The First Journey: Feelings of Etherealism

by Kaille

Chapter 16

~Chapter 16: A Proper Brohoof~

So, it seemed like it would be any old day. Sky would get up (carefully so as not to rouse his girl next to him; she didn't work till later), hop on his computer and work on some videos for Youtube, and sleep. He worked as a professional Youtuber, posting videos daily for various games, movies, and blogs. The only thing that was going to be special today was a severe thunderstorm near the end of the day, but that was not going to be a problem; he didn't plan to be online at the time.

So, he started up his day. He got out of bed and wandered into the kitchen and got himself some toast and a glass of orange juice. He pulled up some manga on his laptop at the kitchen counter, not bothering to sit at the table, and ate while reading. After he finished eating he cleaned up his dishes and hopped in the shower. Upon finishing he dressed and walked into his 'office'. It was really just a techie man cave; a few computers, three monitor set up on his main computer Ariadne, shelves of various video games, movies, and other technological devices. But there was another series of items littered across the room;

Ponies.

Just like the rest of his friends, he was a hardcore Brony, and proud of it.

This was where he spent the most time at home. It was a simple house that he shared with his GF; bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, cave, living room, and for her, a 'girly' room. It was still similarly tech-oriented, but had other things as well. She wasn't as technologically oriented as he was.

Speaking of her, after a few minutes booting his computer and getting all his equipment up and running smoothly she knocked on the door and walked in. They said a quick good morning to each other and she headed off to get ready for work, while he booted up the first game he would make a video of, Terraria. Him and another friend had planned to do a couple hour video of it today on live stream, but his buddy was in a different timezone and would be going to bed soon, so it was a first thing to do upon waking.

Now for a more in-depth description of this guy. He didn't spend much money on anything besides his games, computer and car. He had a fair sized collection of games; he was closing in on 500. As for computers, he ran his Windows tower Ariadne as his main, he had a Mac next to it for video editing and the like, and his laptop was the Razer Blade. Ariadne had a three-monitor setup, all fullscreen and 30 inches. He liked her the most of his computers. As for his car, he had a Chrysler 300 with a few tune-ups, granting it a fair amount of kick. His favourite thing about the car though, was the paint job.

Gloss white.

Offset violet stripe, matching 20-inch bike spoke rims, and matching grill.

Light blue tinted windows.

And three light blue diamonds for a vinyl in front of each rear wheel.

Thats right, his car was Rarity themed. In his group of friends, that was who he related to. He wasn't like his friend Connor used to be, having multiple vehicles. He didn't need that. His baby girl was good enough for him any day. But off of that, he still lived in his home province, as did everyone else. They liked to get together often and game at someones place, having a few drinks, laughing, and carrying on.

After a few minutes Ashley returned to say goodbye and head off to work, and he got back to his work on Youtube. He was pretty successful at his job as a Youtuber, and a few part time jobs here and there to add to his income every so often allowed him to support his collection. But his Youtube fanbase was around 3 million, which made him damn proud of himself. He did videos for games like Minecraft, Terraria, any Pony games that came out, the occasional Disgaea run, or a run for one of the games in the Tales series. Castlevania, God of War, Mario Kart. . . The list is long.

After three hours of the game him and his friend managed to go from completely restarting to having done everything; the best armour, best weapons for their combat style, and a boss mansion. They played enough over the years to have developed a great deal of skill and many habits that allowed them to fly through. His friend logged off and he relaxed for a couple minutes, grabbing a quick snack. He returned with a few of his veggie straws - a healthier alternative to chips - and transferred the recording to his Mac and proceeded to edit it. He left it at a full 3-hour run, not clipping anything out, but he added his trademark intro and outro and added a couple video links and annotations at important parts. He set it to upload after an hour of his touching it up and went back to Ariadne, deciding to surf the net a bit before doing some Minecraft bulk recording.

He finished up a few manga he followed, some fimfics, a few Youtubers he followed himself, and then checked the MLP news. And then he cursed himself for forgetting something and took off out the door, driving to his regular gamestore.

The new MLP game was released today, and he had to pick up his preorder.

After returning home with his game and popping it in Ariadne, he booted up his recording program and his livestream and got started. He had promised this to his subscribers - known as 'My Little Pupils' - and had said he would do a full-day marathon.

He intended to keep that promise.

