The night when Johnny came to Equestria still bore fresh in his mind. It was a calm and still June night, it was the day of his twenty fourth birthday and it was also the anniversary of when the most important part of his life was taken away from him.
Six years earlier to that day was not only his eighteenth birthday, but was also his highschool graduation. His mom, dad, his brother and his sister all pitched in to buy him his birthday and graduation present. He was driving down the long narrow driveway that led to their house on his old Kawasaki dirt bike that he bought while saving up money from his job as a laundromat clerk and as a paper delivery boy. He came from a rich family and was the youngest one of his older siblings. He always got along with them, but when it came to deciding who got the last piece of pizza at dinnertime it was always a battle to see who would win.
His sister would always back out early as Johnny and his older brother were both boxers. It was usually a arm wrestling competition that would settle their squabbles, but sometimes the two would sort to chucking knuckles which always ended up with their mother screaming and their dad having to jump in and break them up, sometimes the astray fist from either brother accidentally punching him in the process! But all in all it was a happy and loving family and Johnny was very happy to have them as his own.
He was considered the baby in the family and his parents would spoil him like crazy. He didn't like to be spoiled, he wanted to earn his own money and work hard for it. Not have it given to him!
His dream was to be a great boxer and be just like him and his dad's hero, 'Muhammad Ali'. As a child he was told bedtime stories about him from his dad, telling him how he was the greatest boxer there ever was and ever lived. As he grew older, he began to start boxing when he was twelve years old. It was difficult learning the aspects of the sport to start, but after learning about as much as he could from his dad he soon got the gist of it down. He began to win trophies and was beginning to look like a potential future boxer, like the ones he would see on television.
In school, he had lots of friends who thought of him as their bodyguard. If they had a problem they always went to Johnny. After he beat the shit out of two bullies who were picking on one of his friends, not one other person laid a finger on any of them anymore. And no one was brave enough to take him on one on one. He never did like to fight out of a boxing ring, but he cherished his friends and thought of them as his family. So when someone messed with his family, all bets were off and he was right there to help them and have their back!
Back on the day of his graduation he came home and saw that his family were waiting for him outside in front of the garage.
'That's weird. Why are they waiting for me out front?' He asked himself.
When he pulled into the driveway, he dismounted from his bike and walked over to them, from the looks on their faces they were hiding something. Something big!
"Hey guys, what's going on?"
His parents and his siblings then turned towards the garage, his father pushed the button on the remote to open it up and inside the garage was a shiny brand new red Ducati. His dream bike! The one he had been secretly saving his money for, it was right there in front of him. Johnny was absolutely stunned seeing this beautiful machine sitting there proud and sparkling new with a big red bow on the handlebars.
"Happy Birthday Johnny!" His parents said happily.
"And congratulations on graduating bro." His sister and brother added.
Johnny couldn't contain himself as he smiled from ear to ear and began to tear up.
"Honey what's wrong?" His mother worriedly asked him. Johnny wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his coat and sniffled loudly.
"I'm just so happy! I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have such an awesome and caring family!"
His parents then teared up and soon had their arms wrapped around him in a massive bear hug. His brother and sister then joined in and they had an emotional and a happy family moment. Their neighbor from a few houses down came in to visit and took a picture of them all in front of his new present. It was a touching and heartwarming photograph, little did Johnny know that this would be the last photo taken with his loving family.
Johnny quickly took his new bike for a spin around his hometown before he had to prepare for grad. His dad handed him a new helmet that was the exact same color as his bike, and had bright bold letters on both sides that spelled 'Ducati'. He then revved the engine loudly until he peeled out of the driveway and sped up the road, the wind whooshing past him and the rush of going fast on one of the fastest production bikes ever made!
