After a mishap in their vacation travels, the Mane 6 inadvertently end up on earth.
After the defeat of Discord, Princess Celestia sends the Mane 6 on a week long vacation. A mishap with a teleportation spell, however, lands them not at their vacation destination; but on Earth. How will they cope with being in a strange place, completely cut off from everything and everyone they know? Will they ever be able to get back? Read to find out.
Not all tags are used straight away. Inspiration for this fic comes from stories such as: Xenophilia (and related offshoots) as well as others like: But, She's a Pony! (All credit for those stories go to their respective authors.)
Edit: I have started revising the current chapters to get rid of a lot of errors and make everything flow better. Re-reading will not be required as the basic ideas will not change. I will begin publishing new chapters once I'm done with this.
“I simply can’t believe that we’re going to spend a whole week in Las Pegasus, all expenses paid.” Rarity said, getting a dreamy look in her eyes as she imagined all of the different luxuries she would partake in over the next week.
“I can’t believe that the Wonderbolts are going to be performing there that weekend!” Rainbow Dash said while doing small loops in the air.
The six friends were currently gathered in Twilight’s library. The Princess had given them all a week long trip, all expenses paid, as a reward for their defeat of Discord. Twilight currently had her nose buried in a book while the other five were standing around talking, or doing last minute checks on their baggage to make sure nothing was forgotten.
An intricate spell diagram had been drawn on the floor in the center of the main room. Instead of taking the train, Twilight had offered to use a long range, mass teleport spell that was in one of her books. The diagram on the floor was to be used for the spell that she was currently quadruple checking. Closing the book and setting it on the table, she turned around to face her friends.
“Alright, I’m ready. If you all would move into the center circle of the diagram, we can be on our way.”
The six ponies and their luggage were slowly moved into the center of the circle, making sure not to disturb any of the carefully drawn lines. Once they were all in the center, Twilight used her magic to levitate a small bag over. She poured out the glittering powder, finishing up the lines that had been left open as a walkway. Once she was finished, she set the bag down beside the book she had been reading earlier.
“Alright, everyone ready?” She received nods from each of her friends in response. “OK. Here goes…”
She started charging magic in her horn, the aura surrounding it growing brighter every second. Soon it became too bright to look directly at without causing pain. Leaning her head down, she directed the magic towards the powder. A glow began to spread slowly outwards across the lines of the diagram.
Dash flicked her tail in impatience, not noticing that on its way back towards her, it brushed across two of the lines, making a connection between the two. They all continued to watch as the light finished making its way across the diagram. The instant the glow connected on the other side, the light flared up, seeming to create a wall of light around them.
Twilight released the last bit of magic and there was a bright flash. When the flash went away, the six ponies and their belongings were nowhere to be seen, leaving just the empty library with a spell diagram in the middle of the floor.
“Aww yeah! Wait till you see this!” Brandon hollered into his mic. He had just gotten a triple kill as the final three kills in the game of Team Deathmatch he was playing. He and his friends were pulling another late night gaming session.
He picked up the can of Mountain Dew that was sitting on the floor beside his feet and downed the rest of it in one gulp.
“Hey guys, I’m grabbing a drink real quick. I’ll be right back.”
He took off his headset and set it beside the controller on the couch next to him. Standing up, he stretched before making his way across the room to his kitchen. Tossing the empty can into the trash, he made his way to the fridge, running a hand through his short brown hair before opening it and grabbing a new can. Opening it, he took a drink as he made his way back to the couch.
Hearing the countdown timer start ticking away the last few seconds, he hurriedly sat down, putting his can on the floor before throwing his headset back on just in time for the match to start. The game was on one of his favorite maps. He picked his usual class as the game started, when suddenly he heard the sound of something heavy slamming into the floor above him, followed by several smaller thumps.
Jerking his headset off and tossing it on the couch, along with his controller, he stood staring at the ceiling listening for any further sounds. He’d had his home broken into before, but the new alarm system hadn’t tripped. Making his way over to the front door, he verified that the alarm system was indeed still armed.
His attention was drawn back to the ceiling again, as he heard the sounds of one, no two people walking around, and what sounded like voices. Grabbing the bat from beside the door, he quietly made his way over to the stairs. Even if he couldn’t take on the intruders, he could still use it to break out one of the windows and set off the alarm.
Slowly making his way up the stairs, he could now make out what sounded like four people walking around and definitely could make out two female sounding voices. They were still too muffled to make out anything coherent, but their pitch sounded way too high to be male.
Standing outside of one of the spare guest bedrooms, he could still hear the numerous footsteps, though the talking had stopped. Slowly grabbing hold of the doorknob, he turned it as quietly as he could, and gently started pushing the door open. He hadn’t opened the door an inch when the hinges on the door let out a creak, causing all activity inside the room to immediately cease.
Silently cursing himself, he decided that surprise was probably his best option. Readying himself, he threw the door open and jumped into the room with his bat ready.
“Alright mother fu-”
His sentence died in his throat as he took in the site before him, his arms falling to his sides and the bat dropping to the floor at his feet. A bloodcurdling shriek was the last thing he heard before feeling an immense pain in the side of his head and his vision going dark as he was knocked unconscious.
The six ponies watched as the strange creature slumped to the floor amongst the pieces of the shattered lamp. A second thump was heard as Rarity fainted. Fluttershy rushed to her side, gently shaking her and fanning her with a wing. The rest of the ponies watching in shock as a pool of blood slowly expanded from underneath the creature’s head.
