Fortunate Misfortune

~Chapter 2 - First Contact and Helpful Acquaintances~

…Something brushed against my face, and as it tickled my nose I sneezed. With the sudden movement I felt a sharp pain spread throughout my body.

“Gah!" I coughed in pain as I clutched my side, "That hurts."

'Pain… why am I in pain?' I couldn't remember what happened. All I know is that I was getting ready to go to school, and now I have this splitting headache and injured side. The rest is all just a blur.

"It feels like I smashed into the broad side of a barn," I groaned even as the pain started to fade to a bearable level.

Now that I could concentrate somewhat, I began to notice the noises coming from my surroundings. They were unnerving sounds, things scurrying through bushes and the soft moan of the breeze through closely knit trees. 'This doesn't sound like home… It sounds like I'm in a forest.'

Still lying on the ground I opened my eyes for the first time since regaining consciousness, all I saw was blue. Slowly, and with another spasm of pain compliments of my side, I pushed myself into a sitting position. Looking around I noticed that I was definitely in a forest, a dark and somewhat spooky forest to be exact. Though despite the eerie appearance everything looked... well... the colours were more vivid if that makes sense.

"Ok, this looks familiar," I mumbled to myself. I looked down at where I was sitting, I was in the middle of many strange blue flowers, "And they definitely look familiar."

I bent closer to examine the flowers, "That definitely looks like poison joke, and if it is then that means I'm in the Everfree Forest, which in turn means… Nah! There's no way I'd be that lucky. But then again, landing in a patch of poison joke isn't exactly my idea of good fortune."

Not knowing for certain whether this was Equestria or not and not caring about getting away from the possibly harmful flowers since I had already touched them, I decided to simply sit back and rest my aches for now and hope for someone to come along to confirm my suspicions.

It was then that I realized something else that was very wrong. I was getting incredibly hot. I quickly undid the fastenings on my jacket and unzipped my sweater. Trying to get into a position to remove these however resulted in another wave of agony, so I resigned myself to the little relief I managed to secure for myself and gently set myself back down.

‘It’s warm out...’ A breeze blew by, the strange blue flowers swaying in its passing. ‘...well, too warm for winter anyway. That felt more like a spring or fall wind.’

This was starting to get even more weird, and this new development made the possibility of being somewhere else- not necessarily Equestria –seem more likely.

So, armed with only my knowledge of My Little Pony and various ‘Human in Equestria’ fan fictions, I began planning out what I should try to do.

'If this is Equestria then first I should find Zecora and see if she’ll make a poison joke cure for me, speaking of which I wonder when I'll start experiencing my reaction to the plant. I know that poison ivy isn't actually poisonous, the rash is just a natural allergic reaction to the plant that only humans have, so it's quite possible that the plant only affects ponies. After that I should focus on finding a way to meet Princess Celestia and seeing how she'll react to my presence. Some fan fictions show her acting kindly to the human in question; others have the Princess aware of the things humans are capable of and quickly acting out against them. Concerning the ponies, more importantly the mane six, I should probably play ignorant and act like I don't know anything about them for the time being, just to be on the safe side.'

I was about to start working out how I was going to make money and, well, basically how I was going to survive, when the sound of someone approaching caught my attention.

'Wow, that was much faster than I expected.' I listened carefully to the sound, 'Ok, judging by the pattern of footfalls I think there are two sets of feet. Maybe two bipedal creatures… No, the rhythm of the footfalls is to steady, I'd say that it's a quadruped.' Then I remembered my shirt with Rainbow Dash's cutie mark, 'Oh right, faking ignorance here!' I quickly zipped up my sweater to cover the telltale sign of me being a Brony.

As I made my prediction I crossed my fingers hoping for a pony to walk into view. My prayer did not go unanswered. A welcome sight stepped into view on the path in front of me, a unicorn with a lavender coat and a long straight purple mane and tail with a lighter purple and pink streak running through each. On its flank was a six-pointed magenta coloured star with several smaller white stars encircling it. It was Twilight Sparkle, carrying a pale purple saddlebag with clasps made in the likeness of her cutie mark on her back.

