first bite you notice that the stuffing isn't your regular brown-yellowy colour, but that it's like a rainbow. It just looks extremely trippy, you think it's just you, but it seems like the colours are actually moving as you move. When you take your focus off of your pie you realise that every pony in the room, four of them, are staring at you with a smile on their face. 'Enjoyed that, did ya?' Applejack said with a voice that could only be described as someone making fun of you. 'This apple pie's made with our famous Zap-apples. They're the most special kind o' apples which only grow once a year, and have to be eaten within three days of harvest, or they'll go bad.' You feel very lucky to be able to taste this magnificence and you take another bite. After finishing your pie, which was accompanied by loud sighing and sounds that belong in the bedroom, you feel exhausted. You notice that the sky is also beginning to darken. It must have been later that you thought when you reached the barn. 'I'm pretty tired.' You say. 'Can we continue the tour tomorrow?' You ask Twilight with your eyelids halfway down. 'I think it has indeed been quite a long day, maybe we should rest.' She answers. 'Do we have to go back to the hospital?' You don't want to but you don't have anywhere else to stay. 'Or ya could stay here. We got enough room for the whole village practically, so I think you should also be able to stay.' Applejack offers. 'I'd love to stay here.' You say, you don't want to stay one more night in that hospital bed which felt like concrete after four days. And so you are able to stay at Applejack's for the night. You wonder what Twilight has planned for you for tomorrow, but now you're just going to sleep on one of the sofas, which feel like a cloud to you, so soft. Applejack gave you a blanket to stay warm but it's summer and it's warm enough that you don't need the blanket. You close your eyes and drift into the magic world of dreams. This is when you really get surprised. 04: The DreamInfo As this story is rated 'Teen' there will be sexual references here and there, not too much, but just for awkwardness' sake. You open your eyes slowly, and notice it is still dark. You let your eyes adjust to the unexpected darkness, only to find that you aren't able. It's just too dark too see anything. You stretch your arm out before you, but you can't even see your hand from this close. You feel panic slowly creeping up on you. You wonder why it is so dark. 'Didn't they have electricity here?' You wonder to in silence, the claustrophobia only getting worse. Just before you think you might scream for help you see a dim light in the distance. The small and dim light doesn't seem to do much at all but it gives you a reference point as to where the ground and your hands are, which also makes you feel less panicky. You wonder why the light is there so suddenly, and you want to investigate. You slowly get up, but not from where you remembered to have fallen asleep the previous evening. Instead of there being a soft couch underneath you you get up from something more like a bed, but a naturally formed one made of leaves and branches and other plant-like materials. Once you got up you decide to walk toward the little light. It is so strangely attracting, the more you walk the more you feel like the light is beckoning you to continue and see what it really is. There only seems to be one problem, the light isn't getting any closer, or larger, or brighter for that matter. You feel like you've been walking for hours, but the light is still the same distance apart from you as to when you started your journey. You start to feel agitated and angry. Confused that the light isn't getting any closer, even when it's beckoning you to just cross the little distance and see, actually see, what this beautiful, yet infuriating, little source of light is. Just before you burst, from anger this time rather than panic, you feel something on your shoulder, something soft. You stiffen at the unexpected touch, and instantly bounce away from it. You turn around but you can't see a damn thing and since the little light source is behind you, you're making a shadow exactly where you want to be able to see something. "We are sorry. Did we scare you?" A female voice asks from the darkness of your shadow. You don't know what to do. Will you reply to the rather loud voice, or just stand here being paranoid. "We did not intend to scare you. Quite the opposite actually. It seems that you have found yourself in a rather unpleasant dream and it is our job to make sure that does not happen." What is this 'we' stuff. You're pretty sure there's only one woman standing right in front of you, although you still can't see her. "Who a-are you?" You ask nervously. You have a pretty bad feeling about this and all you want to do is run away, get to the light and be safe. "Oh. Let us introduce ourselves." The woman said, again with a voice much louder than was necessary. You slowly started to see a dull blue glow in front of you. It started out as something that looked like a very dark blue flowing river, reflecting the starry skies, but it is slowly getting brighter. After a while you see that it isn't a flowing river, but a very large mane, blowing in a sort of ethereal breeze. You don't feel any wind or breeze, but the mane, which now frames a very cute looking pony, is being blown about nevertheless. You avert your eyes from her mane and look directly into her eyes. Not the smartest move. You look into two massive turquoise eyes. All you can do is keep on looking at the gorgeous eyes for god knows how long, and then she speaks again. "We are Princess Luna, sister of Princess Celestia, watcher of the night and keeper of dreams. It is our duty to rid all dreams from evil, such as anxiety and anger." She added the last bit with a little delay and you expect that it was meant for you personally. "Sooo... I'm dreaming?" You ask her with a smug face. "And I just met a princess, a pony princess. Who can enter my dreams to make them better." You say this as if making fun of her. It's only a dream anyway, and that means she's also just part of the dream. Although you did feel better when she came into the picture, and you've never seen her before. You also don't remember having such a good fantasy. "You do not believe us?" It looks like you may have offended her a bit. But then again, she's just a dream. She just keeps looking at you and even decides to sit down. After about ten long minutes you come to a sudden, although very obvious, realisation. If this is a dream than that means you can control it. You look at the light behind you and this time, instead of walking to it, you're willing it to go toward you. At first nothing seems to happen, but after a few seconds the orbs starts moving, at first a bit slowly, as if reluctant to move from its current position, but then speeds up before stops right in front of you. 'Wonderful!' You think, feeling a little elated, especially after having been so furious at the little light orb, now peacefully resting in the palm of your hand. You still think it is a little dark, and you will the light to go brighter. After yet again a few seconds the orb starts to pulsate slightly and the world around you seems to become lighter. You look over your shoulder to take a peak at the princess, only to find her standing two inches away from your back. 'How did she do that, I didn't even hear anything.' You think, but you don't feel any sort of panic building, just curiosity. "Enjoying yourselves?" She asked with, yet again, the exaggerated loud voice and, yet again, using the plural rather than the usual single form of grammar. You think it's quite odd. As if she's from the middle-ages or something. Thinking about the question she asked, you find that you are actually enjoying yourself. You turn to her to answer her question, only to find yourself mesmerised by her amazingly hue'ed eyes. You melt before her gaze, and since you're not too young any more, and had access to the internet back on earth something happens that you don't expect, nor do you want it to happen. You are aroused. This is a dream, and you are feeling aroused. Not a good combination, especially in front of a princess who may or may not be real, who has the most beautiful eyes. And you are still looking straight at them. who would've ever thought you could get aroused from another being. Sure you've seen shit on the internet, but that was just plain disturbing. 'Am I going crazy?' You wonder, although you've had this conversation about a thousand times with yourself over the past few days. You are finally able to shift your eyes away from the mare's only to come to another, very obvious, realisation. She's not wearing any clothes. And so aren't any of the other ponies you're hanging around with. This idea feels very wrong to you, and you turn away from the pony and sit with your back toward her. You start to feel more anxious again, en then she starts to speak again. "What causes you anxiety is nothing to worry about human. You may be a different species, but you are definitely still a male. It seems that our kind is not the only one who need some relief every so often, and since there are none of your species here except you, it is only logical to find relief through dreams." The way she talked so casually about something so embarrassing made you feel only more aroused. Thought's are starting to go through your head, dirty thoughts. After not too long these thoughts start to manifest in your dream. You don't like this one bit. You feel really embarrassed that the princess is still behind you. That mare with those deep blue-green eyes, framed by a slim face and a mane that represented the night sky. You hear a little thunk behind you and then a little oooh~. You anxiously turn around only to be extremely stunned by what you see. Instead of the seeing the pony princess sit behind you, she's standing straight up, with all her accessories laying next to her. She was looking at you wide-eyed, if that was even possible as her eyes were already huge. Between the pile of accessories you saw her tiara, it was made from some sort of black gem, and it had a dark-blue glow to it, much like the glow around her 'flowing' mane. You looked up to the top of her head and only then do you notice the big horn extruding at least a good three feet from it. And now with the light bright enough to be able to see normally you look at yourself and don't like what you see. You're not wearing any clothes, and you're aroused. That and the fact you are now facing Luna directly again makes your face feel hot and you know you're blushing from embarrassment. The mare takes notice of your skin turning red at your cheeks, and slowly follows you eyes down to your groin, which was now growing rather rapidly. Once she understands what's going on she immediately averts her eyes to the side, and you can swear that her cheeks are also getting a little flushed. Not wanting anything more to go wrong you just want to wake up, although the dream is pleasant, in a freakish kind of way. "We think we will take our leave now." The princess said with a little stutter in her voice. Is she nervous? You kind of expected a princess to be more assertive, even in these sort of awkward situations. You saw her take another quick peek at your lower mid section before her horn started to glow and she vanished with a flash, leaving you blind for the next five seconds or so. 'Well, so much for having a nice dream.' You think to yourself, still stunned by the flash of Luna disappearing. You did not expect to have been able to create such an attractive pony in your head but it was a dream, which meant you must have created it. But this fact now makes you feel very uncomfortable. You made up an attractive pony, and not an attractive human. Although you only arrived here, in this strange world, about two weeks ago. You haven't even spent a long time being awake, about only half of it, and you've only spent one day, ONE DAY, with multiple of these equine species. Now that the attractive princess mare is gone your dream feels empty, empty and boring. You just sit down, not really knowing what to do or how to even wake up. Then the earth starts shifting ever so slightly. but it gets worse. The earth moves back and forth with increasing strength and after not too long it feels like you're able to surf on it. Then the earth falls away from underneath you, and you fall. You violently open your eyes and your muscles make you shoot straight up, but instead of sitting straight up you hit your head against something hard and you fall back down with a thump. "Ouch, that really hurt." You hear someone, or something, say with a childlike voice. You can feel your heart beating in your head at the place you got hit, but you slowly open your eyes to investigate what actually happened. You're glad to find that it is relatively in the room and that you're exactly where you remembered going to sleep, which was on the, amazingly soft, couch. You look up at the ceiling, but instead of seeing one you see three pairs of huge eyes in way to small heads. The one who was hanging over you had its hoof put against its head, at the place you two bumped into each other, you expect. "Yea, that did hurt a little." You reply with your voice cracking a bit, probably because of the rude awakening. The three little fillies, you now saw, were looking at you wide eyed. It was getting awkward with them staring at you like that. "Would you please stop that?" You ask them, with a touch of annoyance in your voice. They replied by quickly jumping down from the top of the couch, where your head is, and then sprinting out the front door. You hear them laughing as they run around the house, toward the barn area. "Well, good morn'n." You hear Applejack say from the opposite side of the room, the accent heavy in her voice. "You feelin' hungry?" You did feel a little hungry, especially since you've only eaten a bit of cake in the past two weeks. the rest was all fed to you through tubes and needles in the hospital. "What's for breakfast." You ask her with a smile while you get up from the couch. You look in her direction and notice that Twilight is standing next to Applejack. "Oh, hey Twilight." You say, before Applejack has the chance to answer your question about food. "Oh. hi." Twilight answers, and you notice her not looking at your face, but rather at the ground and the walls. You notice a little blush appear on her cheeks. Looking over at Applejack you immediately understand why, as you see her staring, not at your face, but just a but lower. You were having the common problem which almost every, human, guy has in the morning. You quickly turn around and look down at your embarrassing wood, also thinking back about the dream you had. "Sorry 'bout that." You say nervously to the two mares still standing behind you. "Don' worry 'bout it sugarcube. Happens to all stallions ev'ry once in a while." Applejack says with a little laugh, which makes you feel even more embarrassed about it. "We'll just leave ya to get ready fer breakfast. C'mon Twi. See ya." Applejack seems way to comfortable, but then again she does seem to have the same personality as the stereotypical human farmers have and you expect her to not really care about this kind of stuff. "Yea, guess I'll see you guys at breakfast." You quickly answer before they're out of earshot. Again you look down at your manhood which was now, thankfully, subsiding again. You think about the dream again, and can't help but think about the fact that these ponies weren't wearing any clothes. Sure they had fur, but the fact that they could think and speak like humans made you feel like they should also be wearing clothes, and not go about showing off their stuff just because they can. It just doesn't seem natural. You quickly look at yourself in one of the mirrors hang on the walls only to find yourself very disappointed. You're a mess. Your clothes are dirty and need to be cleaned as soon as possible and your hair, which has started to grow longer than you are used to, makes you look almost like a porcupine. You try to comb your hair as good as possible with your hands but you only manage to make your head look like a sad mushroom. Seeing that you can't do much about your hair you decide to go to the dining room and join the ponies at the table. Breakfast is a surprise. It consists of bread, which you already thought was an achievement, apple juice, which you pretty much expected since you're on an apple farm, lettuce, you think they got from a market or something, and surprisingly, cheese. There was also a lot of hay on the table, but you expected that since you're in a house full of epuine beings. You're joined at the table by five ponies, two of which you know, Twilight and Applejack. The other three you haven't really met yet, although one did look a little familiar. The little filly sitting across from you still massaged her forehead every now and then with the backside of her hoof, indicating the point of impact from this morning. She's like a child version of Applejack, not in appearance but more in personality. Next to her is a big pony, and from the looks of it, a he. The look in his eyes seem rather lethargic, but he also looks rather buff. You don't know how a pony can look buff but this guy really does. At the head of the table there's a pony who doesn't look like the youngest any more, all wrinkly and moving very slowly to start on her meal. The only thing that's missing for making yourself a sandwich though is mayonnaise. You guess you'll just have to do without that then. The bread is a lot tastier than it looks like, probably because it was freshly baked and it's still warm on the inside, making it very soft and fluffy and extremely enjoyable to eat. This is the first normal meal you've had since you arrived, and you feel relieved they actually have normal food, maybe no meat but that was fine, for now. After you ate your breakfast and everybody finished you got led back to the room you slept in last night. "So what have you got planned for me today?" You ask Twilight with a little smile on your face. "Well I've shown you most of the town, but there are two more places I really have to show you, and one of them is going to take up quite a bit of time." She answers with genuine excitement. "But before we go we have to wait for everypony else to be here." She added. "Wait, what? Everypony as in who?" You ask with a little concern. You've seen how big the village was and you don't really feel like having to hang around with all of them. "Oh just Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash." She said, again sounding pretty excited. You also don't really look forward to meeting the blue pegasus again, thinking about what happened the last time you met her. You are relieved though that she didn't mean all the ponies from the village when she said 'everypony'. You didn't have to wait very long before there was a knock on the door. "You gonna let us in, or what." You hear a pony say with a little bit of a hoarse voice, which you remembered was, as you feared, from the blue pegasus with a rainbow coloured mane and tail. Applejack went to open the door, and you are left with Twilight for a few seconds. She seems to be a little shy when there's no other pony around and she looks at the ground again, really avoiding all eye contact. She didn't do that before did she? Does it have anything to do with this morning maybe? The seconds pass quickly and then the room gets filled with the rest of her closest friends. "So were are we going?" Rainbow Dash asks Twilight. "Well first we're going to visit my library, and then... Well you'll just have to see." She said with a rather playfull tone. "Come on, lets get going." She walked toward the door and she opened it using her magic and you and the other ponies followed. 05: The unexpected surpriseAuthor's note: I'm trying out a tiny bit of a different style, I hope you all don't mind. All previous chapters were written in the present form, but now I'm trying to mix present and past forms together, as I find it easier to write with. Please let me know if it doesn't work out and I'll change it back. The walk to the library wasn't a very long one, it took about twenty minutes to get there from Applejack's home. The walk also wasn't as awkward as the day before, when all ponies made sure there was at least thirty feet between them and you. You reach the library and you what you see is definitely not what you expected. You expected a big Roman style square building which could hold stacks of books, but what you see here is quite the opposite. In front of you is a huge tree with a door and windows. You don't know how the tree hasn't started to rot yet, but your best guess is that is has something to do with the magical charge of this world. Magic is everywhere here, not only in ponies but also in food and even in the air, at least that is how is feels. Twilight walks to the door and magically opens it. "Come on in. I'll show you around." Twilight says while looking at you. The other ponies already went inside so you follow suit and do the same. Once inside you see that the tree-house is indeed a library, everywhere you look there are books. The walls are not walls at all, they're shelves filled with books. There are also several stacks of books laying on the floor, almost reaching the roof and looking precariously unstable. "Wow" Is all you can manage to say as you look around you in awe. The library looked much bigger on the inside than it seemed from outside. You look at the titles of the books on the shelves and quickly find the pattern. It was pretty simple, every book was placed in alphabetical order but each shelf had a different category. "Oh, sorry about the mess. I totally forgot I was working on a new spell. Sorry." Twilight started as she walked around the stacks of books. "I don't mind." You reply, still gazing at the shelves, trying to see what kind of books there were in here. "Enjoying yourself?" The white unicorn said with her perfect British accent and stretching the words, obviously making fun of your behaviour. Everyone started to chuckle a bit, although you don't see the fun of it all. You walk toward one of the shelves where a book caught your eye. "Can I?" You ask Twilight as she walks up to you and stops right next to you. "Uhm... Sure go ahead." She said with a questioning look on her face. You take out the book which on the cover read 'A journey to the middle of the planet {Jules Knight}' and immediately open it to quickly scan through the contents. "Wow, this is something I didn't expect." You mumble to yourself, completely ignoring the ponies standing behind you looking at you intently. *Ahem* You hear Twilight beside you and you get pulled back to the present. "So what's with the book?" She asked looking from the book to you and back again. "Well." You start, not really knowing how to explain. "This book is very oddly, extremely similar to a book I've read before I came to this world." You say with a nervous smile on your face. "That's interesting." Twilight looks up at you then back at the book again. "So what kind of similarities does it have?" She asked with excitement in her voice. You explained to her how the story matches freakishly well with 'A journey to the centre of the earth {Jules Verne}'. It has the same main storyline, and also the same events. The only things that are different are the names, dates and places. After about ten minutes of talking you see everypony looking at you with a quizzed look on their faces, all except Twilight that is. Twilight walked over to another one of the shelves and threw another book at you. You read the title and immediately make the connection. The book is an atlas of the world, although at first you thought it was an atlas of Earth. The cover of the book is a map of the world, and it very closely represents the ones you know from earth, but the title states differently. 'Large Atlas of Geographical and Political Equestria' the title said. Twilight looked at you with a huge grin on her face, apparently feeling very proud about what she just discovered. "What'r you two up ta?" Applejack says with that puzzled look on her face. "I think we just discovered that I'm not from any random alternate dimension, but from a parallel one." You say with a little chuckle. "What in the hay is that supposed to mean?" She continues to ask. "Well, it means that many of the things in this world represent similar things in my world." You say with the smile on your face getting bigger. "For example this book." You point to the book you placed on the floor after Twilight had thrown you the atlas. "It very closely represents a book from my world, having the same storyline etcetera. Then we have the atlas." You say, this time pausing before continuing to build up some tension. "The geographical layout of your world is almost the same as the geographical layout from mine, apart from the dramatic changes in altitude." You finish talking and then look at the faces of the stunned ponies looking at you. "What?" You say nervously after a long and awkward silence. It seems like these five ponies hadn't really thought about where you were from, let alone how you even got here. The only one who wasn't surprised was the one you had talked to the most, but she also looks like someone, or rather somepony, who would actually think about this kind of stuff. "Oh. Right. Almost forgot." Twilight started as she now walked to the back of the library. "Uhm... Human? You don't have anywhere to stay, do you?" She asked, and you could swear you saw a little blush on her face, just like the pony had in your dream. You eye her, your face wearing questioning look. "Well I have a guest room back here, so if you want you can sleep here for the time being, until you get yourself a home, that is." She started looking up toward the ceiling, seemingly averting her eyes from yours, and now there was no way that there wasn't a blush on her face. You notice the other ponies looking at you as you try to make the rather easy decision. "Sure, I would love to stay here. Anything is better than that awful hospital bed. I would even sleep on the floor here if you didn't have a guest room." You say while taking a little bow, making Twilight blush even harder. "Okay... Uhm... Now that that's settled shall we... Uhm... Continue with the tour?" She asked, looking a bit embarrassed, her eyes darting from one side of the room to the other. "Okay, sure. Where do we go next?" You ask her, as her cheeks begin to go back to their normal colour. "For this I'll need to do some magic." She said, her lips twitching up to make a small grin. She moved to a different room and started to move stuff around. After a few minutes she walked back out, holding a few phials and bottles with her magic. "Just so you know, I don't know what effects this may have on you." She said pointing in your direction. "But ponies do not have any problems when I use magic on them. I expect humans don't react differently to it." She just laughs at you as she first walks up to the pink bouncing fur-ball of energy and her horn starts to glow. Pinkie stops bouncing for a second or two when Twilight lightly touches her head and a little light flashed from her horn. A split-second later and the pink pony is up and around bouncing happily on her spot. Twilight continued to the other ponies and did the same, although she skipped the two pegasi, which had you wondering why. She slowly walks over to you and her horn starts to glow again. "I need to touch your head for this, can you please get a little lower to the ground?" She asks as she closes the gap between you two. You bend your knees and you lean forward with your head a bit, to make it easier to reach. You feel the horn touch your head and a flash of light fills your vision. Only moments later you lay on the floor gasping for air and you see Twilight doing the same. You hear three sets of hooves running in your direction and you look to see al five ponies, the pegasi flying, rushing over to their fallen friend and the strange alien being. "What *GASP* was *GASP* that *GASP* ?" You ask with your eyes now wide open. You saw Twilight open her eyes slowly and looking at you. Her eyes went wide, and as they did the other five also looked at you. Their eyes also growing in size considerably. You wonder what's going on and you look at yourself. You down and are shocked by the sight. Your whole body is covered in a sort of aura, similar to the light Twilight's horn gives off when she wants to do magic. You push yourself up against the wall to sit up straight. "What the hell just happened?" You ask Twilight after regaining your breath somewhat. She looked at you curiously and then just smiled widely. "Ooooh, this is fun." She says with a smirk on her face. "I think I may have accidentally done something that wasn't supposed to happen." Twilight continued while looking at you with a grin. "Please Twilight, explain." You say, worried that something bad may have happened. "You know how this world has a lot of magic in it, right. Everything in this world is fused with it, all ponies have some magic in them, even earth ponies. But... the thing is... When you came here you didn't have any magic. Or at least so we thought since you came from a world without it. When I touch you with my magic, I think it unlocked yours. Since you didn't have any magic in most of your body, there must have been a part of you that did, which in turn reacted to my magic." She kept on lecturing for a good fifteen minutes before she thought you understood what she meant. "So basically I'm a magician without one of those horns on my head to actually use it." You say still sceptical about the whole thing. "Well, yes and no." Twilight answers. "It seems that, since your body is quite big, you have quite a bit of magic, which was all bound together before and now flows through it. I think you may not even need a horn to utilise your power." As she thought about what she'd just said she started to look with fear in her eyes toward you. "What's wrong" You ask her, seeing that fear in her eyes. "Well, the only being I know of that can utilise magic without a horn or a catalyst has more than once tried to lay waste to Equestria." She said while her voice sounded soft and quivered slightly. All of them now looked at you with fear in their eyes. You felt really bad by causing so much fear and just wished you were invisible, just so they would stop looking at you like that. You dropped your head down in your hands and then you were surprised , yet again. You saw your hands become see-through and almost vanishing, leaving only a vague outline of them in front of your face. You looked at yourself and noticed that not only your hands but your entire body, including your clothes had a glassy look to it, see-through but still visible. You look up to see the Six still staring at you, only now they looked terrified by what you just did. "I-I'm sorry" You say drooping down again. "Wow, didn't see that one coming." You hear the hoarse (hehe) voice, which belonged to Rainbow Dash you remember, say to you. This comment seemed to lighten the tension immediately as all the ponies regained their composure. All except the yellow pegasus, who was cowering behind all of her friends. "No no. It's okay. We should be the ones that are sorry. We shouldn't have judged you like that, just because you can do something only one other being, evil or not, can do." Rarity was speaking, although she still looked a bit nervous. You look at yourself again and realize that you're still near to invisible. "Uhm... How do I change back?" You ask Twilight as she looks at you. Then she starts laughing really loud and she almost falls to the ground. "What's so funny?" You ask her again not really understanding what's so funny. "Well we did just think you were about to kill us, and now you're asking me how to change yourself to being visible again." she said still half laughing. "I totally forgot you haven't learned how to magic at all yet." 'So they are laughing about the fact that I'm not able to use my magic and they each could have pinned me down by themselves.' You think annoyed. "I'm sorry, but how did you manage to be like that in the first place." Twilight asks now fully recovered from her laughing fit. "I don't know. I just didn't want you guys to look at me with those terrified eyes, so I just wanted to be invisible." You say looking at them with a little sadness in your eyes, thinking about how terrified they were only a few moments ago. "Hmmmmm." Twilight said deep in her thoughts. "You did magic by only thinking about it?" Rarity interrupted Twilight's train of thoughts and mumbled something to herself as she continued. "If that were the case then try thinking about being visible again." Twilight said as she now focused back on you. "Okay. If you say so." You answer feeling sceptical again. You think about being seen again, but this time with curious eyes on you instead of terrified ones. Your hear a few gasps and then open your eyes to find yourself visible again. "Wow, that's different." You say with a little bit of shock in your voice, as now the fact that you can do magic begins to seep into the part of your brain which makes you accept things as they are. "It is indeed not what I had planned for today, but I think we still have time for that." Twilight said, but then quickly added, "Tomorrow." "So what did you have planned for today darling?" Rarity asked but was quickly answered. "That's a surprise. But now I need you all to leave and come back tomorrow. I have some things I wish to discuss with our human here." She said pointing to you again. "Awwww." All the ponies said in unison as they were led out of the library by Twilight, who then locked the door before returning to the main room. "So what did you want to talk about Twilight?" You ask her as she drops herself down next to you. "I want to teach you how to control your magic, so that you don't accidentally use it when you don't want to." Twilight started. "When unicorns are born they have magic in them, not much but enough to cause a little trouble every now and then, since they don't have control over it. With you it could be a bit of a larger problem. You have a tremendous amount of magic in your system, and you don't know how to use it, let alone control it." "I'm going to have to teach you the basics of magic in order for you to be able to keep yourself from potentially destroying something you don't want to. There is only one catch. It would normally require a month at least to learn this, and we do not have the time for that. I don't want to risk having an unstable source of magic around here for a month." "I will have to transfer and copy some of my memory into yours." She looked you in the eye and then said seriously, "It. Will. Hurt." You flinched back a little to the side away from the purple pony who'd just said that she's going to hurt you. "But if it isn't done than you might get hurt even more than you can imagine." You sigh at that. "There's no other way?" You ask just to be sure she thought about everything. "No, this is the only way there is. Although we could make it a little more comfortable by lying on a bed instead of the floor." She said and she blushed a little again. You and Twilight walk to the guest room and you see one bed. Not very big humanwise, but it looked like it would be able to hold the both of you and still have some room to spare. You walk to the bed and sit on the edge, feeling the soft mattress. "Should I lie down or just sit up like this?" You ask Twilight before she hops onto the bed on the other side, and plops her head onto one of the pillows. "I guess I'll be lying down then." You say to Twilight, making her blush even more. "Just try to relax, and please try not to move." She said with a little worry on her face as her horn began to glow and she came close to touch his head. The moment you made contact the room burst with light and you were temporarily blinded, even though your eyes were closed. You felt as if something was trying to push your thoughts aside and when they were gone all you could see were memories. But not your own memories. These were the memories from the being lying opposite from you and you let them come in. As soon as you made the decision to let them enter your mind you were overwhelmed be an almost endless stream of information. It felt like eternity before it stopped, and when it did you feel nothing for a few seconds, then the pain kicks in and you pass out. AN: I hope you all like these turn of events. And if you want to know what the Actual surprise is, you'll just have to wait for the next chapter :p. 06: Control and the requestYou awaken to the sound of breathing. Something is loudly huffing into your ear. You move your head a little, only to be reminded of a heavy throbbing in your head. You also notice that there's a little weight on your head as you start to recall what had happened. You feel absolutely dreadful as your head is on the verge of popping. It feels like you've been drinking for three days straight, only to get the hangover all in one go instead of three separate times. You try to move a little again to get rid of that weight on your head. As you do you hear Twilight give a little grunt. "Just a little longer..." She says, more asleep than awake. You move a little more and now you feel the pony slowly slide off of your head. You feel a little better now that the weight is off, but your head still feels like bursting any moment. "Wow..." You start with a crackly voice, heavy with sleep. "That really sucked." You look up at Twilight who was now slowly opening her eyes to look at you. "Yea, that was worse than I expected it to be." Twilight said as an answer to your previous statement. "Probably has something to do with the interspecies thing. I've done this before with other ponies but it was never this bad." She grunted out while putting a hoof to her head. You lay there for at least thirty minutes until the inevitable happens. You hear a loud grumble from your mid section and well as from Twilights stomach. You have now idea how long you've been out cold but you do know that it was long enough to make you hungry as a horse (no pun intended). So you decide to get up. After taking almost an hour to get up and out of the guest-room, you decide to rest on one of the chairs in the kitchen to rest your still throbbing head a bit. But your stomach doesn't agree with that, making more grumbling sounds as to remind you that you're low on fuel. 'Fine' You mumble to yourself before getting up again and heading over to the cupboards to find yourself some food. Twilight said that she won't mind if you got yourself something to eat, as long as you would bring her something as well. You aren't a great cook but there is one thing you learned to make very well when you were a student on Earth. Sandwiches. If there was one thing you could make it was sandwiches. You look around the cupboards to find something edible. You see bread and cheese, not enough for a sandwich. You look around the kitchen again only to find that you had missed the enormous fridge standing next to the cupboards you were trying to raid earlier. You open the fridge and find a few more ingredients to use for making a proper sandwich. Lettuce, eggs and surprisingly mayonnaise. You go back to the cupboards to get some spices which you had already located earlier. Some salt, pepper and also some olive oil. You still feel surprised at how similar everything is to what you remember from Earth. After you prepared the sandwiches you walk back to the guest-room to a still half-sleeping pony. You place the food in front of her as she slowly begins to sit up straight, her mane falling to her side in a rather comical way. You can't help but give a little smirk at the sight. "What're you laughing at." Twilight said grumpily, but then eagerly picked up the sandwich and started eating. After you both finish eating your college-style sandwich she turns to you. "So. Did it work?" She asked, although she knew it had to have worked, after having experienced the after effect. "I don't know. Let me just think for a bit." You tell her as you try to remember the alien memories. It doesn't take very long to find them. They're all memories of school and lectures and reading books, but for some reason the were happy memories, as if you enjoyed every bit of the events. "I guess the memories also contain your feelings you have with them?" You half-ask Twilight already knowing the answer. She just nods at you, and immediately regrets doing so as her head is still a little sensitive. The memories Twilight gave you are very informative though, and are well worth the pain. You now know how to keep magic from accidentally leaking out, which could have disastrous consequences if it did. But that's about the only thing she let you learn. How to keep it in check, and how to vent it if you get overfilled. She didn't give one bit of information on how to cast a spell. Twilight doesn't know how you react to magic, and she doesn't know if you have a finite storage of it, like all ponies do. She probably taught only these specific things to you to ensure that you're not a threat to her or her friends, which you don't want to be. You like her... as a friend. "So I guess I won't be doing much with my magic then, will I?" You say smugly to Twilight as both of your headaches are starting to subside. "Well I don't really know how potent your magic is, so before I teach you any spells I would like to conduct a few experiments. Out of precaution of course." She replies with a little grin on her face and an inspecting eye looking all over you. "So what's with the clothes anyway?" She ask out of nowhere. "I'm sorry, WHAT? Why would you ask that?" You almost squeak, your face starting to feel very warm. "Well..." She started with a sigh. "I've noticed that you've worn these clothes ever since you got here. And that was over two weeks ago. I just wondered if you weren't getting uncomfortable in them. I mean we ponies don't very often wear clothes, and I am personally not very fond of wearing them either. They just get in the way." You looked at her, then at your clothes, which were dirt and sweat stained and were indeed not very comfortable at this point. "The problem is really." You said still your face a little flushed. "Since I didn't get any time to pack some stuff before coming here, these clothes are my only set. At least you still have a natural coat of fur covering yourself. I don't." "What's so bad about that?" She asks in reply. "Well, imagine yourself being fully shaved of your fur, and then having to walk around like that." You say trying to explain what it would feel like to you if you started to walk around without clothes. "Oh. Right, I think I can understand how you would feel having to walk around like that." She said, obviously still thinking about walking around without coat, and lightly flushing her face in the process. "I might have a solution though. Rarity, the white unicorn from before, she's a fashion designer and stylist. I don't think she would mind to make you some clothing, although it would have to be all custom made, as you're obviously not a pony." She chuckled at her own obviousness. You start to think back of the day before, not paying much attention to Twilight who started to talk about things Rarity had accomplished in her profession, about why she actually had to transfer her memories. "So why did you actually use magic on me and the other ponies yesterday?" you ask her suddenly, very curious about what she had planned before it all went haywire. "Well I tried to put a spell on you which would be necessary to keep you from getting you killed at the place where I wanted to bring you to." She said still not giving away where she was going to go. You let it go for now but you plan to ask her again in the near future. "Can we go to Rarity please? " You ask Twilight, only wanting to get out of these filthy clothes, have a bath and get some clean clothes on before night would settle in. 