“Oh no! Ohnoohnoohno!” Twilight panicked. “Oh my gosh, I killed it!”
She collapsed on the floor, covering her face with her hooves and muttering a mix of ‘oh no’ and some other things that couldn’t be understood.
Rainbow Dash cautiously approached the creature, not entirely sure it was dead. It looked completely different from anything she had ever seen before. It wore clothes, and the skin that wasn’t covered seemed to lack any kind of fur, save the short mane on it’s head.
As she studied the creature, she noticed that it’s chest still rose and fell, indicating that it was still alive. She turned back towards her friends, finding Twilight still unresponsive and thus no help, she figured Fluttershy was her next best option. Her experience with wild animals should be able to help in some way.
“Hey, Fluttershy.” She called out, drawing her friend’s attention. “This thing’s still alive. Is there anything you can do for it?”
Fluttershy looked up at the creature, seeing the blood for the first time.
“Oh my goodness!”
Gently setting Rarity’s head down, she quickly looked around the room for something she could use as a bandage. Spotting a basket full of clothes in the corner, she grabbed a piece and neatly rolled it up, before carrying it over.
With Rainbow’s help, she managed to move the creature so that it was laying flat on its back. Turning its head over, she could clearly see the open gash on the side of its head. While the cut wasn’t very deep, it still needed covered to stop the bleeding.
Using the tip of one of her wings, she gently brushed out some small pieces of debris from the shattered lamp. She then lifted its head and slid the bandage underneath, before neatly tying it off so that it would stay in place and hold pressure over the wound.
Rainbow walked back over to Twilight, who was still in freak out mode, to try and calm her down.
“Twi.” She said, but received no response.
“Hey, Twilight.” She said again, this time gently nudging her shoulder. This caused Twilight to finally look up at her. Her eyes were full of tears and she had streaks running down her muzzle.
“Hey, it’s alright-” She started before Twilight cut her off.
“Alright?! Alright?! How can anything be alright?! I just killed that innocent creature that was probably just defending it’s home!” She stood up and started pacing.
“Twi, you need to-”
“And what happens when the Princess finds out what I’ve done?! She’ll throw me in the dungeon! Or worse, she’ll refuse to be my teacher anymore!”
Rainbow grabbed her head and forced her to look her in the eyes.
“Twilight! Snap out of it! It’s not dead! You just knocked it out, it should be fine.” Twilight stared into her eyes for a few moments, not saying anything.
“It was just an accident. You can apologize when it wakes up.”
This seemed to settle her down. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She looked over to where Fluttershy was now sitting beside the creature, fussing over the cloth tied around its head. She then looked to the pool of blood and lamp fragments and her ears drooped even more. Even if it had just been an accident, she had still almost killed something without thinking.
“Umm… Twilight.” Fluttershy asked.
Her friend’s quiet question drew her attention away from her brooding.
“Umm… If it’s not to much trouble, do you think you could move it to the bed over there?” She pointed a hoof at the bed against the far wall. “I mean, if you want to that is. Me and Rainbow moved it a bit earlier and it’s really heavy for it’s size.”
She looked back at Fluttershy and nodded, before her horn started to glow with its usual violet aura. A similar aura surrounded the creature, and it slowly lifted off the ground and started moving towards the bed. She gently set it down, making sure that its head didn’t hit the headboard.
She turned back to her friends, seeing Rarity being helped to her feet by Pinkie. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were missing from the room, sparking a moment of panic in her. They didn’t know if there were anymore of the strange creatures here. The fact that they had injured one already didn’t bode well for them being seen as friendly.
She hurried out of the room in search of her two friends. The room exited into a hallway with several other doors, which were all closed, and a staircase leading to a lower level. Not spotting any sign of them, she headed towards the staircase.
Going down was a bit more complicated than she was used to. The stairs were unusually tall and much thinner than stairs needed to be. This forced her to shorten her stride to avoid falling head over hooves down the staircase.
Once she had reached the bottom, she looked around, breathing a sigh of relief at seeing them staring out one of the large windows. She trotted over to where they were standing, the sound of her hoof steps drawing Rainbow’s attention.
“Um, Twilight.” She pointed a hoof towards the window. “I don’t think we’re in Equestria anymore.”
Twilight took a place at the window beside Applejack with Rainbow hovering between the two of them. Twilight’s jaw dropped as she stared out the window. Outside was several other buildings, all of similar design, spaced out evenly along a road that was an odd grey color. Short patches of grass separated the buildings, which she guessed were homes, from the road. There were also smaller separations of the same grey road material that separated the sections of grass. Strange shiny objects were sitting on several of them, including the one leading up to this building.
At that moment, two more of the strange creatures ran by causing the three to duck out of sight.
“Do ya think they saw us?” Applejack asked nervously.
After a few moments of not hearing anything they decided that they would head back upstairs and rejoin the others.
“I still don’t understand how we got here.” Twilight said as she followed Rainbow up the stairs. “I made sure that the diagram was properly drawn, quadruple checked all my calculations. We should be in Las Pegasus right now, not wherever this is!”
She threw her head back with a growl of frustration. As she lowered her head back down, she noticed a glint coming from the end of Rainbow’s tail. Using her magic, she grabbed Rainbow’s tail and held it in place, closely examining it. This effectively halted the rainbow maned Pegasus, who turned around with a glare of indignation.
