Ow… It was a rather bumpier landing than usual. It felt like I bruised my leg… Eh, I would look at it later. Boy, I need to be wary of that level in the future. It was a doozy.
Hey… wait a minute… dirt road? What was this huge field doing here? Was that an orchard in the distance? This definitely wasn’t the Yoshi Island Junction… I must have gotten a defective pipe! Where the heck was I? It didn’t even look like the Mushroom Kingdom…
*Woosh*
Hey! What was that? Some rainbow-colored blur tried to divebomb me! I shouted, “HEY! What do you think you’re doing?”
The blur replied, “Oh! Sorry, didn’t see ya… excuse me? What did you say?”
“I said, what do you think you’re doing?”
“What's with the squeaking, huh?”
OH NO. The creature didn’t understand me… This was going to be a problem. I had no way to explain to this local who appeared to be a—horse with wings?—who and what I am, or even how I got there. I wasn't sure of that either, to be honest. Still, the creature intrigued me. I clearly wasn’t in the Mushroom Kingdom anymore. Was this the main makeup of the population? I wondered if they had any other species around…
“HEY BUD!”
Huh? She broke me out of my trance.
“I said, where are you from?”
Oh boy, this was going to be interesting. I attempted to regain my composure and tried to communicate again. “Pardon me. I come from a land called the Mushroom Kingdom. I was assisting a friend of mine on his quest to retrieve our princess from an evil menace. I normally take pipes back to my home island to take breaks, but the last pipe I entered seems to have been defective— it sent me here instead. Where exactly am I?”
The winged horse just stared at me for a moment before it said, “……Uhhh… why do you keep saying that word? I asked you where you were FROM! Are you from Yoshi? Is that what you’re saying?”
…I knew it— all this creature heard was me squeaking and saying the occasional ‘Yoshi.' I wondered, Maybe there are other beings in this world that I can actually talk to…
“I’m gonna go get Spike. You kinda look like him with the spikes on your head and all. Maybe you’re some kind of dragon?” The creature spoke without letting me give a response. Then, leaving a magnificent rainbow trail in its wake, the creature sped off faster than Mario with a power star.
AHA! There WERE other species here! And even my cousins, the dragons! That— wait… DRAGONS? There were large, fire-breathing, treasure-hoarding creatures living in conjunction with these winged horses? How did they do it? I couldn’t imagine living with my cousin Norbert for a week! I guess I’d have to ask her when she got back. I mean, she appeared to be a female…
How in Peach’s name did I get myself into this mess? This had never happened before. How am I— I cut myself off. The dive-bomber was returning. It didn’t take very long. I needed to ask how they could possibly live with— Ooooohhh. It was a baby dragon! That made more sense. And this blue creature brought five more of her kind with her. Hey… wait… two of them didn’t have wings. And the other two had horns… What was going on here? Were they all the same species? If not, I had to say, this seemed like quite a harmonious community! If they lived so peacefully here, I figured I might try spending a vacation in this place for a little while sometime…
The creature called to me, “Hey Bud! I brought a friend of mine to see if he could do a little translating. And I told my other friends that I met you and they wanted to meet you, too! This is—”
“Rainbow Dash! I think we should see if Spike can understand him first before we go overwhelming him like that!”
“Oh, right… Haha, my bad. Spike, you’re up!”
“I’m on it, Rainbow Dash.” Then this small, purple dragon turned to me and spoke in the clearest, plainest English I had ever heard out of a dragon’s mouth. “Hi! My name’s Spike. My friend over there said she’s having trouble understanding you. Do you mind if I give it a shot?”
I was amazed at this dragon’s politeness and clarity. Every other dragon I’d ever spoken to had been raspy and arrogant. I hoped he would understand: “Gladly. My name is Yoshi. I'm a dinosaur from Yoshi Island in the Mushroom Kingdom. I was helping my friend find our princess when I dropped into a defective warp pipe and ended up here instead of back home. Where am I? And what exactly are those creatures?”
“SEE?” I heard the blue, winged horse named Rainbow Dash cry to her friends. “I can only catch that one word, and I don't even know what that means! I don’t get him!”
“That’s because you don’t have any experience with the dinosaur family, Dash!” My heart skipped a beat with anticipation— did this dragon named Spike really understand what I said, or did he just happen to know I was a dinosaur?
“DINOSAUR?” all the other creatures said in unison.
“Yep.” Spike beamed. He seemed to enjoy knowing something the rest of these creatures didn’t, as if he was usually at the bottom of the totem pole. “He said his name is Yoshi, and he comes from Yoshi Island in the Mushroom Kingdom. Long story short with how he got here, he… jumped down a wrong hole and ended up here instead of his home.” He turned to me. “Does that sound about right?”
