My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic -- Off The Record

by TheKingOfHearts

Prologue

First, this story is going to be a retelling of the key parts of the series, however, some things may be slightly changed to accommodate the story. Please don't blast me for getting things wrong, or out of place. You can safely assume they're wrong for a reason.

Second, this IS an Alicorn OC story with with a romance between Rainbow Dash and the OC. I know this kind of thing is generic, and overdone, but i like to make fun if that fact quite a bit within the story. So, please don't complain when it comes along.

Third, My character IS a Gary Stu in many aspects. This has been done on purpose, so i can make a large part of the story work.

Fourth, This is not a self-insert. As Alex is a near-perfect gentlemen, and I myself, am a complete douche. If you call this a self-insert, i will assume you are flirting with me, by calling me perfect, Which will make me super uncomfortable, when I have to tell you that I'm not interested.

The base of the story may be generic, but the story itself is not. I promise.

Please, no flamers, if you flame me, i will flame you... with a flamethrower.

And, I don't own anything except the idea. Everything belongs to Hasbro. The story, the characters, the everything, except the idea. (I may have said that already.)

All cover art credits go to a follower of mine "Lipah"

Here are some links to her work!

http://lipah33.deviantart.com/

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1453200/Lipah

http://radioactivedrawingboard.tumblr.com/

S-M

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic:

Off The Record

It was a quiet night in early October, the sky was clearer than it had been in days. The only noise besides the distant sounds of city life was the wind blowing through the grass, and a wind chime that could be heard some distance away. The sun had only set a few minutes ago, but to Alex, it had felt like a lifetime ago.

Normally, Alex would enjoy every second of the fresh night air, and use the opportunity to relax away from whatever loud sports his father had on the television, however, being able to hear his father doing anything would make all of his pain go away. He sat with his back against the front door of his house, fighting back tears. He hadn’t cried in years, but at this point, he really didn’t care how hard it came out.

Alex was your typical only child. An average high school student, with brown hair, and blue eyes, smart, athletic, and getting ready to graduate in a few short months, he had never been the most popular guy or the least popular one either, which was the way he had always preferred it. All over, he was pretty generic.

Being a rather attractive guy, he never particularly had any issue getting girlfriends, his most recent; Courtney had only broken up with him a few hours before, leaving him for a more “exciting” guy. That, however, was the last thing on his mind at this moment.

Alex kept replaying the events of the past day in his head, none of it seemed real. One thing led to the next, which led to next, which led too… the knock on his door.

Alex walked through his school parking lot absolutely livid; he had just been told by his girlfriend of 6 months that he was boring, and not worth her time. He had honestly thought that everything between him and her was going well. And out of nowhere she had hit him with this; the argument that followed was nothing more than him asking what her real problem was, and her dismissing every argument he had.

After 10 minutes of argument, he simply walked away. Deciding that whatever had changed, there was no fixing it. And now, he was just reaching his dads car. Tossing his backpack in the passenger seat, he pulled out of the parking lot and started driving straight away from the school, not caring where he ended up.

Eventually he ended up driving past a diner he and his father had visited every now and then for the past couple years, deciding that he could use something to drink, he decided to stop.

“Hey kiddo, your dad with you?” His usual waitress, Rosie, said with a grin.

“Just me today, Rosie” Alex replied with a meek smile.

“Alright” she smiled, “the usual spot?”

“Yeah, thanks.” Alex kept his eyes glued to the floor as he walked over to his usual chair at the counter, mulling over what had just happened.

Rosie saw that something was wrong with him as soon as he walked in, but decided not press for any kind of answers. “What can I getcha’ Alex?”

“Oh” he said being shaken out of his thoughts, "just a coke please."

“Sure thing” she said with a smile, walking off toward the kitchen.

Rosie quickly dropped off the drink and walked off toward another set of people that had just entered the restaurant.

The anger in him had subsided by this point. Now he was just confused. He couldn’t wrap his head around her reasoning. What hadn’t she been telling him?

“I’ll have a soda water with a couple of lime wedges please”

Alex was immediately pulled from his thoughts as he heard the unusual drink order, he looked over his shoulder and everything became clear. Across the diner, sat Courtney, and Chris; the running back of his high school football team, the one guy any girl would kill for the chance for, the one guy who had just broken up with his girlfriend.

Alex could feel every ounce of anger return to him, ‘that’s why?!’He couldn’t believe that he got dumped just so she could have this guy. ‘ How could she be so stupid as to have missed my car?’ he asked himself, however, he quickly realized that she probably hadn’t seen his father’s car enough times to associate it with him. Either way, he needed to leave now, before he did something stupid, and got his ass kicked by a football jock.

Leaving a five dollar bill on the table, he walked out without being seen by anyone, except a concerned looking Rosie.

Getting back in his car, he decided to go home; he knew his his parents would start to wonder where he was.

After driving well above the speed limit for 15 minutes, he finally arrived the ranch. Pulling through the main gate, he was surprised to see his parents weren’t home from the grocery store in the city yet. His father had asked to borrow his truck so they could bring home a larger load of groceries than they normally could. Alex quickly shrugged it off and went inside to lie down.

Throwing his bag next to the front door, Alex walked through the kitchen and threw himself onto the couch in the den. After all that had happened, he just wanted to close his eyes for a few moments, and forget everything.

And within a few minutes, he was fast asleep.

*Ding Dong*

Alex was awoken by the doorbell ringing, he gazed over at the clock, it read 7:30, he figured his parents would have woken him up when they got home. ‘Are they not home yet?’ He muttered to himself still a little groggy.

*Ding Dong*

His attention went back to the door, and quickly composed himself as he walked over to it, and opened it. He was surprised to be greeted by a police officer, “Can I help you?” Alex asked, unsure of what else he could say.

“Are you Alex Mackenzie?” The officer asked in a slightly uneasy tone.

“Yeah…” Alex replied, still unsure of his purpose at the house

“I’m afraid there’s been an accident… “He started slowly “your parents were involved…”

Alex grimaced at the thought of it all. He couldn’t even keep his eyes open, everything reminded him of something. His stomach churned. He needed to get away. He stood up and started walking toward a rather think patch of trees that sat on the outside of his property.

His uncle had been by shortly after the police left, he had asked him to spend the night at his house, but Alex refused. He was, however, happy that he offered to look after the animals on the ranch. Alex knew they would be neglected in one way or another if the responsibility was all his. He looked up and found himself a good ways into the woods.

His mother had used to take him through a small part of these woods; they would always follow the same path looping them around to where they started, but he purposely strayed away from the usual path, and went deeper into the woods, looking to avoid anything familiar.  

As he walked through the maze of trees and rocks, he kept his gaze glued to the ground. Everything stuck on permanent repeat in his head.  He wanted nothing more than to have everything stop. Have everything go away.

Alex had lost all track of time, he just kept walking. Eventually, the ground started to clear up. He started seeing less and less on the ground until all that was left was grass.

His gaze was pulled up when he noticed some kind of light illuminating the ground around him. He was puzzled to see a shimmering light, about the size of a bedroom door, directly in front of him. He tried to look into it directly, but found it almost impossible to look for more than a second.  

His mind wasn’t able to process what was making the light appear. There was nothing in the immediate area, and nothing could possibly be casting it from a distance. So, he inched closer and closer toward the light, intent on finding the source. He used one hand to shield the light from his eyes, and with the other he slowly moved to the light, expecting a kind of heat to be radiated from it; he was very surprised when he felt none.

He did a quick circle around the light to make sure there was no source. When he finished, he walked back to where he started, and considered his options. He could leave it alone. Or…

He went for broke, and pushed his arm straight into the light. And still nothing. He tried to withdraw his hand from the light, but found it wouldn’t let it out. His arm was completely stuck inside the mysterious light, and he couldn’t move it whatsoever. Then, the light started expanding, slowly consuming more of body as it did.

Alex went wide eyed and started yanking and jerking his arm as much as he could, however, to no avail. The light continued to grow, and slowly ate more and more of his body, until all that was left was his head, which he had tried to keep as far away as possible. But, eventually, Alex lost the battle with the light, as it completely consumed him.

The only thing he could see was white, even when he closed his eyes he was still plagued by the solid color. He instinctively tried to cover his eyes with his hands, but was unable to move them. He pulled against the invisible force holding him in place, and was surprised when the force suddenly disappeared. However, his hands immediately went for his face with more force than he intended, and he ended up striking his face with something that felt nothing like hands. He tried to inspect himself, but found the light to be too intense to see anything.

The bright world slowly started fading, however, Alex couldn’t tell if it was the world dimming, or it was simply him passing out from the strike to his head. Whether or not the color was fading, Alex passed out, embracing the darkness that came with it.

Alex felt his world slowly coming back to him. He was lying on something soft… Grass. It smelled great, and felt great. He smiled and pressed his face into it after a few moments of this, he stopped. Why was he sleeping on grass? He slowly opened his eyes to investigate what was going on around him. What he saw almost made him pass out again.

Nothing looked right. Even though it was still night, everything that surrounded him was brightly colored, and… what word could he use to describe this place?

Animated.

The one word that seemed to describe this place perfectly was animated.

Alex had always had rather vivid dreams, but this was something entirely different, everything felt so… real.

Quickly looking around the area, he immediately came to the conclusion that he was in the same area that he had stumbled upon with the bright light…

Then, like a tidal wave, Alex remembered everything. His parents, the walk through the woods, the shimmering light, everything that had just happened…

“Well, either I’m dreaming, or I’ve completely lost it” Alex muttered to himself. “Probably dreaming” he continued… “Please be dreaming.”

