//------------------------------// // The Spaces Inbetween // Story: An Earth Pony's Tale // by thebiscuitbrigade //------------------------------// The first thing Dawn felt on waking was the sun on her face as the beams of light fell over her eyes. With a murmur, she scrunched her eyes up tight and turned over in protest. She did not want to get out of bed today - she felt absolutely exhausted, and her whole body felt stiff and uncooperative. She continued to mumble as she struggled to get back to sleep again, but to no avail. Rolling her face onto the pillow, she couldn’t help but feel confused by the new sensation. Her nose was completely crushed up against the pillow - not just massaged but completely squashed. It felt like it had grown to three times its usual size in the night… Her eyes shot open as she realised what she’d just thought, and she threw herself up off the bed in a panic, tangling herself up in the bed sheets before landing on the wooden floorboards face first. The rush of pain quickly confirmed what she’d already worked out seconds ago - she now had a snout. The memories from the night before flew into her head in an instant, and she curled up on the floor under the duvet cover, quivering in spite of the sun’s warmth. She could feel something twitching on her back waist, and shuddered again as she realised exactly what it was. Dawn forced herself to open her eyes, trying to work out where she was, and was greeted with the sight of a dark blue duvet cover, decorated with stars and a crescent moon. She moved to grab the cover instinctively, only to fail when she remembered her current lack of fingers. She was about to start thrashing her head around in a last ditch attempt to escape when she heard a mumbling voice about five feet in front of her. “Uhhhh… Twilight, what’s going on? What are you doing under there?” Dawn froze under the sheet. The voice was unfamiliar to her - vaguely masculine but noticeably immature. She did, however recognise the name it had spoken, as memories from the forest resurfaced. She heard footsteps in front of her as the voice continued, sighing and sounding exasperated. “What are you even doing here? You told me you were staying out last night.” Unable to do anything else, Dawn remained silent. Whoever the stranger was, he clearly thought she was the unicorn from the forest. Her mind raced - was this Twilight’s house? Did unicorns live in houses in wherever she was? Before she could begin to work it out, she heard the voice again. “Twilight, if this is meant to be a joke, it’s not funny. Will you get out from under there?” She felt the duvet cover shift, and looking upward she realised in horror that something was pulling it away. Before she could react, it had been completely removed. She’d half expected to see another unicorn, but as her eyes adjusted to the light she found herself face to face with something else entirely. It didn’t look very big, but from her position on the ground it seemed to tower over her. In the back of her mind she registered the purple scaly skin, the green ridges along the top of the head, the sharp fangs and the spiky tail, but all she could really focus on was the expression on its face, watching as it switched from mild annoyance to complete surprise. Then without warning, it let out a yell at the top of its voice. In terror, Dawn let out a shriek of her own, fumbling her way backwards with whatever limbs she could successfully get under her control. The whatever-it-was, however, wasn’t letting her get away. “Who are you?!” it began, its voice a mixture of shock, anger and child-like fear. “What have you done with Twilight!?” “I haven’t…” Dawn’s reply came out in a barely audible stutter. “I haven’t done anything!” “Where is she then!” yelled the whatever-it-was again, advancing on her with a claw raised and pointing accusingly at her face. “And how did you get in here!” “I don’t know!” Dawn’s stumble backwards came to an abrupt halt as she collided with a wall, and she let out a squeal of fear as the whatever-it-was drew closer. “Please… I don’t know anything!” The whatever-it-was looked unconvinced. “Likely story!” “Please!” Dawn squeaked. “You have to believe me, please!” A voice drifted upwards from down below. “Spike?” The whatever-it-was eyes widened, and he came to a stop. Hesitantly, he called out, his voice wavering slightly. “Twilight?” “Spike, what’s going on? What’s all the racket about?” “Twilight!” In an instant, the whatever-it-was was running down a set of stairs Dawn hadn’t noticed before, still yelling as loudly as it possibly could. “Twilight there’s somepony upstairs in the bedroom and I thought she was you but she wasn’t so you’ve got to get up here right now to…” The voice of the whatever-it-was faded away as it appeared to run out of breath, leaving Dawn alone in silence. She was still shivering, she realised, and her breath was coming out in short heavy bursts. Taking in her surroundings for the first time, she stared in disbelief at the huge space she found herself in. Virtually every she could see was made of wood, from the bed she’d just fallen out of to the vast bookshelves on the floor below - even the walls of the room were coated in a light brown bark. Her eyes turned to her right hand side, and she spotted a telescope