Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash brought me to the library to meet their friends. Strictly speaking, Rainbow Dash flew off to tell everyone while Fluttershy was left to guide me, but we got there. I opened the door of the Library to find a surprise party waiting. In the show, no one ever questions how Pinkie Pie can do this, but it is a whole lot weirder when it is actually happening to you. Fluttershy opened the door for me and I stepped through. It was dark, so I knew what was coming. It was kind of obvious because you actually have to try and get somewhere to be dark during the day time.
"Surprise!" yelled everypony, instantly deafening me temporarily. I gritted my teeth and bore it and it wasn't long before the mingling started. Vinyl hadn't had time to drop by and set up her turntable, so we made do with a small stereo system. I managed to extract myself from a bunch of curious ponies and began to walk towards a table to get some punch. It really is rather tame for a Pinkie Party. Maybe- and I got bowled over by a certain mint green unicorn.
"You're a human? Is it really true? And you know our names? How? Tell me tell me tellmetellmetellme."
"Calm down Lyra," I said, pushing the rather attractive teenager off to the side as politely as possible. She squealed and put her hands to her mouth as I said her name. "Come with me to get some punch."
"Yes!" she replied breathlessly. Apparently, the human fetish that she had was true, but since everyone had hands, at least she wasn't gawking at mine. It occurred to me that it would have been rather difficult to have held a conversation with her had she been bent over and messing with my fingers. Instead she was staring at my furless face. I chuckled slightly at the thought of how out conversation could have gone.
"What's funny?" she asked curiously, noticing the smile immediately.
"Well," I began, "I assume that you heard from Rainbow how I got here and how I know about you?"
"Yes," she said impatiently.
"In the TV show My Little Pony fandom, you are featured as having a human fetish, usually because of human hands. I think that it is interesting that you still have the fetish here. But what I was smiling at is the thought of a conversation with you while you are ogling my wiggling fingers."
She thought about it and pictured it. Then she giggled a little bit as we arrived at the food table. I poured us two cups of punch as Rainbow Dash walked up to us through the press of ponies.
"Come here. You need to meet Twilight and the others." she said and grabbed my hand dragging me away from the food table, Lyra latched onto my other wrist, determined not to let me out of her sight. We followed Rainbow through the tiny gaps between mares and stallions before popping out into a small clearing that contained Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, all standing in a semi circle. Twilight stepped forward as Rainbow stood a little off to the side, Lyra standing beside me, still not letting go of my wrist.
"Hello, I am Twilight Sparkle. But Rainbow says that you already know that." I nodded. "What's your name?"
"I'm Josh. My last name is a little irrelevant at this point, wouldn't you say?"
"I suppose that is true. We have to take you to Canterlot to introduce you to the Princesses. They get to decide whether you get to stay in Equestria after all. We will be leaving tomorrow morning. Do you have a place to stay for the night?"
Lyra jumped in at that point. "He can stay at my house, I have a spare room."
I looked at her, surprised. "I thought that you lived with Bon Bon," I said, turning to look at her.
"I used to," she said, looking at the floor. "But she finished studying under the cakes and left for Canterlot again. Please, just come spend the night with me. Tell me about your world."
"I guess that its okay," I said cautiously. So, in this universe, she is straight, still has the human fetish and emotionally downcast at the moment because her roommate departed. Warning! Warning! "Just, make sure that you don't do anything that you will regret later."
"Really?" she asked incredulously, her eyes widening.
"Yes," I replied, noticing the slightly worried looks on the faces of the mane six.
"Well then, that's settled. Lyra, you can come with us to Canterlot if you want, so let Josh sleep tonight. You can ask him all of the questions that I know that you will want to ask on the train." interjected Twilight.
"Fine," replied Lyra, eyes downcast again.
I looked towards the stereo, wondering if there was any music that I could play that I would know. Right now, a recording of "Winter Wrap Up" was playing and it didn't seem like the right thing for a party. I reached into my pockets. I'd had my ipod and android phone on me when I died so maybe...nope. Apparently the multiverse favoured modesty and let you keep your clothes, but not your personal devices. Twilight looked at me curiously.
