//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Gifts and Curses // Story: By the Borders // by Rakoom //------------------------------// A slight breeze stroke my hand and crawled up my arm. I woke up with a blurry vision and only got halfway up in a sitting position before I was smashed back down with a nearly lethal headache. I don't know if you have had a REAL headache before, but this was bad. Brick-to-the-face bad. I was surrounded in my own complete mental hurricane with houses, cars and cows everywhere. My eyesight was a gone and I had absolutely no situational awareness at all. I tried to sit up, only to lose balance and hit my head against the wall. Even though I could barely feel the hit to the head, I felt a little numb at the moment. The pain subsided slightly, enough for me to lean against up the wall. "Urgh, let's do this," I said as I forced myself up and walked towards the window, while massaging my eyelids to get away most of the blurry vision. I'm unsure of exactly how it happened, but I realized something was wrong... when I fell... The shock almost woke me completely, but then the headache of ragnarok returned and took its toll on my vision, mind and also the rest of my senses. In waves I could see before it got dark again. I could see the shimmer of the sun through the clouds as I fell. And then I saw great mountains, towering over an everlasting carpet of green trees. My head pounded as I saw what I thought was the ground closing in before I lost consciousness. Immediate pain washed over me as I woke another time. But now I was lying in the dirt, and I felt worse than ever. The headache was gone, replaced with bruises over my entire body. Especially bad was my ear, which I could see was pretty bad due to a stream of blood. But as I touched it, I knew this was not my regular body. I looked at my hands, which turned out to be... hooves. I forgot the pain as a thought streamed through my mind. I sat up to find that I could not sit up without my front ha- HOOVES. I looked briefly over myself. Yes, I had the figure of a horse. Though it was not as I knew it, more like... *Squeal*. "OohmyholyhotdogbarbecuesausewithCHILLEH! I'LL BUY A DRINK TO WHOEVER IS IN CHARGE OF THIS! This is the best day of my LIFE! I'll savor this day and take it slow, not in that order," I took a closer look and found my body to be colored brown. And a small stream of hair down my forehead revealed that my mane was green. If I had not been in pain right there, I would have been squealing off like the little kid I felt like. I blessed the day I was introduced to FiM, many of the best days of my life. Ah, how I could browse the net for hours just to find something with L- err, where was I? And because of that I could not believe what had just happened. "I am a pony! A MOTHER. TRUCKIN'. PONEEEH," I screamed towards the sky as I felt the joy chill through me to my very bones. I jumped (once, as the pain came knocking on my mental door again) before I looked about at my surroundings. Everything was different here than back home, it was just so much brighter and colorful! Shining sun and beautiful nature, probably some colorful wildlife as wel-auchauchauch. My ear hurt more than ever. But how was I gonna stop the bleeding? It was probably already infected. A stick snapped and something hid behind a tree. I looked up to see a pair of purple eyes. "Uh, hi," I said as I got increasingly embarrassed of how I had acted in front of a PONY OF EQUESTRIA! "Eh, I guess you caught me in an awkward moment there. Eh, can you help me patch up my ear? It hurts pretty bad," I had to get a conversation going, lest I wanted to have an awkward silence (which always gnaws on me). She slowly walked out into the open (I could immediately tell it was a filly) and eyed me up and down. Her mane was dark purple and her body was painted with a sweet teal color. "Haven't seen you before," she said with a soft voice. "Where are you from?" I felt a bit awkward with actually TALKING to her, I just could not believe it even though it was all unfolding in front of me. Her bright green eyes were staring into mine and I just could not meet them, even if Jigsaw had designed some contraption to make me (it would be like: "I wanna play a game," "NO!" "Okay..."). I stood there for the duration of what you could define as an awkward silence, but her *cough* made me snap back into it. "Err, well, eh. Nowhere you have heard of, I'm sure," I read on her face that she was not satisfied with such an answer. "*Sigh*Well judging from that crash I guess you are an very inexperienced flier," "Heh, (you have no idea) yeah. I kinda just dropped by (pffft)," I had managed to draw out a faint smile in her. "Yeah, I could tell. You needed some help with your ear you said? I can help you if you promise to tell me where you are from afterwards," She had me pinned there. "Fine," But at that point, my brain had (without me knowing it) tied up the hint in what she said: "You must be an inexperienced flier" rang inside my head again. I slowly turned my head, not wanting to have my surprise revealed too early. The grass was flowing like waves in the ocean, a small yellow flower stretched towards the sun and the shades from a flock of birds soared over me. I saw a bruise on my back leg and a little dried up blood, before spotting a green feather... I fainted... I felt a slight headache and some pain in my ear again, as well as some bruises and numb spots on my legs and belly. But it was fine. I sat up, biting the pain as I tried to get a grip again. I could tell that I was in a different spot than before. There were no marks on the ground, except for a trail of flattened grass. My cheeks went scarlet