Hey everypony! Maverick here reminding you to check out Kickass222urmom's story Living The Dream!! It's So Awesome! Anyways Enjoy :)
I opened my eyes.
I woke up in an alleyway blocked off by a brick wall. The sun had come up lighting the alleyway slightly. The alley seemed to be exactly the same as the one I ran into earlier, like nothing had changed other than the time of day. “Was it all a dream?” I muttered to myself. My mind had this cloud of haze around it as I was trying to remember “But, it seemed so real!” I started to think back over the last twelve hours, trying to remember what was going on, and how I came to be in an alley. The memories were vague, remembering the details were like trying to grab smoke. I looked down trying to piece together what had happened. I could see every little crack in the floor at my hooves.
3...
2...
1...
My HOOVES?!?! As my mind recovered from the shock, everything started to come back to me. I suddenly remembered everything that had happened in New York, the party, being chased, even my encounter with God.
“Am I really in Equestria? I couldn’t be, I mean that’s impossible! Right?!” I looked around trying to figure out exactly where I was. This place sure didn't look like any part of Equestria that I knew of from the show, at least not right away. It was at this point that I noticed a skyscraper with a giant horseshoe on top of it just over the brick wall at the end of the alleyway.
“Horseshoe..... Where have I seen that before?” My mind went into overdrive trying to remember which episode I had seen this building in. My mind went through episode after episode until I finally had it. The building was from the episode ‘The Cutie Mark Chronicles’, from Applejack’s story where she went to...
“MANEHATTAN!! Of course, it’s Manehattan”
I instinctively slammed a palm...hoof...into my face, but I didn't quite hit what I wanted to. “OH GOD MY EYE!!” I didn't account for the fact that my eyes took up half my face, and ended up slamming a hoof into my eye, causing it to become bloodshot almost immediately. I walked over to a nearby puddle to survey the damage I had done to myself.
I stared into the puddle looking into the unfamiliar golden yellow eyes that were staring back. I stared for a few minutes before realizing that this was my face. I had a pony face! An honest to goodness pony face, snout and all! Granted my right eye was swollen, but I really was an honest to goodness pony! Unfortunately from this view I couldn't really see much more of myself, but what I saw in the puddle made me want to see more. I looked out into the open end of the alley seeing a street just absolutely bustling with ponies of all shapes and colors. Maybe I could find a window or something so I can see the rest of my awesome bod. “Ha!”
I walked into the crowd of ponies, and instantly got bumped and shoved. Before I knew it I had been shoved into the street and was nearly hit by a pony hauling a cart full of hay. The pony glared at me, yelling out “OI...YOU! Watch where you’re walkin.” I stumbled across the street backwards, apologizing to him in the process, till I again was swept up by the moving mass of ponies. I followed the direction they were going to avoid being shoved into the street again. Eventually the speed at which these ponies moved slowed to the point where I was able to escape the crowd of ponies. I started to trot down a side street that was less crowded.
I walked down the street for a bit until I came across some shops. I stopped almost immediately noticing my reflection in the window of a bakery. I took this as a chance to take a look at the rest of my body.
I noted that the swelling in my eye had gone away. I guess ponies heal faster than humans do. My coat was a sort of blue, air force blue. I looked down slightly at my wings. “Wings?! I’m a PEGASUS! YES!!!!” I didn’t even feel them when they were tucked by my sides, they just fit so naturally! But the wings...were...different. They had a gold brace on the leading edge of the wing that ran from the base to the tip. Its curved nature reflected light all around me. It looked... “SO...AWESOME!” I squealed, yes squealed, in delight. Tapping my hooves in absolute excitement. I looked at my mane. It was a dark brown with a streak of gold lining the edge giving a metallic sort of shine to the hair. My mane was pretty short, which was good because I couldn’t stand long hair on guys. My tail wasn’t too long either, but a nice medium length. The colors of my tail were separated down the middle, and it was the same two colors as my mane. “I wonder...” I lifted my wing again and looked at my flank hoping to see a cutie mark, but alas there was nothing. “Oh well, it was worth a shot.” Once I was done studying myself, I continued to explore what would be my new home.
I started walking down the street, and I couldn’t believe that these buildings were so tall. Maybe it’s because I’m shorter I thought to myself. I saw buildings made of what seemed like brick and concrete, but they were all kinds of colors red, brown, grey, and blue. It was weird seeing a brick building that was blue, but hey who cares its Equestria! I noticed that a lot of the buildings had horseshoes as a trim, or as their centerpiece.
It had occurred to me that Manhattan was part of New York so that meant that Manehattan has to be part of something larger, and it also occurred to me that New York was often called the big apple. So I thought I’d call this New Mane City, The Big Horseshoe. That made sense to me at least.
While I was on this train of thought I had come up to the edge of a dock, almost falling off it in the process. I gazed into the water looking at my pony face; again thinking of how lucky I had been that god had given me a choice to live here. I looked up and saw a ferry that had a sign saying 'Ferry to Harmony Island'. On an impulse I decided I had to check this out. I walked over to the ferry. Turns out it was free, so I joined the other passengers, and waited to see what this harmony island was. .
We rounded the coast and the statue of liberty came into view and I couldn’t believe they had a statue of liberty here in Equestria, or at least a very ponified version of the statue holding what looked like a tablet and some sort of...wine glass? My vision was impaired due to my swollen eye.