“Twilight! What gives?”
“Oh no…” Twilight trailed off, simply staring at the end of Rainbow’s tail. After a moment she spoke again.
“I-I think I know how we ended up here.” Her voice was flat and full of dread.
The two mares simply stared at her, waiting for a response. She lifted the tip of Rainbow’s tail higher so that it was in clear view of all three ponies. A faint white dust could be seen coating the bottom of it.
“Rainbow, your tail must have dragged through one of the lines of the spell diagram!” Twilight stated, a little more harshness in her voice than intended.
The rainbow Pegasus in front of her visibly recoiled as if she'd been struck. Her features dropped, and her ears pinned back
“You mean… this whole mess… is my fault?” She stuttered out, tears starting to well up in the corners of her eyes.
“Now just calm down, we still have Twi here. She can figure out a way to get us back.” Applejack said, trying to lay her fears to rest. Twilight let out a sigh that drew their attention.
“It might not be that easy. I don’t know where here is, or what exactly got changed on the spell diagram to send us here. Not only that, but I left the book for the spell on the desk in the library, so I have nothing to reference any kind of solution with.”
Applejack shot her a hard glare, before both of them turned to their distraught friend. Rainbow had lain down and had her hooves covering her head and a soft sobbing could be heard.
“Aww… C’mon now sugarcube. Atleast we’re still all together.” She said, putting a foreleg around Dash’s withers. She looked back at Twilight as she held the sobbing Pegasus in a comforting embrace.
“Twi… y’all might wanna go tell the others.”
With a solemn nod, she turned to head back to the room that her other three friends and the unconscious creature were in.
‘Ugh… Anyone get the license plate number on that truck?’
Consciousness slowly seeped back into Brandon’s mind. His head was throbbing. He tried to remember what he had done that had his head hurting so bad.
‘Let’s see… The last thing I remember was playing Call of Duty. Then there was that noise upstairs, and…’
His eyes shot open and he quickly sat up at the memory of what he had seen upon entering the guest bedroom. An action he immediately regretted as he squeezed his eyes shut and held his head with both hands, searing pain shooting through his head. He struggled to fight back a bout of nausea that accompanied the sudden, sharp pain.
“Goodness! You shouldn't be moving around like that in your condition!” Came a female voice that sounded like it was right next to the bed.
He froze. There shouldn't have been anyone in his house, female or otherwise. Had his mind concocted that memory and there actually were people who had broken into his house? His mind started creating all kinds of wild scenarios involving all manner of kidnapping and robbery.
As the pain started to die down, he noticed that his head was wrapped in some kind of cloth. Robbers wouldn't try and bandage him up, would they? Deciding to take his chances, he slowly opened his eyes and looked in the direction the voice had come from. What he saw made his brain perform a temporary shutdown. Out of all the possibilities that had gone through his head, this was certainly not among them.
Standing beside the bed, with a surprisingly human look of concern, was what looked like a small yellow horse. It definitely wasn't a horse though, seeing as it had giant teal colored eyes that took up the majority of its face. It’s muzzle was also too short for a horse, and it had long flowing pink hair. It looked more like something that you would find in a little girl’s story book.
Looking further across the room, he saw five more of them sitting in a group, now staring at him. They were all different colors, and- wait does that one have a horn?! He blinked his eyes a few times to clear up his vision, surely he had been seeing things. When he looked again, however, the purple and white ones indeed had horns sticking out of their heads. The blue one even had rainbow striped hair!
He stared at them for almost an entire minute with his jaw hanging loose. The blue one slowly leaned closer to the purple one.
“Twi, I think you broke it.”
Hearing it talk officially put Brandon into ‘freak out mode’.
“The hell!” He exclaimed while trying to crawl away from them, ending up falling off the other side of the bed. “Ahh! Son of a bitch!”
The yellow one ran around to the other side of the bed, staring at him as he lay their on the floor clutching his head. It opened its mouth as if to speak but he cut it off before it could begin.
“No! Stay the fuck away from me! You aren't real, horses don’t talk!”
It seemed to be hurt by his words, it looked like it was about to cry as it laid down where it was standing and tried to cover it’s face with its hair. Suddenly the blue one seemingly appeared out of thin air above him. He braced himself for the impact, but it never came.
“Hey don’t yell at Fluttershy like that! She was just making sure you were OK! Now apologize to her!”
Feeling a slight breeze, he glance up and saw that it was still in the same place above him, but was hovering in place on a pair of blue wings. His view was soon filled with a very angry face in very close proximity to his own, causing him to recoil slightly.
“Did you hear me! I said say you’re sorry!”
“I’m sorry!” He yelled back at her.
“Not to me, to her.” It pointed one of its legs at the yellow one. A faint sobbing sound could be heard.
Somehow, knowing that he had made the poor creature cry even thought it was just trying to help him, snapped him out of his episode. He sat up and slowly crawled his way the few feet to where the creature was laying. He gently touched the top of her head which caused her to pull away slightly.
“Hey… Um… I… Uh… I’m sorry for yelling at you like that. I kinda freaked out a bit there.” He said as he petted the top of her head lightly.
She turned her head to face him, eyes tinted red slightly from crying. He got a good look at her and his heart sank. Nothing this adorable should have to cry, especially not if it was his fault.