I had a sudden an almost overwhelming urge to let loose the most girlish scream of joy possible, thankfully I was able to resist that temptation. Instead of making the first move to greet her I decided to keep quiet for the moment, just to see her reaction.

Twilight stopped dead in her tracks as her purple eyes locked onto me, she began to back up cautiously but stopped when she noticed I wasn't moving. Even before she spoke the look in her eyes betrayed her interest.

"This... this is incredible! I've never seen or even read about a creature like this!” She took a step towards me, and her confidence must have made a complete recovery once she noticed I made no move against her.

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t appear aggressive,” she began stating aloud. “It has a similar appearance to that of a monkey. Forward facing eyes, flexible arms, legs and fingers, but it doesn't seem to have much hair on its body."

This sounded so familiar to me, 'Gee, I wonder why,' I thought sarcastically to myself while recalling various reactions ponies had in fan fictions when seeing a human. I decided to keep quiet for a little while longer, wanting to see what else Twilight would deduce.

“Those clothes... they’re most likely compensation for the lack of fur covering it. Judging by the design of the clothing it- or others of its species –must have a fairly high level of intelligence... Oh wait, it doesn’t have a tail. So if it’s not a type of monkey... more than likely it’s a closer relative to the ape family.”

I couldn’t keep quiet for any longer, else I run the risk of having Twilight write me off as a mental giggling baboon.

"You’re close. I’m not a monkey, I’m a human. Though I guess you could call me an ape considering approximately ninety six percent of my DNA is the same as that of a chimpanzee,” I said with a chuckle, Twilights new expression giving the action even more strength. I quickly regretted that however as my laughing caused the pain in my side to flare up again, I tried to hide my grimace behind a smile.

"You can talk?" Twilight exclaimed in surprise, “Well... I mean... of course you can talk. After all, taking into account your apparent intelligence it seems only logical.”

"Well I’m glad you think so," I tried to say evenly; instead it came out as a groan and I fell onto my back whilst clutching my side in agony.

Twilight immediately grew concerned. "You're injured, what happened to you?" As quickly as she began walking over to help she stopped, finally noticing what I was lying in. "And what are you doing sitting in the poison joke?"

'Caring for a strange injured animal? That sounds more like something Fluttershy would do,' I thought before passing it off as simple kindness.

"Sorry but I can't remember how I got hurt," I said through clenched teeth. "As for sitting where I am, I can't tell you the answer to that either, I just woke up here."

"Well can you stand? I need to get you to somepony who can help."

"I think so," I replied. The thought of doing a hand spring to my feet popped into my head, but I immediately cast that idea aside as I realized it would end up hurting more than helping. Instead I opted for slowly rolling onto my front and dragging myself out of the patch of blue flowers.

As soon as I was clear of the irksome plant Twilight trotted over to my side. "Here, you can lean on me for support."

"Thanks, I owe you for this," I said as I pulled myself into a standing position. I quickly placed my hands on Twilights back to stabilize myself as my legs threatened to give out.

Once I was standing I took notice of her actual height, 'I'm almost six feet, so if I use myself as a reference I guess that makes her about… four feet tall. I guess me saying that ponies were only three feet tall in my fan fiction was wrong.' I realized she was staring at me curiously.

"What?" I asked.

"Oh, I was just surprised to see you stand on two legs," Twilight replied. She seemed to be intrigued by every new detail about me. “Though considering your anatomy it does seem sort of obvious.”

I had a reasonable guess as to where we were going as Twilight continued along the path while supporting my weight, but still feigning ignorance I asked anyway, "So where are we going?"

