> Ponyville
>  by milawynsrealm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: Same Old
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A feeling of uncertainty ran through my mind as I sat down at my computer, doing what I usually did more often than not. Sometimes it was a video game, but these days, it was mostly browsing of the internet. Nothing in particular, mind you.

I've never gotten into websites such as Facebook all that much. I do have an account, but I never really touch it all that often. Most of the time anyways, most of the friend invites comes from people that I've never spoken to before or even heard about. Social media was a good idea to start out with, but I feel that it's gotten completely out of hand.

The recent election was to no surprise to me when I heard the winner. Maybe I was simply half expecting it, or else I just don't get surprised by politics anymore. It's hard to tell what's going to happen these days anymore. I always feel this nagging feeling that things were going to get worse before they get better. 

Now, don't get me wrong about this. I know that whatever happens, happens. And I always try to stay positive as much as possible. It's a balance that I try to maintain in order to hopefully keep my sanity, but if you were to ask me today what the situation of the country is like, I would likely say that the civilized world is practically coming to an end as we know it.

As I looked back to my web browser, I was going through My Little Pony fan work as I usually do these days. It was fascinating whenever I really think about it. If someone were to come up to me months back and told me that I would be watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic on a constant basis and actually like it without being paid large sums of money to do so, then I would have likely believed them to be crazy and attempt to change the subject.

But ever since I came across the word of brony and the link between a men audience and the reboot of a show initially designed for an audience of young girls, I could not resist a bit of research to determine of someone was pulling a practical joke or not. But as I continued with my research, I found it to be real and have a serious community behind it. When I finally had the courage to actually watch the pilot episode, I was surprised. Apart from the gut wrenching theme song that kept conjuring up images of cutesy girly stuff in my mind for a while (it was gut wrenching at first, but the song slowly grew on me), I saw something which lacked from most other shows, quality.

Ever since television cartoons started lowering their standards on what they put on the networks, I have been watching less and less television. Growing up, I have watched shows such as Gummi Bears, Tale Spin, Rescue Rangers, Bonkers, and other shows that featured interesting characters. The reboot of My Little Pony had interesting characters that I could easily relate to, especially Twilight Sparkle as she has shown in the episode Lesson Zero. One time I got so upset with someone over an assignment that I failed to turn in, that I said some things I shouldn't have. In the end, I apologized and the matter was considered settled. If only I've seen the episode sooner.

Other parts of the show included the overall visual and audio quality. But my biggest surprise was the fact that some of the episodes had great music segments that would most likely be reserved for a direct-to-video release at the least and not from an actual episode. My favorite song, of course, was “Smile, Smile, Smile,” which was sung none other than Pinky Pie herself.

When it came to favorite characters, I had no particular favorite. I liked them all equally. But, if someone were to ask me for a particular favorite, it would most likely be Twilight Sparkle as I could relate to her the most. I am a college student, and even though I am not a perfectionist as she is, I still like how she tries to handle the situation, if she can, that is.

A voice cried out from downstairs, “Daniel, go to bed now. It's already pass midnight.“

Realizing how late it got, I responded, “Okay dad!”

Right away, I closed down all the programs on my computer and began the process of shutting everything down. I know that if I didn't, that my father would come storming up and ensure personally that I would go to bed, which was annoying for the both of us. And I wasn't really in the mood to talk to him right now. After shutting off the monitor and speakers to help save power, I decided to crawl into bed so I could try to get some sleep. But before I had the chance to, I began to hear something.

It was faint at first and difficult to make out. It was just small, muddled voices that seem to come from everywhere, yet nowhere at the same time. I could not trace the source.

Then the voices grew louder until I could recognize the voices, but I could not believe it. It was some sort of conversation between none other than Spike and Twilight Sparkle. I checked my computer speakers to make sure that it wasn't some sort of weird computer problem, but even with the speakers at maximum volume, I couldn't hear anything coming from either speaker.

“Are you sure this is a good idea Twilight? The last time, we nearly set the library on fire.” Spiked asked in a hesitant tone.

“Why do you think we are on the edge of town instead of the library?” Twilight asked, in a confident tone.

“Do you think the spell will work this time?” Spike asked unconvincingly.

“If what will work?” I found myself asking, suddenly realizing that my voice was causing an unusual echo in the room.

“What was that?” Spike asked in a shocked manner, then continued, “Is somepony out there?”

But before I could respond, the entire room started glowing and humming almost like a hummingbird. It was subtle at first, but then it grew in intensity with each passing second. It grew to the point that I could not see at all from all the bright light. I covered my eyes to try to shut out the brightness.

“Twilight! W-what's that bright light? Stop it!” Spiked asked in a voice that was increasingly getting distorted.
Before I knew it, as some unknown force started pushing and pulling on my body as if it were clay. I couldn't see as my eyes were still blinded from the light, and my joints were increasingly getting stiff in seemingly random places as it continued. It didn't hurt, but it had the oddest tingling sensation and it did cause great discomfort to the point where I was yelling out during all the confusion.

“SPIKE! HELP ME!” a voice cried out. At this point I wasn't sure who was calling out as everything continued to get louder and brighter.

After a certain point, I passed out from all the stress. Then silence and darkness enveloped me like a crashing wave of black water.  A constant ringing in my ears was still left over from the event. For what seemed to be the longest time, only the sound of my own heart beat could be heard and that of my own breathing. Then a muffled voice called out in a commanding voice.

“What happened?” Right after that moment, I collapsed from exhaustion. The words, echoing silently in the darkness.
> Chapter 2: New Beginnings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

At this point, the event had nearly woken everypony up with the noise Twilight had stirred up. If the princess hadn't intervened, Twilight's magic would have most likely spun out of control, again. But this time, something was different.
“What happened?” Princess Celestia asked in a stern, yet concerned voice.

“I-I don't know. I was trying to cast a remote teleportation spell, then all of a sudden this happened.” Twilight stated, still exhausted from her ordeal. Sweat dripping down from her forehead.

Both looked up to see a new house before them.

“Did I do that?” Twilight asked.

Then all of a sudden, a small white dog from inside the house appeared in the front window and started barking frantically at the strange new visitors. It was too dark to see the details of the house itself, but enough moonlight to see the general shape of it. The house itself was only one story in size, but it was hard to tell if there was a basement inside or not.

“Is somepony inside that house?” Twilight had asked, while tending to a Spike that had passed out from all the confusion.
And with that, the princess cast a spell that seemingly consumed one side of the house. The life detection spell revealed several figures inside. Two outlined forms were cats, the dog that they had already seen, and three figures that lay sleeping on the floor. One on the main level, and two other in the basement.

And with that, ponies from Ponyville began to gather at the strange new residence with only a few accompanied guards that arrived with the princess trying to maintain peace and order among the crowd. The mayor forced her way to the front of the group of ponies as best as she could. Upon seeing the spell and the three pony figures inside still alive, the mayor asked the princess what was going on.

After a few moments of pondering, Celestia then ordered, “There are three ponies inside. I want them sent to the hospital to ensure they are alright.“

'And to eventually ask them some questions about where they are from.' Celestia thought to herself.

A few hospital nurses went inside, first unlocking the door, then going on in. The dog, which the nurses originally thought would give them trouble, instead pranced around in an excited and playful manner with a toy in her mouth. The nurses ignored the dog the best they could and went to the bed room to retrieve the first body and brought him outside.

“Next, I—” But then her words were cut off when another light began to glow close by.

Everypony looked at the source only to see another house had appeared. Then another began to appear. Each one containing more ponies inside, laying unconscious on the floor. Rainbow Dash, who had been woken up from her sleep from all the commotion, zoomed up in the sky above the crowd to see several buildings beginning to appear in what seemed to be roughly 5 second intervals between each one. This trend continued until it suddenly stopped without any warning.

Looking to her right, Dash noticed the Princess was right up alongside her. “What's going on? Where are all these houses coming from?” Dash asked still in shock at what she was seeing. The princess did not answer as she herself was completely uncertain herself on what was happening right before her eyes. It was still too dark to determine how many homes there now were. But from the amount of flashing that happened, she knew that it was not a small number.

Looking down, the princess saw the first pony being taken out from the home. From closer observation, everypony could see that it was an unconscious, dark blue unicorn stallion. But before the nurses could cart him off, the princess asked them to stop for a moment. She landed on the ground, and placed her horn on the pony's head to read his mind.

While the fact that the pony that lay before her was once another species was apparent, it was really the multitude of images and events that followed that were really shocking. Apart from his memories, there were some memories of cartoons that were most disturbing to her.

It was images of Equestria, images such as Twilight Sparkle and her friends, and most importantly of her and her sister. The style of the illustrations were simplistic, but they were still recognizable and mostly accurate nonetheless. She did not have enough time to process it all, but it was enough to tell that somehow this young stallion knew something about her country.

“He knows about us?” She muttered to herself. As she looked at the other buildings that were now a part of Ponyville and indeed Equestria, she realized that this was going to be a long night.
> Chapter 3: Rude Awakening
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

My body felt like it got hit with a bus, with jet engines attached to it. I mildly groaned for a moment, still in my nice warm bed. I was still very much groggy from just waking up, but after a while, I realized something. The air hung with a faint hospital smell and the faint sound of a heart rate monitor beeping in the background. Was I in some sort of accident?

As I opened my eyes, I was greeted by a bright light. “Arrgh! Son of a—” I cried out. As I started shifting around, my body still numb, I fell out of bed.

“Nurse, the patient has woken up. Inform her right away.” one voice stated. 

“Right away nurse Redheart.” another voice stated.

As my senses began to come back to me, I made several attempts to scramble to my feet, but something was off. It took me but a moment, but my arms were a bit numb for some odd reason. I was still apparently too weak to stand up, but as I attempted to flex my fingers, that's when my mind realized something. I looked down at my hands to realize that I was now staring at what looked like two blue lightly furry stumps resting right below my chest.

It wasn't until I tried to move my arms until I realized that the “stumps” were my arms. As I tried to move my arms, the stumps moved in sync. And although they initially were straight, as I moved them, they felt and looked more like arms than anything else.

As I turned to examine the rest of my body, I could see that I was dark blue all over. And although I was now on all fours, I somehow barely noticed it. Usually in fictional stories where characters go through a radical transformation, they are completely disorientated. Heck, even people with enough missing teeth have to learn how to talk properly all over again. Maybe it has something to do some changes with my mind.

While keeping the fictional stories in mind, shouldn't I be panicking right about now? I'm in a radically different body, in a strange room I've never seen before, after a strenuous event that I originally believed to be a dream. I should literally be running around the room screaming at the top of my lungs like a flimsy little girl. Yes, I was confused, upset, and had many questions, but it felt like something big was missing. There was fuel, but somehow no ignition.

With that, I heard a door open along with hoof steps. I turned around to see what confirmed my first suspicions about me. I was face to face with none other than Twilight Sparkle herself. She looked different in real life, but rather real pretty. For instance, her eyes weren't as huge and exaggerated as in the TV show and I could see the details on her body like the hairs and each individual hair that made up her mane. It was like looking at one of those 3D animated films, stylized, yet realistic.

But now that I am focused on the room itself, or at least trying to since I have a bad habit of staring too much, I began to get a better sense of my surroundings. I was what looked like a hospital room with a single bed.

As I tried to move about, I quickly stumbled over myself right on the floor. Looking down revealed that I was caught up in the bed sheets.

“You okay?” she asked, trying her best to stifle a laugh.

“I dunno Twilight. Where am I? What's going on?” I asked. When I had realized that I said her name, I was half-expecting her to be bombarding me with questions over that particular piece of knowledge. Although she looked surprised, her expression quickly passed, sooner than I had expected.

“How did you know my name Daniel? I never got the chance to tell you.” she asked, more puzzled than anything.

“How do you know my name?” I asked in response.

****

Celestia still could not wrap her mind around the reality of the situation. As each asleep pony from the new buildings were carted out to a temporary hospital area, rough estimates of the new population was roughly to be 100 at least. The hospital staff were short in equipment and space, and even had to ask the mayor for extra supplies, and much of the confused population, which were already up from all the ruckus, just stood there speaking amongst themselves, unsure of what to do.
“Princess?” a familiar voice called out. Celestia turned to see that it was a terrified Twilight Sparkle that gave a look as if she was guilty of a massive crime. “I-I don't know what happened. I was trying out a spell and—“

“I don't blame you for what happened Twilight. In all my years, I have never seen anything like this. Not even Star Swirl the Bearded could have pulled this off.” Celestia stated, looking at the new addition to the town.

Twilight wasn't sure if she were impressed or concerned at her teacher's statement.

“So who was that unicorn you just read?” Twilight asked.

“His name is Daniel Freeman.” Celestia stated.

“That doesn't sound like a pony name.” Twilight said, now confused.

“That's because it's not. He used to be a human.” Celestia said.

“But I thought that humans were just of myth and legend. And besides, aren't humans usually described in stories as violent, hateful creatures?” Twilight asked, now concerned at what the answer might be.

“From what I have been able to tell so far from him, human behavior seems to be mixed to say the least. On one hoof, they seem to be a loving, caring race that looks out for one another. But on the other, a violent race that lies, cheats and steals from one another. In all honesty, they are more like us than anypony would give them credit for.” Celestia informed.
“Excuse me princess, but when has our people ever done acts of evil before?” Twilight asked, perplexed at her teacher's answer.

Celestia could only smile at the answer. “It's true that nopony does acts of evil these days as we used to, but try to understand that we live in a time of relative peace. There is no real reason to lie, cheat or steal these days. The only time when a pony's darker qualities mostly begin to appear is during times of desperation and survival.”

Twilight looked conflicted at the answer. It's true that ponies got into arguments all the time, but this was something that she could never expect to hear from her teacher. Before Twilight could sat anything else on the topic, something else came to mind.

“Wait a minute. Are you saying he was a human, and now somehow he's now a unicorn?” Twilight asked, wondering if that assumption was even possible.

“Yes. I don't even know how it happened. The last memory that he remembered was his entire house glowing, but nothing more than that.” Celestia said.

Twilight now winced at the sight of the body for a moment, wondering how this one unicorn could have been another species. But if her teacher said that he was okay, then there should be nothing to fear. But that didn't stop the nervousness that she now felt.

“What happens now?” Twilight asked.

“Now I have to talk to the mayor and the local guard to clear up any possible fears about the situation. Even though I won't be raising the sun for quite a while, I'll leave him in your charge for the time being.” Celestia instructed her.

“But why me? Shouldn't some other pony be better suited for the job?” Twilight asked.

“Let's just say that I get the feeling that you two should along well.” she said with a small, wry grin.

****

“The only conclusion that I have is that you are from another world. Nowhere in any of my books has there been any encounter of humans, even outside of Equestria. At least so far.” Twilight stated to me.

“I don't know how else to say this, but I don't think that your spell really did all this.” I said.

“What?!” she nearly went white at the notion.

“I'm trying to remember back, but before the event that brought me here happened, I distinctly remember you and Spike having a conversation. I could hear you, but not see any of you. Something about a fire in a library?” I said, eyes closed and focused on my thoughts.

But before Twilight could begin to speak, she heard a small giggle that came from behind the door. I immediately recognized the voice.

“We both know you're there Pinky Pie.” I called out, realizing that my in depth knowledge of them would have given me away anyways sooner or later.

The door opened and, from my surprise, the whole gang was there. Fluttershy, with her trademark timidness, was the last pony to enter the room.

“How did you know about Pinky Pie? Are you a spy?” Rainbow Dash asked, muzzle-to-muzzle with me while hovering in mid-air. When I tried to reply back, all I could do was stutter.

Before I could actually say anything, something pulled Rainbow Dash backwards. Looking at who did it, I saw Applejack with Rainbow Dash's tail in her teeth. “Now hold up gosh darn it. Why do you always insist that anypony who knows somethin' you don't is automatically a spy?” she asked after spitting out the tail.

Rainbow Dash could only cross her hooves and frowned at Applejack with an audible “Hmph!”.

“You know I'm from another world, right?” I asked. Everypony agreed.

“Where I'm from, there are...stories about this place.” I said, unsure at the impending reaction.

“Of the hospital? That would be depressing? Wouldn't that be depressing? I think that would be depressing. Anyways, I--” Pinkie Pie rambled on until Rarity shoved her hoof in her mouth.

“No. Of all of you.” I said, pointing my hoof at them in a circular motion.

“Ha. So you are a spy after all. Who do you work for?” Rainbow Dash stated accusingly, nose-to-nose again. Applejack gave a loud, fake cough to try to break up the moment.

