Ryan Harlow, a 22 year old man who lives in his van. After sometime on the road, he ends up in Mammoth, California. What was supposed to be a normal camping trip had somehow turned into a cross country road trip with a magical horse. Great.
Ryan twisted the cap back onto the air mattress, giving it one final poke, it feeling sufficient. He grabbed the pump, rounding around the right side of the van. Opening the side door, he tossed it into the open glove box, pushing it closed afterwords.
“There we go.”
Adjusting the cap on his head, he pushed his brown hair back underneath. He walked to the open trunk, grabbing a camping chair and placing it facing the setting sun, just in front of the van. Then, he walked to the cooler laying beside the rear wheel and grabbed a Busch apple, bringing it back to his seat.
“Damn. Where’d I put those glasses.”
Walking to the passenger seat up front, he pushed the button of the glove box. Digging through the box, he pulled out a pair of ski goggles, a couple pieces of paper, and a pack of gum.
“Crap.” Taking the pair of goggles, Ryan pushed the rest of the items back inside the box. Returning to his chair, he pulled the goggles over his eyes.
Sitting in the chair, Ryan stretched lazily, watching the brilliant orange sun slowly drift closer to the mountains below. He focused on the quiet sounds of the forest around him, the rustling of branches, chirping of birds, and soft blow of air.
He then noticed the sound of his cooler opening, followed by the rustling of plastic and ice.
5 minutes earlier
Rainbow opening her eyes slowly, taking a few seconds to let out a yawn. Stretching a bit, she finally became aware to her surroundings. Tall pine trees stood around her. Getting to her hooves, the area was unfamiliar to her. Ponyville didn’t have really pine trees.
“Hello? Anypony?”
No response came. Grumbling to herself, she spread her wings and took flight. Getting above the trees, she scanned the area. Large, rough mountains surrounded her, safe for where the sun lay, nearing sunset.
Flying above the tree tops yielded nothing. There was no sign of Ponyville, or any other town for that matter.
“What the hay?” Rainbow whispered
It wasn’t the afternoon when rainbow went to bed. In fact, it was near midnight. And, she was at home, 50 feet off the ground, and not in the Forest. She wasn’t even doing much of anything last night. She talked with twilight, flew with tank for a bit, and made a small dinner and went to bed. Speaking of food…
A loud growl emanating from her stomach, and a dull pain in her barrel forced her back down to the ground.
“Ah hay, maybe I should’ve ate more earlier…” She grumbled to herself. “Maybe I can find some food…”
Sniffing the air, the mountain air carried a tangy smell, maybe some kind of fruit. Licking her lips, she took off, weaving through the pines, following the scent.
Walking through the trees, the serenity of her surroundings calmed her. A breeze brew the branches over gently, while small birds fluttered from tree to tree.
She upon a clearing, and was momentarily stunned. A strange metal carriage, though much larger than any one she’d seen, stood. The sun was now nearly bellow the mountains, dressing the area in a orange colour. And next to the rear wheel of the carriage, a box where the smell emanated from sat.
She took a step but the drew back when she heard a noise. From behind the vehicle, a strange hairless creature walked out on two legs, carrying a object underneath their forelegs. It wore a maroon top, blue pants (denim maybe?), and had a cap on top of its brown mane. Rainbow crouched down in the brush, watching as it went back and forth between where it set up its thing (chair?) and the box, which confirmed her suspicions that it held food.
Considering turning back, she was interrupted by her stomach’s protests. It’s now or never. Watching the creature move back to its seat, she bided her time.
Once the creature settled in its seat, Rainbow crept from behind the brush, sneakily (maximum sneaky) making her way to the box. Lifting the lid with her snout, she was swept by a wave of cool air. She quickly found an orange, biting it and lifting it from the box. She quietly shut the lid and-
Ryan could hardly believe his eyes. A small, blue horse stood in front of his cooler, with rainbow hair and wings! And worse yet, it had one of his vitamin C packed treats!
“Give that back you!” Ryan quickly lunged forward, grabbing onto the orange and engaging in tug of war with the horse. It proved to be worthy opponent, as it held onto the orange tight, digging into the ground with its hooves. But Ryan was determined, pulling hard with both hands.
“Give. Me. IT!”
