//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Demonic Meeting // Story: Evening Star Also Rises // by Starscribe //------------------------------// Hayden was slow to wake, in the cold and the dark. His memory was a mess, and what he did remember just didn't make any sense. His weekend hikes were always an adventure, even though he was walking trails he had visited many times before. He remembered the voice, a voice that came from his earbuds over the music he'd been listening to. It hadn't been a call—that was the first thing he'd checked. There was no service in Denver’s mountains. That was the whole reason he came out in the first place. Then the sky opened. He had tried to hold onto the mountain, tried to fight the surge of gravity ripping him up into the air. But it hadn't worked—the whole hillside had come too. Every tree, every rock, everything. Then came pain, pressure from all sides, and darkness. But Hayden could tell it hadn't been a dream from the aches he felt from every joint, every bone, every sinew. When he tried to move, his whole body responded with a surge of agonized pressure from all over. He tried something simpler, just opening his eyes. That worked better. There was cloth nearby, and something soft under his back. His whole body was surrounded by the same fabric, or at least it felt that way. As his mind returned to wakefulness, he began to notice other details. Something dark and soft-looking seemed to be right in front of his face, like he'd been tied with a mask he couldn't quite feel. Come to think of it, he couldn't feel any of his clothes. He couldn't feel anything but what was clearly a bed, and had a hard time seeing much past that. He had obviously lost his glasses in whatever disaster brought him here. But exactly what was that? Was I kidnapped? What would be the point? Hayden was nobody—another cog in the machine. He didn't have any family in the city who might've made enemies. He wasn't involved with politics or religion. He wasn't even rich. Maybe this is a hospital. Somebody saved me, brought me here. That might explain why my hands feel numb. Hayden lay in bed for another few minutes, hoping that some of the strange things he was feeling would sort themselves out. He could feel too many limbs, couldn't feel other things he had known to expect, and there was far too much hair. Whatever he was seeing was obviously wrong. Unfortunately, what he was seeing didn't seem to change as he watched. Eventually, he resolved to get up. If I've been drugged, I can at least ask a nurse what they gave me. Call… Who? He didn't have anyone to call. Elizabeth had moved out last weekend, she wouldn't want to hear from him "If you're the fucking last man on Earth." Maybe he could call the police. Assuming the authorities hadn't been the ones to rescue him in the first place. Hayden stretched his neck, then sat up. The sheets fell away from beneath him as he did so, his body finally responding more the way he expected. Well, parts of it did. Even as his head lifted from the bed, another limb extended from somewhere behind him, pushing his skin against a mountain of soft pillows. But it wasn't enough to stop him from getting up, and finally getting a good look down. Even without his glasses, he could see a few feet before the world turned into a blurry mess. What he saw made no sense. There was something furry in the bed here, himself. The body beneath him had grey fur, and stumpy legs instead of arms. The belly vanishing under the sheets didn't look even remotely like it should have, and when he moved his arms and legs both didn't bend the way he remembered. He couldn't help it: he screamed. The shout of confusion and rage came out more like a high-pitched "eeeeeeeee!" much too high to be his own voice. He jerked, tumbling and bouncing off the side of the bed. He bounced several times, before landing with a thump on the ground. It hurt, but mostly just his pride. He couldn't remember a day when he'd been flexible enough to bend the way he had as he fell, landing with his butt above his head and long yellow and white hair trailing in front of his mouth. He fell sideways with a moan of pain and frustration, trying to rise. But instead of get up, he only flopped about on the floor, his spine refusing to bend as he instructed when he tried to stand. "I anticipated you would be... somewhat more coordinated," said a voice from over his head. It was surprisingly close, close enough that it could've been mixed in with the blurs of the rest of the room without him noticing. Close enough that it had probably watched him fall out of the bed, and was looking at his bare ass right now. He turned to face the speaker, who was advancing on him. Close enough that they had resolved into a dark blue outline. Not a person, exactly—they were far too long, and not nearly tall enough. But they talked like a person. "Where am I?" he asked, finding his voice came out even higher and more terrified than before. It was even higher than the distinctly-female speaker. "What drugs did you give me?" "Relax," the speaker commanded. Something seemed to wrap around Hayden from all sides, moving his limbs without his command. He felt himself move as though a gigantic hand had lifted him right up, and turned him so the ground was beneath all four of his limbs. It lowered him gently back to the ground, and his legs tightened by reflex, holding him in a standing position. "The transit changed you. I do not know if adapting to those changes will be difficult. But if we are to communicate, you must be calm. Can you do that?" He thought about screaming and trying to run away, but not for long. He nodded. "Y-yeah." "Good." the speaker stepped close enough that he could make her out even without glasses. She looked a little like a horse, a horse with blue fur and a darker blue mane with faint lights in it. Despite her distinctly alien body, Hayden could detect hints of sympathy in the way she looked at him. "My name is Luna. You should be loneliness, introvertedness, reclusiveness. You should be my fear of the reactions of other ponies. You should be, but I suspect you are not." Hayden nodded vigorously. "I'm... Hayden Powell," he answered, his voice more like a terrified freshman-age sorority-sister. Certainly not the way it was supposed to sound. "I don't know what the hell the rest of that was. I guess I'm introverted? Maybe I was lonely..." He shook his head vigorously, causing more of that long hair to go cascading around him, covering up his eyes. Well, maybe it wasn't hair. If he looked anything like "Luna," it was probably a mane. Matches with everything else I've seen so far. I must be what she is, only smaller. "Where the fuck am I? What's wrong with my body, with m-my voice?" His limbs had started to shake, and he very nearly fell over again. It took everything he had just to stay standing, and look this creature in the eye. "I will