“S-so are you j-just saying that we are just characters in a story, and we aren't real?” Fluttershy said, almost to tears.
“I seriously don't think any of you are fake. And this feels way too real to be a dream, even a lucid one. As for the TV Show, which focuses on your lives and the lessons that you learn, I enjoy watching it when I have free time, even if the show was originally designed for little girls.” I said.

“What's a TV Show?” Twilight asked.

“Do you have film?” I asked, thinking back to the tornado episode.

“Yes.” Twilight responded.

“Well, a TV Show is usually a filmed story or recorded events that runs about half an hour or longer. But in the case of My 'Little Pony: Friendship is Magic', it's a cartoon, which involves stuff like animated illustrations of each character, voice acting, background art, and music.” I said, hoping that none of it went over their heads. Most of them just stared with their mouths open. I guess it did.

Twilight, on the other hand, just listened. The silence in the room soon became unbearable.

“All that I know for certain is that there is some sort of connection between our worlds. I don't know how much, and I don't know in what way, but it's clear there is some sort of connection.” I said, hoping to break the silence.

“Oh yeah? Prove it. What's my favorite flavor of Ice Cream?” Rainbow Dash challenged.

“I don't know. Look, I may not know everything about you, but I do remember key events.” I said, Rainbow Dash not looking impressed.

“Such as?” She challenged once again.

“Let's see. Um...There's the time that Rarity flew too close to the sun with her butterfly wings and Rainbow Dash had to save her causing a sonic rainboom. Then there was the time when Fluttershy got a bit too assertive because of that Ironwill character. Then there's the time when Twilight Sparkle enchanted her Smarty Pants doll because she didn't have anything to report to Princess Celestia. There was also the time when Appleja—” I said until Applejack interrupted, “Yes, we get it. You know a lot 'bout us.”

“I still don't trust you. Anypony that watches anypony else for their own amusement is so not cool on my list. Even if the pony doesn't know the other is real or not.” Rainbow Dash stated.

A thought crept in my mind. “Hey Rainbow Dash!” I said to her now turned back.

“What?” she asked annoyed.

“How was the latest Daring Do novel?” I said, trying my best to keep a mocking tone out of it. Her arms instantly dropped to her side.

“Are you accusing me of being a spy?” She asked, now furious.

“No, but I was trying to put it into perspective for you. I've been watching your adventures for months now without even thinking about the possibility that you all could be real on another world. And as for the Daring Do reference, I was basically saying that if somehow Daring Do was real and she knew about the stories written about her, don't you think that she would believe that you were spying on her? Even for a moment?” I asked, hoping to get her settled down.

“He does have a point Rainbow Dash. He's not really a spy. The definition of a spy is a pony who secretly collects and reports information about an enemy or competitor. I don't know about you, but I think he hardly qualifies as an enemy since I don't think that he has anything against any of us, and he hasn't done anything to indicate that he's a competitor either.” Twilight stated.

“Okay, so you're not a spy. But what is this TV Show? Do you have any proof that it's real?” Rainbow Dash asked, still unsure of me.

As if on cue, the door knocked. Twilight opened the door with her magic and in came Spike with an open cardboard box.
“Spike? I thought you were watching the library?” Twilight asked, obviously not happy.

“Well, I was, but then a guard pony came by to ask you questions about this.” Spike said holding out the box.

Inside was a variety of MLP merchandise. Dolls, hand-made plushies, artwork, and the DVD version of the Canterlot Wedding episode. As Applejack held up the doll version of herself, Spike couldn't help but to laugh. 'Appletini indeed' I thought to myself, giggling.

“Wait a minute. Are you telling me that ponies are going through each of the houses?” I asked, shocked by this revelation.
“It's not like the guards are taking anything. They're just looking to make sure there isn't anything dangerous.” Spike said. I immediately pointed to the box. “Well okay, most anything. But this is the only stuff they have taken out. I swear.” Spike admitted.

“I have a question.” I asked.

“What?” Pinky Pie replied.

“Why aren't I screaming? I'm now a different species, on a different world, in front of ponies that I once thought were fictional. I should literally be running around in circles screaming like a little girl. Or a filly. I don't really know what to say at the moment.” I asked. Pinky snickered at the thought.

“You see that crystal on the table next to your bed?” Twilight asked pointing right behind me.

I looked back to see a red ruby slightly pulsating with light, resting on a small stand. At first glance, I thought it was some sort of night light.

“Let's just say that you weren't the first to wake up. The first pony woke up yelling, screaming, and even threatened with violence if he wasn't released from the hospital and sent back home.” Twilight said.

Twilight continued, “Luckily there was a unicorn nurse that uses a spell that helps calms down traumatized patients. After he calmed down and the situation was explained to him, he immediately apologized for his actions. Afterwords, it was decided by the hospital staff to infuse the spell into crystals so that this wouldn't happen again.”

“I see that our patient is alive and well.” a voice from the doorway called out.

We all turned to see Nurse Redheart at the door.

“If you don't mind Daniel, I would like to do one final checkup before releasing you.” she asked.

“Okay, but where will I be staying? My house?” I asked as I turned back to Twilight.

“You will be staying with me at the local library until the guards give the all clear to go back to your house. Just basic precautions.” Twilight said. I waived at them as everyone except for the nurse left the room. Twilight quickly popped her head back into the room. “I'll be waiting in the lobby for you.”

The checkup was pretty much what you would expect from a standard hospital checkup. Checking vitals such as heart rate, blood pressure, and reflexes. The only test that I was surprised at was some test to do with my horn by placing some sort of wrap on it. For one thing, I didn't know I had one until she mentioned it and I confirmed its presence when I touched it with my hoof.

Walking out of the room seemed out of place for me, but not in the way I initially would assume. It oddly felt normal to walk on all fours, as if I've done it all my life. I don't know if it was something the doctors did or if it happened all on it's own. At that point though, I didn't care. I was just glad that I wasn't tripping over myself like some sort of idiot.

After going to the bathroom, which was an experience in itself, and left, I looked up to see the signs that you would normally find in hospitals. Everything was written in clear English, which was strange to me at the time. If I were still in human form and there weren't any pony around, I would easily be fooled that this was a human hospital. After following the signs to the lobby, I saw Twilight Sparkle waiting for me, looking at a gardening magazine. She probably couldn't find anything better to read. Right next to her was Spike playing with what appeared to be both a Spike and Rarity doll. “Kissy kissy.” he whispered to himself, chuckling. Twilight turned and told him to put them away.

“Oh Daniel. I didn't see you there. Are you ready to go?” Twilight asked placing the magazine down on the counter with her magic. Spike took one look at me, and quickly put the dolls back into the box, giving a forced smile.

“As ready as I'll ever be I guess.” I said.

“Are you alright?” Spike asked.

I took a brief look around the room. I was surrounded by ponies, oblivious to my presence as they waited around. Not knowing who I once was or where I came from, even as they looked right at me, I looked back at Twilight and sighed.
“I dunno. I guess.” I said, giving a half-smile. Twilight, who was now at the door asked, “Are you coming?”

I had already spoken to the doctor about my parents. Apparently no one else has woken up yet, and since it was getting so late, they recommended me to come back later when the hospital would allow visitors. But even then, I would have no idea what the looked like until they woke up. So my only hope at the moment was to sleep over at Twilight's place.

As I was leaving the hospital with Twilight and Spike, I noticed that it had just passed sundown. The air was crisp and clean, and a heavy series of scents filled the air. It was then that I contemplated on the reality of my new body. Were my senses better than before, or was it just about the same? Was I just as smart as before, or was there some sort of increase or decrease in my IQ level? As these questions came across my mind, I looked up to see that we were already at the library. Funny I didn't run into anybody yet, but then again, it was getting late and many were at home already.

Spike held the door open as Twilight and I walked in. It was mostly what one would see from the show, but a bit bigger, there were more books in the shelves, and it didn't look like an illustration. The wooden horse statue on table in the middle of the room was the only thing that looked very closely to the one on the show.

“Is something the matter?” Twilight asked, probably because I was so quiet.

I looked around the room once more. “I dunno. I guess I was half-expecting Pinky Pie to have a party set up here or something like that.” I replied, trying to think about something else.

“That would be my fault. I did a lot of reading on history and discovered accounts of new cultures meeting for the first time. I came to the conclusion that the first encounter should be handled very carefully. I simply told her to wait a while before doing it.” she said. I wonder what Pinky's definition of a while actually was.

“Okay.” I stated as I continued to look around the room.

“Are you even listening to me?” she asked me in an annoyed tone.

“Sorry. What?” I asked, now panicked that I might have missed some important information.

“Right, it's getting late. I've already taken a bath, so why don't you go ahead and do that. Afterwords, I can show you to your bed.” Twilight stated.

“But there's one problem.” I said.

“What?” she asked, confused at my statement.

“The last time I took a bath, I had hands.” I said, waving one of my front hooves.

Twilight groaned at this revelation.

“Don't worry, you can just walk me through it. It's not like I'm 3 years old or anything like that.” I said, hoping to put her at ease, which it did to a certain extent.

“Fine, but don't expect me to do this every night.” She said.

“Once I get it down, you won't have to.” I reassured to her.

With that, we both entered the bathroom, which was located near the sleeping area. Spike had already gone to bed, and Owlicious took over the night shift. I can definitely say that Owlicious looks a lot less cartoony than the one in the show.
The bathroom was pretty standard by itself. No serious decorating, and the walls were painted white. I walked over to where Twilight was waiting. Using her hoof, she turned on the water.

“How did you do that?” I asked, shocked that she was able to do that so effortlessly.

“I gripped the shower valve with my hoof. It wasn't hard for me to do.” she said, closing the valves to the bath to further demonstrate.

“But that doesn't make sense. Don't you need at least two hooves to grip the valve?” I asked, still dumbfounded at her actions. She takes a moment to fully absorb what I was asking, then giggled momentarily.

“Oh yeah. I would have never thought of that. You see, all ponies have the ability to grip objects with their hooves using a kind of magic ability.” she lectured, picking up a bar of soap. “It's just that we ponies don't use the ability as often as we'd like and use our mouths for grabbing most things. This is mostly because we have to often walk on all fours.”
I walked over to the bathtub, which was now ready to get into, and tried it on a bar of soap. The first few times, I just ended up pushing the bar around, but eventually, I got it. It's weird to think about, because it seems that I just tense my hoof in some way (I can't really describe the feeling in words) and the object sticks.

After that, taking a bath was very straightforward. After drying off with the towel, I briefly looked around for clothing. It took me a moment to fully realize that I didn't need clothing. Looking back at my fur, which was now mostly dry, I could see what could be described as the reality of the situation. My hair, or should I be calling it a mane, was of a darker brown than I was used to. But what really caught my eye, and nearly gripped at my heart was something further back. My tail, I was definitely expecting, but it was my cutie mark that really got me. It was one of a gamepad. I know that I loved to play video games, but it just was something that I didn't really think about.

It was getting late, and I was pretty sure that Twilight wanted to get some sleep too. She led me to her room, where at the bottom of the room (her bed was in an upper level) was an additional bed that was fully made. I climbed inside as best I could and got into a restful position. The reality of the world around me began to slowly seep in. Granted the world I came from was not perfect, but the prospect of being forced to live a new life, even if no one forced it upon me, still frightened me.
“Daniel?” Twilight asked.

“Hm?” I uttered.

“If it's alright, can I ask you questions tomorrow after breakfast. I know you would want to find your parents, but this would help me with my studies on humans.” she asked.

“You're studying humans now?” I asked.

“Yes, the princess wants me to refocus my studies on learning as much about humans as possible. Since you've already proven that humans act differently than what's found in myth, I can assume there is much I can learn from your people. So, can I?” she stated, sounding excited more than anything else.

“Okay.” I stated. I had a disturbing image of Twilight with a list that was long enough to cover the whole floor of the main library room, but let the image pass since I do tend to think about the worst case scenario. I just hoped that it wouldn't take too terribly long. With that, I heard what sounded like Twilight getting into her bed. With only the sound of crickets to be heard, I lay there, quietly thinking about home. What my parent's reaction to the new situation, how the new population would handle the situation, stuff like that. The only funny thing that crossed my mind is an image of my father in pink. But even then, I could tell that the next day would be interesting to say the least.
> Chapter 4: First Encounter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

No one had to wake me. The reminiscent sound of chirping birds and the sunlight that now bathed the bedroom was enough to do the job. Looking around, I saw that I was still in the lower part of Twilight's room. With that I looked down to stare straight at my set of hooves once again, half expecting there to be hands instead. At this point, I had hoped that this was all just a dream that I would wake up from, but sadly, it wasn't.

As usual, my body ached as I got off the bed. A simple stretch helped to loosen out the stiffness, but the way I did so was different, especially with my new body. It wasn't that I was uncomfortable with my body that struck me as odd, but it was quite the opposite. I felt comfortable with my new body. I was under the initial impression that I had to get used to how to walk and even talk properly. I slightly wiggled my body in random motions to confirm the feel of my new body.

The sound of a door opened and up walked Spike with a small stack of books in his claws, unaware of my presence.

“Good morning Spike.” I said. Upon hearing my voice, he jumped, and in so doing, accidentally dropped the books on the floor.

“Sorry.” I said.

Upon getting up and brushing himself off, he looked around until he noticed me. “Oh hey Daniel. I figured you were still asleep.” he said as he gathered back the books he dropped. He walked over to one of the bookshelves and started placing books into empty slots, ensuring that they were placed in their proper order.

Again, I had to remind myself that ponies don't have to wear clothing. Spike just gave me a confused look as I looked around the room in a concerned manner. “Uh, missing anything?” Spike asked confused.

“I keep forgetting that I don't have to wear clothing. I'm so used to wearing clothing all the time.” I stated, not realizing that I was thinking out loud.

“So humans wear clothing a lot?” Spiked asked, now finished with putting the books away.

“Yeah. Where I'm from, it would be considered to be indecent and rude to be naked in public.” I said, now out of my bed.

“Well, you could always ask Rarity for some clothing if you're that desperate.” he suggested, slightly confused at the cultural quirk.

“Actually, I'll pass on the clothing for now. Seeing as no pony else is wearing clothing on a constant basis, I don't think that it's actually that important right now.” I replied.

“Well, okay. Whatever makes you happy.” Spike turned and walked down the steps that led into the main library. Moments later, he charged right back up, and told me, “Oh by the way, Twilight asked me to tell you that breakfast is ready. Hope you like hay pancakes.” With that, he charged right back down.

Great. Just great. I almost forgot about the bit about the new food options. Namely grass, hay, and flowers. Although I knew that it wasn't unheard of for some salads to have edible flowers in them and wheat grass juice that was commonly known mostly by health food nuts, this would still be a big step for me. Most others would likely shy away from eating foods that they are not used to eating. In this case, this first meal could be symbolized as a sort of unofficial initiation as a pony, at least for me. For a moment, this prospect practically gave the shivers.

But as I began looking at the situation, and realized that my humanity at this point is long gone for now, I began to calm down a little bit. When I thought about it, I was still essentially me. My body may have changed, but as far as I knew, I was still myself. I still had the same thoughts, the same personality, and believed in the same ideals.

A delicious smell now hung in the air, and the growling of my stomach confirmed it. Food. I entered the next room to see Twilight eating a mouthful of pancakes. Right next to her was a small stack of papers. Probably the questions she wanted to ask me.

“Oh hey Daniel. Good morning. How well did you sleep?” She asked after swallowing.

“Alright, I guess. Took me a while to sleep, but I managed.” I replied.

With that, she took out a piece of paper and wrote something down with her magic.

“You want some breakfast? Spike made them.” She asked, pointing to a plate full of pancakes next to a cup of apple juice.
As I approached the table, I noticed that the pancakes had hay embedded in them, with strawberry sauce on top. But they smelled delicious.

“Oh right. You don't have hands anymore.” Twilight said.

“Well that, and the fact that I've never had hay before.” I replied, still fixated on the pancakes.

“What do humans eat?” She asked curiously.

“Hmm? Oh, humans are omnivores.” I replied. She wrote something down.

“Do humans ever hunt other animals?” she asked.

“Some do, I think. But I've never hunted in my entire life.” I replied. I've never hunted, so I honestly don't know.

“Do ponies exist in your world?” She asked.

“Yes. However, none of them talk and they exhibit a low level of intelligence compared to ponies in this world. And they look mostly different than ponies here anyways. It would be easy to claim that ponies from my world are practically a different species than from...us.” I replied, nervous at her potential reaction.

“Interesting. What about Unicorns and Pegasi?” she asked. I guess I was wrong.

“Only in stories and myths.” I replied once again.

“Do humans use magic?” she asked right after writing down my response.