'What time is it anyway.' You wonder to yourself. "Hey Twilight, how long where we out?" You ask her as she looked up from a book she was now holding in front of her face. You have no idea how she got it but that's not important. "I'm not sure. At first I thought it was morning, but now that I look at where the sun is it must be evening. I guess we slept shorter than I thought." She said as she quickly dove back into her book. *BONK* *BONK* *BONK* Twilight's head snapped back up away from her book as she looked at the door. She slowly got up from her seat and started walking toward the door as another set of thuds could be heard. "C'mon Twi. Open up already. We're all rather worried 'bout you'n that human." Applejack sounded from outside the library. She pronounced 'human' more like 'hue-maihn' making you chuckle a little. "Ugh. I'm coming." Twilight, still with a slight headache, said as she opened the door. "Anything wrong girls?" She asked her friends as they all filed through the door with worried expressions on their faces. "Well we hadn't seen ya'll fer three days, an' we thought sum'in bad mighta hap'ned ya know." Applejack said again as Twilight's eyes widened. "THREE DAYS?!" You almost screamed and stood up from your chair, hearing it hit the floor behind you with a clear 'thud'. Every one of the ponies looked at you in surprise, noticing only now that you had been sitting on that poor chair. No wonder you felt so hungry when you woke up. You've been out for the past three days, but it only felt like a few hours. You look at the others and then at Twilight. She has the exact same expression you have, shock. "I don't understand. This should have knocked us out for two hours at most, if it would have knocked us out at all. This doesn't make any sense. Of course I expected that it could knock us out for longer than that, seeing that you react strangely to magic, but THREE days?!" Twilight seemed to be in deep thought as you were just about to state the obvious. "I guess your magic has more side-effects with me. You better be more careful when experimenting on something from a different world." You just say bluntly, already past the shock of having been in a coma for the past three days. You have gotten quite used to being knocked out here in this world of magic. "But How?! This really doesn't make any sense." Twilight kept on going trying to make sense of everything. "Does it make sense that I was transported to this world? Or that I have magic even though I come from a non-magic dimension? Or that I was able to do a invisibility spell without having learned one" You tell her, trying to stop her from trying to make sense of all these things that don't make sense. This did seem to make her train of thoughts to stop. She now looks at you with big eyes, as if she'd just had an epiphany. "That... Actually makes sense." Twilight immediately walked to one of her rooms and quickly came back with quill and parchment, taking notes. You don't get how that makes any sense but apparently it did to her. "Uh, Twi, whatcha doin'?" Applejack looked at her while the bookworm walked over to you and started poking you very lightly with her horn at different places. "I just need to confirm something." She mumbled just loud enough for everyone to be able to hear. "No seriously Twilight what are you doing?" This time it was you who asked the question. She didn't seem to have heard you at all or she's just being plain rude and she's ignoring you. "Okay. Fine. As long as you don't poke my privates it's fine with me." You sighed as you figure you can't get her attention at all when she's this focused on something. You look at her friends who were now all looking at you with a little smile on their faces, and their eyes slightly squinting. Only seconds later Rainbow burst out laughing as she fell to the ground, unable to keep flapping her wings in sync. This made the rest also start laughing at your previous comment. This got Twilight's attention. "What?" She was now looking at her friends who were rolling over the library's floor, chuckling in the process. "I wasn't planning on poking his privates, you know." She sighed looking from her friends back to you. "Anyway I've got enough data for now, although I would like to run a few more tests on you, to see how magic reacts to you, and vice versa." This scared you a little. "What kind of test? I hope not as painful as the memory transfer." You ask her, but now everyone stopped laughing and they looked from you to Twilight. "Memory transfer?! Why in Equestria would you ever do that?" Rarity spoke giving Twilight an accusing look. "You know that it hurts the castee three times more than the caster. Not to mention the possible side effects." "I had no cho..." Twilight started but you interrupted. "Wait. What! So you're saying that Twilight had three times less of a headache than me and than she let me make her breakfast?! You're really unbelievable you know that." Now you were the one looking at her with an accusing look. She's a sadist. All she did was look at you with a *Squee*, ears laid back on her head and making her eyes as big as she could. "So. Why did you do the transfer darling?" Rarity asked again, also giving a slightly accusing look directed at Twilight. "I don't know if you all noticed this, but when I accidentally released his 'seal' on his magic he almost immediately used it, without knowing he did. That meant that he didn't have control over it. You probably have noticed that the amount of magic he has is really high, so in order to..." This time she was cut of by Rarity. "So in order to keep him from potentially hurting not only us but also himself he needed a crash course in controlling magic?" She finished Twilight's sentence, which in turn got her an angry glare and a little nod from the purple bookworm. "But did it work? Can you do all those things Twilight can?" Rarity started to show a lot of interest in you at this point. "Nope. She was mean and only transferred the memories from basic magic control, and no spells whatsoever." This made her jaw almost hit the floor. "So little information and you still managed to get knocked out for three whole days?! I think we should all be careful with magic around you." Rarity gave a nervous chuckle and looked to the ground again. "I think we should inform Celestia about these events. For something to have this much magic could be a problem in various ways." Twilight stated and walked a little past her friends, before shouting. "SPIKE! SPIKE?! Spike? Anyone know where spike is?" She now looked to her friends. "Spike has been sleeping on my couch at the Boutique for that past three days, since you had locked the door before your little 'memory transfer' with this human here. You even put a magical lock on it." Rarity said with a little edge to her voice. "Oh, right. Forgot about that." Twilight seemed a little uncomfortable. "The poor baby dragon has been worried sick about you, all he did was ask if the library was open again and if you were okay. Poor thing." Rarity said laying emphasis on almost each word. "Sorry, but could you get him? I need to send a letter to Celestia informing about the current events." Twilight was being pretty serious, although she did really bad about making the baby dragon worry. "Ah'll go get'm." Applejack was out of the library before she even finished her sentence. "Oh yea almost forgot. I think that the surprise I was planning will have to be moved to an indefinite date. Too bad though, I really wanted to see your reaction." Twilight said with a sad smile. After a few minutes Applejack had returned with an over-sized, green-bellied, purple-backed lizard. You understand why it's a baby dragon although it isn't really what you had in mind. "Twilight! You're okay." The baby dragon Spike said as he ran to Twilight for a hug. After several minutes of hugging and Spike being convinced that Twilight was okay she put on her serious face again. "Spike, I need to send a letter to the Princess immediately." Twilight said as Spike was suddenly holding a piece of parchment and a quill. Dear Princess Celestia, I take it that you have already been notified about our visitor from a different plane. He is currently staying in Ponyville and I have personally seen to it that he has been treated well. There has been an event though that I want to inform you about. I went to cast a spell on him which triggered something in his body to release a seal which was holding his magic. I have found that his magic is vast, but he has yet to learn spells. I would like to hear your thoughts on this matter, and hereby invite you to Ponyville to personally meet him. You faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. Spike wrote down what Twilight said and then he burnt it. Just like that. No reason whatsoever. He just breathed a green flame and the letter went up in smoke. You just look at the dragon and then at a smiling Twilight with confusion. That confusion was quickly taken away as the dragon started making a choking sound and then burped, a little green flame leaving his mouth again. When the smoke cleared away from his face he was holding a letter in his claw and he handed it over to Twilight. Dear Twilight Sparkle, I have indeed heard this rumour of another being entering our world via unconventional means. It gives me great pleasure to hear that he has been properly cared for. I am surprised to hear though that this creature has had a reaction to your magic. I will see to arrange a visit to Ponyville soon. In the mean time please refrain from using magic on him. I will personally come to see why this reaction took place. Her Highness, Princess Celestia. The letter had the royal seal on the bottom stating it was in fact from the Princess herself. "So what now?" You ask Twilight and her 'gang' of ponies. "I guess we'll just have to wait for Celestia to come by, before I can begin my tests." Twilight said obviously sad she couldn't start experimenting right away. "Before she arrives, could I maybe get some new clothes?" You say, looking over to the ivory unicorn. "Oh, but of course darling. Those old rags you're wearing currently just won't do in front of royalty, and they also don't look all that comfortable, am I correct?" Rarity was in her element the moment you said the word 'clothes' and she was already practically dragging you to her Boutique. "You really need to come with me darling, I need to take your measurements before I can make anything for you." She had dragged you most of the way to her boutique and when you were there she immediately started on her work for a new set of clothes for the bipedal creature. 07: A new styleBefore Rarity can start on making you a new set of clothes there was one thing she has to do. It is something that makes you feel a little uncomfortable. She has to take your measurements, which means you have to take off your clothes, for the most part. "Do I really have to take off my clothes?" You ask her, feeling rather awkward. "Well yes darling. How else am I supposed to get your measurements? It's not like I can see through your clothes." Rarity says with a sigh of irritation. You have been at this for the past ten minutes and she's losing her patience. "Okay, fine. But as long as I can keep my shorts on." You reply with the same irritation as you start to strip off your clothes. "Shorts? What are shorts? Don't tell me you're wearing clothes underneath your clothes." She seems sincerely shocked as you take off your pants to reveal your boxer shorts to her. "My goodness, doesn't it get warm with so much fabric over your body?!" Rarity just looked at you with big surprised eyes after you had stripped down to nothing but your rather well-fitting shorts. "So, can I keep 'm on or do I have to take these of too. I'd rather not though." You say feeling awkward and feeling embarrassment coming up. "I guess this will do. It won't interfere with my measuring tapes and you don't have to feel embarrassed by anything." "Wait. How did you know I was feeling embarrassed?" Now feeling even more embarrassed. "It's written all over your face darling. You may be a different species but it seems you have the exact same quirks as us ponies do." She says with a little giggle, probably just to tease you. This just makes you sigh as she starts wrapping your body with her measuring tapes using her magic. After about a minute you start to feel like a mummy, being wrapped up in so much tape that it gets hard to breathe. "Uhm... Rarity are you almost done, 'cuz it's getting pretty hard to breath like this." You grunt out and immediately feel the tapes being loosened a bit. "Almost there, just need to measure your arm's length properly. You do realise that it is a difficult task to make clothes for a different species, especially for one of your size." She says while noting down the final lengths she needs before she can begin with actually making his clothes. "Okay, I'm all done. If you want to put your clothes back on you may, but I think you should take a shower first and wash your clothes before you do that. If you just take your time than I might be finished with your first set when you're done." Rarity points to a door to the back of her boutique. "Go through that door and then the first door on the right is the bathroom. There are clean towels and if you need anything else just ask." She walks back to through the reception room and makes her way into her project chamber, where she makes all the clothing for her customers. You walk through the door at the back of the boutique and then the first door to your right. The room you walk into is absolutely massive. It is probably the most luxurious bathroom you've ever seen. To the right of the room is a very large bathtub, more of a small pool than a tub. On the left is what you guess the shower area. You open the semitransparent doors to see that there is no shower head. There is however a roof with holes in it. 'So this is how a pony showers.' You think to yourself. You put your clothes on the floor outside of the shower cabin and you twist the water knobs, carefully adjusting them to the right temperature. After having soaked yourself under the shower and thoroughly scrubbed yourself to get rid of all the grit and sweat from the past few weeks you decide that when you walk out of the shower you don't want to look like an elderly. You twist the knobs in the opposite direction and give a little sigh feeling relieved that you're finally clean again. You walk out of the shower cabin and pick up one of the towels laying on a little neatly folded pile near the door. After you dried yourself and having put the towel around your waist, you carefully walk out the bathroom to get to Rarity as soon as possible. As you enter the reception area though, there is a mare sitting on one of the couches. She turns her head towards the sound of the opening door and just stares at you. You want to go back through the door, but you also want to get to Rarity for your clothes, which she said she would have finished by now. Not a moment too soon the door to her work area opens and she walks out with a costume floating behind her in her magical grasp, only to stop in her tracks as her eyes dart between you and her customer. After a second or so she regains her composure and walk over to the turquoise mare. "Here you are miss Heartstrings." She says to the mare, startling her and pulling her out of her daze. "Huh? What? Oh, right. Thank you. I guess I'll be going then." Heartstrings replies awkwardly before quickly making her way out of the boutique. "Excuse me for that. I had totally forgotten that she was going to be here today to pick up her order." Rarity starts. "Your clothing is also coming along nicely. I just need to get a few more stitches into the top half of your set and you're good to go." You look at her as she beckons you to follow her to her working area. "Could I maybe try out what you've already finished, then I could maybe also get rid of this towel." You say with a sheepish smile on your face. "But of course darling. I also took the liberty of trying to make on of those, what you call it, 'shorts'." Rarity walks to the far end of the room to retrieve what she's currently made for you. She walks back to you with a victorious smile beaming with the message 'I DID IT! IT WORKED!', which kind of scares you a little. She floats the garments in front of you and you quickly pluck them from her grasp, as you walk toward the corner of the room where there is a conveniently placed curtain hanging from the ceiling. You pull the curtain in front of you as you drop the towel you were still holding around your waist, and try on the new pair of white boxer shorts. It's a perfect fit. Not too small and not too big. And what surprised you most is that it doesn't clamp around your groin. It's the best set of underpants you've ever had, as far as you can remember. Next you put on the pants. As with the shorts, it's a perfect fit. You walk around a little, still with bare chest but that doesn't really bother you, and the trousers just seem to move along with you, not getting caught on anything. You walk back from behind the curtain toward Rarity to show how good of a job she did. "Oh my. You look absolutely stunning with those pants on." She says before you can even make a comment on it. "Here put these on as well." She hands over a very neat looking black vest and a white t-shirt. It looks pretty good with the blue denim-y trousers she made for you. "These clothes are your 'casual' clothes so to say. I'm now going to work on your formal attire. This will take a bit longer than what you are wearing now, so I suggest you head back to Twilight and come back later to pick it up. This will require a lot of my concentration and I do not need anyone to disturb me." She seems a bit hostile when she ends the sentence, but then again she also seems like the person, erm pony, to be dedicated to her job. After a short walk through town you reach Twilight's library. The walks through town seem to have gotten less awkward which makes you feel relieved. The ponies still stare at you when you pass by, but at least they don't bolt away when you get too close. You knock on the door and wait for a few moments. "Come in. You know that it is a 'public' library right. So you don't have to knock before you come in." Twilight says as you step through the door frame. "But it is still your home as well, and I don't want to be rude and just barge in without giving you a little heads-up." You reply bluntly. You walk over to the one chair in the room, probably the only chair in the town, and take a seat placing your right leg over your left. "I like your clothes. Rarity really did a good job again." Twilight says with a wide smile, eyeing you from top to bottom. You think you see her linger just a little too long around the waist though. "Okay... You done?" You ask her, feeling annoyed and awkward. "So what do I do now? You're not allowed to use magic on me, I'm not able to use my magic and you've already shown me around town. So now what?" You try to think of something to do just as you get a book shoved in your hands. The book's title was 'Helping the community: a reference guide'. "Seriously?! You want me to help you?" You ask Twilight surprised by her suggestion. "Yes I do. You don't have a job, yet. But you have one thing that nopony has." She started as she then looks at your hands. "Those tentacle-y hooves of yours could really come in handy for certain jobs." She states, still eyeing your hands. "These things." You hold up your hands and flex them a few times. "Are called 'hands', not hooves, and I can imagine how they could come in handy for ponies who can't use magic." You now look over to Twilight's horn. "I don't know how much you think of magic, but it's really difficult for unicorns to do delicate tasks, unless you're specialised in that sort of stuff, like doctor Feel-good." You give her a nod of understanding before she can try to lecture you again. "Do you have any jobs for me in mind then?" You ask as you stand up and walk around a little bit, letting your gaze fall over a few books without actually reading their covers. "I don't know exactly how nimble your hands are but if I would take a guess then you could maybe help the carpenter. You could also ask Rarity if you could help her, but I think she's more of a pony who likes to work by herself. Maybe you could..." She continues to give suggestions for work but nothing seems to spark your interests. After about ten minutes she had named almost all jobs available. "There's one more thing you could maybe do, although I don't think you'd really like it. It's more of a mare's thing. Anyway, if you want you can ask the twins Aloe and Lotus if you could work at their local spa." She finished with a sheepish smile. "I don't know how well you can use your hands, but I think it would make for an interesting massage at the least." Twilight was now blushing through her purple coat, her eyes darting from side to side and avoiding your gaze. You can't remember how to really do a massage, hell you barely remember anything from earth, just that that's where you came from. But massaging sounds much more appealing to you than screwing any loose nuts and bolts at construction sites. You decide that you'll try the massaging first before moving on to something else if it doesn't work out. After Twilight gave you the directions to the spa and having walked around for almost and hour before you dared ask anypony where the spa was, you finally find it. Turns out it is only a ten minute walk from the library, but you just never noticed it before. You open the door which causes a little bell to ring, and you enter, taking care not to hit your head. You walk up to the counter to find a blue pony with a pink mane and tail. "Good day, how may I he-..." She stops mid sentence, looking at you with wide eyes from top to bottom. After a minute or so she regains her composure and starts again. "E-excuse me for that. H-how may I help you?" She stutters, obviously nervous toward the alien standing in front of her. "Hi, I'm looking for a job and Twilight said that you might have something for me?" The blue pony walks around the counter to stand right in front of you. Looking at you with an inspecting eye she gasped when she notices your hands. She quickly grabs one with her hooves, which feels very soft and fluffy, and starts carefully pulling at your fingers. "How interesting..." She starts mumbling to herself, as she continues to look and touch your hands. "Loooootuusss! I heard someone come in, what does she want?" You hear someone, or somepony, shout from a hallway past the counter. Lotus doesn't react as she's still too distracted by your hands. "Lotus?" You hear and you look down the hallway to see a mare eerily similar to the one standing in front of you. They are similar in each way except that the colours are inverted. Lotus being blue with a pink mane and the mare in the hallway who was now trotting towards you, was pink with a blue mane. They even had the same hair-, or mane-, style. "Hi, my name is Aloe. Are you new in town? I haven't seen you before." Aloe says as she was now standing next to Lotus. "Don't mind my sister, she can get a little weird at times." She adds before she also sees my hands. Five minutes later and they're both still holding my hands and talking to each other in some kind of Scandinavian language. This is not getting you anywhere. "You girls done?" You ask them, pulling them from their trance. "Oh sorry, excuse us." Aloe says as she and her sister finally let go of your hands. "So you said you're looking for a job?" Lotus now asks, still eyeing your hands. "Do you know how to give a proper massage?" "I'm not really sure. I haven't tried it since I've arrived here and lost most of my memory, so I don't know." You reply looking at the two mares who were now walking toward the hallway. "Only one way to find out." Aloe says as she beckons you to follow them and giving a little wink. They lead you to an unoccupied room with a three massage tables. Lotus gets up onto the furthest one and lies face-down on it. "You are now going to give Lotus a massage, and I will watch. If you do a good job we might employ you, we're short on staff since late anyway." Aloe says while motioning toward Lotus, urging you to start massaging. You walk over to Lotus and stand next to the table. 'Now what?' You think before you move to the other side of the table. You look around the room to see lots of oils and lotions on shelves against the walls. "Do I need to use a lotion or oil before I start?" You ask the sisters. "Oh my, already asking questions. Yes, the first thing we do here is ask the client, in this case Lotus, if she wants an oil or a lotion. If she does then ask which one." Aloe explains before getting a bottle of oil. "Lotus likes this one, saves you the trouble of finding it." *Wink* Aloe hands you the bottle of oil. You pop off the lid and smell it. It smells like cherry blossom, only a hundred times stronger then natural. You quickly pull your nose away from the bottle and pour some of the oil onto your hand. After you hand the bottle back to Aloe you walk to the other side of the table, again. Carefully you place your hands on Lotus' shoulder area, immediately feeling the tension of her muscles underneath your fingers and palm. You slowly move your hands down and to the side, assessing the problem areas in her shoulders. It feels vaguely familiar to be doing this, and you actually enjoy it. After having felt where the knots are you gently start pressing between her shoulders, just beside the shoulder blades. You feel some of the tension leave and Lotus gives a little sigh of satisfaction. You press a little harder with you index- and middle fingers to get rid of the more underlying tension. After making sure you had removed all the tension from one area you move on to the next, Lotus sighing and even groaning at certain points while she relaxed more and more. After a good forty-five minutes you got rid of all tension in Lotus' back, leaving her sound asleep on the table. "Wow, you are good with those hooves of yours." Aloe says while chuckling at her sleeping sister. "I think that Lotus would agree on me hiring you. If you follow me please than we can do everything by the book." You follow her back to the counter, leaving Lotus to sleep on the massage table. "You'll be paid per customer, not per hour." Aloe starts. "Any tips the customers leave are for you to keep and depending on which treatment they want you will be paid different amounts. Understood?" "Yea, sure. I'm just glad I've finally gotten a job." You reply with obvious glee. You feel really glad you're now able to make some money for yourself, and not having to depend on Twilight or her friends. "Okay, so if you'll just sign on these three forms we should be in good shape." Aloe smiles at you while holding out the forms. After carefully having read the forms and seen al the rules and regulations you sign them. You even make a decent amount of money per customer. Ten bits for a twenty minute massage ranging up to three hundred bits for the full 'special' treatment. You return the forms to the pink mare and thank her for giving you the job. You walk toward the door to head back to Twilight to tell the news. "I'll see you tomorrow at twelve sharp. Don't be late." Aloe managed to say before you were out of earshot. AN: Hey guys, I know that this has already been exploited to it's fullest, but seriously, being the only being with (almost) the same brainpower, with fingers. I think that massaging is one of the first things one would do. So I hope y'all like it, and now that you can take care of yourself you might even get a place for yourself. But that'll be later on in the story. First though, you still need to meet the goddesses of the sun and moon and princesses of Equestria, Celestia and Luna. Expect that to be in the next chapter or after that. Hope you're all enjoying my story. Please leave a comment if you have questions, I will answer to my fullest capacity. Yours Faithfully, Porqupine Static /) 08: The Sun and RestrictionsThe past week went by without incident and you are getting into a rhythm. You wake up at eight o'clock, prepare breakfast for yourself and Twilight, read a few books, mostly fiction but sometimes a book on magic, and then you go to work. You usually have two or three clients a day. Then you go back to the library, take a shower, read some more, prepare dinner and then go back to sleep. It feels nice to be accepted into society so quickly. All ponies now just wave at you when you walk by them and sometimes you start a little conversation with them. It feels good to just settle down and live a peaceful life. The only problem had been that you had no name. With the help of Twilight and her friends you managed to come up with a few that may suit you. The one you finally chose was really a pony-styled name, being two-parted and describing you a little. The name you chose is 'Plane Walker'. Twilight and her friends seemed to like it although you find it a little weird, but it sounded better than 'Dimension Exchanger', or 'Tentacle Hooves'. You walk back to the library from a days work and you smile to the ponies on the way. You're almost at the library but you can hear some kind of music being played in the distance, horns and trumpets playing a royal tune. Suddenly you remember what the Princess of this land had written in that letter she sent, 'I will see to arrange a visit to Ponyville soon.', and now it is soon, probably. This makes you feel really nervous and you pick up your pace to reach the library faster. You've never seen royalty, let alone having spoken to royalty. At least you do have a neat, albeit old-fashioned, suit that Rarity had finished a few days back. You reach the library and before entering you, like always, knock on the door to give a heads up that you're coming in. "Hi Twi." You say before quickly bolting to the guest room to put on the fancy set of clothes. "Hey Plane, what's the hurry." Twilight says as you slam the door shut. "I think royalty may be here very soon." You reply while getting into the suit. "WHAT?! NOW?! I haven't even organized the library yet, let alone Ponyville!" Now it isn't you who was nervous, Twilight has just shown you a whole new level of nervousness, and you don't even get close to it. You finish dressing up and you walk over to Twilight, who's frantically walking around in circles thinking about what to do. "Twi, calm down. It's just a casual visit anyway." You calmly tell her. "There's absolutely NOTHING casual about a visit from the princess. Why did she have to come today, I had planned for her to arrive tomorrow, now I will have to reschedule EVERYTHING!" Twilight was so in thought that she failed to hear the knock on the door. "Twilight, I think there's someone at the door." You just state bluntly. Twilight immediately look to the door, visibly shaking from not having planned anything for today. Another knock on the door and Twilight slowly opens it a few inches and looks out. "Oh, uh... Hi Princess how are you?" Twilight is talking very strangely. This is the first time you've heard her not knowing what to say. You stand behind Twilight and fully open the door, surprising Twilight. You see two white stallion pegasi with golden armour with blue manes and tails standing beside a much larger pony, almost horse size. It's pretty obvious that this is the princess. Prefect white coat, golden attire, a golden necklace and tiara both with a massive amethyst. Her mane is strange though, it's not hair. You can't describe it really, but it seems to gently flow like a river. "My prized and most faithful student, what has made you so nervous?" The Princess asks, smiling gently to Twilight. You still just stand there, admiring the beauty of the Princess for you don't know how long, before Twilight stomps on your foot to get your attention. "Ouch! What the..." You look at Twilight who now moves to the side to let Celestia in the library. You follow suit but still give a little glare to the purple pony. You all settle down in the main part of the library, while the royal guard stays outside the door. Once you're all settled and you were sitting on your chair you have one question you really need to ask the Princess. "Princess, will Luna be joining us?" You ask a little sheepishly. "No, sadly not. There is some troubles with the griffins she has to take care of. Although she did want to meet you for real, instead of in your dreams." The Princess chuckled a little seeing you taken aback by what she said. "So, she was really in my dreams then? And it wasn't my imagination?" You tell yourself more then really asking. "Yes. My sister is the Princess of the Night, which means dreams are also part of her responsibility." Celestia now got up and she is standing next to you. "The reason I came here really was to find out what Twilight found in you. I will scan your body. You won't feel a thing." She got straight to the point and she puts her three foot horn on your shoulder. You feel a little warmth flowing from it and then a wave of cold. "Well that is indeed interesting. It seems that your magic resembles that of the minotaur mostly. It is a very potent magic, but yours is slightly different still. I have no idea what it actually is. If you are interested in learning magic, I suggest you learn the ancient style the minotaurs have been using for aeons. It is quite different from pony magic, but can yield similar results." Twilight had taken a notepad and a quill to write down everything the Princess was saying, which would come in handy later. After another hour of talking and some more scanning the Princess was convinced you don't pose a direct threat to her subjects and she went back to her castle to care for her royal duties. It's about five-thirty now and you start to feel hungry. Time to prepare some dinner. Dinner is same as it has been for the last week, some potatoes with a lot of raw and cooked vegetables. The only thing missing is meat. Of course ponies are herbivores but that doesn't mean you don't miss the taste of meat now that you live like one yourself. "So twilight..." You start as you serve the food for the both of you. "Yes Plane?" "Do you think I should learn Minotaur magic?" "Well of course you should. You could help out so much better if you could actually use your magic, instead of dissipating it every time you overcharge." Twilight smiles at you while she grabs a book and places in front of you with her magic, before taking another bite of the food. "Just imagine what you could achieve with magic and with those hands of yours." You open the book which Twilight had given you, the cover reading 'Basic control and handling of Minotaurian magicks'. You already know how to keep your magic at bay, so you check the table of contents for spells. You quickly find the one you wanted to learn ever since you found out you have magic. "Levitation spell, the basics. I think that's a good place to start. Don't you think so too Twi?" You ask her while flipping to the correct page. "Well, I know that the levitation spell for ponies is pretty easy, but I haven't studied Minotaurian magick whatsoever so I have no idea how difficult it is." "It is in the book for basic magicks, so I don't think it could be that difficult, right?" You find the page and start reading the first paragraph. After about two sentences though you encounter your first problem. "Hey Twi, what do they mean with 'Focus the Prana to the Nabhi and let it flow through Marut onto Vastu.'?" You ask, not understanding a single word you just read. "I think you may need to learn some of the ancient Minotaur language before you can learn their magick." Twilight replies with a sigh. "What they mean, though, is 'Focus the energy, in this case your natural magic, to your stomach area, which is the place that can hold most of your magic at the same time, and let it flow through the air onto the object you wish to levitate'. It's almost the same with unicorns, but we have to focus our magic through our horns before we can cast a spell." This makes much more sense to you then those weird ancient words. You decide you want to give it a try straight away without even finishing your dinner. You can already feel your own magic but now you have to move it to your stomach. It doesn't take much effort to do so, since Twilight told you how to vent and control it internally through her memories. 'So now I just focus it onto the object, can't be too difficult.' You think to yourself while looking at your fork next to you plate of unfinished food. You feel the magic flow toward it and slowly wrap around the object. It even starts to glow a little, and so does your stomach. The fork starts shaking a little and lifts about a centimetre off of the table with a soft 'tink', escaping your grip. You try again, focus your energy on the object and lift it, only to have it slip from your grip yet again. "Wow, it's a lot more difficult than it looks." You say with a little sign of strain on your face, after having failed another few times. "Maybe you should try focusing your magic from your stomach through your hands first and then use your them to guide and focus it on the fork." Twilight suggests after having watched your attempts at a supposedly simple spell. You try what Twilight said, and at first it seems to work. The fork balances at about two inches from the table for about three seconds, then it quivers slightly and drops back onto the table. "I guess I'll have to practise quite a bit before I can help you with whatever you wanted me to help you with." You say with a sigh, before finishing your now cold dinner. Today is your day off and now that Twilight knows what sort of magic you have she wants to do some magical testing. She wants to find the source of your magic and how fast you generate it, in comparison to ponies. Over the past few days Twilight has been studying all about Minotaurian magick and now she feels confident enough to use her magic on you, without fear of blowing you or anything up. After having started the day like usual you are led to a basement you didn't even know Twilight had. It is filled with what seems like an assortment of an entire chemical factory. Phials placed in holders which in turn are resting on shelves through the entire room. In the middle of the room is a table and Twilight says you should lie down on it. She doesn't waste any time and starts working immediately, using the appropriate spells as not to cause any imbalance. It feels weird, because you can feel her magic coarse through your body but you can't control it. It unnerves you a little. "C'mon relax, don't block me please, otherwise this won't work." Twilight starts. "What? I'm not blocking you." You reply confused. "Yes you are. Just stop following my magic, let it flow freely." You stop tracing the flow of Twilight's magic, although somehow you can still sense exactly where it is. You immediately feel better and more relaxed, as if a pressure is gone. You feel her magic move through your stomach and further up. Twilight taking notes and every so often dipping the quill back in the ink pot all the while. Once her magic reaches your heart though, you feel her suddenly stop. You take a deep breath to relax yourself , because you feel the tension rising again. After Twilight has written down some more data she continues probing you with her magic, but she avoids your heart area, which concerns you a little. You decide to ask her afterwards why she avoided your heart, but you let her continue for now. After another twenty minutes of probing you with her horn Twilight decides to do some other testing. She pulls out one hair from your head and puts it into a phial containing a clear liquid. Upon contact with the hair sample the liquid immediately turns a dark purple. "Interesting..." The mad scientist mumbles while continuously stirring the phial's contents. A few seconds later the liquid turned a bright venom-green and then quickly black. You look at Twilight who now has a frown on her face as she quickly notes down her findings. After some more testing and probing Twilight said she needs some time to inspect the results and make a diagnosis. She suggests you practice your magicks and also do some studying of the ancient language, which you found out seems very similar to the Earth's Sanskrit language, which originated from before five hundred BC. It's still a pain-in-the-ass to have to learn the language though. You hate languages, but If you want to learn magick there's not much choice. You decide you don't need to learn the whole language, but just look up the words you don't understand when you need to learn a spell. The problem you do keep on running into is that, because you aren't a minotaur, you have to do each spell a little differently than the book suggests. This gives you the idea to write a book for yourself, in normal English and each spell altered in such a way that you can actually cast it. Of course you're still only working on your levitation spell, but you plan on making each spell suitable for yourself to use. After about two hours of practising and writing Twilight finally walks into the room with a worried expression. "What's wrong?" You ask her, as she stops in front of you and gives you her notes. "What's this?" "There have been some... results that I'm not very comfortable with." Twilight responds. "It appears that you are highly susceptible to corruption, and it is strengthened by you now having magic." She sighs and starts to trot around the room. "The thing is, if you continue your studies on magic you might become too powerful and become corrupted by darkness. It will probably take a while before you can even do all the basics, but in time and with enough practise you could become more powerful than Celestia herself. Therefore I ask you to only study the basics and nothing more, otherwise you will be a threat and then I will have to find a way to return you to where you came from." Twilight doesn't seem to like that idea too much, and you have also grown to like the ponies of this world. You don't think you are capable of hurting anyone or anything, but you know that it fits the human race to be consumed with power and use it for their own gain. "I promise I will not study more than the basics of magic, unless you tell me that I have to learn some other spell for the good of others." You say sincerely, looking at a slightly relieved Twilight. "What's that you have there?" Twilight says, quickly changing the subject and clearing the air of the ominous tension. "I'm sort of re-writing the book for myself, using normal English and altering the spells for myself so that I can actually cast them." You reply with a smile. "Okay... Just make sure you translate everything correctly. I wouldn't want you to accidentally blow yourself up." Twilight says as she gets a few books from the shelves and walks over to a clear side of the room before lying down and reading. You decide that now is a good time to start preparing dinner for the both of you. Just before you reach the kitchen there's a knock on the door. "Come in." You say, knowing Twilight is probably too occupied with her books. You look over your shoulder to see who was at the door and are surprised that all the elements of harmony were now standing in the library. There had only been two times before that they had all visited at the same time. You know they sometimes hang out somewhere together, but that's usually at Sugar Cube Corner, a place where you still don't dare go near to. "So what brings you all here this fine evening?" You say with an exaggerated posh accent. "Hi Plane. We just wanted to..." Rainbow Dash started before being rudely interrupted by Pinkie. "We want you to cook for us!" Pinkie screamed with glee, as she bounced around Twilight's home, getting a cold stare from Rainbow while doing so. You've never cooked for Twilight friends before. You only ever cooked for Twilight and yourself. "We all heard that you're a mighty fine cook from Missy Twilight here." Applejack said, pointing at a still studying Twilight. "Yea, and we don't want Twilight to have All the glory." Rainbow added. You think about it for a while before you walk to the kitchen to see how much food there was in the cupboards. After having checked you go back to the girls. "I think I might be able to pull something off. You're lucky Twilight got groceries yesterday, otherwise there wouldn't have been enough. Next time though you might want to inform me about when you're coming, then I can prepare something more special than what I have to make today." You say, smiling at the five ponies in front of you. 'Well, better get started on dinner then.' You think with a sigh. 09: Safety first?Dinner wasn't very special, a potato salad, vegetables, some raw, some cooked, and of course bread. It's the type of dinner you always prepare for Twilight and yourself, except now you'd had to make four times as much. "I'm sorry to say that I haven't got anything for dessert. If you'd told me you were coming then..." You get cut off by the pink party pony. "Don't worry you big worrying worry face. We brought the dessert." Pinkie says while magically pulling a huge cake out of thin air and placing it on the table. It's the most luxurious cake you've ever seen and, honestly, it looks more like a wedding cake than dessert. It stands about a metre tall consisting of three layers of icing covered cake, probably with some kind of cream filling. You walk back to the kitchen to get some plates, but before you even take a second step half of the cake is gone, and a pink pony is not so pink any more. Before you know it there's only a small piece left and the other ponies are also covered in white and pink icing. You sigh and still decide to go to the kitchen to get a plate and a small fork for yourself. You want to be civilised and eat like a normal human... Even though you are the only human in this world, probably even in this dimension. After dessert and doing the dishes, which you are very qualified to do because of your hands, you and the ponies talk casually for quite a while until Applejack says something that catches your attention. "...Ya know I've noticed some strange things happenin' at the farm lately. Ah don' really know if it's anything ta worry 'bout, but ah think that you, Twi, might be a bit interested. 