Sigh... Why does my school life always have to be difficult?
It’s the same question that nineteen year old Carson Andrews had to ask himself every single time he walked out the school doors. Every day was the same routine: get up, freshen up, collect his schoolbooks, walk out of his apartment, go to school, get through his classes, walk out of school, and go home, go to bed, repeat for the next day.
It was a particularly cold day in Wisconsin, snowflakes started to drift down from the light gray clouds, covering the ground in white and making the blacktop of the highway into black ice. As he looked with his midnight blue eyes at the vehicles that were passing by him against the traffic, he’s at least thankful that his car wasn’t functioning, not that he wasn’t a reckless driver, but cautious about getting into an accident and walking back to his apartment from his school was a better call.
On the one hand, he would have less trouble with crazy drivers that would speed down the highway, but on the other hand, this also means that he has to walk to his apartment in an eleven-mile walk. It’s a good thing that he called in for pizza as soon as he was five minutes away from his home.
Carson never made any friends throughout his personal life, or in his childhood days, the only people he had in his life were his father and his grandfather. He would have many conversations with his loved ones, talking with his grandfather about his father in his days as a soldier in World War Two, and watch documentaries about the one woman whom had absent in his life... his mother.
Not much was told to Carson about his mother, but all he knew was she is the woman his father cared and loved with during the Gulf War. His father, Walt Andrews, was terribly injured due to nearly getting killed by a Iraqi tank, but it’s thanks to the love of his life and nurse at the time, Kimberly Brian, she was able to get him to a full recovery and back in the field.
They’ve been happily married for eleven years and had talked about having a child of their own, and had one they did. It took them a while, but they finally got a child of their own until Kimberly’s death from childbirth. Carson even asked his father that if he would ever find other girl like her, to which his answer is always never, she was the only woman for him as he was the only man for her.
Carson chuckles at the thought of being in love. I wonder what it was like for him when he met mom for the first time?, he thought to himself, only to just earn himself a depressed sigh, Why can’t I just have the one moment when I find true love like he did? He looked at the ground in shame of himself, as confident as he is when doing his homework, he’s been entirely shy to other people, except for his peers. He would turn in his work and move on to the next assignment, no questions asked, no nonsense.
As the young man reaches the Foxhaven Apartments, he took his key out of his backpack, unlocked the door, and went inside. He took his black beanie hat off of his head, revealing his curly blonde hair, then taking off his red jacket and his black shoes, placing them by the door. The apartment wasn’t anything too fancy, but not too typical either, a large living room, small kitchen and bathroom, bedroom... yep... not too typical at all.
Well, at least I can restart my binge watch on My Little Pony, he thinks to himself positively, he grabs out the first season DVD case off from the shelf. Looking at the shelf, seeing MLP seasons two through nine, nothing seemed to be out of place... except for one object that is placed on top of season two and three’s cases.
The object seems to be like a necklace, it was Nordic gold in color, the main center piece of the necklace was gold star with a turquoise gem in the middle. Funny... he thought, I don’t recall ever owning a necklace like this. He shakes his head and places the necklace on the couch, thinking he’ll return the necklace to whoever owns it. He placed the disc in the DVD player and turned on the TV.
As he begins his nostalgia trip, he can’t help but keep thinking about his little thoughts about love. Seeing his favorite character, Twilight Sparkle, on screen made him ask why can’t he have someone like her? What’s truly stopping him from asking a girl out to go on a date? Is it probably because of the fact he watches shows like this? He sighed in sadness and shook his head.
How can he find a reason to not like the show? The characters were enjoyable, the writing was well-thought out, and the creators of the show had huge fan services. He hasn’t been to any of the conventions that has been held in big cities like Chicago, Los Angles, or Orange County, but he always wanted to do something among the line of other MLP related activities.
He then took his gaze off the screen and looked at the window, stars appeared in the black night sky, shining brightly as they could. One of them was bigger than most of them. Is that a shooting star? he thought to himself as he looked at the star, then he shook his head again with a smile, Oh, that’s silly, such things like that only happen in fairytales. It’s not going to make me wish for something ridiculous like looking for adventure, or for love. Sorry little star, but I’m not gonna fall for it!