“No, I don't think so. Even though the concept of magic is known throughout many works of fiction, humans rely mostly on technology than anything else.” I said.

Since Twilight is a scholar, I decided to answer in a more academic fashion in regards to her questions. I figured that it would be easier that way and it would certainly help reduce possible confusion she might have about my answers.

Before she could continue asking questions, my stomach growled in protest.

“Oh right, I'm sure you wanted to eat breakfast. Sorry I got off track.” she replied.

“It's okay, but how do I eat this?” I said, pointing back to the plate of food. Twilight thought for a moment.

Twilight then demonstrated by simply bending her head down to her plate and taking a bite just with her mouth. Afterwords, using her magic, she took her cloth napkin and wiped off the crumbs and bits of berry flesh.

“I get the feeling that humans don't usually eat this way” she replied after clearing her throat.

“Although some foods are eaten with only hands, most Americans use silverware to eat food. But even then, there are exceptions to that.” I replied, shortly after swallowing a mouthful of pancakes myself. At that moment, I didn't care if I was eating directly from the plate, the hay surprisingly tasted delicious. I've once nibbled on hay when I was younger, for curiosity's sakes, but the flavor then was dull and flavorless. So I couldn't really compare the new taste to anything else.
“What is an American?” She asked, placing down her glass of apple juice.

“I come from the country of the United States of America. Or...USA for short. Or just US if you want to go even shorter than that.” I said, wanting to make sure there wasn't any confusion.

“Oh. The name of your home country.” she replied, writing it into her notebook.

“Speaking of which, has there been any progress on finding out what exactly happened that dragged everyone here?” I asked.

Twilight thought briefly for a moment until she could come up with something. “Sorry, the event that happened a week ago is still a mystery from what I've heard. I overheard some of the scientists claim that whatever happened left very little evidence that it ever happened. But that's just what I've unofficially heard.”

“A week? I've been here a week. To me, it only seemed like a day or so at least?” I replied, shocked at her answer.
“From what the doctors and nurses said, everypony from your world were not doing that well when you all came here. Your bodies were greatly dehydrated, undernourished, and under great stress from the transformation itself. I'm just glad that help from neighboring towns and cities came when they did.” she replied. I have no memory of feeling that weak before waking up. I guess they had me sedated pretty well.

“So what happens now?” I asked, examining my new body once again.

“Well, at the moment at least, there is no immediate way to send any of you to your home world or to your original forms. But from what I could get from Princess Celestia was that the only other alternative at the moment is integration. But that's worst case scenario of course.” Twilight said.

I spat out what little of the apple juice that was in my mouth. Since I no longer had hands and had no way to use magic at the moment, I was limited to using both my hooves to hold onto the glass. But even then, it was a challenge. Twilight could only grin at my unusual effort of setting the glass back down without spilling it.

After doing that, I wiped my mouth with my right foreleg, coughing what little juice that went down the wrong tube.
“Integration? You mean...being granted citizenship?” I asked, shocked at what I was hearing.

“Most likely. Princess Celestia says that she is trying to look into all possible options, but so far, I haven't heard anything new.” Twilight stated. Spike came over to collect the now empty dishes and even mopped up the mess that I had made. I thanked him as he walked to the kitchen.

The idea of becoming a citizen of a country that I knew very little about scared me. I could think of a number of scenarios that could play out where I say something that to me seemed harmless, but to them, it would be the equivalent of dropping an f-bomb on a young child. Or if there was something that is legal and normal in my home country that I did that is here considered illegal or immoral. As much as I warmed to the idea of being away from a country with a failing economy and political stagnation, the idea of now living under another country still made me nervous.

“Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine here.” Twilight reassured to me.

“That's easy for you to say. You've lived in Equestria your whole life. You know how to interact with everyone. You know how this culture works. I don't. I'm just afraid that I'll say something that's harmless to me, but to everyone here, would instead be profane and upsetting.” I said as calmly as possible, although I was failing miserably.

“And I'll let you know when you do.” Twilight answered, placing a hoof on my shoulder. I could only raise an eyebrow to that. After giving my situation more consideration, I sighed.

“Thanks Twilight. I really appreciate it.” I replied.

“Hey, what are friends for.” she replied sincerely.

Friend. It was a long while since I have heard anyone use that word at me. Back in high school, there was one friend that I had, but even then, we only really spoke at lunchtime. But since we both lived so far away, I could only spend so much time with him. After I graduated, I had no friends. All that I did was focus on my school work.

“Twilight?” I asked. No response.

I looked up to find that she was no longer in the room. Was I really that lost in thought?

As I was getting up from my sitting position, I accidentally leaned forward enough to bump into the table in front of me. If I hadn't caught it in time, the wooden unicorn head statue would have fallen down. After assuring that it could stand on it's own again, I got up again as carefully as I could. But as I did, the statue fell down before I could catch it.

This time, I backed up a bit first, then got up. It was going to take a while before getting used to this new body. It was still surreal that my body felt normal, the same feeling of normalcy as if nothing was different. But as I look at my body, and move with it, tells me a bit of a different story. Walking around is one thing, but doing anything else seemed like a chore to me. I know I've had my moments, but I was never been this clumsy before.

Just then, a bell rang. I turned to front door to find a violet, mare earth pony at the front door. I instantly recognized her as Ms. Cheerilee. However, since I didn't want to give myself away too quickly, I decided to pretend as though I didn't know her. Besides, I didn't know what her real name was anyways, and didn't want to confuse her if I did get it wrong.

“Hello. Is Twilight Sparkle in right now?” she asked. The voice was even spot on.

“She stepped out for the moment. I'm not sure when she'll be back.” I replied.

She reached over to her saddlebag and grabbed a book with her teeth. When I could get a good look at the book, I could see that it was called, “Tales of Humans: Myths and Legends.” She placed it on the table.

“I can hardly imagine what has happened this week. I'm having a hard time believing that the newcomers used to be another species. At first, I thought it was just a bad prank that somepony tried to pull. But when Princess Celestia made an official announcement about it, I wanted to know as much about Humans as ponily possible.” she said.

“Yeah, I know. I'm still wondering how it happened. Even from what little I know about it, I still can't make heads or tails on it.” I replied. The goal was to be honest, but not immediately give myself away.

“What do you know about it, mister...?” she asked.

As I struggled to come up with a pony name that fit me, she took that moment to examine me from a distance. Then her eyes widened.

“You were the first newcomer to be sent to the hospital. I remember them taking you there.” she stated, now nervous about my presence.

“Um...I-i...” I started nervously, but I just froze, not knowing what to do or say next. The last thing I wanted was the entire town to be scared of me.

We both just sat there waiting for the other to make a move. After a few moments of deafening silence, Ms. Cheerilee asked, “Are you okay?”

After quickly clearing my throat, I just replied as honestly as I could, “I think so. How about yourself?”

“Fine I guess. So...you're not going to eat me?” she asked.

I barely managed to stifle a laugh. “No. What gave you that idea?” I asked, eager for her response.

She pointed her hoof to the book that she was returning. Her lack of response told me to continue.

“While it's physically possible for humans to do, I've never seen anyone do that before. Where I'm from, that would be considered very strange to see. And besides which,” I began, letting reality sink in a bit more. “I'm a pony right now. If I were to eat meat right now, my stomach would be giving me fits and I would most likely throw it up fairly quickly.”

She gave a sigh of relief. She spent a few moments collecting herself and then looked at the book as if she just realized something. She walked over to the book and opened it with her hoof. Then, using her hoof in a similar fashion to how I would skim through pages in a book with one's hands, she continued to turn the pages until she stopped.

“Does this look like a human to you?” she asked pointing to an illustration. I walked over to the book and took a good look at what she wanted me to look at. It was what appeared to be an illustration of an evil-looking human holding a sword and armor, his left leg resting over a fallen pony soldier while giving out some sort of war cry.

“Er...mostly. But humans don't have sharp teeth like that.” I said. Then I thought to use my tongue to feel my teeth. Surprisingly, my teeth were nothing even close to how an equine from my world is. In matter of fact, the only difference between my old set of teeth and new set of teeth were my now lack of canines.

After explaining my former teeth to her, I continued to get a better look at the illustration. “The closest I've ever seen red eyes and skin that pale is from an albino. Also, humans don't have sharp claws. Instead, human nails are flat and rounded. 

So overall, this illustration is exaggerated to say the least,” I stated, moving from part to part. “I know that some humans might be as bad as him, but to compare this illustration to all of humanity would be a very inaccurate thing to assume.”
“Do you think that any of the other 'new arrivals' are bad?” Ms. Cheerilee asked, worried.

“I honestly don't know. I was rushed out of the hospital before I could find out, and even then, it was getting too late to ask any pony anyways. So at this point, I probably know as much as you do on that. But I hope that none of them are bad.” I replied, hoping that would satisfy her for now.

“What's your name?” she asked.

“Daniel Freeman. What's yours?” I asked. I could tell that she was still a bit worried, but at the same time, seemed to grow a little more confident of my presence.

“Ms. Cheerilee. I teach at the local school here in Ponyville.” she replied.

“It's very nice to meet you Ms. Cheerilee. Well, I know that it's been about a week since it happened, but anything happen while I was still asleep?” I asked. It was now my turn to ask questions.

“Well...nothing serious. The hospital has a lot of tents around it with the newcomers inside, and nopony has been allowed inside. The guards say that unless your a guard or a part of the medical staff, that nopony is allowed inside under any circumstance.” she said. I gave a small, exasperated sigh. So much for visiting them today.

“And what about the new houses?” I asked, realizing that I may not be able to see my parents right away.

“That's under guard too. From what I've been hearing lately, they are already done with the initial checking for anything dangerous and now the scientists are now examining it.” she said.

“I guess I'll have to wait around for a while before checking on how my parents are doing.” I stated.

“Your parents are here too?” She asked.

“At the hospital, yeah. I just want to make sure they are doing alright.” I replied. I had this image in my head of what my father could look like as a pony, with him cursing his head off left and right. The prospect of being on another world in another body, I couldn't even begin to imagine what his reaction would be, especially with talking, colorful, and magical ponies that would normally be seen in cute, girly shows. I just hoped that the calming stones could take the strain.

“That's nice to hear. Well, I have to be heading off now. I have homework to grade and a class to get ready for.” she said before getting up and heading to the front door.

Before opening the door, she turned back towards me and asked, “Will I see you around town?”

“Maybe. If not, then I'll probably be here.” I told her.

“It was nice meeting you.” she said right after opening the door with her hoof.

“It was nice meeting you too.” I replied, waving my hoof. With that she calmly left and closed the door right after her.
I thought that went well. At first, I was all too afraid that this would end up where my first encounter with the town would consider me the equivalent of Godzilla causing wanton destruction to their peaceful town. But instead, I just met someone, or should I say somepony, and we had a pleasant conversation. But I had to also had to bring myself back to reality. Since Ms. Cheerilee was able to recognize me fairly quickly, there was the chance that others might recognize me.

Shifting my focus on the table, which was still missing the horse head statue from it's top, I decided to try to get up again. Since I was now facing away from the table when I was talking to Ms. Cheerilee, I could get up without bumping the table again, although it took a while how to figure out how to actually get up. Funny how I can walk as naturally and comfortably without any kind of training or practice, but when it came to maneuvering my body or doing activities that requires the use of my new hooves, that's when it becomes hard and a learning experience at the same exact time.

After managing to get up, I walked over to the statue. I didn't want to get teeth marks all over it, so I had to try to pick it up with my front hooves. But that proved to be futile as I couldn't get that good of a grip on it and I kept falling forward. Soon after, I gave up on the effort to restore the statue to it's rightful place and instead decided to find where Twilight was.

“Twilight?” I called out. Nothing. After a brief investigation through the library, I couldn't find either her or Spike. They must have gone out. And with that, I heard the front door open. I walked to it only to find Twilight and Spike. Twilight had a creme colored saddle bag practically crammed full with books. On the side was a symbol I recognized. Looking to my own cutie mark, I verified whose saddle bag it was hopefully intended for. That was really nice of her.

“I could be wrong about this, but I don't remember you telling me that you were going out.” I said, as she put the apparently heavy saddle bag on the ground.

“I did too.” she protested, still catching her breath from carrying the bag.

“Uh Twilight? All you did was nudge him a little bit, and told him we were going out. I don't think that him making a small sound really counts as him responding back.” Spike corrected, as he walked over to the statue that I had knocked over and placed it back on the table.

After that, she turned and headed to the bathroom. Afterwords, she came back to the main room. By that time, I was already examining my new present. I still couldn't open it, but I could tell that she wasn't going cheap on me. But then again, I have perceived this society as one that makes everything from scratch. But even then, I could tell that this bag was well made. It wasn't made of canvas, but the cloth was thick and sturdy enough to last a good long while.

“Do you like your new present?” Twilight asked.

“Wow. Are all these all for me?” I asked, still trying to get the bag open.

“Yes. Do you remember when I said that I was studying humans?” she asked, looking as though she was about to trail into question she was nervous asking me about. I nodded to get her to continue.

“Well, I quickly realized that you are all ponies right now. The doctors did a DNA sample comparison between your people and Equestrian ponies, and found no real difference at all. They even went as far as saying that they could have been easily fooled into thinking you all were born as Equestrian Ponies.” she said.

“Okay. So what's your point?” I said, wanting to know what she wanted to say.

“Wait a minute. Aren't you shocked or scared about this? I know that crystal was supposed to keep you calm, but I don't remember bringing it back with me.” she said, confused at my response.

“I pretty much accepted my new reality when I ate breakfast this morning. Although I'd be lying if I were to say that the experience isn't nerve wrecking to me and wasn't creeping me out. Doing things that I normally do on a day-by-day now seems like a chore, and I'm still trying to get used to the idea of having no hands at all.” I said.

Twilight took a moment to think about what I said, then she smiled as though an idea just hit her. “Since I realize that I cannot study humans directly, my studies are limited right now.” she said.

“So what are you going to do?” I asked wanting her to continue on.

“Well, since both the new houses in Ponyville and most of the hospital are both closed off to the public, even to us, then the only other thing to do is for me to teach you how to live life as a unicorn. I know that the princesses are looking into all possibilities, but this would really help out with my studies a lot. So, what do you say?” she said, nervous but excited.

“Alright. When do we start?” I asked. With that, she was off like a rocket, Spike only steps behind, desperately trying to catch up with her.
> Chapter 5: Magic 101
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

One topic that I might have not elaborated on enough is the realism of this world. The wood looked exactly like wood, and the books, which were all hardbound, looking exactly as books would back home.

As I looked at Twilight, who was frantically trying to get a first lesson plan together, I noticed that she looked close to her cartoon counterpart. The shape of her body was close to the cartoon, and her mane cut was spot on. The only noticeable difference is the size of her eyes.

In many cartoons, one thing that artists tend to do was to make the eyes look bigger than in real life, especially with humans. If you've ever seen Anime, then you know what I'm talking about. Her eyes still looked forward rather than to the side as a pony from my world would, and they also were still relatively bigger than human eyes were.

Until she was finished with her work, I just sat there quietly waiting. It even got to the point where I grabbed the book that Ms. Cheerilee turned back in. I managed to get it in front of me using both of my hooves like a clasp and turning the book around so that it was facing right side up. It took a while to get down how to go from one page to the next with hooves, but I managed in the end without ripping anything. My only real surprise was that the entire book was written in English, which I also saw back at the hospital. In the show, some of the text was written in some strange symbols.

Overall, the book was just a collection of mythological stories from a much earlier time in this world's history, however it did not give me an approximate date or time period. But it could also be due to the fact that I don't know much of anything of this world's history to get any idea of the actual time period and even which nation these stories come from.

As I read the stories more and more, I was more convinced that the humans depicted in these stories were vikings, or at least close enough. I don't read enough about ancient Norse culture to know either way. These humans promised peace and freedom, but delivered destruction and oppression. They stole what and when they wanted, and lied on a constant basis. Basically, the worst you would find in humanity.

Even though I know from human history that there were (and are) humans that can more or less act this way, at the same exact time, I know my ancestors and others like them have proven time and time again that humans are also good as well. Sure we have our flaws, but who doesn't. After Hurricane Katrina, I volunteered to help with some of the clean up with my church youth group. And I did this because I wanted to help, not because of some sort of self-serving interest or because someone else expected me to.

“Whew, done.” Twilight said as she wiped off the sweat from her forehead. “What are you reading?” she asked, levitating the book from where it was resting.

“Ms. Cheerilee returned it earlier when you were out.” I said.

A sense of panic hit Twilight as she closed the book to see what the title was. “Did she know you were human?” she said.

