Enter the Ponyverse

by beirirangu


Waking up

My eyes slowly opened, a fuzzy and out of focused image appeared in front of my eyes of a strange forest of which I have never seen before. My head started hurting and as I put my hand to my head to try and ease the pain. A hard knock follows an even harsher pain almost like I was holding a rock when I took my hand up. I open my eyes and see not a hand in front of my face, but a hoof. I jumped and shrieked, trying to look and see what I had become.

I couldn't see myself very well, but I saw that I had the shape of a horse, four legs with hooves and an overall peach colored coat with a dark brown tail. I tried to get up, but I was having a hard time walking on my new legs, at first I tried to walk the way I have been walking for the past 19 years but I found it very awkward. After a good half hour I got the hang of walking on all fours and found my way to a pond somewhere in this strange forest.

I tried testing the water to see if it was drinkable when suddenly I heard some rustling in one of the bushes behind me, it was the first sound I’ve heard since arriving here and I quickly hid behind the nearest tree as something pink began emerging from the bush. I peeked and saw another horse, no it was too small to be a horse. It was a pony with a yellow coat emerging backwards followed by a group of ducks. She talked calmly and softly as she led the ducks to the pond, I watched and noticed that she had wings on her sides as she talked to them and ensured them that they were safe in their new home before I slipped and fell into the pond.

When I got out of the water I could not see her until I saw her widened eyes from the bushes she first emerged from, I looked at her with sorrowful eyes and apologized for startling her while I made my way to shore she let the ducks in. After shaking myself off, I had but wondered, since she was speaking English, or at least a language I could understand, maybe she could tell me what happened or where I am.

“Excuse me, but may I ask you where I am?”

She was timid and scared, too frightened of me to answer, so I asked again, “please, I don't know where I am, or how I got here.” Not mentioning that I was not a pony before arriving.

It took a few minutes before she answered me in a timid and scared manor, “y... you're in the... e... Everfree forest... j... just s... south of Ponyville.”

I didn't know what to say, I was at a loss for words as a sat myself down and just looked around me. The sky had a softer glow to it then normal and no flies were anywhere, anyone would imagine that a thousand flies would be around a pond in the middle of a forest like this. she had come out of the bush but was still cautious of me as she went to the ducks still getting settled, I noticed she had butterflies on her rear, I looked down at mine and did not see anything, guessing she had something put on hers or something. But getting to the matter at hand, where I am, and what I am doing here, not to mention how. “Um... I hate to be rude, but when you're going back, would you mind showing me to town?”

“I... I duno...” she said shyly and still barely making more then a squeak as she confronted the ducks while avoiding me.

“Well my name is Bailey, but most people call me Beirirangu. What's yours?”

“I... I'm Fluttershy.” still bairly audible but still loud enough for me to hear.

“It's nice to meet you Fluttershy. Are you showing these ducks to a new waterhole on their way south?”

“I... I'm just moving them to a new, less crowded home.”

“So nice of you to do all this for them.”

“Oh, it's no trouble, no trouble at all.” She replied, in a slightly louder tone, somewhere between a whisper and a normal conversation.

“back where I'm from no one will give you the time of day unless you have done something for them, and that's not even a guarantee.”

“That sounds like an awful place. No wonder you left.”

“It's not really that bad, it's my birthplace, my home. and I didn't leave by choice”

“Oh my! What happened?”

“I'd like to know myself, the last thing I knew I was in my room reading a book when I suddenly blacked out and woke up here. you don't mind if I get a ride to town? do you?”

“I... I don't particularly mind... I’m just a little nervous around new people.”

“I completely understand, it's just that I have no idea how I got here, where I am, or even which way is which.”

I couldn't tell if she was joking or what, but she looked at me weird and replied, “maybe your horn zapped you here when you were trying a spell?”

Confused, I stared up, trying to catch a glimpse of my alleged horn, turning in circles to get a better view when I heard her gasp.

“Y... you don't have a... a... cutie mark!”

I looked at her confused, “what's a cutie mark?”

She looked startled, shocked even, upon hearing that I’ve never heard of a cutie mark before. Still with a shocked expression she quickly said, “You've never heard of a cutie mark? I'll lead you to my friend Twilight, she knows a lot more then me.”

I managed to somehow follow her quick but still timid trot as she made her way to town, still getting used to moving on all fours. We passed a barn in front of a large apple grove, easily fifty acres, then getting to town all the houses seemed a bit medieval in construction but homely in it's straw and wood make. It wasn't until we got into town that I saw a collection of ponies, some with wings and others with horns, all a wide variety of coats and manes and it wasn't until I noticed a rainbow that I realized that there was a pony at the beginning of the rainbow as well as many others just barely visible in the sky, all with different pictures of various things on their back side. I tried not to draw attention to myself, but it seemed that everywhere I turned, all their eyes were drawn to me, maybe it was the way I was walking or that I don't have a cute mark or whatever. We made our way to a tree made into a house with a sign in front of it displaying a book, the door had a candle on it and appeared to swing open like a stable door and as she knocked I could hear crashing books and a light male voice yelling “I'm coming. I'm coming.”

