//------------------------------// // Act 1-1 // Story: A Place Called Home // by FoxUnderFire //------------------------------// A black infinity... voices... wonder... who... speaking... "Appeared... nowhere... Alex... human?" Who was Alex... Where am I? More voices... listen... "He... confused... scared... threaten." "No excuse... Alex... gentlecolt." No seriously who the fuck is Alex? Then out of the darkness came a light and it started to consume everything. The first thing I did after waking up was instinct, I didn't think about what I did. After some years I learned that waking up unconscious with voices talking about you is almost never good. So upon opening my eyes I grabbed Zandacor and grabbed the yellow mass right next to me. I lifted the dagger towards what I thought to be its throat. And I nearly dropped the damn thing. The mass turned out to be a pony with wings. What. The. Fuck. After a brief moment of confusion I looked around to take in the scene in front of me, still holding the yellow winged pony thing. There were two more ponies in front of me, one white with a horn, I assumed it was a unicorn, and another that was orange with a cowboy hat. Again. What. The. Fuck. "Y'all better let go of her!" The orange one just spoke... I realized I still had the yellow one in my arms, and it appeared to have fainted when I woke up suddenly. I thought about killing the pony but that just seemed to ruthless. So I laid her on the ground softly so I wouldn't hurt her. I actually saw no harm in letting her go either. For they didn't appear all that dangerous, but just to be on the safe side I better not let my guard down. I thought about defense, Zandacor obeyed and shifted into a long slender sword with a large guard. I backed up and took a defensive positions as one of the two other ponies, the one with the horn, checked on the yellow pony as the other moved to block my path from me to its friends. It didn't seem to fear me for some reason even though I held a sword in my hands. And also the slightly more muscled pony in front of me seemed mighty pissed off. I did the only thing that seemed logical, "Where am I?" I said. The orange one seemed to be caught off guard if only for a second. I guess I seemed more like a barbarian than a person willing to talk things out. "Why'd you threaten ma friend?" Blowing off questions like a pro. "I'm sorry, I have a rough past and usually waking up surrounded by peo- ponies doesn't mean I just won the lottery." Which was unsurprisingly true. Strangely enough, the pony seemed to accept that answer as if she had heard it before. While this little exchange went on I couldn't help but notice that she had a tattoo of three apples on her flank.The unicorn had a tattoo in a similar place, of what I could only make out as a trio of diamonds. The pegasus's was of butterflies. Why would these things need tattoos? In my travels tattoos usually only meant enslavement or some sort of self empowerment that gave people the feeling that they had control of their bodies. But almost always they meant exclusion. Why would these ponies have tattoos? "What's yer name stranger and could you please put away that there... uh... thing away? I considered what to do, Like I said my past didn't allow much trust in my life, finally I put away Zandacor after switching it back to a dagger, and said, "My name is Jack, Jack trades." Her expression softened but was still notably pissed. "Howdy Jack Trades, I'm Applejack." I don't know why but it was that time that my brain decided to take in my surroundings. I was standing in an apple orchard which I could only guess belonged to this Applejack. And I also had a strong feeling that I'm not the most expected thing to be found in the orchard. What is this, like my 324th count of trespassing? Not exactly something I should be bragging about, but still the number was impressive. "Alright Miss Applejack, I'm just gonna leave, if you could just point me to the closest human civilization." I said. "I don't know exactly where yer from mister but there ain't no other humans... 'cept one." She replied. By the way she said this I could tell she had some sort of close relationship with the only other human in this world. And how close I didn't really care to know. You've seen way weirder things than a human and an intelligent equine together. I grimaced at how too true those words were, though I didn't know if this human was an actual passionate person, or just another weird kinky fetish type. That reminds me of a furry universe. Alot of weird people there, I remember this one guy had got a- Don't, it was bad enough being there I don't need to remember it too. I still had questions about this fellow human so I might as well ask them. "What's this other humans name." I asked. "Alex Roberts." An Earth name... what the hell? In all my 500 years of jumping not many humans had Earth names. And the only one on this planet too.Then I noticed that even the way she said his name was caring and protective. Well I guess there is only one way to 'safely' determine the character of Mr. Roberts... "I hope this Alex Roberts isn't some sort of freak or-" Even with enhanced reflexes I was still caught off guard as she charged me and shoved both back hooves into my face. And for a pony that only reached to my chest, she was surprisingly strong. I felt like I took a cannon shell to my head. Again I found myself muttering the last words on my mind before I lost consciousness,"Fucking talking ponies..."