Joe's Point of View
After putting my things down on one of the beds, I noticed James was sincere about getting some rest. That was definitely a good idea, given his previous injuries. At least, that’s the logical thing to do.
And that’s what bothered me.
Going to Equestria is clearly impossible in real life; this HAD to be a dream. Still, I very rarely have dreams, and any I DO have are complete gibberish. Yet nearly everything in this one made relative sense. I couldn’t help but wonder what the sudden clarity was about for this one. Then again, we got sent through a magical portal into Equestria. That seemed pretty illogical, so it did fit the pattern. But then the issue of vividness came to the forefront. Never in my life have I had a dream in which I actually felt pain. Yet, when that Manticore attacked, I actually felt its strikes. Furthermore, I actually felt the stress of pulling Derrick along. Not to mention, everything I could see was clear as crystal, unlike the clouded, hazy nature of the rest. I thought I even smelled the grass.
It had to be a trick. The brain can do some curious things. I decided to sort through it when I woke up.
In the meantime, there were books to be read. No sense in not enjoying this while it lasted. Admittedly, I found the Manticore attack earlier a bit odd, so I looked for a book on creatures of the Everfree. Eventually, I found one (should’ve looked under “E” from the start), and began to read from it. I saw that there were “winged scorpo-leonic chimeras”, which sounded a lot like the Manticore we fought earlier. Unfortunately, it gave no reports on any leaving the forest, or even attacking without reason. I decided investigating further would be a waste of time, since I was going to wake up soon anyway.
The book also contained information on a variety of other creatures. I was familiar with some, such as the timberwolves and cockatrice, but there were some I’d not known about, including harpies and even a Terra Drake, a flightless, burrowing dragon. I recalled reading about the dietary habits of the Terra Drake, at which point I started to feel tired. I was a bit suspicious as to how I could be tired when I was already asleep, but I took it as dream logic. I just thought it signaled that it was time to wake up.
I closed my eyes and drifted off into the unconscious void.
A few seconds of black later from my perspective (although probably a few hours in real-time), I started to wake up. I didn’t open my eyes yet; that’s typically the last step I take. I wiggled around a bit, and noticed I wasn’t in my bed. I was sitting up in a wooden chair. There was also a pressure in my lap that seemed a bit hard. A…book?
It followed the events of the dream. Yet, I could tell that I was truly waking up. There was no way it could’ve been a dream from this point on. I thought this was strange, so I decided to see what was going on. I opened my eyes…
“AH!”
It was just as it was in the dream. I was in the library, with a book on the creatures of the Everfree resting on my lap. The world was like it was flash-drawn; outlines filled with a single color. It was a harsh departure from the realism I was used to seeing. Wait…used to seeing…?
“M-MY HAND! IT’S ALL FLASH-Y!”
As the saying goes, you know nothing better than the back of your hand. Someone renovated my anatomy. Where I could make out individual hairs and pores before was now only a solid mass of monotone flesh-tone. It surprised me, and I couldn’t help making a scene. I was in shock as to how radically different the look of the world was.
After about three minutes of nonstop freaking out, I realized something.
I was in Equestria.
All my shock left me in that instant, replaced with joy. I didn’t care how many physical laws it broke; I was legitimately in Equestria. It’s the kind of thing that doesn’t happen in a lifetime. I couldn’t help but, again, make a scene of it.
“HA! IT DOES EXIST! I OWE YA TWENTY BUCKS, DERRICK!”
I remembered that Derrick and James came through with me. I expected some type of response from Derrick as a result. Yet, there was none.
“Derrick?”
Silence.
“DERRICK!”
I figured he must have been in that secret room from earlier. I went into the room, and saw three figures on different beds: Derrick, lying flat on his back; Rainbow Dash, curled up and shivering; and James, tensing various muscles at random times, seemingly in response to something. But, my business was with Derrick. I started to shake him, first gently, then gradually worsening to the point that the bed began moving. Eventually, it worked.
“Ugh…” He slowly opened his eyes, then put his hands in front of them, as if the light was causing him some type of pain.
“Look around, pal. I owe you twenty buc- *ahem* bits!”
