Prologue
The sun was setting just over a block of flats as I walked my way home.
I gave out a huge sigh. I was sick of this life; waking up, going to work, coming home, sleeping and repeat. It may not have always be this mundane. Theres always the occasional dollar bill or detour home that would sometimes help me break out of the same old routine. And yet, I felt like I was going though a loop, stuck in the same cycle for what is presumably many years more of my life. Maybe it was this same way of thinking that made me see the world as a place where you had to step on others to survive. I wanted to break away from it, to make the world a better place. But I felt useless, insignificant in this world, and I thought no matter what I did, the world would never change. It was thoughts like these that brought me deeper into sadness. But not for myself, for the world.
"Why can't this world run on love and affection, rather than greed and corruption?"
I kicked a can off the sidewalk as I gave myself a small smirk at that small poetic line I had just made in my mind. I was never one for literature, and having it as one of my lowest graded subjects was proof. How so many one-liners like this one managed to get into my mind was unknown. It made me think back to college, when I thought taking Economics and Business were what was best to help me in this world. But looking back, a liberal arts degree wouldn't have been so bad either...
The wind blew lazily, rustling dry leaves on the other side of the road, bringing me out of my deep and reminiscent thoughts.
"It's getting dark," I whispered to no one in particular as I turned around to see the sun, halfway down now, giving the sky a orangey-red tinge.
"and cold..." pulling up the hood of my black jacket.
At least I was nearly home. At least then I could catch up on that new 'My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic' episode that I missed for almost a week.
Yes, I was a Brony. I was not ashamed of it. If anyone at the office asked me about why I watched it, I would tell them about how the show was truly and genuinely created for the viewers; how it is fantastically animated, how the characters actually had different characteristics, how the community responded to the show. The guys at the office didn't feel a need to get into the show, but at least they didn't make fun of it, I was at least thankful for that...
I kicked off my shoes as I entered my rented one-storey house. It wasn’t big, but it we didn’t have much money to go with, and it seemed just right for us for the time being. My older sister and I had moved out of our parent’s house. To what they called “letting us off into the world” which basically meant letting us fend for ourselves.
My sister was always the one to take care of me whenever I had problems when I was younger, through thick and thin. She was now 25 and I just 5 years younger, and she was still caring for me. It was half thanks to her that we moved out to start our own lives anyway. She was a very outgoing person and had many friends, often crashing at our place after a late night party. I on the other hand, was perfectly comfortable with a small group of friends that were there when I needed them. I was always more of a introverted person, but that didn’t mean I never liked hanging out with friends, or just heading out to enjoy nature. My sister also didn’t seem to mind the fact that I watched a show targeted at little girls aged four to eleven, even more than I would like to brag about. Through all my life, I know that I was truly lucky to have a sister like her to look out for me.
I entered the dining room, or living room, and greeted her, after which we began to have dinner.
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I was out walking again, but this time it wasn’t back from work. It was Saturday and, thankfully, I didn’t work on Saturday.
I was just taking a break after watching a few MLP:FIM episodes and read a few fan made fictions. It was also due to the fact that my sister kicked me out of the house insisting I get some fresh air, and to stop being an anti-social hardcore Brony.
The thought of it made me smile. It amused me the way she used the word without properly knowing what it meant…
But it didn’t bother me for now. For now, I just wanted to enjoy nature. The places of greenery, that I knew would one day be demolished for replacement of greater human advancement, were slowly diminishing as tall buildings rose in their wake. It made me wish that Human beings could just slow down for a while.
I walked into the middle of the park as the sun showed that it was the late afternoon. I inhaled deeply, smiling warmly at the same time. It was only here that I felt peace, although it would not last forever. I took everything in.
“Relax” I slowed my breathing, “See the trees rustling the breeze, the birds chirping happily, the dried leaves dancing in the wind. The giant whirlwind shape the clouds were making…”
Wait…. What?
I dropped the hood of my black hoodie and looked up once more. My eyes grew twice in size and I was pretty sure my jaw unhinged at what I saw.
There, in the sky, the clouds were moving in circular motions as it centered around one point, one very bright light in the center of the clouds.
And that light wasn’t the Sun’s…
In fact, it was no longer even sunny anymore.
The surrounding clouds seemed to be building up, darkening out any other source of light from the sky. It looked like it was going to be a heavy storm.
I looked around frantically, trying to see if there was anyone else in the park. But there wasn’t. I was alone, fully witnessing the wonder of this phenomenon.
I stood there, eyes and mouth wide open, as I continued to just stared at the light. It seemed to be changing colour…?
It gave off a blue glow at first, then it went from blue to purple, to pink, to red and finally back to blue.
“What the hell is going on?!”
I shouted aloud, but it wasn’t as if anyone could hear me anyway. The wind was causing too much uproar for anything else to be heard. At that point, I decided to run for cover, before the oncoming storm that I thought would occur finally came.
But before I could turn and head for shelter, I was pushed.
Hard.
