"OK hold it. What’s going on!?” I was beyond confused. I looked around and saw a field with a forest on one side, along with what looked like a forest the other. “Are… are we really here?” I asked Derrick.
“Yep, and I know why the portal appeared in our world.” As he was talking, Derrick gestured to a very embarrassed Twilight Sparkle.
“I’m sorry for putting the portal in your house. I didn’t mean to, but the spell puts the portal at the same geographical point in both dimensions.” Derrick and I were slightly confused, but once Twilight was done, Joe had every ounce of attention towards her begging to learn more, muttering something about wormholes and the survival of the human race.
Before she started again, I interrupted. “So, could we see the town? I don’t like being so close to the Everfree Forest.” That’s when things started getting awkward.
“How do you know about the town and the forest? This isn't your dimension; you've never been here before. How would you know about the local landmarks?” I knew this would have to be explained at one point or another, but I didn't realize that it had to happen so soon. For the next hour, we sat on the edge of the forest explaining how we knew about everything: Discord, the Elements of Harmony, the Mane 6, the Princesses, and Ponyville. While we were talking, I got a strange feeling that something was watching us, but I said nothing. Even when we were about to leave, I still had that feeling, so I looked into the forest. I saw nothing.
We started walking away, but as we did so, a Manticore jumped from its unseen position in the forest and into our vision. Being the closest to it, I pulled out my small knife, and I heard Joe and Derrick pull their swords. I also heard some magic charging up after a short delay. This was going to be nothing short of a battle.
I wasn't that far from the creature, maybe 10 or 15 feet. I was scared, but I was not willing to run and risk anyone getting hurt. At first it was just me and the Manticore, slowly circling each other, but once it pounced I realized just how surprisingly fast it was. I barely escaped one of its front paws. I yelled back to the small group, “Go get some help!”, but none of them moved. When I called back, Derrick yelled, “LOOK OUT!” I turned just in time to watch the massive creature pounce on me and crush my arm as its paws hit the ground.
Once it hit the ground, my arm was flattened under the weight of the massive creature, and my backpack went flying. Strangely, it didn’t hurt. I looked over to see the paw flat on the ground. I looked over to the horrified group and wanted to cry out for help, but then the pain hit like a ticked-off freight train. I yelled so hard it hurt, but it also surprised the Manticore enough that Joe and Derrick were able to hold it off while Twilight rushed over to look at my arm. I faced the other direction, not wanting to see the mangled mess that my arm became. “THIS IS BAD! Very bad! But I think I know something to fix it!” Twilight stood over my arm, obviously quite panicked, and soon it was wrapped in a magical aura. Then more pain hit as I felt the shards of my bones knit back together and my tendons growing in size. As she performed her spell, Joe and Derrick were trying to drive the Manticore back, but instead did the exact opposite. They were getting closer. Joe and Derrick are good swordsmen, but they were out of practice. The beast quickly blew through their defenses and tried for a swipe at Twilight.
“Oh, no you don’t!” I reached her first and gave her a shove, breaking her concentration and getting her out of the beast’s reach. Unfortunately, this cleared the path for the claws to go through my chest. While I couldn’t feel anything anymore, I knew that without immediate attention I would die. I looked to Twilight. She had some cuts, a few of which were bleeding, but none as bad as the four deep cuts in my chest. Realizing that I was almost dead, Twilight abandoned my arm and started work on my chest with the other two redoubling their efforts to repel the beast.
“This is bad. I’ll need to work fast, but there may be some scarring.”
I stared up and looked her straight in the eyes. “I’m dying right now! I think some scars aren't that big of an issue!” I said, failing to keep the annoyance out of my voice.
“This is going to hurt a lot.”
“JUST DO IT!” I was afraid that at this rate, I would die before I got to see this world. Twilight began her spell on me, forgetting her cuts. I felt a few warm drips in the wound, but I thought it was just part of the spell. I faced the battle going on. The Manticore had cuts galore, but it kept fighting. Derrick was around its neck, riding it like a bull, and Joe was trying to force it back to the forest, now wielding his sword’s sheath as a secondary weapon itself.
All of this happened in a matter of minutes, but it felt like years. Joe and Derrick finally managed to drive the beast back into the forest. I was fully healed, but my shirt was destroyed and my mechanically-enhanced backpack laid in pieces on the ground. “Dang, I was going to use that,” I said as I looked at the piece of mangled machinery. “Oh well, I can probably fix it.” I picked up the pieces and put them into the bag.
