It was almost six o’clock when Stephen walked into his empty house. Selena arrived shortly after with bags of Chinese take-out in hand. Stephen was very grateful she was there so he could tell her about his day and get it off his chest. She had quite the to-do list herself that day and told Stephen all about it in return. They chatted over the dinner for an hour or so before deciding to take a walk around their block. These walks, though usually quiet, were mutually relaxing. They arrived home around nine o’clock and decided to watch a movie in Stephen’s room. Stephen fell asleep halfway through while cuddled up next to Selena, who followed shortly after.
Stephen blinked a couple of times and realized he wasn’t in his room. In fact, this place looked an awful lot like Fluttershy’s cottage. “Lovely, this again.”
“Now, Angel Bunny, you really should go to bed. It’s getting late.” Fluttershy’s voice came from upstairs. Stephen looked up and saw a small rabbit hop down the steps with Fluttershy in a slow gallop behind.
“Need any help?” Stephen asked. He watched as all at once, the startled fear attacked Fluttershy’s nervous system. It started with her mane sticking straight up and her wings popping open. Her eyes widened immensely as she flipped over onto her back, legs sticking straight into the air and squeaking like a goat. Stephen should have known better to call out to someone so timid like that. Although he felt bad for scaring her, he couldn’t help but find her reaction funny. Suppressing a chuckle, he made his way to the stairs.
Walking like this still felt awkward. He hadn’t walked like this since he was in preschool and pretending to be a tiger with his friends. Even further, he didn’t understand how while being conscious of his dreaming, he couldn’t wish himself able to walk bipedal. “I’m sorry about that. Are you okay?” Stephen asked as he struggled his way up the stairs. The little rabbit had met him halfway with a disgruntled expression and attempted to avenge Fluttershy by stamping on Stephen’s hooves. Stephen ignored it and looked back at Fluttershy.
From the way she stared at the ceiling, Stephen was worried he’d petrified her. After a moment, her irises came back to normal size and her brow relaxed. “Oh, it’s you, Stephen. I’m sorry. You startled me.”
“I should be apologizing,” said Stephen as Fluttershy got to her feet and folded her wings down. Unsure what to say, Stephen and Fluttershy stared at each other for a moment. Fluttershy lowered her head to her left. Her eyes shifted back and forth from Stephen’s eyes to the ground. Perhaps a joke could get her to share her to open up? “So…how’s the weather?”
“Oh…it’s fine. But if you don’t mind my asking…how did you get in my house? I thought you left this morning.”
“I guess I did leave this morning. But you know as well as I do why I’m having the same dream twice.”
“But how can I be here if it’s a dream?” Fluttershy asked before opening her wings and gliding to the bottom floor. A little nervous, Stephen tried to reverse his stepping and go back down the stairs. The unfamiliarity of being on four legs made this a challenging task that required focus and patience. “I think we should talk to my friend, Twilight. She might know what’s happening. That is…if you don’t mind.”
“No, not at all,” Stephen said. He kept his eyes on the bottom of the stairs and shook as he struggled to maintain his balance. “Just as soon as I figure out how to walk. Lead the way.” Fluttershy waited patiently for him to arrive at the bottom of the steps. When Stephen finally landed the last step, he shook some sweat off his face. Without a word, Fluttershy pushed the door open and Stephen followed her out.
He followed Fluttershy over a bridge where a narrow stream ran across her yard and continued for a few minutes into the town. The town was small and seemed to be completely asleep. The whole time they walked, Fluttershy never said a word. But in the moonlight, Stephen could see the alert deer-in-the-headlights expression in her eyes.
When they reached a clearing in the town square, the moonlight cast down on Fluttershy’s hindquarters and Stephen noticed three butterfly shapes on the side of her thigh. “That’s a nice tattoo on your leg,” Stephen complimented in an attempt to make conversation. Fluttershy cringed and lowered her head. Perhaps Stephen shouldn’t have been looking? Or was this just a normal reaction to any kind of attention from strangers?
“Oh…I’m glad you like it…It’s my cutie mark,” she said.
“What’s a cutie mark?” Stephen asked, picking up his pace just enough to be even with Fluttershy.
“Every pony gets one when they realize their special talent.”
“What’s your special talent?”
“My cutie mark resembles being able to communicate with animals. What’s yours?”
Stephen turned his head and tried to look at his hind legs. “Either there’s not enough moonlight to see it or I don’t have one.”
Concern raised in Fluttershy’s voice. “You don’t know what your special talent is?”
Stephen thought about it for a moment. “I guess I just never thought of myself as having a special talent. I do customer service for goodness’ sake. How much talent could that require?” Stephen decided he didn’t like talking about this. “How close are we?”
“Oh…actually…we’re here.” Fluttershy pointed up at the largest tree Stephen had ever seen. It appeared to have been hollowed out. The door, the light-emitting windows around the trunk and a balcony near the top gave the tree a very homely feel. “It looks like Twilight is still awake. That’s good. I’d hate to wake her up.” Fluttershy walked up to the door and knocked.
Stephen let out a large yawn. “Alrighty then, sounds good.”
The door opened revealing a purple pony with a horn on the top of its head. It looked a lot like Fluttershy so Stephen assumed it was a girl. How the heck was Stephen’s subconscious thinking this stuff up? Then the pony spoke. “Fluttershy, how are you doing?” The purple pony’s pleasant voice was a breath of fresh air from Fluttershy’s barely audible tones.
