//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2. Worlds Apart. 
// Story: Magnets in a Mare's World. 
// by Triple-Rainbow 
//------------------------------//

Continuing off of my last entry, (I swear I will make Loyal Law swallow that scrub brush if I have to wash the bathrooms again because of a “mistake” in the schedule) my mind and body gave in to the cold embrace of sleep. When I had finally woken up, the convention hall was gone. Clear skies and high trees sat above me, and the sounds of nature filled my ears. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was in the Everfree Forest Park. It was a lovely place before Day Breaker decided to turn it into a battlefield with the Hive Queen, but that travesty happened much later.

At the time, I believed that I had been drugged and dragged off somewhere by the merchant and his associates. Had I known the true pain that awaited me, I would have embraced my rapid and terrified thoughts like a sweet dream, latching onto them as a fantasy that would take me far away from this world. 

A quick search of my torso didn’t reveal any new scars, in fact, it was quite the opposite. The scar I had from a surgery long ago had vanished without a trace, and my usually flat stomach (on a good day, that is) had rippling muscles on every inch, giving me the body of a body builder. A few other things I noticed at a quick search was that the birthmark on my arm had absconded to who knows where, the tattoo I had gotten during a drunk binge was missing, and lastly, I noticed my normal dirty brown hair had been bleached white. As for how I came to that discovery in particular, let’s just say the carpets do match the drapes, and that instantly brought along a new wave of worries. 

I think I reacted fairly well to my sudden change. Despite what others may claim, screaming is a very practical way of relieving stress and dealing with your problems. 

Looking back on it, I’m surprised nop no-one heard me screaming. Considering how many “super heroes” here possess some form of acute hearing, there should have been at least one or two coming at the cries of, what they would have assumed was, a stallion. 

But, it was probably for the best that I wasn’t “saved” by one of those stupid mares. I have had a lot of mares attempt to court me in my time, offering me a comfortable life as a house-husband as they idly commented on my “foal-chasing hips”. I refused them all, of course. I was a human, not a pony, griffin, or whatever other strange humanoid like creatures littered this planet. I tried to understand them, to feel a connection with these aliens. For a while, I was able to look past the physical differences between us, but the psychological differences were too vast for me to ignore. Yet another story for later.

After screaming into the sky and panicking like a spineless child for far too long, I had regained my composure and attempted to find my way back home as I ignored the physical changes to my body. I don’t even recall what silly excuses I made up. Perhaps I had chosen to believe that my own body was an illusion created by the fictional drugs that I chose to believe were coursing through my veins. Or maybe I didn’t even attempt to create some explanation for my sudden change. It feels so long ago, and It would be pointless to think much of that time, now. 

It took the better part of a day for me to finally find the Everfree campsite where I had met an alien named Timber Spruce. I was still under the impression that I was on Earth, and aside from the naturally green hair, which I thought he had dyed at the time and the nearly orange skin that I had assumed was a tan, he looked exactly like a human. 

I had told him that I was lost and woke up in the forest after blacking out at comic con, which was enough to earn his sympathy as I continued to play with the horrors that laced my thoughts. Timber had almost immediately offered his help after that, he was always the type of pony to help first and ask insistent questions later. Being on the off season, the campsite was devoid of any ponies aside from Timber and his sister (may that mare burn in hell with everyone else) Gloriosa Daisy who had been too sick to even leave her room when I wandered into their meager camp. 

He was an earth pony, the race that’s closest of any race to looking like humans, and he was also very considerate. Thinking back on that day, he was really trusting of a complete stranger wearing a villainous costume, especially for someone living in a world full of supervillains, many of whom call themselves “heroes”. He gave me a Camp Everfree shirt, a pair of pants and other essentials that made their way to the lost and found, and had offered to call the ponice (God, I hate that word) and get help. 

Overwhelmed by his kindness, and deciding not to comment on his strange pronunciation of the word “police”, I eagerly accepted his offer and waited patiently in the lounge area. 

Sadly, a storm had knocked down the reception tower the night before my arrival, no doubt this world’s attempts to make me suffer more, and the only one who was old enough to drive and had the keys to do so was confined to her bedroom after eating a bad batch of sandwiches or something to that affect. Of course, I was old enough to drive myself, but that bitch became incredibly frustrating when she had her face planted on a toilet. She was too damn proud to let anyone drive her car, and she would have likely followed that up with, “especially a stallion” but an eruption of vomit stopped her from continuing out argument through the door as Timber tried, and failed, to act as a mediator. 

Too tired to argue with the annoying brat any longer, and far too exhausted to think about what was wrong with me, I gave up arguing with the whining sick teen and stalked off and accepted one of the smaller cabins that Timber had offered.

Aside from the Queen sized, actually king sized but pony-isims here changed that, the room also had a rather old colorless tv sitting on the dresser. Deciding to calm myself down after arguing with Timber’s despicable sister, I turned on the tv to relax before I went to bed that night.

However, I didn’t catch a single wink of sleep that night as I stared at the tv. Channel Six and the many other channels had imparted a great deal of knowledge to me that night as I learned that I was much farther from home than I thought I was.