As I tried to get comfortable in my seat, my eyes caught Twilight’s. She was staring at me like something was wrong, but I didn’t want to say anything since she looked to be so deep in thought.
A short while later, she asked, with polite curiosity: “Um, what happened to your left arm?”
I gave her a puzzled look.
“Nothing, it was my right one that broke.” I said.
"I know, I know, but did ‘nothing’ make those scars on your arm?" Twilight asked skeptically.
I had completely forgotten about those.
"Ohhh, those hehe, um. That was my friend’s… Um, a cat who did it. A long time ago."
"A cat did that?"
I could see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice, she knew that I lied, but she had no right to know.
"Yeah… A long time ago." I said.
She was annoyed, but didn’t press the matter, and silence fell upon the train cart. Strangely I felt pretty bad for lying to her, she helped me after all, and there was something about her that felt easy to trust.
Suddenly, I began to feel cold, and started to sweat. At the same time, the train cart began to spin. I closed my eyes for a second as the vertigo took me, but as I opened them, Twilight had an expression of shock and terror on her face. It showed in her body language too, she was tensed up.
"W-what’s wrong?!?" She exclaimed.
Calmly, in the hopes that she might relax, I replied, "Nothing’s wrong, why do you ask?"
Now with a lot more worry in her voice, she said, "Be-because you just fell backward and passed out for a moment there, and there is now a red mark, right behind where your head landed."
That caught me completely off guard, as I couldn't feel anything hurting. But I didn’t want to upset her.
"Oh um, it’s nothing." I said, nonchalantly.
"Then why are you swaying?" She then asked in a deadpan tone.
Well that didn’t work. A few seconds of silence held until Twilight broke it with a commanding voice.
"Alright, that’s it!! Face the window so that I can have a look."
"It’s nothing, really, I’m fine." I said, now feeling slightly more dizzy.
She got out of her seat, and she hopped up next to me. ‘Why do I keep saying that I’m fine, when clearly, I’m not.’ I thought. ‘Thank goodness Twilight doesn't listen to me.’
Once she sat next to me, she put her front hooves on the backs of my shoulders and forced me to face the window while she raised herself and lowered me a little bit.
I then felt some thick air around my head, and with me doing nothing at all, my head moved around, and as I felt that some of my hair moved around where the wound was.
"Ouch!"
"This is not ‘nothing’, this is serious." Twilight quickly responded with an even more worrying voice, So I tried to calm her down.
"I’ll be fine."
That didn’t work, as she just snapped back at me "No, you won’t, not if I don’t do anything."
Silence came back again as she looked closer at my wound. My stomach chose this exact moment to growl loudly in protest, and Twilight turned me to face her, as she asked a bit calmer, but still firmly,
"Look me in the eyes and tell me the truth. When was the last time you ate?"
I looked her in the eyes and as soon as she said ‘Tell me the truth’ I felt I couldn't lie.
"It depends on what time it is and if there was a trail of smoke yesterday." I said.
She became confused, but replied, "Around nine, and yes?"
I sighed, and said, "Then about… 33 hours."
All color drained from her face after hearing that.
"33 hours? When- when was the last time you have had something to drink?" She asked, with even more worry in her voice.
Since it wasn’t a surprise to me, I casually said "About the same."
Her right eye did a little twitch. She quickly pulled a towel out of her bags, folding it with her magic and laying it on my head, right on where the wound was. As she pressed it there, I could feel it hurt, and I flinched a little.
"Hold this towel here, with the exact same amount of pressure, and I will be back in a bit." She said.
My left hand carefully came to where the wound was and held the towel in place. It still hurt, but I held it in place like I was told.
Twilight jumped down and said, "Do not lift the pressure on the towel or move your head too much." before she walked out of my view and out of the train cart, and I heard the door close behind her.
For the couple of minutes she was gone, I did lift the pressure a little bit, but it began to hurt even more, so I put the pressure back on, and the pain receded.
I knew she was taking me to see the Princess, but why did she help me so much? She didn't even know me. There was something between us, not love, of course, I knew what that felt like, it was something else, something I couldn’t explain. I felt it when I was around her, and when she said ‘Don’t worry’ it stirred something within me, I couldn't place the feeling. Did she feel it too?
Before too long, she came back to the train cart while singing, "I’m baaa-ack."
As I ended my thoughts, ‘Best to keep this to myself. After all, we have only just met.’
As she came into view, I saw a cart with loads of apples- which was great, since the rest of the “food” looked various plates of hay and flowers. Next to the food was about twenty cups with water in them, which looked good. There was also a big bucket with nothing in it, and the final things were all kinds of first aid stuff. Lastly was two smaller buckets, one of which was empty, and the other one was three-quarters filled with water and had a sponge in it. My heart began beating faster, from what I feared she was planning to do with that sponge.
