A Long Way Home

by Gray_Skies

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 3737

You were just about to leave for Maryland, you head out much earlier than usual, but what happens is far beyond what you believe in. What you see will change your life forever.

You head out towards your parents home, which you haven't seen in a long time. as you drive towards the highway, your car slows and you find yourself coming to a stop, you pop the hood of your car and check. As you check your hand slips, and hits the hood holder and knocks you out.

You wake up feeling weird and uncomfortable, you look around to see yourself in an eerie forest during the middle of the night. You hear a snap and you turn. What you expect, you have no idea.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-04 12:48:36 UTC

Prologue

Prologue

You wake up like you always do, from the blinding sunlight outside your window, or from the annoyance of your alarm. You get up and go to your bathroom to brush your teeth, you have ruffles light brown hair, and you’re still wearing your white collar shirt. You go on to head to your shower, finish and go to eat breakfast. Everything seems the same to you, wake up, get ready, go to college, eat dinner, and go to sleep. You’re a pretty good guy, fit, and pretty athletic. You work on getting a PhD in math and science, since you love to do both of these. As a kid you were always that guy who asks questions to get his answers.  You’re very shy and you try to avoid people, so basically you’re an antisocial. You don’t even have the guts to ask a girl out, and the last time you did, you got rejected.

Today was different. You’re meeting your family members for dinner tonight. You haven’t seen them in ages, since you were so caught up in college, but you send some mail or an email to them from time to time. Since you were in Virginia, you couldn’t meet your parents just like that; your parents lived in Maryland. You just disliked Maryland because it was so boring, and no one you knew from Virginia ever went there, or had the time to go there. It was about an hour long drive towards Maryland with no traffic, which you hated as well, since you can’t cope with doing nothing but drive, it’s like trying to hide a secret so important that your friends would do anything just so you can tell them.

They were excited, as were you; wouldn’t you be excited if you haven’t seen your parents in few years? Anyway. You and your family members decide to go eat at their house. You always loved going to your parents’ house, even if they live in the place you disliked the most, but your mothers cooking always brings a smile to your face. You decide to get out earlier, wearing a red flannel shirt, blue jeans, and red converse; you check your phone, its 5:00, might as well head out early. You were supposed to meet your parents at 6:30 but you decide that going out earlier wouldn’t hurt, or keep you caught up in traffic. As you Head towards your parents’ house, your car starts to slow to a stop, you had to check your car and look at your engine, it was over heating and you decide to wait it out. As you observe the radiator your head is hit by the hood and you’re knocked out.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

You come to, in a grassy area, around you is nothing but dark, eerie figures coming from the trees around you. You hear a twig snap, at this point your eyes shoot open and you look left, but what you noticed wasn’t the sound but what your hands looked like. They weren’t hands, you had hooves. You start to feel yourself breathe heavy now like your about to pass out. You decide to look at yourself, your body fur is a light gray, and your hair has streaks of blue on brown, and your hair is like you just flipped it back while drying it, and wings, you have WINGS!

Your mind snaps back to reality and you remember you’re in the woods. You decide call out who was there, but no one responds. Your starting to think to yourself that being in this forest is starting to get to you, and that you had to find a way out. You call out to them again.

“Is anyone out there?” but this time you get a response, you see three little ponies,  "Ponies” You thought to yourself, but not just any ponies, the orange filly had wings, and the white one had a horn, the light yellow one was just like any other normal pony.

“Unicorns, Pegasus, and Technicolor ponies too, this isn’t weird.” They look at you like you with scared eyes, not knowing someone while you’re in these creepy woods wouldn’t make you curious as well. As they stare you ask where you were; “great now I’m talking to ponies.”

“You’re in the Everfree forest” replied Scootaloo, you look at the pony, “did it just talk? Or her?” you look around your surroundings; you’re getting a weird and eerie vibe just from looking around, like you just want to run out and hide.

“Do you know a way out of here?” You ask. The white unicorn replies with a scared tone,  “Y-yeah we were just about to, when we heard somepony call out.”

“Heh Somepony.” For some reason you found that amusing. You obviously don’t know any of them so you asked them who they are.

They replied altogether, “Were the Cutie Mark Crusaders, we try to find out our cutie marks and help others find theirs. The yellow pony pointed to herself and said in a southern accent, “Ahm Apple bloom, and she’s Sweetie Belle. She points to the white unicorn she had light purple hair and a little pink streak, like yogurt. “And I’m Scootaloo.” The orange filly says proudly

You tried standing up, but you lose balance and fall flat on your face. You tried again. You wobbled a lot but you’re getting used to your new body rather quickly. Considering you’ve never been a pony before.

