A trip.
A fall.
A new day.
“ AAAAHHHHHHAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH ”
Cried PonderBright, as he barreled toward the ground at faster and faster speeds, slowly becoming smaller with bright flashes of light obstructing his vision. He had to close his eyes.
For a second, he figured this was him finally snapping, and that all that magic business within the last school year was just the start of his insanity. At least, that's what he hoped, to be safely inside a padded cell screaming and foaming from the mouth but in safety. Not this; anything but this.
But it was all too real. Deep down he knew it, even as his life flashed before his eyes again.
He had confirmed his suspicions with several classmates back when Twilight and 5 others used rainbow lasers against a demon. Their story matched the one he experienced.
He opened his eyes, and PonderBright was greeted by 2 horse like appendages instead of his arms.
In his manic confusion, he gave up. Too many things were happening at once. He was overwhelmed, but mostly tired.
Depression took over.
Maybe this was a good thing.
Maybe he would leave a funny-shaped hole in the ground in the figure of whatever abomination Twilight had turned him into.
He went to cover his eyes, but as he did he felt 4 separate things cover his eyes instead of 2. And he saw feathers.
Wings.
HE HAD WINGS.
He immediately spread every appendage he had, HOPING to control his wings.
He was running out of time.
He tried to rotate his wings like an arm.
He was running out of time.
He looked down to gauge how much time he had left.
He was running out of time.
Upward wind turned sideways. Then downward.
He had done it.
With around 3 primitive-buildings worth of space to spare he had did it.
A immense euphoria washed over him, he didn't want to die after all, but as soon as he had realized this he realized something else; he was still in the air.
He zoned in back to reality and was starting to fall back downward.
This wasn't good.
He was in the wrong position to glide again, Can a horse survive a 150 foot fall?
Wrong question.
His mind wandered, and he was blinded by a light from just above him.
No time for that, focus on a plan.
He tried to get himself turned back around into the popper direction for falling like a cursed winged abomination.
You know, wings facing the desired direction of travel and whatnot.
But it was no use.
This new body would not cooperate, or maybe he was not giving it the popper commands?
Time has run out.
The best he could manage was a very steep circular motion before crashing into a forest nearby the primitive settlement.
He was very luck to have to, and he knew it, for the countless branches broke most of his fall. The cuts, bruises and blood were worth it, given the alternative.
He impacted the ground hard. His new form was not aerodynamic, and very dense. His plan to sacrifice his two front … “ legs ” had mostly failed, as what he was assuming to be his torso had taken a lot of the damage. This was made immediately clear by the mind-splitting pain that followed the crash.
He came in so steep he left a short indignation into the forest floor, it was a miracle he was still conscious.
He immediately screamed.
He checked his wounds.
That's a lot of blood.
He looked for something to tie his leg off. Stopping the bleeding came first.
He had no fingers in which to tie it off.
His mind was spinning.
He was no stranger to pain; physical, mental or otherwise, but this was on another level. Mostly physical.
Was he going to pass out?
Was he going to die?
More strange lights from above him.
Rescue?
He looked up.
No.
Nothing.
He used traction and his other leg to gain the feeling the sweet relief; the of lack blood following out of one part of his body, now going for his torso.
No time wasted, he rips a abnormally big leaf from a bush and lays over it.
He reaches with both his hooves around his back, along with his mouth, ready to tie it as tight as he could.
Not much blood was coming out from his … “ bottom torso “ mostly removed hair and bruises.
He was lucky yet again for that too, as PonderBright could not tie a knot in such a awkward position with such new limitations on how he handles things.
He was, in fact, a horse. He had realized it earlier to save his life, but not internalized it.
Goldish-Yellowish fur? Huh.
The next vine was a tough one to get out. It's as if it was heavier then the rest...
He noticed he was slowing. Getting dizzy.
He tried the best he could.
He had tried.
A voice broke him out of his long trance, coming from a small horse from a fair distance away.
“ A- Are you ok? “ said the young pony.
“ You... Speak?”
“English?” Replied PonderBright, not in the right mental state to form popper words, had the tone he tried to speak come out manic and frenzied instead. Or maybe that was just all the blood in his mouth.
“ Eng- wha- Look I'll get ya'll hel- ”
“ AM I DEAD?! “ Screamed the broken pony.
The little pony recoiled, making a face even the human could recognize as truly terrified.
PonderBright tried and failed to calm the situation.
“ WHERE AM I? “ he bellowed, sounding only slightly less angry and also more authoritative, both by accident.
“ CAN YOU STOP THIS BLEEDING? “ he screeched in a much more pleading manor.
He had inadvertently “ pointed “ to himself using one his legs. Huh. So these things do come with instructions.
The little pony was scared stiff. His best bet was this little (child?) creature and he knew it.
After a short silence a thought passed his mind.
Sunset Shimmer.
“ ARE YOU ONE OF TWILIGHTS GOONS, SENT HERE TO FINISH ME OFF !!! ” He screamed without thinking.
Black lightning streaked across the tree canopy, along with afterimages of purple and green dots.
He recoiled at that last one, much bigger and brighter then all the rest, but as he looked back down the beautiful yellow and red little horse was gone, along with his last hope of not bleeding out.
He instantly realized his mistake.
Or maybe not.
Hooftracks.
He walked past the crash site and some destroyed trees, a few by the crash and fewer still by the black lightning.
All the way back into the primitive village.
Of course.
He was an idiot.
They had buildings, so they have basic healthcare, DUH!
His walk sped into a stroll, still fighting the dizziness and jitters, otherwise it would be a sprint.
Some other “ people “ apparently took notice and flocked near like a group of by standards observing a schoolyard fight.