“Granted, it only took her a few moments before she realize what species I used to be, I really didn't have to say anything. At least it didn't turn out in disaster as I imagined it would be.” I said, hoping that it would help to quell her fear.

“How so?” she asked, her left eye twitching slightly. Apparently the cartoons may not portray as much of an exaggeration that I had previously assumed. But even then, I still had the gut feeling that some other parts might still be exaggerated.

“We had a nice conversation. Granted, there were a few awkward moments, I think that I might have actually cleared up some initial fears she had about humans. Although I cannot know for certain.” I replied.

For a moment, she quickly and quietly repeated the words, “Oh my gosh,” to herself as if the worse thing has happened. After breaking out of the repetition when I waved my hoof in her direction, she said, “Princess Celestia asked me to make sure that nopony knew what you were so I could tell her if ponies are willing to accept you as you are now.” Seated back, all she could do was quietly tell herself to calm down and even mentioned magic kindergarten a few times. Big surprise.

The front door then opened, and in came a crème colored earth mare with a solid blue mane. I was curious as to what her cutie mark is, but I quickly decided against it, since I wanted to not appear creepy or rude. Twilight, upon realizing this mare was waiting patiently for her, stood up in front of the visitor and did her best to straighten up her slightly ruffled mane with her hoof. “C-can I help you?” Twilight asked, putting on a bigger-than-usual grin on her muzzle.

“Yes, I am looking for a book on early Equestrian History. My son is doing an assignment on it for class and he really needs help.” she asked.

“Right. It's probably over here,” Twilight said as she walked over to the other side of the library, beginning her search for the book. The mare looked at me with a smile. “Hello.” she said simply, then turned her attention back to Twilight.

A quick moment later, she brought over the book with her levitation and placed it on the table. “Is this what you wanted?” she asked the mare in a quick manner.

After a quick examination, she smiled and placed it in her saddlebag. “Thank you very much Twilight. I hope that my son will find this useful for his report.” she said, then turned to me, and continued, “You must be the 'new arrival' that Ms. Cheerilee mentioned.”

I nodded my head in agreement as calmly as I could.

“And your name is Dan-yell, am I right?” she asked.

I would have corrected her on the slight pronunciation error, but came to the conclusion that it might have been received as rude as well. “Yeah.” I replied.

“Well, it's very nice to meet you Dan-yell. My name's Blueberry Swirl and I run the local party shop.” she stated happily. She opened the front door and turned back to me.

“I have to go now, but I hope to see you again.” she said before closing the door gently.

Without warning, I heard an audible thud. I turned to see that Twilight had just passed out, or looked like it. Spike, who was in the middle of sorting out more books, dropped what he was doing and came over to nudge Twilight to see if she was alright. I turned to see that Twilight had immediately gotten up rubbing her head in the process.

“You okay?” I asked.

After she came about and got up, still perplexed at what happened, she simply stated in defeat, “I guess it's like what you said, it could have been worse.”

I could only chuckle a bit at the response. After she finally collected herself, she walked over to the table with all of her notes, and picked out select pieces of paper.

“The first topic that I'm going to teach you is levitation since this is a skill that most unicorns know about. Do you know what levitation is?” she asked, quizzically.

“Lifting stuff with your mind by somehow reaching out to it.” I responded, hoping that was the real answer.

“So you do know about it.” she replied, a bit surprised that I knew.

“Sort of.” I replied

“What do you mean sort of?” she asked confused.

“Well, I've never seen or done any magic before coming here” I said.

“Never?” she said shocked at my response.

“Nope, where I'm from, magic is considered to be the product of the human imagination. Nothing more.” I said.

“Wow, I cannot imagine living a life without magic.” she said, almost as if she felt sorry for me.

“Well, I could say the same thing about hands.” I replied, waving my right hoof for a moment before setting it right back down on the floor with a light, audible clop.

“Don't worry. I'm certain you will like magic. There are many advantages to using it.” she said.

At this point I would have told her that not every new-comer might be willing to accept magic as a part of their lives as Americans would do with electricity, but I was actually more anxious to learn magic. I have always wanted to learn magic since I was very young. And besides, I did not know at all how the others are going to react to it anyways.

“I know.” I stated simply.

Walking over to the table that was nearby, she placed a white feather down on the surface with her teeth. I assumed that it came from a pillow. Taking care not to create any breeze of any kind, she walked softly to the other side of the table with her notes and a notepad alongside a quill. Now this was beginning to feel like I was being treated like a lab rat rather than being taught by a mentor which I was hoping for.

“Now, the goal is to lift the feather into the air. Most unicorn foals have magical outbursts just hours after they are born, so how hard should that be?” she stated, confident in her words.

“The only problem is that I was never a foal, and I have never had any magical outbursts before.” I informed her.

Her smile quickly faded into one of concern. “I never thought of that. I just...don't know how you can access your magic if you've never felt it before.” she said, trying to think of what to do next.

A moment of silence once again passed. She remained stumped at what to do next as she alternated between looking through her paperwork and trying to think of something. Spike was just standing close to Twilight with quill and paper in hand. A little while later, he placed his quill and paper on the table, as if to get ready to quickly grab them once Twilight could think of something.

Deciding that I had nothing else to do, I tried to try to get my magic out one way or another on my own. I know I was never a unicorn foal, but if I were one, then the magic still should be able to come out easily enough if I were to focus on the right spot, right?

Closing my eyes, I first tried to focus on my horn, which was hard because I quickly realized that it was just as fruitful as trying to feel my toenails. I then focused on the feather and tried various methods to 'reach' out to the feather with my mind. At first, nothing happened.

I was about to give up as well when an odd feeling had crossed my body, almost like a cold shiver up my spine would. But this feeling was different. It was a feeling that I was beginning to have after waking up in this world. However, the feeling was so subtle at first that I originally dismissed it as the fact that I was in a new body and expected to feel different than being Human.

This time, with a real focus point in mind, I began focusing on the 'strange feeling' once again. Once that was finished, I tried to focus on channeling it out where I thought my horn was, since it is essentially like a magic wand. I tried to force the energy out, but only managed a tiny spark.

“Twilight!” Spike cried out.

I jumped at the words, followed by a flash of light and loud crash. When the moment had passed, I looked around to see what had happened.

Twilight, who was on the floor with her front hooves over her head and shaking a bit, stopped to look around the room to see where it had come from.

“Uh Daniel?” Twilight asked.

“What.” I said, now feeling light headed. I looked over to her to see that her sights were fixated on the ceiling. Looking up to see what she was looking at, was a small, exposed hole in the ceiling with scorch marks surrounding it.

“D-did I do that?” I asked, looking now to my horn.

“Spike!” she scolded. “I thought that I told you not to disturb him.”

After Spike had apologized for 'distracting' me, along with me for putting a hole in her ceiling, she was determined to continue with the lessons, despite the misfire. I was still surprised that anything came out at all, or that she would be so quick to move on.

“Now the next part should be easy. All you have to do is reach out to the feather with your mind.” she instructed, pointing her hoof at the feather that was now laying on the table.

After some experimenting and a few more marks in the walls and ceiling (thank god it didn't hit any of the books), I finally managed to lift the feather a few centimeters off the ground before dropping it again. All I had to do was feel the magic in my mind, and then at the same time, reach out for the feather with it. I might have made it go higher if I hadn't used up so much energy in my previous attempts, but at least I did something.

While trying to wipe the sweat from my brow, I instinctively used my hoof to wipe my forehead. This ended up with me scraping with the hard part of it. If it wasn't for the fur, I would have most likely scraped off some skin in the process. Using my wrist, I wasn't only wiping the sweat off, but now I was tending to my now aching forehead. Stupid hooves.

After reassuring that I was alright, I asked panting, “Would it be okay if we took a break for a bit? I'm feeling a bit tired.”

“Alright. I guess we can take a break.” she said, turning her attention to the marks that I had made.

With her magic, she was able to make the scorch marks disappear, and made the hole in the ceiling repair itself. I could only look at her work with envy and awe.

Moments later, a voice cried out from outside. It wasn't a cry of help, but rather a happy one. As Twilight opened the door, I also looked outside from the doorway to see what all the commotion was about.

It took a little while for either of us to determine the source, but as soon as we caught sight of the source, we saw what was essentially going on. It was a lime green Pegasus stallion, who seemed roughly a bit younger than me, and if I guessed correctly from the facial features, a male.

I might have been able to tell other details about him, if it wasn't for the fact that he was galloping fast with a guard trailing right behind him in a desperate attempt to catch up.

“Whoooo! I'm streaking! I'm streaking! Whooooooo!” he yelled gleefully at the top of his lungs. It was then that I facehoofed for the first time. I only wished that I didn't hit my face so hard.

“In the name of Celestia, get back here!” the guard barked, although his command seemed to fall on deaf ears.
“What is going on here? Why is that stallion causing so much ruckus?” Twilight asked.

“He's probably another 'new-comer' who somehow got out.” I replied, continuing to focus my eyes to the running individual.
“But that doesn't explain what he's doing. Or why.” she said back.

“He's streaking. And no, I don't know why he's doing it. He probably got bored or somethin' like that.” I stated bluntly.
“What's streaking?” she asked, turning her attention to me.

“It basically means that he's running around naked in public.” I replied, now beginning to find the situation a bit more humorous than anything else.

“I don't get it. I'm naked most of the time when I'm running around. I don't see why that's so special.” she asked, now confused at my explanation.

“In many Human cultures, being naked in public is considered to be very taboo.” I responded.

“Why?” she asked.

“Humans have very little hair compared to...us.” I said.

It was very disorientating to speak about Humanity as though I was speaking about a different species. Every time that I mentioned about Humans, I instinctively thought about myself being a part of that. But my body was a constant reminder to myself that it was simply not true anymore. At least for now. I hope.

“So...Humans have had to wear clothing in order to stay warm and protected from the elements like our fur coats do. And I'm guessing that they've worn clothing for such a long time, that not wearing clothing is considered very unusual.” Twilight concluded.

“Was I right?” she asked, followed with a smile.

“Well, I never thought of it that way. But yeah, something like that.” I replied. At the time, I felt uncomfortable about explaining the other reason why.

As the stallion eventually made his way in front of the library door, he collapsed into a resting position with legs stretched out in all directions, panting heavily and completely covered with sweat. It took him a minute or so for him to focus his attention away from the ground, and towards Twilight and me.

“That...*pant*...was...*cough*...awe-some. *wheeze* This is, the best dream, ever.” He said in an excited, yet tired manner.
It wasn't until a couple of minutes later until we caught sight of the guard that was chasing him. He was on his belly, dragging himself forward slowly, inch-by-inch from behind the Pegasus. He was covered in even more sweat and dirt then the Pegasus was, and almost looked like he was just about to pass out from exhaustion.

Just as soon as the guard had touched the Pegasus' tail, he did just that.

Looking up, I had noticed that a small crowd had started to form around the two tired individuals. Depending on who you were looking at, some of them were either staring at the green Pegasus, the nearby guard, us, or just quietly talking amongst each other. Most of them seemed confused at the once spontaneous moment that had occurred, and some of them seemed to be expecting some sort of answer, either from me or Twilight. Every time that I thought that I had something to say, I immediately recoiled my message in fear of someone receiving my message the wrong way.

Looking to Twilight, I could tell that she didn't know what to do either. For a few moments longer, the awkward silence continued, until a white pony with a brown mane spoke out. “What the hay just happened?” she asked, still confused about the situation.

Twilight Sparkle had always seemed to be the go-to pony for providing answers in the TV Show, and I guess it applied here as well. During the Pinky Pie clone incident, a group of ponyfolk had demanded answers from her. But the white pony's question seemed more or less directed to either of us, as her gaze seemed to be shifting back and forth. She wasn't angry, but more or less confused and concerning about the individual that disrupted everyone's life at that moment. Twilight wanted to say something, but somehow couldn't get the words out.

Then, after Twilight was able to collect herself despite the overlapping questions and concerns, and she was able to finally to say something. She spoke in a loud voice as to make sure that every pony could advert their attention, but not so much that she was shouting at the top of her lungs. That got their attention.

She went on to explain the concept of streaking and the bit about a human's need for clothing and how it was a cultural taboo to not wear it in public. Many of the residents that were present were still uncertain and seemed somewhat suspicious about the whole thing as the issue of clothing seemed trivial to the ponies. A few seemed satisfied, but others were still not so sure.

“He doesn't look human to me. In fact, I get the feeling that this whole bit about Humans invading Equestria seems just too impossible to believe. And so far, I haven't seen anything to convince me.” the white Pony said. Others muttered mostly in agreement.

“You, 'new-comer'. Do you have any proof that you were once another species?” a blue stallion asked.

This was starting to get uncomfortable. I turned to Twilight who was motioning to me to get back inside.

“I don't have any proof with me right this second.” I replied. Twilight just facehoofed.

“What do you mean right this second?” Another pony asked skeptically.

“W-well...If I had access to my house, I would have more than, then enough proof. Books, films, music, art, stuff like that.” I said, hoping to ease the tension. And hopefully draw their attention away from me. Soon, I hope. The constant staring from every pony was starting to get a bit unnerving for one thing.

“Are you here to invade us?” a Pegasus Pony asked with fearful eyes.

“No. Whatever brought me here did so without my permission. I didn't even know what really happened until I woke up as a unicorn in the hospital.” I said.

“Do Humans eat ponies?” another crowd member asked. Some gasped at the notion.

I know that I was doing my best to keep a straight face, but apparently it was not working. In an unusual turn of events, even to me, I started to cry. In a mixture of sadness and anger, I emotionally lashed out by saying, “NO! I do not eat ponies. I have never eaten ponies, and I NEVER WILL. I have seen some of your stories on humans, and not all humans act that way. And they certainly don't look ANYTHING like the illustrations. YES, some humans can be bad, but NOT all of them.”

I just stood there, sobbing uncontrollably. At that moment, I was too focused on my emotions to reflect on the crowd's reaction. Then I started to focus on my memories and the events that led me to here, and it eventually became too much for me to handle.

“Why is this happening? Why am I here? I don't wanna be a unicorn. I wanna go home. I WANT MY MOMMY!” I cried out to myself, now gushing out a torrent of tears.

My emotions, now completely unbearable to deal with, I did the only thing that I could think of, run. Trying to make an honest effort to not knock down any of the crowd members, I managed to successfully push my way through. I didn't care where I went. Somewhere else was better than here.

Running and running, not caring where I went. Weaving through the maze that is Ponyville, I continued on and on without stopping. Every so often, I would pass a bystander, but just adjusted my direction so I would not hit them.

Eventually, I came to a halt. My heart was pumping and I was sweating like you wouldn't believe. Questions continued to assault my mind. Not one of them I had an answer to. I felt so lost and alone. Maybe if I had just left home after my fight with my father, none of this would have happened. I should have never told him.

After I spent what seemed like hours calming down, I looked up around my surroundings, shocked to find that I had not been paying attention to where I was really going. I was alone in the middle of the Everfree Forest. I looked around myself, hoping that a trace of civilization could be found. After sitting down, I began internally beating myself up for not paying attention.
> Chapter 6: From the Shadows
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What just happened?” Spike asked as he approached Twilight from the door. Twilight was still speechless. The crowd, apparently still confused at the sudden outburst from the blue stallion. They just stood there, talking amongst themselves, trying to think of some explanation of what just happened. Some were worried about the emotional outbreak, while others felt sorry for whatever he was going through.

Roughly a minute later however, the crowd dispersed away after the Pegasus was taken back to the refugee camp. There was nothing really left to see.

“I-I don't know. One moment, he was acting calm, the next, he was bursting into tears and yelling at everypony.” Twilight said as she just stood there dumbfounded. She sighed as she tried to come to some sort of conclusion on what happened.

Could have the crystals that's used to calm down the refugees have anything to do with it? 'Not likely,' Twilight thought. The purpose of those spell infused crystals were not to suppress a pony's emotion, but to give the patient a way to release them in a way that doesn't involve screaming or crying. In fact, the patient rarely feels the effects, just notices the outcome. Even though she didn't know how the spell exactly worked, Daniel's emotions should have been safely released with no serious side effects. But then again, we're talking about somepony who used to be another species.

Hoping that Daniel was coming right back after his emotional episode, as she was initially hoping, she scanned the landscape. But something barely noticeable at first appeared while she was looking around. However, as she focused back onto it with her eyes, it instantly vanished before she could get a good look. Whatever it was, it seemed to be a tall, dark figure, at least in her mind. Twilight quickly shook off the notion, believing that her mind was playing tricks with her. Probably some sort of aftermath to the event.

“Come on Spike. We need to set up a search party to find Daniel.” Twilight stated flatly as she started heading towards town hall. Spike closed and locked the door before catching up to Twilight.

