A Pony Out of Place
Chapter 3: Getting to Know You
The girls had just gotten to the hospital and dropped Shadow off, they were all gathered in the reception room so Twilight could tell them about what happened. Rarity was the first to ask. “Now Twilight, dear, who is that stallion, what happened in there?”
Twilight began. “He said his name is Shadow, he pushed me out of the way just as that cross beam came crashing down, he saved me. I think that tornado that hit our town last night might have hit somewhere else as well because he started to panic when he realized that he wasn’t on his farm and home anymore. Not to mention the fact that he was surprised at the fact that I was a unicorn.”
Fluttershy then spoke up. “Oh my, away from home, how awful. The poor dear.”
Applejack then came in. “Gosh, where do ya think he’s from then if’n he’s never heard of unicorns then?”
Twilight answered. “I don’t know, but he also mentioned some pony named Emily. He seemed really upset about being away from her too.”
As the girls talked, the doctor who was attending to Shadow came in to inform them of his condition. He was a unicorn with a light brown coat with a dark brown mane and tail. He was wearing a white lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck. “Hello girls, I have good news. The pony you brought in will be just fine, he just has a couple of bruised ribs, so he will need to take it easy for now. You can come and see him if you’d like, he will be waking up any second now.”
Rainbow spoke up to give her thanks. “Thanks doc. We’d like to meet the pony who saved our friend.” The girls then followed the doctor to the room where Shadow was.
Shadow started to stir from his unconsciousness, his vision was blurry as he slowly opened his eyes and saw an array of blurry colors before him, he could hear voices, but they sounded muffled at first. Within seconds, the blurry colors came into focus and he saw six ponies before him. “Oh, my head, what happened, where am I?” Then he saw Twilight and remembered, he quickly took on a look of panic and jumped out of the bed and curled up in the corner of the room to the right of the bed. “AAAHHHHH, NO NO NO, This can’t be real! Where am I, where’s Emily!”
The girls but Twilight all took on a worried and concerned look on their faces, Twilight calmly approached the distraught pony as he cringed in the corner. “Shadow, it’s ok, do you remember me?”
Shadow then looked up at her and slowly got back up as he began to remember. “Oh, yeah, your that unicorn that found me in my barn. Um…..your name was Twilight, right?
“That’s right, I wanted to thank you for saving me from that cross beam that fell.”
Shadow was still feeling apprehensive as he spoke. “Um, sure…no problem.” But then, something struck him. “Wait a minute, am I actually talking? Am I actually really talking? But how…..I wasn’t able too before…..what’s going on here?”
Pinkie then spoke up. “What do you mean you weren’t able to talk before, you are a pony aren’t you?”
Shadow looked in her direction to answer. “Exactly, ponies aren’t able to talk, how am I doing it, how are you doing it? And where am I anyway?”
Rarity then Spoke up. “Dear, we’ve always been able to talk, why would you think we weren’t?”
Twilight then interjected. “Shadow, just calm down, I’m sure we all have a million questions about what’s going on, but in order to figure this out, I think it best to start from the beginning and tell us where you are from. Is that ok, can you do that?”
Shadow looked over them before he answered, he took a deep breath and began. “I guess I can try. I come from a farm in a city called Austin, it is a big city but also has plenty of open land for farms, it’s the capital city of the state of Texas.”
Twilight looked curiously at him as she had never heard of those places. “I’m sorry shadow, but none of us have ever heard of those places.”
Shadow took on a slightly worried look. “Texas is only the biggest state in the United States of America. Don’t tell me you never heard of it.” Shadow knew all of this because Emily would always share some of the things she learned in school with Shadow.
Twilight just shook her head. Shadows eyes began to widen in fear that he was much further from home than he thought. He raised his head up and cried out. “WHERE ON EARTH AM I!” Shadow then collapsed to the ground, ready to cry again.
The girls all felt so sorry for him that he came to the realization that he was much farther from home that he thought. Twilight walked over to him and put a comforting hoof on his shoulder. “Shadow, I’m so sorry that you got separated from your home, but like I said, I promised to do what I can to try and get you back.”
As she was saying this, shadow started to remember something from back in the barn where she found him, the bucket, she was levitating it with magic that he thought didn’t exist. It was then that he had a thought, he looked up at her with anger in his eyes but still teary. “YOU!” He got up and glared at Twilight as she backed up. “You did this to me didn’t you, with your freaky magic, you brought me here and took me away from Emily! You’d better do something and send me back right now! Emily must be worried sick about me, so you better use that magic of yours and undo what you did to bring me here!”
