Fortunate Misfortune

~Chapter 8 - Conversing Carriage Ride and Arrival at Ponyville~

As the water drained out of the tub I stood and grabbed one of the towels hanging from the nearby rack. After quickly drying my hair I shook my head like a dog does to dry itself off, a few drops of water flew away and my hair was back to its regular straight position. Completely drained of water by now, I dried off the rest of my body and stepped out onto the warm washroom floor. Wrapping the towel around my waist I made my way to the door to check for my clothes, they weren’t there. Being inclined to wait instead of traversing the castle in nothing but a towel I made my way towards the large floor to ceiling mirror.

Being locked in a dungeon for a few days really helped me get some much needed sleep. The bags under my eyes were barely noticeable and my eyes were more open and alert looking, though this made the fact that my left eye opens wider than my right more noticeable. An incredibly insignificant detail at most.

Even though I had just taken a bath my face still had a slightly dirty appearance to it. Facial hair and I don’t mix well at all, and a couple days away from a razor left the stubble on my chin quite noticeable.

‘I really need to shave… still,’ I started rubbing my chin making my reflection look as though it was deep in thought, ‘I cannot get over how good this feels.’

I was interrupted from my thoughts by a knock on the door. Answering the door I saw my clothes folded neatly on the floor, they even managed to clean my sneakers. Looking around revealed only the bright red tail of whoever delivered my clothes as they hurried from the room.

“Thank you!” I called after them as I grabbed my clothes and closed the door behind me.

Dressed once again in clean clothes I swung my backpack over my shoulder and tucked my jacket under my arm. Finished with all that needed doing, I left for the carriage that would take me to Ponyville.

‘Wait… how am I supposed to find my way to the carriage?’ I thought as I left the guestroom turning back the way Princess brought me thinking that I could try finding my way from the garden.

As I started to walk my left knee stiffened up a bit, giving a very slight but noticeable twinge of pain when I moved it, succeeding in giving me a slight limp.

‘Great... just got to love accutane,' I thought sarcastically to myself.

As I turned a corner I was startled by a rapidly approaching pony. I flung myself back around the corner to avoid a collision, though when I heard a familiar voice I smiled and pulled myself away from the wall.

“Matt! I’m glad I found you before you got lost,” Zephyr said with his own grin.

“Hey Zephyr, I didn’t expect I’d see you again so soon. Why are you in such a hurry?”

“Princess Celestia wanted somepony to come guide you to the main entrance,” he replied.

“And she chose you? That’s a nice coincidence.”

“Actually…” Zephyr paused, “The Princess wanted to send a guard with you to Ponyville just to check up on you every day or two for the next little while. I volunteered.”

“That’s fine with me. I’m glad it’s you instead of a statue,” I said happily, now noticing that he didn’t have in armor on.

He didn’t look as skinny as he did when he was wearing his armor. Zephyr definitely wasn’t as solid as any of the other guards I’ve seen but from what I could tell- considering I don’t know enough about ponies to base any judgments on -his muscles though barely noticeable were toned and flexible looking. Without the gold coloured armor I could now see his cutie mark, it looked something like a spiraling cloud wisp  with a narrow lightning bolt streaking through the center.

“We should probably get going then,” Zephyr said as he turned to lead me down the hallway opposite the direction I was originally heading.

“Man I’m glad you found me, I would’ve gotten lost for sure,” I sighed.

Zephyr just laughed and continued walking, not wanting to fall behind I picked up my pace to stay at his side, trying my best to hide the discomfort that my leg was causing.

After a few minutes of silence Zephyr spoke, “On my way over I heard another guard mention something about a strange ape-like creature setting a new record on the obstacle course, that was you right?” he said before hastily spluttering, “No offence, I mean, um, that’s what the other guard said not me!”

It was my turn to laugh, “None taken, it’s a pretty accurate description anyway,” I slouched and hung my arms like a gorilla, earning a slight chuckle from Zephyr. “Yeah, I did set a new record.”

“By how much did you beat me?” He asked turning to face me; I could see genuine interest reflected in his eyes.

