//------------------------------// // Man in a Pony's World Alternative Proluge // Story: Side Stories of a Man in a Pony's World // by Nugget27 //------------------------------// Laying in the field, just outside of a small village, laid a hairless ape. It wore a white T-shirt and wore black basketball pants. He was fast asleep, fully unaware of his new location. He rolled over onto his side in an effort to block out sunlight as it threatened to wake him up. “Five more minutes Mom…” The town he was laying outside of wasn’t your ordinary town… if you were a human. It wasn’t a bustling city like New York, but it was a sizable village of two hundred ponies. A mixture of earth ponies, pegasi, and the rare set of unicorns wandered around, happily going either to work, school, or just going out to enjoy the day. They were fully unaware of the human outside of their village that woke up with a start. Well, until the human shouted. “Ah fuck I’m late”. From his spot in the field. That made a few ponies stop and look in the direction of the shouting, only to keep going about their day. The human sat up, having realized that he had slept past his alarm and his backup alarm. For…  at least two hours. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, before scratching under his legs… Which were crisscrossed in grass. “Wha?” The human slowly looked up. “It’s… noon. Where’s my… Phone?” He looked around, noticing a town that… looked nothing like the megatropolis he grew up in. He looked around, again, nowhere else seemed like a good place to go. On one hand, it was headed into the middle of nowhere, the middle of nowhere, or a town called Salt Lick judging by the welcome sign. Wait, Salt Lick? “ Bob looked around. “There’s no city in New York named Salt Lick…” Bob shrugged, he must be in some play nobody lives in, like Canada. With that, Bob started walking towards the city. Luckily, he slept with his tennis shoes on, so he wasn’t going around barefoot. He’ll just talk to a local, call home, and be home in a few days. That was the plan that Bob decided to go with once he entered town… “That’s a lot of horses,” Bob mused, noting that each one had a butt mark. ‘Maybe that’s to mark ownership or something, I don’t own a horse so I wouldn’t know.’ He thought. Bob rounded a corner and came face to face, or rather leg to face with something. “Oof!” A little girl grunted as she bumped into Bob. The human fell on his butt and grunted as soon as he had hit the ground… “Watch where you’re going, sir…” Bob came face to face with… a unicorn. A yellow furred, black coated unicorn. The human and the unicorn blinked a couple of times, before the human, about twelve years of age, slowly reached his hand out and watched as the unicorn actually started sniffing his hand. Bob snorted as he felt the thing’s fur touch his hand as it inspected it. “You are really cute…” Bob said as he finally said, breaking the shock. It was a weird looking horse, with its eyes being pretty big, given that horses have relatively small eyes in comparison to the rest of their body. However, the big eyes, big, round eyes, the kinda floppy ears… The unicorn soon found herself enjoying the human’s hands running through her mane, coat, rubbing and scratching her jaw… It was quite lovely. It was truly a nice experience… Until Bob had stopped. “Now… How do I… go home? Dad said to not talk to strangers, but I might have to to find out where I am.” “Maybe one of my Moms can help you?” The unicorn asked, judging by the voice.  “What…” Bob asked and tilted his head. “What?” “You’re a talking horse.” “And you’re a weird ape-like thing!” “Uh…” Bob hummed. “I’m a human, name’s Bob.” “I’m Zippy! It’s nice to meet you. Your hands are really nice.” “Your fur’s pretty soft,” Bob reached out his hand. “Can I pet ya some more?” He asked… The kid could assume that he wasn’t going to find the way back to his apartment any time soon. “Of course!” Zippy hummed as the human reached out… then pulled her onto his lap. She initially flinched, but soon found the lap to be rather nice to lay on, and the hand rubbing the back of her head helped her relax too. The two children simply sat there while Bob was contemplating what the heck was happening. A talking horse, he was petting a talking horse that was wagging her tail like a dog as he petted her. It felt… wrong to the kid, seeing a sentient creature, and promptly petting it. The only reason why he didn’t bring the issue up was the fact that he was petting Zippy at all. “You’re pretty cool,” Bob hummed as he slowly stopped. “You’re nice… but I didn’t ask if you could stop. Can you keep petting me?” “I… have to find out what I’m going to do. I… I woke up in a place that isn’t my home, and I… Want to figure out what I’m going to do now.”  “Zippy! What are you doing?” A larger, unicorn with a pink coat and violet mane skidded to a stop upon seeing her daughter laying in the lap of a strange new creature. “What are you doing with that… thing?” Bob looked the mare over. Her mane went down her neck, ending on her right handed side, and was tied up towards the end. Meanwhile, her tail went down to her hindlegs and was also tied off with a similar looking hair tie to what was in her mane. Her large, amber eyes glared at him until… “Oh! Hey Dam! This is my new friend… his name is Bob, and he’s pretty nice! He was just about to try and figure out what he should do… He mentioned not being able to go home.” “...That thing can speak?” “I can, m’am. Your daughter’s really nice.” “How old are ya, sunny?” The elder unicorn asked. “You don’t look too big, in my opinion.” “I’m twelve years old, m’am.” “...And you can’t go home?” “I don’t know how I ended up in… Salt Lick? That’s the name of this town, right?” “It is. How come you can’t find your folks?” “Where I come from, ponies don’t talk, or look even remotely like how you or your daughter do.” “I’ll be damned…” Carte, Zippy’s Dam, whispered. “Well, I ain’t leaving a child alone on the streets, and you don’t seem too unfriendly, and you’re respectful enough… Even though you are petting my daughter like she’s a common animal right now.” “...Oh,” Bob chuckled nervously. “Sorry, force of habit. Usually when something is laying in my lap, it’s a dog, not a sapient pony.” “It’s no big deal; I can tell that Zippy likes it anyways, and as her dam, I’m not one to complain about how a young colt’s treatin’ my daughter as long as he treats her well. C’mon, you can stay the night at my home; my wives will probably love you. From there, we’ll try and find your folks, and if we can’t find them, then we’ll end up likely going to Canterlot to ask Princess Celestia to help you find a way home.” “Who… Is Princess Celestia?” Bob asked. “Our Princess. C’mon, you’ve got to be starving; Zippy hasn’t even had breakfast yet, and I’m sure you just woke up if your messy mane is anything to go by.” “...That would be nice, if it isn’t too much trouble-” “Nonsense! Again, I’m not above helping a colt, even if the colt’s kinda strange looking, or not even a colt. No child should have to know what it’s like to be starving.” Carte nuzzled Bob as Zippy vacated the human’s lap to let him up. As it turned out, Bob only came up to Carte's head, and could easily look her in the eye. A normal horse would tower over Bob. As soon as they started moving, ponies started giving Bob weird looks, which made the kid try and hide behind the nearest thing that was tall enough to hide him from the world; Carte.  The mare couldn’t help but smile slightly at seemingly quick the human was looking to her for some form of protection. Perhaps if everything went well, the poor child could go see his real dam and sire… and if not, Zippy always wanted a brother. And Bob was around her age… They could be siblings! After Carte’s current herd leader, Pike Shaft, kicked Bolt Strike, their ex-husband out of their herd, they never really had the chance to try for another foal, so Bob would fit nicely into their home. For now, however, she was perfectly fine with simply housing the human until tomorrow, where the rest of the herd would be able to conduct a search to find out how Bob came to Salt Lick, and hopefully, find him a way back home. Carte turned to see Bob and Zippy already getting along, with the unicorn using her nose to point out all of the sights to the human, who had quickly forgotten all the weird looks coming his way, and was talking away about some weird concept. Something involving ‘computers’. Zippy seemed at all at what the human described them doing, and Carte herself was rather impressed. It seemed that humans derived from a rather technology driven society rather than a magic driven society. From books, music, to photos, and apparent video all at the grasp of humanity’s fingertips due to these… computers. Then their conversation turned to hobbies where Bob brought up how he played in a band, in something called a garage… Carte now knew what to get the human for his birthday, should he be forced to remain in Equestria.