'S got something to do with magic 's all ah can tell ya." She says with her still casual tone. "Can you clarify a bit maybe? What kind of things are happening AJ?" Twilight asks still giggling about a joke Rainbow had told. "Ya know them Zap-apples are mighty sensitive ta magic, right? 'N well, they've been acting all weird, zapping when they ain't in their season. Thank Celestia they ain't bloomin' cuz that would mean a lot of extra work. But that ain't the only thing happenin'. Yesterday mah little sister got the scare o' her life when she walked into the barn 'n saw all them tools just floatin' in mid-air!" Everyone, including you, was now paying full attention to Applejack as she told her story. Thoughts start flying through your head and makes you wonder. "Hey AJ. When did this start to happen, these magic thingies?" You ask, wondering if you may be the cause of it. "Well it started 'bout a week 'n a half ago. Got no idea why, it just started." Yes, it definitely has something to do with you and your magic. "Twilight. You know what that means right." You say while walking over to your desk where you keep the books on minotaur magick. You pick up the book and check the table of contents again, this time carefully reading each title. You finally find what you're searching for 'warnings for health- and magick-hazards'. You never really looked into it because you thought it wasn't very necessary, and also twilight hadn't mentioned anything about possible side effects. You open to the page in question and starts reading aloud. "Okay, so it says 'Warning! Safety, health and magick regulations. When under aged, pregnant, elderly or chronically ill Do Not practise without parental supervision or medical consent. Do Not vent excess magick unless absolutely necessary. [environmental hazard] Do Not attempt Magick with non-Magick power unless under supervision of a Magick-user/Minotaur. ... ' "Well I think I should've read that first..." You say sheepishly while looking at a confused and slightly mad Applejack. You continue reading the warnings for yourself until you reach warning number fifty-four. This one really surprises you and you really need to sit down now. "Twilight, you said that there is no record of any other human ever coming to this world right?" "Uhm. Yes, why?" "Well, there's something about warning fifty-four. Here it says 'If you are Homo Sapiens you are strictly forbidden, by the Minotaurian government, to divulge in the practises of magick. If you ignore this warning then you are to be executed immediately.' The fuck is up with that!?" You look at Twilight who seems to have realised that she might have accidentally sentenced you to death the moment she unlocked your powers. After a good long minute she starts. "Okay... No need to panic. We'll just go to Taurussia and explain what happened to the elders, I'm sure they'll understand... Right?" Sure she said not to panic, but it seems she's the most panicked at the moment. After packing a now heavy travellers backpack, custom made by Rarity for you, and Twilight having packed her own bags, which looked more like saddle bags, you immediately took off for Taurussia. Twilight had said that you shouldn't waste any time and get there as quickly as possible, to prevent any unnecessary conflict. Twilight carefully cast a spell on you and herself to give an energy boost, so that you could travel for three days straight without having to sleep. You still have to eat and drink but those only require small stops and don't take too long. Twilight had even convinced her friends to stay in Ponyville. Reason? She said that it would seem intimidating if the elements of harmony suddenly crossed the border to a different country, and could be misunderstood as an invasion. So you and Twilight start on the trek to Taurussia which, according to a map, lies somewhere in the far north of the planet. It will take you at least five days to reach the capital, but Twilight thinks it absolutely necessary, so you two leave at two in the morning and take the train to Canterlot first, to inform the Princess. *Previously in Taurussia.* "Are you absolutely positive? It wasn't an energy spike from the pole?" One of the Elders said with a heavy Scandinavian accent. "I've gone through the data twenty times at least, and even let my students do the tests but all results suggest the same." A large man with a bull's head said. "There is no doubt that once again a Human has entered our world." He continued severely, making the Elders shift a bit in their thrones. "Have you located this Human yet?" Another Elder asked over the mumbling of his colleagues. "We haven't been able to locate It yet, but we know that It is not in our country. We have already sent out our scouts in order to locate it." The large Minotaur replied. The throne room was similar to a large Gothic Cathedral, with the most horrendous gargoyles on the in- and outside. It housed thirteen thrones. Twelve for the leaders of their respective land and one for the King and keeper of peace between the lords. It was now that the King spoke. "Find this Human and bring It to me. Alive. If you cannot perform this task I give you, then you are to never return to this land. You may use all means you deem necessary to do so, but be reminded, shall you fail then you will be stripped of everything you own, including your name." He ended with a snarl, making the professor take his leave. "How much further is it?" You sigh, trailing a few feet behind Twilight. It's probably the hundredth time you've asked this question but you've been walking for three days straight now, after having visited and informed the Princess, courtesy of Twilight's spell. "Don't worry and stop nagging. We're already past halfway there, and it's not like you're walking of your own strength. My spell is doing ninety-nine percent of the work." You know what she says is true, but you're not physically worn out but more mentally. You thought it would be fun to trek along the countryside, but after three days of seeing nothing but tall grass on your right and thick forest on your left, you get tired of the view. "Tonight I will refresh the spell, then we can probably make it to the capital in one shot. But before we can do that we have to cross this..." Twilight stops in front of you, and since you were looking down you almost run into her, even though she barely even reaches chest height with the tip of her horn. You look up to finally see some change in scenery, although it is not the kind of change you were hoping for. What lies in front of you are two cliffs, one on each side, reaching up at least a thousand feet. Your path goes directly through the pass, and there seem to be a lot of possible avalanches. "We.... have to go through there..." You state slightly shocked. The sheer angle of the cliffs are impossible for Earth's standards but apparently geology and physics are a bit different here. It was to be expected with everything going on, but it still surprises you every time you see something that was not possible back home. Home... 'sigh'. "It'll be fine, don't worry. Nothing is going to happen to us." Twilight says reassuringly, but all that goes through your head is 'Famous Last Words'. The words Twilight just spoke just jinxed the both of you. "Can you please not say anything like that ever again?" You mumble nervously, barely loud enough for Twilight to hear. "What was that?" "Never mind." You say with a loud sigh as you start your walk through the gorge, which is bound to end badly. A.N.: I'm extremely sorry that this chapter is so short, but I've seriously got no inspiration at the moment. I'll try to make it up to you next chapter, but I need some kind of source of inspiration again. Maybe if someone can leave a suggestion I can get past this block. Anyway thanks for reading. I hope y'all enjoy the story. Yours Faithfully, Porqupine Static /) 10: Jinxed King"What was that!?" You say to the purple unicorn in front of you as a low grumbling noise sounds from above. "Probably just the birds again. Seriously you should stop worrying, this is the fourth time you've asked about the grumbling sound." It is then that everything goes wrong. You feel something tickling your neck and look back to find nothing there. You then look up, which you regret immediately as sand and gravel hits your eyes. "Aah! Fu... *sigh* Dammit!" You decided you'd swear the least possible in this land of peacefulness, although you don't feel very peaceful at all. "What's wrong Plane?" Twilight says as she sees you trying to blink and tear out the dirt. She also looks up, but she's smart enough to cover her eyes with her hooves to keep any dirt from getting in, if her mane didn't already block all of it. "Uhm... Plane? I-uh think we-uh need to start running very soon. Like about NOW!" Twilight grabs you with her magic as she starts to sprint through the trench, dragging you along. After realizing what's going on you start to run for yourself, instead of letting Twilight do all the work. Being bipedal and having a lot longer legs than the pony you quickly catch up to her and decide she's going far to slow. You pick her up using the energy of the adrenaline now coursing through your veins and bolt from side to side, dodging falling rocks in the process. "I..*huff* Told... *Huff* You... *Huff* Not.. *Huff* To... *Huff* Jinx... *Huff* Us! *Cough*" You say through strained breaths which are the result of sprinting for over two whole minutes at full speed. You drop the purple pony and let yourself fall to the ground to try and recover some energy lost in the run. You take deep breaths trying to absorb as much oxygen as possible as you start to feel your muscles acidify from the lack of it. After five minutes you feel confident enough that you can sit up straight again, without throwing up. And then you look at Twilight, who had been watching you the whole time, looking aghast about what happened a few moments earlier. You were almost killed in a landslide, you saved your guide, only because of a physical difference in species. "I-uh... Thanks? I guess?" Is all Twilight manages to say. You find this particularly amusing, since she mostly knows how to deal with high pressure situations rather well, or so at least so you thought . "Yea... No problem. You saved me first anyway, which in turn means that you just saved yourself." You state while thinking about what happened. "I think I should probably be more careful with things I say than." Twilight noted as she looked back to the road, which was now filled with dirt a boulders piling up a few metres. It was going to be hard to get back to Ponyville now. "Are you sure we will reach the Minotaurs' capital tomorrow, because I am getting tired of the walking." You say, getting a confused look in return. "How can you get tired of the walking? I put a spell on you to prevent that from happening!" She was now scanning you, if her spell was somehow done incorrectly or if it just didn't work. "I'm not tired Physically at this point. It's just that it gets so boring after a while. I'm Mentally tired... get it?" You try to explain how you feel but this is the best you can manage to think of at the moment. ""You think you're the only one that's getting tired!? How do you think I feel!? I can only bring so many books with me, and I've already read them all by now! I'm bored too you know! Now STOP WHINING and START MOVING that LAZY FLANK of yours!" It seems Twilight has also reached her limit and dislikes the trip just as much as you do, only she was better at hiding it. "Sorry. I didn't know you felt the same way. You were just so calm the whole time I just presumed... You know... *Sigh* never mind..." You start walking again in the general direction of the road only to be blocked by Twilight. "I'm... sorry too. I didn't mean to loose my temper like that. It's just that I miss home a bit, and my friend for that matter. But I especially miss Spike, I wonder if he's doing okay with me being away for so long." Twilight looks more depressed than you even felt at this point. You don't know if this will work but you've seen Pinkie do it a couple of times now and decide to try it as well. You kneel down to be the same height as the unicorn in front of you, you open your arms widely and then wrap them around the purple pony and pull her into a tight hug, making her squeal in surprise. This makes you only hug her tighter. After she relaxed a bit you let her go, slowly. "Feel better?" you ask with a soothing voice you never knew you had. "Yea... Thanks." Twilight replies while a tear escapes her eye. "Shall we continue walking?" You ask still sitting down and looking straight into her big violet eyes. "Can we just stay a bit longer like this? I-it feels... nice." She says while looking down at the ground in a way which reminded you of the yellow pegasus, Fluttershy is her name you remember. "Sure." You say, again with that voice. "I think we could both use some rest after that avalanche, even if we're enchanted with infinite physical energy." You throw a smile at Twilight, which is returned with one of her own. It makes you feel you have a true friend. And it makes you feel at home. Home... 'They say home is where the heart is, right? But now I don't know where my heart is. What do I do?' You think to yourself, asking god, or whatever it was that made this happen, what your next step should be. You feel very confused about everything, especially now, that you've actually saved someone's, or somepony's, life and being so close to death yourself. This place feels closer to home than you've felt about your apartment back on Earth. And the friends here feel like real friends. Not fake ones that only befriend you to take advantage of your wealth or intellect. At first you wanted to go back home, you even tried to find stuff in Twilight's library about inter-dimensional travel, but now you don't feel the need to return that much any more. "Hey Plane. It's getting dark, we should set up camp and sleep. Let's not walk this night. I'll refresh the spell tomorrow rather then now, probably also better for our bodies." Twilight took something out of her saddle bags and started to put a spell on it. The thing quickly materialized into the shape of a huge tent, fit for at least ten grown Humans, let alone for how many ponies. The next day arrives sooner than expected, too soon, and more roughly than expected too. You're awoken by a loud *Clank* and then an earth-shattering roar blasts through the tent, making the tent literally collapse. "The hell is going o-mngf..." Someone puts a gag in your mouth and you look up to see a sturdy looking creature. The creature is definitely humanoid, bipedal and even wearing some sort of clothing, which look more suited for the Antarctic than a hot dry canyon, even if it is night. You get dragged out of the collapsed tent to see Twilight, also gagged up and hooves tied together, laying on some sort of cart. "Tmmfg hnmmf ghmmn?" You desperately ask Twilight, but since you're gagged you can't actually ask her what's going on, no matter how hard you try. "Bmmnnn mmmnm!" Twilight replies, apparently having understood what you said. The weirdest thing is that you actually understand what she says. So you're now captured by minotaurs, and the gags they put on you are completely useless since Twilight can understand your mumbling and you can understand hers just as well. You can't think of why. You ask another question to Twilight, maybe she knows more about the minotaurs. "What's happening, where are they taking us?" You ask Twilight through your gag, only making undistinguishable sounds, which the pony can understand... somehow. "I don't know. Maybe they were watching you the whole time. Who knows!" She replied only to get the both of you stared at by five minotaurs, who now realized you two were actually able to speak to each other. "SILENT! YOU NO TALK! WE GO KING!" The largest of the five shouted at you. Did he say king? Isn't that where you were going in the first place? "Weren't we going to the King already?" You quietly ask the pony who you were now sitting next to, atop the cart. "Yeah. I guess we can just let them do all the work." Twilight shrugged, "Saves us the trouble." as if being kidnapped by five creatures with a WWA-Fighter's body and a Bull's head who sounded very Russian isn't such a big deal. There's nothing you can really do than go with the flow at this point, maybe even get some rest, the night hasn't ended yet either and you think it best to just sleep off the initial shock of being kidnapped, and to stop denying that fact. You wake with a pleasant morning sun on your face, warming you to a comfortable temperature. Groaning you try to stretch yourself a bit, only to be reminded that your hands are tied together behind your back and that you're not as comfortable as you first thought. You turn around and feel your sore muscles complaining that they really need to stretch. Facing Twilight you see she's also awake and just as uncomfortable as you. Right then is that you feel your jaw muscles, even more sore than your shoulders as you try to say something to Twilight while still gagged. Twilight looks around her before meeting your eyes and then starts. "These guys walk really fast. We're almost there already." She says with a hint of surprise in her voice. You now also look around to see a totally gargantuan castle in the distance. It stands at least three hundred feet tall and is made of what looks like obsidian or black marble. Spikes protrude from almost each corner, and what's even more intimidating is the huge black dragon statue resting on the highest central spire, looking ready to strike down an entire army with just one sweep of his enormous claws. You shrink back a little at the sight of this great fortress only to get Twilight trying to comfort you. "Sure it looks big and intimidating, but it can't be THAT bad. Right?" She says only making you feel even more jinxed than when you were walking through the canyon, before the avalanche. After another half hour of sitting on the cart you reach the gates to the massive, light-absorbing, structure. One of the minotaurs stepped forward and spoke something into a small hole in the wall and the three-foot thick obsidian gates slowly opened with a scraping sound of rock against rock. Going through the gates you notice elephant-like creatures manning the chains needed to open and close the gates. Only the animals are about thrice the size of any earthly elephant and they have six tusks instead of two. They also have horns resembling the ones triceratops had. The cart is pulled through what you expect is the main street, as you see multiple minotaurs walking to n' fro, not even taking a second glance at the newcomers being led toward the main castle. After observing a little more carefully you notice that it isn't that they aren't not interested, but rather averting their gaze as quickly as possible, as if scared of something, or someone for that matter. The main castle, situated in the middle of the huge fortress, slowly dooms over you as the minotaurs pull you toward it at a steady pace. The archway into the castle is guarded at both sides by three large minotaurs in full armour and armed with a two-handed battle axe, several other weapons on theirs backs and in their holsters. The leader of the five minotaurs transporting you nods at the guards and then continues on into the castle. When your eyes finally adjust to the darker inside of the castle you are welcomed with the sight of horrific statues of mutilated and tortured creatures, all with fear in their eyes. So much for a warm welcome, not that you expected one after being kidnapped. After not too long of taking a few turns you are pulled off of the cart and thrown through two big doors into an even darker room. Once your eyes adjust again you see that it is a big hall, resembling an dark and gloomy version of Equestria's throne hall in Canterlot. Taking a better look you see that you weren't very far off at all, in front of you you count thirteen chairs, or thrones. Six on the left, six on the right and one raised slightly higher than the rest, at the place where Celestia's throne is also situated in the similar looking hall. You hear whispers and only now notice that what you thought were statues in the chairs were actually living and were now probably talking about their captives which lay in front of them. Your gags get removed and you are able to stretch your jaw muscles a bit again. "Well good morning to you too..." You say with a crackly voice for not having drunk enough throughout the day. This made all eyes in the room focus on you and only seconds later you get hit on the head with something hard. "YOU NO SPEAK UNLESS TOLD!" A loud voice boomed from right beside your ear, and you could hear Twilight audibly gulp at this. You wonder why these minotaurs are so hostile. You've heard about one minotaur who apparently trained Fluttershy to be more assertive, Iron Will was his name you remember, but that didn't turn out all to well. Are they still mad about that maybe? "Do you know why you are here?" The one sitting on the highest throne asks, with a gentle yet tough voice. "We came here to ask you about something we read in a book." Twilight says with her lecturing tone. "And what would that be?" Another minotaur asks. "We had the book with us but your guards took everything of ours from us when they captured us. If you return it than we can show you." You now say looking at your capturers behind you, before Twilight can reply. "We have book here." One minotaur says, who had not spoken at all during the time they had caught you, and handed the book over to the closest one sitting in a chair. He looks at the title and immediately looks at the the two of you. "Did you try to learn our magick?" He has a very British accent, almost like rarity's, and doesn't sound at all like the other, Scandinavian-sounding minotaurs. "Sadly, yes. I had totally forgotten to read the warnings fir...." "DO YOU KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES OF WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!?" The British one now stands up and walks over to you, only to be halted by the apparent king. "STOP! Let it speak. I want to know what it has to say." The British one slowly backs off to his throne and lets you continue your sentence. "As I was saying. I had forgotten to read the warnings first. I thought that all the hazards were listed with each spell. I have not even mastered the first I was working on until I saw the 'warnings' chapter in the table of contents. I quickly went through them until I found this one." You take the book back in your still tied hands and lay it on the floor. You quickly flip through to the page in question and start reading what you had read to Twilight. "'If you are Homo Sapiens you are strictly forbidden, by the Minotaurian government, to divulge in the practises of magick. If you ignore this warning then you are to be executed immediately.' When we found out about this we immediately packed our bags and went on our way here, until we got kidnapped by these guys here." You shoot a glance at the kidnappers behind you again, to make sure they're still there. "It appears that since I'm a human or scientifically a 'Homo Sapiens' then I'm to be executed. So we came here to ask why this is the case." You now feel nervous as you just told them they are allowed by their law to kill you, which doesn't seem like a good idea now that you think about it. "Yes... It seems you ignored one of our more heavier laws. But I have question for you, Human. Did you read release date of book?" You can't see the face of the Minotaur King, but it sounds like he is laughing. You look at the book and try to find the release date. You look at the front, back, sides and almost every page before giving up. "I can't find it. Sorry." You say with a defeated sigh. "We, the Minotaurs, are very strict when it comes to archiving, even more so than you ponies." He says eyeing over Twilight. "An undated book is very rare in our Kingdom, since everything has been dated since more than fifteen hundred years ago. This means that this book is at least that old, and probably older still. If it has our ancient language in it than it is at least two thousand years old. "Our laws have changed significantly over this period of time, so you will not be executed." Now you can really tell he has a smile on his face. "I am aware, however, of what happened in the past, which was the reason of this law. It is also the reason I had you taken to me as soon as possible. It was only luck that you were already on your way here when my team encountered you. "I am going to make you an offer. One you cannot refuse. You are to be assigned an expert on Minotaurian magicks and you are to be her subject until you learn to properly control it." He is back to being serious as he now stands up and walks over to you. "B-but I already have control. Twilight gave me her memories in order for me to learn." You look at the big figure now standing right in front of you. "But isn't it strange that this started happening since you started practising. Am I right? And you have to vent your magick at least once every minute, just not to explode. Right? Your magic is a lot different from pony magic, so different in fact that the pony way of controlling it can have the opposite effects on your magic. "Minotaurian magick resembles yours more, but is still not exactly the same. You will be taught by the best but you will eventually have to make your own form of magic." Finally he's done lecturing, but he has given you a lot to think about. "Does that mean Plane has to stay here!?" Twilight was now trying to get out of her restraints, which are loose enough for her to be able to stand, but not do much more than that. "Calm down little purple pony. He does not have to stay here, but his master will have to come with you if you decide to go back to your home. I presume you have made yourself at home already? This means she will become part of your home as well." The King seems to have a lot of fun with this. As if he's been waiting for this a long time. His personality reminds you a bit of Pinkie. He's too happy for such a dark place, which makes him seem quite random. And did he just say 'She'? Your master is going to be a woman? This ought to be good. "When will I meet my 'Master' then?" You ask the king who has placed himself back into his throne. "Right now I guess. Viridiana, could you please introduce yourself to this human." He nodded to one of the minotaurs on his left as she now got up and went to stand in the middle of the hall. Before she speaks however, your restraints are finally removed and you can stretch again. After a good stretching and popping of your joints you stand up and look at an impatient minotaur in front of you. "Mai neem iis Viiriidiiana Auraviisss." Viridiana says, apparently not a Master of the English, or Equestrian, language. "I wiill bee your Masterr oontiil yoo knoh aour magiickss." There's something about her voice that does attract you though, it must be that hiss. "Pleasure to meet you Viridiana Auravis. I am Plane Walker and I guess I will be your student until said otherwise." You say, trying to sound well educated and even taking a bow to your future master, getting Twilight to roll her eyes a little. First impressions are always the most important, and if that doesn't go well at least try to make a good second impression. "Now that that is settled, LET'S LUNCH." The king booms through the hall and everything gets moved by servants to set up a large table to hold the lunch. You hadn't really noticed how hungry you are actually starting to feel at this point. You haven't eaten all day, you even skipped your breakfast, because of that stupid kidnapping. Stretching once more you take a seat at the now fully served table and hungrily start on your brunch. A.N. Again my apologies about last chap being so short. I hope this makes up for it a little. And again, if anyone has suggestions just let me know. You'll see if I use it, and I will then also mention you at the end. Anyway, have fun reading and /) Yours Faithfully, Porqupine. 11: The MasterThe feast in front of you looks amazing. Everything is intricately decorated and it looks absolutely beautiful. The taste however... apparently minotaurs take more after bulls than humans in their eating habits. So they eat pretty much the same things Twilight and the other ponies eat. You however can't eat hay or daisies. It would mess up your stomach and probably make you very sick. The only things you eat are the things that you can actually eat without messing up yourself. The bread, which seems like it's made in the sixteen hundreds, doesn't taste too bad, only a few chunks here and there which are hard enough to crack your teeth. You've had quite enough of the food and get straight to the point. "How do you know about humans?" The question is directed toward the King but Viridiana answers. "I will explain if you wish, but it is a long story." She says calmly. She pauses for a while so that you can make up your mind, and you nod to her to continue. "The reason we know of humans has got to do with the very creation of our kingdom. They played a significant, but covert, part in its creation. There is no record of how they got here but when they did it triggered a war unlike any other. That was over five thousand years ago. Have you ever heard or read of 'The Great War of the Midnight Sun'? "That is the war between humans and minotaurs. It all started..." Viridiana told all about the war, how the humans had come with incredible technology. How they had used crystals as a power source and had machines that could destroy entire cities in a single blow. These humans also had a dark skin colour with light-blue tattoos all over them. At a certain point they brought massive crystals with them, through the portal they created, which shone almost as bright as the sun, therefore the name 'The Great War of the Midnight Sun'. The things Viridiana says stirs your memories more than anything had until now. You know who these humans must have been. There's no other explanation. Atlantians. "I know who these humans were." You say,interrupting the Mage, feeling you have to share this information of your memories. "They must have been Atlantians. I remember stories from where I come from, with humans being described the same way you describe them, but I also remember that they're just a legend, a myth, a story, nothing more than that." You frown a bit as your mind hits another wall blocking your access to other parts of your memories. Viridiana continues her story after your short interruption, warning you that if you'd do that again she'd punish you severely. She speaks about how all the clans got together and formed a pact to be able to defeat the overwhelming force of the humans. They combined their magick and taught each other what spells they knew. Eventually they were able to push the humans back through the portal, but one of the crystals had remained. The ponies had found this crystal about a thousand years later and put it to good use. This is how the crystal empire was founded. The crystal's power was used for good instead of evil, so the minotaurs didn't object to let the ponies have something that could 'potentially' be used for mass destruction. After the war the minotaurs had decided to create a kingdom out of their combined land to be able to fend off any foolish enough to ever try and take over their land again. Viridiana finishes her story leaving you to think about a lot of things. You can remember certain very specific things about 'home', but only things that are unrelated to yourself. "There is however one aspect left untold." The King says now that Viridiana has finished her story. "This is something I have not told before, to anyone." The king pauses as he readies himself to share his untold story. "My father, who was King before me had passed on his memories to me before he died. Although the memories weren't only his, but also the memories of my grandfather, and of his grandfather and so on. The memories date back to the war and there is something interesting that had happened at the time. "A human who had come through the portal had secretly left the army to confront the minotaurs from a different angle. She almost got herself killed in the process but she was lucky that it was my ancestor, who was a leader at the time, had found her before his legion had. "He took her to a secret lair and they started talking. She was a human who didn't want to fight, but rather make friends. At first my ancestor thought she was playing a trick on him, but she had given him the secret of how to disable their machines with magick. All they had to do was hit a button on the vehicle and it would shut down. It would literally drop to the ground like a brick. "After some time she got hit by magick because she tried to go out only to be met by minotaurs who didn't know she was my ancestor's friend. Her body reacted explosively and unleashed her own magic placing all the surrounding minotaurs in stasis. She didn't know what happened and she panicked. This in turn made her very dangerous. "She had a tremendous amount of uncontrolled magic and she was running around the country, placing countless minotaurs and humans alike in stasis. She took out more soldiers than the whole human army had, without her ever wanting to do so. There are no stories of this incident as it was all linked to the main war, but to stop her was the hardest thing my ancestor had ever had to do. "During the time he had spent with her he had grown to love her. They even had a child in the time of the war, but now he had to destroy her. There was no other option. So he had given the child all his memories and asked one of his sisters to take care of him. "He then went on a suicide mission to save his lover from further grief and his kingdom from any more deaths. It was the greatest story ever to be concealed from the world." The king sighs and slumps in his chair. "This was the reason that a human was not to learn magick ever. We had no idea how a human would react, or the environment for that matter." You think about his story for a few moments before realizing... "So you are part human?" You ask surprised. "Yes I am. Because of this I have never been touched by magick, nor have I tried using it. It is also why I wear this armour. It blocks any and all magick, this way my magick can never be activated. But since you have already been 'activated' and not freaked out I want to take full advantage and carefully observe what the consequences are!" He was saying with a voice too happy for such a big, horned, creature. "Your training will begin once you arrive back in Ponyville. You can leave tomorrow at dawn." The king says looking at his guests who are getting up from their seats. "I have a better idea than walking back." Twilight squeals happily. "I can teleport us back! But only if I have a magic booster. Your highness..." Twilight starts as she takes a bow. "Who are your most capable magicians?" "Well, Viridiana is definitely the most capable, and then there's Aurora. She's also very strong, although not quite at the same level as Viridiana. Why do you ask?" "I need a magic boost to perform such a long distance teleport. How much power can you provide Viridiana?" Twilight looks to the minotaur towering over her. "I have enough power for what you want to do. We will not need Aurora's aid for this." Viridiana says with a determined smirk. "Then if it is all the same to you, we can go back to Ponyville immediately." Twilight looks at the king, and than at you. "I'm fine with it." You say with a smug look on your face. "OF COURSE you can go back now. The sooner you start with your lessons the better!" The king laughs as he gives a wave of dismissal, letting you know that it is time to leave. Twilight has set up the incantation circle and is now starting on her long-distance teleportation spell, with Viridiana feeding her some extra magic every now and then. After some time of concentrating the air starts to wave a little. With a loud crack and a bright flash a rift in space opens up. "I thought you were going to teleport us". You state, stunned by the tear in the fabric of space. "We are. Just step through here and you'll be back in Ponyville." Twilight nudges you toward the softly pulsating portal. "Why not just teleport us like you usually do?" You ask her with nervousness making your voice crack. "That only works short-range, this rift is for long-distance teleportation. The magic required for short-range teleportation grows exponentially the further you try to teleport. This spell will always use just as much magic, which is more than I can currently manage by myself." Twilight nudges you further toward the portal. Suddenly you feel two hands, yes Hands, on your back which push you right into the portal. The feeling of transportation through the broken fabric of space is difficult to describe. It's like jumping into a freezing whirlpool and then being tossed into a washing machine at sixty degrees Celsius. Once it stops you realize you had closed your eyes and now you slowly open them. In front of you is the library, upside down. You hang in mid-air for a few more seconds before hitting the ground head-first. A few seconds later Twilight lands on top of you with a thump, also upside down. You quickly roll away from the spot, taking Twilight with you, just in time to see the minotaur gracefully stepping out of thin air onto her feet, right at the place you were just lying. "Not used to long-distance teleportation?" Viridiana half-asks as she walks toward the library. "First time actually." You grunt as you pushing Twilight off of yourself, allowing yourself to get up. You help Twilight up onto her hooves and quickly notice how exhausted she is from the incantation. "C'mon let me help you get inside." You carefully place your arm around her to keep her from buckling to the floor from her exhaustion. Once inside the library you guide Twilight to her room and carefully place her on her bed, you'll let her rest until dinner, than you'll wake her again, to see if she's replenished some of her energy. You walk back down the stairs to stand face-to-face with the minotaur, who's about the same height as you. "All you have learned until now about magick you must forget." Viridiana starts, she's definitely not going to waste a single moment in educating you in the arts of magick. "Just let all the knowledge flow away from your mind." She talks with such a calming voice which makes you feel relaxed and lets you focus on forgetting. You slowly let all your past knowledge of magick float from the deepest crevices of your mind and away into the nothingness of the void. The feeling is completely alien to you but you let it all pass as you relax even more. Without even realizing you have your eyes closed and you are sitting on the ground, cross legged, across from your Master. "I will now teach you how to properly disperse your magick, without affecting the environment or anything else." You can hear Viridiana speak and you understands what she says, but it feels like you aren't in the binds of your body any more, as if you are floating above yourself, watching all that is happening. "I sense you are already in the correct phase of conciousness. Now look at your body and see where your magick is located." You open your eyes. What you see is indeed what you felt, but it still shocks you to see that you are, indeed, floating over your own and Viridiana's body. You look over to your Master and see that she too has an ethereal form floating over herself. It isn't like anything you've seen before. You can't actually 'see' anything, but you can 'sense' everything which than forms an image in your mind, somewhat like the eyes do, but now you're using your, let's call it your, sixth sense. You now focus on your own body and quickly find what Viridiana was talking about. In your stomach area you 'see' a large pool of energy, slowly but surely filling you up to the edge of your capacity. You now understand exactly why you have to release some of it, before you overfill and potentially explode. "Now, guide some of that energy to your current 'body'." You try to do as she says, but somehow you can't manage to control it. You remember forgetting all you learned about magick and its control which makes you now incapable of doing what your master is asking of you. "Think of it as an extension of yourself, like a third arm, but now reaching out to your consciousness and staying there." You follow her advice and try to extend your magick toward yourself as if stretching your arm. Surprisingly you feel the energy slowly floating toward you and out of your body, once it is completely removed form your body it attaches itself to your ethereal form. You move it around a bit until you find a nice spot to temporarily put it, until you know what to do with it. "Now I want you to do the same thing with this energy as you did with your memories, you must open the void and let all that excess energy just flow into that place, but be careful to not let yourself get pulled into there." Viridiana's tone was one with severe caution in it and it makes you feel kind of scared. But you do as she says and you try to let the energy just flow away. Something is different this time though, instead of feeling it slip away into nothingness you feel it dispersing to your surroundings instead of a tear in the ethereal plane of magick and energy. "Focus human, you mustn't let it go. You must force it to go into the void. Magick is alive, unlike memories, and it does not want to be put into nothingness, it will fight back. Magick by itself is volatile and can mess with anything it touches. You must force it and not let it wander around in this plane of existence." You once again focus on the magick which is still trying to get away, now that it 'knows' that you will force it into the void. You grab hold onto the magick and guide it back to yourself, before opening up a portal to the void and forcing the magick through it. But before you close the portal again you can't help but sense a fragment of that godforsaken plane. This is exactly what should never happen. Your mind gets attacked by infinite wisdom. You suddenly know the colours of the wind, the smell of 'X', you even know what happens when an unstoppable object slams into an unmovable object. You know the infinite possibilities of paradoxes and you can remember all of your past lives, each one of them. "FOCUS!" Suddenly booms through your head as you are brought back to reality by your Master. All that you knew just seconds before was now gone. Everything put back into the nothingness of infinity. Into the Void. "As I said, Never Ever go into that forsaken place. Not even with an anchor like me, it is not worth it." You feel yourself being pulled back into your body and you can see normally again. "This is how you destroy excess energy. I will teach you how to master this ability without having to go into your ethereal state. It will take a lot of practice, but it is necessary for not only your own safety but also for that of others." Just as Viridiana finishes her sentence you hear the tell-tale sound of hooves clopping on wood, as Twilight descends from the stairs. Apparently the time spent in the Void doesn't match up with the normal flow of time. Viridiana says that you have been in 'Limbo' for almost three hours, and that is has taken her substantial effort to pull you out again. Now that you know what time it is you begin to feel hungry, and you decide to start preparing dinner for the three of you. Remembering that Spike is staying at Rarity's place. You also haven't told anyone in the village yet that you've returned. You head to the kitchen and start on the preparations, grabbing the vegetables and spices necessary for a nice hot meal at the end of the day. A.N.: I apologize for not updating for so long, but I'm seriously having inspiration troubles. I seem to have been kicked from the plane of inspiration and I can barely even see in my head what's happening in the story. I will try to write as much as possible, but it will be irregular. I rewrote this chapter about five or six times. I hope it's still good enough. Brohoof to all /) And remember, Enjoy reading. Yours Faithfully, ThePorqupine.