“You’re just now realizing this? You’ve been here nearly as long as I have.” He rubbed his head, as if it were in pain.
“I thought it was a dream! This sort of thing doesn’t make sense, so I assumed this was something it wasn’t. I was wrong! And you know what, Derrick?”
“What?” This was followed shortly by Derrick gripping his head more tightly and letting out an “agh.”
“I’M GLAD THAT I WAS WRONG! I, BARTHOLOMEW JOSEPH ROLLINS, AM GLAD THAT I WAS WRONG!”
I said that a bit loudly, causing Derrick to grip his ears in a futile attempt to block the pain. Until then, I had been oblivious to his signs of distress. I decided to ask him the obvious question I was too excited to ask him in the beginning.
“Y’OK, Derrick?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. My head just hurts a little and I can’t remember the past few…time. Do you remember what happened?”
… I did remember. In my excitement, I had either blocked it out or just not thought about it. Twice today alone, our lives were threatened. Perhaps this isn’t the utopia I thought it was. Two separate events that tried to take our lives…
“Joe? Do you remember?”
“Oh, yeah. Kinda spaced off there. You were hit by a supersonic rainbow pegasus.”
Derrick seemed confused, but I just attributed that to the trauma. He didn’t say anything on the matter, just gave me a funny look and started rubbing his head again.
Then, Spike walked into the room, looking annoyed and tired, carrying a blanket.
“Can you keep it down? I’m trying to take a nap.” He yawned after he was done talking.
“Oh, sorry. I guess I got a little *ahem* carried away there.” It was then that I realized something had been off this entire time. “Where’s Twilight?”
“Dunno. She never told me where she was going.”
“Didn’t she write it down in that notebook?”
“Nope. Just a list of things I had to do.”
“How long was I asleep?”
“Oh, abooooooout… three hours.”
It takes a long time to do farm work, so she could’ve still been at AJ’s. Assuming that’s what she was doing. She only specified that she needed to help AJ with “something.” That could mean a great variety of things. Well, I had no reason to mistrust her, so I assumed she was still at AJ’s, helping her out with… whatever it was that she needed help with.
After that, Spike went back upstairs, leaving Derrick and I to talk. We talked about what this event meant, both for the present and the future, along with various other random topics. We kept talking until we heard several faint, but familiar, voices outside the library.
“That’s a mighty fine story ya got there, Twi. Makes me interested to see ‘em mahself.”
“They’re not… dangerous, are they?”
“Relax, Fluttershy. They saved my life earlier. They wouldn’t even try to hurt us.”
“OOOOOH I can’t WAIT to throw them a party! Do you know what kind of cake they like? Or would they like pie more? What kind of candy do they eat? OOOOH I know! I’ll make them I pie-cake with candy inside! And some of my famous chimicherrychangas!”
“Calm down, Pinkie. We haven’t even met them yet. It might be rude to randomly throw parties where they’re from.”
“A free party? Rude? Hahaha, good one, Rarity!”
The voices gradually got louder until we heard the front door to the library open. From the room we were in, we couldn’t see them when they walked in. Twilight, however, seemed to know exactly where we were and led her friends in. When they first saw us, the reactions were mixed. Applejack simply looked on, mouth agape as if caught by surprise. Rarity fainted, but quickly regained her consciousness. Fluttershy, predictably, ran away a little before being caught by Twilight, and Pinkie stood there with a look and a smile that screamed “New friends!”
Twilight was notably excited to show her friends what she’d done. “Well, here they are! Beings from an entirely separate dimension!”
Derrick looked at them, then simply waved his hand and said “Hey.” Fluttershy immediately screamed and bolted off to the other side of the library. Twilight left, and shortly thereafter came back with a shivering Fluttershy. Derrick took this time to introduce himself to them, stating simply, “I’m Derrick.”
I then took my chance to introduce myself. I stood up (evoking an “eep” from Fluttershy) and put my right arm across my stomach.
“My name is Bartholomew Joseph Rollins.” I bowed. “Although most just call me Joe.” I raised my head so I could see them. “Charmed.” I gave them a smile.
This formal introduction seemed to calm everypony’s nerves, at least somewhat. I got the feeling I had just earned some respect from Rarity, who ever so slightly returned the smile.