Rainbow Dash heard enough, she took on an angry look of her own, she quickly flew over Twilight and landed in between her and Shadow. “NOW HOLD ON, Twilight didn’t do anything wrong, you can’t just go around accusing others of something they didn’t do without any proof!”
Shadow’s glare never faded as he looked at the pony now before him. “You do not want my attention right now PEGASUS, I remember Emily reading me fairy tales about how pegasai can manipulate the weather, how do I know it wasn’t you that created that tornado that brought me here to this freaky world away from my home,….away from….Emily.” Shadow was on the verge of breaking down again.
Rainbow saw this and decided to back off a little, she could see he was only throwing around accusations because he was upset at being taken away from his home. Twilight then came up beside Rainbow Dash to try and talk to Shadow. “Shadow, I swear, neither me nor Rainbow Dash had anything to do with you coming here, it had to be some magical accident some unicorn did. I promise you we will figure this out, now why don’t you come with me to my house so we can talk about this.”
Shadow looked up at her with a very sorrowful expression. He then looked away as he spoke. “I’m sorry for accusing you Twilight, and you……..what was your name?”
Rainbow put on a smile as she answered. “My name is Rainbow Dash, and it’s cool, I guess I can understand why you were throwing around accusations.”
Shadow smiled back at her as he gave a little sniffle. “You know, for mythical creatures, you all aren’t so bad.” He gave a little chuckle at that.
The tension seemed to have left the room at this as the other ponies seemed to take on a smile. Twilight thought now would be a good time to introduce her friends. “Shadow, these are my friends I mentioned.” She went around the room and pointed out each one as she said their names. “You already met Rainbow Dash. That there is Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy.” Fluttershy was just hiding behind her mane during the whole scene near the door to the room.
Shadow looked at each of them as Twilight introduced them. “It’s nice to meet you. So what is this building anyway? It’s not like any vetinary place I’ve ever been to, and how come I was in a bed?”
They all once again looked at him curiously, Applejack began to explain. “That’s cus this aint no vet place, this is a hospital, ya know, where ya’ll can get fixed up for when yer sick or hurt. Vets are fer animals.”
It was Shadows turn to look confused. “But, we are animals, hospitals are for humans, not ponies.”
The confusing looks never ended as this continued. Rainbow Dash spoke up. “What’s a human?”
“You……don’t know what a human is? Then that must mean that humans don’t exist here do they?” Shadow had another somber look as he came to this realization.
Twilight then spoke up. “Come on Shadow, let’s go to my place so we can talk.”
Shadow looked up at Twilight as he answered. “Ok.” So the group left the room and left the hospital. As they walked, Shadow noticed that each of the ponies around him had a mark on their flanks. Pinkie had three balloons on her flank, one was yellow while the other two were blue. Fluttershy had three pink and blue butterflies on her flanks. Rarity had three white diamonds on hers. Applejack had three red apples, and Rainbow Dash had a white cloud with a rainbow colored lightning bolt coming out of it.
Shadow wanted to ask them about those marks on their flanks, but was still feeling a little unsettled at the fact that he was in a world full of creatures that he thought were just a myth, as he looked up he saw more pegasai flying through the air, he could swear he saw a grey Pegasus with a blond mane and tail with bubbles on her flank with crossed eyes, that was really unusual to him, not only that, but it had a pair of bags hanging down on its sides.
They continued through the town and Shadow saw something really bizarre that made him stop in his tracks. What he saw was a pair of ponies sitting on a bench next to each other, it wasn’t the fact that they were on a bench that got him, but how one of them was sitting. The first pony he saw on the bench had a pale yellow coat with a dark blue and pink mane and tail with three pieces of wrapped up candy on her flank, she was on the bench with her legs folded up under her like a normal pony lays down. The other pony, which really got his attention, was a mint green unicorn with a white and mint green mane and tail with a lyre on her flank. She was sitting upright like a human, her forelegs coming down to her side with her back legs just hanging off the seat.
The girls noticed his stop and went to see what was wrong, they saw him just standing there with his mouth agape as he stared. Rarity was the first to speak and try to see why he was staring. “Shadow, what is it, what are you staring at?”
He just slowly raised his hoof to point in the direction of the pony on the bench. “How……how is she sitting like that…..that’s impossible.”
Pinkie jumped up beside shadow to explain. “That’s just Lyra, it’s not that strange, all us ponies sit like that in a chair.”
Figuring that it was just another weird thing about this place, Shadow just let it go and continued with the other ponies he met. Eventually they came to a large tree with windows a balcony and a red door at the front with a sign hanging from it that said Ponyville Library. Shadow then spoke up in curiosity at the place. “What is this place, why are there windows and a door in a tree?”
Twilight turned to him to explain. “This is the town library, and my home.”