“Oh, I hope spike knows where twilight is, if she's not home.” Fluttershy said as she turned towards me.

The door finally creaked open and out came a large reptile of some sort, it wasn't quite as big as us but still big enough to reach our heads with ease, with purple scales and green spikes. After opening the door, he looked around and sees almost everyone in town starting this way and asked, “What's everypony doing?”

While I was still in shock from seeing him, Fluttershy answered him, “Oh, good morning spike, is Twilight around?”

“She went with Applejack to bring in the harvest. Is everything alright?”

“I think it would be better if I talk to Twilight about this.”

“Oh, alright. Well let me know if you need anything.”

I was still confused and flabbergasted to say anything as Fluttershy and I made our way back to the apple-grove we passed as we came into town. While getting into the farm and onto the grove itself I could barely hear a girl with a strong southern accent in the distance and then I finally saw her, a orange coated mare with a breaded yellow main flowing over her strong shoulder and three apples arranged as a triangle on her backside, “You're doing great Twi, just a few more and we'll have this section done.”

She was looking off into the trees just to our left when Fluttershy began to speak, “Um, Twilight... If you have some time...”

“Just a second Fluttershy, Twilight's almost done helpin me. What is it you wanted with her?”

“I met this strange stallion today, and I want twilight to help find out what's going on.” She leaned over to point in my direction and the southern pony took notice of me, all I could think to do was nod.

“Well what's wrong with him? he seems just fine to me.” The southern pony replied.

“Well he... he doesn’t know what a cutie mark is.”

“How do ya know he's not just playing with you?”

“Because this.” She moved towards me, obviously trying to make me turn to my side and show my backside. I turned and looked back to see her and her reaction.

I heard the country pony gasp as she saw it, “Well it sure looks like his flank is blank. Are you sure he didn't just put something over him to cover it up?”

“I never thought of that...” Fluttershy began to speak as the country pony walked over and scratched my... flank was it?

“Whoah, you could at least buy a guy a drink first.” I jokingly said but she seamed to ignore my comment and scratch and feel my fur to see if I actually had done anything to it. “Can I at least get your name?”

“Oh, sorry there mister, my name's Applejack.”

“My name's Bailey, and that's quite a way to greet someone.” noticing that her hoof never left my flank.

She quickly took notice and jumped off me, embarrassed. “Oh, sorry about that, I was just makin sense of what fluttershy was sayin.”

“I understand, I'm the same way, just give me some warning next time.”

“I will, now let's see if Twi is done harvesting the Apples.” It took only a few short minutes before we caught up with who I'm assuming is Twilight, a light purple coated mare with dark purple tail and main with a streak of pink in her hair with a horn glowing a light-purple, almost like her coat but closer to pink while aiming towards a large bucket of apples that is floating in the air and glowing with that same light-purpleish light. “That's good Twi, Looks like we're done, now Fluttershy needs to tell ya somethin.”

“Oh, what is it?” Twilight asked, spinning her head after placing the now empty bucket down.

“Well, when I was leading a family of ducks to a new home in the Everfree Forest, I met a strange pony that didn't know how he got there and... um...”

“And?” Twilight asked after a second of silence as Fluttershy tried to say I didn't have a cutie mark.

“She means this!” Applejack yelled impatiently as she pushed me around to show Twilight my flank.

Twilight let out a clear gasp and almost jumped back in shock, I think because she is the pony everyone says is the smartest, I'm guessing not having a cutie mark is a bad thing or something. “How can this be? Is he covering it with something?”

“Nope, I looked, he's completely bare.” Applejack replied.

“How can that be? Not even magic can effect cutie marks... What happened?”

“I'd like to know that myself, All I know is that of a sudden I found myself in the... um... Everfree forest and started walking around until I found Fluttershy at a small pond.”

“Where are you from?”

“Last thing I remember was that I was in my house in Orlando Florida.” The looks on all of their faces was that of utter confusion, I had guessed, or more like hoped that they simply did not know where Florida was, “It's the southeastern-most state in the USA” And again they stared questioningly, not knowing anything of what I was talking about. “It's probably in a completely different dimension from where we are now.” They were confused at that last sentence differently from when I tried explaining where I lived, almost like they haven't even heard of the word before. “I just want to know how I got here and how I can get back.”

“Wh... what happened? What do you remember?” Twilight asked

“All I remember was reading a book I've read many times over when I passed out and found myself in the... everfree forest was it?”

“What book were you reading?”

“It was book called 'Aesop's Fables' which is basically a group of stories that each tell a lesson.”

“Like those books we read to fillies to get them to sleep?”

“In a way, but not really.”

“What about before you were reading the book, what happened?”

“Before that I did my regular daily rutine, checking my e-mails on my computer, watching recorded shows on my TV and texting with some of my friends. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“I've never heard of things like those. but it sounds like nothing you knew of caused you to come here.”

“Strange,” Applejack interrupted me and Twilight's conversation. “Maybe Princess Celestia knows about those things?”

I pondered for a second, 'a princess? Is this word a hierarchy where lords and ladies rule over the common-folk? I definitly need to look into this.'

“Maybe. I may as well check my library for those things as well.” Twilight said as the four of us made our way back to the library.