Chapter 01: First Impressions (v3)An Unexpected Visit Chapter 1: First Impressions (v3) By: Porqupine As you walk down the stairs to get something to snack on you notice something’s off. You feel a small breeze pass your neck while you are certain you closed the windows before you went upstairs. You slow down your decent and try to focus if anything else might be off. And it is. As you carefully walk around the corner to your living room you notice that certain items are missing. Your television, gone. Picture frames, smashed face-down on the floor. Drawers opened with force. It’s a total mess. ‘The hell happened?’ you think to yourself. You walk through the room, completely distraught and you feel like killing someone with your bare hands. They really did a good job on making everything as messy as possible. After having stood in the room with your hands on your head for a full five minutes you take notice of the draft again, making the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You search for the source and find it. It was pretty obvious really. The window to the back of your house, looking out over the little garden which you had neglected and never worked on, was gone. It wasn’t broken or shattered, you would’ve heard that, but it was just completely missing. You walk over to the empty frame to see if there are any marks on it. ‘Of course there have to be some marks.’ You think to yourself. But no matter how hard you try to find any, you fail. ‘No marks… How is that even possible?’ You start to become more and more agitated while you’re thinking about it. ‘This is impossible. I’m going crazy. This is probably just a dream. A rather vivid one at that.’ After a while you come to your senses and you start to investigate more. You decide to go outside and see if there are any visible marks from that angle. You open the door to the little garden and take a step, but you forgot that there was a little edge there and you trip. You fall face first toward the earth and try to catch yourself before you hit the ground, unsuccessfully. You feel stone hitting flesh and try to scream, just to have it silenced by the ground. You use your hands to get up, and you start to feel something warm trickling down over your mouth and chin, down your neck and onto the ground. ‘Great.’ You think. ‘and now I’m bleeding.’ ‘It can’t get any worse than it already is.’ Just as you think that thought you regret it. The world seems to start turning around you , slowly at first but it speeds up after ten seconds or so. You try to go back inside your house to sit on your already ruined couch, but yet again you forget that stupid little edge that is inconveniently placed under the door. This time, however, you manage to get your other foot inside and you stumble forward. The only problem now is that all of your belongings are still on the floor, and you trip, again. You feel yourself falling, but you know that if you go down face-first again, you’ll definitely not be getting up for a while. Just before you hit the ground you see something unexpected. It seems like the whole world slows down just so that you have the time to look at it. You see a few stacks of paper lying in messy heaps covering your living room. One of the papers on the floor contained many strange markings which you can't recognize, and yet they seemed awfully familiar. As you look more closely it seems as if the drawings and marking are shifting, as if they are removing themselves from the paper. You suddenly know that this is the reason your place was trashed, but you didn’t understand why this piece of paper was so important, and who would want it. The next thing you realise is that you’re still falling. Just before you hit the ground though you notice that the ink has somehow indeed removed itself from the paper and is rapidly coming closer to you. They also start to give off light and then everything goes white. You still feel that you hit the ground and now not only does your nose, mouth and chin hurt like hell, but you are being blinded by the flash of white light which originated from the symbols. The pain makes you dizzy and although the light is so bright, you start to see black splotches in your vision. You pass out. The first thing you notice as you regain consciousness is that you feel bad, you feel really bad. Your nose hurts like hell and you have a terrible throbbing at your forehead. Then you remember what happened. You feel that you’re still facing down, which is probably the reason why your nose still hurts so bad. You’ve been lying on it for god knows how long. You try to get up but as you do you feel a great pain shoot through your left arm. ‘What the hell!?’ You think. ‘Why does my arm hurt so bad?’ Then you think about what you did before you passed out. You remember that you tried to catch yourself the first time you fell, and horribly failed. You guess that you must have damaged your left arm in the process, so you try to get up with your right arm. This also doesn’t work out well as you notice that another shot of pain goes right through your right shoulder. ‘Fucking hell, how messed up is my body?’ You think as you let out a grunt of pain. All you can think of doing is to roll over, so you so that. Then, feeling surprised, you notice you are actually able to roll over. Didn’t you land in a pile of rubble when you passed out? There is a strange noise coming from your right but it sounds far away and you don’t mind it. All you are concerned about is to how you were able to roll over. You decide that now might be a good time to open your eyes. Slowly you try to open them, but the light shining into your eyes is too bright. You try to squint just to see your whereabouts, but the light is still too overpowering. Trying to cover your eyes with your arm also didn’t seem like a good idea, with the way they're feeling. You try to sit up but you realise that not only are your hands, arms, eyes and face messed up, your back also seems to be working against you. The sharp pain originating from your lower back as you try to sit up gets the best of you and you let yourself fall down again. 'Fine, I'll just lie here for a few minutes then I guess.' The sound you were trying to ignore a few minutes ago now started to get louder and louder. It seemed like it was getting closer, which it probably was. The sound is unfamiliar and the best you can compare it to is the beating of hooves on soil. ‘What in tarnation is THAT!’ You hear someone, with an extremely Texan accent, exclaim. ‘Oh, that is a very good question darling. I really wouldn’t know. It looks rather beat up though, don’t you think so?’ you hear someone else say with the most posh British accent you have ever heard. ‘The hell is going on?’ you think. ‘Can’t they see I’m hurt. Go get me a doctor or something.’ "Maybe we should go get Twi. She might know what this thing is." The Texan said. "Is it alive? It looks badly hurt, so maybe we should hurry." The British replied. ‘I hope this ‘Twi’ is a doctor ‘cause I can surely use one at this point.’ You feel your headache getting dizzy worse and you wonder if maybe you shouldn’t have rolled over. You hear the strange sound again as the two women move back from where they came. ‘I hope they’re back soon, ‘cause I don’t think I’ll survive for long out here.’ By now you’ve noticed that you aren’t home any more, and you presume that the same people who messed up your home came back and dumped your body somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Although lying on a dirt road meant that they have to have taking you very far from home. After about two minutes you hear the strange hooves-on-soil sound again, and you still can’t open your eyes. ‘What is this about girls?’ you hear another woman say with your average American accent. "Well we found this 'ere strange lookin' creature n' we thought ya might know what it is exactly." The Texan replied. 'Did she just say strange looking creature? What’s that all about' you wonder. "Oh wow." the American said. "It really does look strange. When did you guys find it?" "Well we just stumbled across it and then we directly went to get you. We thought that maybe you'd know what it was." The British said plainly. "Well, I can tell you what it isn’t. It isn’t from around here certainly, but I haven’t got a clue on what it IS." You try to open your mouth, but your chin hurts so much, and all that you manage to do is cough. The shaking movement makes you hurt even more, and you notice that you’re coughing on blood. "OH DEAR Celestia!" the British exclaims. "We have to get it to Fluttershy immediately." ‘What the hell is a Fluttershy?’ You think, but the more you cough the more it hurts and you begin to get dizzy now. You hear the three women start to close in on you. After a few seconds you are lifted in the most uncomfortable way making everything hurt, something is pulling on your arm, something else is pushing into the lower end of your back and then someone decides to smash something really hard into the back of your head. For a few seconds you see stars in front of your eyes, even though they're closed, and then the world goes dark again. This time when you wake up you notice that it isn’t as bright as before. You still can’t manage to open your eyes though, but you think that is because you’re so damn tired. You also feel a lot warmer than you did before you passed out for the second time. It seems you’re somewhere indoors in a bed under a blanket. It’s not the most comfortable bed, but you guess it’s just the standard hospital bed. "How’s it doing?" you hear someone say from what seems like another room. "I think it’s doing fine, it probably just needs it's rest." you hear a very soft voice reply. You really had to strain your ears to understand what she said. As you move a little to get into a comfortable position you notice that you’re covered in band-aid. You’re as immobile as a new born kangaroo. You feel really thirsty and you try to get up. It hurts at first, although not as bad as it did before, but it al goes away as you sit up straight. Now you manage to open your eyes. It takes some time to adjust to the light but after a minute or so you start to inspect the room. It’s completely different from what you expected to see. The walls are rounded, not square, they are yellow of colour, not hospital turquoise, and most disturbingly, they are covered with photos of abstract, multi-coloured, pony-ish creatures. You don’t know if you’re dreaming but it feels pretty real, although the sight of all this makes you wonder. "Uhm… Excuse me." You say from your room. "Could I maybe have some water? I’m rather thirsty." You hear multiple gasps of surprise from the other room. "It can speak!" A women says excitedly. You thought you heard something like pen on paper but you’re not sure. "Uhm… Yea I can speak English, but can I have some water?" You ask again. "Oh, yes, of course." You hear the woman with the soft voice reply. After about a minute of waiting the door slightly opens, and in walks the thing you least expected to. You can’t believe what you’re looking at. It’s just like from the pictures on the wall. A multi-coloured pony-ish creature. This one was yellow with a pink mane and tail. You also notice three butterflies on her butt. "I’m going insane." you mutter silently while your face has the most blank expression. ‘I must be. It’s either that or I’m dreaming.’ "Am I dreaming?" You ask out loud, although you know what they’ll answer. Of course they’ll say no, even if it is a dream they’ll say no. "Oh you’re not dreaming." Another ‘pony’ enters the room. Probably the one who answered your dumb question. This one’s purple with a darker purple mane and tail, with pink highlights in them. She also has something on her butt, which looks like a star with little sparkles around it. As they both move closer you feel intimidated. You already think you’re insane, because seriously, talking brightly-pastel-coloured pony thingies? This can’t be happening. Even if it is just a dream, you still think you’re insane. Who the fuck dreams about this kind of crap! "What’s wrong?" the purple one asks you. And now you notice the four inch dagger placed atop her head. It looks like that thing could kill. They get even closer to you and you do the one thing that you think will wake you up again. You grab the closest photo frame and you hit your head as hard as you can with it. It hurts for only about a millisecond before you pass out… Again. When you wake, again..., your head feels like exploding. It’s as if you’ve drunk twenty bottles of vodka and then drank some more. You figure that that is what must’ve happened because of the strange dream and all. As you try to get up though, you feel yourself being pushed back into the mattress you’re lying on. You try to move your arms but they also are being held in place by some sort of strap. You open your eyes to look down, but it seems you’re blindfolded. "What’s going on!?" You almost scream as you feel panic creeping up on you. "Get me out of here!" You start to actually panic as you don’t have a clue on what the fuck is going on. You hear the sound of hooves again, coming closer to you. There is an irritating beeping noise coming from somewhere beside you, and it starts to speed up the closer the hooves get. Then there’s something touching your foot. It doesn’t feel cold but is also doesn’t really feel warm, it’s just there. After whatever touched you moves back you start to feel a warm sensation where it touched you. The warmth slowly rises up your legs and you feel then become relaxed. As it reaches your midsection you calm down significantly and you also notice the beeping sound slowing down. This makes you realise that you’re probably on a heart monitor, which means that you’re in a hospital. 'Thank God.' "Good morning." A man said from the bottom of my bed. "How are you today? It seems like you’ve had quite a rough time the last couple of days." "Why am I blindfolded?" My answer isn’t very polite, but I really don’t understand why I’m tied up like this. "And why am I tied to the bed?" You hear another set of hooves moving toward you. "Well, the last time you saw any of us you freaked out real bad. So see this as a precaution just for your own safety." This was definitely the voice of the purple armed-with-a-dagger-on-its-head pony. You feel like you might panic any time now, but it seems that your body is completely at rest. "Can someone please take off the blindfold?" You ask, feeling annoyed. Although you’re not sure that may be the best idea. "Promise me that you won’t freak out again like last time, ‘kay?" She says with a strict tone. 'I’ll try.’ you think to yourself. ‘I mean who wouldn’t freak out when they saw these strange looking pony things talking to you, as if they’re human themselves.’ You feel that the cloth covering your eyes is slowly lifted off of you and you can see that the room is dimly lit. You open your eyes and look up at the ceiling. It looks like a hospital ceiling, square pattern with lamps every now and then. The only problem is that it looks like the ceiling is way too low. You think that if you would stand up and stretch your arms out over your head you could easily touch it. "So how are you feeling?" you hear someone, or something, say from beside you. You try not to look in the direction from where it came before you answer, but your head just lolled over to the side against your permission and you see the pony again. Bright purple with a dagger sticking four inches out of her head. But for some reason, you don’t know why, you don’t feel panicky. "I-I feel fine. Great really." You reply with surprise. "It’s probably the work of Doctor Feel-good." It says in reply "Wait, what. Doctor ‘Feel-good?" 'You’ve got to be kidding me, what kind of name is that?’ "He put a simple spell on you to keep you calm in all situations." She said, as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. "A spell?" you ask, raising an eyebrow, not knowing if it’s being serious or not. "Yes, a simple spell. Magic." She’s saying this as if it’s the most common thing, as if magic really exists. Then a questions pops into you mind. The question you should’ve asked first. "What are you?" You ask carefully. "I am a unicorn, one of the four pony races of Equestria, of course. And so is doctor Feel-good." 'A unicorn? Oh now things are starting to get good. Firstly, strange hue'd ponies and now magical unicorns that can actually do magic. Man I’ve really lost it haven't I.’ You still don’t want to admit that all this might be real, for some strange, unexplained reason. Next question that you think of is also a rather important one and one you’ve already asked. "So, where exactly am I?" You probably should have left out the ‘exactly’ part. The purple thing starts to talk. "Your location is -21.0056341 degrees longitude and 57.9460821 degrees latitude. Which is in Equestria, situated below the Northern Provinces and Crystal Empire. You are currently in Ponyville in Doctor Feel-good’s practice, which is near the centre of this town." Now you realise that you’re very far from home, farther than you expected. "So what’s your name?" the purple unicorn continues. "Uhm… my name is…" Dammit how could you forget your own name. It was probably due to that fact that you had hit your head a least three times within three days. "I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to remember." You say with a defeated sigh. "It’s okay, you’ve had a rough time so it’s understandable." It said with a tone of compassion. Now you remember that you’re tied to the bed you’re lying on, and it’s getting really uncomfortable. "Can you please take of the restraints?" you ask uncertainly. "Of course! You don’t look like a threat at all, now that you’ve calmed down a bit." What happens next is something you didn’t expect to happen. It’s horn started to glow and so did the restraints. Slowly the restraints were taking themselves off. You were looking at the scene with amazement. "What’s wrong?" Purple asked. "Have you never seen magic before?" It said incredulously. All you could do was keep on staring at the restraints, which were now fading again, as was its horn. You try to sit up straight, but you feel something pressing you back again, although it can’t be any restraints. "Oh no you don’t." the Doctor, who was still standing at my feet, said strictly. "You shouldn’t get up yet. Your anatomy may be a little different from ours, but I know when someone has broken bones and when they shouldn’t move around. And you mister, you shouldn’t be moving around." There’s only one problem to that. You want to move around, you want to find a way to get out of here, try to get back home. You have no idea how you’ll ever manage that but if you don’t try then you’ve already failed. Right? "You need to rest. If you rest enough you may be able to walk again at the end of this week." The doctor said. "Also, Twilight here will stay with you to keep watch. You wouldn’t want any unwelcome guests in your room, now would you?" it seems like he’s joking, but something tells you that this Twilight really will stay with you for the rest of the week. "But doctor." Twilight says. "I still have so many questions to ask." "You can ask them tomorrow, now it needs it’s rest and I think you could use some too." The doctors answer seems final and then you try to rest again. Tomorrow is probably going to be a rough day, so you better get your rest. Although you’re still not sure if this is all just happening in your head. A.N.: Hi, This is my first attempt at a fanfic, and I hope you all enjoy it. Please give me some feedback on my writing style etc. And don't worry about being a critic, that's what I want. Anyway I hope you all enjoy, and if so I'll try to continue this story for you. Yours faithfully, Porqupine /)
Chapter 02: A week after arrival (v2)An Unexpected Visit Chapter 2: A Week After Arrival (v2) By: Porqupine The day starts out differently than they have the past week. You wake up without pain. Nothing hurts. It’s a miracle. You feel really good, until you open your eyes and remember what had happened. And that it is still happening. You’re still lying in the hospital bed and you see that the unicorn has indeed not left the room. It’s wide awake and now you notice that there’s a piece of parchment floating in front of her. Just floating, nothing is touching it, except for the quill, which is also floating and writing down something on the parchment. The floating items seem to have a slight glow to them and so does the horn. You quickly see the connection between the two. When the horn glows she’s doing magic, you finally realise. "What are you writing?" You ask and the unicorn looks up in surprise. "Oh you’re awake. Good." She replies. "I’ve got a few questions for you if you don't mind. Can I?" "Sure, ask away." You say without a second thought. "Okay where should I start…" It mumbles and then all hell breaks loose. "Who-are-you-what’s-your-name-how-did-you-get-here-why-are-you-here-where-did-you-come-from…" And it just kept going on like this for about five minutes, until she realised I hadn’t actually answered any of her questions. "Slow down please." You plead. "I can’t keep up with you." "I’m sorry." It said. "I’m just so excited. I’ve never seen your species before, so I guess I just want to know all about you." "Okay, well I already told you that I forgot my name, so I don’t really know who I am. I do know that I’m not from Equestria, but that I am from Earth." you say, doing your best to answer her questions from the beginning. "Earth… hmm… Where have I heard of that planet before?" The unicorn is frantically writing on the parchment and you can see she’s thinking real hard. It seems that it knows just as much about Earth as you know about Equestria. Suddenly you realise that you have a question for it and you decide it is a good time to ask it, the unicorn being quite and all. "So what are you? Male or female?" you ask, you already guessed female with her voice being such a high pitch. The unicorn responds rather offended. "I am a mare of course. Isn't it obvious?" She looks at you as if you're the dumbest creature on the planet. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. It's just that I'm not used to being around talking animals." Again she looks at you, but now with anger in her eyes. "I am not an animal! I am a PONY, for Celestia's sake! What's WRONG with you!" "Sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry that I said that. I really didn't mean it like that. But you look so much like the ponies we have on my planet, but they can't speak, or do magic. In my world they really are animals." You try to talk yourself out of the awkward situation you've gotten yourself into. "Hmpf..." She replies with her eyes pointed to the far wall. You still hear the scribbling of quill on parchment, but the silence seems to stretch out in front of you. It just keeps on extending and you can barely take it any more. "So..." You're surprised she spoke again. "Which are you?" She asks. It takes a while before you understand what she means, but then you realise that she's referring to the question you asked her ten minutes earlier. "I am a male, or as we say it on Earth, a man or a guy." "Interesting..." You hear her softly say as she focuses on the parchment again. "How did you get here?" She asks you. You think about it but you really don't know. How did you get here? You think about what happened before you got here. Your house was trashed, the window was mysteriously missing, and you fell down, twice. Then you remember the piece of paper, with the strange markings. "I-I'm not exactly sure of how I got here." you say to Twilight, you remembered her name. "But I do remember seeing something before I woke up here." "What was it?" She's looking really interested in your story. "I'm not exactly sure but it looked like a piece of paper or parchment with strange markings on them, it started to glow just before I fell. I can't exactly remember what they looked like but I have a rough idea." "Please." She says. "Draw them for me." She gently floats a quill and a piece of parchment your way. You really have to focus on your memory but you manage to make a rough copy of the markings. A star-like figure in the middle, surrounded by five other thingies. You don't exactly remember what they looked like, but you think you've got it about right. "Oh. My. Celestia." You hear Twilight say. "What's wrong." you ask, feeling rather concerned about the reaction she got to your drawing. "Do you know what this is?" she asks you, but doesn't wait to tell you, not that you know what it is. "You made a drawing of the Elements of Harmony. Do you know what that means?" again she doesn't wait for your answer. "You were brought here by magic, not from your world but from this one. Somepony or something wanted to get you here." "This is important. I need to inform the Princess immediately." Twilight states and then just trots out of the room. You are left baffled by what just happened. Why would any Princess want to know about anything, why not inform the King? But if there is a Princess that means that this is a kingdom. You wonder how a kingdom could be so technologically advanced. And they have magic for Pete's sake. Why would you ever need to have technology? A few minutes after Twilight ran out of the room Doctor Feel-good walks through the door. "How are you feeling today?" he asks you. "I feel really good now actually." you say with a happy voice. "Good, I think I will allow you to try and stand again, but do it carefully." the doctor sounds serious so you decide that it is probably wise to take it slow. You sit yourself up before you continue. It feels good to sit straight again and you start to stretch your back. You still feel a small pain in your lower back, but to stretch out like this feels heavenly. "Oooh man that feels good." You let out a loud contented sigh as you hear your joints make a little 'pop' sound. You continue with moving your legs to the right side of the bed and you feel the floor touch the bottom of your feet. "Sorry, most of my patients aren't quite as tall as you are." the doctor says, but you don't really mind and you slowly shift you weight forward. It's been a week since you last stood on your legs and they feel weaker than they used to. You slowly start to rise, holding the little desk at your bedside with your mostly uninjured right hand. It feels great to be standing up straight again. The familiar feel of your legs comfort you and you start to walk around the room. When you reach the other side of the bed you notice how small doctor Feel-good actually is. The top of his head barely reaches your chest, but since he also has a horn, which reaches up to your chin, he looks taller than he actually is. The doctor starts walking toward the door. "Want to walk around a bit? I can show you the hospital if you like, you seem well enough." You don't only seem well enough, you feel great too. You think you'll just go with the flow and do whatever you're asked. You walk toward the door and the doctor opens it, using magic, which still creeps you out a bit. At first you thought the door was electric until you noticed the glow around doctor Feel-Good's horn and around the door nob. You have to bend your back forward a bit in order to go through the door, it's designed for ponies, lower than you're used to, but also wider than you're used to. Even when you bend your back you almost hit your head. There's still a small yellow mark on your forehead, reminding you of the past week and how you hit your head. You wouldn't want to make that blue again. You walk into a hallway which is also designed for ponies. Rather low hanging ceiling and much more space between the walls. Of course everything is designed for ponies, you're in 'ponyland' for godsake, but it all still manages to surprise you how everything is so well adapted to the ponies. Or well, how the ponies adapted everything to them, just like humans did, but it seems like the ponies are doing a much better job at it. As you walk down the hallway it appears that the hospital is abandoned. You can only hear your own and the doctor's footsteps, or 'hoof-steps', whatever. "Is this place abandoned?" you ask him carefully, as not to upset him. "Oh it certainly is not. We just put this wing in lock down since we weren't sure if you're a threat." the doctor replied. You don't have to think long about why they would see you as a threat. You're at least a foot taller than them, maybe even two. They've obviously never encountered a human being before so you're an alien to them. Suddenly you feel extremely lucky to have been brought here and not another earth-like planet. Humans wouldn't react well to aliens, but these ponies, they've been very nice to you and they seem very friendly. "Thank you." you say to the doctor. "For what?" He asks. "I only treated you like any other patient, as is my job to do so." "You've all been so nice to me, although I am an alien to your kind." "You are welcome I guess then. But you seem to forget that there are three different species of ponies on this planet and I have to treat all of them equally. We even have other creatures, who aren't ponies, which I will treat just as well. We're all equal." these words the doctor said are something you can only imagine Jesus saying back on Earth. "I can see that you've accepted our kind, so I'm asking you now. Would you like to go outside?" The doctor said this in such a way that you had to think it over, but you already made up your mind. "Yes, I would love to." you really did want to go outside and get some fresh air, but you wonder why the doctor seems so on edge about your decision. You walk through a set of doors, and quickly find out why the doctor is nervous. As the doors close behind you every pony stops dead in their tracks and stare at you. There's even one pony who was looking at the floor and she walks straight into another paralysed pony. "Just keep walking." The doctor almost whispers at you. So you just continue walking, feeling very awkward about it. You can feel the eyes of the ponies you've passed by burn into the backside of your head, but you don't dare look behind you. "Turn left here and then the third lane right." Everywhere you pass all work stops and all eyes focus on you. You don't like it one bit. Was it even a good decision to go outside? After having walked through the Labyrinth of hallways you finally spot what you think has to be the main entrance. You know your guess is correct as the doctor leads you through them, out into the open air. It feels wonderful to be outside. The air smells fresh and the temperature feels perfect. You notice that you closed your eyes because of the great sensation, but when you open them you're up for a surprise. "SURPRISE!" You can't see which of the fifty ponies said it, but you can guess which. It's probably the only pony that is moving, not only moving though, she's jumping around like a little kid on Christmas morning who has accidentally drank his fathers coffee. You see she's bright pink with a little bit darker pink mane and tail. The other thing about her is that her mane and tail are fluffy, very fluffy. They look like cotton candy from this distance. All the other ponies are just staring at you with big, and I mean BIG, eyes. You have no idea what you should do, but you feel rather awkward just standing here. "Uhm... hi?" You say with a little vibrato in your voice. "HELLO!" The pink one replies full with excitement. "Wooow-You-look-weird-so-tall-such-a-flat-face-how'd-THAT-happen-Did-ya-walk-into-a-wall-or-did-the-wall-run-into-you?" She was so full of energy you didn't know what to do. You just look at all the other ponies, who obviously didn't expect you to stand there. Then you spot the purple unicorn, Twilight, walk out of the crowd toward you. "Don't mind Pinkie, she's always like this." Oh dear god, how can anybody ever be like that for even more than a millisecond? "Listen up everypony." Twilight started. "This here is a Human, from Earth. I'm still trying to find out how he got here, but before I figure that out, I want you all to be kind to him. He had quite a rough first week here, so I would like to make it up to him." "Don't worry." she says personally to you. "They'll get used to you soon enough, just give it a couple of days." You're happy about the reassurance, although you aren't too sure if this can all work out. You thought saw a few nasty faces in the crowd before, although now every one of these ponies just looked at you with great interest. "So what do we call you?" one of the ponies asked from within the crowd. "I-uhm.. I don't know really, you can just call me 'Human' for now, until I can remember my name." You answer, although you're not too sure you want to be called 'human' everyday. It would feel like you're an animal, like a dog, or something similar. "How did you get here?" another pony asks you, but since it seems like you've answered all these questions already, so you decide to just tell them everything you've told Twilight. After about an hour of talking or so you notice that the ponies look tired as much as that is even possible, but hey, you're in a world with talking, magic-doing, unicorns and ponies. So you've figured that they've had enough of your talking and you're about to finish anyway. "...So that's what happened, and now you all know." You end your story, but unexpectedly you're soon bombarded with questions you can't answer. Haven't they listened to a single thing you've said? You decide the best thing to do is just to ignore them and you walk toward Twilight, who's gone back to the crowd to listen to your story. "That was quite the story." she says as you come closer. "Well you've already heard all of it though." you reply. "It was still interesting to listen too. A story is never told the same way twice.'" You liked talking to this pony, although she freaked you out the first time you saw her. And you're still a bit uncomfortable with the potential skewering. "Let me introduce you to my friends." Twilight offers as she starts to walk further through the crowd, which has started to thin out, thankfully, as ponies start to walk back toward there homes. Or at least so you think. You follow along and all ponies move out of your way. You still look rather intimidating to them and you can't blame them. But it still feels wrong to have them move away from you as if you are royalty. As you reach the back of the crowd the first thing you notice is the pink pony that was so overly excited when you walked out of the hospital. 'Don't, please don't tell me that's one of your friends.' You think pleadingly. "These are my very best friends." Twilight says and just like you feared the pink one is part of it. "This is Applejack." She says, pointing to an orange mare with yellow mane and tail. You also see that she has three apples painted or her ass. The only really strange thing is that she's wearing a hat and that it doesn't fall off. You wonder how she manages that. "Applejack here was the one who found you, together with Rarity." Now she's pointing to a white mare with the most stunningly styled mane you've ever seen. Coloured a deep purple and perfectly contouring her face. You gulp audibly as you try to move your eyes away from the beauty. You notice that all the ponies have something painted on their butt and so does Rarity. She has three diamonds. Why do all those things seem so familiar to you? "This here is-" she started. "PINKY! I'm Pinky." The pink one, who welcomed you so hyperactively, said, now bouncing up and down again. You already know that she's going to be really tiring. "Anyway... moving on." Twilight continues, while ignoring Pinky's rambling. "This here is Fluttershy." She gestured to a yellow mare with a pink mane. You think she has the most adorable look on her face. "hi my name is [size=8]Fluttershy[/size]" it sounds like she's trying to say something but you can't really hear what it is. "Sorry, what was that." you ask her. "Oh don't mind that." Twilight interrupts. "Fluttershy's always like that. She probably just has to get used to you." "And finally we have-. Hey, where's Rainbow Dash?" apparently there's one more pony you need to be introduced to, but she's not here. Oh well, it's not like you really mind. You hear a soft whistling sound come from behind you, which is rapidly getting louder. Before you have time to think you feel something crash into you back. You fall forward and almost crush Rarity, who just manages to get out of the way, and you fall to the ground... again... only this time you are able to catch yourself with your arms. "The fuck was that!" you say out loud. "Well now we know where Rainbow Dash is." Twilight says matter-of-factly. You turn around and find yourself staring into two big dark pink eyes. Then you feel four hooves, well they must be hooves since ponies don't have feet, land on you chest. "Didn't see that one comin' now did ya." The blue pony said with a smirk and a voice that sounded a little hoarse. You guess that this is Rainbow Dash and you understand why they'd call her that. Her mane could only be described as an actual rainbow. The colours were perfect and seemed to shift as she moved. You know that it's a she but you think she resembles what you'd call a tomboy back home. After about ten seconds she stands up straight again and then you notice that she has wings, WINGS. How magical can a place be. You remember from TV and history class that on Earth they'd be called a pegasus. You wonder if it might be the same here, just like with the unicorns. "Are you a pegasus?" You ask her. "Well of course I am. And I'm the fastest pegasus in all Equestria at that." She says with a big smile on her face. She bends her knees, then kicks off, pushing the wind from your lungs. She leapt about two meters up into the air and then she spreads her wings, as if to display them to you. She slowly glides back down to earth, as you start to get up again. "Well now that you've met my friends, how about we go and give you a tour of the village?" Twilight offered. "A TOUR, A TOUR, I LOVE TOURS!" This pinky was going to make you insane, if you weren't already. Is it possible to go insane when you're insane? You don't know, but you also don't want to find out.