Later that night, he was busy preparing putting on his fanciest clothes for the grad ceremony. He was all finished and ready to go, but his mother was taking a bit longer than expected. He looked at his watch and saw that it was now six thirty. The ceremony started at seven thirty! He began to get slightly nervous, it was not everyday that you get to go to your own highschool graduation. Then at six forty five his mother was ready to go. They hopped in his parents Escalade and made their way downtown. He really wished he could take his Ducati to grad with him. He wanted to show all of his friends and make all the other kids jealous.
The ceremony went as planned, and Johnny was now officially a highschool graduate and could now focus on his dream of becoming a professional boxer. He remembered how happy his parents were when he stood tall and proud with his diploma in his hand and a smile that lit up the whole room. They were soon all once again back in the car and heading for home. It was dark outside, and the traffic was beyond crazy. It was bumper to bumper with all the crazies trying to either get home or head to the nearest bar. They were no more than fifteen minutes away from their house when they had to wait for a red light at the last intersection. Johnny was sitting in the back seat behind his father who was driving, his mother was sitting in the front passenger seat, his sister was sitting beside him and his brother was sitting on the passenger side behind their mom. Johnny remembered what his parents said to him just before the light turned green.
"We're very proud of you son." They both said in unison.
Johnny smiled happily to hear those words. His brother and sister chuckled and nodded in agreement. The light then changed and his dad stepped on the gas and moved the car into the intersection. It was at that very moment when everything went black, and all Johnny could remember was the sounds of loud screaming and the sounds of tires skidding on the pavement.
Johnny awoke with a start, screaming at the top of his lungs and trying desperately to catch his breath. The vision of that tragic night played out in his mind almost every time when he tried to sleep at night. Ever since then, he had troubles falling asleep. Most nights were spent just sitting around the empty house staring into oblivion, most nights were spent with him having the same thing with him waking up in a cold sweat and panting reliving his traumatizing past, but the other nights of him getting a good nights sleep was very rare. Those nights where he could sleep in peace were spent with his girlfriend, the one that he had known since he was nine and was the love of his life.
His sat in his bed, thinking about how rough his life had been those past five years. His boxing career didn't pan out the way he wanted, his closest friends then disappeared one after the other, and his girlfriend too had also left him. As he got older he then developed an avid thirst for alcohol which all in all just made things for him worse. Soon afterwards he then became deeply and sorely depressed, and spent almost every day from then on wanting to disappear into the land of the unknown.
After he regained control of his breathing, he then reached down beside the end of the couch that he had laid down on and grabbed his already half open bottle of Jack Daniels and began to chug it until the bottle was completely empty. His sleep medicine that he called it was not doing it's job for him that night. For some reason the thoughts, the pain and depression were so deep that his mind was not in the right place. He then looked at the picture of himself with his family standing beside his Ducati that he kept in his wallet and then began to cry. All the while his thoughts running himself ragged. It was then the voice in his head had made it clear, that he could no longer take this pain any longer. He was twenty three years old, was cold, sad and all alone.
'It ends tonight! I can't take this fucking pain anymore, no matter where I go or what I do I'll never be happy without them!'
Johnny then tossed his cell phone onto the dirty and dusty coffee table, and then got into his leather jacket and his leather boots and made his way into the garage. He grabbed the set of keys off the wall and made his way to the red speed bike. He climbed on and turned the key till the one thousand 'CC' V-twin engine roared to life, the rumble from the exhaust echoing throughout the garage. He moved himself and the bike out onto the driveway and then climbed off to close the garage door. As soon as it was now closed, he then hopped back on and peeled out of the driveway doing a wheelie in the process. He drove up the long narrow driveway and then made his way onto the road that went into his neighborhood and drove to the very end of the road and stopped at the red light. He revved the engine with the throttle a couple times and then turned the handlebars to the left and positioned himself and his Ducati till they were facing the direction from which he came.