Right as you start to wobble around, the ponies yell out loud,  “YOU DON’T HAVE A CUTIE MARK?”  “A cutie what now?” you ask. Sweetie Belle tells you exactly what a cutie mark is. “When a pony finds out his/hers special talent and her destiny, a mark appears on your flank to show what you do. You look at your flank, it was blank, as you thought about this, you noticed that neither the fillies in front of you don't have their marks as well.

Your starting to think to yourself, "What am I talented in, what is my destiny? I've never really had much thought into it.” you and the three fillies start to head out of the woods, and towards the town where they lived.  “P-Pineville? Was it?”

You couldn’t tell through the other ponies since they all talk the same time about having a tour guide cutie mark, or an adventurer cutie mark. They said that they would take you to the librarian, Twilight Sparkle.

You start to see an exit through the woods. As you exit, Apple Bloom looked up to be surprised to find the sun starting to rise.  “Ahh, I have to go guys. Apple Jack’ll be mad if she finds out I’ve been sneaking out.” Applebloom says.  “I have to go to.” Scootaloo says.  “I gotta find Rainbow Dash and ask her about how she got her cutie mark.” You say your goodbyes and you are led to a town you see in the distance.

As you come into view of the entire town you notice that the houses are made of wood and have hay on top of their roofs. This is weird to you because you’ve never seen this kind of architecture before. You see more ponies coming out of the buildings. They look at you with curious eyes at you as they have never seen anybody quite like you, but the one pony you seem to catch your eye is the pink blur galloping towards you and Sweetie Belle.

“Hey, Pinkie Pie.” Said the White unicorn. Pinkie Pie, you thought, I should’ve guessed, I mean she is pink.  “Hey Sweetie, how’s it going? Who’s your friend, is he new to ponyville?

Causeifhe’snewthenthatmeanswehavetomakeawelcomepartyforhim!” you’re lost for words as she is mumbling on about cake and you no idea what was going on. You just realized that you’re famished, and your stomach let out a low grumble. You blush in embarrassment as you look down to your stomach.

“Oh, you’re hungry? Why not go to Sugar Cube Corner, and grab a quick snack. So you head towards Sugar Cube Corner, Sweetie Belle had to leave, “Guys I think I should start going, my sister will start to worry when I’m gone this early.” You resume your path towards Sugar Cube Corner with Pinkie Pie, you try catching up to her, since she’s a lot faster than you, you fall over a few times trying to sprint but you’re getting used to your new body rather quickly, and your shock of realization has went away, but its still bothering you.

What comes into view is what you think is a large ginger bread house. It’s outer walls as brown as oven baked bread and the roof’s vanilla like cream just gets your stomach growling for food. As you step inside you see two other ponies, one being light orange with dark orange hair, er mane, and the other light blue with a mane like Pinkie’s.  “Hi Mr. and Mrs. Cake, how are you doing with Mmmm?”

Mmmm? You thought. Is that supposed to be some sort of baker’s code for good food?

What you thought was Mrs. Cake said,  “ Oh, Pinkie, we just need to deliver it, and instead of making the large cake was such a problem last time, we decided if we make more smaller cakes, so we could make more.” Pinkie Pie stares at awe in their new plan for this cake and the first thing she asks for is a sample of the cake.  “This is Deeelish, you two have really outdone yourself!”

Mrs. Cake caught eye on you, “Who’s your friend Pinkie?” “Oh this is a new pony, I’m taking him to twilight but he got hungry on his way here.”

You look down on the ground, embarrassed to what she says. You decide to ask Pinkie if you could try some of the cake.  “Of course you can! If you’ve never been to ponyville before, than you have to try the Mmmm.” You decide to ask, “What is Mmmm anyway? Some sort of treat or code?”

You listen as Pinkie Pie explains what the treat was. “Well the tastiest treat of all is sure to be the Cakes' Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness. All that rich, creamy goodness of the marzipan combined with the tart and tanginess of the mascarpone, blended perfectly with the smooth silky sweetness of the meringue. That's why I call the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness the MMMM!”

Pinkie Pie explains this in a way that makes your mouth water for the cake. You take your first bite from this cake and it was like your heart skipped a beat when you ate it. “This Is The Best Cake EVER!” you exclaimed eating the cake some more. You hear some chuckling around you, and you notice your wings are extended. You’re embarrassed because this has never happened to you before.  “I knew you’d like it no one can resist Mmmm!”

