//------------------------------//
// Siva 
// Story: Strange New World 
// by Boopy Doopy 
//------------------------------//

Tory Rhett wasn’t sure what to expect, and so didn’t expect anything. Instead, he kept his eyes on the horse near him and stood motionless. The brown coated one stared back, a look on his face like he was daring him to run—or rather, gallop—away. Tory considered it for half a second before tossing the idea out of his head. He didn’t know the rules of this place, wherever this place might have been. Even if he did, he didn’t trust himself to coordinate an entirely unfamiliar body like his well enough to manage a successful getaway. It didn’t matter that the door they came through was only a hundred feet or so from him.
His eyes remained fixed on the angry looking stallion that stood near him as an invisible something looped itself around his ankles. Some kind of power? He didn’t know, but the brown one’s horn was glowing. At the same time, the gray coated horse behind him spoke aloud, presumably to all three of them.
"Be advised that you're not required to answer any questions," he said. "By answering, you're agreeing to cooperate with questioning without a representative present to advise you. Now–"
"Wait, they have Miranda rights on the other side of the universe?" Lake asked aloud. "How is that even possible?"
It wasn't possible. None of this was, clearly. Although this didn't feel exactly like lucid dreaming to Tory. Dreams felt more 'loose' than reality to him. Everything here was tight and detailed and made rational sense. It wasn't terribly logical, but then where was logic in a situation like this?
It was in everything but the scientific impossibility of what was happening. If he ignored he and his friends being turned into animals after traveling through an impossible magic portal, things lined up. They could breathe, they could blink, they could understand the animals here. There was technology that wasn’t different from things America had. They were in a house they didn’t own, and so understandably were being arrested for breaking and entering.
Tory didn’t know whether or not to be skeptical or believe what his senses told him. He kept his breathing controlled though, and closed his eyes for a second to refocus his thoughts. Lake, of course, was correct in his assumption that something bad would happen. He should’ve known that. Maybe he was struck by the impossibility of this all. No sense in lamenting the past though.
“This isn’t what you think it is, uh, sir,” Tory started, finally turning around. He wasn’t sure exactly what the horse next to him had done when he lit up his horn, but it felt like there were shackles or some kind of rope around his ankles. He was able to turn fully around without tripping over his new hooves though.
The gray cop—it had to be some sort of a police horse, since they were being arrested—looked as stern as ever as he shifted his gaze to Tory. Roxanne seemed mostly okay, even if the confidence she held before vanished. Lake, for his part, was doing better than Tory expected. He still looked like he was gonna be sick though. Like he was staring up at a rollercoaster that he or Roxanne were about to drag him onto.
“Oh yeah?” the horse next to him asked. “What exactly is this to you then?” The sarcasm in his voice was plain as day. Tory imagined behind that one’s shades, he was rolling his eyes.
He didn’t hesitate offering the two of them the truth upfront, as silly as it sounded. “There’s some kind of portal in that closet,” he told them, starting to lift a hoof to point to it before he felt the rope stopping him. He used his eyes to indicate, and finished, “That’s what brought us here, and we wanted to look around.”
“What? This again?” The older female horse finally spoke up, clearly flabbergasted by what she heard. “What in Celestia’s name is so important about my closet that everypony and their mother feels the need to saunter into my home like it’s a public park? There’s nothing in there!”
It caught Tory off guard, enough that his emotionlessness was finally replaced with wide eyed surprise. “I– you– wait, what?” He had no response for this woman, and instead turned back to Lake. “You haven’t told anyone else about this, have you?” he asked. “I thought we were the first ones.”
“We are!” he said defensively, just as confused as Tory, perhaps more so. “I told you and Roxanne, and then before I went through, I texted my mom and Randy and Henry, and Alisha, too. I sent an email to the New York Times, and the UP physics department, but they wouldn’t have gotten here that fast!”