"We're going to see Zecora. She's a zebra who knows a lot about healing and herbal remedies. If there's anyone who can fix you up its Zecora, she also knows how to make a cure for the effects of poison joke. I was heading to her house anyway to get some medicine for my assistant; he recently came down with the flu."

A thought popped into my mind, 'This sounds like the perfect moment to ask about the Princess.'

"Oh, I forgot to ask you your name. I'm Matthew by the way, Matt for short."

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, but you can call me Twilight, that's what my friends call me."

'Twilight basically called me a friend! Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!' With that little fan moment out of the way I inquired towards my goal.

"You mentioned something about having an assistant didn't you? Surely that must mean you're a pretty important pony."

Twilight blushed a little, "I wouldn't say important, Spike is more like a brother to me than an assistant. He mainly helps me clean up the library where I live; he also sends my letters to the Princess for me."

'Success!' "Wait, what do you mean Princess?"

Twilight gave me a quizzical look. "Princess Celestia of course, she also happens to be my teacher. But surely you know who the Princess is."

Again feigning ignorance I stated, "Actually no, I don't. You see, I came from a different world, or universe or dimension, whatever you want to call it."

Twilight stopped suddenly, I didn't so I proceeded to fall painfully on my face without her support.

"Ow… could you warn me before you do that next time?"

"What do you mean another world? And if that's true, then how did you get here?" Twilight spluttered.

"Again, I don't know how to answer your question, all I can assume is that my injuries are related to me being here somehow," I grunted as I slowly stood once more and nearly fell onto Twilight's back.

"Alright then," Twilight looked skeptically at me, an expression that clearly stated that she wasn’t satisfied with the answer.

'Shoot, she's already suspicious, and here I thought that I'd only have to worry about Applejack seeing through my ruse.'

"Anyway," Twilight continued, "Princess Celestia rules Equestria, the land that you're in now, alongside her sister Princess Luna. Princess Celestia raises the sun into the sky every morning and Princess Luna lifts the moon at night."

I faked an incredulous expression in response to Twilight's explanation and left it at that, not wanting to explain to her how the sun and moon worked back home.

"What's with that look, doesn't it work the same where you come from?"

'Damn!' "No, back in my world the sun and moon rise and set on their own," now it was Twilight's turn to give me a disbelieving look. "Their movement is caused by the orbit of Earth, the planet that I live on, around the sun, and the moon orbits in the same fashion around Earth. Also, we don't have any ponies like you back home, and humans are the dominant species on the planet."

"What do you mean there aren't any ponies like us in your world?"

'Ugh, I really didn't want to go there…' "Ponies and horses back home are generally larger than you and just like any other animal, unable to speak the way we do and they are usually taken care of on farms. Additionally, there are no unicorns or pegasi."

Twilight shot me yet another suspicious glance, 'Crap, I walked into that one. If there aren't any pegasi in my world and I've only seen a unicorn here then how should I know about pegasi? Because I'm a bad actor that's why!'

An awkward silence ensued that brief chat, so I decided to quickly redirect the conversation to where I intended it to go, "Anyway, you said that your assistant sends your letters to Princess Celestia?"

"Yes, what about it?"

"I was wondering if you could send a letter to Princess Celestia informing her of my appearance here." Before Twilight could ask about my reason for such a request I said, "If I was in her position and a strange creature claiming to be from another world suddenly appeared, I think I would want to know about it."

She thought about it for a moment before responding, "I see your point. All right then, I'll send the Princess a letter telling her about you."

I nodded my thanks, 'I can't wait to see how she will react.'

Once that was done with, our conversation drifted back to its original course. I thought that my explanation on how our sun and moon worked would quench Twilight's thirst for information but I was wrong, all I managed to do was open the door for various other questions pertaining to our knowledge of space and our technological advancements. 'Make it stop! I'm no good at explaining things!'

Thankfully it wasn't long after that we arrived at Zecora's hut. Just like in the show, the hut was inside an old tree. A strange wooden mask rested above the door and several bottles of unknown concoctions hung from a few of the trees branches.

