//------------------------------// // 3. First Impressions // Story: Isaac's Storm // by EquusStorm //------------------------------// Isaac awoke yet again in intense pain. "What is is with Equestria and pain?" he thought groggily to himself. Half-awake, he noticed that he had burns on his extremities and his jacket was horribly singed. He was also laying amidst a huge pile of books, in front of a broken book shelf. He began rapidly taking in his surroundings upon becoming alert. He was, as he suspected, a victim of a teleportation spell, and had wound up inside an immense hollow tree. The Ponyville Library. Oh come on, that's... ouch... how these fics always go... His eyes quickly cut to a wide-eyed figure standing across the room staring at him. A rather terrified purple unicorn. "Please stay back!" she pleaded, trembling slightly. "I don't want to hurt anypony - or whatever you are, just... don't move!" Perhaps it was his three-dimensional appearance, or perhaps his size, but Twilight was clearly frightened by the strange being in the library. "Wait, please d-" "I'm warning you! Don't come this way! Stay down!" His eyes met Twilight's, and he said in the calmest voice he could muster, "Hey, please, calm down, Twilight, I..." Immediately, the look on her face went from that of fear to that of nervousness and bewilderment as she wondered aloud "How... how did you know my name?" Oh dear, here we go, he thought. Now he had to explain everything. Or maybe not, if he was careful enough with his response. "Never mind that..." he replied, trying to defuse the situation, "... I just... I found myself in Equestria and I don't know how to get back... and I... well, I..." "Just tell me, who are you and... what are you?" Isaac struggled to find words as he carefully answered, "Umm... my name is Isaac. I'm a human, I'm 21. Sorry for... um..." Twilight's eyes brightened at the reply, and said, "Oh! A human! That's very interesting!" He was taken aback at the extremely abrupt change in Twilight's demeanor. In a matter of moments, she had gone from terrified to curious. "You mean you ponies have... heard of humans?" "Well of course we have! A few of us, anyway. It's just that we don't usually have them here in Equestria. In fact we don't really know too much about them besides the basics. I do have several books that mention them, though." She levitated a well-worn, thick book from the pile on the ground. Reading the cover aloud, she continued "Creatures of Equestria, by J. J. Audopon." She effortlessly flipped through the pages looking for a specific chapter. "Ah! Here we are! Human. Homo sapien. An intelligent, sentient species. Occasional in Equestria, mainly ranges elsewhere..." Her violet eyes rapidly shifted left and right, reading the entry. Suddenly, she set the book down and faced him directly. "Listen, um, human, it isn't that I don't trust... I mean, I know that you're... what I mean to say is..." Isaac cut her off. "Isaac. My name is Isaac. And don't worry, I come in peace." Trying to shift around to get himself free of the pile of books, he continued. "In fact, I don't even know why I come at all. I just... got here somehow." Twilight still eyed him cautiously. "Well then, Isaac. Um... I don't know how to... well, how about this. Let's start this over. You knew my name. Tell me, what ELSE do you know?" Isaac sighed. There appeared to be little way to get out of it now - he had tell her, if he didn't want the situation to be any more uncomfortable than it already was. Or, perhaps, he could push her patience just a little further, hoping despreately that it wouldn't break. "Listen, I... I don't know if I need to talk about that now, I... I mean, I'll tell you and all, but... " Nervously searching for the words to say, he glanced nervously about the library, before settling his gaze once again upon the pony standing across the room from him. "... but this is kind of... awkward, and I'd... I'd really like to just start with the basics. Let's... um... pretend I didn't even say your name. Let's start completely over." Isaac took a deep breath. "Um... hi, I'm... I mean, my name is, Isaac. I'm a human. It's a pleasure to meet you, miss!" He tried to pull off an innocent grin as Twilight arched her eyebrows and sighed. "And what a lovely home you have. What's your name?" "Twilight. Twilight Sparkle. And eventually you've still got to tell me why you knew my-" "Now then! That's out of the way!" Isaac was sweating profusely. He'd been thrust suddenly into this confrontation without preparing himself, and he was having a rather difficult time making conversation with a beloved character he didn't think even existed an