Chapter 1
Falling. I was somehow falling. I knew I was falling with my back to the ground, largely due to the fact the wind was not blasting my face.
Then consciousness left me once again.
“No AJ ah aint knowing ‘im…”
“…tah the hospital…”
“…urn, what ya mean ‘e juss… from the…”
“…wear! Ah saw ‘im fall from the tah Mountain…”
I was fading in and out of consciousness as the worried individuals conversed around me. One was definitely female, the other a soft spoken male. Both were obviously of rural origin, but there existed faint differences in the ways they spoke, this lead me to the conclusion that, although both most likely worked in the fields, they were from two very different farms. This would explain the differences in their dialects.
"Let's git... urn, ah'll go get Tw.."
"... On it... Applejack, ah'm..."
Wait, Applejack?! My eyes decided to fly open, terrifying the bright cream colored quadruped standing above me. It didn't take long for me to realize what had happened. I had somehow fallen through the roof of this building, and landed in a large bale of hey.
"Are ya okay..?"
I slowly looked back up at the pony above me, "Braeburn..?"
He stared at me in confusion, "How...?" I could see him slowly backing away from me.
"Ummm... Heeeyy...." It was all I could do to try to alleviate the amazingly awkward situation. "Sorry.. It's just that I've… Heard about you. Good things of course.." That was a lie. How could I explain the truth about the fact that I knew him through a children's TV show?
"Ummm.. Thanks?"
"You're pretty cute."
My hands, or, rather, hooves flew to my mouth. I was known to involuntarily speak whatever was on my mind while under stress. Unfortunately, this was one of those times.
Braeburn blushed and moved a little closer, "Ummm... Who are ya..?"
"Ferrous Ultima." I used my OC's name. It was better than calling myself... wait, what was my name..?
"Not from 'round here, are ya?" He had tilted his head to the side. He was giving me a quizzical look, although I didn't really care. I was more occupied with the equine I had liked, almost too much, and the fact that I had, somehow, fallen into the magical world of pastel colored mini equine.
He was staring at me still, so I looked up and met his gaze again. That's when I noticed it, inside his brilliant emerald eyes, there existed a turbulence of emotions. Joy, anguish, hatred, grief. All were present in his eyes. "Are you okay? You seem kinda...Distracted.."
He didn't answer immediately, rather he turned away from me. "Who are ya? Ya are definitely not from 'round here, yet ya seem ta know a lot about me. More than ya are lettin' on." I thought for a minute as he backed up again. I was obviously a pony, and a cement grey one at that. My mane, which had just fallen over my face, was a deep purple. I was my OC.
"Truth is..." I couldn't finish my thought. I couldn't tell him the truth; it would destroy the world around me.
"You're not a pony are ya.. You're a 'homan', right..?"
The word he called me, 'human'.. I recognized it, but, at the same time, I didn't. My memory, I felt, was full of holes. I couldn't remember my name, which I knew was not Ferrous Ultima, nor where I was from. Needless to say, my mind felt like Swiss-cheese.
Then, I made the mistake of trying to stand up.
My rear leg on my left side was under my abdomen at an angle that coincided with a very, VERY extreme breakage. I cried out in pain and crumpled back to the floor. "Ah, shit! Ya okay?!" There was more than sincere worry in that question. He actually cared for me.
"DO I LOOK 'OKAY' TO YOU?!"
I felt Saranade leave my psyche almost as soon as it said that. My face immediately went crimson, "I.. I'm... Shit." Braeburn merely gave me a cursory glance. A KNOWING cursory glance.
"Maltupul per'onality disorder, right?"
I froze, "Whaa..? How... How did..?"
My lower jaw was practically level with the floor. "I know ma own men'nal illnesses.."
I physically pulled my lower jaw into alignment with its upper counterpart, "So, when you say things like," I did my best to do an imitation of his 'Welcome to Apploosa' quip without making it seem hateful, "that's another.. You?"
He turned his eyes to the floor, "yea.. That's 'Cousin Braeburn', 'e appears while Ahm under a lot of... Wait.. How did ya..?"
Oops.. "Umm... Let's just.."
"'Es over here!" Saved by the return of Applejack and.. Twilight?
Twilight and AJ entered the barn and practically skidded to a spot in front of me, "WOAH!! That's a lot of magical ener.. Wait, whaa..? It's... Gone?" Twilight was staring at me. It was starting to get a little uncomfortable. Just a little.
She began to look from me to Braeburn and back. "Umm... Heeey.." Applejack was staring directly at me. "I saw you run out of this... This... This is a barn, right?"