as I realized that the other filly must've dragged me over here. I didn't exactly give the first-impression of a baws, but I guess I have NO reason whatsoever to complain. She giggled."Great, you are awake. I put some ointment on your ear, it should heal if you don't scratch it off," she said, sitting behind me with the (FRIKKIN') cutest smile I have ever seen. (Not that I have seen the smile of too many ponies from EQUESTIRA *GLEE*). "Hey! Don't space out on me now! I want to know where you're from! You should also rest a little," Oh! Right! I've got WIIIIIIIINGS!!! *Near heart-attack*. I took a look at them again, moving them about. Folding them, stretching them, moving them back and forth and finally I tried to lift myself from the ground. I had almost no bruises on them, but I needed some more practice before I could jump off a cliff (which I was planning). I guess I didn't notice I had wings (I know I probably should have) because I didn't expect it, and they were hardly harmed in the cra- wait... "HEY," she screamed loud enough to make me snap back into it (which is really loud, into my ear). She let out a sigh"Now, where are you fr-" "How did I survive the landing," I (rudely now that I think about it) interrupted her. "Wh- what? Hey! You promised to answer me," "Oh, right. Okay, but how did I survive that fall? It was all groggy to me, but it seemed like I fell for maybe two minutes," Once again, my brain had done some overtime without my knowledge (yeah, I know it sounds weird). "Oh, well. I noticed you just a couple of seconds before you crashed, you were falling pretty fast. But I found you further away from where I thought so would land, so I guess you unfolded your wings before you crashed," This meant that I was transformed before I landed, but I won't figure out what happened in first round I guess. Oh well. "Now it's your turn to answer! Where. Are. You. From," "Uh, well. I kind of fell out of my bed, but I... I'm not really a pegasus," An awkward silence followed before she clearly held back a small laughter. "Not a pegasus? What else could you be? You've got wings don't you," "Well yeah, but that's the thing, you see. Because I earlier today I stepped out of my bed and suddenly I fell from the sky as a pony! I was not a pony before that fall! I was... it's complicated I guess," She raised a brow, clearly not convinced. "Okay, if you say so. Then what's your name," That one struck me surprisingly surprising (I know, confusing sentence is confusing. Deal with it!). "Well, I do have a name. But eh, could you tell me yours first? Please," She sighed "Okay. My name is Acorn, I live in the GreatTree village," It was exactly as I had predicted, I can't use my real name here. It's just not right. "Well, actually I want to not use my real name. It is both hard to pronounce, and it doesn't have any real meaning here," She was surprised from my reply, but she smiled. "Well we can't have that can we! What do you wanna be called? Our names reflect a bit of us, so would yours be... eh, I dunno," "Heh, kamikaze or something," "What," "NOTHING," There is no way I'm gonna go into that subject, not here, not with anyone here, ever. "Well, we could just drop that one for now," "Hey, what about my a cutiemark? What is it," Oooh, another surprise! It's... blank. "Hm, nothing," My disappointment was great, but at least I still have everything else right! "Yeah, usually everypony have their cutiemark by your age. That's why I kinda believe you," "Okay, so... Now what," It felt weird how I just did not have a goal or purpose of being here at all. So I needed some answers. "Is there a town nearby? I want to ask around, maybe uncover something in the process," A smile flared up in her face. "Sure! My hometown is just nearby, I'll take you there but I need to get some of the plants I went out to get here. I'll be back in a minute," She said before she set off. I couldn't help but to notice her daffodil on her plot, then I realized what I was doing and turned away with a blush. A random fruit of some sort dropped on my head, it looked like something between a pear and pomegranate. Strangely shaped like a pear, but colored somewhere between pink and red. I sat down and ripped it open, it seemed like an apple or pear on the inside. I took a bite and immediately tasted a sweet yet sour taste, beautifully balanced. But a kick to my belly sure took away that great feeling. Acorn stood before me with a angry look on her face. "I can't turn my back without you trying to poison yourself. You do realize that you almost paralyzed all of your insides right," She said whilst staring into my eyes with a disappointing look (ಠ ›ಠ). "Well, then why did you drag me to some trees with poisoned fruit," I said to my pathetic defense after eating a random fruit that looked funny. She sighed once again. "Just don't eat anything I don't give you permission to eat okay? If that's all right, then you should survive the trip. Here," she bucket a tree. A perfectly fine, red apple landed in front of her. "Eat this," "Mkay," It tasted just as delicious as it looked: Juicy and sweet. "Now let's g-" I knew that her halt in mid-sentence was not a good sign; it usually never is. A distant roar thundered through the woods, it was more terrifying than anything I had ever heard before. Acorn's face paled and she backed away slowly with her head lowered. A tree was torn down, followed by another. Suddenly another roar shook my spine like biting an ice cube probably would, but this was dangerously near. Whatever it was it was moving incredibly fast and had to be massive. I heard Acorn scream at me from the distance; I had spaced out again and did not notice her making a run for it.