hour before. His excitement was very hard to contain, and he felt like a fool for having made this first encounter spectacularly awful. Trying to lighten the mood a bit, he stammered, "Well, is... is there anything you'd like to ask me? I mean, do you have questions for me or anything? Well, besides how I... um..." "Well of course. I've never met a human before, and you don't seem too threatening, so I would be happy to learn more about your race." Isaac felt relieved that things appeared to be calming down, and he thought he could make out a hint of a smirk as Twilight replied to his question. Maybe this will turn out okay yet, he thought. "Well, feel free to start any time you'd like!" "All right. First of all, why did you leap towards me in the forest? I thought you were trying to attack me." Isaac's heart sank a bit. Of all the first impressions he could have made, why did it have to be that? "Oh, I'm... wow, yeah, really sorry about that. See, I was so excited to meet you that I..." "So excited to meet me? I'm just a unicorn. Plain old Twilight Sparkle." Twilight seemed serious enough, but at the same time perhaps slightly amused. Isaac's awkwardness reminded her somewhat of her first day in Ponyville. "Well you see, I'm not from Equestria and I've never seen... you know, you kind of startled me coming down the path and I just kind of didn't want you to leave because I don't know my way around, anditwaskindofasplitsecond..." Visibly flustered by his own attempts to explain his behavior - and his fascination with what was, in Twilight's opinion, surely an ordinary creature - he put his head in his hands and groaned. This was going to be a difficult conversation. "I've never seen a, you know, talking pony before, or any kind of..." "Wait, you mean you don't have ponies where you come from?" "Oh, well we do, but they're... they're different. They're not sentient and they're... well, they're not the same." Twilight stared at him quizzically. "Well where exactly DO you come from anyway?" "It's a world called Earth. Humans are the top species there, I suppose, and so I'm not from Equestria or anywhere around here." The confused expression only grew as Twilight continued to look him over. "Well then how did you GET here, to Equestria? And if humans are your ruling class, are your princesses also human?" "I've been trying to figure that out myself, actually. I fell into a hole in the woods. And we don't really have princesses any more. We kind of... I guess, elect people to serve as rulers... at least in... in my country... or, rather, the country that I... I live in..." The pony continued to focus on him, seemingly staring into his soul. This made it hard for him to concentrate. It was hard enough suppressing his excitement, refraining from gushing about how much he idolized the pony that had only known him for an hour. And how would he get around the issue regarding the ponies being fictional characters? No. Not fictional, Isaac told himself silently. Clearly they were real. Clearly, somehow, this was some sort of alternate dimension. Or, perhaps, the work of a very severe hallucination? No. No, the pony who stood before him, eager to learn more about humans, had to be real. Pain was obviously real here. It made no sense that he was in a world that by all rational reasons could not exist. And yet Isaac had to accept it. Even if it was somehow a dream or a hallucination, which by now was looking unlikely, he ought to conduct himself with as much grace as he could muster, to avoid alienating himself. He was a stranger in a strange land, a drifter in a different world. He was really in the Ponyville library. He was back in the village that he had seen so many times via cartoon, but this time he was actually a part of it. And unless he could find his way around and survive, he was probably never coming home. Twilight's residence seemed a perfect sanctuary, but... he had to consider who he was. Humans had a reputation for not dealing with others - themselves, even - so pleasantly. Equestria was a peaceful world, and Earth was a war-torn and unsettling one. Once Twilight learned of the evil that men do, would the thin layer of trust and acceptance that he had gained be wiped out? "Isaac?" He snapped out of his musings and quickly answered the unicorn. "Oh, uh, sorry. I suppose I just..." "You know, I think that fall of yours might have messed with your head a little." She giggled. Isaac blushed. "Heh, no, I was just... you know, thinking. An hour ago I was walking through the woods near my house... you know, on Earth... and then suddenly, I fell and woke up in the Everfree Forest, and now I'm in Twilight Sparkle's