03: Getting your bearings.Since the hospital was near the town square it's the first place they take you to. It looks like the tallest building in Ponyville is in the centre of the town square, so you guess that that is the town hall. You still feel awkward as every single pony stops in their tracks to look at you, but you try not to pay them any attention. When you reach the building, which is about the size of a three storey house, you wonder how they managed to build something like this. It seems that this is the biggest building in the village, but it still seems small, thinking about skyscrapers and such. Nevertheless, just like all doors here, this one was just a little to small for you to walk through without arching you back a little. The inside of this place, however, was huge. It looked much bigger on the inside than it did on the outside, but luckily there weren't too many ponies hangin' around here. "Nopony comes here too often." Twilight explains as if she were giving a real tour to a tourist, which she was doing in a sense. "This place is mostly used to receive complaints, or if there's a disaster happening." You look around the circular room and see that what looks like another floor from the outside, is just a small balcony from the inside. You can see the roof all the way from where you're standing. There's a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling and it looks really expensive. Crystals, which refract the light to create rainbows on every surface, seem to be endless. So many crystals must be worth a fortune. "That chandelier you're looking at, it was designed by our very own Rarity." Twilight said proudly, while putting Rarity in the spotlight. "Oh, yes, well. It wasn't that big of a deal really." Rarity says awkwardly while you stare at her in amazement, yet again bedazzled by her gorgeous mane. You see a little blush appear on her face. 'Did her fur just change colour?' You feel that you should stop paying attention to these kind of things. There are too many weird things happening here, you just can't stop to think about every single little thing. You pull your eyes off of her again to look back at the chandelier. "Where did you get all those crystals?" you ask. "They were supplied by the mayor, they all come from the mines underneath Canterlot." Rarity didn't seem to understand what kind of value this thing had. "What's Canterlot?" you wonder, but you guess it's just another village. "Canterlot is Equestria's capital city. It's the most magnificent place to be with a marvellous castle which is built into the side of the tallest mountain in Equestria." Twilight stated. "It's also where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna live, and where I used to live, before I came here, to Ponyville." Okay, so Canterlot is not a village. It's where the royalty lives. Not wanting to feel even more stupid you decide not to ask who these princesses are, although you would like to know eventually. After standing in the town hall for ten minutes Twilight decides that it's a good time to move on to the next location. You step through the little doors leading out of the town hall and you get directed to your left. You walk for several minutes and pass quite a few houses, which you expect are homes, until you reach a small dirt road leading to a small shack in the distance. Behind the shack you see a dark, dense forest. It makes you feel intimidated. You even think you see eyes lurking at you from the dark bushes at the edge of the forest. As you get closer to the shack you notice that it is actually much larger than a regular shack. And it even sort of resembles a tree. The roof is covered in leaves and moss. There are bird houses all over the building and in the trees around the not-so-average shack. "This is Fluttershy's home." Twilight says, as she nudges you forward. "Oh, yes, would you like to come inside?" You hear the yellow pony say as she approaches the door to open it. "This's where we initially brought ya to getcha treated. See, Fluttershy's th' best veterinarian in all o' Equestria n' 'cause we didn't know what ya were, we jus' brought ya right 'ere." It was the pony with the apples on her butt who was speaking, with her overly Texan accent. "I would love to see your home." you say sincerely. As you walk in, you see a lovely home. There is a small stove to your right and all around are small stairs and pathways, of which you didn't know why they were there. A red carpet with a flower print is lying over the wooden floor. There is an archway to your left which leads into another room. "So, uhm, this is the living room." Fluttershy says with her adorably tiny voice. You're led through the archway into the other room. There's a wooden table placed against the back wall under a window. Looking through the window you can see a path leading from Fluttershy's home out into the dark forest. You notice that instead of chairs, there are pillows laying on the floor. Seems logical. It would be weird to see a pony sitting upright on a chair. There is a couch, however, placed against the right wall. You can't really imagine how that would work for ponies, but you figure that they can manage, somehow. "And, uhm, this is the dining room." again with that soft voice, you really have to strain your ears to hear what she's saying. To your left you see two doors, of which you expect on to lead to Fluttershy's bedroom. Of the other door you're not to sure. You noticed from the outside that there was a second floor, so you expect the door to lead to a staircase. You don't need to wait long to find out as Fluttershy starts to walk toward that door. You follow her through it and indeed find yourself in a little hallway with a staircase going up. But there's another door at the opposite wall in the hallway and Fluttershy's walking, or trotting, towards it. She goes into the next room, which seems oddly familiar. You instantly remember that this is where you had your 'first encounter' with the ponies. The bed, which you were put in, is sitting against the far wall and there is a little desk to the right side. You notice that there are some wooden scraps on the desk, accompanied by some broken glass. The memory smashes you in the face, mentally. "I'm so sorry." You say apologetically to Fluttershy. "I was just so freaked out, I-I didn't know what to do." You then see the picture, now without frame, laying next to the broken pieces of wood and glass. It's a picture of the six ponies, which were now all standing pretty close to you. It's a pretty nice picture. "Oh, it's okay, it's not like you did it on purpose." She replies with a voice you'd expect from a mother, who's just punished her child. Problem is that you did do it on purpose, even if it was to try and wake yourself up. Still feeling guilty, you get led back to the dining room. "Would, you like something to drink?" Fluttershy asks. "I haven't got much. I hope you don't mind." Her voice started getting smaller again. "No, thank you. I'm good." you say, hopefully not insulting your host. After about a minute you start to notice Pinky again, which you have so desperately tried to ignore al this time. She's just randomly bouncing around the house. One moment she's in the dining room, the next she's standing in the living room, and a second later she's outside, waving at you through the window. "Can we go now, I'm starting to get bored." You hear from above you. It's the blue pegagus, Rainbow Dash the boaster, if you remember correctly. "Wanna continue the tour?" Twilight asks you. You don't know how much there's left to see and you haven't got a clue on how much time is left, so you decide that you want to continue the tour. "Sure, what's next?" You ask her. "We can either go visit Carousel Boutique, Rarity's place, or we can go and try to get a glimpse of Dash's home, Cloudsdale." She's giving you the choice. You don't feel like going somewhere where you might see something, but you want to be able to see it for sure. And you don't mind to see what Rarity's home looks like, although you don't think you'll be paying much attention to that, seeing how distracting her mane is. 'I would like to see Carousel Boutique, you don't mind do you?' You ask Rarity, while your stare is being caught again by her mane. 'Of course I wouldn't mind. On the opposite, I would be delighted to show you around my boutique, and home.' Boutique? Oh yea, she makes clothes, you remember. You walk back along the dirt road, which led to Fluttershy's place, and try to make a map in your head. You don't know how long you'll be stuck here, so you better make yourself at home. It seems that Fluttershy still has to take care of a few things at her home, so she won't run along with the rest of the tour. It's not like you really noticed her that much in the first place. After you've walked for a few minutes and passed some of the houses, you take a sudden turn to your right. This is a different road, probably behind the row of houses which make up the town square, and has a slight curve to the left. The road is pretty wide, you expect that you could probably fit two cars side by side, and still have space to open the doors fully. All the houses look pretty much the same, all very colourful and happy, except one. This one really stands out, it looks like a small castle in comparison to the other houses. The decorations on the outside show that this is definitely a clothing shop, and in this case, definitely Rarity's boutique. The first thing you notice about the place is that the door is a little bigger than any you've seen so far in Ponyville. It's probably even big enough for you to walk through normally, standing straight up and not having to bend over to refrain from hitting your head. You walk along the small path leading up to the shop's front door, which is framed nicely by a well kept front garden. As you reach the door you wait patiently for Rarity, and when she arrives you feel like you should be a gentleman towards her. Why? You haven't got a clue. 'Ladies first.' You say while making an overly exaggerated bow. You feel really stupid for doing so, but you try to hide your shame by ripping your stare from the enticing deep purple mane and looking at the ground. 'Oh well thank you kind sir.' Rarity says in all formality, also making a little bow before opening the door with her magic. You're surprised at her reaction. You expected her to just look strangely at you. You did hear some laughing though, from somewhere above you. It was the blue pegasus with the rainbow coloured mane, Rainbow Dash. You haven't really figured out what the deal is with her though. You just think that it has something to do with being a pegasus. Up until now all pegasi you've seen, which is only two, are very weird. As you walk through the door which is, like you expected, tall enough for you to walk through when standing straight, you first enter a little hallway. 'Please clean you hooves before you enter.' Rarity says to you and your company. 'I wouldn't want my workshop to get dirty, now would I.' You don't mind to clean your feet, when you come to a sudden realisation. You're not wearing shoes, but you're wearing your morning slippers, and have been wearing them all the time. You now feel very aware of what you look like and you feel like a beggar. You're wearing your oldest pyjamas, which is very worn out, and your wearing slippers which you've had for at least six years. After you've cleaned your feet on the mat you decide that it doesn't really matter any more what you look like, since you've been walking around like this all day. You go through a little archway leading out of the hallway and straight into a little lobby. Everywhere you look is some kind of cloth or string. It looks even worse than your own bedroom, which you hadn't cleaned for a week. There's a sort of blueprint laying in front of a sort of mannequin, a pony style mannequin that is. 'Don't mind the mess.' Rarity says a little nervously. 'I just forgot I was working on this little project for one of my most trusted clients.' 'Please, try not to touch anything.' She added sincerely. 'Otherwise I won't be able to find anything.' You wonder how she's able to find anything at all in this big mess, but your brain remembers a very nice word for this, 'Organised Chaos'. You guess that this is the best example you'll ever have of that. 'Soooo...' Twilight said, probably not knowing exactly what we were still doing here, it being such a mess and all. 'Shall we move on.' You barely here her, you're too distracted by Rarity. In a way she's your complete opposite, but in another she's exactly the same. You try to think of something else to get your attention off of her, and it works, for about a tenth of a second. 'I think Rarity needs her space, so she can continue with her 'little' project.' Twilight seemed to notice Rarity getting a little awkward with you staring at her all the time. Against your will you go outside, but you guess that it's for the best. It seemed she still had to do a lot of work, which meant that, sadly, she won't be joining your not-so-little-any-more tour any more. Although you've only visited three places, you feel like you've already spent half the day doing that. 'Next up is Sugar Cube Corner. That's where Pinkie works and spends most of her time. It's practically her second home. And it's also, conveniently, on the way to Sweet Apple Acres.' Twilight seems really proud of herself at making this tour. After walking past only seven houses you smell something so sweet it almost hurts your nose. As you continue walking the smell only gets stronger. You understand why it's called Sugar Cube now. It's as if the air is turned into sugar. When you reach the source of the smell you feel like you could drop at any moment. You cover your nose with you sleeve, which doesn't help much. 'Can we skip this one, please.' You ask, while breathing heavily. Haven't ponies got a sense of smell, you wonder. How can they stand this. Suddenly it seems like it's very quiet, something is missing. You look behind you and are shocked to see that the pink coloured pony is looking at you with big eyes, tears welling up. Oh dear, now you've done it. You don't want the pony to start crying, but you know that if you were to enter the store with all that sweetness, you'd definitely pass out. 'It's okay pinkie.' The orange apple pony, Applejack said. 'Remember the first time I got here? When I entered the store for the first time I passed out, remember? I couldn't handle the strong scent. I guess that that is exactly what's happening to this human right now. He just has to get used to it a little. We can always come back later, 'kay?' This really seemed to cheer Pinkie up again, and before you realised she was bouncing again. After you that smell you're not surprised she can keep bouncing around all day. She's just high on sugar, and that combined with, probably, an energy disorder, you can understand. But that doesn't mean that you don't think it's annoying to have a pink pony bouncing up and down in the corner of your eyes all day long. You let Twilight continue the tour, and she leads you along the road, to the opposite side of the village. As you walk away from Sugar Cube Corner you feel that you're able to breath again, after almost being suffocated. After a few minutes of walking you notice that the village is pretty big, you could almost call it a little town. When you finally reach the edge of the village you see a really big orchard stretch out before you. It's huge. as far as the eye can see there are trees, apple trees. It's pretty obvious to you that this is Applejack's place. Somewhere in the distance, between the apple trees, you see a pink house, although it looks a lot larger than a regular home. You walk along the dirt road lead to the house, and as you get closer you see that it's not a house, but a barn, a rather large barn. You wonder how they'd be able to build this, since Applejack didn't have a horn nor did she have a set of wings. They must be more advanced then you initially thought. When you finally reach the barn you start to feel hungry. You guess that it's already late in the afternoon, and you haven't had any lunch. 'Come on in y'all.' Applejack says as she turns the doorknob and opens the door, with her hoof. You don't even mind asking how, everything here is weird. 'Granny Smith's just dun with makin' her delicious apple pie. I dunno 'bout you guys, but I'm starvin'.' It seems that Applejack just read your mind. And you wouldn't mind having fresh apple pie as lunch. After being fed through tubes for a week, in the hospital, you'd like to eat something solid again. The house-side of the barn is lovely from the inside. A large living room with four sofas placed against the walls. a small table in the centre of the room, decorated with flowers from the fields. A big fireplace, which is probably used in the winter to heat the whole barn, was the finishing touch to the picture. The whole place made sense, in this world where nothing makes sense. After a minute or two Applejack, who'd left to get the pie, came back with five monkey dishes on her back. She picked them up with her one of her hooves, again you don't know how, and placed them on the little table. Then she went to get the pie. When she returned it surprised you that the pie was already cut neatly into eight pieces. She'd brought a cake knife with her to server the pie with. She didn't use her hooves but her mouth to hold the knife, and she managed to neatly put one piece on each of the little plates. You feel so hungry you're only barely able to wait for the others to start eating their share of pie, but when you start you aren't prepared for what you're about to taste. The pie seems to melt on your tongue while the stuffing seems to explode in your mouth. It feels like small electric bolts zap the inside of your mouth, but they don't hurt. You feel absolute euphoria, and that combined with the fact that you're so hungry makes it even a bigger enjoyment. When you finish your first bite you notice that the stuffing isn't your regular brown-yellowy colour, but that it's like a rainbow. It just looks extremely trippy, you think it's just you, but it seems like the colours are actually moving as you move. When you take your focus off of your pie you realise that every pony in the room, four of them, are staring at you with a smile on their face. 'Enjoyed that, did ya?' Applejack said with a voice that could only be described as someone making fun of you. 'This apple pie's made with our famous Zap-apples. They're the most special kind o' apples which only grow once a year, and have to be eaten within three days of harvest, or they'll go bad.' You feel very lucky to be able to taste this magnificence and you take another bite. After finishing your pie, which was accompanied by loud sighing and sounds that belong in the bedroom, you feel exhausted. You notice that the sky is also beginning to darken. It must have been later that you thought when you reached the barn. 'I'm pretty tired.' You say. 'Can we continue the tour tomorrow?' You ask Twilight with your eyelids halfway down. 'I think it has indeed been quite a long day, maybe we should rest.' She answers. 'Do we have to go back to the hospital?' You don't want to but you don't have anywhere else to stay. 'Or ya could stay here. We got enough room for the whole village practically, so I think you should also be able to stay.' Applejack offers. 'I'd love to stay here.' You say, you don't want to stay one more night in that hospital bed which felt like concrete after four days. And so you are able to stay at Applejack's for the night. You wonder what Twilight has planned for you for tomorrow, but now you're just going to sleep on one of the sofas, which feel like a cloud to you, so soft. Applejack gave you a blanket to stay warm but it's summer and it's warm enough that you don't need the blanket. You close your eyes and drift into the magic world of dreams. This is when you really get surprised.
04: The DreamInfo As this story is rated 'Teen' there will be sexual references here and there, not too much, but just for awkwardness' sake. You open your eyes slowly, and notice it is still dark. You let your eyes adjust to the unexpected darkness, only to find that you aren't able. It's just too dark too see anything. You stretch your arm out before you, but you can't even see your hand from this close. You feel panic slowly creeping up on you. You wonder why it is so dark. 'Didn't they have electricity here?' You wonder to in silence, the claustrophobia only getting worse. Just before you think you might scream for help you see a dim light in the distance. The small and dim light doesn't seem to do much at all but it gives you a reference point as to where the ground and your hands are, which also makes you feel less panicky. You wonder why the light is there so suddenly, and you want to investigate. You slowly get up, but not from where you remembered to have fallen asleep the previous evening. Instead of there being a soft couch underneath you you get up from something more like a bed, but a naturally formed one made of leaves and branches and other plant-like materials. Once you got up you decide to walk toward the little light. It is so strangely attracting, the more you walk the more you feel like the light is beckoning you to continue and see what it really is. There only seems to be one problem, the light isn't getting any closer, or larger, or brighter for that matter. You feel like you've been walking for hours, but the light is still the same distance apart from you as to when you started your journey. You start to feel agitated and angry. Confused that the light isn't getting any closer, even when it's beckoning you to just cross the little distance and see, actually see, what this beautiful, yet infuriating, little source of light is. Just before you burst, from anger this time rather than panic, you feel something on your shoulder, something soft. You stiffen at the unexpected touch, and instantly bounce away from it. You turn around but you can't see a damn thing and since the little light source is behind you, you're making a shadow exactly where you want to be able to see something. "We are sorry. Did we scare you?" A female voice asks from the darkness of your shadow. You don't know what to do. Will you reply to the rather loud voice, or just stand here being paranoid. "We did not intend to scare you. Quite the opposite actually. It seems that you have found yourself in a rather unpleasant dream and it is our job to make sure that does not happen." What is this 'we' stuff. You're pretty sure there's only one woman standing right in front of you, although you still can't see her. "Who a-are you?" You ask nervously. You have a pretty bad feeling about this and all you want to do is run away, get to the light and be safe. "Oh. Let us introduce ourselves." The woman said, again with a voice much louder than was necessary. You slowly started to see a dull blue glow in front of you. It started out as something that looked like a very dark blue flowing river, reflecting the starry skies, but it is slowly getting brighter. After a while you see that it isn't a flowing river, but a very large mane, blowing in a sort of ethereal breeze. You don't feel any wind or breeze, but the mane, which now frames a very cute looking pony, is being blown about nevertheless. You avert your eyes from her mane and look directly into her eyes. Not the smartest move. You look into two massive turquoise eyes. All you can do is keep on looking at the gorgeous eyes for god knows how long, and then she speaks again. "We are Princess Luna, sister of Princess Celestia, watcher of the night and keeper of dreams. It is our duty to rid all dreams from evil, such as anxiety and anger." She added the last bit with a little delay and you expect that it was meant for you personally. "Sooo... I'm dreaming?" You ask her with a smug face. "And I just met a princess, a pony princess. Who can enter my dreams to make them better." You say this as if making fun of her. It's only a dream anyway, and that means she's also just part of the dream. Although you did feel better when she came into the picture, and you've never seen her before. You also don't remember having such a good fantasy. "You do not believe us?" It looks like you may have offended her a bit. But then again, she's just a dream. She just keeps looking at you and even decides to sit down. After about ten long minutes you come to a sudden, although very obvious, realisation. If this is a dream than that means you can control it. You look at the light behind you and this time, instead of walking to it, you're willing it to go toward you. At first nothing seems to happen, but after a few seconds the orbs starts moving, at first a bit slowly, as if reluctant to move from its current position, but then speeds up before stops right in front of you. 'Wonderful!' You think, feeling a little elated, especially after having been so furious at the little light orb, now peacefully resting in the palm of your hand. You still think it is a little dark, and you will the light to go brighter. After yet again a few seconds the orb starts to pulsate slightly and the world around you seems to become lighter. You look over your shoulder to take a peak at the princess, only to find her standing two inches away from your back. 'How did she do that, I didn't even hear anything.' You think, but you don't feel any sort of panic building, just curiosity. "Enjoying yourselves?" She asked with, yet again, the exaggerated loud voice and, yet again, using the plural rather than the usual single form of grammar. You think it's quite odd. As if she's from the middle-ages or something. Thinking about the question she asked, you find that you are actually enjoying yourself. You turn to her to answer her question, only to find yourself mesmerised by her amazingly hue'ed eyes. You melt before her gaze, and since you're not too young any more, and had access to the internet back on earth something happens that you don't expect, nor do you want it to happen. You are aroused. This is a dream, and you are feeling aroused. Not a good combination, especially in front of a princess who may or may not be real, who has the most beautiful eyes. And you are still looking straight at them. who would've ever thought you could get aroused from another being. Sure you've seen shit on the internet, but that was just plain disturbing. 'Am I going crazy?' You wonder, although you've had this conversation about a thousand times with yourself over the past few days. You are finally able to shift your eyes away from the mare's only to come to another, very obvious, realisation. She's not wearing any clothes. And so aren't any of the other ponies you're hanging around with. This idea feels very wrong to you, and you turn away from the pony and sit with your back toward her. You start to feel more anxious again, en then she starts to speak again. "What causes you anxiety is nothing to worry about human. You may be a different species, but you are definitely still a male. It seems that our kind is not the only one who need some relief every so often, and since there are none of your species here except you, it is only logical to find relief through dreams." The way she talked so casually about something so embarrassing made you feel only more aroused. Thought's are starting to go through your head, dirty thoughts. After not too long these thoughts start to manifest in your dream. You don't like this one bit. You feel really embarrassed that the princess is still behind you. That mare with those deep blue-green eyes, framed by a slim face and a mane that represented the night sky. You hear a little thunk behind you and then a little oooh~. You anxiously turn around only to be extremely stunned by what you see. Instead of the seeing the pony princess sit behind you, she's standing straight up, with all her accessories laying next to her. She was looking at you wide-eyed, if that was even possible as her eyes were already huge. Between the pile of accessories you saw her tiara, it was made from some sort of black gem, and it had a dark-blue glow to it, much like the glow around her 'flowing' mane. You looked up to the top of her head and only then do you notice the big horn extruding at least a good three feet from it. And now with the light bright enough to be able to see normally you look at yourself and don't like what you see. You're not wearing any clothes, and you're aroused. That and the fact you are now facing Luna directly again makes your face feel hot and you know you're blushing from embarrassment. The mare takes notice of your skin turning red at your cheeks, and slowly follows you eyes down to your groin, which was now growing rather rapidly. Once she understands what's going on she immediately averts her eyes to the side, and you can swear that her cheeks are also getting a little flushed. Not wanting anything more to go wrong you just want to wake up, although the dream is pleasant, in a freakish kind of way. "We think we will take our leave now." The princess said with a little stutter in her voice. Is she nervous? You kind of expected a princess to be more assertive, even in these sort of awkward situations. You saw her take another quick peek at your lower mid section before her horn started to glow and she vanished with a flash, leaving you blind for the next five seconds or so. 'Well, so much for having a nice dream.' You think to yourself, still stunned by the flash of Luna disappearing. You did not expect to have been able to create such an attractive pony in your head but it was a dream, which meant you must have created it. But this fact now makes you feel very uncomfortable. You made up an attractive pony, and not an attractive human. Although you only arrived here, in this strange world, about two weeks ago. You haven't even spent a long time being awake, about only half of it, and you've only spent one day, ONE DAY, with multiple of these equine species. Now that the attractive princess mare is gone your dream feels empty, empty and boring. You just sit down, not really knowing what to do or how to even wake up. Then the earth starts shifting ever so slightly. but it gets worse. The earth moves back and forth with increasing strength and after not too long it feels like you're able to surf on it. Then the earth falls away from underneath you, and you fall. You violently open your eyes and your muscles make you shoot straight up, but instead of sitting straight up you hit your head against something hard and you fall back down with a thump. "Ouch, that really hurt." You hear someone, or something, say with a childlike voice. You can feel your heart beating in your head at the place you got hit, but you slowly open your eyes to investigate what actually happened. You're glad to find that it is relatively in the room and that you're exactly where you remembered going to sleep, which was on the, amazingly soft, couch. You look up at the ceiling, but instead of seeing one you see three pairs of huge eyes in way to small heads. The one who was hanging over you had its hoof put against its head, at the place you two bumped into each other, you expect. "Yea, that did hurt a little." You reply with your voice cracking a bit, probably because of the rude awakening. The three little fillies, you now saw, were looking at you wide eyed. It was getting awkward with them staring at you like that. "Would you please stop that?" You ask them, with a touch of annoyance in your voice. They replied by quickly jumping down from the top of the couch, where your head is, and then sprinting out the front door. You hear them laughing as they run around the house, toward the barn area. "Well, good morn'n." You hear Applejack say from the opposite side of the room, the accent heavy in her voice. "You feelin' hungry?" You did feel a little hungry, especially since you've only eaten a bit of cake in the past two weeks. the rest was all fed to you through tubes and needles in the hospital. "What's for breakfast." You ask her with a smile while you get up from the couch. You look in her direction and notice that Twilight is standing next to Applejack. "Oh, hey Twilight." You say, before Applejack has the chance to answer your question about food. "Oh. hi." Twilight answers, and you notice her not looking at your face, but rather at the ground and the walls. You notice a little blush appear on her cheeks. Looking over at Applejack you immediately understand why, as you see her staring, not at your face, but just a but lower. You were having the common problem which almost every, human, guy has in the morning. You quickly turn around and look down at your embarrassing wood, also thinking back about the dream you had. "Sorry 'bout that." You say nervously to the two mares still standing behind you. "Don' worry 'bout it sugarcube. Happens to all stallions ev'ry once in a while." Applejack says with a little laugh, which makes you feel even more embarrassed about it. "We'll just leave ya to get ready fer breakfast. C'mon Twi. See ya." Applejack seems way to comfortable, but then again she does seem to have the same personality as the stereotypical human farmers have and you expect her to not really care about this kind of stuff. "Yea, guess I'll see you guys at breakfast." You quickly answer before they're out of earshot. Again you look down at your manhood which was now, thankfully, subsiding again. You think about the dream again, and can't help but think about the fact that these ponies weren't wearing any clothes. Sure they had fur, but the fact that they could think and speak like humans made you feel like they should also be wearing clothes, and not go about showing off their stuff just because they can. It just doesn't seem natural. You quickly look at yourself in one of the mirrors hang on the walls only to find yourself very disappointed. You're a mess. Your clothes are dirty and need to be cleaned as soon as possible and your hair, which has started to grow longer than you are used to, makes you look almost like a porcupine. You try to comb your hair as good as possible with your hands but you only manage to make your head look like a sad mushroom. Seeing that you can't do much about your hair you decide to go to the dining room and join the ponies at the table. Breakfast is a surprise. It consists of bread, which you already thought was an achievement, apple juice, which you pretty much expected since you're on an apple farm, lettuce, you think they got from a market or something, and surprisingly, cheese. There was also a lot of hay on the table, but you expected that since you're in a house full of epuine beings. You're joined at the table by five ponies, two of which you know, Twilight and Applejack. The other three you haven't really met yet, although one did look a little familiar. The little filly sitting across from you still massaged her forehead every now and then with the backside of her hoof, indicating the point of impact from this morning. She's like a child version of Applejack, not in appearance but more in personality. Next to her is a big pony, and from the looks of it, a he. The look in his eyes seem rather lethargic, but he also looks rather buff. You don't know how a pony can look buff but this guy really does. At the head of the table there's a pony who doesn't look like the youngest any more, all wrinkly and moving very slowly to start on her meal. The only thing that's missing for making yourself a sandwich though is mayonnaise. You guess you'll just have to do without that then. The bread is a lot tastier than it looks like, probably because it was freshly baked and it's still warm on the inside, making it very soft and fluffy and extremely enjoyable to eat. This is the first normal meal you've had since you arrived, and you feel relieved they actually have normal food, maybe no meat but that was fine, for now. After you ate your breakfast and everybody finished you got led back to the room you slept in last night. "So what have you got planned for me today?" You ask Twilight with a little smile on your face. "Well I've shown you most of the town, but there are two more places I really have to show you, and one of them is going to take up quite a bit of time." She answers with genuine excitement. "But before we go we have to wait for everypony else to be here." She added. "Wait, what? Everypony as in who?" You ask with a little concern. You've seen how big the village was and you don't really feel like having to hang around with all of them. "Oh just Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash." She said, again sounding pretty excited. You also don't really look forward to meeting the blue pegasus again, thinking about what happened the last time you met her. You are relieved though that she didn't mean all the ponies from the village when she said 'everypony'. You didn't have to wait very long before there was a knock on the door. "You gonna let us in, or what." You hear a pony say with a little bit of a hoarse voice, which you remembered was, as you feared, from the blue pegasus with a rainbow coloured mane and tail. Applejack went to open the door, and you are left with Twilight for a few seconds. She seems to be a little shy when there's no other pony around and she looks at the ground again, really avoiding all eye contact. She didn't do that before did she? Does it have anything to do with this morning maybe? The seconds pass quickly and then the room gets filled with the rest of her closest friends. "So were are we going?" Rainbow Dash asks Twilight. "Well first we're going to visit my library, and then... Well you'll just have to see." She said with a rather playfull tone. "Come on, lets get going." She walked toward the door and she opened it using her magic and you and the other ponies followed.