Derrick sat down for a moment. I imagine that thing was worse than any mad bull we have at home. Joe was exhausted as well, but he felt the need to check Derrick for injuries, being the closest thing to a doctor we had for a friend. He saw none, and then he went to examine my injuries. He noticed that my injuries were taken care of, and then he shifted to Twilight. He saw the cuts she had and immediately pulled a shirt and a bottle of water out of his bag of supplies. He tore a bit of the shirt off, got it a little wet, and offered it to her.
“Less than ideal gauze, but it should still work. We need to clean and apply some pressure to those cuts. Do you think you can press this on the wounds?”
“It’s just a few cuts. I’ll be fine.”
“Never underestimate the power of an open wound. Wouldn't want it to get infected now, would we?”
She gave Joe a look that admitted he was right, put the cloth up to her wounds with her magic, and we started walking towards town. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Derrick said, “I think that could have been worse.”
I looked down at the marks going diagonally down my chest. “Why yes, Derrick, it could have been worse. I could have died, Twilight could have been crushed, one of you two might have been killed…”
“Ok, ok, I get it. I’m sorry. I was just saying it COULD have been worse. But I’m glad it wasn't.”
We kept going, with Joe basically interrogating Twilight about the healing spell she just performed. This continued until there was a loud “BOOM” in the sky. We looked up to see where the sound came from, instead seeing a rainbow shooting across the sky.
“We haven’t even been here for an hour, and we see a Sonic Rainboom. This experience just became 20% cooler. ” Unfortunately, we were too awestruck to notice that the rainbow was coming straight for us.
It was one of those moments where if you blink, you miss it. Derrick was hit hard by the incoming spectrum, causing him and a cyan Pegasus to hit the ground hard enough to shake it. Joe ran to Derrick to check on him.
“Hey Derrick, are you OK?” There was no answer, so Joe started thoroughly examining for injuries. After a while, he got up and said, “Wow. No lacerations, no broken bones, no anything, really. Just a bruise on his stomach and a bump on his head. We should still get it checked out once we get back to town.”
Knowing that they’d probably be sore when they woke up, we used some branches that we found and some rope that I discovered in my backpack to make a skid big enough to hold Derrick. I used the remains of my shirt to make a sling so that I could carry Rainbow Dash. “I hope they don’t freak out when they wake up.” I carried Dash and Joe pulled the skid. Twilight was checking her friend for broken bones or a concussion, but found nothing. Joe kept pulling but never showed any sign of fatigue. Dash was surprisingly light, and while I was still recovering from the attack, I didn't want to put her down. She seemed so comfortable. “So, how much farther is Ponyville?” I asked.
“About 4 minutes.”
When we walked into town, we attracted many glances. Some were confused, a few scared, but many were just curious. We kept going, but Twilight stopped us for a moment. “I just remembered I have to go do something for Applejack. Can you find the library from here?”
I looked around at the scenery. The sun was high and hurting my eyes, so I put on my sunglasses. “I think we can find it.”
“Outstanding! Here’s my notebook. Give it to Spike so he’ll let you in.” With that, she went on her way, but as we started she yelled back, “Oh, and tell him to read the last page!” I nodded and started walking again.
After a few times getting lost, we finally arrived at the giant tree library. “Finally, we found it!” Joe said as I walked up to the door and knocked. No answer came so I knocked again, a bit more urgently this time. Still no answer. I was fed up so I decided to yell out, “SPIKE!” Then I heard small steps walking to the door.
“Yes?” He seemed frustrated, but his expression changed as he saw us. Knowing how menacing a stranger in sunglasses could be, I took them off.
“Spike, Twilight told me to give this to you.” I handed him the note book, then told him, “She also said to read the back page.” Spike seemed surprised, but read anyway. When he was done, he asked us inside and showed us a guest room that was behind a bookshelf.
“Well, here you go.” There were five beds, a fireplace, and a small table.
“What’s with the secret room?” I asked as we put Derrick and Rainbow Dash into beds.
“Twilight needed more room for books, so she put a book shelf on the door. “Makes it a bit hard to tell that it’s a door.” I was puzzled, but told myself to ignore it. “Twilight wrote that you needed some rest.” I looked at a vacant bed, thanked Spike for his help, and lay down. Joe told me he was going to grab some books, to hopefully fill in the gaps of what we knew. I said that was a good idea, then pulled up the sheets and fell asleep.