"What are you looking for?"
"Oh, just some stuff that I had with me when I-" I paused. "Came here," I finished.
"What were you about to say?" she asked, still looking at me. "Well, if you had it when you came here then we can just go look for it."
"I don't think that that's possible. Umm." I looked down at Lyra. "It's kind of been a long day for me. Do you mind if we go back to your house and go to sleep?" The party was beginning to wrap up anyway. The blinds had been opened on the windows when the party had started, but now they were open and starting to reveal stars.
"It's a little early, but ok." she said. She took my arm and began to walk us through the crowd of ponies towards the door. Rainbow caught up to us just as we got there and stopped me.
"Should I tell the others about how you got here or should I leave it for the morning?" she asked in a whisper.
"Tell them about it tonight, but make sure that they don't go to bed upset." I replied. Lyra turned to us.
"What was that about?" she asked as Rainbow slipped back through the slightly thinned crowd.
"How I got here. Its a little bit painful to hear. I told Rainbow to tell the others now so I can tell you when we get to your house."
"Will it have to wait?" she asked. I looked around at the happy ponies all around me.
"Yes."
"Fine then." she replied, a curious note in her voice that sounded a little bit like impatience and worry. We walked to her house in silence, taking a route that led us past the park. Eventually, we arrived at her house and she opened the door for me to walk in. The entrance hall looked plain enough. A few sketches of cars were sitting on a desk in the corner. The lighting gave a happy tone, coming from a pair of lovely chandeliers. She didn't bother with a proper tour. As we walked in, she pointed out the bathroom and we walked into the living room. We sat down on a couch and she turned to look at me.
"So, how did you get here?" she asked, not wanting to waste any time.
"Its pretty awful. brace yourself."
"I can take it."
"I died." Lyra froze.
"What? How?"
"A two foot wide chunk of ice fell on my head at terminal velocity."
"Where were you?"
"A street, in the autumn. I was walking to get a coffee with some friends when a flying fish directed the lump of ice straight onto my head." She looked thoroughly confused now.
"Wait, so in your world fish can fly?"
"Normally, fish just glide after hopping out of the water and we call it flying. These were different. They were flying through the air independently."
"And they maliciously killed you with a piece of ice?"
"Yes."
"That's awful."
"I know. I was there."
"But now your family is alone and-" I listened to her, watching as the tears filled up her eyes. She leant forwards, putting her head on my shoulder. I shushed her, calmed her down. Eventually, she led me upstairs where she walked towards her room. As we arrived there, she pointed to the room across the hall and told me to sleep there. I had no clothes, other than what I arrived in. It's lucky that Rainbow owes me those fifty bits, I thought as the cotton wool descended over my thoughts. Otherwise, I might be in trouble.
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In a parallel universe where squids are the dominant species and humans are their slaves...
DEATH appeared atop his white horse. A massive cityscape greeted them. He clicked his teeth and the horse rode forwards. Passing through massive towers that all contained water pumped from a nearby ocean, he worked his way towards the unmistakeable sound of a bar brawl. Tentacles flew and ichor coloured the water as the squids did battle with switchblades and broken bottles. DEATH worked his way over to a figure standing in the corner. It was also in black, but rode a white human and held a trident.
HAVE YOU SEEN ANY ODD LOOKING HUMANS AROUND? DEATH asked.
NO, replied the other DEATH of squids.
OK, HE MUST HAVE POPPED UP SOMEWHERE ELSE THEN
WHAT HAPPENED?
FREAK ACCIDENT INVOLVING IMPOSSIBLE FISH AND A WORLD RECORD HAILSTONE.
OH, BEST OF LUCK THEN. I WLII CONTACT YOU IF HE COMES THROUGH.
DEATH nodded and did the familiar action of ripping a hole in the space time continuum. Widening it slightly for his horse, he rode through. The rift disappeared behind him with a pop.