He played the game on and on, completely losing track of time. It was a new turn-based RPG, with three party members on the field at a time, Twilight having to be included. It was hearkening back to the second season - god, the flashbacks it was bringing on - and the main villain was Chrysalis. You had to solve the mystery of Cadence's attitude, and upon discovering that, escape the underground, fight off the Changeling horde, get to the throne room, and defeat Chrysalis. Cadence and Shining joined your party at the end to fight off the Changeling queen, and then you beat the game with the wedding elaborated on more in the final cutscene afterward.

However, it was not completely linear. There were side missions to complete along the way, often long ones, and the mystery you solve in the beginning is fairly in depth and time consuming. The order you solved different aspects of it would grant you different powers and spells, making sure that not every run through would be the exact same. It may be a game made for a younger audience, but it was definitely intended to be a long one.

He paused every so often to go eat or use the bathroom, and by the time he actually checked the clock, he realized that the storm forecasted was starting and it was time for Ashley to be getting home. AS if on cue she walked in the front door, so he called an intermission and went to go eat supper with her. Upon finishing she decided to hop on her own computer for a bit and go straight to bed; work was hard on her today.

He returned to his game after they ate and once more became enthralled. He was getting close; he just entered the castle, and was now fighting his way to the sabotaged wedding to fight off the final boss. The storm outside was getting serious; thunder and lightning was going off constantly.

He made it to the main hall and after watching the second last cutscene he got straight into the fray; he had no idea how Shining or Cadence worked, but it appeared that she was a healer and he was a tank/defensive type of character. Alright, good, he kind of ended up turning Twilight into a glass cannon over the course of the game, relying on Applejack to hold up the defence.

The fight was getting intense; he stopped talking to his subscribers watching. He was trying to focus and plan his moves, because Cadence was down, and Shining was on his last leg. Twilight was sitting in the back, casting her overpowered spells, but one hit and she would be done. Suddenly, Shining Armour died, leaving Twilight defenceless. However, one more spell, no matter how powerful, would finish the fight. He saved some mana for the entirety of it, just so he could finish her off with Twilight Sparkle's ultimate spell.

He cast it, and after watching the mini clip with, bit his lower lip in anticipation. The queen flinched back from taking the hit, the damage number rolled up-

Twenty thousand damage.

Chrysalis had three hundred and fifty health.

He whooped in joy, and the queen began her animation of falling to the ground, just about to-

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning cam down from the sky in the storm.

It struck his house.

It ran through the house, into the electrical circuit-

And right through his computer.

It flashed off, fried. He jumped out of his chair and screamed; all those hours of footage lost, and he was so close to beating the game he could almost taste it.

Then, his computer started to smoke.

Then, it exploded.

All was white.

Then all was black.

~

"What - how - fuck?"

He found himself staring at Rainbow Dash - THE Rainbow Dash - a pony from a CARTOON - after realizing he was a pony, then exploding the bloody hell out of his own ass. They stared at each other in shock, him because he couldn't believe it, her because she was confused as to what the hay was going on. He passed out, and when he came to again, he was lying on a bed. He opened his eyes groggily to see himself staring at a wooden cieling, with the rings of a tree visible in it. What kind of ceiling is like that? Wait, WHERE THE HELL AM I?!

His eyes blew open the rest of the way and he stood straight up in the bed, then instantly regretted it, flopping back down and squeezing his eyes shut. He stood up so suddenly that he got light headed and dizzy, plus a rather uncomfortable headache.

"Oh, he's waking up!" He heard someone say to the side. He opened one eye slightly and he jumped back up again. To hell with what it did to him.

He was looking at Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash.

Then he began to remember the last time he woke up; in the woods, face first in dirt, meeting RD, detonating his derrière, and fainting again. He groaned as the sudden return of the previous events brought back the previous pains; his face was sore, his ass was KILLING him, and his headache was still not abating.

"Hey, are you alight?"

He realized he had put a hand - well, hoof - to his temple and was massaging it, grimacing in pain. "Y-Yeah, I guess. . . Where am I?"

Twilight walked over and sat next to the bed. "Ponyville Library."

Upon hearing this, he realized he should have known. The reason there were the rings in the wooden ceiling was because he was in a tree. "Well, shit. I'm in Equestria."

Twilight's head cocked to the side. Rainbow walked over, a confused look on her face. "Yeah. . . duh. Where else would you be? Your a pony."

Suddenly Twilight's eyes grew wide, and she stood straight up. "BebackinabitRainbowkaybye!" Then she teleported out of the house.

Him and RD looked at where she used to be standing, both wondering what the hay was going on and where she went, and turned to each other. They stared each other in the eyes for a few seconds, when Twilight abruptly returned, another pony next to her, a stallion, both with wide eyes.