The purple one walked around the bed and he turned to face it. It looked almost… nervous?
“Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. My friends and I are sorry for intruding in your home, it was purely by accident I assure you!” She looked down at the floor and kicked one of her legs a little bit. “I… Um… I also… hit you with the lamp.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and visibly cringed, as if expecting him to lash out at her. Try as he might, he just couldn't bring himself to be angry with her. She seemed honestly sorry about this whole thing. She opened one eye, peeking at him as if to see why he hadn't attacked her yet. He held out his hand towards her and she cringed again.
“Hey, it’s OK. I forgive you.”
She seemed to relax a little and peeked at him again.
“Y-You do?” He nodded and she relaxed the rest of the way. “But… I hurt you. You should be mad at me.”
“Eh, I've always been told I’m hard headed, guess it means literally now too. Besides, you seem sorry for doing it so I'm not going to hold it against you.” He let out a small chuckle before letting out a hiss of pain and bringing his hand to his head again. After the pain subsided, he extended his hand towards her again.
“I’m Brandon, Brandon Fisher.”
She looked at his hand for a couple of seconds before recognizing the gesture and extending one of her front legs. He grasped the end of it and gently shook her hoof.
The fur that covered her leg was unbelievably soft, almost like fresh down or a really soft brush. Her hoof was something akin to a hard rubber. It was firm but it wasn't hard like bone. He released her hoof and she turned and gestured for the rest of them to come over.
“These are the rest of my friends.” She started, pointing to each as she named them off.
“This is Applejack.” The orange one with blonde hair who was now sporting, of all things, a cowboy hat.
“Howdy.”
“Rarity.” The white one with deep purple hair.
“Charmed.”
“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! Will you be my friend? Huh? Will you? Will You?” She prattled off at a seemingly impossible speed.
“Pinkie!” Twilight said, cutting her off.
“Oh, sorry.” She said with a sheepish smile. Twilight continued on.
“Rainbow Dash.”
“The one and only.” She said proudly holding a hoof to her chest.
“And Fluttershy you've already met.”
“Well its certainly nice to meet you all.” He said as he stood up. The five in front of him all backed up a step as he reached his full height. “But I need to go have this checked out.” He said, pointing to his injury.
“Will you all be OK here for a while?” They all nodded. “OK. This room and the room across the hall are both guest bedrooms and the bathroom is down the hall and to the left.”
He waited for a few moments to see if they had any questions before turning and heading downstairs. On his way past the living room, he saw that the T.V. and Xbox were still on. He went over and turned both of them off, also grabbing the controller and headset off the couch and returning them to their proper places.
Heading to the front door, he grabbed his keys, phone, and wallet from the little table that sat next to the door and slipped on his shoes. Shoving his phone and wallet into his pockets, he made sure to set the alarm system and headed out, making sure to lock the door.
He walked the few feet to his driveway, in which sat his dad’s old Firebird. His dad had given it to him on his eighteenth birthday. It was the old black and gold one with the emblem on the hood, and aside from the paint looking a little worse for wear, he had managed to keep everything under the hood running smoothly.
Climbing in and starting it up, he sat there for a moment, listening to the familiar sounds of the engine before backing out of the driveway and heading to the hospital.
The six ponies stared at the doorway Brandon had left through. They heard the front door close, and shortly after, a loud rumbling sound that quickly faded off into the distance.
“Well, that went differently than I expected.” Twilight said without taking her eyes off the doorway.
“Ah reckon so.” Applejack chimed in. “That feller there is a might strange.”
“Yeah. What was with that guy? One minute he’s freaking out, the next he’s perfectly fine.” Dash added. “I think that hit to the head might have broken him or something.”
“Not to be rude or anything, but you both keep referring to it as a ‘he’. How do you know it’s a male?” Rarity asked.
Dash and Applejack contemplated the question for a moment. Dash was the first to answer, rubbing the back of her head with a foreleg as she did.
“Well… I dunno. Just a feeling I guess. I mean, as soon as he saw Fluttershy crying over his outburst, he started trying to comfort her. That’s something stallions do, right?”
“I agree with Dash. Acting as the peacemaker is typical stallion behavior.” Twilight added, and then turned her attention to Fluttershy. “You know a lot about animals, what’s your opinion?”
Fluttershy let out a squeak as she was put in the spotlight.
“Oh… Um… Well… He does have a deeper voice, but I couldn't say for sure without… Um… Checking.” She blushed a deep red and tried to hide her face behind her mane.
“Why don’t we just ask him when he gets back?!” Suggested Pinkie as she jumped into the middle of the group, drawing the attention to herself, much to Fluttershy’s relief. “I mean, if we are going to be staying here from now on, we might as well get to know more about him or her.”
The moments of lucidity that the bouncing pink mare occasionally had never ceased to amaze Twilight. How something so random could suddenly change at the drop of a hat and be completely logical baffled her. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she heard Applejack speak up.
“Since we are going to be here for a while, we might as well have a look around.” Nods of agreement came from the others, who started to get up and head towards the door.
“Wait a second.” Twilight said. Halting their progress towards the door. “Make sure that you don’t mess with anything that doesn't look familiar. There could be dangerous stuff around here.”
The others nodded and proceeded to file out of the room. They explored the floor that they were on first. As Brandon had said, there was a duplicate bedroom directly across the hall. Down further was another bedroom, which they avoided at Twilight’s demand of respecting Brandon’s privacy, and the bathroom.