I fell forward at the same moment a bolt of lightning struck merely a meter away.
My head was throbbing, and my eardrums were ringing. I didn’t feel like I could get up. I felt like I was just going to black out for a while.
My last conscious thoughts before I passed out were that nobody actually pushed me to the ground.
It was the force of the lightning.
The same unrelenting force that felt like it was holding me down to the ground.
I gave in, slipping into unconsciousness. As the wind rapidly grew stronger, and the clouds grew darker…
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Where am I? What happened?
My eyes shot open as I found myself face down on the grass. I was breathing heavily, as if I were catching my breath after running.
I turned myself over, feeling no more pain in my body, or my head. Everything soon came back to me. The storm, the lightning, being pushed by the lightning…
But wait, I’m not drenched. There was no storm…
I propped myself up on my elbows, surveying the surroundings. It seemed nothing had changed, almost as if the whirlwind clouds had never happened.
But was there anything noticeably different?
I got up to my feet.
No aches or pains…
I pinched myself…
Ouch… well it’s not a dream… and I don’t think I’m dead…
I looked around more thoroughly. The sun still shown in the sky, so I must not have been out for too long.
The trees seemed the same, the ground, the leaves, the rocks...
The rocks…?
There were never any rocks in this part of the park, and there was only one rock, in the middle of nowhere…
I was sure that to any passing person, the rock was no different from other rocks, and it was merely misplaced. But to me, with my overly active imagination, it seemed unusual.
I walked with purpose, up to the rock. Examining it further. I soon realized that the rock was a disc-shaped stone. It was about an inch thick and was bigger than my open hand. It had a strange symbol on its topside.
But that symbol looked familiar…
Well there was never a dull moment today.
I moved my head in closer to the stone, so that the symbol was clearly visible.
The symbol consisted of a circular base, with five gems overlapping it, like a pentagon over a circle. In the center, was a single gem, bigger than the other five. Three spikes stuck out of the center gem on both sides.
Well this is certainly too precise to be naturally formed.
But then again, nothing seemed normal today so far...
But then the realization struck me.
That symbol, was showing the Elements Of Harmony.
And that was the second time that day that I thought my jaw unhinged.
How could something so childlike appear here? A kid’s toy maybe? My mind raced furiously for a reason that I knew never was true.
Somewhere inside me, I only knew one thing that could have caused this strange occurrence.
“Magic…” I said under my breath. Thoughts and impossibilities were spinning through my head. But I had to put them aside for now. I calmed myself, and bent down to pick up the stone. Using all five fingers, I managed to pick up the stone in the palm of my hand. But just as I did, a bright flash blinded my eyes.
Next thing I knew, I felt like was falling.
But in the fall, I felt like I had no being. No physical form. I didn’t need to open my eyes, because I could already see everything. It felt peaceful, blissful in fact. Freefalling never felt so good. I looked around me, and all around me was just light.
Light of different colours formed a tunnel, leading to an unknown destination.
They were the colours of the rainbow.
My mind was thinking spontaneously, almost as if it knew what was going on around me. I soon realized that the colours of the tunnel were whizzing by, faster and faster. I looked down to only see an approaching brightness. And it was rapidly coming closer.
It was about to engulf me!
I was about to reach the end of the tunnel, I attempted to cover my eyes, but remembered I had nothing to cover with. I was just like a wisp. For some strange reason, I knew that the stone was somehow related to all of this. But I was ready for whatever lay beyond! I mentally prepared myself. If my assumptions are correct, I would be landing somewhere in Equestria!
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It felt like breaking through a layer of water, but it wasn’t wet on the other side.
It was like some sort of portal.
As I passed through the end of the tunnel, I felt like I was… rematerializing… first my head, arms and upper body passed through it, feeling the senses from my limbs return.
The second part of my landing was quite so painless.
As my lower body passed through the portal, I realized that I was upside down, and had no way of landing rather than doing it head first.
I blocked my head with my arms and curled up, attempting to cushion the land as best as I could. Thankfully the ground was only a meter away from the portal exit. I landed with a thud as a rolled forward onto my back.
I now sat forward, fully feeling the sensation of having a physical being again. I looked up to find the portal was no longer there. Had it closed?
Great, now I have no way home.
For a moment, I was filled with sadness. Sure I saw the other world as a cesspool, but that didn’t mean I didn’t care for my family and friends I had left there.
The feeling was very quickly replaced by shock and awe. I had arrived under the shade of a tree, on a small slope, next to a path that lead across a bridge.
Which lead to a place I was far too familiar with.
The portal couldn’t have dropped me off at a better spot. From where I was, I could see the small village of which was in the foreground of the mountains and a gold and purple coloured palace that reminded me of a Russian monument.
It was the village that I knew from countless episodes and fictions and art.
It was the same village that was featured on a little girl’s show every Saturday Morning on The Hub.
My eyes gleamed with excitement. I had travelled between worlds! And better yet, it was to a place that I only dreamed of visiting. I grinned ear to ear as I said to myself.
“Ponyville!”