05: The unexpected surpriseAuthor's note: I'm trying out a tiny bit of a different style, I hope you all don't mind. All previous chapters were written in the present form, but now I'm trying to mix present and past forms together, as I find it easier to write with. Please let me know if it doesn't work out and I'll change it back. The walk to the library wasn't a very long one, it took about twenty minutes to get there from Applejack's home. The walk also wasn't as awkward as the day before, when all ponies made sure there was at least thirty feet between them and you. You reach the library and you what you see is definitely not what you expected. You expected a big Roman style square building which could hold stacks of books, but what you see here is quite the opposite. In front of you is a huge tree with a door and windows. You don't know how the tree hasn't started to rot yet, but your best guess is that is has something to do with the magical charge of this world. Magic is everywhere here, not only in ponies but also in food and even in the air, at least that is how is feels. Twilight walks to the door and magically opens it. "Come on in. I'll show you around." Twilight says while looking at you. The other ponies already went inside so you follow suit and do the same. Once inside you see that the tree-house is indeed a library, everywhere you look there are books. The walls are not walls at all, they're shelves filled with books. There are also several stacks of books laying on the floor, almost reaching the roof and looking precariously unstable. "Wow" Is all you can manage to say as you look around you in awe. The library looked much bigger on the inside than it seemed from outside. You look at the titles of the books on the shelves and quickly find the pattern. It was pretty simple, every book was placed in alphabetical order but each shelf had a different category. "Oh, sorry about the mess. I totally forgot I was working on a new spell. Sorry." Twilight started as she walked around the stacks of books. "I don't mind." You reply, still gazing at the shelves, trying to see what kind of books there were in here. "Enjoying yourself?" The white unicorn said with her perfect British accent and stretching the words, obviously making fun of your behaviour. Everyone started to chuckle a bit, although you don't see the fun of it all. You walk toward one of the shelves where a book caught your eye. "Can I?" You ask Twilight as she walks up to you and stops right next to you. "Uhm... Sure go ahead." She said with a questioning look on her face. You take out the book which on the cover read 'A journey to the middle of the planet {Jules Knight}' and immediately open it to quickly scan through the contents. "Wow, this is something I didn't expect." You mumble to yourself, completely ignoring the ponies standing behind you looking at you intently. *Ahem* You hear Twilight beside you and you get pulled back to the present. "So what's with the book?" She asked looking from the book to you and back again. "Well." You start, not really knowing how to explain. "This book is very oddly, extremely similar to a book I've read before I came to this world." You say with a nervous smile on your face. "That's interesting." Twilight looks up at you then back at the book again. "So what kind of similarities does it have?" She asked with excitement in her voice. You explained to her how the story matches freakishly well with 'A journey to the centre of the earth {Jules Verne}'. It has the same main storyline, and also the same events. The only things that are different are the names, dates and places. After about ten minutes of talking you see everypony looking at you with a quizzed look on their faces, all except Twilight that is. Twilight walked over to another one of the shelves and threw another book at you. You read the title and immediately make the connection. The book is an atlas of the world, although at first you thought it was an atlas of Earth. The cover of the book is a map of the world, and it very closely represents the ones you know from earth, but the title states differently. 'Large Atlas of Geographical and Political Equestria' the title said. Twilight looked at you with a huge grin on her face, apparently feeling very proud about what she just discovered. "What'r you two up ta?" Applejack says with that puzzled look on her face. "I think we just discovered that I'm not from any random alternate dimension, but from a parallel one." You say with a little chuckle. "What in the hay is that supposed to mean?" She continues to ask. "Well, it means that many of the things in this world represent similar things in my world." You say with the smile on your face getting bigger. "For example this book." You point to the book you placed on the floor after Twilight had thrown you the atlas. "It very closely represents a book from my world, having the same storyline etcetera. Then we have the atlas." You say, this time pausing before continuing to build up some tension. "The geographical layout of your world is almost the same as the geographical layout from mine, apart from the dramatic changes in altitude." You finish talking and then look at the faces of the stunned ponies looking at you. "What?" You say nervously after a long and awkward silence. It seems like these five ponies hadn't really thought about where you were from, let alone how you even got here. The only one who wasn't surprised was the one you had talked to the most, but she also looks like someone, or rather somepony, who would actually think about this kind of stuff. "Oh. Right. Almost forgot." Twilight started as she now walked to the back of the library. "Uhm... Human? You don't have anywhere to stay, do you?" She asked, and you could swear you saw a little blush on her face, just like the pony had in your dream. You eye her, your face wearing questioning look. "Well I have a guest room back here, so if you want you can sleep here for the time being, until you get yourself a home, that is." She started looking up toward the ceiling, seemingly averting her eyes from yours, and now there was no way that there wasn't a blush on her face. You notice the other ponies looking at you as you try to make the rather easy decision. "Sure, I would love to stay here. Anything is better than that awful hospital bed. I would even sleep on the floor here if you didn't have a guest room." You say while taking a little bow, making Twilight blush even harder. "Okay... Uhm... Now that that's settled shall we... Uhm... Continue with the tour?" She asked, looking a bit embarrassed, her eyes darting from one side of the room to the other. "Okay, sure. Where do we go next?" You ask her, as her cheeks begin to go back to their normal colour. "For this I'll need to do some magic." She said, her lips twitching up to make a small grin. She moved to a different room and started to move stuff around. After a few minutes she walked back out, holding a few phials and bottles with her magic. "Just so you know, I don't know what effects this may have on you." She said pointing in your direction. "But ponies do not have any problems when I use magic on them. I expect humans don't react differently to it." She just laughs at you as she first walks up to the pink bouncing fur-ball of energy and her horn starts to glow. Pinkie stops bouncing for a second or two when Twilight lightly touches her head and a little light flashed from her horn. A split-second later and the pink pony is up and around bouncing happily on her spot. Twilight continued to the other ponies and did the same, although she skipped the two pegasi, which had you wondering why. She slowly walks over to you and her horn starts to glow again. "I need to touch your head for this, can you please get a little lower to the ground?" She asks as she closes the gap between you two. You bend your knees and you lean forward with your head a bit, to make it easier to reach. You feel the horn touch your head and a flash of light fills your vision. Only moments later you lay on the floor gasping for air and you see Twilight doing the same. You hear three sets of hooves running in your direction and you look to see al five ponies, the pegasi flying, rushing over to their fallen friend and the strange alien being. "What *GASP* was *GASP* that *GASP* ?" You ask with your eyes now wide open. You saw Twilight open her eyes slowly and looking at you. Her eyes went wide, and as they did the other five also looked at you. Their eyes also growing in size considerably. You wonder what's going on and you look at yourself. You down and are shocked by the sight. Your whole body is covered in a sort of aura, similar to the light Twilight's horn gives off when she wants to do magic. You push yourself up against the wall to sit up straight. "What the hell just happened?" You ask Twilight after regaining your breath somewhat. She looked at you curiously and then just smiled widely. "Ooooh, this is fun." She says with a smirk on her face. "I think I may have accidentally done something that wasn't supposed to happen." Twilight continued while looking at you with a grin. "Please Twilight, explain." You say, worried that something bad may have happened. "You know how this world has a lot of magic in it, right. Everything in this world is fused with it, all ponies have some magic in them, even earth ponies. But... the thing is... When you came here you didn't have any magic. Or at least so we thought since you came from a world without it. When I touch you with my magic, I think it unlocked yours. Since you didn't have any magic in most of your body, there must have been a part of you that did, which in turn reacted to my magic." She kept on lecturing for a good fifteen minutes before she thought you understood what she meant. "So basically I'm a magician without one of those horns on my head to actually use it." You say still sceptical about the whole thing. "Well, yes and no." Twilight answers. "It seems that, since your body is quite big, you have quite a bit of magic, which was all bound together before and now flows through it. I think you may not even need a horn to utilise your power." As she thought about what she'd just said she started to look with fear in her eyes toward you. "What's wrong" You ask her, seeing that fear in her eyes. "Well, the only being I know of that can utilise magic without a horn or a catalyst has more than once tried to lay waste to Equestria." She said while her voice sounded soft and quivered slightly. All of them now looked at you with fear in their eyes. You felt really bad by causing so much fear and just wished you were invisible, just so they would stop looking at you like that. You dropped your head down in your hands and then you were surprised , yet again. You saw your hands become see-through and almost vanishing, leaving only a vague outline of them in front of your face. You looked at yourself and noticed that not only your hands but your entire body, including your clothes had a glassy look to it, see-through but still visible. You look up to see the Six still staring at you, only now they looked terrified by what you just did. "I-I'm sorry" You say drooping down again. "Wow, didn't see that one coming." You hear the hoarse (hehe) voice, which belonged to Rainbow Dash you remember, say to you. This comment seemed to lighten the tension immediately as all the ponies regained their composure. All except the yellow pegasus, who was cowering behind all of her friends. "No no. It's okay. We should be the ones that are sorry. We shouldn't have judged you like that, just because you can do something only one other being, evil or not, can do." Rarity was speaking, although she still looked a bit nervous. You look at yourself again and realize that you're still near to invisible. "Uhm... How do I change back?" You ask Twilight as she looks at you. Then she starts laughing really loud and she almost falls to the ground. "What's so funny?" You ask her again not really understanding what's so funny. "Well we did just think you were about to kill us, and now you're asking me how to change yourself to being visible again." she said still half laughing. "I totally forgot you haven't learned how to magic at all yet." 'So they are laughing about the fact that I'm not able to use my magic and they each could have pinned me down by themselves.' You think annoyed. "I'm sorry, but how did you manage to be like that in the first place." Twilight asks now fully recovered from her laughing fit. "I don't know. I just didn't want you guys to look at me with those terrified eyes, so I just wanted to be invisible." You say looking at them with a little sadness in your eyes, thinking about how terrified they were only a few moments ago. "Hmmmmm." Twilight said deep in her thoughts. "You did magic by only thinking about it?" Rarity interrupted Twilight's train of thoughts and mumbled something to herself as she continued. "If that were the case then try thinking about being visible again." Twilight said as she now focused back on you. "Okay. If you say so." You answer feeling sceptical again. You think about being seen again, but this time with curious eyes on you instead of terrified ones. Your hear a few gasps and then open your eyes to find yourself visible again. "Wow, that's different." You say with a little bit of shock in your voice, as now the fact that you can do magic begins to seep into the part of your brain which makes you accept things as they are. "It is indeed not what I had planned for today, but I think we still have time for that." Twilight said, but then quickly added, "Tomorrow." "So what did you have planned for today darling?" Rarity asked but was quickly answered. "That's a surprise. But now I need you all to leave and come back tomorrow. I have some things I wish to discuss with our human here." She said pointing to you again. "Awwww." All the ponies said in unison as they were led out of the library by Twilight, who then locked the door before returning to the main room. "So what did you want to talk about Twilight?" You ask her as she drops herself down next to you. "I want to teach you how to control your magic, so that you don't accidentally use it when you don't want to." Twilight started. "When unicorns are born they have magic in them, not much but enough to cause a little trouble every now and then, since they don't have control over it. With you it could be a bit of a larger problem. You have a tremendous amount of magic in your system, and you don't know how to use it, let alone control it." "I'm going to have to teach you the basics of magic in order for you to be able to keep yourself from potentially destroying something you don't want to. There is only one catch. It would normally require a month at least to learn this, and we do not have the time for that. I don't want to risk having an unstable source of magic around here for a month." "I will have to transfer and copy some of my memory into yours." She looked you in the eye and then said seriously, "It. Will. Hurt." You flinched back a little to the side away from the purple pony who'd just said that she's going to hurt you. "But if it isn't done than you might get hurt even more than you can imagine." You sigh at that. "There's no other way?" You ask just to be sure she thought about everything. "No, this is the only way there is. Although we could make it a little more comfortable by lying on a bed instead of the floor." She said and she blushed a little again. You and Twilight walk to the guest room and you see one bed. Not very big humanwise, but it looked like it would be able to hold the both of you and still have some room to spare. You walk to the bed and sit on the edge, feeling the soft mattress. "Should I lie down or just sit up like this?" You ask Twilight before she hops onto the bed on the other side, and plops her head onto one of the pillows. "I guess I'll be lying down then." You say to Twilight, making her blush even more. "Just try to relax, and please try not to move." She said with a little worry on her face as her horn began to glow and she came close to touch his head. The moment you made contact the room burst with light and you were temporarily blinded, even though your eyes were closed. You felt as if something was trying to push your thoughts aside and when they were gone all you could see were memories. But not your own memories. These were the memories from the being lying opposite from you and you let them come in. As soon as you made the decision to let them enter your mind you were overwhelmed be an almost endless stream of information. It felt like eternity before it stopped, and when it did you feel nothing for a few seconds, then the pain kicks in and you pass out. AN: I hope you all like these turn of events. And if you want to know what the Actual surprise is, you'll just have to wait for the next chapter :p.
06: Control and the requestYou awaken to the sound of breathing. Something is loudly huffing into your ear. You move your head a little, only to be reminded of a heavy throbbing in your head. You also notice that there's a little weight on your head as you start to recall what had happened. You feel absolutely dreadful as your head is on the verge of popping. It feels like you've been drinking for three days straight, only to get the hangover all in one go instead of three separate times. You try to move a little again to get rid of that weight on your head. As you do you hear Twilight give a little grunt. "Just a little longer..." She says, more asleep than awake. You move a little more and now you feel the pony slowly slide off of your head. You feel a little better now that the weight is off, but your head still feels like bursting any moment. "Wow..." You start with a crackly voice, heavy with sleep. "That really sucked." You look up at Twilight who was now slowly opening her eyes to look at you. "Yea, that was worse than I expected it to be." Twilight said as an answer to your previous statement. "Probably has something to do with the interspecies thing. I've done this before with other ponies but it was never this bad." She grunted out while putting a hoof to her head. You lay there for at least thirty minutes until the inevitable happens. You hear a loud grumble from your mid section and well as from Twilights stomach. You have now idea how long you've been out cold but you do know that it was long enough to make you hungry as a horse (no pun intended). So you decide to get up. After taking almost an hour to get up and out of the guest-room, you decide to rest on one of the chairs in the kitchen to rest your still throbbing head a bit. But your stomach doesn't agree with that, making more grumbling sounds as to remind you that you're low on fuel. 'Fine' You mumble to yourself before getting up again and heading over to the cupboards to find yourself some food. Twilight said that she won't mind if you got yourself something to eat, as long as you would bring her something as well. You aren't a great cook but there is one thing you learned to make very well when you were a student on Earth. Sandwiches. If there was one thing you could make it was sandwiches. You look around the cupboards to find something edible. You see bread and cheese, not enough for a sandwich. You look around the kitchen again only to find that you had missed the enormous fridge standing next to the cupboards you were trying to raid earlier. You open the fridge and find a few more ingredients to use for making a proper sandwich. Lettuce, eggs and surprisingly mayonnaise. You go back to the cupboards to get some spices which you had already located earlier. Some salt, pepper and also some olive oil. You still feel surprised at how similar everything is to what you remember from Earth. After you prepared the sandwiches you walk back to the guest-room to a still half-sleeping pony. You place the food in front of her as she slowly begins to sit up straight, her mane falling to her side in a rather comical way. You can't help but give a little smirk at the sight. "What're you laughing at." Twilight said grumpily, but then eagerly picked up the sandwich and started eating. After you both finish eating your college-style sandwich she turns to you. "So. Did it work?" She asked, although she knew it had to have worked, after having experienced the after effect. "I don't know. Let me just think for a bit." You tell her as you try to remember the alien memories. It doesn't take very long to find them. They're all memories of school and lectures and reading books, but for some reason the were happy memories, as if you enjoyed every bit of the events. "I guess the memories also contain your feelings you have with them?" You half-ask Twilight already knowing the answer. She just nods at you, and immediately regrets doing so as her head is still a little sensitive. The memories Twilight gave you are very informative though, and are well worth the pain. You now know how to keep magic from accidentally leaking out, which could have disastrous consequences if it did. But that's about the only thing she let you learn. How to keep it in check, and how to vent it if you get overfilled. She didn't give one bit of information on how to cast a spell. Twilight doesn't know how you react to magic, and she doesn't know if you have a finite storage of it, like all ponies do. She probably taught only these specific things to you to ensure that you're not a threat to her or her friends, which you don't want to be. You like her... as a friend. "So I guess I won't be doing much with my magic then, will I?" You say smugly to Twilight as both of your headaches are starting to subside. "Well I don't really know how potent your magic is, so before I teach you any spells I would like to conduct a few experiments. Out of precaution of course." She replies with a little grin on her face and an inspecting eye looking all over you. "So what's with the clothes anyway?" She ask out of nowhere. "I'm sorry, WHAT? Why would you ask that?" You almost squeak, your face starting to feel very warm. "Well..." She started with a sigh. "I've noticed that you've worn these clothes ever since you got here. And that was over two weeks ago. I just wondered if you weren't getting uncomfortable in them. I mean we ponies don't very often wear clothes, and I am personally not very fond of wearing them either. They just get in the way." You looked at her, then at your clothes, which were dirt and sweat stained and were indeed not very comfortable at this point. "The problem is really." You said still your face a little flushed. "Since I didn't get any time to pack some stuff before coming here, these clothes are my only set. At least you still have a natural coat of fur covering yourself. I don't." "What's so bad about that?" She asks in reply. "Well, imagine yourself being fully shaved of your fur, and then having to walk around like that." You say trying to explain what it would feel like to you if you started to walk around without clothes. "Oh. Right, I think I can understand how you would feel having to walk around like that." She said, obviously still thinking about walking around without coat, and lightly flushing her face in the process. "I might have a solution though. Rarity, the white unicorn from before, she's a fashion designer and stylist. I don't think she would mind to make you some clothing, although it would have to be all custom made, as you're obviously not a pony." She chuckled at her own obviousness. You start to think back of the day before, not paying much attention to Twilight who started to talk about things Rarity had accomplished in her profession, about why she actually had to transfer her memories. "So why did you actually use magic on me and the other ponies yesterday?" you ask her suddenly, very curious about what she had planned before it all went haywire. "Well I tried to put a spell on you which would be necessary to keep you from getting you killed at the place where I wanted to bring you to." She said still not giving away where she was going to go. You let it go for now but you plan to ask her again in the near future. "Can we go to Rarity please? " You ask Twilight, only wanting to get out of these filthy clothes, have a bath and get some clean clothes on before night would settle in. 'What time is it anyway.' You wonder to yourself. "Hey Twilight, how long where we out?" You ask her as she looked up from a book she was now holding in front of her face. You have no idea how she got it but that's not important. "I'm not sure. At first I thought it was morning, but now that I look at where the sun is it must be evening. I guess we slept shorter than I thought." She said as she quickly dove back into her book. *BONK* *BONK* *BONK* Twilight's head snapped back up away from her book as she looked at the door. She slowly got up from her seat and started walking toward the door as another set of thuds could be heard. "C'mon Twi. Open up already. We're all rather worried 'bout you'n that human." Applejack sounded from outside the library. She pronounced 'human' more like 'hue-maihn' making you chuckle a little. "Ugh. I'm coming." Twilight, still with a slight headache, said as she opened the door. "Anything wrong girls?" She asked her friends as they all filed through the door with worried expressions on their faces. "Well we hadn't seen ya'll fer three days, an' we thought sum'in bad mighta hap'ned ya know." Applejack said again as Twilight's eyes widened. "THREE DAYS?!" You almost screamed and stood up from your chair, hearing it hit the floor behind you with a clear 'thud'. Every one of the ponies looked at you in surprise, noticing only now that you had been sitting on that poor chair. No wonder you felt so hungry when you woke up. You've been out for the past three days, but it only felt like a few hours. You look at the others and then at Twilight. She has the exact same expression you have, shock. "I don't understand. This should have knocked us out for two hours at most, if it would have knocked us out at all. This doesn't make any sense. Of course I expected that it could knock us out for longer than that, seeing that you react strangely to magic, but THREE days?!" Twilight seemed to be in deep thought as you were just about to state the obvious. "I guess your magic has more side-effects with me. You better be more careful when experimenting on something from a different world." You just say bluntly, already past the shock of having been in a coma for the past three days. You have gotten quite used to being knocked out here in this world of magic. "But How?! This really doesn't make any sense." Twilight kept on going trying to make sense of everything. "Does it make sense that I was transported to this world? Or that I have magic even though I come from a non-magic dimension? Or that I was able to do a invisibility spell without having learned one" You tell her, trying to stop her from trying to make sense of all these things that don't make sense. This did seem to make her train of thoughts to stop. She now looks at you with big eyes, as if she'd just had an epiphany. "That... Actually makes sense." Twilight immediately walked to one of her rooms and quickly came back with quill and parchment, taking notes. You don't get how that makes any sense but apparently it did to her. "Uh, Twi, whatcha doin'?" Applejack looked at her while the bookworm walked over to you and started poking you very lightly with her horn at different places. "I just need to confirm something." She mumbled just loud enough for everyone to be able to hear. "No seriously Twilight what are you doing?" This time it was you who asked the question. She didn't seem to have heard you at all or she's just being plain rude and she's ignoring you. "Okay. Fine. As long as you don't poke my privates it's fine with me." You sighed as you figure you can't get her attention at all when she's this focused on something. You look at her friends who were now all looking at you with a little smile on their faces, and their eyes slightly squinting. Only seconds later Rainbow burst out laughing as she fell to the ground, unable to keep flapping her wings in sync. This made the rest also start laughing at your previous comment. This got Twilight's attention. "What?" She was now looking at her friends who were rolling over the library's floor, chuckling in the process. "I wasn't planning on poking his privates, you know." She sighed looking from her friends back to you. "Anyway I've got enough data for now, although I would like to run a few more tests on you, to see how magic reacts to you, and vice versa." This scared you a little. "What kind of test? I hope not as painful as the memory transfer." You ask her, but now everyone stopped laughing and they looked from you to Twilight. "Memory transfer?! Why in Equestria would you ever do that?" Rarity spoke giving Twilight an accusing look. "You know that it hurts the castee three times more than the caster. Not to mention the possible side effects." "I had no cho..." Twilight started but you interrupted. "Wait. What! So you're saying that Twilight had three times less of a headache than me and than she let me make her breakfast?! You're really unbelievable you know that." Now you were the one looking at her with an accusing look. She's a sadist. All she did was look at you with a *Squee*, ears laid back on her head and making her eyes as big as she could. "So. Why did you do the transfer darling?" Rarity asked again, also giving a slightly accusing look directed at Twilight. "I don't know if you all noticed this, but when I accidentally released his 'seal' on his magic he almost immediately used it, without knowing he did. That meant that he didn't have control over it. You probably have noticed that the amount of magic he has is really high, so in order to..." This time she was cut of by Rarity. "So in order to keep him from potentially hurting not only us but also himself he needed a crash course in controlling magic?" She finished Twilight's sentence, which in turn got her an angry glare and a little nod from the purple bookworm. "But did it work? Can you do all those things Twilight can?" Rarity started to show a lot of interest in you at this point. "Nope. She was mean and only transferred the memories from basic magic control, and no spells whatsoever." This made her jaw almost hit the floor. "So little information and you still managed to get knocked out for three whole days?! I think we should all be careful with magic around you." Rarity gave a nervous chuckle and looked to the ground again. "I think we should inform Celestia about these events. For something to have this much magic could be a problem in various ways." Twilight stated and walked a little past her friends, before shouting. "SPIKE! SPIKE?! Spike? Anyone know where spike is?" She now looked to her friends. "Spike has been sleeping on my couch at the Boutique for that past three days, since you had locked the door before your little 'memory transfer' with this human here. You even put a magical lock on it." Rarity said with a little edge to her voice. "Oh, right. Forgot about that." Twilight seemed a little uncomfortable. "The poor baby dragon has been worried sick about you, all he did was ask if the library was open again and if you were okay. Poor thing." Rarity said laying emphasis on almost each word. "Sorry, but could you get him? I need to send a letter to Celestia informing about the current events." Twilight was being pretty serious, although she did really bad about making the baby dragon worry. "Ah'll go get'm." Applejack was out of the library before she even finished her sentence. "Oh yea almost forgot. I think that the surprise I was planning will have to be moved to an indefinite date. Too bad though, I really wanted to see your reaction." Twilight said with a sad smile. After a few minutes Applejack had returned with an over-sized, green-bellied, purple-backed lizard. You understand why it's a baby dragon although it isn't really what you had in mind. "Twilight! You're okay." The baby dragon Spike said as he ran to Twilight for a hug. After several minutes of hugging and Spike being convinced that Twilight was okay she put on her serious face again. "Spike, I need to send a letter to the Princess immediately." Twilight said as Spike was suddenly holding a piece of parchment and a quill. Dear Princess Celestia, I take it that you have already been notified about our visitor from a different plane. He is currently staying in Ponyville and I have personally seen to it that he has been treated well. There has been an event though that I want to inform you about. I went to cast a spell on him which triggered something in his body to release a seal which was holding his magic. I have found that his magic is vast, but he has yet to learn spells. I would like to hear your thoughts on this matter, and hereby invite you to Ponyville to personally meet him. You faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. Spike wrote down what Twilight said and then he burnt it. Just like that. No reason whatsoever. He just breathed a green flame and the letter went up in smoke. You just look at the dragon and then at a smiling Twilight with confusion. That confusion was quickly taken away as the dragon started making a choking sound and then burped, a little green flame leaving his mouth again. When the smoke cleared away from his face he was holding a letter in his claw and he handed it over to Twilight. Dear Twilight Sparkle, I have indeed heard this rumour of another being entering our world via unconventional means. It gives me great pleasure to hear that he has been properly cared for. I am surprised to hear though that this creature has had a reaction to your magic. I will see to arrange a visit to Ponyville soon. In the mean time please refrain from using magic on him. I will personally come to see why this reaction took place. Her Highness, Princess Celestia. The letter had the royal seal on the bottom stating it was in fact from the Princess herself. "So what now?" You ask Twilight and her 'gang' of ponies. "I guess we'll just have to wait for Celestia to come by, before I can begin my tests." Twilight said obviously sad she couldn't start experimenting right away. "Before she arrives, could I maybe get some new clothes?" You say, looking over to the ivory unicorn. "Oh, but of course darling. Those old rags you're wearing currently just won't do in front of royalty, and they also don't look all that comfortable, am I correct?" Rarity was in her element the moment you said the word 'clothes' and she was already practically dragging you to her Boutique. "You really need to come with me darling, I need to take your measurements before I can make anything for you." She had dragged you most of the way to her boutique and when you were there she immediately started on her work for a new set of clothes for the bipedal creature.