Johnny breathed in and out a couple times as he looked down the dark, straight and empty road. As he looked around, all he could see was the luminescent glow of the street lights hitting the walls off the small houses around him, and the bright light coming from his headlight. The sound of his bike bouncing off the walls and returning the noise right back at him in an almost deafening tone. He then lifted his right leg and clicked back on the lever to put the bike in neutral and then began revving the bike several times till the sounds coming from the exhaust pierced through the quiet neighborhood, and then he leaned forward and prepared himself for what would happen next. He knew that in this particular moment that there was no going back from this, this was the night that he was going to die!!!
Then using his leg, he kicked the lever into first gear and revved the engine loudly until the rear tires dug into the pavement and propelled the bike forward at an incredible speed.
The roar of the bike echoed all throughout the neighborhood as he sped down the road and began to head down the long driveway towards the end. He knew once he got past this spot that there was no going back, if he were to chicken out he would crash and probably end up really hurting himself to a point where he probably wouldn't be able to walk again, or if he decided to go through with it he would end his life as quickly and painlessly as possible!
But Johnny didn't care, his life was worthless to him and he didn't see any reason in chicken out. He just continued to propel the fast moving super bike down the road at an incredible speed and look forward to what would happen next.
He soon began to see the solid concrete foundation wall directly in front of him, getting closer and closer every second that he was approaching.
'This is it!' He said to himself as he then pulled back on the throttle even more for at that moment for the last time in his life. He then leaned back and closed his eyes, preparing for contact with the wall, but when he thought his life was going to end, he opened his eyes and saw a large bright blue light that completely lit up the night and completely engulfed him in an instant.
It only felt like a second as Johnny passed into the bright anomaly, he then felt the front of his bike begin to wobble and before he could regain himself, he lost total control and then flipped going head and ass over frontwards, which to him felt like it was in slow motion. After rolling around the ground several times and crashing into small trees and bushes he eventually came to a stop in the pitch black.
Johnny then began to regain his senses as he could taste what seemed like the taste of fresh soil and it was not the most pleasant taste he had ever tasted. He then lifted his head and saw nothing but darkness.
'What the fuck?' He asked himself. 'Where the hell am I?'
He then tried to stand up but then he felt a sharp and intense pain begin to throb in his right leg.
'Arrrggh, please don't tell me?'
He tried to stand himself up once more but the pain was too intense and he then collapsed back onto the ground this time laying down with his head up. He then began to feel slightly woozy and the world seemed to begin to start spinning, then leaned over and vomited from the pain. As he tried to regain his lost thoughts, he then heard what seemed to be several voices call to him from what seemed over top of him.
'Hey are you okay?'
As Johnny looked up he saw what appeared to be six colorful horse like creatures, but before he could say anything he then lost total consciousness and fell into a dark void.
Johnny then seemed to floating in a dark, endless and silent world. A world he had never seen or even experienced before. But then the darkness began to dissipate and then he thought he could hear voices. It sounded like six voices to be exact and for some reason they appeared to be female. He couldn't see where the voices we're coming from but they seemed to be rather close to where he was, to him the sounds of these soft and kind sounding voices were almost enough to put him to sleep. But that wouldn't last long as he then was jolted awake as the familiar strong sharp pain in his leg came shooting through his body.
"OWWW!" Johnny shouted loudly as he was suddenly awaken from his stupor. He then saw what he thought were the six colorful horse like creatures were again standing close to him. Johnny yelped slightly and the creatures did the exact same thing.
"Ah that thing can talk!" The one horse said in a perfect english speaking voice, this particular one had a indigo mane that was done in a series of curls, the same as her tail and dark blue eyes and a light gray coat. She also had a horn on the top of her head.
"I can talk? What about you? You're all talking as well!" Johnny loudly replied while holding his hands and arms in front of him.
"Please don't hurt me! I don't know where I am and I don't know what you want, but please don't hurt me!"
Johnny then tried to get up but he then remembered that his leg was more than likely broken, but he found out again the hard way by wincing in agonizing pain and falling right on his face landing some soft smooth surface. Grass?