Alex looked around for another moment, and then decided to investigate this dream in more detail. He tried to stand up, but his hands didn’t support them the way he expected them to, and he immediately tumbled to the ground.

“What the…?” Looked at his hands, and was genuinely horrified at what he saw.

“Hooves?” Alex said out loud. His mind started racing, this wasn’t right. He did NOT have hooves. ‘This is a dream, this is a dream. This. Is. A. DREAM!’ He was starting to get frantic, if this was a dream, why wasn’t he waking up? He put one hoof to the other and tried to pinch himself. He quickly remembered that he had no fingers to pinch with.

His first instinct was to stand up, however, this didn’t end well, as he found himself unable to balance properly. He immediately fell back to the ground face-first.

As he tried to compose himself, he attempted to lift his head out of the dirt, but found something was keeping him stuck in the ground. Putting his hooves on the ground, he managed a few yanks, and pulled his head free. He put a hoof to his head, feeling for what could have caused it, and quickly discovered the source. A Horn.  

At this point, Alex just wanted to wake up. Everything felt too real. It was like no dream he had ever had. The feelings, the smells, the ache in his head from falling over; every little bit was pushing him further and further away from “dreaming” and closer to “insanity.”

The next thought that came to him wasn’t the smartest thought he had ever had, but he leaned over and bit himself anyway. He squeezed his eyes closed, and knew once he opened them, he’d be back at home, in his room, in his big comfy bed. He slowly opened one eye, and was sad to see, he was still here, in the forest, that looked like it was right out of a cartoon.

Alex sighed, glancing around he took a moment to appreciate the hell he was currently in. He hadn’t noticed before, but the whole place was actually pretty beautiful. The full moon was illuminating the entire area he was in, allowing him to see all the different shades of the grass he was standing in. The sky was a beautiful shade of purple, with a few wispy clouds covering some of the brightly shimmering stars. He sighed, and as his head sunk to the ground; he was quickly reminded of his new appendage as it stopped him from touching the grass with his forehead. Alex looked back and forth and spotted a small pond a couple yards away.

Quickly making up his mind, Alex decided to get a good look at what exactly he was. Knowing that he needed to keep himself busy, so he wouldn’t go insane over thinking what was happening to him.

Remembering that he had hooves, he slowly tried to stand himself up on four legs, when he managed to get himself to that point, he started walking forward one step at a time. He was surprised to find that he was having almost no trouble walking this way. He was making his way over to the pond much faster than he anticipated.

Alex looked into the water and was greeted by the something that surprised him much less than it should have. He was a horse. No… he was a unicorn. The obvious horn on his head confirmed that. He tapped his hoof against the horn, he was DEFINITELY a unicorn. Besides the fact that he was a unicorn, in a cartoon world, and starting to accept it, nothing was out of the ordinary. White coat, black mane, however, one odd thing he did notice, was a large grey spot on his coat, it extended from just below the right hand side of his neck to lower on his body. He repositioned himself to he could see the rest of his body in the reflection, upon doing this, he found that the spot expanded until it reached his wing, which was completely grey itself…. Wait.

‘Wing?’

Alex did a double take.

He had wings too. He figured he would have been used to this by now. But, this was just as much a surprise as the horn. He saw that his wings were covered in feathers, which kinda made sense... So, what did this make him? A pega-corn? A uni-sus?  Again, he decided not to overthink anything, and pushed the thought from his mind. Keeping his eyes glued to his grey wing, he wanted to figure out how to move them. He relaxed, and decided to trust his body to know how to move them, the same way it knew how to walk. He closed his eyes, and did the first thing that came to his mind.

Alex felt his back relax in some places, and tighten in others, he opened his eyes slowly, and was happy to see his wings slowly extending. Slow at first, but he quickly got used to the motion of opening and closing them. Upon more experimentation he found he could flap them, flare them, and even manipulate them in ways he knew birds couldn’t.

Alex started working on the flapping motion. But, no matter how hard he flapped, or how fast he flapped, he wasn’t going anywhere. He sighed, and contemplating everything that had happened.

‘How can this be real?’ Alex thought.

However, as impossible as it seemed, he had a nagging feeling that this had happened before to other people, many, many times. TOO many times. Like, it was inappropriate how much it had been done. And it pretty much turned out badly every time!

...He hoped this wouldn't happen to him, even though he was a tiny bit boring sometimes.

Shaking the thought from his mind, Alex looked down, and then lifted a hoof to his mouth, and bit himself again for good measure. But, as he figured, this left him right where he started, plus a dull ache. He figured he had two choices; he could sit around in the field until he woke up, or… The more adventurous choice, indulge himself in his obvious insanity.

Then, Alex remembered something his father had said to him once.  

“If you’re losing your mind and end up in crazy land, you might as well have fun there!”

Alex smiled at the memory. His Father had said this to him a few months ago when his grandmother was moved to a care facility due to her excessive delusions.  

“I guess that settles it” Alex said to himself “Since this is as crazy as anything can get, I might as well try to have a little fun.”

He chuckled to himself and started scanning the horizon; he was surprised to see a city protruding off the side of a mountain some distance away. Normally he would have questioned the possibility of such a thing, but decided it was a waste of time.

Alex quickly spotted a path that pointed him straight to the mountain. As he started walking, he wondered if walking into the dark forest filled with how-knows-what, was really a smart idea, but really, what was the worst that could happen?

Alex had been walking through the woods for what seemed like days, but in reality had probably only been a few hours. The path he had been following had taken too many twists and turns for him to be completely sure he was going toward that city, but even if he was in here for days, he knew he wouldn’t be in too much trouble. His father had used to take him out into the thicket and the two would live off of different kinds of plants and animals. He had always hated going on those trips as a kid, leaving behind all the comforts of home to go eat gross food, and sleep on a hard, cold ground. But now, Alex couldn’t be happier his father had forced him out on those trips. Although things were different in this world, a lot of things were still the same. He had managed to scavenge a few things to eat, and drink plenty of water

One thing that had surprised him was the complete lack of animal life. Not that he was looking for something to hunt; his father had always been the one to do that. And Alex could never bring himself to eat it anyway. The thing that had him confused was that not only had he seen nothing alive, but he hadn’t heard a single noise. Besides him, the forest was absolutely dead silent. There was something unnatural about it. He knew this world was completely foreign to him, but couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong.

Alex was also surprised to find that the sun hadn’t risen yet. He knew he had been out walking for hours, and that on top of that, it was pitch black out when he woke up in this place. He looked up, examining the sky, not being able to see any kind of change in the shade of purple he had seen hours ago. Was that another thing about this world? Was night longer than day here? Was there a day at all? Maybe…

Alex was cut off from his thoughts when he heard screaming and a roar pierce the absolute silence of the forest.  The screaming had been far off, but not so far that he couldn’t go investigate.

Taking a deep breath, he started walking toward the direction he had heard the screaming. He slowly picked up his pace, making sure to avoid tripping and hurting himself. Once he found a rather clear path, he started to move faster and faster until he reached a speed he was happy with. He was amazed to see how little effect on his body his running was having. He was moving faster than he ever had before, and it was barely fazing him.

After 15 minutes of straight running, he needed a break. He hadn’t heard another noise since the initial screaming. He wondered whether or not he had gotten to the right place yet. For all he knew, he could be way past, or not even close. He closed his eyes and concentrated, but nothing. As he opened his eyes, he noticed that the forest was suddenly much darker than it had been before. He could barely even see his hoof in front of his face.

Where had this darkness come from? Or… rather, where had all the light gone? After a few seconds of squinting, and tripping over almost everything he possibly could, he sat down on him rump, giving up on navigating the pitch black. However, he wasn’t feeling defeated for long. Another shriek sounded out, this time; he could clearly hear that there were a group of people. Girls.

Snapping his head toward the direction of the scream, Alex saw a dim pink light illuminating a section of the forest just ahead of him. He was lucky he was so close, he never would have seen it if he had been any further away.

Normally he would have made it there in no time, but the darkness surrounding him made it extremely difficult.

As he closed the distance to the illuminated area, he started to hear something that sounded quite a lot like… singing. ‘Singing?’ Oh yes. He could definitely hear singing. His pace started to pick up as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. As he started to get closer and closer, he noticed that the singing had stopped, and was replaced by laughter.

Pushing all the questions this arose out of his head, he kept moving. After 5 or so minutes he finally arrived at the clearing where the girls had just been. Seeing no one around, he realized that all the light had been restored to the area. It had been such a gradual thing, he didn’t even notice it. Realizing that he didn’t know where the girls had headed off to, he started examining the ground. Quickly picking up on the directions of the hoof marks, he knew what direction they were headed.

“Hooves…” Alex said out loud. “That means that they’re horses too. Like me.”

Knowing that this wasn’t the time to stop and think, he pressed on. Galloping along the path, he squinted trying to see if anyone was in front of him. After failing at this, he looked at the ground and saw that the hoof prints were farther apart than they had been before. They must have been running to.

However, after another 10 minutes of galloping, he had to slow down and take a break. These other horses must have been much more used to running compared to him. But, this didn’t surprise him; as, well… this WAS his first time being a horse. After a two minute breather, he started moving again.

Finally, Alex came upon a river. On close examination he saw that he couldn’t cross it by any normal means. He glanced back and forth at his wings, wishing he knew how to use them. He sighed. He didn’t know how he’d be able to follow them now. He sat down on his rump, closed his eyes, and sighed.

“Why hello there!” A slightly flamboyant voice said suddenly.