and a small statue that looked distinctly equine in nature. The morning sunbeams shone through the room's arched window, paving the floorboards in a golden glow. Dawn stared at the window, her mind a mixture of curiosity and fear, and after what seemed like hours of indecision, she gingerly made her way towards it. Inwardly, she tried not to think about how her back legs were moving in coordination with her front ones - she didn’t understand how it was happening, but she knew from last night that if she thought about it too much she might lose control entirely. She reached the window, slowly peaked outwards, and gasped at what she saw. On the ground below she could see dozens and dozens of thatched cottages, complete with long wooden beams and yellow straw roofs. Every house looked unique, some of them towering three floors high and with tops wider than their bottoms, some of them small and cosy, with flower boxes and hanging baskets decorating their walls. It reminded Dawn of a box of chocolates, each house looking so different and yet so fascinating. A grey figure suddenly flew down past the window, and Dawn jumped backwards in shock. For a moment she stood there, waiting for something to happen. When it didn’t, she slowly found herself moving toward the window again, this time lifting her front feet up to the windowsill and staring straight down. She couldn’t help gasping again as she caught sight of a grey pegasus, with a messy blond mane and a satchel around her neck. As she watched, the pegasus stuck her head into the bag, pulling out several envelopes before stuffing them quickly into the nearby mailbox. Then, to Dawn’s amazement, she quickly took off into the air with a flap of her wings, before heading straight back into the village. She could feel her ears twitching on the top of her head as she heard loud tapping noises coming up the stairs behind her, but she didn’t look away from the window. As the noises grew louder, she continued to stare, noticing something new every moment from the dessert shaped building in the village square to the imposing castle in the far distance. It looked positively picturesque, but as she gazed over it Dawn couldn’t help but be reminded of just how far away from home she was. She lifted her legs back down from the window sill, suddenly feeling a lot more alien in this strange place. From behind, a familiar voice broke the silence. “Hello?” It took Dawn a few seconds to prepare herself, and even as she made to turn around she couldn’t bring herself to do it with any kind of pace. Slowly, she moved herself around in a circle, staring down at her feet in what she told herself was an attempt to keep her new limbs under control, but what was really just her trying to delay the inevitable. Finally after a pause that seemed far too long, she forced herself to lift her head. At the top of the stairs, she saw Twilight standing in front of her, looking as if she’d barely slept last night. She was smiling awkwardly, and the expression on her face looked genuinely welcoming, but Dawn couldn’t help but feel a little afraid after what had happened the night before. As they made eye contact, silence hung in the air, neither party quite sure of what to say in the situation. It was Twilight, however, who was the first to speak up. “Are you alright?” she began, hesitantly, before starting to ramble. “I mean, alright relatively speaking - you’ve obviously been through some kind of ordeal and I wouldn’t want to presume that you could just get over something like that overnight, but you seem to be moving about OK so you must have at least physically recovered, and that would suggest that you’re on your way towards…” Twilight caught Dawn’s eyes again, and noticing the look of confusion and fear, slowly trailed off. “I’m sorry,” she said, quietly. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.” Dawn couldn’t bring herself to respond. She wasn’t supposed to be here. She was supposed to be at home, eating slightly burnt croissants for breakfast and listening to her dad talk about brewing his own cider, not standing on four legs with a tail and a snout having a conversation with a purple unicorn. Twilight took a step forward, and Dawn quickly took a shaky step back. Twilight faltered for a moment, and then sighed. “Please,” she started, cautiously. “Please don’t be scared.” Dawn, still quivering, remained silent. “I want to help you.” continued Twilight, anxiously. “Honestly, I do. But I need you to help me. What happened last night…” She paused, unsure of how to proceed. “…what I saw last night was something I thought was impossible. I can’t explain it on my own, and you’re the only pony who…” At the mention of the word pony, Dawn let out a small cough, and she quickly turned her head down, no longer able to meet Twilight’s eyes. Twilight noticed her reaction immediately and quickly stopped talking, but Dawn still didn’t move her head back to look at her. Twilight looked defeated, her crestfallen expression amplified by the marks under her eyes and the untidiness of her mane. She stared at the jittery figure of Dawn, trying to think of some way she could persuade her to open up. “I did as much reading as I could last night…” she said, slowly. “There was one book I found on theoretical magic