As he tried to get up he felt a hoof from one of the other horses put her hoof on his shoulder as he attempted to get back up. This one had a dark blue mane with a purple streak through it, she had violet eyes and a lavender colored coat. Like the other horse that spoke before her, she too had a horn on top of her head and also had a large set of wings on her back.
"Don't worry sir, it's going to be okay we are not going to hurt you!" She said in calming tone of voice. Johnny then began to slow his breathing down and he slowly pit his arms and hands down beside his body.
"Are you okay? You appear to be hurt, is something wrong with your leg?"
Johnny then inhaled and slightly winced as he shifted his body more uprights to face these equine talking animals.
"I'm fine, but I am sore all over my body and I think my leg is broken."
"Oh my." The other female horse said. This one had a beautiful flowing pink mane that almost covered over her kind face, she had light turquoise colored eyes and had a slight yellow color to her coat. And like the lavender one she too had a pair of wings. She then walked slowly over to him and wrapped his leg in a splint. As she tightened it, he let out a small yelp.
"Ah, fuck! Are you trying to hurt me on purpose?" He snapped.
"I'm so sorry, I was trying to tighten the splint to prevent your leg from moving some more. Please don't be mad with me!" She said in a quiet and very shy sounding voice. Johnny then felt slightly bad for snapping at her.
"It's okay, I'm sorry for what I said. I should learn not to be mean to ones that are only trying to help me." He said while looking into her eyes. She then quickly turned her head and looked at the ground, a slight blush appearing on her face.
"So what are you anyway? Some kind of shaved monkey that escaped from the zoo?" The blue horse asked in a raspy tomboyish sounding voice. She had a light blue coat, had rose colored eyes, she had a pair of wings like the yellow one and her mane was the color of the rainbow.
"Rainbow Dash!" The lavender one barked loudly while looking at her. "Don't be so mean to him!"
"Well sorry, I don't know what he is. It's not like there is a bunch of them walking around Equestria or Ponyville all the time!"
'Equestria?' 'Ponyville?' Johnny said to himself.
"Maybe he is some kind of deformed pony who escaped from the circus!" The horse that had appeared to be entirely pink with a poofy pink mane and tail and had light colored blue eyes. She didn't have any wings or a horn on her head and looked more like a real horse.
"Ah really don't think that is what he is Pinkie. He's probably some strange talking monster from the Everfree forrest". The last horse said. This one had a orange colored coat, a yellow mane and tail done in a braid and had lively colored green eyes. She was just like the pink one, she looked like a horse that he would occasionally see out on a farm, but she wore what appeared to be brown cowboy hat, and had a southern accent.
Johnny was tired of them making silly accusations as to what he really was, so he decided to break their little conversation.
"For your information I'm a human. I'm not a monster, I am not a shaved monkey even though we are technically somewhat related and I'm definitely not a deformed pony! I'm a human and that's all!"
The six then stopped talking and looked straight at Johnny with curious looks on their faces.
"Hoo-man?" Asked the Pink one. Johnny then did a slight chuckle and shook his head.
"No. Human. Hu-Man. Not Hoo-man!" He thought it was kinda funny on how she pronounced the name. The lavender horse then looked at Johnny with a bright look in her eyes and a slight smile on her face.
"A human? I read a story about humans in an old book back when i was living in Canterlot. There was a rumor about a human in Equestria long before Celestia. There is no real solid evidence about it since it happened so long ago, I asked her what she thought and she thinks that it's just a rumor."
Johnny's head was starting to spin as he then cut off the lavender horse.
"Okay, first Equestria? Then Ponyville? And Canterlot? Ive never heard of these places before. Who in the hell is Celestia? and lastly, what are all of you?"
The six equine creatures took a quick step back and one by one they explained to him to everything that he asked.
"Equestria is the name of the country that we live in." The lavender explained.
"Ponyville is the name of the town where we live and where you are right now!" The gray one said.