"That other mare was talking about the same thing as you guys!" she continued. "Some magical portal that she needed to break into my home to take a look at when there's nothing here! Are you ponies supposed to be with her?
Roxanne finally got her head back in the game, and put her usual confident expression back on. "We don't know who the heck you're talking about ma'am," she told her, taking a small step closer in spite of her restraints, "but we're telling you the truth. If you look in that closet, it'll be there, just like he said. Go ahead and check for yourself."
Both the gray cop and the brown cop seemed uninterested in doing such a thing, and the former shook his head at them. "We don't have time to go through these games with you," he told her, lighting up his horn again to somehow magically tug at invisible restraints places around their waists, too. "You're coming with us."
"Just check!" Roxanne demanded, Christmas colored mane moving slightly with the motion of her head. "It'll be there when you look. I promise you that."
Both cops looked at each other, sharing an expression like they’d rather do anything else. The older mare shook her head in frustration and let out a long sigh. “Do we really have to go through this whole song and dance with you three, too?”
“Who else was here?” Tory asked the obvious question. “What was their name? Because no one else was with us.”
The mare ignored his question and marched over to the closet. Her horn glowed brightly for a second, and the door opened, revealing… nothing. The closet they came through was just that—a closet. It had dresses and clothes and books and a whole bunch of other things anyone would find in a typical closet, and nothing beyond that. Certainly no portal.
“What!”
“It was there, we’re not lying!”
"There has to be something else going on," Tory tried to explain, a smidge of worry finally leaking into his voice. "It didn't disappear when we went through, and Lake said it took us an hour to get to his apartment, so it must not have disappeared in between then. There's no other way we would've gotten here without it."
"There is," the brown horse said seriously. "You and your friend teleported in here with that unicorn from outside."
Tory stared blankly back at the officer, unsure of what to say next. What could he, or any of his friends, say to that? They didn't know the rules or laws of this place yet, and so couldn't argue with the logic presented. 
What he did know was that whatever situation they were in, it had gone from not great to very, very bad. It was gonna be a big issue if they couldn't leave now that they were here.
"If we teleported in here, maybe that means you can teleport us back home?" Tory asked. "Is that possible?"
"It has to be possible since we got here!" Roxanne spoke up. "And there's no way that thing conveniently disappeared right when they showed up! I wanna check it out for myself!"
"You can see it for yourself, can't you?" the older mare told them, gesturing to the inside of it. "There's nothing in here!"
"You're not gonna be checking out anything else either way," the gray cop spoke up with authority in his voice. "And you're certainly not allowed to leave. The only thing you three are gonna be doing is coming with us to the station."
"But we didn't do anything!" Lake begged. "We're not even supposed to be here!"
"You can explain it to the judge during your hearing. We're booking you."
Tory watched Lake blink in surprise, and whisper, “This isn’t happening.” Then the officers teleported them away in a flash of bright white light.
It was a disorienting experience to go from standing inside a building to being outside without so much as a blink. It was enough to make him gasp, something Roxanne did as well. A glance back to Lake showed that he seemed mostly nauseous. Tory wasn’t surprised.
“Can you… not do that?” the bright orange horse that was their friend asked shakily. “That– that felt bad.”
“I would think it’d be the Earth pony who got motion sickness, not you,” one of the cops replied. “Now let’s keep it moving.”
Tory didn’t speak for a while after that, nor did Roxanne or Lake for that matter. They were all more focused on talking in their new surroundings for the moment.
The sun was bright and the sky was clear above them. The air was warm, on the hotter side, but not oppressively so. There was grass and trees and squirrels and sidewalks and everything else he'd expect to find in a city on Earth. Tory saw no cars, but there were paved roads with carriages, and what looked like train tracks running next to it. Just like the house they appeared here in, it gave off an early nineteen hundreds vibe.
Except most everyone he saw was a horse. Ones with wings, ones with horns, ones with neither—they were all colored uniquely from each other, with combinations varying from blue to black to brown to red to white and every other color there was. No two of them looked alike.