home in Ponyville. I don't know what to say, what to do, where to go... it's all... yeah, I'm still pretty shocked." A smile lit up the little unicorn's face as she said, "Well actually, it's the Ponyville public library, but I'm also living in it while I'm studying here. Pretty crazy, huh?" Isaac couldn't help but feel slightly relieved, as it seemed the tension in the air was starting to lessen. She was comfortable enough around this strange, two-legged guest that she could laugh a bit. This was a good sign. Maybe... just maybe... I've not totally ruined things just yet. Isaac stood up, dusting himself off. He still ached from the collision with the bookshelf, but felt that he needed to change his tactics a bit should he wish to keep things going smoothly. "Well, I had... I had better leave, seeing as it's well after dark and you're probably needing to go to bed, you know, so I'll just..." He hoped that his gesture would provoke Twilight into offering him a place to stay for the night. As luck would have it, his ploy was successful. "Wait!" Isaac stopped and turned to face her. "Do you know what could happen if any of the other ponies in Ponyville saw a human just walking around the street? Let's just say it wouldn't be good. You should stay here tonight, at least until I can figure out what to do with you." Isaac smiled and said "Well, if you insist, but... I wouldn't want to intrude or anything." "It's fine. But I'm not going to be sleeping, I'm going to be up learning as much as I can about humans through the books I've got, and trying to figure out how I'm going to explain this situation. In fact I probably need to write to the Princess about this. I really don't know what to do." "Oh, well don't let me slow you down. I'm just going to... um... lay down in the floor over here..." "I have a guest bed you can use," Twilight mumbled as she levitated scrolls and an ink well towards her, "I wouldn't want you to have to sleep on the ground. But I've got so many more questions to ask tomorrow. Don't go anywhere." "Oh, I won't. I bet I'd cause a panic by going out during the day." "Yeahhh...", Twilight sighed, "that's what I'm afraid of." Isaac pulled out the cot from under the stairs. It was extremely small, just pony-sized, so he pulled the sheets off and made himself a little nest on the wooden floor of the hollow tree trunk that housed the library. Sure, he was too excited to be sleepy, but he needed to at least try to get some rest, despite the questions he still had and the absurdity of his situation. The thoughts running through his head were still storming about, and he had to ignore most of them to avoid a complete meltdown. "I am here, in bed, in Equestria. I am here, half the room across from Twilight Sparkle, in another world. I am here, trying to sleep, in a fictional place." The rational side of his brain was still trying to deny this situation. But the other side... the other side was telling him to sleep. Just sleep. Things would be better in the morning. Things would make more sense. And even though he was not sleepy - not to mention it was still hours before his typical bedtime - the flickering lights in the library and the sound of turning pages and quills scratching scrolls slowly lulled him into a very light sleep. Just as he had fallen asleep, he was awoken by a tap on his shoulder. "Hey Isaac?" Twilight whispered. "Sorry to wake you, but it says in this book that humans are rumored to sometimes have ponies as pets. Is that true? Are ponies on your planet really kept as pets?" Still half-asleep, he rolled over and answered, "Umm... yeah... they're the... the non-sentient kind, but... it's a long story..." "Wow, that's weird. Okay, you can go back to bed. Sorry, I just was curious. We'll talk in the morning..." Isaac had drifted off to sleep again when he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder yet again. Rolling over, he came face to face with Twilight. "Sorry to wake you again, but it says here that an adult male human is called a 'man', rather than a stallion. Would you be considered a 'man', then?" "Yes, Twilight... but you can call me a stallion or whatever, if you like... or something..." "Okay, sorry. I'll let you sleep." Isaac buried his face in the pillow and closed his eyes again. Within minutes, he was asleep. But before long, he felt another tap. Groaning, he looked up. "Hey Isaac, sorry to wake you up again, but I found this little glowing thing by the shelf. It folds open like this. Is this yours? What is it? You're not trying to bring weapons in here, I hope..." He groaned. A good night's sleep was obviously not in the cards for his first night in Equestria.