You decide it’s time for you to head out and meet with this Twilight character, so Pinkie tags along with you, being a new pony and all. You step out the door to find a white pony with a moderate indigo mane and horn like Sweetie Belles, “Terribly sorry, whoever you are.” She says in a kind of English accent.

“Hey Rarity, I’m taking this stallion to twilight.” Pinkie Pie says.  “Oh why is that darling?” Said the white unicorn, I’m guessing this is Sweetie Belles older sister. “I’m going to Twilight, because I don’t know where I am.” You respond.

“Well you’re in Ponyville silly.” Said the Pink Mare. “No, I mean I don’t know where I am, I wasn’t here before, like I was somewhere else.” You say with a low tone, and your ears droop down. “Well if anything unnatural happens, Twilight is the pony to see.” Rarity says.

You, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie start to head out after Rarity bought some cupcakes for her sister. You see a large tree house hallowed out to what looks like a library inside. Pinkie Pie bursts through the door calling out Twilight’s name.  “I’m coming Pinkie please stop yelling, we are in a Library.” “Twilight I found this new pony that’s lost, and said that he doesn’t know where he is.” Exclaimed Pinkie. “Well that’s easy, were in ponyville.” Said a confused Twilight.

As Twilight says this you explain what you mean. “I’m saying, I don’t know where or how I got here, heck I wasn’t even a pony before.” Twilight and the other ponies look at you in confusion. “You’re telling me that you weren’t a pony before?” You nod your head in agreement. “So what were you before?” The curious Twilight asked. “That’s just it, I don’t remember anything.”

As Twilight takes in your answer she thinks out loud to herself, “Maybe I should send a letter to the princess, she’ll know something about this.” Twilight says.

As she takes an ink and quill to a podium in the middle of the library, she takes an old rolled up paper, and sprawled it across the podium. She quickly writes what she has learned from me and calls for someone. “Spike! Spike! I need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia.” As she says this you hear a door open upstairs.

“Alright alright, I’m comin, but what’s so important that it can’t wait till later?” You jump as you see a dragon come down the staircase. Is that safe? Having a dragon in a tree house? As you ask yourself these questions, the purple dragon takes the scroll and lights it on fire with his breath. Correction, Fire breathing dragon in a tree house. It quickly ignites and the smoke trails out the window.

“And Now we wait.”

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

You’ve only been waiting at least a few minutes until Spike belched a scroll. It’s not what I expected from mail, especially from a princess. Twilight reads over the scroll as the others talk to you about what you were doing before you came to ponyville.

“Well I was in this place called, The Everfree Forest, and I learned that I don’t have a cutie mark. But after that the three fillies led me to the exit” You explained the best you can, but Rarity intrudes as she asks, “Was one of them a small white unicorn, like I, except with two streaks of light pink and purple.” You reply with a nod. “As long as nothing terrible happens to my sister then everything is okay.” D’awwww, you think to yourself, isn’t that cute.

Twilight finished reading the letter the princess sent to her and started to trot towards you.

“The princess would like to meet with you in Canterlot in this coming Wednesday.” Rarity replies with a gasp “Canterlot? That’s not fair; a complete stranger gets to go to Canterlot with you Twilight?”  Twlight raises a hoof and tries to change the subject. “Hey, what’s your name anyway?”

You look at her with a confused look which gives her a sign that you obviously don’t know. “Well you are a Pegasus, so maybe you’re something weather related.” Said Twilight. After countless names from Pinkie Pie, you come to the conclusion of a name. “ How about Gray Skies?” You feel proud to have thought of a great name.

The other ponies around also agreed to the name. “Yeah that’s a great name, now I know what to put on the cake.” As Pinkie exclaims, a knock was heard from the door. You hear a tomboyish voice on the other side as twilight trots towards the door. “Hey Twilight, did you get the new issue of Daring Doo?” as Twilight opens the door a cyan Pegasus with a rainbow mane comes through the door with a book under its wing. “Yes Rainbow Dash, I have the new book.”

As Twilight finishes her sentence, Rainbow looks at you and asks who I was. The other ponies explained the best they could about my origin and how I got here. “Well he’s a Pegasus, does that mean he can fly?” She said. As she says this, you had the thought of flying whenever you wanted but first, you gotta learn how to. “No, you answer sadly.”

“A Pegasus that can’t fly? Tell you what. I’ll teach ya how to fly.” You look at her with excited eyes. “Really? You can help me fly?” you asked excited. “Of course you gotta know how to fly or else you’ll just drag others down when they need the help.” Rainbow says. “So when do we start?” Asked the excited gray stallion.