Alex just about jumped out of his skin. Opening his eyes he was greeted with the sight of a giant serpent towering over him. “I… I…” Alex stammered, almost paralyzed with fear. Not able to form any coherent words, he simply stood there shaking.

“What’s wrong with you?” The serpent said, sounding concerned enough to put Alex at ease a bit.

‘Remember Alex… This is a different world… This… Might be a normal thing! …At least you’re talking to someone…’ Alex said to himself. Composing himself as much as he could, he managed to say “Did you… see a group of girls head across this river…?”

The Serpents face lit up “Why yes!” He said beaming. “The lovely fillies that just came through here and helped me with my crisis!” The dragon said adding as much emphasis on the word ‘crisis’ as he possibly could. “And now!” he began, “my amazing moostache, is even more fabulous than before! All thanks to those fabulous ponies!”

Being slightly confused, Alex looked up to see that the serpent’s moustache, or… Moostache was made up of two different colors. Orange, like the rest of his hair, and purple, which he assumed was the color that belonged to one of the ponies.

“So… if I’m like them… I’m a pony…” Alex muttered, “How manly” he chuckled, figuring it made sense, considering his size. Quickly snapping back to the creature in front of him, “By any chance, could you help me across the river to follow those… Ponies?” Alex asked getting used to the new term.

“Can’t you just fly across with those wings of yours?” The serpent asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Oh! Well, you see…” Alex considered his options carefully here. Did he want to tell him that he was from another world, and that he didn’t know how to fly yet? No. No point in sounding like a complete lunatic. “I… Uhh… hurt my wing! And… can’t seem to get myself airborne!” He said laughed nervously.

“Well that is just terrible! I’d be more than happy to give you a lift after what your friends did for me!” He said smiling. “Here! Hop on!” The snake said lifting the back half of his body onto the shore, next to Alex.

Alex gulped. He REALLY hoped he wasn’t about to get eaten. Slowly stepping over the serpents tail, he walked a few more steps until he was on a more solid part of his back.

“Here we go!” The friendly snake said, quickly moving his body over to the other side of the river.

After an agonizing 15 seconds of Alex trying to keep his balance on the creatures back, he reached the shore on the other side of the river. Hopping off, Alex turned back to his new friend smiling, “thanks for the lift!”

“It was no problem at all!” He said beaming. “I’m always happy to help out new friends! But, as much as I’d love to continue this conversation, you don’t want to lose those lovely fillies you’re after, now do you?”

“Oh!” Alex remembered suddenly, “Right!” He started following the hoof prints in the ground again. “Thanks!” He called back again, before moving into a full gallop, trying to make up for lost time.

“Come back any time!” The serpent shouted, watching Alex gallop into the night.

Alex had been running for only a couple of minutes where he came to a bridge, crossing over a large expanse. On the other side, was some kind of temple. Completely made out of stone, and completely overgrown.

Deciding not to waste any time, he took his first step on to the rickety bridge. The entire thing groaned as he slowly stepped from one plank to the next. Once he was half way across, it started to dawn on him just how terrified he was to be on it. The boards on the bridge were old and giving way under his weight. Considering how old the temple looked, he wasn’t surprised this was happening.

Alex realized that he needed to cross this bridge before it collapsed. Quickly moving from one board to the next, he closed the distance to the end of the bridge, he was only a few planks away from the end, when he stepped on a board and it suddenly gave away under his weight, he barely managed to take a step back without falling. How would he get across now?

Looking forward, he knew he’d have to jump to solid ground. Even if he had been able to jump to another plank past the one that had fallen, he knew it would collapse under the weight of his landing on it.

Gaging his distances, he took a few steps back. He hadn’t tried jumping as a pony yet, but knew they were very capable in his world. Besides, the worst thing that could happen is that he would fall, and wake up from this dream. He gulped, not being completely satisfied with his reasoning, but started running anyway.

As Alex quickly got to the gap, he bent his hind legs, and pushed them off the board, launching himself toward the other side of the cliff. He sailed through the air, but quickly realized he was going to be just short of his destination. He was only a few feet away from crashing into the bridge, and falling into the chasm, when his new instincts kicked in, and his wings extended and gave a few powerful flaps. In no way had he achieved any kind of flight, but his wings HAD given him just enough lift to get him past the end of the bridge.

Being so surprised with this, Alex hadn’t prepared for the landing, and promptly tumbled onto the ground, resulting in his horn getting stuck in the ground. Again.

He yanked his horn out of the dirt with little trouble, and looked up at the stone temple in front of him. He could clearly see a small group of ponies standing in front of the main structure. He had found them! Getting a good look at the group, he noticed that two of the ponies had only wings, another had only a horn, and the other two had neither. He was different from them. Deciding this might be another normal thing in this world, he started approaching them.

As he started walking toward them, he carefully considered what to say. However, before he could find the time to say anything to the group, a dark purple light lit up the main structure, disappearing as fast as it had come.

“Twilight?” shouted all of the girls in unison, before all of them ran into the building.

“She’s gone!” he heard another one of them say.

Alex started walking toward to the temple when his focus was pulled to a building to the left of the main structure. He saw the same purple light pierce through the darkness, shining out all of the windows of the temple. If that light had made someone disappear, he figured it was a safe bet to go check this out. If anyone was in danger, he had to make sure this ‘Twilight’ was safe before he worried about himself.

Running up the main stairs into the temple, he came to the main chamber of the building, where he saw a much larger horse, with some kind of flowing black mane, and a set of armor, standing on a pedestal on the opposite end of the room. Closer to him, was a purple pony, with a horn, who was confronting the larger horse.

Alex ducked behind a pillar so he wouldn’t be seen right away. He watched as the small purple pony, who Alex assumed was ‘Twilight’ took a rather aggressive stance, looking like she was going to charge the much larger horse in front of her.

“You’re kidding.” The larger mare laughed. “You’re kidding, right?” She said seriously, upon realizing it wasn’t a joke.

Alex quickly moved himself behind another pillar more toward the middle of the room, before looking back to the confrontation. Twilight started charging the black mare full speed, with some kind of spark on the end of her horn. The Black mare laughed, and started charging toward her.

‘What is she thinking!?’ Alex said to himself. ‘There’s no way she’ll ever win this!’ But, to Alex’s and the black mare’s surprise, Twilight vanished in a bright light, and reappeared on the pedestal the black mare had just been on.

“Just one spark, come on, come on!” Twilight said concentrating.

Skidding to a halt, the larger horse turned and saw Twilight pointing her horn at the six stones on the ground. “No!” She shouted as she started running at the pony.

Alex could clearly see that Twilight was in no position to avoid any kind of oncoming attack, and that the horn on the charging horse could probably do some real damage if it hit her. So, he decided that there was only one thing to do.

He gulped, and started on an intercept course, to protect Twilight.

He had to laugh at himself; here he was, running at the scariest horse he had ever seen, all to protect somepony he didn’t even know. For all he knew he was attacking the GOOD guy. However, he seriously doubted this, and braced himself for the impact, making sure to tilt his head far enough down that he didn’t impale her.

‘Wait? Did I just say somepony instead of someone?’ Was the last thing he thought, before colliding with dark horse. The hit HURT. It felt like he had run head first into a rock.

Staggering back, Alex was happy to see his pain was worth it, as he had knocked the mare off balance, causing her to wipe out on the stone ground.

“You foal! You dare attack Night Mare Moon!? She shouted, at Alex. Righting herself, she seemed to have forgotten Twilight, and started approaching him, growling. Alex, stood his ground, hoping to give Twilight as much time as he possibly could to do, whatever it was she was doing. However, Night Mares focus was pulled away when the six stones started sparking back and forth, sending Twilight flying away from them. “No!” she shouted rushing onto the platform.

Alex ran over to the collapsed Twilight, “Are you okay?”

Twilight looked at him with a confused face, before a light bulb turned on in her head, and she lit up. “You’re the one! The one we were missing this whole time! But… Who are you?” She said smiling.

Alex wasn’t sure how to respond to this, “I’m Alex, but… I don’t understand… how am I ‘the one’?”

Twilight shook her head knowing she didn’t have time to explain, “The elements! Look!” Twilight looked over at the sparking stones excitedly. However, the stones suddenly stopped. Twilight looked on in horror.

Then it dawned on her, that had only been six elements. “But… Where’s the seventh element?” She said confused.

The mare laughed manically, raising her front hooves, and stomped them down, shattering all of the stones on the pedestal. “You little foal! Thinking you could defeat me? Now you will never see your princess, or your sun! The night will last forever!”

Twilight watched, horrified, as the shards of the stones landed on the ground around Night Mare Moon. What could she going do now? There was no hope left.

Alex saw that Twilight was feeling defeated. He wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, but he could tell it wasn’t good, so, taking a defensive stance over the collapsed pony, all he could do was try his best to keep her out of danger.

“Don’t worry Twilight!” a voice called from the entrance way.

“We’re here!” another voice called

Twilight looked back, she could hear all of them calling out to her, worrying about her… and that made her… happy. Then, all at once, it made sense.

“You think you can destroy the elements of harmony just like that?” Twilight said suddenly very confident in herself. “We’ll you’re wrong!” She said standing next to Alex, “Because the spirits of The Elements of Harmony are right here!”

The other five ponies lined up next to Twilight and Alex, all of them giving one look or another toward Alex in confusion.

The shards of the Elements of Harmony started two float off the ground, “What?” Night Mare Moon said, suddenly in a panic.

Twilight smiled, more than happy to explain their victory to her enemy.

“Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of... honesty!” Twilight said as several shards of the stone flew over to her, and started circling her.

“Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of... kindness!” A startled Fluttershy got her own collection of shards circling around her, like Applejack.

“Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of... laughter!” Jumping up and down, the pink pony was thrilled to see shards start looping around her as well.

“Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift represents the spirit of... generosity!” The white and purple pony looked down modestly as the shards started moving around her.

“Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart's desire represents the spirit of... loyalty!” The cyan pony stuck her chest out proudly, as the shards started circling her, the same as all her friends.

“And Alex, who threw himself in harm’s way to protect me when I needed it most, represents the spirit of… selflessness!” Alex was surprised to hear himself included in this list of names, realizing that this is what she meant when she said he was ‘the one.’

“The spirits of these six ponies got us through everything you threw at as!” Twilight finished triumphantly.

“You still don’t have the seventh element! The spark didn’t work!” Night Mare countered, her voice having lost all of its power.

“But it did!” Twilight began again.” A different kind of spark! I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you!” She said as her eyes welled with tears. “The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all… are my friends!” she said to the group of five ponies behind her. Turning to Alex she smiled “and even though I’ve just met all of you, you’re all still important to me.” She said holding back more tears.

Alex smiled back at her earnestly as she turned her head to face Night Mare Moon.

“You see, Night Mare Moon,” Twilight started, as a seventh stone, much like the other six before they were shattered, appeared and started floating down toward her. “When those Elements are ignited by the… uh… spark! That resides in the heart of us all, it creates the seventh element: the element of… magic!”

All at once, the shards circling all of the girls started coming together on each of them to form a necklace, with a different shaped gem in the center of each one. Alex watched as the other ponies necklaces appeared around their necks.

The Yellow pony with the pink mane had a necklace with a pink butterfly jewel in it.

The Pink pony got a blue balloon shaped jewel in her necklace.

The Rainbow pony got a red lightning bolt in the center of hers.

The Orange pony with the blonde mane got an orange apple jewel in the center of hers.

And the white pony with the purple colored hair got a purple gem cut much like any precious stone.

Alex looked down, and saw that the gem in his was simply a large round diamond, sparkling brilliantly.

And finally, the stone floating above Twilight transformed itself into a crown, with a purple star on the top of it. Closing her eyes, Twilight, and the six other ponies were lifted off the ground, and engulfed in a bright white light.

As the necklaces built up their power, Alex could feel it sapping his energy, draining the last bit he had. He watched as a brilliant rainbow shoot out from him and the other six ponies, and surrounded Night

Mare Moon. Then, opening her eyes, Twilight focused all of the magic surrounding the seven ponies into one powerful blast, engulfing the entire room in a bright light.

The next thing Alex knew, he was on the cold stone floor, losing consciousness. But, even as that was happening, he couldn’t help but laugh at how insane everything was that had happened. As the world started fading, he wondered if he’d be here when he woke up, or not.

”How is he?” A voice asked.

Alex stirred momentarily, returning to consciousness, listening to the conversation.

“He’ll be fine” a soothing voice said. “He was just exhausted from the fight with Luna.”

“Thank goodness!” The first voice, who he identified as Twilight, said sounding extremely relieved.

“But… as for his missing mark, that is somewhat of a mystery to even me.” The second voice said, with a touch of confusion in her voice. “Only he can explain this to us.”

“And what about the wings and the horn?” Twilight said, with the confused tone returning to her voice.

“While those normally belong only to royalty, it isn’t impossible for somepony to be born with both” The second explained. “However,” She began after a pause, ”I’m going to head back to the party. Royal duty calls!” She said with a soft laugh.

“Well, I’ll stay here until he wakes up. I didn’t get a chance to thank him.” Twilight said.

“Very well, my student. Please bring him to me when he wakes, I’d like to have a word with him myself.” She said before leaving the room.

As Alex listened to the footsteps move further away, he slowly dozed back into oblivion.

Some time later, Alex finally started to wake.

Slowly opening his eyes, he noticed he was still in the other world… The colorful, vibrant, beautiful world, which he was happy to still be in, surprisingly. After all that happened, he didn’t want to go home without figuring out what had happened after that the battle with Night Mare Moon.

Slowly lifting his upper body off the bed he was on, Alex was surprised to see that he could sit straight up, as if he were a human, something he was sure regular horses couldn’t do. Looking around, he saw that he was in some kind of room made entirely out of wood. Almost as if he was inside a giant tree, which really wouldn’t have surprised him. Scanning the bookshelves and walls, he saw a clock hanging off the wall next to the window. It read ‘3:45,’ and, judging by the bright light shining through the window, he figured it was 3:45 PM.

Alex was happy to see sunlight, finally. It had felt like eons since he had last seen it, he had almost forgotten how beautiful it could be. He smiled, and slowly started examining the room he was in in greater detail.

Alex’s examination was cut short as he started hearing muttering coming from just below him. He gazed over the edge of the bed, and saw Twilight on the floor, fast asleep. Briefly remembering the conversation from before, he remembered her saying something about staying in the room until he awoke.

He took this opportunity to properly examine her. She was a purple pony, with a dark purple mane. However, in her mane she also had two different streaks of purple, one that he saw was an indigo shade, and one that was almost pink, but more magenta. All and all, she was a purple pony.

Her tail had the same colors as her mane, which he had expected, however, next to her tail; he saw some kind of mark on her side. She had a purple star, similar to the color of the second streak in her hair. And around the star were several smaller white stars.

Thinking back to the fight with Night Mare Moon, he had noticed that she had a moon in the same place Twilight had her star. Was this something all of the ponies had in common? A mark on their sides? Alex twisted his body and checked his flank, and saw that there was none. He looked back at Twilight and studied her mark closer.

After a few minutes of this, his mind started to wander to the night before. He thought back to the fight, back to crossing that bridge, back to the snake, back to waking up in this place, and eventually, back to his parents. He felt his chest tighten up at the thought. Shaking it from his mind, he decided the time to mourn was later. As horrible as he felt to say that, he knew his parents wouldn’t want him to sit around and wallow in sadness rather than figuring out what was going on.

“Uh… Alex?”

Alex nearly jumped out of his skin, Twilight was awake, looking at him, and… blushing?

“Were you just… staring at my rump?” Twilight said a little flustered.

“What? No! Nononononono!” Alex stammered, “No! … okay, well, I mean, I was, but! I was looking at… ‘That’” Alex said pointing a hoof at her back side.

“Oh! You mean my cutie mark?” Twilight said laughing at the misunderstanding, “do you not know what that is?” She asked cocking an eyebrow.

“I have absolutely no idea.” Alex said flatly.

Twilight was surprised to hear this, everypony knew what a cutie mark was, but he didn’t. “You’re not from around here, are you?” Twilight said.

Alex laughed, “You could say that, there are a LOT of things I need you to help me figure out.”

“Well, I’ll try to make sure all of your questions get answered” Twilight said smiling. “But first, I just wanted to say that we wouldn’t have won the battle, and… I could have been really hurt if you hadn’t shown up when you did.” Twilight said earnestly. “So… thank you, Alex”

“Oh, I was just doing what anypony would have done” Alex said furrowing his brow at his use of the word ‘anypony.’

“You don’t understand, not just anypony would do that.” Twilight explained, “The pony would have to be either extremely stupid, or extremely brave to throw themselves in front of somepony as powerful as her.”

Alex opened his mouth to explain that he was indeed stupid, but decided to simply move on. “So… What happened after that necklace knocked me out? All I remember was floating up into the air, and attacking her with some kind of… beam.”

“Well… Those necklaces, or… The elements of harmony, unleashed the power that we all have inside of ourselves.” Twilight began. “It took power from all of us, and using that, I was able to channel it all into one blast, which I focused right at Night Mare Moon.”

“What did it do to her?” Alex asked, intrigued.

“Well… it changed her back.” Twilight said, unsure of how to word her explanation. “Her evil side was purged, and all that was left, was a filly. And, as it turns out, that filly was the sister of Princess Celestia. ” Twilight paused expecting a shocked reaction, but was given none. “Do you know who that is…?” Twilight asked.

Alex simply shook his head and laughed. “No, although, I remember overhearing her ask to speak with me when I woke up. That was her, right?”

“Oh! Yes! I almost forgot!” Twilight said suddenly remembering. “I’ll take you to her right now! She’s just outside enjoying the party. Come on!" Twilight said heading toward the door.

Alex started trying to get out of the bed, but had to stop and think about it. Getting out of bed as a pony was very different from getting out of bed as a human. Slowly rocking himself back and forth, he was able to roll himself on top of his legs. Then, he pushed off his hooves into standing position. However, he was still covered in the blanket, which posed as an entirely new obstacle. He shook his body and tried to get the blanket off of him, but failed. Thinking carefully, he came up with an idea he considered genius.

Leaning his head forward, he flared his wings straight up, sending the blanket straight up into the air. ”Ha!” Alex said triumphantly, proud of his ingenious thinking. He looked over, and saw Twilight giggling at the door, he opened his mouth to say something, but the blanket floated down and covered his face before he could. He sighed dejectedly and sat down on the bed, defeated.

“Here” Twilight said lifting the blanket off his head using her magic. “Normally, we use our mouths to get something off of our backs… Where exactly did you say you were from?” Twilight said becoming more curious at how he couldn’t even perform the most basic of tasks.

“Well… That’s a long story…” Alex said unsure of even where to begin. ”Can… I get it all together in my head while we find the princess?” Alex asked slowly.

