//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Equinophobia 
// by Film Falm Brothers 
//------------------------------//

	“Hmph…” Pinkie rubbed her eyes. She must’ve drifted off again. You’d think this’d be more exciting, Pinkie thought, her hyperactivity not quite turned back on yet. Twilight had started the spell around noon, and Pinkie could see the sun was setting now. All of the others had come and went, only the party pony deciding she wanted to see the spell completed. Discord had even stopped by, but he grew bored after Twilight hadn’t even batted an eyelash at her mane turning neon green. Pinkie stretched, and stared at the wall, quite bored.
Twilight, on the other hand, was anything but bored. It was taking her far longer than she thought it would, but she could feel the effects of the spell coming: a magical rift in the very space time would open right in the library. And it was close. Twilight had had to delay whenever she heard one of her friends come in. Twilight was sure that she was going to cast the spell correctly, but on the off chance she didn’t, she didn’t want any of her friends around to be possibly hurt (although she had considered purposely miscasting the spell when Discord decided to play hair dresser, but thought better of it). Sure that Pinkie had finally left, Twilight let out a final surge of magic.
CRACK
A sudden gust of magical wind surged outward, nocking Twilight off her hooves. Glancing up, the unicorn smiled: hovering in the air was a swirling mass of magic, rippling with special energy. Pinkie clapped her hooves.
“Do it again, do it again!” Pinkie stared at the magic, a strange feeling starting to form in her tummy. It certainly looked magic, but Pinkie wasn’t exactly, 120% sure that it was a hole in space time. She knew a thing or two about those. “Um, Twilight, did you do it right?”
Twilight glanced back at her friend, more annoyed at the fact that she had just questioned her magic than the fact that she was still there, “Of course I did it-“
BOOM. Another gust of wind blew outwards.
CRRCKSHPT…. Twilight glanced up from the protection of her hooves, and gasped: there was a crack, a quite literal CRACK, in the air where the portal had been. Oh no no no no no no. What did I do wrong? Twilight was so caught up in her panic that she didn’t even notice the form that was lying on her library’s floor. Pinkie, however, did.
“Uh, Twilight, wh-what’s that?” Pointing, Pinkie looked at her friend, who obviously hadn’t heard her. Twilight had her hooves to her ears, muttering something.
“Did I not weave the streams together enough? Was I not supposed to cross the streams until I had thought of the world I wanted to connect to? Was it-“
POOF
Both ponies ducked as a final wave of magical wind swept over them, this one the strongest yet, knocking some of the books off the shelves.
After a few minutes, Twilight realized that she was not in fact dead, and she was very much not being torn to shreds by magic or…anything. Slowly raising her head, Twilight peeked out at the library.
The crack was gone. Sighing, Twilight stood up, “It’s ok Pinkie, it’s ok.” The earth pony sprung up and hugged her friend.
“omigoshomigoshomigoshTwilight!IthoughtwewerefinallydoneforandthatIwouldn’teverbeabletoseeyouorRarityorApplejackoranyoftheotherseveragainandthatwewouldbeeatenupbysomehorriblemonsterliketheoneonyourflooror-“ Twilight’s ears pricked up at that last part.
“Pinkie, what monster on my floor?” Twilight looked down, thinking that Pinkie had finally lost it.
“Th-that one over there.” Pinkie pointed to below where the portal had just been, a bead of sweat running down her face now. Pinkie did not often get scared, but her Pinkie senses were a-tingling. Twilight turned her head.
Celestia be damned, there was something there.
At first glance it looked like a long pile of Rarity’s discarded fabric, but it was slowly moving up and down. At least I didn’t kill it, Twilight felt relieved that she didn’t have another death on her hooves. Twilight stepped closer, while Pinkie edged away. At one end of the thing there was a pile of fur that almost looked like Winnona curled up into a very small ball. About midway down the creature there was what looked like hands: pink ones, with rounded ends of the fingers, where claws would be on Spike.  Other than that, it was hard to see any of it, as a blanket had somehow got on top of it. Twilight bent down to move the vision obscuring cloth.
“No! It might wake up!” Pinkie screamed.
The creature’s eye opened.