Twilight excitedly looked at her friends. “Isn’t this great! Go ahead, introduce yourselves!”
Applejack was the first to walk up. “Howdy. Name’s Applejack.” She extended her hoof towards us. Derrick was the first to shake, followed by me. “Sorry about the way I reacted, just… y’all are one of the strangest lots I’ve ever seen.”
Derrick was quick to accept. “It’s fine. It’s not every day that extra-dimensional people show up.”
Rarity was next. “*ahem* Hello. My name is Rarity. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She smiled at us.
Immediately after Rarity finished talking, Pinkie was right behind me and Derrick. I never noticed her move; she was just… there all of a sudden.
“Hi there! My name’s Pinkie Pie! What kind of cake do you guys like?”
I was confused as to how she got there that quickly, but I didn’t question it. “Um… white? Why do you need to know?”
She pulled a notebook and quill out of… somewhere and wrote something down. “Oh, no particular reason.” She giggled, then pointed to Derrick. “And you?”
“Strawberry cake is pretty good.”
Pinkie wrote something down again, then pointed at James. “And him?”
We didn’t really know, so we just went with more strawberry cake. She took another note, then put the notebook away. “Well, I gotta go do something! Nice meeting you guys!” She then hopped out of the library before any of us could ask her anything, but we all knew what she was going to do. Oughta be fun later.
Last, but not least, was Fluttershy, who found her way into the farthest corner from where we were, hiding and shivering. Twilight did not look amused, and once again moved her over to where we were. Twilight egged her on to introduce herself, which she eventually did, albeit with face covered.
“Um… I’m Fluttershy…”
I was personally hurt that she was afraid of me. I mean, I’m a big guy, sure. But people that know me know me as “the big teddy bear stuffed with marshmallows.” There’s no reason to be afraid of me. I decided I’d somehow show her that. I began to speak in the most calming, soothing voice I possibly could. “Now tell me, why are you afraid of me?”
“Oh…”
“If you’re gonna be afraid of me, you should at least have a reason. Do you have a reason?”
“Well, no, but…”
“But what? If you don’t have a reason, then what’s the point of being afraid of me?”
She was still scared, but she appeared to understand my logic. She slowly stood back up and looked me in the eyes. It looked like it was physically hurting her, but she kept doing it. Eventually, she stopped shaking and inched ever so slightly closer to me.
“Now, what did you say your name was?”
“I’m… *breath* I’m… Fluttershy.”
I extended my hand out to her. She was briefly startled, but after a moment, she gave me her hoof. “Nice to meet you, Fluttershy.” It was the weakest handshake I’ve ever been a part of.
This whole process left only one individual to be identified. Rarity was the one to point this out.
“So, who is that on the bed over there?” She pointed at James, whose muscle spasms left him looking like a human pretzel.
I went ahead and introduced him. “Oh, that sleeping beauty over there? That’s James.”
Rarity very quietly said, “Um…yes…beauty,” followed by a little nervous laughter.
Twilight then spoke up. “Isn’t this great! Well, now you guys can get to know eachother! I’m sure Princess Celestia will be excited to see how friendship develops in extra-dimensional beings!” She paused. “But, that can wait until later. It’s getting late.” I looked out the window, and was surprised to see that the sun had almost crossed the horizon. “Well, I think everypony should get back home before it gets too dark. See you tomorrow!”
Applejack was the first to leave, followed by Fluttershy, and then Rarity. Once they had left, Twilight told us she was going to write a letter to the Princess telling her about us. She left our room to go find Spike, leaving just Derrick and I. We, again, talked for a while, although we both eventually agreed that we couldn’t wait until tomorrow. We decided that we would go to sleep, and so Derrick tucked into his bed while I walked over to mine. It typically takes me about ten minutes to get to sleep after I close my eyes, which left me plenty of time to think. About being in Equestria. About meeting the Mane Six. But mostly about the attack earlier. I decided that I’d investigate it later, since this was definitely not a dream anymore. The last things I remember were Derrick snoring and the quiet sound of crickets chirping away at the night before I slipped into the unconscious void.