“Well none of the guards would say, but Princess Celestia spoke to them and said that I beat it by almost half,” I replied. Then the wording of Zephyr’s question clicked in my head, “Wait, the old record was yours?”

He smiled proudly, “That’s right, I may not be very strong but I have the rest of the Royal Guard beat when it comes to agility, even though this is only my first week on the job.” Zephyr sighed, “Still, it doesn’t seem like it was much of a challenge for you to beat my time.”

“Hey, being a strange ape-like creature with grabby hands has some advantages,” I replied. “I’ve done things like that a lot, and I guess it helps that I was pretty idiotic as a kid.”

“What do you mean?” Zephyr asked with a quizzical expression.

“I was constantly climbing a tree almost as tall as my house before I was old enough to start going to school,” I shrugged.

“That’s not as idiotic as it is downright dangerous,” Zephyr shot.

“When you see a tree like that one, it’s kind of hard to not want to climb it,” I retaliated.

Zephyr just shook his head. “I’m still surprised that you beat my time by so much. I mean, I did hold back a little but still…”

“You held back? Why?” I asked, surprised by his revelation.

“I knew I could easily beat the times of the other guards, but it was my first day so I didn’t want to… stand out so much. I guess that didn’t really help much, they’re all calling it beginners luck and they haven’t let me back on the course since.”

I laughed, causing Zephyr to stare at me in mild confusion, “They’re jealous, irritated that the new guy is faster than them!” Zephyr wore a thoughtful expression, I continued, “Don’t worry about it, they’ll stop. And don’t hold back next time, why hide what you’re good at?”

Zephyr smiled, “You’re right, thanks.”

“Any time,” I replied.

It wasn’t long until we arrived at our destination, stepping out into the front courtyard under the afternoon sun I saw Princess Celestia and the mane six all waiting near a fairly large carriage. I was expecting that our ride was going to be provided by the Royal Guard, something along the lines of a golden coloured carriage. What I saw instead was an elaborately decorated, mahogany carriage with drawn purple curtains in the windows. Strapped into the harnesses were two burly looking earth ponies, each wearing burgundy uniforms and matching berets.

“I see you managed to find him Zephyr Swift,” Princess Celestia said as we approached, then added with a chuckle, “I hope he wasn’t too lost.”

“Matt wasn’t lost when I found him, Your Majesty,” Zephyr replied standing at attention. “Though he would have been in another minute.”

“Hey, I’m right here, but I suppose it’s true,” I said with a forced frown, earning another giggle from the Princess.

Celestia then turned to me, “So I take it that Zephyr informed you about how I wish to keep an eye on you for the foreseeable future. I hope that you don’t see this as a problem.”

I quickly shook my head, “It doesn’t bother me at all. I’m actually glad Zephyr’s coming along.”

Celestia smiled, “That’s good to hear.” She turned to face Twilight, “It was so nice to see you and your friends again. Have a safe trip back to Ponyville, and feel free to come and visit again.”

After all goodbyes were said and done, and after one last bow to the Princess garnering yet another roll of the eyes, we all piled into the carriage. As I stepped up my left leg buckled, I quickly caught myself and scooted on inside. Once the door was closed the carriage lurched into motion, looking out a window I saw Celestia turning to head back inside the castle which disappeared from my immediate view as we passed through the front gate and turned the corner.

“So…” I began, turning back to face the others, though I stopped when I noticed Twilight and Applejack both looking at me with concern. “What’s up?”

“Are ya’ll okay sugarcube?” asked Applejack.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” I replied, albeit somewhat hesitantly.

“Well…” Twilight spoke, “When you were climbing into the carriage it looked like your leg almost gave out underneath you.”

“Oh, that,” I said, ‘They noticed…’ “It’s nothing you guys need to worry about, just a lingering side effect from some medication I used to take.”

“What was this medication?” Twilight inquired.

“A last resort acne treatment called accutane,” I replied.

Twilight started to nod in acceptance before she took on a serious expression, “Wait… what do you mean, ‘last resort’?”

I nonchalantly answered, “I mean ‘last resort’ as in it shouldn’t be taken if you can help it.”

“But why?” Twilight pressed.