07: A new styleBefore Rarity can start on making you a new set of clothes there was one thing she has to do. It is something that makes you feel a little uncomfortable. She has to take your measurements, which means you have to take off your clothes, for the most part. "Do I really have to take off my clothes?" You ask her, feeling rather awkward. "Well yes darling. How else am I supposed to get your measurements? It's not like I can see through your clothes." Rarity says with a sigh of irritation. You have been at this for the past ten minutes and she's losing her patience. "Okay, fine. But as long as I can keep my shorts on." You reply with the same irritation as you start to strip off your clothes. "Shorts? What are shorts? Don't tell me you're wearing clothes underneath your clothes." She seems sincerely shocked as you take off your pants to reveal your boxer shorts to her. "My goodness, doesn't it get warm with so much fabric over your body?!" Rarity just looked at you with big surprised eyes after you had stripped down to nothing but your rather well-fitting shorts. "So, can I keep 'm on or do I have to take these of too. I'd rather not though." You say feeling awkward and feeling embarrassment coming up. "I guess this will do. It won't interfere with my measuring tapes and you don't have to feel embarrassed by anything." "Wait. How did you know I was feeling embarrassed?" Now feeling even more embarrassed. "It's written all over your face darling. You may be a different species but it seems you have the exact same quirks as us ponies do." She says with a little giggle, probably just to tease you. This just makes you sigh as she starts wrapping your body with her measuring tapes using her magic. After about a minute you start to feel like a mummy, being wrapped up in so much tape that it gets hard to breathe. "Uhm... Rarity are you almost done, 'cuz it's getting pretty hard to breath like this." You grunt out and immediately feel the tapes being loosened a bit. "Almost there, just need to measure your arm's length properly. You do realise that it is a difficult task to make clothes for a different species, especially for one of your size." She says while noting down the final lengths she needs before she can begin with actually making his clothes. "Okay, I'm all done. If you want to put your clothes back on you may, but I think you should take a shower first and wash your clothes before you do that. If you just take your time than I might be finished with your first set when you're done." Rarity points to a door to the back of her boutique. "Go through that door and then the first door on the right is the bathroom. There are clean towels and if you need anything else just ask." She walks back to through the reception room and makes her way into her project chamber, where she makes all the clothing for her customers. You walk through the door at the back of the boutique and then the first door to your right. The room you walk into is absolutely massive. It is probably the most luxurious bathroom you've ever seen. To the right of the room is a very large bathtub, more of a small pool than a tub. On the left is what you guess the shower area. You open the semitransparent doors to see that there is no shower head. There is however a roof with holes in it. 'So this is how a pony showers.' You think to yourself. You put your clothes on the floor outside of the shower cabin and you twist the water knobs, carefully adjusting them to the right temperature. After having soaked yourself under the shower and thoroughly scrubbed yourself to get rid of all the grit and sweat from the past few weeks you decide that when you walk out of the shower you don't want to look like an elderly. You twist the knobs in the opposite direction and give a little sigh feeling relieved that you're finally clean again. You walk out of the shower cabin and pick up one of the towels laying on a little neatly folded pile near the door. After you dried yourself and having put the towel around your waist, you carefully walk out the bathroom to get to Rarity as soon as possible. As you enter the reception area though, there is a mare sitting on one of the couches. She turns her head towards the sound of the opening door and just stares at you. You want to go back through the door, but you also want to get to Rarity for your clothes, which she said she would have finished by now. Not a moment too soon the door to her work area opens and she walks out with a costume floating behind her in her magical grasp, only to stop in her tracks as her eyes dart between you and her customer. After a second or so she regains her composure and walk over to the turquoise mare. "Here you are miss Heartstrings." She says to the mare, startling her and pulling her out of her daze. "Huh? What? Oh, right. Thank you. I guess I'll be going then." Heartstrings replies awkwardly before quickly making her way out of the boutique. "Excuse me for that. I had totally forgotten that she was going to be here today to pick up her order." Rarity starts. "Your clothing is also coming along nicely. I just need to get a few more stitches into the top half of your set and you're good to go." You look at her as she beckons you to follow her to her working area. "Could I maybe try out what you've already finished, then I could maybe also get rid of this towel." You say with a sheepish smile on your face. "But of course darling. I also took the liberty of trying to make on of those, what you call it, 'shorts'." Rarity walks to the far end of the room to retrieve what she's currently made for you. She walks back to you with a victorious smile beaming with the message 'I DID IT! IT WORKED!', which kind of scares you a little. She floats the garments in front of you and you quickly pluck them from her grasp, as you walk toward the corner of the room where there is a conveniently placed curtain hanging from the ceiling. You pull the curtain in front of you as you drop the towel you were still holding around your waist, and try on the new pair of white boxer shorts. It's a perfect fit. Not too small and not too big. And what surprised you most is that it doesn't clamp around your groin. It's the best set of underpants you've ever had, as far as you can remember. Next you put on the pants. As with the shorts, it's a perfect fit. You walk around a little, still with bare chest but that doesn't really bother you, and the trousers just seem to move along with you, not getting caught on anything. You walk back from behind the curtain toward Rarity to show how good of a job she did. "Oh my. You look absolutely stunning with those pants on." She says before you can even make a comment on it. "Here put these on as well." She hands over a very neat looking black vest and a white t-shirt. It looks pretty good with the blue denim-y trousers she made for you. "These clothes are your 'casual' clothes so to say. I'm now going to work on your formal attire. This will take a bit longer than what you are wearing now, so I suggest you head back to Twilight and come back later to pick it up. This will require a lot of my concentration and I do not need anyone to disturb me." She seems a bit hostile when she ends the sentence, but then again she also seems like the person, erm pony, to be dedicated to her job. After a short walk through town you reach Twilight's library. The walks through town seem to have gotten less awkward which makes you feel relieved. The ponies still stare at you when you pass by, but at least they don't bolt away when you get too close. You knock on the door and wait for a few moments. "Come in. You know that it is a 'public' library right. So you don't have to knock before you come in." Twilight says as you step through the door frame. "But it is still your home as well, and I don't want to be rude and just barge in without giving you a little heads-up." You reply bluntly. You walk over to the one chair in the room, probably the only chair in the town, and take a seat placing your right leg over your left. "I like your clothes. Rarity really did a good job again." Twilight says with a wide smile, eyeing you from top to bottom. You think you see her linger just a little too long around the waist though. "Okay... You done?" You ask her, feeling annoyed and awkward. "So what do I do now? You're not allowed to use magic on me, I'm not able to use my magic and you've already shown me around town. So now what?" You try to think of something to do just as you get a book shoved in your hands. The book's title was 'Helping the community: a reference guide'. "Seriously?! You want me to help you?" You ask Twilight surprised by her suggestion. "Yes I do. You don't have a job, yet. But you have one thing that nopony has." She started as she then looks at your hands. "Those tentacle-y hooves of yours could really come in handy for certain jobs." She states, still eyeing your hands. "These things." You hold up your hands and flex them a few times. "Are called 'hands', not hooves, and I can imagine how they could come in handy for ponies who can't use magic." You now look over to Twilight's horn. "I don't know how much you think of magic, but it's really difficult for unicorns to do delicate tasks, unless you're specialised in that sort of stuff, like doctor Feel-good." You give her a nod of understanding before she can try to lecture you again. "Do you have any jobs for me in mind then?" You ask as you stand up and walk around a little bit, letting your gaze fall over a few books without actually reading their covers. "I don't know exactly how nimble your hands are but if I would take a guess then you could maybe help the carpenter. You could also ask Rarity if you could help her, but I think she's more of a pony who likes to work by herself. Maybe you could..." She continues to give suggestions for work but nothing seems to spark your interests. After about ten minutes she had named almost all jobs available. "There's one more thing you could maybe do, although I don't think you'd really like it. It's more of a mare's thing. Anyway, if you want you can ask the twins Aloe and Lotus if you could work at their local spa." She finished with a sheepish smile. "I don't know how well you can use your hands, but I think it would make for an interesting massage at the least." Twilight was now blushing through her purple coat, her eyes darting from side to side and avoiding your gaze. You can't remember how to really do a massage, hell you barely remember anything from earth, just that that's where you came from. But massaging sounds much more appealing to you than screwing any loose nuts and bolts at construction sites. You decide that you'll try the massaging first before moving on to something else if it doesn't work out. After Twilight gave you the directions to the spa and having walked around for almost and hour before you dared ask anypony where the spa was, you finally find it. Turns out it is only a ten minute walk from the library, but you just never noticed it before. You open the door which causes a little bell to ring, and you enter, taking care not to hit your head. You walk up to the counter to find a blue pony with a pink mane and tail. "Good day, how may I he-..." She stops mid sentence, looking at you with wide eyes from top to bottom. After a minute or so she regains her composure and starts again. "E-excuse me for that. H-how may I help you?" She stutters, obviously nervous toward the alien standing in front of her. "Hi, I'm looking for a job and Twilight said that you might have something for me?" The blue pony walks around the counter to stand right in front of you. Looking at you with an inspecting eye she gasped when she notices your hands. She quickly grabs one with her hooves, which feels very soft and fluffy, and starts carefully pulling at your fingers. "How interesting..." She starts mumbling to herself, as she continues to look and touch your hands. "Loooootuusss! I heard someone come in, what does she want?" You hear someone, or somepony, shout from a hallway past the counter. Lotus doesn't react as she's still too distracted by your hands. "Lotus?" You hear and you look down the hallway to see a mare eerily similar to the one standing in front of you. They are similar in each way except that the colours are inverted. Lotus being blue with a pink mane and the mare in the hallway who was now trotting towards you, was pink with a blue mane. They even had the same hair-, or mane-, style. "Hi, my name is Aloe. Are you new in town? I haven't seen you before." Aloe says as she was now standing next to Lotus. "Don't mind my sister, she can get a little weird at times." She adds before she also sees my hands. Five minutes later and they're both still holding my hands and talking to each other in some kind of Scandinavian language. This is not getting you anywhere. "You girls done?" You ask them, pulling them from their trance. "Oh sorry, excuse us." Aloe says as she and her sister finally let go of your hands. "So you said you're looking for a job?" Lotus now asks, still eyeing your hands. "Do you know how to give a proper massage?" "I'm not really sure. I haven't tried it since I've arrived here and lost most of my memory, so I don't know." You reply looking at the two mares who were now walking toward the hallway. "Only one way to find out." Aloe says as she beckons you to follow them and giving a little wink. They lead you to an unoccupied room with a three massage tables. Lotus gets up onto the furthest one and lies face-down on it. "You are now going to give Lotus a massage, and I will watch. If you do a good job we might employ you, we're short on staff since late anyway." Aloe says while motioning toward Lotus, urging you to start massaging. You walk over to Lotus and stand next to the table. 'Now what?' You think before you move to the other side of the table. You look around the room to see lots of oils and lotions on shelves against the walls. "Do I need to use a lotion or oil before I start?" You ask the sisters. "Oh my, already asking questions. Yes, the first thing we do here is ask the client, in this case Lotus, if she wants an oil or a lotion. If she does then ask which one." Aloe explains before getting a bottle of oil. "Lotus likes this one, saves you the trouble of finding it." *Wink* Aloe hands you the bottle of oil. You pop off the lid and smell it. It smells like cherry blossom, only a hundred times stronger then natural. You quickly pull your nose away from the bottle and pour some of the oil onto your hand. After you hand the bottle back to Aloe you walk to the other side of the table, again. Carefully you place your hands on Lotus' shoulder area, immediately feeling the tension of her muscles underneath your fingers and palm. You slowly move your hands down and to the side, assessing the problem areas in her shoulders. It feels vaguely familiar to be doing this, and you actually enjoy it. After having felt where the knots are you gently start pressing between her shoulders, just beside the shoulder blades. You feel some of the tension leave and Lotus gives a little sigh of satisfaction. You press a little harder with you index- and middle fingers to get rid of the more underlying tension. After making sure you had removed all the tension from one area you move on to the next, Lotus sighing and even groaning at certain points while she relaxed more and more. After a good forty-five minutes you got rid of all tension in Lotus' back, leaving her sound asleep on the table. "Wow, you are good with those hooves of yours." Aloe says while chuckling at her sleeping sister. "I think that Lotus would agree on me hiring you. If you follow me please than we can do everything by the book." You follow her back to the counter, leaving Lotus to sleep on the massage table. "You'll be paid per customer, not per hour." Aloe starts. "Any tips the customers leave are for you to keep and depending on which treatment they want you will be paid different amounts. Understood?" "Yea, sure. I'm just glad I've finally gotten a job." You reply with obvious glee. You feel really glad you're now able to make some money for yourself, and not having to depend on Twilight or her friends. "Okay, so if you'll just sign on these three forms we should be in good shape." Aloe smiles at you while holding out the forms. After carefully having read the forms and seen al the rules and regulations you sign them. You even make a decent amount of money per customer. Ten bits for a twenty minute massage ranging up to three hundred bits for the full 'special' treatment. You return the forms to the pink mare and thank her for giving you the job. You walk toward the door to head back to Twilight to tell the news. "I'll see you tomorrow at twelve sharp. Don't be late." Aloe managed to say before you were out of earshot. AN: Hey guys, I know that this has already been exploited to it's fullest, but seriously, being the only being with (almost) the same brainpower, with fingers. I think that massaging is one of the first things one would do. So I hope y'all like it, and now that you can take care of yourself you might even get a place for yourself. But that'll be later on in the story. First though, you still need to meet the goddesses of the sun and moon and princesses of Equestria, Celestia and Luna. Expect that to be in the next chapter or after that. Hope you're all enjoying my story. Please leave a comment if you have questions, I will answer to my fullest capacity. Yours Faithfully, Porqupine Static /)
08: The Sun and RestrictionsThe past week went by without incident and you are getting into a rhythm. You wake up at eight o'clock, prepare breakfast for yourself and Twilight, read a few books, mostly fiction but sometimes a book on magic, and then you go to work. You usually have two or three clients a day. Then you go back to the library, take a shower, read some more, prepare dinner and then go back to sleep. It feels nice to be accepted into society so quickly. All ponies now just wave at you when you walk by them and sometimes you start a little conversation with them. It feels good to just settle down and live a peaceful life. The only problem had been that you had no name. With the help of Twilight and her friends you managed to come up with a few that may suit you. The one you finally chose was really a pony-styled name, being two-parted and describing you a little. The name you chose is 'Plane Walker'. Twilight and her friends seemed to like it although you find it a little weird, but it sounded better than 'Dimension Exchanger', or 'Tentacle Hooves'. You walk back to the library from a days work and you smile to the ponies on the way. You're almost at the library but you can hear some kind of music being played in the distance, horns and trumpets playing a royal tune. Suddenly you remember what the Princess of this land had written in that letter she sent, 'I will see to arrange a visit to Ponyville soon.', and now it is soon, probably. This makes you feel really nervous and you pick up your pace to reach the library faster. You've never seen royalty, let alone having spoken to royalty. At least you do have a neat, albeit old-fashioned, suit that Rarity had finished a few days back. You reach the library and before entering you, like always, knock on the door to give a heads up that you're coming in. "Hi Twi." You say before quickly bolting to the guest room to put on the fancy set of clothes. "Hey Plane, what's the hurry." Twilight says as you slam the door shut. "I think royalty may be here very soon." You reply while getting into the suit. "WHAT?! NOW?! I haven't even organized the library yet, let alone Ponyville!" Now it isn't you who was nervous, Twilight has just shown you a whole new level of nervousness, and you don't even get close to it. You finish dressing up and you walk over to Twilight, who's frantically walking around in circles thinking about what to do. "Twi, calm down. It's just a casual visit anyway." You calmly tell her. "There's absolutely NOTHING casual about a visit from the princess. Why did she have to come today, I had planned for her to arrive tomorrow, now I will have to reschedule EVERYTHING!" Twilight was so in thought that she failed to hear the knock on the door. "Twilight, I think there's someone at the door." You just state bluntly. Twilight immediately look to the door, visibly shaking from not having planned anything for today. Another knock on the door and Twilight slowly opens it a few inches and looks out. "Oh, uh... Hi Princess how are you?" Twilight is talking very strangely. This is the first time you've heard her not knowing what to say. You stand behind Twilight and fully open the door, surprising Twilight. You see two white stallion pegasi with golden armour with blue manes and tails standing beside a much larger pony, almost horse size. It's pretty obvious that this is the princess. Prefect white coat, golden attire, a golden necklace and tiara both with a massive amethyst. Her mane is strange though, it's not hair. You can't describe it really, but it seems to gently flow like a river. "My prized and most faithful student, what has made you so nervous?" The Princess asks, smiling gently to Twilight. You still just stand there, admiring the beauty of the Princess for you don't know how long, before Twilight stomps on your foot to get your attention. "Ouch! What the..." You look at Twilight who now moves to the side to let Celestia in the library. You follow suit but still give a little glare to the purple pony. You all settle down in the main part of the library, while the royal guard stays outside the door. Once you're all settled and you were sitting on your chair you have one question you really need to ask the Princess. "Princess, will Luna be joining us?" You ask a little sheepishly. "No, sadly not. There is some troubles with the griffins she has to take care of. Although she did want to meet you for real, instead of in your dreams." The Princess chuckled a little seeing you taken aback by what she said. "So, she was really in my dreams then? And it wasn't my imagination?" You tell yourself more then really asking. "Yes. My sister is the Princess of the Night, which means dreams are also part of her responsibility." Celestia now got up and she is standing next to you. "The reason I came here really was to find out what Twilight found in you. I will scan your body. You won't feel a thing." She got straight to the point and she puts her three foot horn on your shoulder. You feel a little warmth flowing from it and then a wave of cold. "Well that is indeed interesting. It seems that your magic resembles that of the minotaur mostly. It is a very potent magic, but yours is slightly different still. I have no idea what it actually is. If you are interested in learning magic, I suggest you learn the ancient style the minotaurs have been using for aeons. It is quite different from pony magic, but can yield similar results." Twilight had taken a notepad and a quill to write down everything the Princess was saying, which would come in handy later. After another hour of talking and some more scanning the Princess was convinced you don't pose a direct threat to her subjects and she went back to her castle to care for her royal duties. It's about five-thirty now and you start to feel hungry. Time to prepare some dinner. Dinner is same as it has been for the last week, some potatoes with a lot of raw and cooked vegetables. The only thing missing is meat. Of course ponies are herbivores but that doesn't mean you don't miss the taste of meat now that you live like one yourself. "So twilight..." You start as you serve the food for the both of you. "Yes Plane?" "Do you think I should learn Minotaur magic?" "Well of course you should. You could help out so much better if you could actually use your magic, instead of dissipating it every time you overcharge." Twilight smiles at you while she grabs a book and places in front of you with her magic, before taking another bite of the food. "Just imagine what you could achieve with magic and with those hands of yours." You open the book which Twilight had given you, the cover reading 'Basic control and handling of Minotaurian magicks'. You already know how to keep your magic at bay, so you check the table of contents for spells. You quickly find the one you wanted to learn ever since you found out you have magic. "Levitation spell, the basics. I think that's a good place to start. Don't you think so too Twi?" You ask her while flipping to the correct page. "Well, I know that the levitation spell for ponies is pretty easy, but I haven't studied Minotaurian magick whatsoever so I have no idea how difficult it is." "It is in the book for basic magicks, so I don't think it could be that difficult, right?" You find the page and start reading the first paragraph. After about two sentences though you encounter your first problem. "Hey Twi, what do they mean with 'Focus the Prana to the Nabhi and let it flow through Marut onto Vastu.'?" You ask, not understanding a single word you just read. "I think you may need to learn some of the ancient Minotaur language before you can learn their magick." Twilight replies with a sigh. "What they mean, though, is 'Focus the energy, in this case your natural magic, to your stomach area, which is the place that can hold most of your magic at the same time, and let it flow through the air onto the object you wish to levitate'. It's almost the same with unicorns, but we have to focus our magic through our horns before we can cast a spell." This makes much more sense to you then those weird ancient words. You decide you want to give it a try straight away without even finishing your dinner. You can already feel your own magic but now you have to move it to your stomach. It doesn't take much effort to do so, since Twilight told you how to vent and control it internally through her memories. 'So now I just focus it onto the object, can't be too difficult.' You think to yourself while looking at your fork next to you plate of unfinished food. You feel the magic flow toward it and slowly wrap around the object. It even starts to glow a little, and so does your stomach. The fork starts shaking a little and lifts about a centimetre off of the table with a soft 'tink', escaping your grip. You try again, focus your energy on the object and lift it, only to have it slip from your grip yet again. "Wow, it's a lot more difficult than it looks." You say with a little sign of strain on your face, after having failed another few times. "Maybe you should try focusing your magic from your stomach through your hands first and then use your them to guide and focus it on the fork." Twilight suggests after having watched your attempts at a supposedly simple spell. You try what Twilight said, and at first it seems to work. The fork balances at about two inches from the table for about three seconds, then it quivers slightly and drops back onto the table. "I guess I'll have to practise quite a bit before I can help you with whatever you wanted me to help you with." You say with a sigh, before finishing your now cold dinner. Today is your day off and now that Twilight knows what sort of magic you have she wants to do some magical testing. She wants to find the source of your magic and how fast you generate it, in comparison to ponies. Over the past few days Twilight has been studying all about Minotaurian magick and now she feels confident enough to use her magic on you, without fear of blowing you or anything up. After having started the day like usual you are led to a basement you didn't even know Twilight had. It is filled with what seems like an assortment of an entire chemical factory. Phials placed in holders which in turn are resting on shelves through the entire room. In the middle of the room is a table and Twilight says you should lie down on it. She doesn't waste any time and starts working immediately, using the appropriate spells as not to cause any imbalance. It feels weird, because you can feel her magic coarse through your body but you can't control it. It unnerves you a little. "C'mon relax, don't block me please, otherwise this won't work." Twilight starts. "What? I'm not blocking you." You reply confused. "Yes you are. Just stop following my magic, let it flow freely." You stop tracing the flow of Twilight's magic, although somehow you can still sense exactly where it is. You immediately feel better and more relaxed, as if a pressure is gone. You feel her magic move through your stomach and further up. Twilight taking notes and every so often dipping the quill back in the ink pot all the while. Once her magic reaches your heart though, you feel her suddenly stop. You take a deep breath to relax yourself , because you feel the tension rising again. After Twilight has written down some more data she continues probing you with her magic, but she avoids your heart area, which concerns you a little. You decide to ask her afterwards why she avoided your heart, but you let her continue for now. After another twenty minutes of probing you with her horn Twilight decides to do some other testing. She pulls out one hair from your head and puts it into a phial containing a clear liquid. Upon contact with the hair sample the liquid immediately turns a dark purple. "Interesting..." The mad scientist mumbles while continuously stirring the phial's contents. A few seconds later the liquid turned a bright venom-green and then quickly black. You look at Twilight who now has a frown on her face as she quickly notes down her findings. After some more testing and probing Twilight said she needs some time to inspect the results and make a diagnosis. She suggests you practice your magicks and also do some studying of the ancient language, which you found out seems very similar to the Earth's Sanskrit language, which originated from before five hundred BC. It's still a pain-in-the-ass to have to learn the language though. You hate languages, but If you want to learn magick there's not much choice. You decide you don't need to learn the whole language, but just look up the words you don't understand when you need to learn a spell. The problem you do keep on running into is that, because you aren't a minotaur, you have to do each spell a little differently than the book suggests. This gives you the idea to write a book for yourself, in normal English and each spell altered in such a way that you can actually cast it. Of course you're still only working on your levitation spell, but you plan on making each spell suitable for yourself to use. After about two hours of practising and writing Twilight finally walks into the room with a worried expression. "What's wrong?" You ask her, as she stops in front of you and gives you her notes. "What's this?" "There have been some... results that I'm not very comfortable with." Twilight responds. "It appears that you are highly susceptible to corruption, and it is strengthened by you now having magic." She sighs and starts to trot around the room. "The thing is, if you continue your studies on magic you might become too powerful and become corrupted by darkness. It will probably take a while before you can even do all the basics, but in time and with enough practise you could become more powerful than Celestia herself. Therefore I ask you to only study the basics and nothing more, otherwise you will be a threat and then I will have to find a way to return you to where you came from." Twilight doesn't seem to like that idea too much, and you have also grown to like the ponies of this world. You don't think you are capable of hurting anyone or anything, but you know that it fits the human race to be consumed with power and use it for their own gain. "I promise I will not study more than the basics of magic, unless you tell me that I have to learn some other spell for the good of others." You say sincerely, looking at a slightly relieved Twilight. "What's that you have there?" Twilight says, quickly changing the subject and clearing the air of the ominous tension. "I'm sort of re-writing the book for myself, using normal English and altering the spells for myself so that I can actually cast them." You reply with a smile. "Okay... Just make sure you translate everything correctly. I wouldn't want you to accidentally blow yourself up." Twilight says as she gets a few books from the shelves and walks over to a clear side of the room before lying down and reading. You decide that now is a good time to start preparing dinner for the both of you. Just before you reach the kitchen there's a knock on the door. "Come in." You say, knowing Twilight is probably too occupied with her books. You look over your shoulder to see who was at the door and are surprised that all the elements of harmony were now standing in the library. There had only been two times before that they had all visited at the same time. You know they sometimes hang out somewhere together, but that's usually at Sugar Cube Corner, a place where you still don't dare go near to. "So what brings you all here this fine evening?" You say with an exaggerated posh accent. "Hi Plane. We just wanted to..." Rainbow Dash started before being rudely interrupted by Pinkie. "We want you to cook for us!" Pinkie screamed with glee, as she bounced around Twilight's home, getting a cold stare from Rainbow while doing so. You've never cooked for Twilight friends before. You only ever cooked for Twilight and yourself. "We all heard that you're a mighty fine cook from Missy Twilight here." Applejack said, pointing at a still studying Twilight. "Yea, and we don't want Twilight to have All the glory." Rainbow added. You think about it for a while before you walk to the kitchen to see how much food there was in the cupboards. After having checked you go back to the girls. "I think I might be able to pull something off. You're lucky Twilight got groceries yesterday, otherwise there wouldn't have been enough. Next time though you might want to inform me about when you're coming, then I can prepare something more special than what I have to make today." You say, smiling at the five ponies in front of you. 'Well, better get started on dinner then.' You think with a sigh.