“Oh! Sure!” Twilight said, not wanting to press anything on him. He was obviously troubled over it. “Come on, let’s go find her.” Twilight said dropping the blanket in a ball on the bed next to Alex, who was still standing on top of it.

Jumping off the bed Alex walked out the door behind Twilight, unsure of what waited for him outside.

As soon as Alex stepped out the door, he was hit was a refreshing burst of cool air. Breathing in, he smiled, happy to be out in the sun.

Looking around, Alex saw ponies everywhere. Dancing, eating, all together having a good time. Alex hadn’t gotten five steps from the house before a pink pony zipped in front of him, blocking his path.

“Hiya!” The pony said with a bright smile on her face. “You want some cake?” She said shoving a piece of cake into his mouth, “I made it myself!”

Alex was taken by surprise by the sudden intrusion of her hoof into his mouth, however, upon tasting the cake, he had forgotten all about the impossibility of pushing cake into a ponies mouth that way.

“Gooooood huh?” She said giggling.

“Hmmph!” Alex said with his mouth full. “It’s the best I’ve ever had!” He said after swallowing.

The pony beamed, “Thanks! I’m Pinkie Pie!” She said extending a hoof.

Alex reached his hoof out to shake hers “My name is AaaaaaaAaaaa!” Upon shaking her hoof, he was greeted with a

shock coming from a buzzer on her hoof.

The pink pony snorted, and fell over in uncontrollable fits of laughter.

Alex looked into a mirror attached to a building a few feet away, his hair was sticking straight up, the feathers on his wings were skewed in all directions, and to top it all off, a small amount of smoke was rising from the tip of his horn.

‘Just like a cartoon…’ Alex said to himself.

This made him think of something. Shaking his whole body back and forth as if he were a dog drying off. Upon stopping, he looked in the mirror again, and, as he thought, he was clean again. He smiled; he was starting to like this world more and more.

“Hey Alex!” He heard Twilight call. “Come on! We’ll have plenty of time to spend with Pinkie after we talk to the princess.” She said trotting toward what looked like the center of town.

“Oh! Right!” Alex said hurrying off toward Twilight. “Thanks for the cake Pinkie Pie!” He said before he moved into a crowd.

As Alex walked through the town, he couldn’t help but notice the difference in girls to boys. For every one colt he saw, there were five mares. And while a ratio like this may not have been the strangest thing he had seen in this world, he still decided to ask about it.

“Hey Twilight, I was wondering…” Alex started.

“Hmm?” Twilight said, turning around to face him, walking backwards.

“Well… Why are there so many girls here?” Alex said plainly.

Twilight looked around, she had noticed this yesterday, when she first arrived in the town. “Well… not all places are like this.” Twilight said slowly. “In my hometown of Canterlot, we have plenty of stallions… This town is just… different. I don’t really know more than that.”

“Huh. Okay. Thanks, I guess” Alex laughed.

“Sorry I can’t be more help, it’s just how it is.” Twilight said, slightly embarrassed that she couldn’t provide a better explanation. “We’ll figure it out some day, I’m sure” She finished, with a smile.

Twilight had been so involved with her conversation with Alex that she didn’t notice the pony behind her, and the two promptly collided with one another.

“Oh my gosh! I’m sorry!” Twilight said picking herself up off the ground.

Alex quickly moved around Twilight to check on the collapsed pony behind her. “Hey, are you okay?” He said to the deep purple pony.

The filly looked up and went wide eyed at the sight of Alex, not saying a word. Her mouth simply hung open, as if she wanted to speak, but wasn’t able to.

“What’s wrong?” Alex said concerned at her reaction to him.

Twilight shook her head, regaining her composure. She then moved to beside Alex, so she could see what was wrong with the pony she had bumped into. Upon seeing the speechless filly, she immediately understood. Smiling, Twilight approached them. “Alex, this is Princess Luna, I believe you two have met.” She said, smiling inwardly, knowing this would confuse Alex.

Alex gave Twilight a puzzled look, he knew a handful of ponies, and didn’t even know the names of half of them. This filly wasn’t one of those few. “Twilight… I don’t….”

Cutting him off, Twilight smiled. “Alex, I’d like to reintroduce you to Night Mare Moon.”

Alex cocked an eyebrow, he remembered Twilight mentioning her being transformed into a child, but this filly looked so… harmless. He could see that she was worried about how he’d receive her, so, he lowered his head to her level and smiled,

“Nice to see you again, Night Mare.”

The filly looked up at him with tears welling in her eyes. After a few seconds, she started to gets words out. “I… I’m so sorry…” She sniffled. “I really could have hurt everypony, *sniff* especially Twilight!” tears were openly streaming down her face at this point, “thank you so much for stopping me!” she finished, looking down at the ground.

Alex hadn’t expected this kind of reaction from her. Here was the proud, dark mare that had wanted to hurt them all so badly, changed into this crying child who couldn’t even make eye contact with him. Upon seeing her like this, any worries he might have had about her trying to hurt anypony again were pulled away from his mind.

Alex smiled and used his hoof to lift up her chin, until she was looking at him.

“I don’t blame you for what happened. You’re not Night Mare Moon anymore. She’s gone, so you can stop apologizing.” Alex said giving her a comforting smile.

“And you don’t need to thank me;” He continued “I just did what anypony would have done.” He said for the second time, ignoring his use of the term ‘anypony.’

Twilight smiled as she saw this side of Alex, he was a genuinely nice colt. She had been a little worried that he might have reacted poorly to finding out this was Night Mare Moon. But, she was happy to see that he was treating Luna like a real pony, unlike so many of the villagers who still feared her.

Luna beamed, she had expected a much worse reaction, but was overjoyed to see that he wasn’t judging her “thank you...” She said quietly.

"It's no problem," Alex smiled, "It was kinda fun, starting with a bang like this!"

Luna nodded, accepting the answer for now, knowing that she would have to give it some thought later.

“Oh!” Luna said suddenly. “My sister was looking for the two of you!”

Twilight stepped forward as Luna said this. “We were just looking for her; do you know where she’s gone?” She asked.

“She’s over at the table with all the cake” Luna said pointing a hoof toward the most densely packed part of town.

Twilight laughed at hearing this. Her mentor had always had a weakness for cake, so, her being at the table with the most of it was no surprise to her. “Thanks Luna, come on Alex!” Twilight said trotting off toward the crowd.

“Thanks a lot Princess Luna!” Alex said following after Twilight.

As Alex followed Twilight closely through the crowd, he couldn’t believe that he had just had such a casual encounter with a princess. The royalty in this world was so much more down-to-earth than in his world. He liked it.

Alex had been looking at the ponies in the crowd he was been walking through, and besides the fact that most of them were girls, he also noticed that they all had marks on their sides, like Twilight. But one difference was that there were so many variations, like: flowers, clouds, bubbles, hourglasses, and many more. The only ponies he had seen without these marks were all foals.

“Princess Celestia!”

Alex looked up to see a large white mare, who was about the same size as Night Mare Moon, at the table about to eat a piece of cake.

The Princess looked at Twilight, then to Alex, then back to her cake and sighed dejectedly, she then put the cake down and looked back to Twilight.

“I see our guest has awakened” Princess Celestia said to Twilight. Turning to Alex she smiled “Thank you for what you did for Twilight. It sounds like you showed up right in the nick of time, and saved the day.”

“I just did what anypony would have done” Alex said again, getting frustrated over the involuntary ‘anypony’ he kept saying.

“Is something wrong?” Princess Celestia said noticing his obvious frustration.

“Well… A lot of things are wrong…” Alex said, showing a visible change in mood. “And… I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you. But hay, I barely believe the story myself.” He said sighing at his use of ‘hay’ instead of ‘hell.’  

Princess Celestia could see how troubling this was to him, “You’ve stirred up a lot of questions that only you can answer

Alex. I’ll try to answer yours, if you can answer ours.” She said in an extremely soothing voice.

Alex looked around him, at crowd of ponies that now surrounded him, all waiting to hear his story.

“Alright” He said simply. “Where can I start…?”

Alex thought for a moment then decided. “Well… I’m not from here…  I’m from somewhere very… different. Somewhere where I wasn’t a pony…”

“And, that’s how I ended up here.” Alex said finally.

By the time he was done talking, just about every pony in town was there. They had been standing around him listening as he explained where he was from, how he used to be human, how he found the bright light, and how he woke up in Equestria. He explained how he had caught on to the girls trail, the serpent, the bridge, and eventually, the fight with Night Mare Moon.

Alex had explained how different ponies were from humans, and how he kept saying the wrong things. He even explained that he couldn’t get a blanket off his own back, which had elicited a few laughs out of the crowd.

One thing he had not mentioned was what had happened to his parents. He didn’t want the pity, and didn’t feel it was important to the story.

By the time he was done, he simply sat down on him rump, and sighed.

“I see…” Celestia said, breaking the silence.

“You think I’m completely insane, don’t you?” Alex said, staring at the ground.

“No. I don’t.” Celestia began “I knew something was different about you the first time I saw you. This simply confirms my suspicions.”

“So, can you help me get back home?” Alex asked.

“Now that… I’m afraid I cannot help you with.” She said apologetically.

“So… am I stuck here?” Alex said, losing all hope.

“I didn’t say that.” Celestia said with a smile.

Alex perked up at hearing this, “What then?” he said excitedly.

“When it comes to using magic to move yourself, only the pony casting the spell can choose the destination” Celestia explained, “And, only you have been where you’re trying to go, only you know those feelings that come with it.” She continued, “If you think of your home, and the feelings that it brings you, you can use those to take yourself back.”