“Hello, Twilight. Are you busy?” Fluttershy asked.
“Not at all. Rainbow Dash and I are just doing a little evening reading together. What’s up?”
Fluttershy stepped to the side and glanced over at Stephen. “This is Stephen. He’s the pony from last night I told you about. He might need your help…that is…if you’re not busy.”
“It’s not a problem at all.” The purple pony approached Stephen from the tree. She reached out her front hoof. Stephen maintained his balance as he put his hoof to hers and they shook. “Hello, Stephen. My name is Twilight Sparkle. How can I help?”
“Not sure. Just tell me what’s going on here?” Stephen asked with a shrug in his voice.
“Here,” said Twilight. “Why don’t you two come in and we can talk about it.” Stephen followed Twilight and Fluttershy into the tree. The tree was even bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. The whole thing had been hollowed out into a nearly three-story living space and library. The sight was amazing.
“Twilight, you’ve got to get over here and check out this part! It’s so awesome!” a voice pulled Stephen’s attention to the corner of the library. A blue pony reclined on a beanbag chair with wings unfurled and a long, unkempt, technicolor tail hanging to the floor. She pulled her face up from deep within the book supported by her front legs. Curious magenta eyes looked directly at Stephen. “Hey, who’s this guy?” she asked.
“Rainbow Dash, this is Stephen,” said Twilight.
“Is this the pony that Fluttershy told us ran out of the Everfree forest and didn’t know where he was?” Rainbow asked.
“My reputation precedes me,” Stephen said with a dry tone.
“He kept asking me where he was,” said Fluttershy. “I told him my cottage, Ponyville and Equestria. But he didn’t know where any of that was or how he got in the forest.”
Rainbow took flight from her beanbag chair “Maybe he’s got one of those memory sucking brain leeches from Daring Do and the Bog of Nightmares.”
“I really doubt that,” said Twilight.
Rainbow glided across the library and stopped to hover right next to Stephen. He backed up to reclaim his personal space when Rainbow tried to look into his ear. “I say we check him!”
“Rainbow, you’re letting those books go to your head again,” said Twilight.
Stephen’s brain finally caught up to the situation. “Would it help if I told you I don’t remember any leeches crawling into my ears?” It wasn’t much of an input but it would have to do for now.
“Not if they’ve already sucked out your memory of it!” Rainbow flung the door open and pointed outside. “Come on, Twilight. You know how some of these stories are based on real legends. Either check him or we’ve got to get him to Ponyville Hospital.”
Twilight groaned and her horn started glowing. Stephen looked around and noticed he was being surrounded with the same glow. “What are you doing to me?” Stephen asked, looking at his hooves.
“This will only take a second,” Twilight said.
A second later, Stephen’s muscles and bones became visible through his skin. It was like looking at an X-ray photo of his entire body. Stephen was startled, to say the least. Suddenly becoming a full body X-ray photo might do that to most people. He stayed perfectly still lest something even more terrible than becoming transparent happen. But he couldn’t stop himself from shouting, “What’s going on? Someone help me!”
“See?” said Twilight. “Just as I told you. I don’t see any brain leeches.”
They were being too casual about the fact that Stephen looked like an anatomy model from college biology. Maybe there was nothing to worry about but Stephen was not about take that risk. Turning his head to the side, he found that it didn’t hurt to move. As far as he could tell, that meant it was safe to move. He turned tail to run but ended up making direct eye contact with two more ponies that happened to be passing by. Neither of them had wings or horns. One was bright pink and had an even pinker mane that curled in every direction. The other was orange with and had a thick blonde mane which was tied into a lazy ponytail and partially covered by a stetson. This one was wearing a saddlebag over her back.
Stephen stared at them for a moment. They stared at him for a moment. Stephen blinked but during the time that his eyes were closed, the pink one had shot across ten feet and right through all of Stephen's barriers of personal space. With giant blue eyes no more than six inches away from Stephen’s face, she giggled, “Ooh! I’ve never seen a skeleton pony before. Where did you come from Mr. Skeleton Pony?”
She suddenly slid back a couple feet, revealing the orange pony with a pink tail in her mouth. “Whoa there, sugarcube,” said the orange pony after dropping the tail. “I think it’s just one of Twilight’s spells.”
Stephen stopped glowing and his innards ceased to be visible. “Hey Pinkie Pie! Hey, Applejack!” Twilight called from behind Stephen. "What are you two up to?"
The orange pony spoke up. "I just got done helping Pinkie Pie around Sugarcube Corner again. We thought we'd stop by and see if you wanted any of the left overs but it looks like you're in the middle of something."
“Rainbow Dash thought Stephen here might have a memory sucking brain leech so I had to check him,” said Twilight.
“Oh, okay then!” said the pink pony before giggling again. “I should have known. A real skeleton pony would have been super-duper scary. You must be new in town. I’m Pinkie Pie! It looks like you already met my friends! What’s your name?”
“I’m Stephen and I’m not sure I can call this ‘meeting your friends’. I still don’t know what the heck is going on here!”
“I think we should just move this little get-together inside. Don’t you think, girls?” Twilight asked. Everyone nodded their heads and filed into the library. Stephen was the last one in. He could feel his face contorting with stress and confusion. This was going to be an interesting night.