“Well for one, doctors don’t know for certain how it works, just that it does. And two, it has an extraordinarily high number of possible side effects. The only ones I can remember are stiff and weak joints,” I indicated my knee, “Dry and flaking skin, a bleeding nose, rashes, psychosis, emotional instability, and varying degrees of depression sometimes leading to attempts at suicide.”

Everyone just stared at me with alarmed wide eyes.

"Good heavens dear, I can understand wanting to get rid of some dreadful acne, but whatever could possibly possess you to take such a terrible thing?” Rarity shuddered.

“I only took it because nothing else would work, and my acne was… pretty bad.”

Twilight asked, “Besides the evident problem with your knee, what other side effects did you experience?”

I rubbed the uneven stubble on my chin for a moment as I thought. “Well from the ones that I can remember… I know I didn’t get psychosis, and I never had and never will try to kill myself.”

“What’s psychosis?” Rainbow interrupted.

“A mental disorder where thoughts and emotions are impaired to the point where contact with reality is lost,” Twilight replied impatiently.

Zephyr copied my motion, rubbing his chin with a hoof. “So that leaves dry skin, nose bleeds, rashes…” he paused. “Emotional instability and depression?!”

“I’ve worked with depressed animals before, but you don’t show any of the same signs as they did,” Fluttershy stated, rather shocked with that revelation.

I gave a feeble chuckle, “I’m glad I’m able to hide at least one thing…”

“I thought I told ya not to hide your feelings,” Applejack scolded, “It ain’t healthy.”

“And just hiding behind fake happiness is even worse!” Twilight added forcefully.

“Now hold on a minute!” I started, interrupting the beginning of their joint lecture. “Back home I may have faked my smiles, but ever since I got here I’ve felt nothing but actual genuine happiness. Why do you think I dropped the issue of me getting hit by a car so easily?” my short pause filled with nothing but silent stares, “Because getting hit by that car and ending up in this world was the best thing to ever happen to me!”

The accusing glares of everyone’s concern from before had all softened a noticeable degree, though I thought Zephyr’s expression hinted more towards confusion at this point. I leaned back and said nothing, and no one else spoke for a time either. Finally a quiet voice spoke up.

“Do you… really mean that?” Fluttershy slowly asked.

I smiled and said, “Yeah. Now that I’m here I feel like I can finally start looking up.” I sighed. “Now that we’re on this topic… Princess Celestia probably told you how awful humans can be.” Everyone nodded aside from Zephyr who seemed to grow even more confused. “Well humans have also done plenty of good too. One man, Alexander Gram Bell, tried to invent a machine that could help his mother and sister who were both hard of hearing. Instead he accidentally created the first telephone, a device we can now use to talk to people from nearly anywhere around the world. The thing in my pocket that I said got ruined earlier, that was my phone,” I added as a side note. “We’ve made huge progress in the field of medicine and we’ve made massive scientific advances.”

“But what about the planet, aren’t humans destroying it?” Twilight inquired.

I nodded, “Yeah, but we’ve begun developing ways to cut back on pollution and there are tons of environmental protection movements. Though I still think that we’re a bit late with this, what with our population being well over six billion.”

“Six billion?!” Rainbow gaped, “And I thought a couple hundred thousand fans was a lot!”

Again, I noticed Zephyr scratching his head in ever increasing befuddlement.

I continued, “Still, there is a lot of greed in my world, but not all humans are selfish. Hell, my great grandfather died to save his friends life.”

“But you still hate your species even though they’re capable of good things like that. Why?” Fluttershy asked tilting her head, her expression showing that she was having some trouble understanding my views.

I shrugged, “I just found it hard to keep a positive outlook on life back home. Like I said before I don’t want to think about that stuff right now though.” I turned to Twilight, “So like I was about to ask earlier, how long until we get to Ponyville?”

There was a pause; everyone was just looking at me without saying anything. The silence started to feel slightly awkward until Twilight finally let out a sigh.

“Traveling by carriage takes a little while because of the winding road down the mountain,” Twilight replied. “I expect that we should arrive in Ponyville at around breakfast time tomorrow morning.”