* * *


A scream jolted Victor awake. Ugh…what time is it, Victor tried to turn his head, but was unpleasantly surprised to find his head was resting on something very hard, which was definitely not his pillow. Opening his eyes, Victor tried to take in his surroundings. Bookshelves, some with large gaps in its books, were the first thing he recognized. Dammit, I fell off the bed again, Victor looked closer at the books: something wasn’t right… He didn’t remember his books being such vibrant colors. Ok, maybe I’ve got gunk in my eyes, moving his hand to rub his face. Victor’s eardrums were suddenly assaulted.
What Victor heard could only be described as a scream, but no scream Victor had ever heard. So high pitched an opera singer would be jealous, the disgruntled Victor had to restrain himself from blocking his ears from the noise. Victor pushed himself up, glancing at what he was laying on: hardwood flooring. Which would have confirmed the fact that he had fallen of his bed… if Victor’s apartment had hardwood flooring. It had tile.
“Where the hell am I?” Victor snapped his head up: he was DEFINENTLY not in Kansas anymore. Aside from the difference in flooring, the candle chandelier was the most obvious tip off that he had woken up somewhere very different than he had fallen asleep. Next on the growing list of differences was: a ladder that appeared to be made of thick tree branches, numerous books scattered across the solid wood floor, a wooden table dominated by a large wooden statue of a horse’s head, and what appeared to be gibberish scrawled in an open book across from him. Victor pushed himself to his feet, and closed his eyes.
	Alright, collect yourself. It doesn't look like anyone’s around, but whoever kidnapped you is probably close by, Victor’s analytic side of the brain was running full circuit now, is there anyone who would want me dead? … Maybe my ex-girlfriends, but I doubt they’d go this far. So whoever did this doesn't know me. That could mean this was random, they mistook me for someone else, or I have a stalker who decided to take it to the next level. So, the best plan is to run for it and hope I’m close to someone who can help... I’m screwed. No, got to stay positive. So I’ll just stay very quiet and hope no one find’s me. Victor turned around.
Two horses looked at him.
…
..Wait…
…HORSES?!?!?!?!
“GAH!” Victor flew backwards, knocking hard into the bookshelf. Ok, whoever did this knows me. Dick move with the horses. “S-stay back. N-nice hoses… pretty horses.” Victor’s eyes darted around the room, taking in the rest of the room ,his heart beating fast enough to give a jet plane a run for its money: The two horses (Does that one have a horn? Is that one PINK?) were staring at him, mouths open. The…pink one was half hidden behind an upturned desk, while the purple one was just standing there. There was a window to his far left, and Victor saw that it was almost night, and that there looked like there were houses outside. Alright, so there are people around. Now where to… Victor saw the only exit: a stairway, blocked by the two horses …go. Crap.
As if this couldn't get any weirder, the purple one (which, upon further inspection, had some eerily human traits, not to mention a horn) actually smiled and started whinnying to the other one, which seemed to respond. Are they talk- one thing at a time.
“L-look at how pretty you are,” Victor edged towards the door, the horses eyes following him. It might have just been the adrenaline, but they looked smaller than horses should be, “I’m just gonna go now, so you be- GOOD!” Victor shouted this last part as he ran and jumped over the horse (thank you track and field), which inhaled like it was gasping. Almost sticking the landing, Victor heard another loud whinny behind him, but didn’t look back. All he cared about was leaving, and come hell or high water, he was out of there. Despite almost slipping on his wool socks, Victor made it down the stairs almost without incident, only slowing to jump something that was running up the stairs. Victor didn’t care what it was, but in the fleeting glance he got, it looked like a purple bipedal lizard. Don’t care, running. Glancing around, Victor spotted the exit. Gunning it, Victor opened it and hauled butt out side.
Looking left and right, Victor saw his nightmares had finally come true: despite obviously being in a town of some sort, he was surrounded by horses, all of which glanced at him and produced to do the horse equivalent of scream.  I really hope this is a dream, Victor thought as he resumed his flight of terror.
Through the streets of the horse town he went, weaving in and out of the horrifying crowds. Terror would have seized his mind, but running at full sprint and not touching any of the animals didn't leave any room for fear to go. Just when he thought his lungs would burst, he saw salvation: a path into a forest.  Just as he was about to put everything he had into a final sprint, Victor skidded to a halt.
About ten feet in front of him was an orange horse wearing a hat. WEARING A HAT. Despite the liters of adrenaline and liquid terror coursing through his veins, and the building sense of doom running through his mind, Victor couldn’t but help crack a smile: besides looking kind of cute, a hat definitely meant there were people around to put the hat on the horse, maybe people that would help him. But first things first: Getting the hell out of wherever he was. The horse stared right back at him for about ten seconds, until Victor took off sprinting again, running as if his life depended on it. Glancing back, Victor thought for a second that, of all things, the horse was waving at him.
“I’m going insane.” Victor said to himself as he hauled it into the forest.


* * *


Applejack put down her hoof. Why the hay had she just waved to a creature running through town like a pack of Timber Wolves was on its tail? Maybe the late night walk through town wasn’t the best idea. 
“Well…stranger things have happen’d.” And with that, Applejack walked home.