None of them seemed much for clothes, pants in particular, but Tory wasn't surprised by that. Some of them went around in dresses and jewelry and shirts and costs and hats and things. Others moved around completely bare, getting not so much as a second glance from any other horse they passed by. It seemed to be about fifty-fifty on those who wore something and those who didn't. It made his own lack of modesty less concerning, not that he was paying particular attention to that. There were a lot of other things to wrap his head around first.
It wasn’t all horses that he saw. There were cows and large bird creatures and dragons and other strange looking things he didn’t have names for. No humans though. He didn’t see a single one. 
“Do you know anything about Earth?” Tory asked as they were led along, one officer in front of them and the other behind, watching them. “You said something about an ‘earth pony’. Is that supposed to be me?”
“Of course, it’s you,” the cop behind them said sarcastically. “Do you see any other earth ponies here?”
“Okay, I’m an earth pony you said,” Tory continued. “I know you two are unicorns, right? And so is one of my friends. What does that make my friend with the wings?”
“Be quiet and stop trying to act funny,” was the reply. “I don’t wanna hear your smart comments.”
“I’m asking genuinely,” Tory continued. “None of us know what’s going on, really. Do either of you know about Earth at all?”
No answer came beyond the clopping of hooves on the concrete sidewalk. Tory didn’t really expect much different from these two. They were no nonsense types, just like cops in Pennsylvania. He would almost consider making a break for it right now while they weren’t expecting it, if not for his footsteps being restricted by some kind of… he didn’t know what to call it. Was it a magic spell they casted over him? It made it difficult to even walk. Not that he’d know how to get back to that house, or where they would go if they couldn’t find it.
With the lack of an answer, he tried to pay more attention to his surroundings. It wasn’t good that they were teleported to the middle of the street instead of walking out of the house. It would make it harder to get back to it. But he did try to remember the street signs and buildings that he saw. It might be useful later.
“Or we can be locked in jail for years and years,” Roxanne said aloud, as though reading his mind. “That certainly seems like a possibility right about now, even though we didn’t do anything.”
“Be quiet,” one of the cops told her. “And don’t even think about trying to run. I can follow a spell trail for miles. You won’t get away. It’ll only cause more trouble for you.” Tory watched her shoot a glare at the officer, then scrunch up her face and let out an annoyed sigh. He couldn’t blame her.
“What’s gonna happen to us?” Tory had to ask. “Can you tell us that at least?”
The horse leading them glanced back at him for a long second, seemingly debating whether or not he was being serious and whether or not to answer. “You’ll have your pictures taken, be hoofprinted, and then given a cell to share while you wait for a hearing from the judge. You’ll also be interviewed and given meals as needed.”
“Oh, god, I’m gonna be sick,” Lake said, sounding like it, too. “There’s no way this is happening. This is all just a big misunderstanding. You have to believe us. I don’t wanna go to jail!”
“What kind of sentences do they usually give out for, uh, charges like this?” Tory asked. “What’s the average?”
“That’s for Judge Standing to say, not us,” one of the cops said. “Now be quiet, and keep it moving.”
Tory couldn’t lie to himself, the urge to flee was getting stronger and stronger. A glance behind him to see Lake looking like he was on the verge of a panic attack didn’t help. Roxanne, however, just gave a little shake of her head, as though she already knew what he was thinking. It was probably a bad idea anyway. Better to comply and find someone they could explain things to. Or get an attorney.
It was several minutes of walking along with these officers before they finally reached the station. It was a small looking building with a sign hanging above it, explaining that this was the Manhattan Police Department. No, wait, that said Manehattan. It helped Tory figure out what MPD stood for on the cops’ uniforms, but brought to him renewed skepticism about whether or not what was playing out was real. A portal to another world where everyone was a horse, with technology like Earth, with horses who spoke English, and silly horse puns for city names was getting a little too convenient. 