“Oh, so I can’t just click my heels together and say ‘there’s no place like home,’ huh?” Alex said laughing and looking at Celestia, who obviously didn’t get the reference. “*ahem* So, basically, I just have to think of home and use a spell? Sounds easy enough, let’s get started!” He said standing up.

“I’m afraid it won’t be that easy Alex” Celestia said, cutting his excitement short. “Performing a spell like that takes a lot of practice.”

“I’ve been training for years, and I can only just perform a spell THAT powerful” Twilight piped in.

“Oh… So… I’m going to need to be trained for… years?” Alex said, as their words sunk in.

“I’m afraid that may be the case…” Celestia said, unhappy at having to deliver this news.

Alex looked up, and surprised everypony with what he said next, “Then let’s get started! If this is gonna take me years, I’d better get started now, right?” Alex said filled with vigor.

Everyone was shocked by this, including Celestia. However, her shocked expression eventually changed to a small smile, she admired his enthusiasm. “Well then, if you’d really like to learn this, I can think of nopony better to teach you than… Twilight.”

Twilight was shocked by this to say the least, “What? Me? Princess… I don’t know if I’m able to…”

“Twilight” Celestia interrupted. “I can’t think of a single pony that would do a better job teaching him than you.”

“But… what about you? You… You could do a much, MUCH better job than me!”  Twilight stammered, blushing at everypony staring at her.

“With Luna coming back to the castle, I’ll have my hooves full helping her integrate back into normal life.” Celestia explained. “This way, Alex can live here in Ponyville, and you and your friends can help him adjust to life here. Would you mind that Alex?” She asked him.

“No! Not at all! Besides… you’re kind of the only pony I know…” Alex said turning to Twilight.

“Well… Okay!” Twilight said, not wanting to disappoint her mentor or Alex.

“Wonderful!” Celestia said. “Now, you’ll need somewhere to stay while you’re in Ponyville.” She said turning to Alex.

“Would you mind staying in the library with Twilight until I can get you some accommodations?”

“Uh, sure!” Alex said, “Whatever works!”

“Alright, now that we have everything worked out, let’s say we get back to the party, hmm?” Celestia said to cheers of the crowd, as they all went back to enjoying themselves.

Not wanting to be stuck in a town full of ponies he didn’t know, Alex looked around for Twilight, and was surprised at where she was. He approached Twilight, who had sunk into an ally way between some cottages as everypony had spread out.

“Hey Twilight, you okay?” Alex asked as he got closer to her.

“Um, yeah…” She said, her voice sounding shaky.

“What’s wrong?” Alex asked, concerned.

“I… I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do everything the princess asked me to…” Twilight said looking at the ground. “What if I can’t do it?”

“Are you kidding?” Alex said walking right next to her. “I saw you charge head first at Night Mare Moon! Something nopony would EVER do. Then! You gathered all the energy of the elements of harmony, and defeated her with it!” Alex continued. “Twi… You’re the most capable thing I know! Pony OR human! And I have all the confidence in the world that you will be able to help me” Alex finished, hoping this had improved her confidence.

“You really think that?” Twilight asked quietly.

“Absolutely” Alex said back.

“Thank you Alex” Twilight said looking up from the ground. “I needed that.”

Alex smiled at her, and she returned it.

“Come on,” Alex said walking beside her “let’s get back to the party, I wanna try some more of that cake!” He finished as the two walked back to the party.

Hours had passes since Celestia had asked Twilight to teach Alex how to perform magic, and since then, the two had been eating lots of cake, dancing, meeting ponies around town, altogether enjoying the party, and getting used to their new home in Ponyville.

The sky had just started getting darker, when, Princess Celestia stood up and used her magic to lightly bang a spoon on the side of her teacup.

Alex and Twilight turned along a few others, giving their attention to the princess.

“Mares and gentlecolts, if I could please have your attention” Princess Celestia said with just enough volume to make sure everypony heard her. Once the last of the talking died inside the crowd, she continued. “In honor of the 1000th annual summer sun celebration, and the return of my sister, Princess Luna, I would like to invite her to come and raise the moon, and usher in the night, for the first time in a thousand years.”

All attention was drawn to Luna, who had clearly not been expecting this. She blushed deeply as she approached Celestia. “Are you sure about this, Sister?” Luna asked timidly.

Celestia smiled, “Of course. Nothing would make me happier.”

Luna nodded, and smiled back at her sister, holding back tears. “Thank you.”

As Luna moved away from Celestia, the crowd backed away, giving her plenty of room to perform her royal duty.

Alex watched on, wondering exactly what it meant to ‘raise the moon.’

“Hey Twilight, what exactly is she doing?” He asked quietly.

“Just watch” Twilight whispered back, not taking her eyes off of Luna.

Luna bowed her head in front of the crowd, and her horn started to glow. Then, giving her wings a few powerful flaps, she lifted herself into the air. Raising her head up, she looked up into the sky as the glow around her horn brightened. Everypony watched on in awe as the moon rose from the horizon, moving directly behind Luna. Encompassing her in its light, all anypony could see of her was a silhouette, in front of the large moon behind her.

The crowd cheered as Luna landed on the ground. She looked at the cheering ponies in front of her and blushed again. She hadn’t expected everypony to warm up to her this quickly… Looking through the crowd, she saw an awe-stricken Alex standing next to a giggling Twilight. She winked at him, and then moved away from the crowd rejoining her sister.

Celestia beamed. This had done exactly what she had wanted it to. She wanted Luna to be accepted by the masses as quickly as possible, and she could think of no better way to do this than to have her raising the moon, and watching over the night again as quickly as possible.

“With that, I’m afraid I must announce our leave” Celestia began, earning several moans of displeasure from the crowd. “The party has been lovely, but much needs to be done in Canterlot to accommodate the return of Princess Luna.” She said, happily.

Twilight had been observing Princess Celestia since the party had started, and she was surprised to say the least. She had been mentored by the princess for years, but she had never seen her like this. Celestia was absolutely beaming. Twilight didn’t think she had ever seen her smile this much. She was truly happy to have her sister back.

“So, thank you for having us everypony, I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening.” The Princess said standing up, and walking toward Twilight, who quickly moved out of the crowd and met her half way. “I hope you enjoy your stay here, my faithful student. And remember, I have faith in you.” She said looking at Alex, then back to her. “And don’t hesitate to ask me for anything if you need It. Goodbye…” Celestia said, fighting back tears yet again. She then turned around and headed toward the royal carriage.

“Goodbye princess!” Twilight said, her voice cracking and her tears flowing freely.

“Bye everypony!” Luna said, waving hoof to the crowd, then turned around and followed her sister.

The royal guards took their positions in front of the carriage, and prepared for their departure.

“Oh!” Celestia said suddenly. “Mrs. Cake!”

“Yes dearie?” a blue pony with a pink mane said taking a step from the crowd, toward the carriage. “Oh! I mean… P… Princess!” She stammered, correcting herself.

“About what we talked about…" Celestia said to the earth pony.

“Don’t worry about a thing!” Mrs. Cake said with a smile, “I’ll make sure they get to you.”

“Wonderful” Celestia said with a smile, nodding to her lead guard, signaling them to start taking off.

As the carriage started to take flight, Luna popped her head over the edge, “Thank you everypony!” She shouted loudly, happy to finally be going home.

Alex couldn’t help but smile at her, she acted so young, and yet, only one night before, she had been a fully grown mare, with no trace of what she was now. Either way, he was just happy that things turned out the way they did, because they could have turned out much worse.

“So!” Alex said turning to Twilight, “Do you mind if we head back?”

“Hey Twilight!” Pinkie Pie shouted, falling out of the sky and landing in between them. “I’m throwing an after-party at Sugarcube Corner!”  

“Pinkie? Where did you…” Alex began looking around for some place that Pinkie could have jumped from to land between them the way she had.

‘Remember Alex, cartoon world’ He said to himself.

“Uhh, never mind.” Alex finished quickly.

“So! I was thinking you could bring Alex around and introduce him to the rest of the gang!” Pinkie said excitedly.

“Oh!” Twilight said turning to Alex, “You wanted to head back, right?”

“Oh, no! I’ll come,” Alex said with a yawn. “I can definitely stop in for a bit.”

“Alright!” Pinkie cheered, “Come on! Everypony’s waiting for us!“ she said as she started hopping off into the crowd, toward Sugarcube Corner, with Twilight and Alex closely behind.

Luna and Celestia sat in their carriage on their way back to Canterlot.

"Sister," Luna said softly, "That pony with the Rainbow mane..."

"I know," Celestia said, "I see him in her too."

"It was a shame what happened to him..." Luna said.

"He went out like a hero," Celestia consoled.

"Yeah," Luna smiled, "He did."

Alex was in awe of the building Pinkie had brought them to. The bottom of the house looked normal, but the roof looked like it was made of gingerbread that had been decorated with icing and candies. The house even had the very top level decorated like a giant cupcake with candles in it. It looked like someone had pulled it straight out of Hansel and Gretel.

Upon entering the building, Alex was met with the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. The room was absolutely full of sweets. There were cakes, cupcakes, candy canes, pies, cookies, and much more. This store would definitely be having his business in the future.

“Come on guys!” Pinkie said leading them up the stairs to the left of the entrance, “Everypony is up in my room!”

Following her up the stairs, they entered a large circular room directly above the shop, filled with balloons, cake, punch, and four ponies.

“We’re here!” Pinkie shouted, getting everyone’s attention.

Alex recognized all of the ponies from the battle with Night Mare. He had seen them around town during the party, but hadn’t talked to any of them except for Twilight and Pinkie.