“Really, that long?” I looked out the window of the carriage to see that we were out of the city now. Ahead the road curved away from the cliff, and looking out over this reminded me just how high we really were. “I suppose that makes sense… but what about lunch and supper?”

Applejack pointed at a cupboard underneath the bench she was laying on, “Don’t you worry ‘bout that. These guys are good with what they do.”

“These guys?” I questioned. Twilight was kind enough to fill me in.

“This carriage service. They operate out of the city and provide ponies with comfortable traveling accommodations to and from Canterlot.”

“Oh, I was wondering about the uniforms. But isn’t a whole day sort of a long time to be pulling a carriage full of passengers?”

Twilight shook her head, “It would be for most ponies, but this particular group takes great pride in their strength and stamina.”

“Oh I hope they hurry up, I can’t wait to get back so I can start putting everything together for your Welcome to Equestria party, that’ll definitely cheer you up!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly.

Rainbow groaned, “We know already, you’ve been going on about that party all day now!”

“Wait, hold on just a second!” Zephyr interrupted loudly, drawing everyone’s attention. I took full notice of how confused he looked now as he turned to face me. “So… you’re saying that you’re not from anywhere in Equestria?”

“Eeyup,” I replied with a nod of my head.

“And that you’re actually from a different world?”

“Eeyup,” another nod.

“And you were hit by something called a ‘car’? I don’t know what that is, but from the way you said it that sounds pretty bad.”

“A car is a four thousand pound self propelled metal carriage that moves at fifty kilometers an hour,” Pinkie quickly interrupted.

“Uh-Eeyup?” I half stated as I cast a stupefied expression her way.

I didn’t notice that Applejack was practically staring daggers at me by now.

Zephyr looked at me in shock, “Really? And you’re still alive?!”

“Maybe,” I said easily. “But there’s nothing I can do about that anymore, so it’s not really a big deal.”

He quieted down even as he muttered under his breath, “Of course it’s a big deal…” After a slight pause he suddenly spoke up again, “I heard somepony mention something about fans?”

My heart jumped as I left the question hanging, ‘Damn! I didn’t want anyone else to find out about the show, and I didn’t tell any of them that. I hope no one says any-‘

Rainbow started to reply, “In Matt’s world we-“

“Hey Rainbow, did you know that Zephyr here is the one who set the old record at the barracks even though this is only his first week on the job?” I quickly interrupted.

“Really?” Rainbow’s eyes sparked with interest as her train of thought was suddenly derailed.

“Um… well, yeah,” Zephyr replied while rubbing the back of his head.

As they dove into a conversation about their own flying and agility achievements I thought, ‘Whoa, dodged that bullet.’

“What was that about?” Twilight asked slightly perplexed by my sudden aversion.

“Yeah, Rainbow was just answering his question,” Applejack added.

I leaned in closer so Rainbow and Zephyr couldn’t hear, “I don’t really want anyone else to know about that. How did you guys feel when you first found out?”

Twilight thought for a moment, “I guess I was unnerved somewhat. I mean, suddenly finding out that in some other world we’re nothing but a… oh, I see what you mean.”

“I guess I can understand that. I just don’t like hiding things from other ponies,” Applejack mumbled.

I turned to Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie, “So what do you three say?”

“I won’t say anything,” Fluttershy replied. “I know it scared me when the Princess first told us, and I can only imagine how other ponies would react.”

“Not to worry darling, my lips are sealed,” Rarity said with an understanding smile.

Pinkie just went through the silent motions of zipping her lips, digging at the floor of the carriage and dropping something into said hole, covering the hole and tracing the outline of a generic house.

“Pinkie, I don’t think he understands what that’s supposed to mean,” Twilight said exasperatedly.

“You moved into the house you built on top of the hole that you buried the key in, got it. Thanks Pinkie,” I chuckled.

As Pinkie burst into a fit of giggling and both Rarity and Fluttershy suppressed giggles of their own, Twilight simply brought her hoof to her face.

“Now that’s just a might bit creepy iffen you ask me,” Applejack bluntly stated.

“Sorry, I’ll tone it down,” I replied sheepishly.

