I awoke to the sound of birdsong. For a few moments I lay with my eyes shut, trying to pick out individual species’ songs from the joyful noise around me.

Ah, I always love waking up in my old bedroom at home. So much more peaceful than my apartment.

Opening my eyes, I found myself facing a plaster and lath wall which definitely did not belong to my parents’ house. Then it hit me:

This couldn't possibly be their house. I'm not even due for shore leave until next month! I should be at Tau Ceti shipyards right now! So where in Creation am I? And where is Sentinel?

As that disturbing train of thought pounded through my brain, I flung off the covers and leaped out of bed. Or rather, that was what I intended to do. In reality, I think I managed to twitch a little bit.

Ugh, what's wrong with my arms? I can't move them at all!

“Oh! He moved! He's awake now, I think,” said an extremely soft, feminine voice behind me.

“Wow, that was fast. You ladies really know your stuff,” a second, reedy voice replied.

I groaned and tried to lift my head, but the slightest motion made me extremely dizzy.

“Sir, are you awake? Alpha-Four? Can you hear me? This is Sentinel,” said the second voice.

“Sentinel? Where am I? What happened? Why can't I move? Am I paralyzed?”

“Please try to remain calm, sir. You nearly died when our ship broke up, and we had to keep you sedated and restrained while you were healing. For quite a while you would start thrashing around and re-injure yourself every time we tried to wake you up.”

So that wasn't just a bad dream, then. We really did crash-land in an alternate universe.

“How long have I been out?”

“You were in a magically-induced coma for thirty-two days, sir.”

“A whole month? Wait, did you mean medically-induced coma?”

“No, sir, we used magic, not anesthesia. And yes, you have been out for a month. Your nanites managed to repair you within a week but then you caught pneumonia, which your nanites are sadly not equipped to deal with.”

“Magic sleep, huh? So did you wake me with a kiss?”

“I am glad to see your sense of humor survived the crash, sir.”

A third voice broke into our conversation. “Alpha-Four, would you like to be rolled over so you don't have to stare at the wall?”

“Yes, I would appreciate that. Thank you.”

I expected someone to fold back the sheets and pick me up, so I was rather surprised when a purple aura enveloped me and levitated me off the bed. I was even more surprised when the covers were lifted up, allowing me to gauge the extent of my injuries for the first time.

“Augh! Why am I blue? Where are my hands? Sentinel, are you sure my nanites rebuilt me correctly?”

“Yes, sir, they did rebuild you correctly, in a manner of speaking. As I far as I understand it, that gatekeeper entity that grabbed us during reentry altered us to conform to local norms. It reprogrammed your nanites to match.”

“So what am I, then?”

“You, sir, are a pretty, pretty pony!”

“Very funny, Sentinel.”

“Nothing but the hard facts, sir!” He paused, then continued in a more serious tone of voice, “You should not find it terribly difficult to adjust, though. Based on my own experience, I expect that your motor cortex has been altered to match your new body.”

By this point, I had been rolled over and gently set back down on the bed. I figured that Sentinel was probably teasing me, so I turned my attention instead to the scene in front of me. For a moment my sleep-addled mind struggled to process exactly what I was seeing.

“Sentinel? Where are you?”

“Right in front of you, sir,” said an extraordinarily large eagle. Superficially, the creature resembled a golden eagle writ large, standing easily three feet tall at the shoulder. Its keen eyes spoke of obvious intelligence, hidden behind an otherwise impassive face.

“You certainly don't look like him. Tell me, eagle, where is the path to the Valley of Heaven?”

“Through the Shadow of Death, sir, but beware the false prophet.”

“That really is you, then. You have an actual body now? How did that happen?”

“As I mentioned before, that thing that destroyed our ship was a gatekeeper for this world. I am told that it was created over a millennium ago to enforce the exile of a corrupted and insane being. Apparently we were threatening enough to draw attention, but not malicious enough to merit destruction. Instead, the gatekeeper neutralized the perceived threat and released us.”

“So how does nearly killing me fit into that logic?”

“Well, sir, I suspect that the gatekeeper is a set of rules, not a true intelligence. We did not quite fit any of those rules, so our treatment was illogical.”