phenomena that really stood out to me. It postulated that given enough magical energy, matter could be transported across vast distances within seconds.” Dawn didn’t look up from the floor, but her ears twitched again as she processed what the unicorn had said. “Of course…” Twilight continued. “…with that amount of magic it would be almost impossible to control exactly where any transported object would end up, or even be recognisable as the same object when it arrived. But then again, this is all theoretical - the probability of something like that actually happening is so unlikely as to be functionally impossible…” “It’s not impossible.” The response was barely audible, even in the near quiet of the library, but Twilight registered it instantly. She stared at Dawn in amazement, and Dawn looked just as surprised at her own sudden outburst. She still couldn’t bring herself to make eye contact as Twilight moved towards her, but this time did she did manage to keep still. “In the forest,” began Twilight, still approaching apprehensively. “When I found you, and you saw me for the first time, you acted like you’d never seen a unicorn before.” She paused, knowing that if she acted too rashly she might make the situation worse. “You were acting so strangely, when you saw your ta…” - she caught herself just in time - “…when you saw yourself, that I couldn’t help wondering whether you’d come from… somewhere else.” Twilight was now directly in front of Dawn, and she had to glance down slightly to keep the her lowered head in sight. “Everything I knew about magic told me it was impossible, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was the only theory I had that even remotely made sense.” She raised a hoof, and slowly placed it on the side of Dawn’s neck. “I can’t even begin to imagine how scary that would be. Or…” - she paused briefly - “…how scary it would carry on being afterwards.” Dawn lifted her head and looked back into Twilight’s eyes. She could see her reflection staring back at her, her long brown hair rearranged into a mane that arched down the back of her neck, her blue eyes now tripled in size, the cream coat that covered her face, her pointed ears and her elongated nose. It looked almost unreal, and yet despite the transformation she immediately recognised herself. She blinked, and the image was gone - all she could see now was Twilight’s face, still full of anxiety and concern. She couldn’t quite force the words out of her mouth, but she was able to nod her head slowly, her eyes beginning to water. Twilight’s face fell in an instant. “Oh my goodness… please don’t be… I didn’t mean to…” “I know,” replied Dawn, finally finding her voice. “I know you didn’t. I just…” She sniffed as she tried to hold back the tears. “I just want to go home, and…” She felt Twilight’s leg move around her neck, and though the sensation was unusual, she recognised the intent as she found herself brought into an embrace. Dawn looked back at Twilight, whose worried expression had been replaced into a sympathetic one. The tears were flowing freely now, but Twilight didn’t move away. “It’s going to be OK,” she whispered determinedly. “I’ll get my books and I’ll do some research and I’ll find a way to get you home, I promise.” Dawn’s voice was croaky. “R… really?” “I promise.” repeated Twilight. “But I’ll need you to tell me everything about what happened, OK?” As Dawn nodded, a voice rang out from across the room. “Twilight? Is it safe now?” Both ponies turned round towards the source, and Dawn recoiled slightly as she saw the whatever-it-was from earlier. Twilight, however, sprung into action. “Spike! I’ll need you to fetch me every book you can find on geo-substitution and bio-transmogrification. I’ve already found a few, but I’ll need more research.” “But what about the…” “It’s OK, Spike, she’s a friend. Just get along with finding those books.” Spike looked hesitant, but after a quick glance from Twilight he set off back down the stairs. Twilight quickly turned back to Dawn, and her expression softened. “Come downstairs and we’ll talk properly. I’ve got some tea in the kitchen.” Dawn could only nod in reply as she tried to process the previous scene. As Twilight proceeded towards the stairs, she followed behind slowly, still anxious about how she was managing to keep her balance going downwards. “Hold on.” said Twilight as Dawn moved beside her. “I should have introduced myself. My name’s…” “…Twilight,” echoed Dawn quietly. “You said last night in the forest.” “Oh… right,” muttered Twilight, looked slightly embarrassed. “Well then, what’s your name?” “Dawn,” replied the earth pony, shakily. “My name’s Dawn.” Twilight looked slightly surprised, and as Dawn made the connection in her head she couldn’t help but cringe slightly. “That’s… kinda weird, isn’t it?” The unicorn smiled. “Not the weirdest thing I’ve heard today.” She made her way down to the floor below, before turning back up towards Dawn. “Coming?” Dawn looked downwards nervously. The stairs were noticeably steep all the way down, and she still felt awkward simply standing on four feet, let alone walking. As she made to back away, she caught sight of Twilight at the bottom of the stairwell, looking at her expectantly. She took a deep breath, and placed one foot forward. “Coming.”