The inside of the bathroom looked like a normal one you would find in Equestria. It had all the normal facilities; sink, shower/bathtub, and toilet, but they were all huge. The sink was up higher, the edge of it was sitting at just around eye level. The toilet was taller as well, but one of the big differences was the bathtub. Instead of the normal style that you could just walk down into, this one had a straight drop off the side, almost as if it was meant to be jumped into.
After everypony had gotten a look at the strange bathroom, they made their way downstairs.
“Why would anypony design stairs like these? It’s simply dreadful.” Rarity complained.
Upon reaching the bottom, they all split up, heading to whatever rooms seemed to interest them.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash returned to the room with the window they had been looking out of earlier. Now taking time to look at the rest of the room, they noticed how barren it looked. There was a couch and a couple of chairs arranged around a large wooden cabinet. In the middle of the cabinet was a strange black rectangle that was almost the size of a pony if they turned sideways. Finding nothing more of interest, they left to go see what the others were doing.
Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie entered a room that looked like a simple kitchen/dining room setup. Pinkie had chosen the room to explore, Fluttershy simply tagging along out of not wanting to explore the strange place all by herself.
The room was fairly simple. Cabinets with wooden doors covered two of the walls. One section of the cabinets was separated by the only window in the room, underneath of which was the sink. A small stove sat at the end of the row of cabinets, and a strange silver box sat at the other end. Most of the open floor space was taken up by a fancy table that was glass, but with a small wooden border along the edges.
“Hey Fluttershy, what do you think this is?”
Fluttershy turned around to find her pink friend now perched on a counter starting into some kind of white box that was attached to the underside of the cabinets.
“Oh, dear. I don’t think we should be messing with that. Twilight said not to mess with strange objects. It could be dangerous.”
“Silly Fluttershy. How can a box be dangerous?”
The moment she finished the sentence, one of her hooves hit a button on the front causing a door to swing open, smacking directly into her nose. This in turn caused her to pull back, which made her topple off of the counter and onto the floor. Fluttershy immediately ran over to check on her.
“Are you OK?”
Pinkie looked up at her with both front hooves covering her muzzle and tears in her eyes.
“I don’t like that stupid box anymore.”
Fluttershy put a wing around her and attempted to comfort her. Before she could get out any words, however, the silent moment was shattered by a high pitched shriek that could only have come from Rarity. They both ran out of the room, literally running into Rainbow and Applejack in the process. They sorted themselves out and headed to the back of the house where they had heard the scream. They found her just inside the door that was behind where the stairs came out.
“Oh it’s simply dreadful!” Rarity said, a foreleg draped across the top of her head.
She was suddenly bowled over by the four mares attempting to all fit through the same doorway at once. A cacophony of apologies and questions about being alright ensued shortly after.
“What’s the problem Rares. We heard y’all hollering clear from the other end o’ the house.”
“The problem? Look at this place! It’s a complete disaster, that’s the problem!” She said indignantly.
The four mares all let out an annoyed sigh, Rainbow giving her a deadpan look. The room was full of items and objects randomly scattered haphazardly throughout the room.
“Hey, where’s Twi at? Surely she heard that ruckus.” Applejack said, noting the absence of one of their friends.
Twilight sat wide eyed in the doorway, her pupils threatening to take over and her smile large enough to rival Pinkie Pie’s at a party. The room before her had three walls that were covered in book cases. As her eyes had scanned over the shelves, she had soon realized that she recognized none of the titles. Before her was a room full of books that she had never seen before.
Rainbow Dash appeared in the hallway behind her, taking one look at the room and then at the dazed unicorn sitting in the doorway, before rolling her eyes.
“I found her!” Rainbow shouted back down the hallway.
The other mares soon joined her in the hallway.
“She found a room full of books. No wonder she didn't come running when Rarity screamed.” She said with a chuckle.
The others joined her, laughing at the purple mare’s strange antics. The laughter broke her out of her spell, causing her to look behind her at her friends with a questioning glance.
“What?”
This caused the others to break out in even more laughter. Pinkie managing to get out a sentence in between bouts of laughter.
“Oh T-Twilight… You… You looked j-just… Like a foal s-setting… hoof inside a… A candy store for the first time!”
The purple mare blushed and scuffed one of her fore hooves against the floor. Before she could say anything, one of her ears perked up. Soon they all could hear the same rumbling noise from earlier approach, then come to a stop outside the front of the house.
Brandon removed the keys from the ignition and tossed them into the passenger seat. Letting out a long, drawn out sigh as he rubbed his face with both hands. Letting his hands fall, he stared at his reflection in the rear view mirror for a moment. Retrieving his keys from the passenger seat, he opened the door and got out.
“Time to see if I’m delusional or not.” He muttered to himself as he approached the front door.
Sticking his key into the lock, he turned it and opened the door. Stepping inside, he punched in the number on the keypad to turn the alarm off. He turned around and deposited his keys in their usual place on the little table, followed shortly after by his wallet and phone.
Taking a quick look around, he noticed nothing out of place. Not hearing anything either, he kicked off his shoes and left them in the doorway.
“Must have been my imagination.”