"Here you go." Twilight said happily. She levitated a cup of water over to me, and as I got a hold of the cup, the glow disappeared, and she continued with a bit more commanding voice "Drink up, and I will get ready to clean your wound."
With the fear of the pain I believed that would come when she cleaned my wound, I asked "A-are you sure? I don’t want to be a burden."
As she got her things, she responded with a calm voice, "You will only be a burden if you don’t let me do what I have to do."
Before I got to drink, Twilight, with her magic, levitated the big empty bucket over in front of me, she didn’t say why, but I didn’t care. I took the cup up, but when the water came into my mouth and I tried to swallow, I could only puke the water into the bucket.
I felt even sicker from that water, but Twilight said, "It’s just your body that’s rejecting the water, but you need to have water in you before I can begin to clean your wound."
What followed was me repeatedly trying to drink a cup of water until finally after three tries, I tried to drink it more slowly, and it finally stayed down. I drank another cup, relief filling me as I could finally slake my thirst.
After the water had settled inside of me, Twilight sweetly asked "Do you feel better now?"
I nodded, and then felt a strange sense of weightlessness, as Twilight levitated me onto the floor.
As I sat there, she walked behind me as she said, "Sorry, but you are a bit taller than I would like, and I do need to see at the top of your head."
So I answered, a little afraid of what she was about to do, "It’s okay, but you really don’t have to do this."
She decided to ignore my whining, but did respond with a soothing voice "Hey, it’s okay to be scared, but if I don’t clean this wound, it’ll just become infected. I promise you that I’ll be careful."
I let out a sigh of defeat as she then levitated a clean towel over to me and said just as calmly, "Take this towel between your teeth and just focus on biting it."
As I took it in my mouth and bit down, I thought to myself, slightly panicking, ‘What? No painkillers? Nothing to take the pain but my own happy thoughts?’
Just as she began, I could feel the wet sponge as it touched my hair, and I flinched again, which Twilight noticed. All of a sudden, I couldn't move my head, I could only blink, roll my eyes, breathe and move my jaw, but I couldn't move my head. Then I noticed why, it was Twilight’s magic that held my head in place, and right on cue, she calmly and apologetically said, "Sorry, but if you’re moving too much, it will just hurt even more."
Defeated, I sighed again and bit down at the towel even harder.
I felt it as she untangled my long hair first, and made sure it didn't fall back onto the wound. As she began on the wound itself, I still gave a little twitch here and there when she applied a bit of pressure to the wound as she cleaned it.
After quite some time, she was done with the cleaning and made sure it wasn't infected. I saw as she levitated a bandage and a thick piece of cloth and gently placed the piece of cloth on the wound and to make sure it would stay in place, she used the bandage and wrapped it around my forehead and wound a couple of times.
When she was done, she happily said "There we go, all done with your head!"
She jumped down onto the floor, but as I hadn’t reacted to her, she shook her front leg in front of my face. I took the towel out of my mouth, and I still sat on the floor.
"Thanks, but you didn’t have to go through all that trouble just for me." I said, gratefully.
I began to get back up to my seat as Twilight said with a smile and a happy tone "It was no trouble at all. I’m happy to help a friend, and besides, I still need to make a proper splint for your arm."
The word ‘friend’ stuck out and caught me a bit off guard, but I managed to calmly respond "Well, I’m happy to be with a friend too. But this splint works just fine for me."
Twilight narrowed her eyes as she said, "It’s a broken arm. Besides, it’s only to make sure that it holds it in place, and I promise I won’t move your arm itself."
As she kept her promise with the wound, I nodded, and as she held my arm in place, she removed the makeshift splint before levitating over a much tidier one. With the new splint on, I said "Yeah, it does feel better. Now I don’t feel like passing out."
A look of horror hit her like a rock before I smiled and gave out a small laugh. Twilight reluctantly chuckled before saying, "Hey, that’s not funny."
"Hehe, sorry Twilight, I couldn’t resist," I said, her just rolling her eyes.
After a little time had passed, I took an apple from the cart and began to eat, and thanks to the water from earlier, I could eat it without throwing up, and it was the most delicious apple I ever had. Twilight noticed and asked, with a small giggle, "Is it good?"
I swallowed and said with a happy tone, "It's the best apple I've tasted in my entire life."
She giggled at that statement and levitated an apple over to herself and took a bite, and quickly said happily, "It does taste rather good, not the best, but definitely a 6, 6.5 out of 10."