"Canterlot is the royal city high above Ponyville on the side of a mountain." The rainbow maned one said brashly.
"Celestia is thuh name of our leader of Equestria. She is a Princess and she raises thuh sun." The one with the cowboy hat said in her southern accent.
"She also has a sister that lives with her in the castle. Her name is Luna and she raises the moon." The kind one said in a quiet voice that Johnny could barely hear.
"And for what we are? We are Ponies!!!" The Pink one said in a bright cheerful mood. Johnny who now had received the answers to the questions he asked and was amazed at was he was hearing. They were not horses but ponies! And this country was ruled by ponies, and it was ran by two pony sisters. He then felt a lot better that these ponies were not going to hurt him. Right?
"So you are all Ponies?" He asked. They all nodded.
"And this country and this town is inhabited by ponies too?"
They all nodded again together.
"And you're not going to harm me?" They all shook their heads while giving him very reassuring and kind smiles.
"No of course not. We wouldn't do something as horrible as hurt something like you!" The lavender pony said kindly.
"That's right!" The cyan pony chimed in.
"Why? Do we look harmful?" The rest asked him in unison. Johnny felt warm inside that the ponies were so kind. They had colorful manes and tails. They had gorgeous colored eyes, and had such warm and friendly voices.
"No." He responded quickly, "You actually all look kinda......cute!"
Johnny then noticed immediately that the expressions on these ponies faces changed from being normal looking to then all showing a bright color of red on each face. The farmpony had to quickly hold her hat in front of her face to hide her self, the pink pony was beaming from ear to ear, the Yellow one quickly tried to hide herself behind her pink mane but that didn't to much to hide her blush. The lavender and gray colored ponies both giggled and tried their best to play it cool, but the cyan pony's face was reddest of all and she appeared to be somewhat agitated.
"Hey buddy, I am not cute! I am awesome! You got that?!" She said while trying to show him that she had a tough side.
"Then why are you blushing then?" Johnny asked with a slight smirk on his face.
"I am not blushing!"
"Ya coulda fooled me!" The farmpony giggled. The rainbow colored pony then turned her face around to not show herself.
"Shut up!"
Johnny gave a slight chuckle to seeing them interact with each other. In some way, it kind of reminded him of his old friends that he knew when he was younger.
"So if you are all Ponies, then why do some of you have wings and horns?" The Lavender pony spoke up again.
"That's cause in this world, there are earth ponies, there as unicorns and then there's the pegasi." She explained with a teacher like voice. "Don't you have ponies where you come from?"
"Yes as a matter of fact we do have ponies where I come from. But our ponies don't have horns and they don't fly. They are actually considered mythological creatures." He finished.
"Interesting." The Lavender pony said with a hoof on her chin.
Johnny gave a small chuckle, and then he gazed at this particular pony that looked different from the others.
"Then what are you then?" He asked while pointing to her wings and horn. "You are the only one here with both wings and a horn."
"Oh that's cause I'm an alicorn, just like the other three Princesses of Equestria."
"Wait, there's three princesses?"
"Actually there's four of us!" She chimed in with a smile. "I'm a princess too!" Johnny looked at the alicorn with a confused look.
"Well if you are a princess, then where is your crown?"
"I only where it to special events. I don't really like wearing it all the time."
Johnny had to agree with her.
"Well it's a honor to be talking with a princess of Equestria. It's not everyday I get to meet royalty." He said while slightly bowing his head at the princess. She gave a small smile and small giggle.
"Human, you seem to be a very kind soul. May I ask you your name?" She asked. Johnny then looked up and quickly cleared his throat.
"My name is Johnathan, but they call me Johnny."
"Who's they?" Asked the Pink pony. Johnny sighed and then gave a reply.
"My friends and family." The alicorn princess then smiled and presented her hoof to him.
"It's nice to meet you Johnny. My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, 'The Princess of Friendship' but you can call me Twilight."