He crossed his arm as he refocused his gaze at the screen... only to look at the star again a few minutes later, caught in its glowing trance. He sighs and says, “Okay star, you win.” He got up from the couch, went to the back porch, looked up at the star, and began to speak out his wish. “If you really are a wishing star, then I wish that I would find happiness and have the courage to be a hero of my own story.”
At first nothing happens, making him sigh and drop his head in sadness, knowingly well how foolish it is for believing such a fairytale. Then, a bright glow emanated from behind him. Looking back at the glow, it was the necklace that was enveloped in a turquoise orb, shining brighter and brighter towards him. He shields his brown eyes from the glow, but he was too occupied as he questioned himself as to why he wasn’t running away from this light.
Before he could do anything, the orb suddenly fired a beam towards Carson, causing him to dodge out of the way, just in the nick of time. The beam then bounced back towards him in a different direction as it hit a window across the street, causing the young man to dodge it again. He looked at the necklace only to see that it was back in its place. He walked over to the couch and picked up the necklace to see if it would do anything, which it didn’t giving Carson some relief, but that relief was gone when he looked at the tv.
The beam had missed him, but it hit the tv just as a young filly Rainbow Dash performed the Sonic Rainboom. At first nothing had happened, but then the scene when Twilight had her magic accident happened and suddenly the edges of the screen became aglow with a purple glow. The screen was stuck on the scene when Twilight had started her magic surge, and the Strange thing was that Carson could feel the wind of such an event.
That’s when he realized that he was being pulled towards the screen in a similar fashion as that kid from the first Jumanji movie. He tried to scream for help, but it was too late. He then felt as if his body was changing, the pain causing him to blackout.
Carson groans as he tries to open his eyes, only to receive a blurred vision. After a few mintues of seeing blurry dots, they shrunk and his vision became clearer. Looking around at his surroundings, he notices that he seems to be in some kind of forest, with the tall trees and bushes, but what he notices is the style the scenery around him is in, it’s more of the G4’s My Little Pony art style.
“Am I in-” He began, but stops himself as he was shocked by his voice, sounding like as if he was a young kid. He gasps as he grabbed his throat, but almost sucker punching himself with something boney like, making him cough in shock. Looking at his hand, he realized that he was no longer human, instead of a hand is a green teal hoof. Looking at the rest of himself, his entire hide and pelt is in the same green teal color, looking behind him he had a short brown tail. Looking from at his sides and flanks, he can confirm that he isn’t a Pegasus, but he lacks any form of cutie mark, which is to be expect from any young foal looking for his/her talent. Tapping on the top of his head, there was nothing but mane, meaning he’s just a regular Earth Pony.
If he only had a mirror to look at himself, but that thought was cut off by something rustling in the bushes behind him. Quickly turning around to the bushes moving, he had several guesses as to what could be waiting for him. A Timberwolf pack? he thought to himself, but they’re much bigger, unless this is a pack young Timberwolves, though I doubt that might be it. A cockatrice perhaps? They usually come rushing without any form of stealth.
“H-Hello?” He calls out nervously, cautiously walking towards the bushes in front of him, “Is anyone there?” He parted the bushes to the sides to only see that no one was there. This was starting to creep him out, and he could see now why ponies considered Everfree Forest unnatural. He suddenly heard more rustling from behind him, making him gasp in fright. “W-Who’s there?” He asks to no one in particular, his ears flickering to try and pick up any sound of footsteps or voices, but the only sound he could hear is the rustling of the bushes, which was shaking violently than the one in front of him.
He began to panic and ran through the bush in front of him, trying to get away from whatever is stalking him, his little legs were trying their best to pick up speed, although he’s not being able to fully comprehend with his new legs yet as he kept tripping himself. Another thought came into mind, were the Parasprites following him? Would make sense given how small they are, but they aren’t carnivorous… well, as far as he knew.