They were led through offices of horses working, where they did things like took interviews and filed papers and whatever police activities were necessary in a world of farm animals. There were electric lights in here, too, something fluorescent like would be seen in a hospital, but not much beyond that in terms of technology. There weren’t any computers or printers or walkie talkies, but somehow he imagined this place wasn’t someplace that needed it or was drowning in crime. If you could light up your horn and tie a suspect's ankles together with what was presumably magic, the job probably wasn’t that difficult.
They moved past the station into what looked like a typical police backroom. One of the cops slipped a ring over Roxanne’s horn, much to her immediate displeasure, and the other one took their pictures and got their names. They got eyerolls over their ‘griffon sounding names’—whatever that meant—and then were told they could speak to the investigator if they wanted to, or wait for an attorney to be appointed to them. Lake wanted to go the talking route and be completely upfront with the circumstances they were in, but was talked out of that by both Tory and Roxanne. 
They were given bright orange uniforms to wear—no pants, only shirts, of course—before, finally, they were moved into a holding cell to share. It looked like something they’d see in a movie, with dark gray-bluish walls and iron balls holding them inside. It was currently unoccupied by anyone else, but was big enough to hold four people from the bed count. There was a toilet in one corner of the room, with a water fountain and sink attached, and a couple of desks in the other corner. They hadn’t even bothered to separate them between males and females.
“This isn’t happening,” Lake said uselessly once the officer finally left them alone. “There’s no way this can be happening. This isn’t real.” His breathing was picking up as he slumped onto the ground, hooves falling under him. Roxanne paced back and forth across the room near the wall while Tory himself stood watching both of them.
“Why didn’t you two just wait until someone came to explain everything?” Lake asked. “I knew something like this was gonna happen!”
“If you knew something was gonna happen, why did you follow us?” Roxanne asked. “You could’ve stayed behind… man, am I hungry! I hope they have something to eat soon.”
“Because I wanted to stop you two from getting into trouble!” Lake told her. “You should’ve gone back when I told you! And you even tried to convince me to stay!”
“Yeah…” Roxanne rubbed a hoof behind her head, smiling sheepishly. Any worry she might have had seemed to disappear again, much to Tory’s interest. Did she know something he and Lake didn’t? It was strange how she knew what he was thinking before. They were close, but not that close.
“Well, look at it this way: you still have your phone with you,” she told him, pointing to his wing with a hoof. “That means you should be able to get a lot of good footage of all of this. Then when we get back, we’ll have a lot of stuff for whatever documentary they make about us in thirty years.”
“Unless they lock us up here for years and years,” Lake told her, his voice somewhere between an annoyed groan and a worried panic. “Besides that, it’s already gone! How are we even supposed to get back? There’s no reason to even bother!” He placed the device on the ground and used his new nose to click to stop the recording.
“Let’s just focus on one thing at a time, alright?” Tory said, mostly to Lake as his friend fumbled his hooves in an attempt to power the cellphone off. “This place is a lot like Earth, we know that much. A lot of times, if you have no criminal record, they give you probation, so that might be what happens in this case. And either way, we’re gonna get attorneys, so it probably won’t be that bad.”
“It’s gonna be completely hopeless…” Lake sighed depressively, putting his head in his hooves. “This can’t be happening.”
Tory had to admit it to himself: the situation was looking pretty dire. They were found in the building. And their only alibi had seemingly disappeared. Regardless of how they got there or how truthful they were, there was enough circumstantial evidence to sentence them with who knew what punishment. He imagined prison time was what they would receive.
This is just a very detailed lucid dream, Tory told himself silently as he closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Physics doesn’t work this way in the real world. None of this is actually possible. I’m going to wake up now.
It was a method that usually worked when Tory needed it to. This time though, he opened his eyes to see more boring concrete walls and his brightly colored horse-turned-friends. He wished he was surprised.
