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// 1 - Checkpoint 
// Story: A certain pony tale 
// by Mathman 
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"This is it," said the man in the long white coat, "there's no turning back now."
The whole metallic room was trembling, and all the equipment was falling from the desks and shelves. As shaking began to slow down, the man in the white coat stood on a tall and round platform, looking down, immutable. When the trembling stopped completely, a flash of intense light gradually filled the room. A strange and warm feeling ran through it. After the last spark chirped, the person who was on the tall and round plataform was nowhere to be seen.

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On an unknown land, (maybe) far, far away from earth, a short, high pitch, noise echoed through the dark woods. A man  appeared there, with his lower body buried in the ground. .
"What is this place?", he said to himself, "This doesn't look like Chicago at all..."
The man tried to figure out where, exactly he was, but his sight was very limited because of the darkness of the place. Suddenly, a bush near the human, started to move and to make noises. Trough it, a chicken came out pecking around the ground. Checking the place out, the creature saw the man, it froze at his sight and  stood still, looking straight at him.
"Huh...", he thought ", a chicken in a forest, that's weird..."
The animal began to approach him, looking directly into his eyes. It didn't look like a chicken, really. It had red eyes and a green dragon-like tail. Once the chicken-dragon thing was two feet from the confused man, it turned around and fled from there, then, the head that once was made of bone and flesh, was now a cold stone.

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"What do you think about?", a white pony asked. "I'm not entirely sure,",  responded the purple pony next to her, "none of my books has information about this creature."
The front door suddenly opened and two ponies entered the room.
"We found it gals!" said the orange one, she was carrying a bag with something struggling inside.
"Oh please, don't hurt it Applejack!", the yellow pony asked the orange one. "Don't you worry girl, your friend is safe 'n here."
"We're... here...", exclaimed exhausted someone from outside the house. Two more ponies got into the room, one was winged and blue, and the other one was pink.
"Sorry we're late," said the pink one, "but Dashie wanted to make a stop."
"Shut it you...", replied the blue one.
"Okay everypony, let's do this," announced the purple pony "are you ready Fluttershy?" "Umm... yes", answered the yellow mare.
The orange pony with the hat, slowly, untied the knot. The animal inside the bag was furious. As soon as the bag got opened, something jumped out from it, it had white feathers and a green tail.
"Oh! mister Cockatrice, please, calm down..!!", Fluttershy begged the wild creature who was wrecking the place. In response, the animal turned to her and stared firmly into her eyes.
"Fluttershy, watch out! It will turn you into stone too!" shouted the purple pony. "Don't worry Twilight, I will be fine." She replied.
Fluttershy stared back at the creature intensely, without blinking or moving. The cockatrice, began to feel intimidated, as Fluttershy was progressively overpowering it. "Now mister," she firmly declared ",stop being such a bully and turn this creature back to normality.”
The monster stepped back, trembling, and fled from the place. Seconds later, chunks of stone started to fall from the human's body.
"Uh... my head hurts." He mumbled.
His mind had regained stability, but his eyes were fooling at him. A bunch of technicolor ponies were surrounding him, with worried faces.
"Umm.. are you okay?" asked Fluttershy timidly.
The man tilted his head in confusion, and, remain silent for a few seconds.
"Can you talk? Do you understand us?", Twilight inquired.
The man still couldn't believe his eyes, or ears, he just kept staring at the talking equines.
"I don't think he understand us girls, maybe you should keep it, Fluttershy", said Applejack.
"I hope it can get along with the other woodland creatures", she replied.
The man in the white coat, rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index fingers, trying to get some sense of the whole situation. As far as he knew, those ponies could talk, so, maybe it was a good opportunity to clarify some things.
"What year is this?", the dark-haired man asked, with his head still down.
"Oh goodie, it can talk!", exclaimed enthusiastically the pink pony.
"I-It's the year one thousand," Twilight answered "not too long ago we had the summer sun celebration..."
"I see"... said the human.
"What are you anyway?", inquired the flying rainbow colored pony.
The man raised his head and with calm he answered: "I'm a human, my name is Arnold."
All the six ponies remained silent for a moment.
"W-Well, howdy-doo Mr Arnold, I'm Applejack, a pleasure, makin' your acquaintance", said the orange pony while taking off her hat.
"Yeah Arny," added the pink pony "I'm Pinkie Pie, well...."
Without finishing her sentence, the pink mare jumped in surprise, opening widely her eyes and mouth, and left the room as fast as she could, leaving a cloud of dust behind. Arnold's jaw fell, opening his mouth in astonished gesture, at the speed of the colorful creature.
"What was that again? A human?", inquired the white one. "I must say, I've never stumbled upon anything like you darling. My name is Miss Rarity, by the way.”
"And I'm Rainbow Dash!" added the blue pony "fastest pegasus in ponyville!"
"Pegasus huh...", mumbled the human.
"And this is Fluttershy," said Twilight, pointing at the yellow pegasus, "she found you in the forest and brought you here."
"Hello Mr Arnold human...", said Fluttershy timidly.
The man raised his hand in sign of greet.
"I haven't introduced myself yet, have I? my name is—."
Twilight was interrupted by the loud sound of the door getting kicked opened.
"WELCOME TO PONYVILLE ARNY!" Pinkie Pie shouted.
She brought with her some sort of firing device, resembling a cannon, pointing directly towards Arnold. His legs didn't respond quickly enough to the situation, so, at the moment he heard the shot, it was too late to escape, the only thing he managed to do in such a short time, was to cover his face and close his eyes. A second later, he realized that the sound that came from the device, was quite weird. He slowly opened his eyes and saw confetti and balloons falling from the sky.
