A Second World and a Second Self

by Zephyrius

Chapter 2: The Second Self

Waking. I slowly regained consciousness, I'm pretty sure that I would have been out longer, had it not been for someone kicking my side. As I opened my leaden eyelids I could see a blurry blue object above me. When I blinked again I could see that it was an ice blue unicorn. Wait!

A unicorn? What the hell?!

"Oh, finally! I thought you'd never wake up!"

"Oh my God!"

"What?"

"You're a pony!"

'Um duh, of course I am! So are you in case you hadn't noticed.'

What the hell? I ran over to a pool, or at least I tried to, but when I attempted to stand I fell flat on my face. The blue mare started laughing and I looked at her in a plea to help me stand. She then nudged me up to my hooves, yet I was still wobbly, I figured I would be for a bit at least.

"Wow, I stood on my first try."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when I woke up I saw you laying next to me, and when I went to wash my face off I notice the colors of my coat and mane matched yours."

Hmm, that's a bit odd, does it really matter? Well, it might, guess I'll ask right?

"So?"

"I don't know, but the only differences between you and me are that I am a unicorn and you are a pegasus and that I am a mare"

She then emphasized her next point by poking my lower region with her hoof.

"Are not."

By this time I had become coordinated enough to walk over to the pool, and as I peered in I saw that our colors matched exactly! I don't know what's going on, or how that dark cloud got me here, but I sure as hell am going to find out!

"How far away is the nearest city?"

"Um, I have no idea, I'm as clueless as you are."

"Then how did you get out here?"

"I have no idea!"

"What do you mean you have no idea?!"

She gave me a look that said 'You're an idiot.'

"I don't know how I got here, I was just walking back home from a party with some friends and then some big ole dark purply blue cloud-thingy comes out of the sky and hits us."

"Wait, seriously?"

"Um, yeah?"

"That's what happened to me."

She gave me a funny look and asked;

"What's your name?"

I then asked,

"What's yours?"

"Christina."

"Chris."

"What the hell?"

"I'm thinking the same thing."

It started to add up, the same colors, similar names, the same circumstances. Yes, it did add up. She seemed to be a female version of myself

"I think you're me."

"I thing you're me too."

"How is that possible?"

"How should I know?"

Yep, she was me all right. I had no idea how this was possible, and since I didn't, she didn't this meant that we'd have to find someone that did, so I voiced that thought.

"We need to find someone that knows what's going on."

"How're we going to do that if we're in the middle of what I'm going to assume is the Everfree Forest?"

"Easy, we just find a way out!"

"Then lead on, oh wise one."

I could tell that she might just get on my nerves the smallest bit...

We then took off at a steady pace through the forest, passing myriad colors of trees and shrubs, occasionally hearing the screech or howl of some unknown creature. To my satisfaction, my counter part was thoroughly spooked. Serves her right for mocking me.

Eventually we came to a path, where I asked

"Which way do you want to go?"

"Um, I'm not sure, why don't you try flying up above the trees to look which way a town might be?"

"Great idea, if only I knew how to use these wings."

She looked at me in confusion, then realization.

"Then let's get you started learning!"

With that, she grabbed a wing and pulled it out. To her displeasure it snapped right back to my side with a *fluff*

"Maybe we could try something reflexive?"

"Like what?"

She looked around, eying the scenery, then her eyes grew wide and she got very excited.

"Come on, climb that tree!"

"What?"

"Just do it!"

"Okay!"

As I got up to the tree I tried to grab a branch, but no longer having hands, I could not. Thus, I had to improvise.

After about ten minutes I was just about thirty feet above the ground (I climb slow, okay?). Once I had gotten situated, I asked,

"What now?"

To which she replied with a smirk,

"Hold on!"

She then proceeded to easily climb the tree in less than a minute (I don't know how). She came up next to me and said,

"Ready?"

Bewilderedly, I asked,

"What for?"

"For this!"

And with that she pushed me out of the tree.

As I fell I thought about how much I was going to miss, dying having only just entered Equestria, and how much I would have loved to see ponyville.

And as the ground sped toward me, I could feel a tingle in some place around my side, which then became something of an arm, which I then realized was my wings. About ten feet from the ground I felt them begin to move up and down, and I realized that I was slowing. I fought to will them in to obedience and flapped harder and harder, slowly gaining control (at least it seemed slow), only once I had full awareness and possession of them did I hit the ground with a nice, full, robust *THUD*

I heard her climbing down behind me, exclaiming,

"Yes! It worked!"

Sure enough, I could still feel the blood flow in my wings, and I started to stretch them out a bit, getting a better feel for them, testing all of their contortionary limitations, finding which angles I could fold or stretch them at, and getting the fine details of the intricate muscle fibers ingrained in to my memory and moving each and every feather. Oh, yes, I could get used to this!

"It sure did, look!"

I started flapping my wings and I could feel the force of the air beneath them slowly lifting me up, and once I had reached about ten feet in the air I looked down (while still flapping) and called out to Christina,

"This is amazing!"

"Yeah it is! Now get up there and look for a town!"

"Yeah! I'll get right on that!"

I was still learning, and it took me a while to learn how to get up to speed, but once I did I was going, and I mean I was really going. The only problem was maneuvering my way through the canopy to get a view, and of course I smacked in to a few branches on the way up, but I figured I was doing pretty good for my first flight, right?

I broke through the canopy to a cacophony of chirping birds and blinding sun light, man was it dark down there! I took a moment to just float and relax there, taking the view in. There were distant mountains, a wonderful variety of clouds, and to my pleasure, a small town in the distance, with a cottage on its outskirts and what looked like an apple orchard to another side. It was Ponyville of all places! My heart leapt (leaped?) when I saw it and I did a nice spin while in the air, resisting the urge to shoot off towards the town. I decided to mark the place where I had exited the canopy and to do a few exercises before flying back down.

I started to flap my wings and gained a little speed, then made a sharp turn to the left followed by an aileron roll, pulled to a complete stop and started to fly backwards, at a much slower speed. I then started forward again and shot up through the clouds and pulled another series of turns just working on agility. Yes, I figure now would be a good time to go back down to my second self and report my findings, I looked back toward the town and took note of the direction and distance, then flew back down to the spot I had exited the forest, winding my way back to Christina, and alighting with a flourish (I like style).

"Ponyville is only about a half mile east!"

When she heard this she started bouncing up and down, clearly very giddy.

"Oh really? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!"

"Yeah, let's go!"

I then took off running east on the path, and as my ears told me, so did my counterpart. We kept this pace up for quite a while, taking all the twists and turns in the path at speed, ignoring all of the calls of the creatures of the forest, in the sheer excitement of the thought of seeing familiar faces from the show. We kept our speed until the path exited the forest and there, no more than three hundred meters away was Ponyville!

It suddenly dawned on me, neither of us had appropriate pony names! This could be a problem in the event that either of us was asked about ourselves. We would have to come up with appropriate names and stories of our origin in Equestria. I then stopped and turned to my second half.

"We need names and stories of how we got here and where we are from."

Her eyes lit up, and I could tell she was thinking.

"Well, I had been thinking of that, and I noticed that our color patterns and tones reminded me of something wind related, so I was thinking something like Zephyrius for you, and Zephyria for myself?"

"Wow, that actually doesn't sound too bad, um, I guess we could say that we were born and raised in Canterlot in one of the smaller suburbs?"

"Sure, why not? Well, I guess that's it then right?"

She shook her head with ill hidden enthusiasm

"Yeah, I guess so!"

"Well, let's get going!"

And with that, we started our trot in to Ponyville.