As the day drew on, I occupied myself by gazing out the window at the passing scenery. I nodded off into a light sleep a couple times, just like during long car rides back home. The others were wrapped up in their own conversations, and Rainbow and Zephyr were still talking away. At some point they pulled out some lunch, I didn’t join in seeing as I still wasn’t hungry.

“You’ve been awfully quiet all this time dear, is something the matter?” My attention was pulled away from the window by Rarity’s question.

“No, just thinking and watching the scenery go by. It’s always the same for me on trips like this,” I replied regarding the fashionista.

“I understand what you mean, but surely joining in on our conversation would be much more enjoyable than simply staring out a window all day.”

I nodded in agreement. “I suppose you’re right. Sorry, old habits die hard I guess.”

Rarity smiled to herself, then brought a hoof to her chin and gave a small pout as her focus turned to my clothing. “I’ve been thinking, your attire seems rather… dark. I imagine you would look rather dashing in blues and greens instead of black, something to bring out the colour in your eyes.”

I chuckled. “It figures, the day I choose to wear black is the one day I meet someone that actually comments about it.” Rarity gave me a quizzical look. “This shirt, my sweater and my jacket are the only black things I own. Everything else is blue and red.”

She hummed thoughtfully to herself, “Yes, I suppose I can see red working for you as well.” Her gaze then fell to my jacket. “That looks rather warm for this time of year.”

Twilight took this chance to join in on our conversation. “His jacket? Oh right, I remember him wearing it when he first arrived.” She glanced at my jacket as well. “I had originally thought you were wearing it because of the lack of fur covering your body, but you’ve just been carrying it around with you all day.”

“Yeah, this is my winter jacket. Right now it should be near the end of January back home.”

“Really?” Twilight gained an intrigued look, “Well its November here. November twelfth to be exact… so that would mean the time between our worlds differs by approximately two and a half months. That’s fascinating.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask about that actually. This is the fall, right?” Both Twilight and Rarity nodded. “Back home, the trees would be pretty much bare of leaves by now…” The two unicorn mares gave me a somewhat bewildered stare. “Remember Twilight, I said there are no pegasi to change the weather back where I’m from.” Twilight nodded again in confirmation. “Well it’s basically the same thing, the leaves all fall naturally back home.”

“Oh,” Twilight looked thoughtful. “Well, here in Equestria there’s a big race every year called ‘The Running of the Leaves.’ Anypony who wants to participate in it can run, and that’s how the leaves fall.”

“I know that,” I replied, pointing out the window with my thumb. “But still, shouldn’t the leaves at least be changing colour by now?”

“Not here in Equestria darling,” Rarity stated. “The leaves on the trees won’t begin to change their colour until the last two weeks of autumn or so.”

I hummed contemplatively to myself, “Things a lot more different that I thought it would be here.”

The two of them managed to draw me out of my silent thoughts and into conversation with the rest of the group, and as such the time went by much more quickly, just as Rarity said it would. Before I knew it, everyone had finished eating dinner and had turned in for the night.

I crept my way to the other side of the carriage so I could gaze out at the moon, careful to not step on the sleeping form of Zephyr. He and I had quickly opted for sleeping on the floor to allow the girls the comfort of the benches with their soft velvet cushions.

All in all, today had gone much better than I could have hoped, and I was positive that tomorrow would be even better.

I awoke to someone roughly shaking me. Lifting my head off the wooden floor of the carriage I saw Pinkie looking down at me with a wide grin.

“Wakey wakey sleepy head! We’re almost there!”

Pushing myself off the floor I saw that everyone else was already up and looking out the window. As I joined them I could see that the sun was already a fair distance above the horizon, and I could just make out the roofs of houses start to poke up over a small hill.

It wasn’t much longer until we arrived at Ponyville. As soon as we all exited the carriage Pinkie predictably took off in a blur.

Zephyr turned to me and said, “The Princess rented out an apartment for me to stay in while I’m here. I’m just going to head on over and settle in, maybe grab a bite to eat and get to know the place better. I’ll come find you sometime tomorrow to see how you’re doing.”