09: Safety first?Dinner wasn't very special, a potato salad, vegetables, some raw, some cooked, and of course bread. It's the type of dinner you always prepare for Twilight and yourself, except now you'd had to make four times as much. "I'm sorry to say that I haven't got anything for dessert. If you'd told me you were coming then..." You get cut off by the pink party pony. "Don't worry you big worrying worry face. We brought the dessert." Pinkie says while magically pulling a huge cake out of thin air and placing it on the table. It's the most luxurious cake you've ever seen and, honestly, it looks more like a wedding cake than dessert. It stands about a metre tall consisting of three layers of icing covered cake, probably with some kind of cream filling. You walk back to the kitchen to get some plates, but before you even take a second step half of the cake is gone, and a pink pony is not so pink any more. Before you know it there's only a small piece left and the other ponies are also covered in white and pink icing. You sigh and still decide to go to the kitchen to get a plate and a small fork for yourself. You want to be civilised and eat like a normal human... Even though you are the only human in this world, probably even in this dimension. After dessert and doing the dishes, which you are very qualified to do because of your hands, you and the ponies talk casually for quite a while until Applejack says something that catches your attention. "...Ya know I've noticed some strange things happenin' at the farm lately. Ah don' really know if it's anything ta worry 'bout, but ah think that you, Twi, might be a bit interested. 'S got something to do with magic 's all ah can tell ya." She says with her still casual tone. "Can you clarify a bit maybe? What kind of things are happening AJ?" Twilight asks still giggling about a joke Rainbow had told. "Ya know them Zap-apples are mighty sensitive ta magic, right? 'N well, they've been acting all weird, zapping when they ain't in their season. Thank Celestia they ain't bloomin' cuz that would mean a lot of extra work. But that ain't the only thing happenin'. Yesterday mah little sister got the scare o' her life when she walked into the barn 'n saw all them tools just floatin' in mid-air!" Everyone, including you, was now paying full attention to Applejack as she told her story. Thoughts start flying through your head and makes you wonder. "Hey AJ. When did this start to happen, these magic thingies?" You ask, wondering if you may be the cause of it. "Well it started 'bout a week 'n a half ago. Got no idea why, it just started." Yes, it definitely has something to do with you and your magic. "Twilight. You know what that means right." You say while walking over to your desk where you keep the books on minotaur magick. You pick up the book and check the table of contents again, this time carefully reading each title. You finally find what you're searching for 'warnings for health- and magick-hazards'. You never really looked into it because you thought it wasn't very necessary, and also twilight hadn't mentioned anything about possible side effects. You open to the page in question and starts reading aloud. "Okay, so it says 'Warning! Safety, health and magick regulations. When under aged, pregnant, elderly or chronically ill Do Not practise without parental supervision or medical consent. Do Not vent excess magick unless absolutely necessary. [environmental hazard] Do Not attempt Magick with non-Magick power unless under supervision of a Magick-user/Minotaur. ... ' "Well I think I should've read that first..." You say sheepishly while looking at a confused and slightly mad Applejack. You continue reading the warnings for yourself until you reach warning number fifty-four. This one really surprises you and you really need to sit down now. "Twilight, you said that there is no record of any other human ever coming to this world right?" "Uhm. Yes, why?" "Well, there's something about warning fifty-four. Here it says 'If you are Homo Sapiens you are strictly forbidden, by the Minotaurian government, to divulge in the practises of magick. If you ignore this warning then you are to be executed immediately.' The fuck is up with that!?" You look at Twilight who seems to have realised that she might have accidentally sentenced you to death the moment she unlocked your powers. After a good long minute she starts. "Okay... No need to panic. We'll just go to Taurussia and explain what happened to the elders, I'm sure they'll understand... Right?" Sure she said not to panic, but it seems she's the most panicked at the moment. After packing a now heavy travellers backpack, custom made by Rarity for you, and Twilight having packed her own bags, which looked more like saddle bags, you immediately took off for Taurussia. Twilight had said that you shouldn't waste any time and get there as quickly as possible, to prevent any unnecessary conflict. Twilight carefully cast a spell on you and herself to give an energy boost, so that you could travel for three days straight without having to sleep. You still have to eat and drink but those only require small stops and don't take too long. Twilight had even convinced her friends to stay in Ponyville. Reason? She said that it would seem intimidating if the elements of harmony suddenly crossed the border to a different country, and could be misunderstood as an invasion. So you and Twilight start on the trek to Taurussia which, according to a map, lies somewhere in the far north of the planet. It will take you at least five days to reach the capital, but Twilight thinks it absolutely necessary, so you two leave at two in the morning and take the train to Canterlot first, to inform the Princess. *Previously in Taurussia.* "Are you absolutely positive? It wasn't an energy spike from the pole?" One of the Elders said with a heavy Scandinavian accent. "I've gone through the data twenty times at least, and even let my students do the tests but all results suggest the same." A large man with a bull's head said. "There is no doubt that once again a Human has entered our world." He continued severely, making the Elders shift a bit in their thrones. "Have you located this Human yet?" Another Elder asked over the mumbling of his colleagues. "We haven't been able to locate It yet, but we know that It is not in our country. We have already sent out our scouts in order to locate it." The large Minotaur replied. The throne room was similar to a large Gothic Cathedral, with the most horrendous gargoyles on the in- and outside. It housed thirteen thrones. Twelve for the leaders of their respective land and one for the King and keeper of peace between the lords. It was now that the King spoke. "Find this Human and bring It to me. Alive. If you cannot perform this task I give you, then you are to never return to this land. You may use all means you deem necessary to do so, but be reminded, shall you fail then you will be stripped of everything you own, including your name." He ended with a snarl, making the professor take his leave. "How much further is it?" You sigh, trailing a few feet behind Twilight. It's probably the hundredth time you've asked this question but you've been walking for three days straight now, after having visited and informed the Princess, courtesy of Twilight's spell. "Don't worry and stop nagging. We're already past halfway there, and it's not like you're walking of your own strength. My spell is doing ninety-nine percent of the work." You know what she says is true, but you're not physically worn out but more mentally. You thought it would be fun to trek along the countryside, but after three days of seeing nothing but tall grass on your right and thick forest on your left, you get tired of the view. "Tonight I will refresh the spell, then we can probably make it to the capital in one shot. But before we can do that we have to cross this..." Twilight stops in front of you, and since you were looking down you almost run into her, even though she barely even reaches chest height with the tip of her horn. You look up to finally see some change in scenery, although it is not the kind of change you were hoping for. What lies in front of you are two cliffs, one on each side, reaching up at least a thousand feet. Your path goes directly through the pass, and there seem to be a lot of possible avalanches. "We.... have to go through there..." You state slightly shocked. The sheer angle of the cliffs are impossible for Earth's standards but apparently geology and physics are a bit different here. It was to be expected with everything going on, but it still surprises you every time you see something that was not possible back home. Home... 'sigh'. "It'll be fine, don't worry. Nothing is going to happen to us." Twilight says reassuringly, but all that goes through your head is 'Famous Last Words'. The words Twilight just spoke just jinxed the both of you. "Can you please not say anything like that ever again?" You mumble nervously, barely loud enough for Twilight to hear. "What was that?" "Never mind." You say with a loud sigh as you start your walk through the gorge, which is bound to end badly. A.N.: I'm extremely sorry that this chapter is so short, but I've seriously got no inspiration at the moment. I'll try to make it up to you next chapter, but I need some kind of source of inspiration again. Maybe if someone can leave a suggestion I can get past this block. Anyway thanks for reading. I hope y'all enjoy the story. Yours Faithfully, Porqupine Static /)
10: Jinxed King"What was that!?" You say to the purple unicorn in front of you as a low grumbling noise sounds from above. "Probably just the birds again. Seriously you should stop worrying, this is the fourth time you've asked about the grumbling sound." It is then that everything goes wrong. You feel something tickling your neck and look back to find nothing there. You then look up, which you regret immediately as sand and gravel hits your eyes. "Aah! Fu... *sigh* Dammit!" You decided you'd swear the least possible in this land of peacefulness, although you don't feel very peaceful at all. "What's wrong Plane?" Twilight says as she sees you trying to blink and tear out the dirt. She also looks up, but she's smart enough to cover her eyes with her hooves to keep any dirt from getting in, if her mane didn't already block all of it. "Uhm... Plane? I-uh think we-uh need to start running very soon. Like about NOW!" Twilight grabs you with her magic as she starts to sprint through the trench, dragging you along. After realizing what's going on you start to run for yourself, instead of letting Twilight do all the work. Being bipedal and having a lot longer legs than the pony you quickly catch up to her and decide she's going far to slow. You pick her up using the energy of the adrenaline now coursing through your veins and bolt from side to side, dodging falling rocks in the process. "I..*huff* Told... *Huff* You... *Huff* Not.. *Huff* To... *Huff* Jinx... *Huff* Us! *Cough*" You say through strained breaths which are the result of sprinting for over two whole minutes at full speed. You drop the purple pony and let yourself fall to the ground to try and recover some energy lost in the run. You take deep breaths trying to absorb as much oxygen as possible as you start to feel your muscles acidify from the lack of it. After five minutes you feel confident enough that you can sit up straight again, without throwing up. And then you look at Twilight, who had been watching you the whole time, looking aghast about what happened a few moments earlier. You were almost killed in a landslide, you saved your guide, only because of a physical difference in species. "I-uh... Thanks? I guess?" Is all Twilight manages to say. You find this particularly amusing, since she mostly knows how to deal with high pressure situations rather well, or so at least so you thought . "Yea... No problem. You saved me first anyway, which in turn means that you just saved yourself." You state while thinking about what happened. "I think I should probably be more careful with things I say than." Twilight noted as she looked back to the road, which was now filled with dirt a boulders piling up a few metres. It was going to be hard to get back to Ponyville now. "Are you sure we will reach the Minotaurs' capital tomorrow, because I am getting tired of the walking." You say, getting a confused look in return. "How can you get tired of the walking? I put a spell on you to prevent that from happening!" She was now scanning you, if her spell was somehow done incorrectly or if it just didn't work. "I'm not tired Physically at this point. It's just that it gets so boring after a while. I'm Mentally tired... get it?" You try to explain how you feel but this is the best you can manage to think of at the moment. ""You think you're the only one that's getting tired!? How do you think I feel!? I can only bring so many books with me, and I've already read them all by now! I'm bored too you know! Now STOP WHINING and START MOVING that LAZY FLANK of yours!" It seems Twilight has also reached her limit and dislikes the trip just as much as you do, only she was better at hiding it. "Sorry. I didn't know you felt the same way. You were just so calm the whole time I just presumed... You know... *Sigh* never mind..." You start walking again in the general direction of the road only to be blocked by Twilight. "I'm... sorry too. I didn't mean to loose my temper like that. It's just that I miss home a bit, and my friend for that matter. But I especially miss Spike, I wonder if he's doing okay with me being away for so long." Twilight looks more depressed than you even felt at this point. You don't know if this will work but you've seen Pinkie do it a couple of times now and decide to try it as well. You kneel down to be the same height as the unicorn in front of you, you open your arms widely and then wrap them around the purple pony and pull her into a tight hug, making her squeal in surprise. This makes you only hug her tighter. After she relaxed a bit you let her go, slowly. "Feel better?" you ask with a soothing voice you never knew you had. "Yea... Thanks." Twilight replies while a tear escapes her eye. "Shall we continue walking?" You ask still sitting down and looking straight into her big violet eyes. "Can we just stay a bit longer like this? I-it feels... nice." She says while looking down at the ground in a way which reminded you of the yellow pegasus, Fluttershy is her name you remember. "Sure." You say, again with that voice. "I think we could both use some rest after that avalanche, even if we're enchanted with infinite physical energy." You throw a smile at Twilight, which is returned with one of her own. It makes you feel you have a true friend. And it makes you feel at home. Home... 'They say home is where the heart is, right? But now I don't know where my heart is. What do I do?' You think to yourself, asking god, or whatever it was that made this happen, what your next step should be. You feel very confused about everything, especially now, that you've actually saved someone's, or somepony's, life and being so close to death yourself. This place feels closer to home than you've felt about your apartment back on Earth. And the friends here feel like real friends. Not fake ones that only befriend you to take advantage of your wealth or intellect. At first you wanted to go back home, you even tried to find stuff in Twilight's library about inter-dimensional travel, but now you don't feel the need to return that much any more. "Hey Plane. It's getting dark, we should set up camp and sleep. Let's not walk this night. I'll refresh the spell tomorrow rather then now, probably also better for our bodies." Twilight took something out of her saddle bags and started to put a spell on it. The thing quickly materialized into the shape of a huge tent, fit for at least ten grown Humans, let alone for how many ponies. The next day arrives sooner than expected, too soon, and more roughly than expected too. You're awoken by a loud *Clank* and then an earth-shattering roar blasts through the tent, making the tent literally collapse. "The hell is going o-mngf..." Someone puts a gag in your mouth and you look up to see a sturdy looking creature. The creature is definitely humanoid, bipedal and even wearing some sort of clothing, which look more suited for the Antarctic than a hot dry canyon, even if it is night. You get dragged out of the collapsed tent to see Twilight, also gagged up and hooves tied together, laying on some sort of cart. "Tmmfg hnmmf ghmmn?" You desperately ask Twilight, but since you're gagged you can't actually ask her what's going on, no matter how hard you try. "Bmmnnn mmmnm!" Twilight replies, apparently having understood what you said. The weirdest thing is that you actually understand what she says. So you're now captured by minotaurs, and the gags they put on you are completely useless since Twilight can understand your mumbling and you can understand hers just as well. You can't think of why. You ask another question to Twilight, maybe she knows more about the minotaurs. "What's happening, where are they taking us?" You ask Twilight through your gag, only making undistinguishable sounds, which the pony can understand... somehow. "I don't know. Maybe they were watching you the whole time. Who knows!" She replied only to get the both of you stared at by five minotaurs, who now realized you two were actually able to speak to each other. "SILENT! YOU NO TALK! WE GO KING!" The largest of the five shouted at you. Did he say king? Isn't that where you were going in the first place? "Weren't we going to the King already?" You quietly ask the pony who you were now sitting next to, atop the cart. "Yeah. I guess we can just let them do all the work." Twilight shrugged, "Saves us the trouble." as if being kidnapped by five creatures with a WWA-Fighter's body and a Bull's head who sounded very Russian isn't such a big deal. There's nothing you can really do than go with the flow at this point, maybe even get some rest, the night hasn't ended yet either and you think it best to just sleep off the initial shock of being kidnapped, and to stop denying that fact. You wake with a pleasant morning sun on your face, warming you to a comfortable temperature. Groaning you try to stretch yourself a bit, only to be reminded that your hands are tied together behind your back and that you're not as comfortable as you first thought. You turn around and feel your sore muscles complaining that they really need to stretch. Facing Twilight you see she's also awake and just as uncomfortable as you. Right then is that you feel your jaw muscles, even more sore than your shoulders as you try to say something to Twilight while still gagged. Twilight looks around her before meeting your eyes and then starts. "These guys walk really fast. We're almost there already." She says with a hint of surprise in her voice. You now also look around to see a totally gargantuan castle in the distance. It stands at least three hundred feet tall and is made of what looks like obsidian or black marble. Spikes protrude from almost each corner, and what's even more intimidating is the huge black dragon statue resting on the highest central spire, looking ready to strike down an entire army with just one sweep of his enormous claws. You shrink back a little at the sight of this great fortress only to get Twilight trying to comfort you. "Sure it looks big and intimidating, but it can't be THAT bad. Right?" She says only making you feel even more jinxed than when you were walking through the canyon, before the avalanche. After another half hour of sitting on the cart you reach the gates to the massive, light-absorbing, structure. One of the minotaurs stepped forward and spoke something into a small hole in the wall and the three-foot thick obsidian gates slowly opened with a scraping sound of rock against rock. Going through the gates you notice elephant-like creatures manning the chains needed to open and close the gates. Only the animals are about thrice the size of any earthly elephant and they have six tusks instead of two. They also have horns resembling the ones triceratops had. The cart is pulled through what you expect is the main street, as you see multiple minotaurs walking to n' fro, not even taking a second glance at the newcomers being led toward the main castle. After observing a little more carefully you notice that it isn't that they aren't not interested, but rather averting their gaze as quickly as possible, as if scared of something, or someone for that matter. The main castle, situated in the middle of the huge fortress, slowly dooms over you as the minotaurs pull you toward it at a steady pace. The archway into the castle is guarded at both sides by three large minotaurs in full armour and armed with a two-handed battle axe, several other weapons on theirs backs and in their holsters. The leader of the five minotaurs transporting you nods at the guards and then continues on into the castle. When your eyes finally adjust to the darker inside of the castle you are welcomed with the sight of horrific statues of mutilated and tortured creatures, all with fear in their eyes. So much for a warm welcome, not that you expected one after being kidnapped. After not too long of taking a few turns you are pulled off of the cart and thrown through two big doors into an even darker room. Once your eyes adjust again you see that it is a big hall, resembling an dark and gloomy version of Equestria's throne hall in Canterlot. Taking a better look you see that you weren't very far off at all, in front of you you count thirteen chairs, or thrones. Six on the left, six on the right and one raised slightly higher than the rest, at the place where Celestia's throne is also situated in the similar looking hall. You hear whispers and only now notice that what you thought were statues in the chairs were actually living and were now probably talking about their captives which lay in front of them. Your gags get removed and you are able to stretch your jaw muscles a bit again. "Well good morning to you too..." You say with a crackly voice for not having drunk enough throughout the day. This made all eyes in the room focus on you and only seconds later you get hit on the head with something hard. "YOU NO SPEAK UNLESS TOLD!" A loud voice boomed from right beside your ear, and you could hear Twilight audibly gulp at this. You wonder why these minotaurs are so hostile. You've heard about one minotaur who apparently trained Fluttershy to be more assertive, Iron Will was his name you remember, but that didn't turn out all to well. Are they still mad about that maybe? "Do you know why you are here?" The one sitting on the highest throne asks, with a gentle yet tough voice. "We came here to ask you about something we read in a book." Twilight says with her lecturing tone. "And what would that be?" Another minotaur asks. "We had the book with us but your guards took everything of ours from us when they captured us. If you return it than we can show you." You now say looking at your capturers behind you, before Twilight can reply. "We have book here." One minotaur says, who had not spoken at all during the time they had caught you, and handed the book over to the closest one sitting in a chair. He looks at the title and immediately looks at the the two of you. "Did you try to learn our magick?" He has a very British accent, almost like rarity's, and doesn't sound at all like the other, Scandinavian-sounding minotaurs. "Sadly, yes. I had totally forgotten to read the warnings fir...." "DO YOU KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES OF WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!?" The British one now stands up and walks over to you, only to be halted by the apparent king. "STOP! Let it speak. I want to know what it has to say." The British one slowly backs off to his throne and lets you continue your sentence. "As I was saying. I had forgotten to read the warnings first. I thought that all the hazards were listed with each spell. I have not even mastered the first I was working on until I saw the 'warnings' chapter in the table of contents. I quickly went through them until I found this one." You take the book back in your still tied hands and lay it on the floor. You quickly flip through to the page in question and start reading what you had read to Twilight. "'If you are Homo Sapiens you are strictly forbidden, by the Minotaurian government, to divulge in the practises of magick. If you ignore this warning then you are to be executed immediately.' When we found out about this we immediately packed our bags and went on our way here, until we got kidnapped by these guys here." You shoot a glance at the kidnappers behind you again, to make sure they're still there. "It appears that since I'm a human or scientifically a 'Homo Sapiens' then I'm to be executed. So we came here to ask why this is the case." You now feel nervous as you just told them they are allowed by their law to kill you, which doesn't seem like a good idea now that you think about it. "Yes... It seems you ignored one of our more heavier laws. But I have question for you, Human. Did you read release date of book?" You can't see the face of the Minotaur King, but it sounds like he is laughing. You look at the book and try to find the release date. You look at the front, back, sides and almost every page before giving up. "I can't find it. Sorry." You say with a defeated sigh. "We, the Minotaurs, are very strict when it comes to archiving, even more so than you ponies." He says eyeing over Twilight. "An undated book is very rare in our Kingdom, since everything has been dated since more than fifteen hundred years ago. This means that this book is at least that old, and probably older still. If it has our ancient language in it than it is at least two thousand years old. "Our laws have changed significantly over this period of time, so you will not be executed." Now you can really tell he has a smile on his face. "I am aware, however, of what happened in the past, which was the reason of this law. It is also the reason I had you taken to me as soon as possible. It was only luck that you were already on your way here when my team encountered you. "I am going to make you an offer. One you cannot refuse. You are to be assigned an expert on Minotaurian magicks and you are to be her subject until you learn to properly control it." He is back to being serious as he now stands up and walks over to you. "B-but I already have control. Twilight gave me her memories in order for me to learn." You look at the big figure now standing right in front of you. "But isn't it strange that this started happening since you started practising. Am I right? And you have to vent your magick at least once every minute, just not to explode. Right? Your magic is a lot different from pony magic, so different in fact that the pony way of controlling it can have the opposite effects on your magic. "Minotaurian magick resembles yours more, but is still not exactly the same. You will be taught by the best but you will eventually have to make your own form of magic." Finally he's done lecturing, but he has given you a lot to think about. "Does that mean Plane has to stay here!?" Twilight was now trying to get out of her restraints, which are loose enough for her to be able to stand, but not do much more than that. "Calm down little purple pony. He does not have to stay here, but his master will have to come with you if you decide to go back to your home. I presume you have made yourself at home already? This means she will become part of your home as well." The King seems to have a lot of fun with this. As if he's been waiting for this a long time. His personality reminds you a bit of Pinkie. He's too happy for such a dark place, which makes him seem quite random. And did he just say 'She'? Your master is going to be a woman? This ought to be good. "When will I meet my 'Master' then?" You ask the king who has placed himself back into his throne. "Right now I guess. Viridiana, could you please introduce yourself to this human." He nodded to one of the minotaurs on his left as she now got up and went to stand in the middle of the hall. Before she speaks however, your restraints are finally removed and you can stretch again. After a good stretching and popping of your joints you stand up and look at an impatient minotaur in front of you. "Mai neem iis Viiriidiiana Auraviisss." Viridiana says, apparently not a Master of the English, or Equestrian, language. "I wiill bee your Masterr oontiil yoo knoh aour magiickss." There's something about her voice that does attract you though, it must be that hiss. "Pleasure to meet you Viridiana Auravis. I am Plane Walker and I guess I will be your student until said otherwise." You say, trying to sound well educated and even taking a bow to your future master, getting Twilight to roll her eyes a little. First impressions are always the most important, and if that doesn't go well at least try to make a good second impression. "Now that that is settled, LET'S LUNCH." The king booms through the hall and everything gets moved by servants to set up a large table to hold the lunch. You hadn't really noticed how hungry you are actually starting to feel at this point. You haven't eaten all day, you even skipped your breakfast, because of that stupid kidnapping. Stretching once more you take a seat at the now fully served table and hungrily start on your brunch. A.N. Again my apologies about last chap being so short. I hope this makes up for it a little. And again, if anyone has suggestions just let me know. You'll see if I use it, and I will then also mention you at the end. Anyway, have fun reading and /) Yours Faithfully, Porqupine.
11: The MasterThe feast in front of you looks amazing. Everything is intricately decorated and it looks absolutely beautiful. The taste however... apparently minotaurs take more after bulls than humans in their eating habits. So they eat pretty much the same things Twilight and the other ponies eat. You however can't eat hay or daisies. It would mess up your stomach and probably make you very sick. The only things you eat are the things that you can actually eat without messing up yourself. The bread, which seems like it's made in the sixteen hundreds, doesn't taste too bad, only a few chunks here and there which are hard enough to crack your teeth. You've had quite enough of the food and get straight to the point. "How do you know about humans?" The question is directed toward the King but Viridiana answers. "I will explain if you wish, but it is a long story." She says calmly. She pauses for a while so that you can make up your mind, and you nod to her to continue. "The reason we know of humans has got to do with the very creation of our kingdom. They played a significant, but covert, part in its creation. There is no record of how they got here but when they did it triggered a war unlike any other. That was over five thousand years ago. Have you ever heard or read of 'The Great War of the Midnight Sun'? "That is the war between humans and minotaurs. It all started..." Viridiana told all about the war, how the humans had come with incredible technology. How they had used crystals as a power source and had machines that could destroy entire cities in a single blow. These humans also had a dark skin colour with light-blue tattoos all over them. At a certain point they brought massive crystals with them, through the portal they created, which shone almost as bright as the sun, therefore the name 'The Great War of the Midnight Sun'. The things Viridiana says stirs your memories more than anything had until now. You know who these humans must have been. There's no other explanation. Atlantians. "I know who these humans were." You say,interrupting the Mage, feeling you have to share this information of your memories. "They must have been Atlantians. I remember stories from where I come from, with humans being described the same way you describe them, but I also remember that they're just a legend, a myth, a story, nothing more than that." You frown a bit as your mind hits another wall blocking your access to other parts of your memories. Viridiana continues her story after your short interruption, warning you that if you'd do that again she'd punish you severely. She speaks about how all the clans got together and formed a pact to be able to defeat the overwhelming force of the humans. They combined their magick and taught each other what spells they knew. Eventually they were able to push the humans back through the portal, but one of the crystals had remained. The ponies had found this crystal about a thousand years later and put it to good use. This is how the crystal empire was founded. The crystal's power was used for good instead of evil, so the minotaurs didn't object to let the ponies have something that could 'potentially' be used for mass destruction. After the war the minotaurs had decided to create a kingdom out of their combined land to be able to fend off any foolish enough to ever try and take over their land again. Viridiana finishes her story leaving you to think about a lot of things. You can remember certain very specific things about 'home', but only things that are unrelated to yourself. "There is however one aspect left untold." The King says now that Viridiana has finished her story. "This is something I have not told before, to anyone." The king pauses as he readies himself to share his untold story. "My father, who was King before me had passed on his memories to me before he died. Although the memories weren't only his, but also the memories of my grandfather, and of his grandfather and so on. The memories date back to the war and there is something interesting that had happened at the time. "A human who had come through the portal had secretly left the army to confront the minotaurs from a different angle. She almost got herself killed in the process but she was lucky that it was my ancestor, who was a leader at the time, had found her before his legion had. "He took her to a secret lair and they started talking. She was a human who didn't want to fight, but rather make friends. At first my ancestor thought she was playing a trick on him, but she had given him the secret of how to disable their machines with magick. All they had to do was hit a button on the vehicle and it would shut down. It would literally drop to the ground like a brick. "After some time she got hit by magick because she tried to go out only to be met by minotaurs who didn't know she was my ancestor's friend. Her body reacted explosively and unleashed her own magic placing all the surrounding minotaurs in stasis. She didn't know what happened and she panicked. This in turn made her very dangerous. "She had a tremendous amount of uncontrolled magic and she was running around the country, placing countless minotaurs and humans alike in stasis. She took out more soldiers than the whole human army had, without her ever wanting to do so. There are no stories of this incident as it was all linked to the main war, but to stop her was the hardest thing my ancestor had ever had to do. "During the time he had spent with her he had grown to love her. They even had a child in the time of the war, but now he had to destroy her. There was no other option. So he had given the child all his memories and asked one of his sisters to take care of him. "He then went on a suicide mission to save his lover from further grief and his kingdom from any more deaths. It was the greatest story ever to be concealed from the world." The king sighs and slumps in his chair. "This was the reason that a human was not to learn magick ever. We had no idea how a human would react, or the environment for that matter." You think about his story for a few moments before realizing... "So you are part human?" You ask surprised. "Yes I am. Because of this I have never been touched by magick, nor have I tried using it. It is also why I wear this armour. It blocks any and all magick, this way my magick can never be activated. But since you have already been 'activated' and not freaked out I want to take full advantage and carefully observe what the consequences are!" He was saying with a voice too happy for such a big, horned, creature. "Your training will begin once you arrive back in Ponyville. You can leave tomorrow at dawn." The king says looking at his guests who are getting up from their seats. "I have a better idea than walking back." Twilight squeals happily. "I can teleport us back! But only if I have a magic booster. Your highness..." Twilight starts as she takes a bow. "Who are your most capable magicians?" "Well, Viridiana is definitely the most capable, and then there's Aurora. She's also very strong, although not quite at the same level as Viridiana. Why do you ask?" "I need a magic boost to perform such a long distance teleport. How much power can you provide Viridiana?" Twilight looks to the minotaur towering over her. "I have enough power for what you want to do. We will not need Aurora's aid for this." Viridiana says with a determined smirk. "Then if it is all the same to you, we can go back to Ponyville immediately." Twilight looks at the king, and than at you. "I'm fine with it." You say with a smug look on your face. "OF COURSE you can go back now. The sooner you start with your lessons the better!" The king laughs as he gives a wave of dismissal, letting you know that it is time to leave. Twilight has set up the incantation circle and is now starting on her long-distance teleportation spell, with Viridiana feeding her some extra magic every now and then. After some time of concentrating the air starts to wave a little. With a loud crack and a bright flash a rift in space opens up. "I thought you were going to teleport us". You state, stunned by the tear in the fabric of space. "We are. Just step through here and you'll be back in Ponyville." Twilight nudges you toward the softly pulsating portal. "Why not just teleport us like you usually do?" You ask her with nervousness making your voice crack. "That only works short-range, this rift is for long-distance teleportation. The magic required for short-range teleportation grows exponentially the further you try to teleport. This spell will always use just as much magic, which is more than I can currently manage by myself." Twilight nudges you further toward the portal. Suddenly you feel two hands, yes Hands, on your back which push you right into the portal. The feeling of transportation through the broken fabric of space is difficult to describe. It's like jumping into a freezing whirlpool and then being tossed into a washing machine at sixty degrees Celsius. Once it stops you realize you had closed your eyes and now you slowly open them. In front of you is the library, upside down. You hang in mid-air for a few more seconds before hitting the ground head-first. A few seconds later Twilight lands on top of you with a thump, also upside down. You quickly roll away from the spot, taking Twilight with you, just in time to see the minotaur gracefully stepping out of thin air onto her feet, right at the place you were just lying. "Not used to long-distance teleportation?" Viridiana half-asks as she walks toward the library. "First time actually." You grunt as you pushing Twilight off of yourself, allowing yourself to get up. You help Twilight up onto her hooves and quickly notice how exhausted she is from the incantation. "C'mon let me help you get inside." You carefully place your arm around her to keep her from buckling to the floor from her exhaustion. Once inside the library you guide Twilight to her room and carefully place her on her bed, you'll let her rest until dinner, than you'll wake her again, to see if she's replenished some of her energy. You walk back down the stairs to stand face-to-face with the minotaur, who's about the same height as you. "All you have learned until now about magick you must forget." Viridiana starts, she's definitely not going to waste a single moment in educating you in the arts of magick. "Just let all the knowledge flow away from your mind." She talks with such a calming voice which makes you feel relaxed and lets you focus on forgetting. You slowly let all your past knowledge of magick float from the deepest crevices of your mind and away into the nothingness of the void. The feeling is completely alien to you but you let it all pass as you relax even more. Without even realizing you have your eyes closed and you are sitting on the ground, cross legged, across from your Master. "I will now teach you how to properly disperse your magick, without affecting the environment or anything else." You can hear Viridiana speak and you understands what she says, but it feels like you aren't in the binds of your body any more, as if you are floating above yourself, watching all that is happening. "I sense you are already in the correct phase of conciousness. Now look at your body and see where your magick is located." You open your eyes. What you see is indeed what you felt, but it still shocks you to see that you are, indeed, floating over your own and Viridiana's body. You look over to your Master and see that she too has an ethereal form floating over herself. It isn't like anything you've seen before. You can't actually 'see' anything, but you can 'sense' everything which than forms an image in your mind, somewhat like the eyes do, but now you're using your, let's call it your, sixth sense. You now focus on your own body and quickly find what Viridiana was talking about. In your stomach area you 'see' a large pool of energy, slowly but surely filling you up to the edge of your capacity. You now understand exactly why you have to release some of it, before you overfill and potentially explode. "Now, guide some of that energy to your current 'body'." You try to do as she says, but somehow you can't manage to control it. You remember forgetting all you learned about magick and its control which makes you now incapable of doing what your master is asking of you. "Think of it as an extension of yourself, like a third arm, but now reaching out to your consciousness and staying there." You follow her advice and try to extend your magick toward yourself as if stretching your arm. Surprisingly you feel the energy slowly floating toward you and out of your body, once it is completely removed form your body it attaches itself to your ethereal form. You move it around a bit until you find a nice spot to temporarily put it, until you know what to do with it. "Now I want you to do the same thing with this energy as you did with your memories, you must open the void and let all that excess energy just flow into that place, but be careful to not let yourself get pulled into there." Viridiana's tone was one with severe caution in it and it makes you feel kind of scared. But you do as she says and you try to let the energy just flow away. Something is different this time though, instead of feeling it slip away into nothingness you feel it dispersing to your surroundings instead of a tear in the ethereal plane of magick and energy. "Focus human, you mustn't let it go. You must force it to go into the void. Magick is alive, unlike memories, and it does not want to be put into nothingness, it will fight back. Magick by itself is volatile and can mess with anything it touches. You must force it and not let it wander around in this plane of existence." You once again focus on the magick which is still trying to get away, now that it 'knows' that you will force it into the void. You grab hold onto the magick and guide it back to yourself, before opening up a portal to the void and forcing the magick through it. But before you close the portal again you can't help but sense a fragment of that godforsaken plane. This is exactly what should never happen. Your mind gets attacked by infinite wisdom. You suddenly know the colours of the wind, the smell of 'X', you even know what happens when an unstoppable object slams into an unmovable object. You know the infinite possibilities of paradoxes and you can remember all of your past lives, each one of them. "FOCUS!" Suddenly booms through your head as you are brought back to reality by your Master. All that you knew just seconds before was now gone. Everything put back into the nothingness of infinity. Into the Void. "As I said, Never Ever go into that forsaken place. Not even with an anchor like me, it is not worth it." You feel yourself being pulled back into your body and you can see normally again. "This is how you destroy excess energy. I will teach you how to master this ability without having to go into your ethereal state. It will take a lot of practice, but it is necessary for not only your own safety but also for that of others." Just as Viridiana finishes her sentence you hear the tell-tale sound of hooves clopping on wood, as Twilight descends from the stairs. Apparently the time spent in the Void doesn't match up with the normal flow of time. Viridiana says that you have been in 'Limbo' for almost three hours, and that is has taken her substantial effort to pull you out again. Now that you know what time it is you begin to feel hungry, and you decide to start preparing dinner for the three of you. Remembering that Spike is staying at Rarity's place. You also haven't told anyone in the village yet that you've returned. You head to the kitchen and start on the preparations, grabbing the vegetables and spices necessary for a nice hot meal at the end of the day. A.N.: I apologize for not updating for so long, but I'm seriously having inspiration troubles. I seem to have been kicked from the plane of inspiration and I can barely even see in my head what's happening in the story. I will try to write as much as possible, but it will be irregular. I rewrote this chapter about five or six times. I hope it's still good enough. Brohoof to all /) And remember, Enjoy reading. Yours Faithfully, ThePorqupine.