As he was thinking about who or what is chasing him, the rustling became more violent and louder. “L-Leave me alone!” He shouts as he took a sharp right, then a left, then another right, and another right, then a left, then he stops, hearing voices, older males by the sounds of it. Perhaps he might be saved, so he kept running as he then shouts out, “Please help! Someone is after me! Help meEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” He unexpectedly fell off a cliff, tumbling down on the rocky surface, getting cuts from the semi-jagged rocks, tangled in vines, and got slammed to a boulder below, the sounds his cry echoes throughout the forest.
He tries to get up, but from the fall he took, he groaned in pain, falling onto his knees. He looked at himself as he seemed to be wrapped in some kind of poison ivy vines and adding to injury is that the open cuts were a target for the poison to enter his bloodstream. Feeling lightheaded, he lays down on his side, closing his eyes as he slipped out of consciousness, the last thing he heard were voices of concern and shouting.
As some of the Pegasi guards scouted from above, they soared back to the ground along with two other Pegasi, two Unicorns and five Earth Ponies. “Captain Gleaming Sword,” the male jet black Pegasus reports with a salute, “The area around Everfree that Princess Celestia wanted us to track has no other unnatural activity.
The captain, who is an older, silver coated Unicorn stallion, stroke his brass colored beard in thought. He then turns his head towards the young white Unicorn stallion and then asks, “Commander Shining Armor, are you sure you’ve picked up a surge of magic here?”
“I’m positive sir.” Shining confirms, “I may not be as talented as my little sister, but I know a surge of magic when I feel it. Look there at that cliffside sir.” He points at that ledge as he continues on, “During the battle between Princess Celestia and Nightmare Moon, that ledge in particular has given off a strange surge of magic. Could be traced back from a thousand years ago.”
The older stallion stroke his beard again with a nod as he too looked at cliffside. “Indeed…” he says, “But we must not forget that Everfree has it’s own magic as well, a magic that isn’t natural to us.”
Shining nods as he understood. But their search was suddenly put on hold as the mint green Earth Pony mare shouts, “Sir! Look up there!” They all turned their heads towards the cliffside and saw that there are some rustling noises. “Something’s seems to be coming out from the Forest cliffside!”
This alerted the Earth Ponies and Pegasi as one of them shouts, “Arm your lances!” Some of them do so, readying in attack formation. The captain and commander looked closely at the ledge side, it was something completely unheard of, a creature from the Everfree about to leave it’s territory? For what reason? But their readiness didn’t prepare them for what came next as they heard a scream for help and then in terror as the voice belonged to a little green teal colt, emerging out from the forest and tumbling down the cliffside. All of the soldiers had gasped in shock as they saw the colt fall.
“Move!” Gleaming Sword shouts as he rushes ahead of the party and towards the colt, who was found unconscious by a boulder where he struck by the side of his barrel. The captain quickly propped up the colt to sit upright, and checked his vitals, which he sighed in relief, he’s alive. Looking at the vines wrapped around the colt’s body, he’s incredibly horrified.
Shining Armor hurries to his captain’s side. “How’s he looking captain?”
“He’s alive,” Gleaming tells him, “but’s he’s been tangled up with poison ivy vines.” Shining’s face match the scared look his captain had a few seconds ago. “We got to get him to Canterlot’s infirmary, or the poison’s going to kill him! Storm Rush, get this foal to Canterlot’s infirmary, now! Hurry! We will join you as soon as we can!”
“Yes sir!” The jet black Pegasus salutes and carefully picked up the colt. “Hang on kid.” He took off as fast as he could and hurries to Canterlot, trailing behind him are the three other Pegasi guards. Gleaming Sword, Shining Armor, and the rest of the guards follow pursuit.
“Is the kid going to be okay sir?” Shining Armor asked.
Gleaming reassures his young commander, “If this poison ivy’s toxin doesn’t get to his heart, then he should be fine.”
“What?!”
“That poison ivy isn’t any normal poison ivy kid, that’s the Toxikí lepída. Imagine regular poison ivy’s affects, but it’s worse by ten, with the threat of death on the line.”
Shining was now sweating, not just from the running, but knowing the grave situation the colt is in. “He is going to be okay though, right?” He asked his captain. Gleaming Sword didn’t answer him, he could only just pray to Celestia and the higher powers that he would get treated by the time Storm Rush get the colt to the infirmary.