Little did either of them know that three sets of eyes were watching them from behind a nearby bush.





Rule number one when you find yourself lost, is to stay in the same place so you don't get more lost than you already are. Something that I was taught back when I was in Boy Scouts. Had I remembered that one simple rule, I wouldn't have tried to retrace my steps, which I quickly found out that I was even more lost then I was before.

But instead, I find myself in the middle of a dark forest with no clear way out. The cold and soggy ground not only made it harder to retrace my steps, but the sensation of the coldness of the ground to my hooves only stood to remind me once again that I am a midget blue horse with a horn sticking out of my forehead. And aside from making scorch marks on ceilings and barely lifting a feather, my horn was totally useless. Why did life have to be this cruel to me?

And why does this body feel so natural to me? That was a question that continued to nag me no matter how long I think about it or even when I'm trying to think about something else. Here I am, standing on all fours and my mind treats the situation as though I was standing back on my old two legs. Yes, my center of balance has been changed. And yes, my mind recognized my new quadruped layout. I tried to stand upright a few times on my hind legs, but I kept falling forward every single time. However, every time I walked around on all fours, it's like my body doesn't miss a beat at all.

But when it came to actually doing something that I would normally do with my hands, it's like I'm learning everything I took for granted all over again from scratch. Sure I now know how to grab things with my hooves from what Twilight taught me, but even then, it had it's downsides. I could grip things, but manipulation was fairly limited from what I could tell.

If it wasn't for the fact that I was in the middle of a dark and misty forest that I knew was dangerous, I would have tested out a few theories and assumptions I was having about my new body. As much I wanted to experiment, I decided that my life was far more important.

Dealing with a cockatrice was a simple matter of closing my eyes if I saw what looked like a chicken, and with timber wolves, I just had to watch out for some sort of putrid smell. But anything bigger, I had to be extra careful and try to avoid any way I could. How hard could that be?

A distant howl made me freeze in my tracks. I quickly looked around to determine the source, but could only tell the general direction of it. My heart was racing, but there was no immediate danger after quickly scanning the environment. Boy was I getting jumpy. When I breathed out through my nose, it came out as a snort. It felt weird knowing that the snorting sound came directly from me. But at this point, I didn't like being constantly reminded about my new body. But not from hatred or discontent, but from the sheer repetition itself. In other words, it got a little annoying after a while.

The Everfree Forest wasn't as dark and sinister as I initially imagined it to be. But then again, it was still daytime, and cartoons do have a knack for exaggeration. In ways more than one.

Looking up, I could tell that it was overcast. The ground had a slight haze to it, not enough to cover the ground in any sort of ground fog, but enough to silhouette the surrounding vegetation slightly. It was only then that my stomach started to growl loudly. I was guessing that by the time I had my emotional episode, it was getting ready for lunchtime.

I looked around to find that there was nothing immediate that I considered to be food. But then a thought crossed my mind, again. I'm now a pony. That means that a lot of the plants are now considered food and there's plenty of it. But the idea of eating right off the ground without any plates or picking involved seemed to be a foreign concept to me. It was something that I would expect an animal to do, but not from me.

I was a firm believer in accepting the reality as it currently is, as it hopefully reduces stress in the long run, but my mind had a hard time accepting the idea of grass, hay, and flowers to be a legitimate food source. The hay pancakes this morning was easier to eat, because at the time I just kept reminding myself that it was just pancakes. Sure it tasted great and the crunchiness added an unusual, but satisfying flavor to it, but this was different. Eating grass straight from the ground was just as absurd as eating a tomato straight from the vine without first picking it. It was unsanitary and it looked weird if you saw someone do it.

But I reminded myself that this was a survival situation, and it wasn't like I could just pick the grass first. By demonstration, my hoof could only tear off a few blades at a time. It was hardly worth the effort to continue doing it. That and coupled with the thought of eating something that was attached to my hoof that was in constant contact with the dirt ground made the grass even less appealing to eat.

After I spent a while longer thinking this over, pacing a little bit back and forth even, I finally got fed up with myself and decided to just get on with it. I was hungry, and I had no idea how long I would be in these woods. At least if I had something in my stomach, then I at least could better focus on finding a way out of these woods and hopefully back to civilization.
Pushing aside whatever pride I had left, I took a deep breath and craned my head forward. Which from my perspective felt and looked a bit weird since I was not used to my neck being so flexible. It wasn't until I had my face touching the ground that I realized that I forgot to open my mouth.

Pulling back my head a little bit, I was able to look back at my target, which was the grass that was right in front of me. This time, I opened my mouth and took a bite. The first mouthful was small due to the fact that my first try only got up a little bit of grass. Allowing my mouth to savor the flavor, I noticed that while it tasted differently than hay, still held a surprising flavor appeal to it despite the fact that I kept thinking to myself that Humans don't eat grass. It got to the point where I had to keep reminding myself that I was now a pony as I continued to graze. It still felt awkward eating like this, but both my taste buds and stomach certainly weren't doing any complaining.

By the time I was done eating, I set about the task of searching for a way out of this forest. Since I had no idea where Ponyville was, let alone which direction was North, I just picked a direction that seemed to be the way back and then started walking. I got the feeling that trying to find a way out on my own was more productive than just sitting around, waiting for the world to decide for me. I know that a lot of survival books that I read while I was still a Boy Scout told me to wait for help, but I quickly got impatient and went regardless of that advice. I did not want to wait for help to come, or for some creature to eat me up.





“Are you sure this is a good idea Scootaloo?” Sweetie Bell asked as she stared upon the empty tall house that stood before the trio. It didn't look like it was falling apart or spooky for that matter as they had initially believed it to be, but the style was nothing like they have ever seen. It was two stories tall, and was painted a light brown color with dark brown trimming.

“Yeah I'm sure. Once we get the proof we need, we'll get our cutie marks in proof investigation.” Scootaloo said confidently as she looked around for a way inside.

“But ain't this considered stealing? As much as 'ah want my cutie mark an' all, I don't think that stealing and poking our muzzles into other pony's lives is the way to do it.” Apple Bloom stated, obviously nervous about the mission.

“We won't be stealing. We'll just be borrowing the proof for a short while, then just return it after we show it to everypony.” Scootaloo stated proudly.

“But...” Apple Bloom started protesting before they heard a voice close by.

“I don't know sir. I thought I heard voices from somewhere over here.” One voice stated.

“Then check it out. The last thing I want is another incident like what happened yesterday.” The other voice stated in a more gruff fashion.

“Are you referring to the Pegasus 'new-comer' that kept running and screaming in joy around every which way? The one that you had to chase for 3 whole minutes?” the first voice asked. As he went around the brown house to what seemed to be the back, his teal coat and white mane slowly revealed itself as he came out of the shadows cast by the house. His wings flapped to create a breeze in order to get some relief from an already hot day.

When the other guard heard the last question, all he could to was snort at it. “No, not tha... Wait. You mean to tell me that you were timing the whole chase? I really needed your help to capture him. I was lucky I could even catch up to him half the time. And even luckier that he didn't simply fly away.” The white Earth Pony guard said as he looked around to the door. 
To the white guard, it looked like a normal door, except to him, there was yet another door knob that was higher than he was used to seeing. And what was stranger, was that this particular door had a strange black flap that hung like a banner at the bottom center of the door frame. It wobbled back and forth slightly in reaction to the wind, and made a small noise as it moved.

“Find anything?” the white guard said.

“No, nothing sir. Just a strange, black banner making noise.” the other said. The teal guard glanced at the other houses. They were not laid out in any sane layout. Each house were facing each other in unusual angles, making no direct sense of any road when traveling around the houses. Some houses were closer to each other, and the colors of the different paint jobs made each house visually clash with one another. It was certainly a confusing sight.

What was worse, was that it was apparent that none of the houses properly fit the contour of the land, meaning that some of the houses were cutting into the sides of the hills making immediate entry very hard depending on the steepness of the hill itself. But at the same time, surprisingly, they were all standing upright. Some required special ladders or Pegasus ponies to even reach what was assumed to be the front door, and others seemed to require a more indirect approach since not all of the doors were exposed to the open air. And the only thing that kept some of these houses from simply falling over or tilting was the fact that all of the houses had some sort of rough, gray stone attached right underneath each one. Some of them were bigger than others.

“I have to be honest about this place. It's starting to give me the creeps.” the teal guard stated, ears back.

The white guard looked around at the sight and sighed. “I'll have to agree with you on that. There's even a large building that came here as well. But it wasn't filled with any ponies, but books instead. I guess even Humans have libraries.”

“But what if Humans are really as bad as the stories say they are?” the teal guard asked worried.

“I don't think that's likely. Celestia has already made a public statement stating there was no immediate danger from them. I highly doubt she would say such things unless she was absolutely certain. And besides, the only one that escaped from the refugee camp just ran around shouting at the top of his lungs.” The white guard took another look at the houses, then back at the teal guard.

“Don't you also think that it's weird that they are all now ponies? That doesn't make any sense.” the teal guard said.

The white guard gave it some thought. “I wish I had an answer for you. In all honesty, I'm nervous too.” The white guard said as he took a look through a nearby bush to see if anypony was hiding inside.

“They may look like us, but how will they react to us?” the white guard continued.

“I don't know. I know that while you were passed out, a blue stallion 'new-comer' just started crying for no reason and then just ran off.” the teal guard said.

“Wait, you mean to tell me another one got out? And you didn't apprehend him?” the white guard asked, now annoyed at the teal guard.

“I couldn't. Apparently, he was specifically given citizenship shortly after his arrival. Something about legal issues that came up with him being outside the refugee camp. I dunno. I didn't really ask anypony about it.” the teal guard replied.

“Wow. I wonder how he took the news.” the white guard wondered.

“I'm not sure that he knows yet if he knows or not.” the teal pony answered.

The white guard winces slightly at the idea.

“Come on, let's get back to work. I don't want to get in trouble, again.” the white guard said, beginning to walk around the house. The teal guard took a quick around one last time and followed his superior.

“I said I was sorry.” the teal guard stated in his defense.

“Yeah, yeah. Somehow, I've heard that one before.” The white guard stated back in a slightly annoyed tone.

Moments passed and the flap on the door flipped open to reveal Apple Bloom's head sticking out, looking around for any signs of any guards.

“Okay girls, we really need to get out of here.” she said in a loud whisper.

“Whoa! Check it out.” Sweetie Bell said in awe.

Apple Bloom pulled herself back in from the strange door flap back into the strange house. Although at first, her head got stuck. It took a little bit of fidgeting to get it unstuck.

“Look at all those toys. It looks like...wait. What's that?” Scootaloo said.





“Great, I have been walking for hours now.” I told myself. I even tried to climb a tree so I could get to a better idea where I was, but that failed miserably. Although my hooves could grip, apparently the bark could not hold my full body weight. And the lack of hands made even harder to pull myself up off the ground. But it wasn't like I could do it as a Human either. I just didn't have the upper body strength to pull it off.

Every time that I scaled a large hill, I seemed to find myself to be more lost than before. I wasn't even sure if I was going around in circles or not. I even got desperate enough to start crying for help. As much as I wanted to find a way back to town, I still could not, despite my best efforts. I couldn't stop either. The last thing that I wanted, was to become an easy target for whatever might be lurking out there. Looking at the bountiful ground, I sighed. Well, at least I won't starve to death.
As I looked around again to determine which direction I should go next, something caught my eye. In the distance, I saw what had looked like a dark figure of some kind. It was hard for me to tell what it was at that distance, as the shape seemed kept shifting. I couldn't tell if it was just my imagination or if someone was actually out there. It took me a moment to realize that this shape was getting bigger with each passing second and not any clearer. That's when I realized that it had glowing red eyes and a dark, cloudy. I also noticed that it was coming right towards me.

With fear taking over, again, I began bolting the other way. Thinking back to all those films that I watched in the past, that those who linger behind to find out what the mysterious entity is often turns up either hurt or dead. I did not want to find out the hard way. As much as I was curious, I wanted to live.

As I continued to run away, I was looking back every so often to see if it was still following me. It was. But at the same time, I wasn't looking where I was going. By the time I realized that, I was already halfway down a steep hill, rolling uncontrollably.

By the time I had reached the bottom of the hill, I blacked out. Whatever I hit, I hit it hard.
> Chapter 7: Reflection
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zecora nearly jumped at the sudden noise, causing her to drop all her gathered herbs onto the ground. She quickly turned to see an unconscious, blue unicorn pony that had hit a tree that was only inches from where she was standing. Noticing that he had rolled down the steep hill, she quickly came to the conclusion that this stallion was not looking where he was going. And on top of that, he was also obviously lost. Few ponies ever dared to venture this deep into the woods alone.

Still unsure about the close call, she slowly approached the body and nudged him with her hoof. A soft moan escaped from his open mouth. He was still alive. Aside from the apparent bruising on side, there didn't seem to be any serious damage from what she could see.

But something was wrong. Quickly examining her surroundings, she noticed that the air had eerily gone quiet. Even the wind was refusing to blow. She knew quite a few species of animals that reside in the forest, but only a tiny hoofful were considered to be timid. She didn't see anything out of the ordinary right away, but she could somehow feel that something was out there. Probably watching her.

Despite her questions of curiosity to see if somepony else was around, but she did not want to linger. Too many things in this forest to avoid. But if there was indeed another pony out here, it would be wrong of her to leave that pony lost in these woods.

“Is anypony out there? If so, please do not dispair.” she cried out, loud enough to reach earshot of any nearby ponies, but not enough to attract the entire forest to her location. She got no response.
She tried once again just to be sure. But she once again heard no voice or any telltale signs of immediate equine movement. After she had draped his heavy body over his own, she started heading off back to her hut. From there, she could properly treat him.

Aside from the stallion's body sliding off the side of her body a few times, her trip back to her home was uneventful. After approaching her door, she placed the stallion down on the ground while she opened her door to get him inside.

After getting his body inside her hut and onto the floor, she was able to more comfortably examine the damage. It was mostly light bruising with a few scrapes, and only a tiny bit of red. The stallion was still knocked out from the whole ordeal, but seemed to be also lightly mumbling something. Nothing coherent, but at least it told her that he was still alive.

Putting some healing ointment onto a cloth, she lightly dabbed it on the affected areas. He winced in pain as the dabbing continued, but apparently it was not enough wake him up. After bandaging his body up, she placed a blanket on top of him, put a pillow under his head, and allowed him to sleep it off. While she waited for the mystery pony to wake up, she decided that she wanted to get back to work.

Unfortunately, she was so much in a hurry getting home with the strange pony, that she had forgotten all about the ingredients that she had been collecting in the forest. But at the same exact time, she could not simply abandon this pony in need, especially if she discovers that he needs further help after he wakes up. And besides, she remembered all too well the last time she left her hut with a certain filly still inside. For now, she just had to wait.





“What I still don't understand is why he was watching that 'show' in the first place. It still creeps me out.” Rainbow Dash stated while hovering beside her friends, who were walking further into the dark forest.
Twilight, was using a simple tracking spell to find Daniel. Since these woods are devoid of any pony life (or at least supposed to be), she was just focusing on finding the closest pony to her. It took a little adjustment to get it right, but she managed.

Several witnesses had seen Daniel galloping into the Everfree Forest, so they had a basic idea of where to start. Unfortunately, they weren't able to coax Fluttershy out of her house at all. Ever since she heard about the show, she refused to leave her house or speak to anypony for any reason.

“Ah' don't know. Whacha lookin' at me for?” Applejack responded in an annoyed manner.

“I wasn't looking at you. I just want to know why he was watching us in the first place. And what else do you think he knows about us?” Dash retorted.

“Really Dash, I'm starting to suspect that you're more upset about that 'Daring Doo' reference he made then you are about that...um...show? Is that what it's called darling?” Rarity said as calmly as she could conjure up.

“I think he called it a Tee Vee show. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm sure I can ask him.” Twilight responded. It was obvious that she was looking forward to his eventual answer, although the notion of a perfect stranger knowing more about her than the other way around still felt a little bit creepy to her.

“Ooh ooh! And ask him if Humans like parties. I still have to throw them all a party.” Pinky said happily in a sing-song manner, a bounce in her step as usual.

“Pinky! I'm not sure that it's a good time to be throwing a—.” Rarity said to Pinky, before being rudely interrupted.