Twilight's horn began to glow as she threw me into the air and held me aloft. Her words, to any normal being, would have made absolutely no sense, "...S-type polarity one-hundred-seventy-one percent, seventy-one percent above normal..."
She paused and looked around, her eyes widening. She turned around, and, rather involuntarily, dropped me. Rolling to my right side, I was able to tuck my head before I hit the ground.
"Twi! What's wrong?"
Opening my eyes, I was surprised at the natural flexibility of equine anatomy: my face happened to be inches from my flank.
"AppleJack, are there any other unicorns around?"
AJ tilted her head, "Nah, why?"
The symbol on my flank was blurred from my eyes' close proximity to it, so I brought my head back to a more comfortable angle in which I could clearly see my cutie-mark.
Twilight was staring at me in disbelief, "he couldn't possibly.."
A circle with four rays that start near the center and pass through to the outside, creating an X-shape. A single, slightly longer ray extended from the top, and an even longer ray pointed to my rear hooves. The sections of the rays inside the circle created a smaller circle with their unconnected endpoints. I just HAD to have my special talent be chaos. As far as I could tell, I wasn't an avatar of Discord. THAT would DEFINITELY be a bad thing.
"But... But... You're an.. An EARTH PONY! There is no logical way for you to be able to use MAGIC!"
It took a while, resetting the bones in my hind leg and splinting it so it wouldn't move. It was done with no pain killers, save a spell Twilight cast. Unfortunately, it was still EXTREMELY excruciating.
She patted the last piece of plaster cloth gently into place, "There, that should do it. You can walk on it, just not too much, alright?" I nodded in acknowledgment.
"And, another thing.."
I lifted my head and began to listen to Red Heart explain exactly why I was an earth pony. "Which brings us to this," she held up a vial of what was obviously my blood, "as I have just explained, you are an Earth Pony. However, your blood contains a gene ONLY found in Unicorns. In any other species, this gene should not be present, especially in this abnormally HUGE amount. Actually, the amount of the gene present in your blood stream is enough to kill ANY unicorn..."
Huh..?
"Ten times over. Minimum."
Ohhhhhh..... Wait.....
Shit, that's definitely NOT good...
Twilight and Red Heart began a conversation about how I could possibly be alive. A conversation of which I was not particularly inclined to listen to. I don't think he noticed, but Braeburn had stayed in rather close proximity to me since I had awoken. He had been, since our arrival at the hospital, staring at me. It was more than obvious that he was, as they say, staring off into space, but that look in his eyes.. Pain, anguish, hope, anger, love, trust and mistrust. All present in that one look.
I walked over to him, he didn't seem to notice. As I draped my right foreleg across his shoulders, he brought his head around to face me trying, and failing, to cover up that look.
I gave him a sincere smile, "you are, aren't you..?"
He seemed to shrink in upon himself, "Umm.. Please.. No.." His eyes were trying to find something to look at. Something comforting, something to draw him away from my question.
"I.. I.."
Great, just great, I just HAD to lose my train of thought right at the worst possible time.. Think Ferrous! THINK!
"Braeburn, I know... I know we just met... But I.. You.."
He didn't give me time to finish. He brought his head around and stared into my eyes. His eyes seemed to be glowing with a hopeful light.
That left seconds later. "No.. NO!" He screamed, his eyes shut and releasing tears like a river. He turned and galloped out of the building.
Much to my concern, I realized where he was blindly headed. I galloped after him, "Braeburn!! Wait!!" I wouldn't realize it until later, but my hind leg, the one that had been broken, was working as normal, even painlessly. Sprinting as fast as I could, I began to catch up to him. He was still running blind, but it seemed he had stopped crying.
I was beginning to catch up to him, a fact which would have boosted my optimism, if he were not so close to running off a cliff.
I managed to get between him and the drop-off, “Brae..” He, still not knowing the danger he was in, rammed into me, sending us both off the edge.
We were falling; however, I was several inches below him. I would hit the ground first. The drop was over one-hundred-fifty feet straight down, more than enough to be lethal, even to a pony. I closed my eyes and, for the first time in as long as I could remember, let my mind wander. Out of nowhere, I began to wonder how this horrid situation could change if I could fly.
Unbeknownst to me, my body had begun to shine with a soft golden light. “Sonic..” Two spots, one on either side of my back began to glow more intensely. “..Counter..” I was falling head first, the ground mere feet from my head. “..BOOM!”
The sound barrier broke with enough power to produce severe winds. “What the…” Twilight watched as something screamed overhead with speeds consistent of those Rainbow Dash when she performed her Sonic Rainboom. It stopped in midair for less than a second before falling to the ground with enough energy as to create a ten-foot wide crater.