have to consult Star Swirl." She sighed, turning away. "His examination may prove more fruitful." Something yanked Hayden on one side, pulling on something that shouldn't be there. One of the too-many limbs he had. It stretched out longer than one of his legs. At least it wasn't covered in fur like the rest of him. "I can't imagine why you would look this way. You're like one of my worst nightmares, come to life. Frightful wings, predatory eyes, pointed teeth..." She shook her head. "Are you certain you aren't a monster spawned of the abyss, come to spread chaos everywhere you walk?" "Am I..." Hayden trailed off, speechless. "That is the fucking dumbest thing I've ever heard, Luna. If I was whatever that is... would I tell you?" He backed away, or at least tried. He managed to make it a few steps without falling over. "Look... I don't know where I am, I don't know why I'm here. But you need to send me home. Wherever you got me from, just pop the reverse and zip me back, and this can all work out." He didn't have his gun on hand... or any hands to fire it with, but that didn't mean he was just going to give up. "I will speak with Starswirl. His studies of goetic magic are more extensive than anypony in all Equestria. If a solution can be found..." She trailed off, lowering her voice suddenly. "Until that time, it would be wise to leave you somewhere you will not be discovered. My sister would be somewhat... disturbed... to find you. I can't imagine what she might do, if she knew you were a creation of summoning spells... but I suspect it would end with seeing you banished to Tartarus, or worse." She turned away, flicking her tail through the air in a gesture Hayden thought was nervous. It was hard to be sure what a giant talking horse was feeling. "Celestia never visits my chambers. I don't have any servants, so... so long as you remain here, you should be safe." "You're just going to..." Hayden stammered, trying to find the words that would make this creature let him go. Of course, nothing she had said made any sense. Magical thinking was nothing new even from the people he had known back home, but something that could physically bring him to another world certainly was. At least, he hoped this was another world. He didn't want to think about what any of his friends might've thought if they had seen him. "Could you at least give me my stuff back while I wait? I'm so nearsighted I'm almost blind without my glasses. Where'd they go?" "Oh." Luna strode past him, hooves clopping faintly on the carpet with each step. "Certainly, 'Hayden.' Your possessions are all secure. Please explain what a 'glasses' looks like, and I will try to find it for you." "Explain what..." Hayden swore under his breath, trying to follow Luna across the room. He could feel the carpet change to tile, and see that wherever he was standing was obviously gigantic, because there were no walls other than the bed behind him. "They're glasses. You know, like... what people wear when their prescription is too bad for contacts but they can't afford LASIK?" Luna did not look as though she were making sense of what Hayden was explaining, so he continued. "Black plastic frames, clear glass lenses as thick as coke bottles. About this big." He held up one hand to try and show the dimensions—but of course he didn't have a hand, and he nearly fell over. "Ah. I think they may've been damaged. Hold on, I know a spell for fixing broken glass." "Don't do anything to my damn—" There was a flash of light. The light blurred like everything else, and might very well have been someone turning on a light in a nearby room. Anything that far away was impossible to tell apart for sure, particularly when he was in a new place and didn't know the details of his surroundings. "What the hell did you do to my..." Something was zooming towards him, something with a fuzzy blue glow around the edges. It was his glasses, apparently flying through the air. They landed on his face, and for a second the whole world came into focus. Hayden wasn't standing in a blurry Van Gogh, but an opulent tower with stone walls, crystal chandeliers, and dark wood furnishings. Unfortunately the glasses were no longer the correct size— they were positively gigantic,as though he was a small child who'd stolen a parent's glasses. They also weren't curved to match the shape of his face, so they didn't actually cover his eyes all the way. Almost the instant they'd been set on his face, they went tumbling to one side. "Oh, uh... apologies. It appears the... transition did not affect inanimate matter. Perhaps if I..." Hayden jumped backward as the inexplicable glow returned, this time only a few inches away from his legs. It was close enough to see clearly—his glasses hovering in midair, entirely unsupported, appeared to be contracting, bending and shrinking without snapping. Neither plastic or glass should've been strong enough to resist such pressure. Both did, and soon enough he felt the same pressure on his face. This time it was familiar, the light touch of plastic on the bridge of his nose, though there was nothing to hold it to his ears. Still, they'd been curved so much more they seemed to be staying on this time. The lenses were also the right size, instead of being gigantic hunks of glass that extended well beyond where they needed to in order to help him see. "Oh." He settled back, sitting down without meaning to. The front of his body was still higher than the back, a little like a dog sitting down. "Thanks. That's... that's much better." Now it didn't matter that Luna was standing more than five feet away—Hayden could still get a good look at her. When he did, he felt himself wishing just a little that he hadn't been able to see her so clearly. She was taller all right, broader of build and thicker too. She had enormous wings folded against her sides, covered with feathers as fluffy and broad as a swawn's. Not only that, but she had a horn on her head, extending well over a foot to end in a spiraling pointed tip. Strangest of all though, was the mane. It was like looking at a planetarium light show, but printed onto one of those experimental flexible clear displays and woven into someone's hair. Stars twinkled, moved like the animal mane was not hair, but instead the chilling depths of space. How could something that looked like this be alive? She didn't get a chance to ask. As the first rays of sun beamed slowly through the stained glass window, Luna practically jumped with surprise. "My sister will be expecting me! I must go, Hayden. Please, for your own sake, do not attempt to escape my tower. If you are discovered..." She didn't wait another moment, just vanished with a faint pop, the space she'd been standing in suddenly empty. Hayden opened his mouth to argue, to swear, or to shout. Then he dropped to the ground in the empty room, and cried instead. He didn't have the energy left for anything else.