“It’s gonna be fine,” Roxanne told the two of them, although she spoke mostly to Lake, touching his back with a hoof as he lay on the ground. "They're not gonna give us prison terms. Trust me."
"How do you know that?" Tory asked before the orange coated pony could. "You seem like you've been able to read minds lately."
"I'm just picking up on the vibes people send out," Roxanne shrugged. "I don't know. When you asked them about sentences, they kind of gave off a feeling like we'd be let off easier than they wanted us to be. Didn't you feel it?"
"No?" Tory admitted, a tilt of his head showing off his confusion. "You did?"
"I guess," the unicorn shrugged again. "Anyway, I don't think we–"
“Hey!” a new voice called from far away, the sounds of multiple sets of feet—or rather, hooves—approaching the cell. Tory turned to see one of the officers who locked them up leading another horse—a unicorn—towards them. She had the same kind of ring on her horn that Roxanne had, and was just as brightly colored as everyone else they’d seen so far. She had a coat that was royal blue, and a mane and tail of purple that faded into green, along with yellow eyes. She didn’t look very happy to see them.
“I thought you said I’d get my own cell this time!” she complained loudly. “You didn’t say I’d be sharing!” Tory thought she sounded like an annoyed teenager. He knew immediately that this wasn’t her first time facing legal trouble.
“These three were just brought in this afternoon, Sapphire,” the officer said as he unlocked the door by floating a key into the lock. “You’re just gonna have to get used to them.” As he listened, Tory made a mental note that, with unicorns at least, their horns seemed to glow before they did something supernatural. It might come in useful later.
She snorted like she didn’t like that idea, and stepped inside, past them to one of the beds. “As long as they make sure to know that the top left bunk is mine. I guess I don’t care.”
The guard who brought her in gave a small chuckle and a shake of his head, then turned to leave them with their new cellmate. Their new company, Sapphire, climbed to the top bunk of one of the beds, then promptly laid on her back and sighed loudly. Tory had to look away before he got an eye full of something he’d rather not see. These weren’t particularly tall bunks.
“So what are you three in for?” Sapphire asked casually, her voice carrying through the small cell. “You guys must be some sort of team if you all came in at the same time. No, wait, let me guess: public indecency?”
“What? No!” Lake quickly protested. “Why the heck would you think that?”
“That’s what they arrest, like, half the ponies in Manehattan for. I just assumed since it was three of you, it was some kind of threesome. You can’t get mad at me for thinking that.” Yeah, it didn’t take a psychologist to realize that this girl—or rather, this mare—was kind of childish. Tory was already wondering how long it would be before they saw the judge and were moved to some other jail.
“Why don’t you start by telling us what you’re in for,” Roxanne shot back. “Since you’re so interested. Were you being indecent in public?”
“As if,” their new companion brushed the dig off lightly. "It'd be kind of nice in a way if I was," she said, "but no. Apparently, I was caught 'breaking and entering' a few days ago." She made motions with her forehooves, simulating air quotes, then finished, "I mean, sure, I was there, but is it really breaking and entering if you're there for an important reason?"
"That was you?" all three of Tory, Lake, and Roxanne said at the same time. They all looked up at her at the same time, wearing expectant expressions. Sapphire stared back at them with a questioning look.
"What was me?" she asked.
"You were the one that older mare and the cops were talking about when they arrested us!" Tory said. "They made it seem like someone else was there before us, and that they were interested in her closet! That was you, wasn't it?"
Tory still had no idea whether or not to believe that this all was really happening. There were a lot of convenient coincidences showing up around them. He didn't bother with thinking about that right now though, and focused firmly on Sapphire.
"Huh? Oh yeah," she said casually, like it was no big deal. "Why do you—wait a minute! You're humans, aren't you?" Before any of them could answer, she continued, "My name is Sapphire Glow, and I know everything humans because I’m supposed to be one, too! And if you're gonna get back to Earth, you're gonna need my help!"