“Alright Zephyr, I’ll talk to you later then,” I said with a wave as he trotted off.

He didn't make it very far before turning back around with a sheepish grin. "Um... could somepony please point me in the direction of Whitetail Lodgings?"

"Just follow this main street to the Town Hall. When you're there take a left by the flower shop and head all the way down the street to the park. You should see the building near the end of the street," Twilight said. "Though if you can't find it, there is a map posted just outside the Town Hall that should be able to help you."

"Alright, thanks." And with that he trotted around us and headed in a direction nearly opposite his original course.

After sharing a quick laugh I turned to the others I asked, “So what now?”

“Well we didn’t have breakfast yet, but it’s already pretty late in the morning so we could go for a quick snack,” Twilight said. “Then we should probably decide on where you’ll be staying.”

“Oh! He can stay with me!” Rainbow said excitedly as she grabbed my arm and began dragging my away.

“Um… shouldn’t we get something to eat first?” Fluttershy spoke up.

“I’m not really hungry,” I said. “Actually now that I think about it… I haven’t needed to eat much of anything since I got here.”

“Hmm,” Twilight put her hoof to her chin. “Do you think that it has something to do with your… situation?”

“Probably, but there’s no way we can find out,” I replied.

“Great!” Rainbow said, “We’ll just swing by my place then. I’ll grab a quick bite to eat back home.” And with that she sped off, half dragging half carrying me through Ponyville.

As ponies and buildings flew bye I could just barely make out the curious stares of some of the ponies we passed.

“Hey Rainbow!” I called over the sound of rushing air. “I don’t think I’ll be able to stand on clouds!”

“We’ll never know until you try!” was her immediate response.

Just a moment later, I found myself being dragged upwards and away from the ground towards a large stationary cloud. Rainbow Dash stopped our ascent in front of her house. It was a magnificent structure, pure white and made almost entirely out of sculpted clouds. Large Roman columns fronted the house and a couple rainbow waterfalls cascaded downwards and dissipated below.

“This… is incredible!” I exclaimed.

“I know right?” Rainbow boasted. “I had it moved down here from Cloudsdale, being the head weather pegasus for Ponyville does have its perks.”

“I have to agree with you there…” the sight left me near speechless.

“Well come on in, you can look around while I grab something to eat.”

She lowered me towards the cloud her home rested on and dropped me the last few inches. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but I definitely wasn’t expecting my vision to go completely white. For the short duration of a few seconds my sight was limited to a white blindness, but just as suddenly as my surroundings disappeared all the colour returned to the world around me. I was falling towards the ground at an alarming rate. Thankfully before I could let out a shout of terror, I felt a pair of hooves grab me under my flailing arms.

Rainbow brought me slowly to the ground and deposited me gently on the grass.

“That was… fun,” I stated quite shakily.

“Sorry about that, I guess you can’t stand on clouds,” she said slightly downcast.

“Don’t worry about it, at least we know now.”

“You’re right,” Rainbow’s head popped up. “Hey! Maybe Twilight can use that walk on clouds spell on you!”

I shook my head, “Resistant to magic, remember?”

“Oh yeah…” she trailed off.

“We’ll think of something,” I replied. “I’ll just wait here for you to finish.”

“Fine, be back in a few seconds,” Rainbow said as she took off again.

I decided to lie down on the grass and watch the clouds drift by. It wasn’t much longer until I was approached by someone. Fully expecting Rainbow Dash I was surprised to see Pinkie standing with her face nearly pressed up against mine.

She dropped an envelope on my lap and quickly said, “Here’s your invitation! Although I guess you don’t really need an invitation to your own party… It’s at Sugarcube Corner in one hour, don’t be late!”

And with that she was gone in yet another pink blur. Picking up the invitation to look at it more closely I saw some writing on the front of the envelope; it was very loopy and flowing, very reminiscent of cursive writing. I couldn’t make out what it said so I opened the envelope and took out the card. Some glittering confetti fell from the card as I opened it, and I saw more of that same writing.

I stared at the unreadable words for a moment longer before I exasperatedly exclaimed, “I can’t read Equestrian!”