A slight movement at the end of the hall caught his eye. Looking to where he had thought he saw it, seeing purple hair and two huge violet eyes peering around the doorway to the study. The rest of the head and the purple body of Twilight soon appeared, a smile on her face as she turned her head back towards the room.
“It’s OK everypony. Brandon’s back!”
The six ponies made their way out of the room and down the hall, coming to a stop in front of him.
“Well I guess that rules out hallucinating.” He said under his breath.
“How’s your head?” Twilight asked, a pang of guilt crossing her features.
“Good, it was all superficial so all they needed to do was put a proper bandage.” He pointed to the white gauze bandage on the side of his head.
“B-But what about all that b-b-blood?” Fluttershy asked timidly.
“Yeah… Sorry I’m a bit of a bleeder. Something to do with my blood not clotting very fast. Always made my mom worry over the smallest cuts because they would bleed so much.” He let out a chuckle at the memory of his mom freaking out over past injuries.
His face sobered up and he gazed down at them.
“Alright, time for answers.” He said, and motioned towards the living room.
He followed them in, watching as they all took seats, standing between the rest of the furniture and the T.V. stand.
“OK. Since you all obviously aren't some kind of delusion concocted by that hit to the head; what are you doing in my house?”
“Well we’re actually here by accident.” Twilight spoke up. He cocked an eyebrow at her but said nothing. She took this as a sign to continue. “We… I was performing a long range teleportation, when something went wrong.”
Her eyes flicked over to Rainbow Dash as she said the ‘something went wrong’ part. Dash looked towards the floor with a slightly pained expression, her hears folding back against her head.
“The next thing we knew, we appeared in the room upstairs shortly before you entered.”
“Wait… When you say teleport… You mean… ?”
Twilight let out a sigh and opted for a visual demonstration. Focusing the required magic into her horn, it started glowing with its usual lavender glow. After a few moments there was a flash, and Twilight was gone. A split second later, there was a similar flash on the other side of the room where Twilight was now standing. Brandon’s mouth opened and closed a few times before he managed to get any sounds to come out.
“How… But… That’s impossible!”
“No that’s magic.” Twilight replied as she retook her place on the couch.
“Magic doesn't exist!”
“Yes it does.”
“No, it doesn't.”
Twilight’s horn started glowing again and then he was surrounded in the same lavender glow that her horn had. He suddenly found himself floating a couple feet off the ground.
“Is this real enough for you?” Twilight said with a snort of indignation.
“YES! YES! NOW PUT ME DOWN!”
Twilight released him from her hold and he crumpled on the floor. He rose to his knees and stared at his arms for a moment, then looked back up to Twilight. He started to say something but was cut off by Twilight.
“Based on your reaction, I’m guessing that magic doesn't exist here?”
“Not real magic.”
“What other kind of magic is there?”
“What we call magic is mostly sleight of hand, doing something faster than the eye can see, so it appears to be magic.”
A silence fell over the room, lasting only a few moments before Twilight spoke again.
“If there really is no magic here, then we have a big problem.” All eyes went to her as she continued. “I left the book I originally used for the spell back in the library; we’re stuck here.” Her ears folded back and she let her head droop.
He looked around the room and saw the looks of despair that were washing over all six of their faces. He felt bad for them, they had just been told that they would never be able to see their families, heck anyone from home, ever again. That’s one heck of a bombshell to drop on someone.
“I’m so sorry. Look, I know it’s not going to help much… but you’re more than welcome to stay for as long as you want.”
Twilight solemnly nodded before getting up from the couch.
“Thanks.” She said quietly and then walked out of the room, her head hanging low.
The others followed close behind her, he watched as they headed to the end of the hall, then back up the stairs to the second floor.
He flopped down on the couch and let out a sigh. Even though this news didn't affect him in any way, he still felt bad. It bothered him that he couldn't do anything other than sit on the sidelines and watch as they dealt with this. As he sat there, his mind drifted, trying to come up with different things that he could do for them. His brainstorming was interrupted by the sound of his cell phone ringing.
Getting up, he crossed the six feet or so to where his phone lay on the table beside the door.
“Hello?”
“Hey man, what happened to you last night? You just up and disappeared on us.” It was his buddy, Chris.
“Yeah, sorry about that. Something came up.”
“It’s cool bro. You get everything for TJ's party tonight?”
Brandon’s eyes went wide and he nearly dropped the phone. How could he have forgotten that he was hosting his buddy’s 21st birthday party tonight? Oh… Right… Colorful horses.
“Not yet. Hey can you meet me here soon, I have something I need to talk about.”
“Uh, sure man, I’ll be there in like half an hour.”
“Thanks bro.”
He hung up the phone and sat it back in its usual spot.
Brandon paced back and forth across his living room. If there was one thing he was bad at it was waiting. He had thought about going up and checking on his new house ‘guests’, but decided against it. They would probably need some alone time to deal with everything properly, and besides, they had each other. He looked over at the clock, surprised at seeing that it was almost nine thirty in the morning.
A knock at the door drew his attention from the clock and he quickly crossed the room to answer it. He opened the door to find Chris standing on the other side.
“Hey m- Dude! What happened to your head?!” Chris exclaimed, immediately noticing the gauze bandage on the side of Brandon’s head.
“Long story, Come inside and I’ll explain.”
He led Chris into the living room and took a seat in one of the chairs, Chris opting to flop down onto the couch.
“So what’s going on, bro?”