“Girls, I’d like to introduce you to Alex.” Twilight began. ”Alex, these are my friends, Pinkie Pie, Rar….”

“Wait!” Alex said interrupting her. “Can I try? I think I can remember their names from the battle last night.” He was always good at remembering people’s names, so he thought this would be a fun challenge.

“Sure!” Twilight laughed. She had only said their names once in front him, so, she was happy to let him give this a try.

“Okay…” He said looking at the lineup of girls in front of him, then, pointing a hoof at Pinkie he started working his way across. “You’re Pinkie Pie, the element of laughter.” Alex began “I would shake your hoof, but I don’t want another shock.”

Pinkie lifted her hoof off the ground and flipped it, revealing a buzzer. She then exploded into a fit of snorts, and giggles.

Everypony else started giggling along with her, she had a very contagious laughter, which was fitting for her Element.

Moving on to the next pony in line, Alex pointed his hoof at a peach pony with a blonde mane, who was wearing a brown hat. “You,” he started confidently “Are Applejack, the element of honesty, Right?”

She smiled “Darn tootin’” She extended a hoof “it’s a pleasure to meetcha’!”

Shaking her hoof, he took a mental note of her southern American accent. This should have confused him, but, at this point, nothing was a surprise anymore.

The next pony in like was the white unicorn with the purple mane. She was very ladylike, and extremely good looking… Beautiful even.

This thought made him pause. He thought she was beautiful? Looking back and forth between all six ponies in front of him, he had to admit, they were all attractive. But why did he think that? These ponies were, well… ponies. Generally, he limited his attractions to his own species...

Then it hit him, they WERE his species. He WAS a pony. He knew his mind hadn’t been quite right since he was brought here, he had been saying the wrong things, having odd cravings for odd food, and now this. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Deciding that finding ponies attractive wasn’t the end of the world, he moved on.

“You’re Rarity” Alex finally said, “the element of generosity.”

“Quite right,” Rarity said with a smile, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Alex.”

“The pleasure is all mine,” Alex said lifting her leg up, and lightly kissing the end of her hoof.

Rarity blushed deeply, and the other ponies laughed at her reaction.

“Sorry,” Alex with a wink. “I couldn’t resist.”

The next pony in line Alex knew he would have some trouble with. She was a yellow pony with a bright pink mane, and wings. He tried to make eye contact with her, but she hid behind her hair. He thought hard, but couldn’t come up with her name… He needed to get a better look at her.

Leaning down, Alex got his head close to hers, “You don’t need to hide behind your hair, I’m not going to bite, I promise.” He said as softly, with a smile.

She looked up, and he finally saw one of her eyes. Lifting his hoof up, he brushed her mane away from her face. Then, like a ton of bricks, it hit him. “You’re Fluttershy, the element of kindness.”

She nodded slowly as Alex extended his hoof, “It’s nice to meet you Fluttershy” he began “I hope we’ll be seeing more of each other.”

“I hope so too.” She said quietly, as she smiled and shook his hoof.

Alex made another mental note about her timidness, knowing that he would have to be careful about how he treated her.

Moving on to the last pony in line, Alex knew that he was in trouble. She was cyan blue, with a rainbow mane, and wings. She was perhaps the most memorable of the entire group, but he had no idea what her name was. “Well…” he began “Your element is loyalty… But… as for your name…” Alex tried his hardest to think of something, but, came up with nothing. “Uh… is your name… Colors?”

“Excuse me?” The cyan pony said with an unhappy look on her face. “Does it LOOK like my name is Colors?” she said, with a few cracks in her voice.

If Alex was a smarter pony, he wouldn’t have answered that question the way he did.

“…Yes?”

“My name is RAINBOW DASH” She said both angry and embarrassed that she was the only one Alex couldn’t name. “And, I’m sorry if I wasn’t memorable enough for you to remember that.” Rainbow said before walking past Alex, and out the door behind him.

The silence in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife; everypony just stared awkwardly at one another.

“Don’t worry about her,” Twilight said finally breaking the agonizing silence, “She’s probably just tired. With everything that’s happened, nopony’s slept in almost two days!” she explained, “She’ll come around after good night’s sleep, I’m sure of it.” Twilight finished.

“Yeah…” Alex said slowly. “Sorry about that everypony. I didn’t mean to hurt her feelings…”

“Don’t worry about it darling!” Rarity said to him.

“Yeah!” Applejack chimed in, “Don’t you worry nothin’ ‘bout her.”

“Rainbow Dash is made of tough stuff!” Pinkie said “She’ll definitely come around!”

“All she needs is a little sleep” Fluttershy added quietly.

“Well… speaking of sleep” Alex said, still a little flustered, “I had better get some of that myself…”

“Are you sure?” Twilight asked him.

“Yeah, I think I’ve enough of myself a jerk today” Alex said laughing lightly, “I don’t wanna risk insulting anypony else.”

“Alright…” Twilight said slowly, ”Do you want me to show you the way back?”

“No, you stay here and enjoy yourself; I can find my way back.” Alex answered quickly, the truth was, this little exchange with Rainbow Dash had simply given him an excuse to head back to the library and get some sleep.

“Well… if you’re sure…” Twilight replied, not pushing anything on him.

“Yeah… sorry again everypony...” Alex said turning around, and quickly exited the room.

The girls all had a concerned look on their faces as they watched him leave.

“Well… That was certainly interesting…” Rarity said after hearing the front door closed behind Alex. “What do you think of him Twilight?” She asked.

“Well, he certainly is different…” Twilight began, “but from what I’ve seen of him, he’s a really… genuine pony.” She said confident in her choice of words, “The way he treated Luna, how he didn’t complain about having to study magic, even the way he introduced himself to all of you.” She continued, “I think he’s going to be great to have around.” She finished smiling.

“I agree! He was quite charming when he introduced himself to us” Rarity said blushing at the thought. “He isn’t too hard on the eyes either.” She finished with an impish grin.

“I noticed…” Twilight said, now blushing as well.

“Eeyup” Applejack agreed simply.

“I hope he wouldn’t be hard on the eyes!” Pinkie said, clearly not understanding what it was they meant. “Because, then…. you’d have to wear glasses to look at him!”

The other girls shook their heads and laughed. Even Fluttershy chuckled at her misunderstanding.

Once the giggling finally died down, Applejack headed over to the record player, and started playing it. “Come on y’all!” She shouted “Let’s party!”

For the next few hours, the five girls danced, ate, and overall, had a good time. Which, after everything that had happened the night before, was something they all deserved.

Alex walked through the now almost empty town. He inhaled, enjoying the fresh night air. Now that he had some time to himself, he thought about his parents. This world had been doing a pretty good job of keeping his mind off of them. But now, he needed to just remember them for a few minutes.

As he walked through the town, his mind mulled over countless memories of them he had, until, his mind stopped on one in particular. The last time he had seen them. Only two days before.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Alex stirred, opening his eyes looking at his alarm clock.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

“7:00 AM… Too early” Alex said rolling over in his bed, clamping a pillow over his ears.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

BEEP BEEP BEEP

BEEP BEEP BEEP

“Fine!” Alex shouted, hitting his hand down on the top of the alarm, silencing the hellish noise.

“Good to see you’re up” Alex’s mother said from his bedroom door. ”Breakfast is almost ready downstairs. Don’t go back to sleep!” she said flipping on the light in his room.

His mother had always loved doing that. Turning on the light. Alex hated it, but, she kept right on doing it. His mother was a fairly average mom, she cooked, she cleaned, she was all around, a stay home mom. She would often joke about how oppressed she was, but really, she knew better than anyone, that she was the REAL boss.

She was a small women, standing at a measly 4’6, which worked well, due to how short his father was. She had black hair that had started greying recently. But, whatever grey would grow in, was quickly dyed out. Having seen both of his parents graduation pictures, he didn’t understand how his father ended up with his mom. Back in her day, she was gorgeous. But, when his father was younger, he was a dweeb. Even now his mother still got looks from men every now and then. Something his father hated.

Alex shielded his eyes from the obnoxious light with his blanket. “I love you too mom!” he shouted from under the safety of his comforter.

Sighing, he pulled the blanket from over his head and let his eyes adjust to horrible brightness. Then, he stood up from his bed and headed for the shower.

Once he finished, he pulled on a clean shirt, and a pair of jeans he had worn the day before. Once he was satisfied with himself, he headed down for breakfast.

“Mornin’ sleeping beauty” Alex’s father said lowering his newspaper and smiling “Did prince charming wake you up with a kiss?”

Alex rolled his eyes and laughed. His father had used this line on him at least once a week.

His father was a short man, standing at only 5’6. His hair had started to grey recently, slowly taking over his natural black. You could also see the wrinkles forming on his face. But, because of his work on the ranch, he had kept himself in rather good physical condition. Alex and his father had always been close. With the constant insults, the fist fights over the TV remote, and the “camping” he hated so much, Alex really couldn’t be happier. His father had always given him a hard time, but it was always in good fun.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, me and your mother were gonna head into the city to pick up a load of groceries. You mind if we take your truck?” His father asked.

“Yeah, sure” Alex said, getting some scrambled eggs out of the frying pan, then sitting down to join his father.

“Great” He started slowly,  “You know, I was thinking… what say you and I go on another camping trip next weekend?” His father said, poking his eye over his newspaper.

“Ha!” Alex said. “How about this, you go, and you can tell me all about it when you get back. Sound good?” He said, scooping some eggs into his mouth.

“Come on! Name one thing that’s wrong with going camping.” His father said confidently.