Now I just wanted to know what a 10 out of 10 would taste like.
While we ate, I noticed that one pink star from last night, and I just felt that I would go home tonight. I got my attention back inside the train cart and took some more water, but as I began to eat the fifteenth apple Twilight said with a small giggle "That’s enough food for tonight."
As if in protest to that statement, my stomach growled, and she continued "I know you still feel like you are hungry, but if you eat too much, it wouldn't be healthy for you."
I nodded, I think I had heard something like that before. So instead, I took another cup of water and kept drinking.
A short time later, Twilight piped up, "So… I'm curious, how did you find Ponyville? You say that you saw a trail of smoke yesterday. But was that all?"
Ponyville? Funny name for a town. I thought for a second before I told her what had led me there, as best as I could remember it. While I told the brief version of my story, Twilight had different looks on her face, from confusion to ‘mostly interested’.
When I was finished, she said, "Sounds like you have been through a lot, but if you want, I think I could explain some things you don’t know."
I didn’t think that there could be anything she could tell me that I will be surprised over now, so I said "Sure, why not."
She began to explain that the creatures here are called ponies, not horses. She told me that the small dragon from earlier was called Spike, and he was Twilight's friend and assistant, and then she continued with, "Oh, and the trail of smoke, that belonged to a giant snoring dragon."
That freaked me out a little, but she noticed, and hastily added “But it’s gone now, so there’s no cause for alarm!”
"Wait. I was following a giant, snoring DRAGON?"
She giggled a bit, but she calmly responded, "That is correct, but if you were worried about Spike, he is still a baby dragon, and very friendly."
Before I said with a small chuckle, "I believe you."
After a second of silence, I asked "Umm… So you said before that this place is called, umm… Equestria?"
She answered happily, but tried to remain calm "Yes, The Kingdom Of Equestria, where Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi live together in harmony."
"What, Pegasus, as in ponies that can fly, with their own pair of wings." I asked, a bit more enthusiastically than I had wanted to sound, but hearing her tell me Pegasi were real here was such a surprise.
Maybe surprised at my knowledge or eagerness, Twilight spoke "Yeah, that’s correct. But how do you know about Pegasi and Earth Ponies..." She paused for a second before continuing, with a twinge of sadness "But not Unicorns?"
"I did know about Unicorns before I came here. But how do I say it? Well? Back in my world, we only have Earth Ponies. Pegasi and Unicorns are only myths and legends. But Unicorns that can do magic, that I have never heard of, or at least not before I met you." I said.
“I’ve never seen anything like you before, either…” She said, her eyes meeting mine. Time seemed to slow, a somber mood taking me. I guess I was alone here.
Twilight’s eyes lit up and she smiled brightly as she looked behind me and said, "Ten minutes and we’re in Canterlot."
I could feel the butterflies in my stomach, as I was, in maybe twenty minutes, going to meet the rulers of this world, and my fate would lie in their… Hooves, I guess?
"Have you ever heard of an Alicorn before?" Twilight then asked, as if reading my mind.
I thought for a short time before I answered. "Not from what I can remember, why?"
"Both the Princesses are Alicorns. Princess Celestia brings the day, and Princess Luna brings the night," Twilight said.
I made a mental note in my head, ‘Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, don’t forget’, so I asked politely and curiously, "How do they do that?"
With a small laugh, Twilight said "That’s easy to explain. Princess Celestia uses her magic to raise and lower the sun, and Princess Luna does the same with the moon."
That puzzled me for a moment, and I needed to hear it again, just to be sure, and I asked "Wait, they move the sun and moon with magic?"
"Yeah, how else?" She answered curiously
But before I could respond, a maybe male voice from a speaker announced, "Final stop: Canterlot."
"Are you ready to go back in my saddlebag?"
I nodded since I didn’t really have a choice, and within a few seconds, I was in her saddlebag again and laid down on the soft material.
Twilight went from a walking pace to running, or would that be a galloping pace for her, and I began to think, as there was nothing else for me to do.
I thought back on what Twilight said, I was the only human she had heard of and when I had first said the word, she couldn’t even pronounce it. Was I truly alone? And if so, maybe that was why I was being hidden in her bag, why we had a train cart to ourselves, I could definitely see that if a talking pony (let alone a flying Pegasus or magical Unicorn) was in my world, they would need to be hidden, or it might cause a panic. It was slowly starting to dawn on me that I was probably the first to see another world, the first to know about other life forms, to know that magic does exist, that it's real. Perhaps this world even depends on that magic.
Twilight’s hooves went from cobblestone, I think, to maybe a glass or marble floor. We must be at the castle, then.
“I have got to find a way home, and the sooner the better.”