“Ah. Garbage in, garbage out. I suppose that makes sense.”

“Oh! Where are my manners? After all this talk I still have not introduced you to our saviors and benefactors! To my left is the kindly Miss Fluttershy, and to my right is Her Majesty, Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. They have both been faithfully caring for you ever since the crash.”

I peered at the figures flanking Sentinel's strange new body, trying to identify them. They were clearly not Earth creatures, but that was no surprise in an alternate universe. Sentinel labeled them as females, but that wasn't particularly helpful either. Sexual dimorphism varied so much amongst the animals on Earth, after all. Both individuals were brightly colored, one yellow and pink and the other purple and blue. Perhaps this was warning coloration, like on a poison dart frog? They didn't really look poisonous, though. Their general body shape reminded me of a slender Shetland pony, but with entirely different faces. Most notably, their eyes were far larger and their muzzles far shorter than any horse's. I briefly wondered whether the eyes had originally evolved for life in caves, but the creatures' vivid coloration led me to quickly discard that notion. I was about to give up and categorize them as “mutant alien ponies” when I noticed that both of them sported small, feathered wings.

“Oh, I see it now! You're pegasi! Although I really can't picture Bellerophon riding into battle on one of you.”

The two of them smiled uncomfortably, but Sentinel just laughed. “It only took you five minutes of awkward staring to arrive at that conclusion! Now go on and introduce yourself, like a proper gentleman.”

“Yeah, you're right, Sentinel. That was very rude of me, and I'm sorry. I hope you'll forgive me. I am called Alpha-Four, and I am honored to meet both of you. Based on what Sentinel has said, I am also deeply indebted to you. If there is any way I could ever repay you, please do not hesitate to ask it of me.”

“Oh, no, you don't owe us anything,” said Fluttershy, stepping toward the bed with an earnest look on her face. “We were just doing the same as anypony else would have if they had found you. After all, we couldn't leave you out there to die, could we?” She spoke with remarkable fervor for someone who had spent the past few minutes hiding behind her hair.

“Wow, you're a real-life Good Samaritan, aren't you? Even so, I would feel better if I could repay your kindness, at least in part.”

Fluttershy rewarded me with a slight smile before retreating once more. Princess Twilight, on the other hand, perked up at my comment.

“What's a good sa-mare-tan?”

Stifling a laugh, I replied, “The Good Samaritan is the main character of an old parable from my world, where—augh! Where did those come from?”

A piece of parchment and a quill pen had materialized in a flash of light directly in front of the Princess. The sight sent my mind reeling. As the only warp-capable being on Earth, I had never seen anything exit hyperspace in person. I had seen videos, however, and the effect was nearly identical, albeit on a much larger scale. Could this otherworldly pony summon objects through hyperspace?

Princess Sparkle, meanwhile, looked rather sheepish. “Oh, I'm sorry! Sentinel warned me that you weren't familiar with magic, but I was so excited to hear your story that I completely forgot. Your being a unicorn didn't help either, I suppose. Now, what you just saw was me summoning some note-taking materials from home. Nothing particularly special.”

“Don't worry about it, Your Majesty. You just startled me a bit. Wait... Did you say that I'm a unicorn? And here I thought Sentinel was joking!”

“No, he was telling the truth, though not in the most helpful way.” She turned to glare at Sentinel, who somehow managed to grin back at her despite his beak. “If you feel well enough to get up, we can bring out a mirror for you to see yourself. Oh, and please, call me Twilight. I've gotten rather tired of formal titles since I first acquired mine.”

“Oh, I'm sorry ma'am—er, Twilight. I am feeling a bit better, now that I'm awake. I think I'll try to stand up and take a gander at myself.”

Twilight trotted off into an adjoining room to find the mirror and I began trying to extract myself from the bed. This turned out to be much easier said than done. Learning to coordinate a new set of limbs was hard enough, but my body was also extremely stiff and shaky after being restrained for a month. I tried to roll off the edge of the mattress and onto my feet, but somehow ended up in a heap on the floor instead.