“ O- Oh my “ said one
“ Do you need help? “ said another
He paused for a moment in disbelief. He expected that kind of delay and response from the little pony, but not these ones. They had jobs. He SAW them working. He SAW one of them put down a book to walk over to him!
Or maybe that was just the blood loos. Who knows.
“ YES! “ “ I NEED HELP! “ As he leaned toward the other ponies in urgent expression.
“ GET A M- “ He was interrupted by a … female? (maybe?) ponies scream.
Luckily she was quickly quieted by another female (?) pony sitting across from her.
Another tan pony walked up to him, and... bowed...? before seeing all the blood on the floor.
“ SORRY! “ he stumbled his words for a bit.
“ I WILL GET -” The tan pony then finally said, before getting interrupted by someone in the crowd screaming
“HE NEEDS HELP!”
Things quickly devolved into a shouting match, without anything getting done.
The seldom few ponies who were level headed enough to still calmly approach PonderBright were assessing the situation.
All this activity was not doing his autism any favors. He might actually be more in a state of panic then when he was falling.
He then felt a sharp pain coming from his back. A pony had touched it to asses the damage without telling him. Perfect.
He turned to face the perpetrator.
“ HANDS OFF “
The confused and scared pony looked at him with a bloody twig in his hoof.
“ DONT TOUCH ME “ snarled our dark-green and gold pony, almost foaming at the mouth with strained expression and words.
He then felt another, much sharper ( but still manageable) pain from his front left leg.
At this point he was done.
Mentally done, that is.
For when he felt his makeshift tourniquet fall off and blood start to ooze out of his worst wounds again, he did snap. But for real this time.
Only one thing was present in his mind; a response trained up over time by so many moments of his past:
“ Attack. “
Green lightning.
Everywhere.
5 ponies motionless. 1 Missing a few vital parts.
At least 6 being dragged off by others.
The pony he had directed the “ Thought “ towards was completely unharmed, now staring in shock directly at him, and PonderBright staring back at him.
The staring contest quickly came to an end as the dark blue pony quickly ran off, almost slipping due to accelerating so quickly.
Our main pony turned more to the right to see his actual target of his ire, not the one he had mistakenly targeted and just ran off.
What was recognizable looked like a doctor.
Modern stethoscope. Scrubs. What looked like the charred remains of bandages.
He ran.
Away from civilization, all the knew that he had done it again. There would be no help, no escaping twilight, and no returning back to the human world.
He and blew it and he had done so twice, IN A ROW.
At least this time he would make sure his death would not result in more.
After running for awhile, he found a cave and decided that would be his final resting place.
He marched firmly into the opening, and taking a long while to finally get lost inside the winding tunnels to ensure his solitude. He chuckled a bit, even after all this he was still somewhat mentally sharp.
Why had he screamed at the little horse that was just trying to help?
Why the only thing he … wanted to think about when faced with (comparatively) minor pain was to attack?
Was this connected to the destructive lightning in any way?
Oh well.
Probably. Who knows?
It won't matter soon anyway.
Soon it will be nobody's problem, including his own.
He was awakened to sounds of hoofs against stone.
It sounded like many different hoofs, like an entire herd, but he wasn't accustom to gauging how many bodies there were when there were 4 legs and all 4 legs being shorter altogether.
He had noticed that most of the bleed had just stopped by itself, and he found himself muttering to himself “Guess I really have to do everything myself”.
A familiar regal female voice was overheard from just around 2 or 3 meters. “ Twilight, did you hear that? ”
Celestia.
Another female voice: “Be ready.”
Luna? He wasn't well read in school affairs, even after twilight had brought back some semblance of unity to the school.
Ah. A grim reminder to how I got here.
Twilight. A hero now turned villain. She must have succeeded in entering “ Equestria “, obviously.
Did she make mind slaves of the two? Maybe. Impossible to know for sure, given the nature of magic and my lack of understanding.
Now her past transformations of ears and wings made sense; she was from here.
The third time she came back was much more stealthy, probably due to tip offs from sunset or similar about government tracking or something. Crystal Prep. Glasses. New Clothes. Distance from her friends. I was even applauding her ability to make it seem like she was actually just a genius inventor from the human world, ...
until the ' totally mechanical and not magic device ' she was wearing started tearing holes in reality during the sporting event.
I tried to run, half because of the giant plant monsters, half because of past 2 times. Got blockaded by security and told it was for my “safety” that we were all in one place.
After no-so-politely explaining to the guard that one place is exactly what a brand new eldritch magical horror would want, he nervously said he was just doing his job and to precede to the courtyard.
I had my boot knife, shirt knife, other shirt knife, and OTHER other shirt knife at the ready to “persuade” any blocking bodies to move aside once the …
“magic happened”
but I was too late. I sprinted right over a rock, and into a portal.
But
That's the joke, right?
That's the punchline right?
People that try to do good like you and me just get catapulted to the wayside, or into a locker, or face first into a toilet, or into a giant ball of eldritch energy, or into a surprise floor esekia, or out of your home onto the street.
And it's not our fault.
But it doesn't matter.
What matters is the result.
And if I don't do anything now, the result will likely be Twilight destroying my world and taking over a better world, or a war between the two worlds, if Twilight is somehow stopped.
...
No.
I'm sorry Twilight, if your still in there, I don't know how to fire rainbow lasers out of my eyes like you once did.
I've ran all the possibilities through in my head, and there's only one conclusion.
If this is a mercy or more akin to justice,
It does not matter.
Because the result is the same.
I, PonderBright, am about to make my inevitable death, worth it. By doing quite possibly the greatest service “Equestria” has ever seen.
Killing Twilight Sparkle.
When in difficult country, do not encamp. In country where high roads intersect, join hands with your allies. Do not linger in dangerously isolated positions. In hemmed-in situations, you must resort to stratagem. In desperate position, you must fight.
- Sun Tzu, Art of war.