Pinky got an idea, “Ooh, I know. We'll throw them all a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party at the same time. It'll be huge with lots of games and cake! But wait! They're all from another country, so this should be a 'Welcome to Equestria' party. Wait, wait, wait. They're from another world, so maybe we shoul—.“

“PINKY!!” Rarity shouted at the top of her lungs. Aside from her encounter with Prince Blueblood, her friends never saw her yell before, not at this volume at least. Upon seeing her friends stare at her in shock and disbelief, Rarity quickly regained her composure to the best of her ability, and then continued after clearing her throat, “Pinky darling, with all due respect, we have no idea how they will react to a party. We've never encountered these creatures before, and for all we know, they could react badly to it.”

“Wow Rarity, when did you become so insightful all of a sudden?” Twilight asked.

“Let's just say that a month back, I had my first Griffon client. It...didn't end well.” Rarity said, shuttering at the last sentence.
Rainbow Dash laughed out loud for a while when an image of Gilda in a fancy and lacy dress crossed her mind. Rarity was not pleased. “That's not funny Dash. I spent a whole day cleaning up that mess. All that work, ruined!” Rarity scolded, stomping her hoof.

“So Twi, what's Daniel like?” Applejack asked, wanting to quickly move the conversation in another direction.
Twilight gave this some thought. “He...seems friendly enough. I can tell that he's trying to adjust, but I can also see that he's having some difficulty.”

“Such as...” Dash said.

“He's having to learn everything all over again. He didn't even know that he could grip things with his hooves until I showed him. And he was even surprised when I showed him that he could eat directly from a plate.” Twilight said.

Rarity winced at the thought. But then again, the notion of eating directly from a plate was just another item on the list of things that Rarity considered uncouth.

“Ah can't imagine havin' to learn everything all over again. Just how different are these Humans anyway?” Applejack asked.

“Well, one of the scientists showed me a photograph found in one of the houses. They're basically a form of hairless primate that walks upright on their hind legs. They have a peachy pink color skin with manes on top of their heads. And from what Daniel had told me, Humans also have a nudity taboo. Basically, they have to wear clothing all the time.” Twilight stated.

“Wearing clothing all the time? I simply cannot imagine having to wear clothing all the time. It would get sweaty after a while one would think.” Rarity remarked.

“Humans don't have fur like we do. They must wear it to keep warm.” Twilight said. Then she continued after processing Rarity's statement more closely, “And besides, some ponies do wear clothing all the time.”

Before Rarity could continue the conversation, Twilight's horn began to flash more intensely with each passing step. “I think we're getting closer.” Twilight stated excitedly.





As my mind quietly slipped in and out of consciousness, I began to recollect bits and pieces of what had happened. A frequent question that I had kept asking myself was, 'what was that thing?' It didn't seem like any animal that I knew about, nor did I think that whatever it was, it seemed to be completely shrouded in the shadows. But at the same exact time, I was in the Everfree Forest. There were probably dozens of creatures there that are not featured in the show.

I tried to move, but with no success. Darkness still surrounded me and my body seemed to refuse to move, despite my mind's attempted will to wake up. But it also seems like that whenever I thought about my body at all, my mind tries to contemplate my new body and what it now means to me.

Like my hooves for example. Back at the library, when I was examining them on and off at times, I could see that I didn't just have furry stumps. In the show, you didn't see the hooves on most ponies since the cartoons were going for a simplified look. In real life though, it looked quite a bit closer to a standard equine hoof. It's just that my hooves were dark blue and the color of my hoof blended with the my fur so well, that it wasn't easily noticeable at first. And when I looked at the bottom of any hoof, it looked exactly like the bottom of a horse's hoof, with a 'v' shape and everything from what I could tell from first glance. I wasn't well versed in equine anatomy at all, so I wasn't really certain.

In all honesty, I didn't really want hooves at all, despite learning that I can, to a limited degree, grab things with them. But it still felt like someone just chopped off my hands and then just covered the stumps with something hard. That I felt more like a limb amputee than anything else, and that now made me feel inferior. Like I was somehow weaker than before and less capable.

Ever since 2008, I have been wishing to simply go somewhere else. To simply escape the problems of the world I was from. Thinking that somewhere else was better than here. When I saw and fell in love with the TV Show, “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”, it felt like an escape for me. It was someplace to go inside my own mind and escape the problems of the world.

All this time, wanting to run away from my problems, only to find myself stumbling onto new ones. That, basically, I was essentially back to where I started. Only this time, I have to learn how to use a new body, and on top of that, I have to learn better interpersonal communication skills with a culture that I barely understand. Even though I was told that a way back was being researched, I still had a lingering feeling that at the very least, it will take a while for them to come to some kind of resolution either way. And if I was indeed stuck here for the rest of my life, my heart sinking at the thought, at least I will still be with my family.

As the world began to fade back into view, the first thing that I saw was one of my hooves resting in front of my face, but not so close that it was touching my face. So that's what acceptance feels like. All this time, I was trying so hard to force myself to accept the current situation so blindly, that I failed to realize that I was ignoring the reality of the situation. That I wasn't putting into account the situation I was exactly in and what it now means to me. Even with knowledge of the show, there was so much that I still didn't know about this place. Topics that the creators of the show either didn't have time to go over, or couldn't for obvious reasons.

“Well, look who's awake.” A female voice said.

As I tried to get up, my aching body prevented me from continuing further. I turned to see a light brown pony sitting upright, resting a clipboard on her hoof, examining the pages closely. Judging from her hat, she must have been some kind of nurse.

“Hi.” was all I could muster at the moment. I was still in the process of waking up.

“Hi.” she replied without taking her eyes off the clipboard. Then after a short while, she placed the clipboard on the end of the bed, then looked at me.

“So, how are you feeling?” she asked, managing a half smile.

“Well...aside from the aching, I feel okay.” I said.

“That's nice to hear. From what I heard, you went...erm...what I mean to say is...” she said. It was obvious to me that she was actively trying to avoid insulting me or from getting me emotionally going again.

Smiling, I simply intervened, “It's okay. I think I know what you meant to say.”

“That's nice to know. Well, from what the report says, you hit that tree pretty hard when you took a tumble down that hill. Just be glad a certain zebra was there to find you.” she said, now a bit more relaxed at my presence, but obviously stern at my apparent recklessness.

“You mean Zecora?” I asked.

“You know her?” she responded, a little surprised.

“I never actually met her. I've...heard Twilight mention something about her before.” I stated, trying to avoid the whole 'TV show' bit from going public. It was bad enough as it was that my ex-humanity was already out in the open, thanks to me of course.

“Well, we'll keep you for another day just to be sure, but other than that, all you need is to do plenty of resting up until it fully heals. Okay?” she asked.

“Okay.” I responded.

“Oh, and before I go, I believe that you have some visitors to see you.” she said.

“Daniel, sweetie? Is that really you?” a familiar voice said tearfully.
> Chapter 8: Family Reunion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I slowly eased myself up and looked over to the doorway to see a mint green unicorn mare. She had a strawberry red mane with lavender streaks I it, and wore a pair of glasses that seemed to have been made after her arrival. Her cheeks were adorned lightly with freckle marks made up by her fur.

From her appearance alone, my first thought was that this was not my mother. But another part of me, told me that she was. A vague feeling that I couldn't really explain. Or it could be because she sounded exactly like my mom. Who knows.

“M-mom?” I asked timidly, still feeling a little bit uncertain about the whole situation.

She slowly walked over to me and then examined both my face and body in what seemed to be great detail. After a while of awkward silence, she slowly put one hoof on the bed and another one around my neck. With that, she hugged me. It was light at first, but soon transitioned into a deeper one.

Since I was in no condition to hug her properly, and the fact that I didn't want to ruin the moment by shifting my body around, I just simply closed my eyes and leaned my head against her, feeling a streak of wet against my neck.
For what seemed like the longest time, no words were exchanged. Just a simple mother's embrace with her son. Although the half-hug felt a little unusual and her hoof was starting to dig into my body, the hug still felt nice and warm. I breathed in through my nose. Yep, she definitely smelled like a horse. She was also slightly dirty and dusty, but at the moment, I didn't really care.

“Well, I'd better get going. I-I've got other patients to attend to.” the nurse said, trying her best not to cry, although it was obvious that she already was. I just gave a smile and nod to her. And with that, the nurse left the room and closed the door behind her.

Looking around, I quickly noticed something was missing. “Where's dad?” I asked.

After letting go of me and getting off the bed she turned her head. “Dear, come in here.” she said.

At first, I didn't hear anything. She repeated her call once again, this time, a little bit louder, “Honey?” This time, I could hear what sounded like muttering and groaning from the other side of the door. Then, I heard and saw the door handle jiggle a bit. Lightly at first, but then quickly turned aggressive.

“*&^%$#@ door knob! How the hell am I supposed to open this *&^%$#@ door with these worthless stumps?!” a familiar voice cried out from behind the door.

“Sir. I need you to calm down. We are in a hospital just so you know.” a male voice said on the other side of the door, close to where dad was.

“I AM CALM!” my father replied. I was surprised. I've never heard my father this angry or upset before.

“And may I also remind you that you have a choice of either seeing your son, or going back to the refugee camp. Your choice.” the other voice said bluntly.

Then I heard a snort, followed by a long pause. 

“Fine.” my father said said in defeat.

Then the door handle jiggled lightly again.

“Um. Could you please open this door for me?” my father asked.





Although the large house had much stuff to look at, Scootaloo fixed her sights to a table in the middle of a large, open room. On it, was a photograph that looked like it was about to be placed into what appeared to be a book of some kind. The pages were apparently custom made, and had no words on any of them. Each of the pages included a combination of photographs, illustrations, and paper cutouts. It looked very artistic and pretty with all the colors and shapes.
As the three went back to looking at the photograph, they realized what this was a photo of.

“It sorta looks like a family photo of hairless monkeys. Two grownups, and two young monkeys. I can't tell which is a mare and which is the stallion.” Sweetie Bell said.

Now even Applebloom was curious and picked up the photograph with her hoof.

“Those ain't monkeys, they look more like prime apes to me.” Applebloom said.

After moments of analyzing the photo, Applebloom put the photograph back down on the table and started to head for the back door.

“Come on girls, we really need to get out of here.” Applebloom said.

“But, what about...” Sweetie Bell started before being quickly cut off by Applebloom again.

“No! I just don't want to get in trouble with mah sister again. Just leave the photograph, please?” Applebloom begged.

Scootaloo looked back at the photograph and just sighed as the two other girls started to head to the back door.

Then, a strange buckling sound could be heard. Looking up to see where it was coming from, they suddenly noticed that the upper parts of the ceilings had large, noticeable cracks in it.

Applebloom, who was already at the back door where they had entered into, quietly called out to her friends. “Come on, let's go!” she whispered, signaling to her friends to come over.

The next to leave was Scootaloo, then it was Sweetie Bell's turn. As soon as Applebloom began to make motions to leave herself, a beam of wood that helped to hold up the ceiling suddenly came crashing down without any direct warning. The trio screamed and galloped for their lives away from the house. Luckily, the beam didn't hit Scootaloo.

As the trio hid themselves into another bush a distance away from the deathtrap, they did their absolute best to calm themselves down. The sound of galloping could be heard from a distance, and guards could be seen converging onto the house that the girls had just left with their lives.

“Oh Celestia. Not another one.” a brown guard called out as he approached the house.

But this time, the fillies didn't want to stick around to find out what happened next. If they were caught, they would be in enough trouble as it is, especially after that beam had nearly crushed them.





With his head low and ears back, what I had assumed to be my father slowly made his way into the room. His coat was a medium peach color, while he had a short, dark green mane, mustache, and a spiral horn adorned on his forehead.

Even if it wasn't for his emotional outburst, I still could tell that he wasn't thrilled about the situation just from his expression alone.

“Hey dad.” I said. With that, he stopped, his ears and head perked up, and looked around until our eyes met.

At first, he did not know what to say. He eventually sat down on his hind legs a bit of a distance from my bed and just continued to look at me almost like he wasn't sure if I was going to bite him or not. My mother, who was not happy with his bitter attitude, just got up from her own seated position and walked over to where he was.

Upon seeing her presence, she reached out her front right hoof, placed it around his lower neck, and said, “Come on honey. Like it or not, this is our son.” Her face broke out into a half-smile, hoping that she could hopefully calm him down a bit more. It seemed to help, a bit.

“But what if we're stuck here? Like this. I don't want to be a horse for the rest of my life.” He said, tears beginning to stream down his face.

I was more accepting of this world and of the inhabitants, but that was simply because I was already aware of it all, to a degree because of the show, and I had a bit of a better idea of what to expect. I know that this isn't a world of brain-dead happy characters with no bonds to reality. This world had depth. And no matter how brief the show itself was able to look into the characters and the world, I had always felt that there was more to it. That this world was someplace that could be real, with interesting, yet realistic characters.

“Are you really my son?” he asked. The words stung a bit, but knowing full well about our current identity crisis, I understood as best as I could.

“Yes, I-I am.” I responded, trying to hold back tears of my own.

He briefly looked away and pondered my answer. Deciding that proof was needed, not only for him, but me as well, he simply asked, “Do you remember what we were fighting about? You know, before all this happened?”

“Yes. When you asked me what I was doing, I told you that I was reading a book that I had gotten from the library. You...didn't take it well for some reason.” I replied, still thinking back to the fight. Overall, my father is a good man who tries to use common sense in his life and, in my opinion, respected those of other faiths in general, but my curiosity in what I was reading somehow made him snap that night. I had no idea what made him so angry.

“I am so sorry about what happened. You see...” he started, turning to look at my mother. Then he continued, “I got laid off and I was still upset about it.”

“Why didn't you tell me sooner Gordon?” she asked, shocked at this new revelation.

“Because the night that I got the news, as soon as I got home, you were already fast asleep. I was planning to tell you the next day. Daniel was doing some late night reading and I was still upset. I took it out on our son, and I shouldn't have. I-I'm sorry.” he said looking back to me.

“Was that it? You were upset, at me, just because you lost your job? For a while there, I actually thought you were angry about what I was reading. I mean, you made noises about the possibility of being laid off, but I never imagined that you would actually yell at me because of it.” I said, practically shouting.

“I said I was sorry. What, you want my confession written on paper? Oh wait, I almost forgot. I NO LONGER HAVE HANDS TO WRITE WITH!” he replied, slamming his front right hoof on the wood floor for every word that he yelled.

“THAT IS ENOUGH!” my mother yelled, cutting into our feud by literally walking between the two of us.

She first looked at my dad, then to me, and said in a stern, yet annoyed tone, “Gordon, you need to keep your anger under control. And Daniel, just drop the subject. He's apologized twice already.”

"Is there a problem in here?” a voice said. We all turned to see an angry, red guard looking in the room.
My father just sighed in defeat and replied, “No officer, there's no problem here.”

“Good. But any more yelling, and I may have to cut this family reunion short, am I clear?” he said in a strict tone.
My father paused a moment.

“Well?” the guard asked.

“Yes. Crystal clear.” my father replied.

And that, the guard left the room and closed the door.

“Wow.” was all I could say.

“Yeah.” my father simply replied sitting back down.

“So, where are you staying at? As soon as we heard that you were here too, we began asking where you were.” my mother asked.

“I'm staying at the local library.” I said.

“But how are you able to stay outside the camp. Those guards don't allow us outside the area at all.” my father asked confused.

“I don't know. I'll have to ask somebody about that.” I said.

Dad then was thinking of something for a moment, then went on to say, “Do you have any idea why we are here?”

“I don't know. I've tried asking, but the most that I've been able to get is that the scientists are still trying to figure it out.” I replied, really wishing that I had a better answer than that.

My father gave a disappointed sigh, then a thought came to him, “How are those scientists able to do anything constructive with hooves? In fact, how can this entire society have been created and maintained by quadrupeds and be able to function properly?”

“Well, for one, your hooves, believe it or not, have a type of 'gripping' ability. I'm not sure how it works exactly, but I think you kind of...well, touch the object with your hoof and somehow 'imagine' gripping the object. And then the object should 'stick' to your hoof.” I replied.

“Have you tried doing that yourself?” my mom asked.

“I was able to lift a bar of soap from the ground once.” I replied.

“But how were you able to do it?” my father asked intently, obviously curious.

“Well, after Twilight—“ I began before being quickly cut off my my mother.

“Who's Twilight?” she asked.

Then I continued again. “She is the librarian that I'm staying with. Now, like I was saying, I—”

“What kind of name is Twilight. Is that some kind of hippie name?” my father asked.

“No, it's a pony name. Now can I please get back to what I was saying?” I finally said without being interrupted.

“Sorry.” my father said.

“As I was saying, after she showed me that ability, I tried it myself. It took a while, but I was able to lift objects with my hoof.” I said.

“Could you show us?” my mom asked.

“If I was in better shape, I would.” I replied.