Johnny then moved his hand forward and shook Twilight's hoof. He was surprised by just how soft her hoof felt to him. It felt so different and foreign, but in the end he really didn't care. "It's nice to meet you Twilight."
Twilight smiled from ear to ear. She then saw that there was a small stream of blood on Johnny's forehead. She then shot a strange purple cloud out from her horn and raised a rag to wipe the blood off of him. Johnny was amazed at what she just did, as he couldn't bring his jaw up from almost hitting the ground. This made all the other ponies laugh including Twilight.
"What did you just do? What was that?" He asked. Twilight looked confused as to why Johnny all of sudden seemed so surprised.
"I just used my magic. Alicorns and Unicorns both use magic, but the magic of an alicorn is by far the most powerful in Equestria!" Johnny went wide eyed for a split second.
"Magic? Really? Wow that's cool. In my world the only magic I've seen is on the TV by a magician named David Blaine." Twilight giggled and then cocked her head to the side.
"This David Blaine you speak of, is he a good magician?"
"One of the best I've seen!"
"And may I ask, what is a TV?"
Johnny looked at the alicorn princess and it was his turn to look confused.
"You don't know what a TV is?" Twilight just shook her head. He was just about to describe what a TV was until he began to feel a sharp stinging pain in his leg again.
"You will have to wait for me to tell you what a TV is, but I think I need to see a doctor about my leg!" He winced loudly. Twilight then nodded her head quickly and then proceeded to lift Johnny onto what appeared to be a makeshift gurney.
"Quickly, let's get him to the vets!" The yellow pegasus stated. Johnny gasped and then pointed in her direction.
"Hey! I am a human, we don't go to the vets!" He declared. "We only take our pets there."
"Oh I'm so s-sorry." The pink maned pegasus apologized. "I didn't mean to think you were just another animal."
Johnny chuckled again. He thought the way this particular pegasus acted, and appeared to be shy made him smile deeply on the inside. 'She's so cute when she acts like that'. He thought to himself.
"It's okay. Just take me to the nearest hospital."
The pegasus nodded and soon he and the six colorful equine ponies began to make their way towards the hospital, with Twilight using her magic to lift the gurney.
"Oh, I never got the rest of your names." He said kindly to the other ponies.
The Pink pony spoke first. "My name is Pinkie Pie!"
The Cyan pegasus spoke next. "I'm Rainbow Dash!"
"I'm Applejack!" The cowpony with the cowboy hat spoke.
"I'm Rarity!" The female unicorn smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"I'm Fluttershy!" The kind yellow pegasus replied in a low voice, again Johnny could barely hear her speak but he just shrugged his shoulders.
"Well it's nice to meet you girls. Hopefully your doctor can figure out if my leg is either severely broken or not!"
The six ponies all smiled and agreed with him. But then Johnny's attitude quickly changed as he remembered what he was missing.
"Where's my Ducati?" The ponies then looked up at him.
"What's a Ducati?" Rarity asked. Johnny groaned, but instead of asking why these pastel ponies have not heard of a Ducati, it was just best to leave it be and not ask the question.
"My Ducati, it's my motorcycle! I was riding it when I ended up coming here." Pinkie then quickly started bouncing up and down, much to the surprise of Johnny.
"Ooh ooh, is that thingy you are talking about red, has two wheels and is really loud?"
"Yes. That's exactly what it is. We have to go back and get i- AHH!" Johnny yelped as the pain in his leg shot through his body.
"Take it easy there Sugarcube. I'm sure whatever this contraption you're talking 'bout will be fine till tomorrow." Applejack said trying to calm him down.
Johnny then let out a sad sigh and laid down on the gurney.
"I just hope you're right!"
So far Johnny was surprised but also intrigued on seeing what this new and different world would look like. And to him at that particular moment, his depression and suicidal thoughts had disappeared. For the time being!
End of Chapter Two