Brandon ran a hand through his hair and let out a sigh.
“Dude you aren’t going to believe me. I mean it happened to me and I’m not sure if I believe it or not.”
They both looked up at the ceiling at what sounded like multiple heavy footsteps walking around upstairs.
“What was that?”
“That was what I needed to talk to you about.”
The sound of female voices trickled down from the upstairs, inaudible, but still clearly female. Chris got an excited look in his eyes and he jumped up from the couch.
“Dude! You got girls?!” He said as he took off down the hall. Brandon quickly gave chase behind him.
“No! It’s not what you think!” He shouted halfway up the staircase.
Chris had stopped at the top of the stairs and was now looking at him.
“What, is it supposed to be some kind of surprise or something?”
“No, its just… well… they aren’t girls.”
“Bullshit, dude. I know what I heard.” He turned around and headed further down the hall.
“Just listen for a second! I’m trying to explain.” His efforts falling on deaf ears as Chris continued down the hall.
“Yeah sure, not girls.” He said with a chuckle.
His laughter died off as he pulled open the door. Inside the room were three miniature horses. He stared at them for a moment and they stared back, well the ones standing beside the bed did. The one that was on the bed didn’t turn to look at him. Then it clicked that they were colored
“Dude, what the hell?” He said, looking over his shoulder at Brandon.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“What? You need help painting your new horses? I mean come on, rainbow striped hair?”
“You got a problem with my hair?!”
He looked back into the room to see where the voice had come from.
“Alright, great joke guys, you can come out now.”
“I’m standing right here!” Rainbow said, getting agitated at this new… whatever Brandon was. “And we’re ponies, not horses.” She spat out.
Chris turned back towards Brandon and let out a chuckle.
“Hehe… Talking pony…” He said before promptly collapsing where he stood.
Brandon reached out and caught him before he fell. He laid him out on the floor and looked up at Rainbow Dash.
“You know, introductions would go a lot smoother if you guys would stop knocking out people every time you meet them.” He said with a laugh.
“So is that what you are called? A people?” Dash asked, some of the questions they had wanted to ask earlier coming back to her head.
“No, we’re called humans. People is just a term we use to refer to others.” He noticed that Twilight was still curled up on the bed and Applejack had gone back to doing… whatever she had been doing before they came in.
“So what’s wrong with Twilight?” He gestured towards the bed.
“Oh…” Dash said, her ears flattening a bit. “She’s been blaming herself pretty hard for us being stuck here. She keeps thinking that we all hate her or something. I mean, we’re her friends, of course we’re going to stick with her. Especially since it isn’t really her fault.” She mumbled the last part under her breath, hoping he wouldn’t hear it.
“What was that last bit?”
“Huh? N-nothing. You need any help there?” She pointed to Chris who was still laying on the floor.
Brandon smacked him on the cheek a few times.
“Chris.”
He smacked him a couple more times, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him as well. Chris finally started to stir.
“Mmm… Huh?” He said groggily as he opened his eyes.
“Dude, what happened? I had a dream you had some colored horses in your room that talked.” Brandon smirked at the comment.
“I told you we’re ponies!”
Chris looked above his head, seeing the angry blue face not far from his quickly sat up.
“The hell!”
“Dude, calm down.”
“How? You have freaking talking animals! What is this, some kind of Dr. Doolittle shit?”
Brandon slapped him across the face, hard.
“Dude, chill your shit and I’ll explain.”
Chris rubbed the side of his face, but remained silent.
“OK, now remember last night when I disappeared from the game?” He nodded. “Well I heard some noise coming from upstairs and I went to check it out, thinking maybe someone was breaking into my house again. When I got up here though, I found these… ponies instead. The purple one over there knocked me out with a freaking lamp and I woke up a few hours later.”
Chris continued to stare at him but didn’t say anything so he continued.
“When I woke up, I kinda freaked out a bit. But after that, I actually got to talking to them and apparently they’re from some other dimension or something like that, but they can‘t get back.”
“And you just up and trust them like its nothing?” Chris finally spoke up.
“Well… yeah…”
“Sounds like something out of a B rated sci-fi movie to me.” He said, standing up again. “So what about TJ’s party tonight?”
They heard a gasp and turned to see Dash standing there like they had just said they were going to fix her for dinner. A split second later a pink blur tackled Chris back down to the floor.”
“GAHH!”
“Did you say party? Can I help? I love parties! What’s your name? Mine’s Pinkie Pie? Are you Brandon’s friend? Do you want to be my friend?”
“Get it off! Get it off!” Chris yelled as he struggled to get away from the pink monstrosity. It reminded him of a crack addict that had just gotten doped up after drinking 6 espressos.
“Pinkie! Can’t ya see y’all ‘r frightening the poor critter!” Came Applejack’s voice.
Pinkie looked down to see the newcomer half curled into a ball with its arms covering it’s head. The happy look on her face fell as she slowly climbed off of him.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you. I just heard someone talking about a party and I got excited.”
Chris uncurled a bit and stared at her from between his arms for a few moments.
“Sorry bout that sugarcube, that’s just Pinkie bein’… well… Pinkie.”
“Alright, just don’t do that again please.”
He made to stand up and Brandon extended an arm towards him. He grasped his hand and let himself be pulled up.
“You OK man?”
“Yeah, feel like I just ran a marathon though.” He said, dusting off his shirt.