“WHOA, whoa, whoa, your home, you mean you live in a tree that’s a library? That is just weird.”
Twilight gave Shadow a disapproving look but then dropped it upon remembering he isn’t from here. “Maybe where you’re from, but here it’s perfectly acceptable.”
Shadow then felt a little guilty for possibly insulting the one who was trying to help him again. “Right, sorry, I meant no offense.”
Twilight smiled back. “It’s fine, come on in.” The others had been following along as well as they were very curious to hear Shadow’s tale about where he came from and about these humans he mentioned.
Once inside, Shadow took a good look around the room, the walls were lined with books upon books, at the center of the room was a round table with the carving of a hoarse head. There was a couch set up against the wall with stairs that lead up to a door, Shadow figured it probably led to Twilight’s room seeing as she said she lived here. Twilight then spoke up. “Why don’t you all get comfortable while I get Spike and make some tea for every pony?”
The girls all gathered near the center of the room while shadow just looked around. He soon came to a perch with an owl sitting on it. Since this was the first familiar thing he had seen in this weird world, he figured he might try to strike up a conversation with it. “Hello, my name is Shadow, what’s your name?”
The owl looked at him and responded. “Who.”
“It’s nice to meet you Owlowicous. I take it you’re a friend of the unicorn Twilight Sparkle?”
“Who.”
“Really, that’s interesting. I’m not from around here, but it is nice to see something that seems normal, at least something normal according to where I’m from.”
“Who.”
“Someplace you most likely never heard of as the other ponies here have never heard of it.”
The other ponies in the room were staring in surprise as Shadow carried out a conversation with the owl, while Fluttershy merely looked on in wonder that this pony seemed to be able to actually talk to other animals. Fluttershy was able to communicate with them on some level but never be able to actually understand them like they spoke the same language. Even Twilight and Spike, who was already in the kitchen, had heard what was going on and came out to see for themselves what the noise was.
Spike was a little dragon with purple scales, a light green belly, green spines that ran from the top of his head down his back, had light green frills on the sides of his head where ears would be and stood on two legs.
Shadow soon felt eyes on him, he turned to the ponies and was very curious as to why they were all staring at him. “What, I’m just talking with the owl. Is it considered weird to talk to other animals here or what?”
Fluttershy then rushed forward, her shyness completely gone now, and started to ramble. “Oh my gosh, you can actually understand him, that’s so incredible, how do you know how to speak with other animals?”
Shadow was completely flabbergasted at this sudden change of mood from the pony he saw as shy. He wasn’t sure how to deal with it. “Well,…um…..it’s not like he’s the first owl I’ve met. I mean,….I did have other animal friends on the farm I came from…..can’t you understand other animals?”
Fluttershy seemed to let herself go back to her usual shy self a little as she answered. “Not like how you seem to be able to do.”
“Well, I guess it’s because back where I’m from, I was just an animal as well, I’m still surprised that I’m actually talking like this.”
Twilight finally came in. “And where did you say you were from, I already got the city state and country, but back in the hospital, you said something about earth?”
Shadow then looked to Twilight to answer. “Well that is the name of the planet were on, isn’t it?”
The girls all traded curious glances at each other. Before any pony could say anything, Spike saw the familiar glint of a diamond coming from Shadows neck, he crept closer and saw the necklace around Shadows neck. He began to speak. “Wow, nice little diamond, can I have it?”
Shadow looked down at where the voice was coming from and was surprised to see a big walking talking lizard like creature eyeing his necklace. “GAH, what the hay is that?!” He quickly recoiled at the creature.
Twilight came forward for introductions. “Spike, don’t be rude. I’m sorry Shadow, this is Spike, he and Owlowiciuous help me out in the library, Spike is my number one assistant, he’s a dragon.”
That really seemed to scare Shadow. “A DRAGON, as in really big scary nasty things that can easily burn you to a crisp or swallow you whole in one gulp dragon! Why the hay are you keeping something like that with you! Don’t you know what dragons eat?!”
Twilight chuckled at Shadow’s discomfort as she knew Spike was harmless. “Relax Shadow, yes he’s a dragon, but he’s a baby dragon, and he would never hurt any pony here, besides, I don’t know what you heard about dragons where you’re from, but here, dragons eat gemstones.”
Shadow seemed to calm down at Twilights words. “Gemstones, you mean like rubies and saphires and such?”
“That’s right, don’t worry, he won’t hurt you.”
“Well, if you say so. Um, hello Spike, it’s nice to meet you, uh sorry for my reaction earlier, I’ve just never met a dragon before.”
Spike smiled at Shadow. “Tell you what, you give me that diamond on your neck and we’ll call it even.”