He clutched his head much like he had been from his headache earlier. "What the hay Twilight, give a pony some warning before you do that!" the voice rang a bell for some reason, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Shit, hoof.

"Sorry, but you needed to be here before I asked this question!" She turned to him and asked a simple question. "Are you from Earth?" RD and the stallion jerked their heads to her in shock, and then to him.

"Uhh. . . yeah?"

The stallions rump dropped to the floor. "What. . . the buck."

All at once, he realized where he knew that voice. His heart stopped and his body grew cold. "C. . . Connor?"

The two mares were floored now, and looked from him to the one who he presumed to be his long-deceased friend.

His eyes grew wide in recognition now. "Wait. . . Skyler?!" Without warning Connor jumped Skyler, taking him by surprise and hugging him into the bed. "Jesus Christ on a pogo stick dude, how the FUCK did you get into Equestria?!"

Sky pushed him back a little and looked him in the eye. "I could ask the same."

He somewhat smirked at that. "True. Well, we will start with you. Your story is likely shorter than mine."

Skyler summarized what happened, and then Connor's expression fell a bit. "Actually, I have a question. How. . . How is everyone holding up about my death?"

Sky sighed a little. "Well, it has been a year and a half, so we kind of-"

"WHAT?!"

His voice thundered off the walls around us, shocking everyone present, and they heard a quieter shout above them and a thump. Connor was sitting there spluttering.

"Yeah. . . you got killed a year and a half ago on Earth. How long have you been in Equestria?"

He stopped spluttering. "About th. . . Three weeks."

All grew quiet. Sky broke the silence. "Well, fuck."

Connor smirked a little at that, but still looked flabbergasted. "Well, I kind of cut you off there. How are things back on Earth?"

He sighed again. "Well, pretty good, I think. After you died though, our crew of friends never really felt the same. There was just this. . . hole. After a few months a semblance of normality was back, and then we decided to name you after Luna in the crew, in honour of her being your favourite in the show." He blushed a little at this and Twilight and RD chuckled. "My girl became Rainbow Dash." Thinking about her made him realize he would never see her again, and she would have to deal with his death just down the hall from her. This caused him to choke up.

He cringed. "I take it you died just before coming here too?"

Sky nodded.

He crawled over and gave Sky a bro hug to comfort me. "Shit man, I'm sorry. Was she in the house?"

Sky nodded again, and a tear ran down his cheek.

He grimaced again. "Fuck man."

Silence reigned for a few minutes before Connor spoke again, and he tried to cheer Skyler up. He smiled slightly. "Meet fellow brony."

Sky smiled a bit too. "Raise primary hoof." He raised his right forehoof and Connor raised his left at the exact same time. They broke out into huge grins and in sync said;

"BROHOOF!"

They clapped their hooves together, and suddenly the joy of being reunited with one of his best friends after so long brought out a strange feeling in his forehead, and then sparks and fireworks abruptly flew across the room from it. All four of them staggered a bit in shock, and when the storm of bright lights and loud noises ended a voice other than any of theirs resounded.

"What the hay is going on down here?!"

They turned to the door to see a stunned Spike. They could no longer control themselves after all of the tension and they all burst into laughter. Spike's eyes shot around glancing at all of them.

Then Connor turned to Skyler after reigning in his laughter. "Well, now that your in Equestria, you ought to use an appropriate name. I'm Ink." He offered a hoof to shake, and Sky grinned accepting.

"Well, let's go with-"

"Hey, you got your cutie mark now!"

Skyler turned to Rainbow and then glanced at his hip. Sure enough, displayed on his violet coat of fur, just in front of his bleach white tail, was a cutie mark of fireworks and explosions. He grinned and turned back to Co- Ink.

"I'm Spurspark."

Comments

[theepicartists]

this is geting gooooood! please make more!

[Halo Prime]

He realized he had put a hand - well, hoof - to his temple and was massaging it, grimacing in pain. "Y-Yeah, I guess. . . Where am I?"
Twilight walked over and sat next to the bed. "Ponyville Library."
Upon hearing this, I realized I should have known. The reason there were the rings in the wooden ceiling was because I am in a tree. "Well, shit. I'm in Equestria."

Just a suggestion, go back somewhere and edit this a little, because it seems the perspective changes almost without warning. I don't know how you are supposed to show the change in perspective, but maybe you can find a way

Still hoping to see more later, keep it up

[Kaille]

1012103
lol, yeah. Kinda noticed that, but didn't feel like editing it right away. Had to go to bed. It was already 2 am here.

EDIT: Fixed! Everything is now 'he, him, his, they, them, etc.'