“We could still have it here, just so long as we keep it downstairs.”
“What about people going to the bathroom? Only one you got’s up on this floor.”
Brandon pondered for a minute before turning to Dash and Applejack.
“Do you think you guys could stay hidden up here for a few hours?”
They both nodded.
“Alright then, that’s settled. Now we just need to pick up the party supplies; you coming?” He asked Chris
“Whatever gets me outta this nut house.” He said, heading for the stairs.
Brandon watched Chris head downstairs before turning back to the three ponies behind him.
“Sorry about that, Chris can be… a bit odd sometimes.”
“I’ll say.” Dash said, earning an elbow from Applejack.
“Anyway, thanks for the help. I’ll make it up to you somehow.” He turned back to the stairs. “I’d better go.” He said and headed after Chris.
Brandon set the alarm and headed out, locking the door before heading to the driveway. He saw Chris leaning against his beat up Geo Metro with his arms folded across his chest. He stood up as Brandon approached.
“Alright, dude, spill it.”
“Spill what?”
“A whole bunch of ‘talking ponies’ show up out of nowhere, knock you out and give you some sob story about not being able to get home; and you just up and accept that?”
“I know! I should be downright pissed at them, but… I dunno I just can’t be. I mean, its like every time I’m around them, I just get this feeling that everything is going to be OK.”
“What a crock of shit.” Chris said, opening his door and getting into the car before starting the engine.
Brandon went around to the passenger side and climbed in.
“You know me, dude, I've always been quick to trust people.”
“Exactly, people.” He paused to back the car out of the driveway. “These aren't people, they’re some weird horse-alien things. How do you know they aren't going to eat your brains or some shit in the middle of the night?”
“Pretty sure if they wanted to, they would have done it while I was unconscious.” He said, giving Chris a deadpan look.
“Whatever, man. Don’t come cryin to me when things go south.”
About an hour later they were pulling back in the driveway. Brandon hurried towards the door, unlocking it and holding it open for Chris, who had gotten the idea to carry all four 24-packs of beer by himself. Chris hurried into the kitchen and set them down on the table with a relieved sigh.
“I told you I would come back and help.” Chris just smirked at him.
“Psh, two trips is for pussies.”
Brandon face palmed.
“Really, dude?”
Chris just burst out laughing.
“Sorry, it was just too perfect to pass up.” He said still chuckling.
Brandon just shook his head and started unpacking the bags he had carried in. It was just a few things for the party tonight: some cups, ping pong balls, and ¾ the pièce de résistance ¾ two fifths of Bacardi 151.
He put the two bottles of Bacardi in the freezer as Chris finished up making room in the fridge for all the beer. Chris headed back over to the table, grabbing two of the cases and taking them over to the fridge to start loading it up. Brandon brought the other two over as well, taking away the empty boxes from the first two after Chris had finished with them.
He took the boxes over to the cabinet where the trash can was located, and crushed them so they would fit inside without taking up too much space. He opened the cabinet door, only to have a pink head pop out, causing him to stumble back a couple of steps and let out a cry of surprise.
“GAAH!!!”
“Hey! Whatcha doin?” Pinkie said with a huge smile on her face.
“I thought I told you not to do that?!” He snapped at her. “And get out of there.”
Her smile fell and her hair seemed to visibly lose some of it’s volume, looking a little less poofy. She made her way out of the cabinet and sat down off to the side.
“Sorry…” She said quietly, looking down at the floor.
He threw the boxes into the back of the cabinet and closed it, turning to face her with a sigh.
“It’s OK. What were you doing in there anyway?”
“I was just looking around for something to cheer Twilight up. She’s still being a sad, sulking, sulky pants over the whole ‘getting us stuck here’ thing.”
He was surprised when she mimed out the air quotes with her front hooves.
Chris let out a snort of disbelief and walked out of the kitchen. Brandon just watched him leave and shook his head.
“Well is there anything I can do to help you with Twilight?”
She sat in quiet contemplation for a moment.
“Do you think you could try and talk to her?”
“I don’t see what good it would do, but I’ll give it a shot.”
Her smile instantly returned and her hair returned to its normal poofy consistency. She jumped up and hugged him around his neck, letting him know just how strong she was as proved by his lack of airflow.
“Air…” He gasped out.
She let go and sat back down with a sheepish look on her face.
“Sorry.” She grinned back up at him. “Thanks for your help Brandy.”
Before he could say anything about her new nickname for him she was already gone. He could swear there was a faint pink mist that hung in the air for a brief second after she had gone.
Rubbing a hand over his face he began to wonder why he was going along with all of this.
‘Maybe Chris was right about the whole trusting them thing.’
Looking at the clock he noticed that it was almost 11. The fact that he hadn't slept last night caught up to him quickly and he let out a yawn. He decided that whatever he was going to do could wait until after he had gotten some sleep. He would need it to stay awake for the party anyways.
He told Chris that he was going to take a nap before heading upstairs. As he made his way up to his room, he slowed as he went past the guest rooms. From one of them he could hear what sounded like sobbing, as well as some quiet chatter that he guessed was someone else consoling the sobbing one.
Entering his room he shut the door, and after a second thought, turned back and locked it. Stripping down to his boxers he climbed in bed, making sure to set his alarm to go off in a couple of hours. Thoughts of what he could possibly say to Twilight ran through his mind for a while before sleep finally took hold.