“Speaking of which, what did happen to you?” my father asked, now a bit curious.

“All that we heard, is that you got lost in some forest, and ran into a tree.” my mother added.

As I told them what had happened, they both sat upright listening to what I had remembered.





HOURS EARLIER
A knock came upon Zecora's door.

“Twilight, it's good to see you. I have found a strange pony and didn't know what to do.” Zecora said, relieved to see Twilight.

As Zecora went back inside, Twilight took a look inside. On the floor was none other than Daniel himself asleep and covered with a blanket.

“Well, that was quick.” Rainbow Dash commented.

Her friends just looked at her.

“What? At least we found him. That's the important thing, right?” Rainbow Dash replied.

“How is he Zecora?” Twilight asked.

“Not well. Down a hill, he tumbled and fell.” she replied, revealing the bandages that had been placed on his body.

“But that is not all. For I felt the presence of another right after his fall.” Zecora said.

“Was another pony out there?” Twilight asked.

“I do not know. For it's presence did not show.” Zecora answered. Then she went on to explain the experience to the mares.

“Weird. Right after Daniel panicked and ran away, I swore that I saw something. Something that looked like it was in the shadows.” Twilight said.

“What was it?” Rarity asked.

“I...I don't know. By the time I looked back to get a better look, it had disappeared.” Twilight said.

“Ya think you need to report to the princess?” Applejack asked.

“Again, I don't know. But it wouldn't hurt for me to at least mention it to Princess Celestia.” Twilight said.

“So what do we do now?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Well, I want you to fly back to Ponyville and tell the hospital that a patient will be arriving soon. The rest of us will bring him to town.” Twilight ordered.

“Got it.” Rainbow Dash said before she immediately headed outside.

“Just how do you expect us to do that. It's not like he's a light stallion.” Rarity asked, a bit puzzled.
Twilight didn't think of that.

“I have a cart that I use that is outside. It should make the trip back an easier ride.” Zecora said right before she opened the front door. Behind her hut was indeed a cart. It was obvious that it was hoof made with materials that would be found in the forest. But even then, it looked strong enough to do it's job.





“Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that you ate grass?” My father asked, shocked at what I had told him.

“Um, yes?” I replied, shifting my body to the side.

“Why?” he asked, his face still plastered with a shocked look.

“Well, let's recap here. I was lost in the middle of a forest. I had no idea how to get out, let alone which direction was north. 

And I was hungry.” I said. I tried to count the events with my fingers only to realize again that I no longer had them. My 
parents exchanged glances as I tried to fidget with my hooves, trying to do hand gestures I could no longer do.

“What does it taste like?” my mother asked.

“Like...grass. But somehow, there's more flavor appeal to it. I don't know how else to explain it.” I said.

“Well I for one am not going to be eating grass. And neither should you.” my father stated bitterly.

“But ponies usually eat grass, right?” I asked.

“We are NOT ponies. We are Human Beings that got dragged to this god-forsaken world and changed into these god-awful bodies against our will. Do you know how degrading it feels to be walking on all fours?” he barked.

The door opened abruptly and in came the guard, angry as ever.

“That is it. I have had it with you.” the guard yelled.

“But—” My father started before being immediately cut off by the guard.

“No, I don't want to hear it. For the past half hour, all I've been doing, is hearing you bitching and moaning on how unfair your life has gotten. And to be honest, it's been getting on my nerves. But since it seems so obvious to me now that you cannot stay civil and calm, that I will have to revoke your visiting privileges until further notice.” the guard stated as calmly as he could.

My parents, both unhappy at this new revelation, started to head back to the door. The guard stopped my mother in her tracks by getting in her path.

“When I said that privileges were revoked, that only applies to your husband. You can still visit your son on a weekly basis. The other guard can escort you once you are ready to go. Is that okay with you?” the guard said as calmly as he could.

“That's...fine. I guess.” she said timidly.

With that, the guard escorted my father out of the room.

“So Daniel, have they been treating you well?” she asked.

“No complaints yet. You?” I said.

“Well. I don't like the camp they have set up. It's crowded, it smells strongly of horse, the outhouse toilets are too low to the ground and reeks of manure, and it gets too hot in the tent during the day. But other than that, it's okay I guess.” she said.

At least she still had her sense of humor.

“What I meant to ask was, how are they treating you?” I asked.

“Overall, they were nice. The workers seemed nice enough, but they didn't really have any time to talk to us. But what surprised me is that the ones with those horns have some sort of glowing telekinetic ability. Scared the hell out of me the first time they did it.” she said.

And apparently, she still rambles on.

“Well, you have a horn too.” I stated.

“I know. So do you. But, does that mean we're...um...Unicorns?” she asked me, a bit uncertain about her question.

A small smile and nod from me was all the answer she needed.

“But Unicorns don't exist. How could they?” she asked, confused.

“Well, we are on another world. That much I do know.” I said.

Then we both heard a knock at the door.
> Chapter 9: Pressing Matters
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I know that he screamed in front of the entire town. But why would a guard...” Rarity mumbled to herself as she entered the room.

But she stopped in her tracks and gasped as soon as she saw my mother.

“My dear, I don't mean to be rude, but how long has it been since you last took a bath?” Rarity asked.

“Rarity, this is—“ I began before being interrupted by Rarity.

“I was talking to her darling. But never fear my dear, I've got a coupon for a free bathing session at the local spa. Just come over to my boutique when you want to claim it. Completely free of charge, of course. Just consider it a welcoming gift from me.” Rarity said with a smile while my mother just gave a confused look at her.

“Rarity...” I began to protest.

“Daniel, really. You just can't expect me to carry every little thing with me all day. It's just not possible. And plus, it's rude to keep interrupting me like that. What would your mother say if she was here?” she said before setting her focus back to her.
My mom was just sitting there, trying to say something, but she just had a hard time getting it out. I wasn't sure if it was because she might be nervous of Rarity's presence, or because she simply had a hard time saying what she wanted to say in general.

“Don't worry my dear, you're pretty already. You just need to clean off all that dirt and you'll be as good as new.” Rarity continued, putting on a graceful smile.

“Y-you really think I'm pretty? The way I am right now?” My mother asked.

“Well, yes. But I...” Rarity started before suddenly realizing that my mother was now hugging her with a small smile and tears slowly streaming down her face.

“Thank you.” my mother said quietly.

Rarity didn't know what to say. Apart from giving a quick sniff of my mom's coat, and scrunching her nose as a reaction, Rarity just stood there trying to remain calm in midst of this perfect stranger.

After a moment longer, my mother backed off from Rarity.

“S-sorry about that. It's just...a lot has been going on right now. I'm...I'd better get going. Sorry.” my mother said before turning to the door.

She was about to reach for the door knob, but pulled her hoof back before she could touch it when she realized that she could not open it herself. Instead, she tapped the door with her hoof. The door opened, and the guard poked his head in the room.

“See you later. Now you stay out of trouble, okay?” my mother said with a light smile, right before being escorted out of the room by the guard.

“I...Whuh...buh.” Rarity uttered, obviously at a loss for words.

A moment later, she managed to regain her composure once more, or at least did her best. “Daniel, who was that? Do you know her?” she said.

“That's my mother.” I said.

“Your mother? You mean...Oh dear. I just figured that she was some mare off the street. I had no idea that she's your mother. I'm really sorry I offended her.” Rarity said, now worried.

It was tempting to simply tell her that I tried telling her she's my mother, but I quickly remembered how much of a drama queen she can be. If I had said anything bad to her, it would get back to her friends, and then back to me. This was especially a bad thing to do because of who I was staying with.

“Well...you did say that she was pretty. And I think that made her happy.” I said before I readjusted my body position, this time facing my body belly up. It was hard, mostly because my body was still really sore from taking that tumble down that hill, and because it was hard to turn my body around without any hands.

“How does it feel, to be a pony that is?” she asked.

I thought about it for a while. I even started flexing various parts of my body and focused closely on each feeling, and each sensation. As I flexed my forelegs, I noticed that after moving them around more closely, that they felt a little bit more like giant fingers. Before, I had just assumed them to be akin to my hands having been copped off.

As I started making faces in order to feel my new muzzle, Rarity just stared at me, confused at what I was doing.

“Darling, what are you doing?” she asked.

“You asked me what it feels like. I just haven't had any real time to think about my body that much.” I asked.

“I was just expecting a simple answer. Not...any of what you were just doing.” Rarity said, now a little bit creeped out.

“Sorry. Different. I feel different” I replied.

“Can't you give a less vague answer than that?” she asked.

“I honestly wish I could.  My body feels and moves differently, my head is lower to the ground than I'm used to it being, and it's taking a while to get used to seeing this muzzle in front of my face.” I said as I gestured to my face. “Other than that, I can't really describe how it feels.” I said.

Then I went on to talk about my parent's little visit. About how my mother told me some of the conditions the camp was in, and of my encounter with my father. Rarity just listened to me patiently.

“The conditions are that bad at those camps? My word, no wonder she's so dirty. And no wonder your father was angry. I'd be angry too if I was forced to live in those horrid conditions. It sounds like whoever is in charge is obviously not doing their job that well.” she said, aghast of the descriptions that I had given her.

“Yeah. And my father never acted like this before. Sure, he's been angry before, and yes, he's yelled before. But never at the level he was when he came to visit me. I just get the impression that he doesn't like being a pony, at all.” I said.

“I could tell that from what you've told me darling. And for the record, hooves are not 'worthless stumps'. I should know, because I use them in my everyday life.” she replied, obviously bemused by my father's comments.

“Overall, my father's a good man. He's just having a hard time adjusting. That's all.” I said.

“Man?” she asked confused.

“Stallion. That's what I meant to say. Sorry.” I said, slightly embarrassed by the mistake. If it does turn out that I'm stuck here, then I'd better get started getting used to using certain words used by the natives. At the very least, it would really help me out in future conversations.

“It's okay. I just didn't know what that word meant.” Rarity said.

Then Rarity looked at the clock that was overhead the door. “Oh dear. I really must get going. I still have an order to finish up by tomorrow morning.”

With that, she got up and headed for the door. “I'll see you later Daniel. I hope you feel better. Bye.” she said. I waived her goodbye with my hoof, only to be momentarily distracted by it. When I turned my focus back on her, I found that she had already left. My guess is that she had a very large order to fill.

And here I was, alone again, with no other pony in the room. I guess after my little episode, I guess that the medical staff really didn't want me to be disturbing any of the other patients or making any of them nervous.

A few moments had passed, and nothing happened with only the ticking of the clock to pass the time. I even experimented with shifting my body to a more comfortable position on the bed only to find in the end that laying on my back was the least sore position to begin with.

After a while longer, a thought came to my head. I looked under my sheets to see if I still had a belly button. A silly thing to look for, I know, but I didn't have anything else to do. And yes, I do have one, but it looked a little bit weird to be honest.

A while longer, I just stared at the ceiling. I guess I now know how Rainbow Dash felt when she was in the hospital during that one episode. None of the nurses had bothered to check up on me, yet, and there was nothing else to do. I even looked around for a call button of some kind, but unless it was hiding in some obscure corner of the bed, I could not see anything that even resembled one. Yelling was out of the question because I didn't want to give any of the medical staff heart attacks, and plus, this was a hospital. I had to keep my voice down. I guess all I could do was just wait.





Twilight was hard at work getting all of her notes in order. Apparently, she was to give her notes to one of the lead scientists so they could put it to good use in their work. She just didn't know it would be this soon. But after all that had happened lately, they probably wanted it a bit faster than usual. The only thing that she was really surprised about was at how fast Daniel got out of the Everfree forest.

But it wasn't really the speed at which he got out that she thought about, it was mostly of his origin. Twilight was confidant in her teacher's decision to temporarily disrupt her studies for this task, and for now, she was alright with that. She was in constant contact with the scientific team that has been tasked with discovering more about these newcomers, although some of the staff had been starting to call them 'new foals'. If it hadn't been for her experiences with Daniel, she would have assumed that it was a premature label. But the more that she thought about it, she was essentially teaching a pony about topics that a foal would normally be learning, with the exception that he already is potty trained, which she was greatly relieved.

One of the other things that she had to do when she eventually got the chance, was to go shopping for him. She had to get him stuff like toiletries, a spot at the dentist's office to make sure his teeth was okay, and even get horseshoes fitted for him. This was becoming less and less like a simple friend staying for a few weeks, and more like being a mother. But at least Celestia generously increased her monthly allowance in order to compensate for his extended stay. That was something at least.

A knock could be heard on the front door. “Come in. The library's open.” Twilight responded. Seriously, ever since she came to Ponyville, she would get the occasional knock on the front door, treating the library like it was her personal home. Yes, she does live here, but there is a reason why she put up an open sign on the front door.

“Sorry to barge in like this miss Sparkle.” a male voice said. Twilight turned to face an orange unicorn pony in a white lab coat and coke bottle glasses. His pocket protector, which was beginning to sag after years of wear, just swung lightly as he walked. On his back was a filled up saddlebag, not to the point of bursting, but it was getting there. If she had guessed, it would probably be paperwork and an assortment of tools he may have needed for his job.

“That's okay. I was just in the process of getting my notes sorted out. I just wasn't expecting you to be arriving so early.” Twilight answered as she continued to sort out her notes, this time, a little bit faster than before.

“You know, you don't have to rush those notes so quickly. I want accurate notes, not something that has mistakes in them.” the scientist said.

“But I thought you wanted these notes today.” Twilight said, now a little confused.

“I do, but it doesn't have to be right this second.” the scientist said as he came over to the table full of notes.

“Then why are you here?” Twilight asked.

“I just want to ask you a few questions. If that's alright with you.” he said as he floated his clipboard out of his bag.
“About what?” Twilight asked, now setting her notes back on the table.

“About...” he began before looking at his clipboard. “Daniel? Is that his name?” he asked looking back to Twilight.
“Yes.” Twilight replied.

“Hm, weird name. But, anyways, back to the questions. Are you ready?” the scientist asked.

“Ready as I'll ever be.” Twilight responded.

“Okay. Has he ever hurt you in any way?” he asked, focused solely on the clipboard he had floated right in front of him.
“No. He has not. And if he had, I would have reported it by now.” Twilight asked, a little shocked at the question.

“I'm sorry. This is just a general list of questions made up by the staff. And no, I'm not the one who wrote them.” he said.

But before she could reply, he continued with his interview, “Has Daniel exhibited any unusual behaviors that you believe to be dangerous or harmful in the short and/or long term?”

“No. And again, if Daniel did anything bad, I would have reported it to somepony in charge by now.” Twilight answered, now growing weary of this scientist.

“Have you been teaching Daniel about magic in any way?” He asked, unphased at Twilight's answer.

“Yes, I have.” Twilight responded.

“Has he done any actual magic?” the scientist asked.

“Well, it was hard for him to draw it out at first. But once he was able to, he just sent out raw energy at first when I had asked him to levitate a feather. In the end, he was able to do it, barely, but at least he isn't magic intolerant” Twilight responded.

“Oh good, that's normal then.” the scientist said as he wrote down her response.

“But, how is that normal? He put holes and scorch marks in my ceiling.” she responded, a little surprised at his response.

The scientist stopped what he was doing and just looked at her. “Miss Sparkle, despite how much magic he's emitting, the fact remains that he's able emit magic. It's just now a matter of making sure that he is able to control it. Actually, I'm surprised that he was able to do anything at all so quickly, having been born another species and all.”

“Are we done with this interview yet?” she asked.

“No, not yet. I still have a few more questions to ask you. If that's alright with you.” he said.

Twilight just mildly sighed in exasperation. Applying the techniques that she had learned from Princess Cadence, she was able to calm down and just get on with it.

“Okay, what's your next question?” Twilight asked, hoping to get through the rest of the questions.





By the time the CMC got back to their clubhouse, it was already time for each of them to go home.
“Next time, let's not go there again. Agreed?” Applebloom asked.

The two others agreed in an uncertain unison. The house incident was still affecting them, and if they hadn't gotten out in time, they would have also gotten in trouble with each of their parents. Not the best way to spend the day.

The meeting was closed quickly and silently. Normally, they would have come up with a few ideas for what to do the next time, but frankly, none of them were in the mood. The trio left the clubhouse, and after Applebloom locked the front door, they said their goodbyes and then just left.

By the time that Scootaloo arrived to her home, she took her scooter and walked it inside the house. After putting it away and turning on a few lamps, she took her saddlebag and placed it on the coffee table.

She guessed that it was another late night for her father and her mother was most likely fast asleep. It wasn't unusual for Scootaloo to come home late, despite her parent's concerns, as there were a few times where she came home even later than usual.