My eyes dilated with joy. He DID understand me! I gave him a fast nod to answer his question.
Another one of the creatures spoke up, bouncing up and down. “Oooh! Oooh! Wait! You said his name was Yoshi, right? And that’s all we understand him saying, right? Does that mean he’s one of those Pokémon characters?”
NO. Not this question again. Every time I had accidentally ended up in a new land they asked me that, and this pink creature seemed a little too excited with the prospect. I shook my head as hard as I could.
“Well that looks like a mighty strong ‘no’, sugarcube,” one of the other creatures said with a chuckle.
Spike turned to me again. “I apologize. My friends can get a bit excited when it comes to meeting somepony new. Let me try and answer your questions. I’m going to do it the long way so I can hopefully answer a few more you may have along the way.
“All the creatures over there are called ponies, but they're slightly different kinds. The first pony you met, the one who told me she almost hit you, her name is Rainbow Dash, and she’s a Pegasus. The yellow pony over there hiding in the back is Fluttershy. She’s a Pegasus, too. Both of them have wings and can fly. The pony that asked if you were a Pokémon is Pinkie Pie, and the one who answered her is Applejack. They're called Earth Ponies; they don’t have wings, but they're pretty strong. That white pony over there… that really pretty one… that’s Rarity… oops, sorry. Shh! Don’t tell her I said that! And the one who yelled at Rainbow Dash when we first came up here, the purple one, that’s Twilight Sparkle— I’m her assistant. The two of them are unicorns; they have those horns and are able to do magic. We all live here in Ponyville, which is one town of many in the great kingdom of Equestria!”
Kingdom! That meant they probably had a princess, too… Maybe we would have more in common with each other than I originally thought!
“That about covers the basics," Spike concluded. "Do you want to know anything else while we’re at it?”
I contemplated Spike’s explanation of his friends and my whereabouts. One question had occurred to me as he finished talking. I wasn’t sure if it would offend him, but I decided to take the risk. “Thanks, Spike. That does calm my nerves a bit. And don’t worry, I won’t mention anything to, er, Rarity, I think you said her name was. I admire how you all seem to live harmoniously, but I do have one question.”
“Go ahead!”
“Well, if this is Ponyville, how did you, a dragon, end up as that pony Twilight Sparkle’s assistant here? If you don’t mind my asking.”
“Haha, not at all! Others wonder that, too— I’ve told this story a few times.” I let out a sigh of relief. I didn’t want to offend the one creature that could understand me (and would most likely end up being my translator) during our first meeting. I did want to hear his story, though.
Spike explained, “Twilight is a student at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Ponies in Canterlot, and her entrance exam was to hatch me from my egg. It turned out Twilight has exceptional magical power, so the Princess took Twilight under her wing as her special student. Twilight needed help, so I became her assistant. It’s been that way since I can remember.”
I took in what Spike said before I asked, “Ah… Um, what’s Canterlot?”
Spike replied, “Oh, I’m sorry! Canterlot is a big city quite a ways away from here where Princess Celestia lives and runs her school. Twilight and I used to live there, too, but a while ago, we were sent here on a special mission. We’ve stayed here since then, reporting to Princess Celestia all the lessons about friendship that we encounter. Our friends help out by sending reports to the Princess when they come across lessons as well.”
I nodded my head and said, “Wow. This is quite a place…”
“Yep! I wouldn’t wish it any other way.”
Just then, I heard the purple unicorn named Twilight Sparkle call over in our direction. “Spike! We should bring him back to the library! I’d like to talk to him!”
“Uh oh, there she goes.” Spike winced, then looked at me. “Would you mind if Twilight did a little research on you?”
I was horrorstruck. Research on me? I didn’t have time for that! “I’d really rather not. I need to get home!”
Spike said, “Well, I don’t know if you’re going to have any choice, but we’ll see. Let’s go back to the library— Twilight and I live there. Maybe we can find a way to help you get back home.”
Now THAT was more like it. I stumbled, cringing as Spike and I walked over to the crowd of ponies that had been watching from afar. I wasn’t sure what the cringing was about, or what was going to happen when we got to the library, but my anticipation of the events to come wasn’t making things any better.
The pony named Rarity spoke up. “Dear, I think we should keep close around him when we walk through town. I have a feeling the rest of the residents may find the sudden appearance of a dinosaur rather startling, don’t you?”
Hmmm… good point…