I listened to the ferryman...ferrypony?... describe the history of the statue and how it was erected when Princesses Celestia and Luna first discovered the Elements of Harmony and defeated discord, which I thought was interesting, but at this point I was too busy admiring the statue. I was still trying to decide whether that was a wine glass, or a torch in her hand...hoof.
The ferry docked on the island. Allowing us to walk around freely. Unfortunately the statue was closed for renovation so I was limited to walking around the base. There wasn’t much to look at honestly especially with the main part of the island, the statue itself, being off limits. Heck, even the museum in the base of the statue was off limits. With nothing else to do, I decided to head back to the maneland (puns they are hilarious).
It was getting dark and I needed to find a place to spend the night. I would have gone to one of the many hotels that I passed, but being from a different world, and not having any cash, I couldn’t pay for a room. So I kept walking along the street looking for anyplace that was warm and dry to sleep. I was tired, even though I had a new body and all I could still feel the fatigue of the past day starting to overwhelm me.
As I was walking down the street I saw a dim light in the alleyway next to me. Desperate, I decided that I could probably sneak into the building and stay there for the night, getting out before anyone (anypony) could wake up. However when I arrived at the entrance to the alley, I was surprised at what I saw. Instead of seeing a door into a building, I saw a group of ponies huddled around a flaming barrel trying to keep warm. The flame that the barrel gave off was different though. It burned in a sort of off-green color which made me suspect it was fueled by magic. Made sense.
When I approached, the ponies turned to look at me. Some moved over so that I could join them in enjoying the warmth. I nodded towards them in thanks and proceeded to sit on a blanket that was near the fire and raised my fore hooves (? (Note to self: study pony anatomy) to the flame warming them in its silent glow.
Finally breaking the silence, an older sounding stallion spoke up, speaking in a slow almost southern tone, and asked me "So stranger, what’s your name?"
I thought about it and realized I had no answer. How could I forget to make a name, that’s like Pony 101? I resisted the urge to slam a hoof into my face again, seeing how well that ended last time, and stared into the fire trying to think of name. I went through so many ideas, yet not a single name that I could come up with fit who I was, or even remotely described me. I had apparently sat like this for a while as the same older pony spoke up again in the same nonchalant tone.
"That’s alright if you don’t want to share, we ain’t gunna shoo you off ‘cause you want your privacy."
Oh thank god I’m safe for another day...
"Why are you here?" Dammit quick come up with an excuse or something
"Because I'm broke, and I don’t have a place to stay tonight." The truth works too I guess
"Well that’s ahright. As you can see we’re in the same situation!" he laughed out loud after saying this, like it was a joke or something, and continued. “Well my name is Salvation but you can call me Sal if you want, and this fine lass here is my wife Charity, and the one sitting in the corner over there is Granny Box." I said hi to each of them except granny. I didn’t want to disturb her, she seemed to be asleep in the rocking chair, and At least I thought she was asleep. I couldn’t really tell if she was even alive.
“Is she dead?” An honest look of worry on my face
“Nawwww she’s fiiine. Ain’t ya granny?” with that he playfully slapped her on the shoulder causing her to wake up slightly, and mumble something before immediately falling back asleep.
We sat around the fire for a while longer before he spoke up again "Well if ya wanna stick around, we always have room for anypony down on their luck. You can sleep on the mat there next to Good Will" I chuckled at the name, the reference being entirely too obvious "Well me and the missus are off to bed for tonight, see y'all in the morning."
All the ponies around me said "GOOD NIGHT" in unison. Myself saying it a few seconds later feeling a bit awkward doing so.
I walked over to Good Will who was sitting quietly on his mat watching me. I looked at the mat that they let me use. It was a basic bed of straw, and a hard looking pillow, but hay (pun) it’s better than nothing. Surprisingly though the bed was actually quite comfortable, which I guess I can attribute to being a pony.
As I was trying to get comfortable on the mat Good Will spoke up "Where are you from? I haven’t seen you before, and I know almost every homeless pony around these parts..." darned curious ponies making me think up things on the spot.
“Well, I just arrived here in Manehattan actually. I came from ummm...out... east. Yeah, out east.” I said hoping to get him off my back
He grumbled "Nothing much east of here, what did you say your name was?" Oh crap why haven’t I thought of a name yet? Ok think, you can’t tell him your real name so come up with a lie quick!
"Well you see that’s just it, I don’t know my real name." hoping he’d buy it, I sat quietly.
"Well how in the hay does a grown pony not have a name?"
Now’s your chance LIE!! Lie like you’ve never lied before!
"Well" I said speaking slowly so I could hopefully come up with something believable "My parents left me when I was little and I was adopted by a family that lived out east but they were mean so I ran away and I’ve spent my whole life trying to find my real parents. I didn’t like the name my adopted family gave me, because they were mean, so I chose to not go by my name, but to be known for what I do" afterward my face had the largest grin on it hoping that he would believe it.
He simply stared at me studying my face. I started to sweat; my eyes shifted from side to side trying to not make eye contact. Good Will tried to say something, but before he could I turned over saying in my best southern accent “Can’t hear ya Ah’m asleep” making loud snoring noises.
He grunted. I waited there making the noises waiting for him to go to sleep. Eventually a soft snoring could be heard, wow that was close.
I laid there thinking. I thought for a while longer thinking about everything that had happened today. Man today was crazy! I got kidnapped, chased through New York, I was shot, and now I’m a pony in Equestria! Ain’t life grand?
As I laid there thinking I felt the exhaustion of the day hit me, and I slumped down onto the mat and pillow, thankful for its comfort, and closed my eyes thinking of what tomorrow would bring.