Rainbow held the orange in her mouth, it locked in her teeth. The creature stood in front of her, it using it’s strange forelegs to pull on the fruit.
“Give. Me. IT!” The creature shouted. It’s voice was masculine, a little on the higher side. But rainbow didn’t focus on that too much. She found this orange and was intent on eating it.
Her grip was slipping though, and the creature was starting to slip it from her mouth. It gave one final hard pull, and it was done. She was pulled along at first, flung and spun as she landed on her back on the cool dirt. The creature stumbled and fell on his flank, holding the orange in one hand.
“Yes! I win!” He shouted, victoriously waving the treat in the air.
Rainbow, facing the creature’s back upside down, yelled in frustration.
“I need that!”
Ryan turned around, facing the now upturned horse. His eyebrows raised as his eyes widened. He got to his feet, as the horse rolled to its side.
“What did you say?” He said quietly.
The horse scowled, or looked like it did, “I said, I need that-“
“No- I mean- how the hell are you talking?”
The horse tilted her (it sounded like a she) head slightly, her face looking confused, “What do you mean?”
“Um-“ he paused, bringing a hand to his chin, “Well, horses can’t talk.”
“Hey! I’m not a horse! I’m a pony!” She stood on her hooves, her scowl returning.
“Oh. So ponies can talk?” Ryan asked,
“Yeah!”
“Oh. Well I guess that makes sense.” Shaking away his confusion, he remembered the whole reason for the skirmish. He kneeled, bringing himself to eye level. “Why do you need my oranges?”
The pony looked down briefly, before looking back up with a pleading look, “I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten since last night!”
Ryan looked back down at the orange, noticing the damage from their scuffle, mainly from her teeth. Shaking his head, he tossed the fruit off into the forest.
“Hey! I wanted to eat that!”
Ryan started walking back to the cooler, “Well, it didn’t look to good, so I’m gonna get you a new one.”
This put a pause on the pony, who looked up at him hopefully. “You’ll do that?”
“Yeah. Sorry for being such a dick.” Ryan said as he dug in the cooler.
The pony chuckled, “nah, I probably should’ve asked.” She paused for a bit, biting her tongue, “sooooo… what’s your name?” She asked.
“Ryan. What’s yours?” Ryan returned with a couple of oranges in hand, tossing one to her.
She caught with a hoof, which made Ryan raise an eyebrow.
“Rainbow Dash, or just Rainbow.”
“Um- how did you just do that?”
Rainbow raised her own eyebrow in turn, “do what?” She began peeling the orange with her teeth.
“How are you holding the orange with your hoof?” He began peeling his own orange.
“Oh, it’s just some magic thing. I don’t really now how it works. My friend twilight maybe…” she trailed off, pawing at the ground.
“Okay…” he noticed rainbow’s behavior, and a face of concern formed on his features, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah it’s just… I think I might be lost or something.” She faced the ground, not looking up at Ryan, “I don’t remember anything from between going to bed and waking up here…”
“So… You don’t know where you are, and you don’t remember what happened?”
“Um- yes…” she said quietly, her ears beginning to droop.
“Well, where did you come from? Do you remember that?”
“Well duh. I’m from Ponyville, Equestria.”
“What planet?” Ryan deadpanned,
“What?” Rainbow looked up, a her face contorting with confusion.
“I think I know what this is. You’re somehow here, on earth, in the middle of nowhere in California. This is some kind of weird joke the universe is pulling where I have to help you get back home.”
“Oh. I think I can get that. Believe it or not, stuff like this happens to me and my friend a lot.” She stood back to hooves,
“What, traveling to a different planet?”
“Uh- no not that particularly. I mean we have to do adventures like this often. Like, every week or so.”
“Well okay. I was thinking about going to bed in an hour or so. Maybe watching one an old movie…” He paused for a second, scratching the back of his head for a second, “seeing how you don’t have anywhere to go, you wanna stay here tonight?”
A small blush formed on the pony’s cheeks, in turn making Ryan cringe a little, “Um- sure. T-Thanks.”
“Okay. Here, I’ll show you around.” Ryan turned and began to walk to the van.
“Alright. Sounds good!” She seemed to forget the awkwardness earlier, taking off and hovering above the ground, following him.
Ryan chuckled at the change in atmosphere, when a thought crossed his mind.