“Why not now, I mean it’s only gonna be the dusk in a few hours.” You look out the window, the sun seems to be nearing sun set, she’s right it’s like 2 pm right now according to the clock on the wall. “So where should we go to practice?” you asked her as you try extending your wings. “Hmm, we could go to Fluttershy’s cottage, she’s got a huge backyard.”

Since you’re going to Canterlot in two days you might as well learn how to fly and learn a few things about this world.

You head towards Fluttershy’s cottage in the outskirts of town. You see a cottage with a small bridge over a river. You heard wild life behind the door and what you could only imagine is that Fluttershy is a vet. Rainbow Dash knocks on the door. “Hey Fluttershy could I talk to you a bit?”

The door opens and you find a bright yellow Pegasus with a pink mane. How do they open doors with these hooves? At first when she caught sight of you, she hides behind her hair, and asks, “Who’s y-your friend R-Rainbow?” Rainbow Dash explains who I was, and Fluttershy lightens up and calm down.

“We were wondering if we could use your backyard to teach him how to fly.” Rainbow said. Fluttershy gladly let you and Rainbow use her backyard. Rainbow was right, Fluttershy’s backyard it was huge. There were small coops for hens and fences surrounding more wild life around the cottage. You’ve never seen so many animals at once. You and Rainbow get down to business, she teaches you how to use your wings, and when to use them.

“What you want to do is outstretch your wings.”  Rainbow explains, outstretching he own wings.

You imitated what she does, it feels weird having wings. It’s like another arm, on your back. It takes you a few tries but eventually you did it, you kept your wings open the entire time Rainbow timed it. You thought to yourself, it felt like moving your shoulder when your arm is sore.

“Great, now let’s try flapping your wings.” Rainbow shows you what to do with your wings, how to move it and how fast it should move.

You just try flapping them slowly, and eventually pick up speed as you go. This is harder than it looks. It’s like trying to rub your stomach and tap your head, and then changing except constantly.

It’s been a couple of hours of practice, but you got the hang of hovering over the ground for a few feet. You decide that you should practice tomorrow, since you’ll have more time to practice.

You and Rainbow start to head towards Twilights home.

“Where you gonna stay anyway?” Rainbow asks.

You haven’t really thought of it but you have no idea. “I’ll ask Twilight about that.”

Rainbow knocks on the door and is greeted by a sleepy dragon. He lets you in and you see Twilight reading columns of books about pony amnesia.

“Hey Twilight, where is Gray gonna sleep?” Rainbow asks.

Twilight thinks a bit about where I should stay.

“I guess he can’t stay here with me, since I have to learn more about how he got here. Maybe you can take him Rainbow, since you have such a large house.”

Rainbows house? Large? How big could it be?

Rainbow agrees and takes the new book that she left before practice, and started to head out the door, making gestures to you to follow her.

You thank Twilight for the help and leave.

It’s getting dark now; you probably think its 5 or 6 PM here. You follow Rainbow to a hill with a mailbox.

“We’re here.” Rainbow says, “Home Sweet Home.”

You look at her in confusion as you look up. You are staring at a cloud castle in the sky, rainbows falling from the top floor like a waterfall. You’re staring at the castle in awe, as Rainbow Dash fly’s towards it.

“You gonna stay down there or are you gonna come up here.”

You start to flap your wing and try to come close to the castle. You start to fall, but you are caught by Rainbow, and you are taken to the castle.

“Thanks Dash.”

As you are taken to the gate of Rainbow’s home it is much larger than all the other houses he’s seen.

“Hey Rainbow, why do you have such a large house?” You ask.

“It’s not really mine; it’s my dad’s house. I like taking naps on clouds but I rarely go here.”

Rainbow lets you down but you become hesitant about landing on clouds, but Rainbow shows that Pegasi can stand on clouds.

As Dash opens the doors you look inside to be surrounded by cloud puffy walls and doors that seem out of place as they are more solid. Everything looks fluffy and puffed like a cloud would. This is your first time being in a cloud mansion.

“You can sleep in the Second guest room.” Rainbow says.

“Second guest room? What about the first one?” You asked, curious.

“That’s where my pet’s at.” She says.

A pet, that lives in the clouds, on a mansion? Rainbow Dash leads you to the room that you will be sleeping in, it’s pretty nice in the room especially the fact the bed will be comfortable. Theres a window with a view of Ponyville and what looks like a large mountain just beyond with train tracks leading to a cave. It’s starting to get late and Rainbow Dash leaves to get some sleep herself, so she leaves you to be comfortable in your room.

“Better get some rest, I feel like tomorrows gonna be a big day.”

End of Chapter 2