Twilight knocked on the door and a moment later it opened to reveal Zecora. Just like in the show she wore several golden rings around her neck and left foreleg, from her ears hung gold hoops and her black and white striped mane was standing up like a mohawk.

"Twilight Sparkle, what a pleasant surprise," Zecora greeted warmly, her eyes then fell on me, "And what is this creature I see before my eyes?"

I tried to stifle a small chuckle, 'She actually rhymes, how awesome is that?'

"His name is Matthew, and he is a… um, what did you say you were again?" Twilight asked me apologetically.

"I'm a human, and it's a pleasure to meet you Zecora," I tried to straighten myself, but the pain in my side had other plans and sent my staggering back a step. Gasping slightly at the effort to catch myself I smiled weakly at the two onlookers with my hand clutching the source of my agony.

Zecora gave me a worried look, "You look like you're in pain, on your feet you mustn't remain." She trotted over to me and gently helped me inside. "Now inside my hut to lie down you go, I will see if there is a remedy to your ailment I might know."

As the three of us entered the hut my nose was met with a mixed aroma of various flowers, spices, and herbs. It was calming; I've always liked natural scents like this. Candles bathed the room in a warm glow and the walls were nearly hidden behind shelves of bottled potions, more masks like the one above the doorway were hung here and there. In the center of the room rested a metal cauldron above an open fire pit, currently the cauldron was empty and the fire pit was bare of any kindling.

Zecora helped me over to a bed that was set into a small alcove in the far wall, she proceeded to help me lay down while I was busy thanking her. Before I could make myself comfortable however Zecora began to poke and prod my injured side, even lifting up my shirt at one point to see if there was any damage on the surface.

"Wha-ouch… What are yo-ow! Doing? Ow!" I asked quite irritated, her constant poking kept sending painful shocks through my body.

Zecora didn't answer, instead she simply continued her painful examination. My constant complaints were punctuated on occasion by the zebra's contemplative mutterings.

After a while she stopped and said, "There were no injuries or breaks that I could find, perhaps your affliction is all in your mind."

That got me thinking, 'That makes sense I guess, I mean there have been times when people only experienced symptoms of viruses because they strongly believed they actually had them. But still, physical pain? How can I feel it if I don't even remember what caused it, and what's even more infuriating is that I'm certain it happened just earlier today!'

"If your pain is indeed only in your head," Zecora continued, "Then the only cure I can think of is some rest in bed."

Before she could walk away I said, "Oh, I'm sorry for sounding so needy, but there is one more thing. Twilight said that you knew how to make a medicine for poison joke. When I… arrived, in the forest I found myself in a patch of said plant. I don't think I've suffered any reaction from it yet, but it doesn't hurt to be careful right?"

Zecora nodded and said, "Very well I'll see what I can do, and lucky for you I just collected all the ingredients I need for the brew."

"Thank you again for all the help," and with that I rolled over, wincing slightly, to get comfortable on the small bed.

The last thing I saw before closing my eyes was Zecora walking over to Twilight. After closing my eyes however, it was a long time before I could manage to get to sleep. I heard the two talking; Twilight asked about the medicine she had come to get for Spike. I could hear Zecora moving around the hut, presumably to put together what Twilight needed. As she worked Zecora asked some questions about me and Twilight answered to the best of her ability. Her questions weren't prying, she was simply curious about where I had come from, I smiled.

'Zecora was a strange and unsettling visitor to Ponyville at one point, so she understands what I’ll probably be experiencing. I just hope the ponies of Ponyville are a little more accepting of unusual visitors now.'

I remained awake until shortly after Twilight said her goodbyes and shut the door behind her. The last thing I heard was Zecora gathering various ingredients from around the hut. At one point she mentioned something about Twilights medicine requiring one of the ingredients she needed for my herbal bath. I dozed off just as Zecora was opening the door to leave.