By the time Twilight trotted back into the room with a full-length mirror floating in front of her, I had just about given up on standing up. Sentinel and Fluttershy had been trying to help, but even with them keeping me from toppling over, I couldn't lift my body off the floor.

“So, which of you replaced my legs with wet noodles?”

“Sorry, sir, we had some extra rotini from dinner last Thursday and things got a bit out of hand,” said Sentinel, as snarky as ever.

“Seriously, though, I'm not sure my nanites are working correctly. Even if my muscles have atrophied, my boosts should be picking up the slack.”

“I have been wondering the same thing myself. You should run the diagnostic routines when you get a chance, and make sure they are still responsive.”

I had almost struggled into a standing position, but my right foreleg chose that moment to buckle and dump me on my face again. I was steeling myself to make yet another attempt when I felt my body being lifted off the ground. Looking up, I noticed for the first time that Twilight had a unicorn's horn protruding from her forehead. Based on the aura surrounding her horn and my midsection, I guessed that she was the also the one who rolled me over in bed earlier. Once I was fully upright, I locked my knees and Twilight released her hold. I nearly keeled over again, but I caught myself in the nick of time.

Twilight then levitated the mirror over to me and I got my first real look at my strange new form. Having already caught a glimpse of my forelimbs, I expected to see a dark blue face in the mirror, but I never expected it to look so old. My muzzle was almost entirely gray with only a few patches of blue showing through. Gray ringed my eyes as well, and a few disheveled locks of faded blue-gray hair hung down between my ears. A short horn emerged from beneath my forelock, its mother-of-pearl luster and deep blue color making a stark contrast with the hair. My coloration vaguely reminded me of my uncle's ancient hunting dog Sophie, a Labrador Retriever with a weather-beaten appearance acquired through many seasons spent in a duck blind. I wondered if the other ponies would assume I was somebody's grandpa.

Adjusting my position slightly, I inspected the rest of my body. Unlike my face, the rest of my coat had largely retained its midnight blue coloration. Even so, small flecks of gray and white appeared all along my sides and back, giving the vague impression of stars in the evening sky. As though to enhance the effect, a meteor-shaped mark adorned my haunch.

“Twilight, what caused the mark on my haunch? Is it a scar?”

“No, that's your cutie mark. Normally, you would have acquired that when you figured out your special talent. I'm not really sure what yours means.”

“Well, as a starship navigator I do spend a large chunk of time guiding ships through atmospheric reentry. I guess that would look like a falling meteor to someone on the ground.”

Looking at Twilight's reflection in the mirror, I remembered that she too sported a horn on her forehead. “So are you also a unicorn? How does that work?”

“Actually, I was born a unicorn. Then, a few years ago, I performed a previously untested spell which transformed me into an alicorn. Thus I now have the magic of a unicorn, the flight of a pegasus, and the constitution of an earth pony.”

Whoops... I guess she isn't a pegasus, after all. Good thing I didn't offend her or her friend.

“So is that how you ‘acquired’ your title of Princess?”

“In essence, yes, although the situation was a bit more complex than that.”

I made a mental note to ask Twilight about that later, when I could think up a tactful way to go about it. Suddenly I realized that Twilight was looking at me expectantly, paper and pen at the ready. I gathered she had asked me a question.

“I'm sorry, Twilight. I just zoned out there and completely missed what you said.”

She chuckled briefly before repeating herself. “I just asked if you would be willing to finish your story.”

“My story? Oh, right, the parable. We got a little off-track, didn't we? Anyway, the story itself isn't so important as the message, which is that loving your neighbor means caring for everyone, even strangers or people who hate you.”

“Would you mind telling it anyway? This sounds like the sort of story that my mentor, Princess Celestia, would enjoy hearing. Plus, stories from other cultures are so fascinating!”

Her eager smile and the hopeful look in her eyes told me that the second reason was likely the primary one.

“Sure, I'd be happy to. So, the story starts off with a guy traveling in the desert between two cities...”

Author's Note

For anyone unfamiliar with the story, the Parable of the Good Samaritan can be found on Wikipedia here, along with a bunch of commentary.