“Oh, I won’t just name one,” Alex began with a smile, “There’s the lack of electricity, the lack of heating, the lack of toilets, the lack of showers. So, pretty much the lack of EVERYTHING. Then, there’s The bears, the wolfs, the bees, the mosquitos, and, did if forget to mention the BEARS.” Alex repeated.  “And, to top it all off, I just don’t like you.” He finished, putting some eggs into him mouth.

“Come on chief!” His father mocked. ”You might need those skills for the future!”

“I can promise you right now, I will NEVER need those skills. I don’t see myself getting stuck in any forests any time soon.” Alex said. “So, I think I’ll pass.”

As he finished his last bit of breakfast, Alex’s mother entered the room.

“I got all of your laundry done, and put in your room.” She said sitting down at the table. “So, make sure it gets folded and put away.”

“Yes ma‘am!” Alex said giving her a salute.

“Oh! Dear,” His mother began, “your father and I were wondering if we could borrow the truck to run some errands.”

“I know, dad already asked” Alex said. “And I said he could take it, if I didn’t have to go camping with him.” He said smirking.

“Fine” His father said. “You’re lucky I have to feed your mother, because I’d just skip the groceries, and have you starve.´

“I have money you know.” Alex said pulling an extremely wrinkled 5 dollar bill out of his pocket.

“Oh, I see that. You’re rolling in the dough, aren’t you?” He said sarcastically.

“Yeah well… I’ll go out and work the corner if I REALLY need money.” Alex said, causing his mother and father burst laughter. He couldn’t help but smile with them.

“Well. All career choices aside,” Alex said snickering, “When are you two heading out?”

“Probably the same time as you” Alex’s mother said wiping a tear from her eye. “We were thinking we would go into town, have some lunch, see a movie, and make a day of it.” She said wrapping her arm around her husbands.

“You want anything while we’re there?” His father asked.

”No, Don’t worry about me” Alex said. “You two just do your thing.”

Standing up, Alex’s walked over to the stove and tossed his plate and the frying pan into the sink. “Well, I’m leaving just about now, so… shall we go?” He said looking at his parents.

“Sure thing” His mother said picking up her purse and walking to the front door with Alex. “You coming?” She said to her still seated husband. “If you like, I can just go down to Alex’s corner and hire one of his co-workers to be my date for the day.”

“Well, we can’t have that!” His father standing up from the table quickly, “They might fall in love with you and convince you to run away with them!” He said walking toward the door. “Then again… that doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Oh shut it, you!” She said hitting her husband with her purse lightly.

“You’re way out of their league anyway” His dad said giving her a kiss on the lips. “Let’s get going.” He finished with a smile.

The three of them exited the house together and headed for their respective cars. “Hey Alex!” his father called, reaching into his pocket and throwing Alex the keys for the car.

Catching them, Alex tossed his father the keys to his truck.

Using them, he got inside the truck with his wife, and roared the engine to his life. “Oh, kiddo, come here.” His dad said suddenly.

Walking over, his father reached into his pocket and handed him his credit card.

“What’s this for?” Alex said raising an eyebrow.

“Almost no gas in that thing, you’d better fill it up on your way.” He said pointing at the car.

“Oh, thanks.” Alex said smiling. “You guys have fun, okay?”

“Aww, thanks sweetie!” His mother said happily. “Come here!” She said leaning over her husband toward the open window with her arms outstretched.

Alex sighed and leaned forward, letting her embrace him over his dad through the open window.

“Have a good day at school!” She said, then kissing him on the cheek.

Alex could hear his dad laugh quietly at his embarrassment.  “I will” he said pulling back. “Love you.”

“I love you” His father mimicked in a squeaky voice.

“Shut up.” Alex said rolling his eyes. “You’ll be back by the time I’m done my date with Courtney?”

“Yup” His father said putting the car into gear. “Try not to miss us too much; we’ll be here when you get home.” He finished as he drove the car straight out the gate.

”I’ll try not to!” Alex shouted as they pulled away on to the main road.

Smiling, he got into his dads car and started it. Looking at the gas gauge, it was as he thought, full. He knew this was his father’s way of saying ‘Please come camping.’ “Well, if I’m going camping,” Alex said, “I might as well make him pay for it.”

Knowing this card would score him some points with his girlfriend, Alex Slipped the card into his pocket, and started thinking where he was going to take her for dinner.

Everything had happened so suddenly that day. It had all started out wonderfully. Like any other day. But after that, the day went from good, to bad, to horrible. However, the one thing that he was happy he had, was the final exchange he had with his parents. He thanked Celestia that the last thing that happened between them wasn’t an argument or something like that. His final memories of his parents had been great ones. And, as heart wrenching as it was to think of his ‘final memories’ with them, at least those memories had been something worth it.

Smiling lightly, Alex opened the door to the library. He was surprised that all the lights were on. Something he hadn’t noticed on his arrival because of his little flash back.

“Who are you?” A voice said.

Alex almost had a heart attack. He hadn’t expected somepony else to be here.

“Are you a burglar pony? Because I’ll have you know that I’m a dragon! And you shouldn’t mess with a dragon!” The voice said, attempting toughness.

Alex looked up the stairs to where the voice had come from. And, sure enough, there was a dragon. A very small dragon, or, what Alex assumed was a small dragon. He was a small purple creature with a light green stomach, and dark green scales across his head, almost like a mohawk.

“Don’t worry buddy. I’m no burglar.” Alex said to the dragon. “I’m staying here until I can get a place to stay in Ponyville.” He explained. “By the way, what’s your name?”

“I’m Spike!” The small dragon said puffing his chest out and smiling. “I’m Twilights assistant!”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you Spike.” Alex said, walking up the stairs toward the dragon. “What kind of dragon did you say you were again?”

“Well…” Spike began, “I’m still TECHICALLY a baby dragon… But because of all the studying with Twilight I’ve done, I’m a lot smarter than I look!” He said proudly.

Alex cocked an eyebrow, somehow he didn’t find this all THAT strange. This world was filled with surprises, and he was starting to get used to it. “Well, I’m Alex” He said extending a hoof.  

Spike reached out and wrapped his hand around Alex’s hoof, shaking it. “Nice to meet you! I’m Spike” he repeated with a smile.

Alex couldn’t help but be jealous that Spike had actual hands. He missed holding things…

“Have you seen Twilight?” Spike asked, looking at the clock, and realizing just how late it was.

“Oh, she’s over at Pinkie Pie’s house. They’re having an after party.” Alex explained.

“That pony sure likes parties.” Spike said to himself, remembering the night before. “So… Why are you staying here?” He asked.

“Well… THAT, is a long story…” Alex began, heading down the wooden stairs toward the main reading area. “I guess I’ll start from the very beginning. You should probably sit down.”  He said taking a second to gather his thoughts. “Oh!” He said suddenly, “I’m not crazy, no matter how crazy this story sounds.”

Spike nodded and sat down on a chair sandwiched between two bookshelves.

“This is all true” Alex said before beginning.

Spike nodded.

“I’m not making it up” Alex continued.

Spike nodded again.

“I’m not crazy” Alex said, still not moving on.

“Okay! I get it!” Spike said frantically, just wanting to hear the story.

“Right, sorry!” Alex began. “Well… It all started a few days ago…”

“And then, after making a total jerk out of myself, I headed back here.” Alex said, finishing his story.

Spike was silent. The story had been beyond farfetched. But, if Princess Celestia believed Alex, then he must have been telling the truth. “Well, if all that’s true, that means you’ll be around for a while learning magic, right?” Spike asked.

“I guess so,” Alex answered. “Twilight said it could take years…”

Spike saw the troubled look cross Alex’s face.  “Well, I’m sure it won’t take you that long.” He said comfortingly. “Besides, now that you’re here, I’m not the only guy!” Spike said, realizing how excited this made him. “I won’t be stuck doing lots of girly stuff with Twilight and her friends all the time!”

Alex couldn’t help but smile. Spike may have appeared to be young, but he had the mindset of a young teenager. And on top of that, Alex really couldn’t help but agree with him. It would be nice to have another guy around. Alex was sure he’d get along with Spike just fine. However, it was late, and Alex knew that Spike should probably be sleeping. “Well Spike, I couldn’t agree more. But, I think right now, we should hit the hay.” Alex suggested.

“Yeah, you’re right. Twilight would kill me if she knew I was up this late.” Spike said laughing. “But, one more thing before we go… You know that white unicorn with the purple hair?” Spike asked.

“Rarity?” Alex asked, confused.

“Yeah!” Spike said smiling. “She’s mine. Don’t go near her.” He said, suddenly dead serious.

“Um, okay?” Alex said, even more confused than last time.

“Good!” Spike said smiling again, as if he hadn’t said anything. “Oh! That’s gonna be the room you stay in. It’s the only other one with a bed.” He said pointing at a door across the room.

Alex recognized the room as the one he had come out of when he first woke up after the battle with Night Mare.

“Thanks!” Alex said walking toward the room. “Get a good night’s sleep, alright?” Alex asked. “The last thing I need is Twilight angry at me too.”

Spike laughed, “Sure thing! And If you need anything, just ask.” He said before blowing out all the candles, then heading back up the stairs to his and Twilights room.

“Goodnight!” Alex called to Spike, hearing him close his door.

Alex walked into the room that he had been in previously. Smiling, he walked his way over to the bed, and collapsed on top of it. If today and yesterday were any indicator, life here was going to be crazy. And if he was gonna pull through it all, he’d need sleep.

Because he had a feeling, this story was only just beginning.

Prologue: End

Please R&R