Shadow looked down as he suddenly remembered the necklace, with everything that had been going on, he completely forgot about it. “NO WAY, I’m not giving you this, this is the last thing Emily gave me before I ended up here, she got this for me to apologize for not being able to spend a whole day with her like she promised, this necklace is too important to me and I’m not letting you have it!”
Twilight then interjected. “Spike, I’m surprised at you, you should know better than to just ask for something like that.”
Spike then took on a sorrowful look. “You’re right, sorry Shadow, that diamond just looks so tasty.”
Rarity then came in. “Dear, who is this Emily you keep mentioning, it seems like an odd name for a pony.”
Shadow then began. “That’s because she isn’t a pony, she’s a human, you know, like the ones I mentioned earlier.”
Twilight then spoke up. “Spike could you get a quill and scroll ready, I want to write this down.”
Spike gave a little salute and readied himself to write down what Shadow was about to say. Twilight then began. “So, what do humans look like?”
Shadow began to give the best description he could. “Well, I guess I should start with the human I know best, Emily is 14 years old, she’s about a few inches taller than me, humans walk on two legs instead of four like us, they have what they call arms and hands, like what Spike has, the tallest human I know is Emily’s dad, Bill. He is about 32 years old and is about twice the size Emily is. Humans have hair on the tops of their heads instead of manes, no tail, and pale pink skin.”
Spike was diligently writing down everything Shadow said. Twilight began. “Now, about where you’re from, I’m afraid your mistaken about the name of the planet you’re on.”
Shadow got worried at that statement. “What do you mean mistaken about the name of the planet? This is earth isn’t it?”
The girls all didn’t know what to say as he was sure to really freak out if he knew he was on another planet, quit possibly another dimension. Applejack opted to break the news as gently as she could. “Listen sugar cube, we’re not quite sure how ta break it to ya, but, the name o this here planet is called equis.”
Shadow’s eyes shrunk to mere pinpoints upon hearing this, not only was he in a whole nother country, but another planet as well. “You mean…….this isn’t earth……this is some other planet.”
Fluttershy tried to console Shadow. “Shadow, are you going to be ok.”
Shadow just kept his blank stare as he answered. “I’ll……I’ll be fine, I guess….apart of me already knew I was on some other world, I just didn’t want to believe it since it meant I was that much further from home. I guess this means I’m never going to see Emily again, it’s hopeless. How am I supposed to get home if I’m on some other planet?” Poor Shadow was about to cry all over again. Tears were starting to form in his eyes.
Twilight then had an idea. “Shadow, I think I know some pony who can help.”
Shadow looked at her with renewed hope in his eyes. “Really, who?”
Twilight put on a confident smile as she answered. “Princess Celestia, if any pony can help, it’s her.”
“Who’s princess Celestia?”
“She’s our princess of course, she’s the one who is in charge of Equestria, along with her sister Luna. Celestia is very wise and kind, she’s sure to be able to help you get back home.”
“You really think so?”
“I know so.”
Meanwhile, up in Canterlot, the capital of Equestria set on the side of a tall mountain, princess Celestia was on her way to check on her sister who wore herself out trying a spell out of sheer curiosity last night. Celestia was very tall and towared over her subjects. She had a white coat with large wings and a long horn coming out of her head. She wore a golden crown with a purple jewel at the center, a golden yolk, also with a purple jewel at the center, and golden shoes on her hooves. Her mane and tail wafted in an invisible breeze, they were colored with a light blue, light green, another light blue, and a light red streak in each. her eyes were a beautiful shade of purple.
Celestia made her way to her sisters room, princess Luna, and opened the door to see her. Luna was up and about now, Luna had a midnight blue coat with light blue eyes, her mane and tail looked as if they were made of the night sky itself and moved in an invisible wind like her older sister's did. Celestia began to speak. "Are you feeling any better sister, you should have known better than to try a spell you didn't know anything about."
Luna answered back. "I know sister, I am truly sorry, I was unable to lower the moon for you this morning because of it, I was also unaware of the warning at the end that said if the spell were cast incorrectly, it could very well be irreversible, I am truly sorry for my recklessness."
Celestia never let go of her stern face. "Well, in any case, it seems the spell you used didn't do any harm at the moment. I'm just glad it wasn't anything serious."
"I promise to never do anything like that again sister. It just seemed too interesting to try, a chance to see another world was just too good to pass up."
Celestia then gave a warm smile to her sister. "Well, I suppose I would have done the same thing in my younger days as well. Anyway, you should rest up, you will need to be back at full strength so you can resume your duties."
"Yes sister, I will get a good rest. I will see you when it is time for night."