It was late enough that she decided to call it a night and go to sleep. But before she did, she remembered something. After rummaging through her saddlebag, she dragged out a photograph. A photograph she had managed to take out of that house before a part of the ceiling came crashing down.
> Chapter 10: A Final Decision
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't know how long it had been until I had woken up. I was never a morning person, and it always took me a while to get myself fully awake. My body felt quite a bit better, partly due to a pain pill the nurses gave to me before I had gone to bed the previous night.

The bed that I was sleeping on was a bit too firm for my taste, and I even tried to stretch my body to hopefully reduce the soreness as much as possible. And even though the stretching itself was yet another reminder of my current predicament, for the moment, I didn't really care. Even though I still wanted to go home, I now felt divided by the whole prospect of going back. On one hand, I'm missing my home country with it's technological advancements, food, and even the land itself. But on the other, America is essentially a country that is still in bad shape that made the prospect of going home a lot less appealing. If you don't believe me, you may want to give cities like Detroit a visit one of these days and get a good look around. Detroit used to be the envy of the world.

And the fact that I used the idea of Equestria as a way to temporarily escape from reality back home really didn't help matters either. Whenever I felt depressed or had a bad day, I would just either play a video game or watch some My Little Pony. And even though the land of Equestria wasn't perfect and had it's share of problems, at least from what the show presented, it seemed from the surface a much nicer place to live. But ever since I got here, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. From what I've seen so far, I get the faint feeling like I have been thrown back to the 1800s. And although it's still a bit too early to come to that conclusion quite yet, I still get the feeling that I may still have to get used to a simpler lifestyle if I get stuck living here.

The dinner that they had served to me last night me tasted good. It may not have been up to the standards of a 5 star restaurant mind you, but that still didn't stop me from polishing off the plate. It was a plate full of mashed potatoes, steamed veggies, and a fresh bread roll with some hay on top of it. Since I still did not know how to use my horn to grab anything heavier than a feather, and the doctor told me not to eat straight from the plate as it would make a mess all over the bed, I had to use my hooves to grip and use the silverware that was provided to me. It wasn't the easiest task to do at first because essentially, I kept gripping the utensils at the wrong angle, and even when I did get it right, the process of getting the food from the plate to my mouth was a challenge in itself. The first few times, I had gotten food on my face because I had miscalculated where my mouth exactly was.

“So, how are you feeling Daniel?” a voice said. I turned a caramel colored unicorn doctor with a dark brown mane. He wore glasses and clothing that closely resembled a doctor's coat. And yes, he's the same doctor in that “Read it and Weep” episode. Even the voice was spot on.

However, looking at the real life version of a cartoon character is definitely different than one would expect. Have you ever been to one of those fairs that had a booth featuring an artist that drew you as a cartoon character for a few bucks? Here, there was a strong resemblance between the illustration and the pony, but the differences were still obvious.
“I'm feeling better.” I replied.

“Well, that's good to hear. But before I let you go, you need to get some immunization shots.” he said.

“Some what now?” I asked.





After getting up from bed as she always does every morning, and doing her morning routine of brushing her mane and teeth, and getting the beds made, Twilight decided to get breakfast going herself.

While Spike was always happy to do the job for her, she had decided that it was her turn to do it. Mostly because she wanted to get her mind off of that encounter with that one scientist, but it was also because she wanted him to take a bit of a break from his chores.

But what happened after the scientist's departure was what really what got her worried. Rarity came by hours after the scientist's leave, and mentioned something that Twilight found disturbing. After explaining to Twilight about her visit to the hospital and her awkward meeting with both Daniel and his mother, Rarity had explained to her of what Daniel had told her about the conditions of the camp.

Being the good student she was, had asked Spike to write a letter and send it to her teacher in a burst of green flame. After Spike had burped up the reply letter from her teacher roughly a half an our later, a longer wait than she was used to, and Spike had opened it. Spike read it out loud as he always did ever since he learned how to read.





My dearest and most faithful student Twilight,

I apologize in advanced for not responding sooner. The senate has been heavily debating what to do with the unexpected new arrivals and the viable options are still severely limited. Since we have no connections to their original governments and the scientific community is still working out the fundamentals of traveling between worlds, we may have no choice but to give the new arrivals full citizenship until a proper solution can be found. I know that many ponies on both sides will object to this decision, but we really don't have any other choice that doesn't involve making matters worse than they already are. If you have any suggestions, then please let me know right away.

As for the letter that you sent me, I am deeply concerned as I have not heard any mention of this from any members of the team tasked with running and maintaining the camp. If what you've told me is even partly correct, it could not only create an increased health risk, but could also increase tensions between citizens and the new arrivals. Do not worry as I have already ordered a full inquiry of the present conditions of the camp to hopefully get to the bottom of this.

Your teacher, Princess Celestia

PS. Be sure to show Daniel this letter at your earliest convenience. Unless another viable solution presents itself soon, we'll be making a formal announcement two days from now.





“Twilight, I've been thinking about the letter from last night. What does it mean that they will be given full citizenship?” Spike asked as he was beginning to stack books to put back into the shelves.

“It means that Equestria now has to deal with new immigrants from a world we know nothing about.” Twilight answered as she brought out her breakfast of eggs and hay hash browns to the main room.

“So, what's the big deal? From what I've seen, they're all ponies now anyways.” Spike said.

“But that's just it. Not all of them want to be ponies, or in Equestria for that matter.” Twilight replied.

“And what led you to that idea?” Spike asked as he started to place books into the proper places.

“Weren't you listening to what Rarity told me last night?” Twilight asked.

“Well...I” Spike replied, blushing a bit.

“Never mind. Daniel told Rarity that his father was angry and upset at his predicament when he and Daniel's mother came to visit Daniel in the hospital. He even went as far as calling his hooves 'worthless stumps'.” Twilight responded as she began to eat her meal.

“That's ridiculous. Doesn't he know that hooves can grip stuff?” Spike remarked.

“No he doesn't. In fact, the first day that Daniel stayed here with us, he was surprised that I was able to grip the shower valves with my hoof at all. It was as though he'd never seen a hoof before in his life.” Twilight responded, now finished with her meal. After taking her dirty dishes into the kitchenette, she cleaned the dishes and put it on the drying rack, and then headed back to the main room.

“What really gets me about all this is how completely unprepared I am with all of this. I've never been this disorganized before in my life, and that's making me wonder how prepared the rest of Equestria is when the new comers have to live here, even if they don't want to.” she said.

“Wait a minute. Are you saying that these new comers are going to be forced to live here, whether they like it or not?” Spike asked, now with his full focus to Twilight.

“To be honest, there's no other option right now. It's like what it said on Celestia's letter. With no connection with their government or to their home world, none of them can be deported, or given temporary visas. The only other alternative I can think of is all of them being thrown in jail. But since none of them have done anything wrong, it would be an inponane thing to do.” Twilight replied, now looking outside the window, watching everypony pass on by.

“But seriously, isn't there another way?” Spike asked.

“I honestly wish there was Spike. The Equestrian Government just isn't set up to handle refugees from another world. And the law here is very strict about illegal aliens. I would know because I spent all of the last few months reading Equestrian law.” Twilight responded, hinting of her pride of that particular achievement. Spike just rolled his eyes at the last remark.
“So what are you going to do now?” Spike asked.

“Well, after I tell Daniel the news, I'll just continue teaching him how to live as an Equestrian. Princess Celestia just told me to teach him, learn from him, and report my findings. So that's what I'm going to do.” Twilight stated confidently.
“By the way, where is Daniel? He wasn't in bed when I woke up this morning.” Spike asked, looking around the room.





Never before in my life have I ever gotten so many shots before. I was convinced that I was more sore than I was when I woke up this morning, but that could easily be an exaggeration on my part.

But what shocked me the most is that apparently, from what the doctor had told me, is that I am now a full citizen of Equestria. The doctor had told me this after going over some paperwork with me to verify information for their records. The doctor seemed honestly surprised at my lack of knowledge of this little fact. And because I'm now considered a full adult, I did not have to wait for Twilight to pick me up. Once they were done with me, they politely asked me to leave. Not wanting to make a fuss about it and having nothing else to do here, I made my way towards the front door.

But I still could not believe it. I was now a full citizen of the land of Equestria, with all rights, privileges, and everything else that came along with it. And none of them had even bothered to ask for my permission before doing it. But I tried my best not to let the prospect get to me in a bad way. If it turns out that I'm stuck here, I'll have something to fall back onto. Back home, I had no immediate friends, I only saw some of my relatives a few times a year during the holidays, and I was a little more than half way done with college going after a degree in Computer Networking. My immediate family was already here, sharing the same fate I was, so at least the idea of being stuck here wasn't completely unbearable.

After I had walked out of the hospital, I looked around to hopefully get my bearings. I looked to the town to see mostly houses. And unlike the illustrations that I see from the show, all the buildings had signs of subtle wear and tear. The second thing that I noticed was not only did I not know where I was, I could not see any sign of the library at all. The town seemed quite a bit bigger than I had originally imagined.

I looked over to see a closed section that was right next to the hospital, and I could easily see white tents set up with a fence surrounding the camp. Guards loosely surrounded the outer parameter, constantly watching. I just sat there, keeping my distance as I tried to discern the details of the camp. I mostly saw guards, with the occasional pony being escorted by a guard, but not much else seemed to be going on. And when a nearby guard told me to move along, I complied as there was literally nothing else to see that was of any interest to me.

The town hall itself was not that hard to spot once I caught glimpse of it towering over the other buildings, although even then, it took a while to notice it.

But before I could start my journey, a voice had called out.

“Hey, you. Can I talk to you for a minute?” the male voice asked.

I turned to see a blue Pegasus stallion. He was the same guy who had asked me if I was ever another species the other day.
“Yes?” I asked. I didn't know where this was going, but I was curious about what he might tell me.

“Do you remember me?” he asked, catching his breath.

I nodded my head.

“Yeah, I'm sorry about what happened. I could tell you were under a lot of stress, and I was just too curious for my own good. I should have stopped myself when I saw the signs.” he said, rubbing his left foreleg with the other, and his ears drooped down.

“It's okay. I'm...sure that even if you hadn't said anything, I'm sure somebod—erm, I mean somepony else would have.” I replied.

“Thanks. The missus will sure be glad that I've made a formal apology to you at least.” he said, now smiling.

“Okay. Um, by the way, do you happen to know where the library is?” I asked.

“Yes. I can even take you there now if you want me to.” he said a bit enthusiastically.

“Are you sure it won't cut into your day?” I asked.

“No. My appointment with the Farrier won't be until 10:30 and I have no other errands to do at the moment. So I was just wandering around wasting time until then.” He said.

“What's a farrier?” I asked.

He just gave me a shocked look, almost like I had cream squirting out of my ears or something like that. He broke that moment of silence with a mild chuckle, and responded by saying, “You don't know what a farrier is? Are you serious?”

“Yes, I seriously don't know what a farrier is. It sounds like something that has to do with...Ferry Boats?” I replied. I know that my answer was wrong, but I still guessed the best that I could.

“Well...it has nothing to do with boats, but a farrier is a pony who fixes and shoes other pony's hooves. See?” he said as he raised his hoof to me and showed me the horseshoe that was nailed to his hoof. I winced a little bit.

“Does it hurt?” I asked.

“No of course not. I only trust my hooves to professionals who know what they are doing.” he said.

“Oh, okay.” I replied. I just continued to look at his hoof even as he placed it on the ground again. The idea of having something nailed to me didn't really thrill me at all.

“So I'm guessing that Humans don't have hooves then?” he asked when he noticed that I was staring at his hoof for too long.
I looked back to him and replied, “No, not at all. In fact—”

Then out of the blue, a large bell rang out. “Oh dear, we'd better get going if I want to get to my appointment on time. And don't worry about me, the farrier is close to the library.” he said.

“Well, okay. I'll...just follow you then.” I said.

And with that, he started heading out with me following behind. I was following right beside him, just in case he started kicking for whatever reason as I always did when I was around horses. And yes, I know he's a sentient being and seems very friendly, but I was still getting used to the idea of sentient ponies and wasn't sure what could happen.

“So, what's your name stranger?” he asked.

“Daniel. You?” I replied.

“My name is Rainy Bolt, and I fix stoves for a living.” he said.

Then that's when my curiosity of Equestrian technology came up.

“What kind of stoves?” I asked.

Rainy just gave me a confused glance. “Wood stoves, of course. Is there any other kind?” he asked, chuckling a bit.
“Gas and electric.” I replied. I knew that his question was most likely a rhetorical one, but I decided to answer him anyways. I was curious about his reaction.

“What?” he asked.

“The other kind that I know of are gas, and electric.” I replied.

“Hm, I've heard of the possibility of gas stoves, but I've never actually seen one actually developed. But, how would an electric one work exactly?” he asked.

“I dunno, something to do with heated coils or something like that.” I replied. I honestly didn't know how they work exactly except on how to use them to cook food.

“I see. Are electric stoves any safer than gas stoves?” he asked back.

“Usually. As long as you don't touch the heated coils or any loose live wires, then it should be safe to use. I've never had any trouble when I've used them.” I said.

“Have you ever used a gas stove?” he asked.

“No. My mother never trusted them. She was always worried about possible gas leaks.” I said.

“So what you're saying, is that the gas might possibly cause an explosion?” he asked, a little bit worried.

“By itself, no. But with the proper mix of oxygen it will. Assuming of course there is an open flame nearby.” I concluded. I remembered that little fact from back when I was still in high school.

“Oxy-gen?” he asked, confused.

“It's...an element found in the air. Without it, fires would not be able to start.” I said to him.

“Oh, okay. So a mixture of this oxy-gen and the gas is bad, right?” he asked.

“With the right amounts, yes.” I replied.

“So, have you ever used a wood stove before?” he asked.

“No. I mean, I've seen them before, but I've never actually used one.” I said.

“Well, if your going to be cooking anything around here, it would most likely be with a wood stove. None of those other kinds exist here I'm afraid.” he said before stopping.

I looked up and saw that I was now back at the library.

“Well, it was nice meeting you.” I said as I opened the door.

“I'm coming in too. I just want to browse through some books while I'm waiting for my appointment. You know, to pass the time.” he said.

I sighed as I entered the library. But before I could fully process the possible reason why it was so dark inside, the lights quickly turned on.

“SUPRISE!” a chorus of voices yelled. Completely shocked, I looked around to find myself to be surrounded both by ponies and party decorations of many colors. In front of me was none other than Pinkie Pie herself with a paper party hat and a large smile on her face.
> FROM THE AUTHOR
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Due to some very valid points made by some readers (http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/friendship-is-magic-brainstorming-for-18-threads-straight.259809/page-124), and by the fact that I was myself getting increasingly dissatisfied and irritated with being limited to a first person POV, I have decided to completely do this story over again. It will be the same story, but hopefully I will do a whole lot better the next time around.

As I may have mentioned before, I had no official plan for the story when I first started writing it, and didn't even have any initial desire to even release it publicly. And since this is considered to be my very first novel, I didn't know about the limitations to a first person POV or fully consider the character(s) full reactions.

But to hopefully reduce any confusion for the rewrite, I will list some key points for readers to keep in mind:

* I will no longer be limited to a first-person POV, however the primary focus of the story is still around a single character and what he has to go through. Every so often, I may switch to another character to reveal some important information, but overall, I do not want to be switching to too many different characters in a single story since it will be too confusing for the reader. If you want to explore how other "new comers" would react in the story, then by all means go right ahead. I've heard a few good examples already from the link I've provided above (goth, newlywed, immigrant, etc.) and might implement some of them myself.

* The reactions of each of the characters (yes, even the main character) will hopefully be more realistic than before.

* Take out any knowledge of MLP:FIM from any of the characters. I was hoping to make this point an important part of the story, but even I admit that it is too distracting from more interesting parts of the story.

* Each of the houses will STILL be from different towns/cities. One of the confusions that a few of the readers had, was that all the houses were from the same exact town. Even from the beginning, I was curious at what would happen if different parts of America (and yes, they will be from a single country with the possible exception of some foreigners staying with relatives) would have to coexist with one another (eg. someone from California living next to someone from Texas).

* The "new comers" will still be changed into ponies. I'm fascinated by transformation stories and having the characters going through the trials and tribulations of change is something that I want to explore. If you want to have an alternate universe where all the humans don't change into ponies, then nothing is stopping you from writing your own story about it. I really don't mind.

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Overall, I wrote this story to improve my writing skills, and I appreciate any comments to help with further improvements. I have cancelled this story to start a new one and will leave this story here for archival purposes. If you have any more comments or want to tell me any problems you had with this story, then PLEASE let me know. I want to write a good story.