"Welcome, welcome, welcome, we´ll throw you to a party! welcome, welcome, welcome, there´re lots of things to see!"
Pinkie's singing, confused him even more. He wasn't even listening to anything she was saying.
"Welcome, welcome, welcome, I´m your new friend Pinkie! wel—."
Twilight stuffed her hoof in Pinkie´s mouth and looked into Arnold's eyes.
"I'm so sorry for this," she said, "Pinkie, you are scaring him!"
"No I'm not!", she replied, "look how happy he is!"
Arnold's face was pale, his pupils were constricted and his hands were shaking.
"Hmm, I guess I AM scaring you huh...", said the pink pony to the human's face.
"Okay!", exclaimed the human while standing up. "I don't know what do you plan to do with me, but... stand back!"
"Hey, we've  just saved you!", exclaimed from above the rainbow maned pegasus.
"From what?!" Arnold shouted "the last thing I remember was an hybrid between a chicken and a snake, then all of you appeared, how would I know that you weren't the ones who knocked me out in the first place?!"
"That monster was a cockatrice sugar-cube," said Applejack in a calm tone, "it turns things into stone by watchin'em into the eyes."
"It's true Arnold," added Twilight "it's a rare monster that lives in the ever-free forest."
The human was still doubtful. He accepted the possibility that a monster like that could exist in a world where horses could talk, but, it wasn't enough to calm him down.
"Umm... Mr Arnold ,sir," intervened Fluttershy ,"you don't have to be afraid of us, we won't harm you, honestly."
A look into the eyes of that yellow pegasus was enough to open a gate in the man's heart.
"Fine," he finally said "I believe you..."
"Oh good!",said Rarity breaking the silence ,"now , can I  ask you who designed that stylish coat?"
"I think there are more important questions to ask ,right now, don't you think so?" said the purple unicorn to the white one.
"Uh! uh! like, what's his favourite cake flavour, right?", asked Pinkie.
"No! like where he comes from ,for example!", Twilight replied.
"But Twi!", the pink pony said, "we must know his favourite kind of cake! his welcome party is today!"
"Wa—that's not important right now!", Twilight said.
"Yes it is!", Pinkie answered, "how would YOU feel if we got you a coconut cake for your birthday, huh? Yuk!"
"I happen to like coco—it doesn't even matter!" she replied.
Pinkie and Twilight argued a little more, with some interventions from the other ponies. Arnold was there, stunned, watching the scene.
"Can I say something?", he said cutting through the discussion, "look, Pinkie Pie was it? I appreciate your gesture, but I should be searching for a way to go back home."
"Thank you," said Twilight, "see Pinkie? the most important thing right now, is to find out what happened".
"Hmm, you hit me as the chocolate cake kind of guy" stated the pink pony while tilting her head.
The purple one sighted and asked: "anyway, what's the name of your land?"
Arnold sat in indian position, put both hands on his knees and answered "Earth I guess..."
"Earth you say, I think I've heard that name before...", said Twilight as she raised her head,  as if she were searching for her memories.
She ran through the upper level of the library, waving her head as she walked, searching for some book.
"Well, seems like it's goin' to take a while," said Applejack ,"'till morning fellas!"
All the other ponies started to leave, as Twilight was focused on the search of some book. Arnold raised his head, and watched how the purple pony emitted some sort of purple light around her horn, identical to the one that the pile of levitating books above her had.
"How are you doing that?" The human inquired.
"Doing what?" she asked.
"That... light, what is it?" he asked
"Oh! Humans doesn't use magic?", she asked in surprise ,"I thought you just were an earth human!"
"We can't make things fly like that" Arnold answered "our magic is more like... entertainment, and all humans live on earth, we can't fly"
"Huh...", Twilight vaguely replied as she took in her magic filed another pile of books.
"Wait," she said ,"if you humans don't use magic, who rises the sun and the moon?"
Surprised by the question, the man in response said, "we don't, it all occurs by itself."
"That's not possible!", said the purple pony while turning to Arnold, "there must be a force that moves them from it's place to begin with!"
"There is...", he said while frowning ,"it's called gravity"
"Don't be ridiculous!", she exclaimed ,"gravity can't—Oh! Here it is!"
Twilight dropped the pile of books that she was currently holding except for one. She made it levitate to the lower level, where Arnold was sitting. He opened it and, as expected, it was written in some strange language, similar to Greek hieroglyphics.
"What's this book called?", he asked her.
"It's the story of our land," she answered ,"and it says that one of the three tribes, the earth-pony tribe to be precise, named their land earth. What I'm thinking is that maybe you are from one of their previous territories, far from—."
"Twilight," he interrupted, "I think that I'm from other time, maybe even from another universe, not from another place in this time."
"What makes you think that?" she curiously asked.
"Well, for starters, I've never seen anything like you," Arnold answered, "and you haven't seen anything like me before, right?"
"That's weird...", she said, "there are ponies all over Equestria, it's not possible not to notice them..."
"As I said, I must be from—.," Arnold interrupted himself and stayed silent for a second.
"Now that I think about it, it's possible that humans had met ponies like you before...", he said as he put his wrist under his chin "it's common knowledge that unicorns and pegasus are legends, myths, fantasy, but maybe they aren't... maybe pegasus and unicorns did exist on Earth at some point."
"That would mean that we are on the same place, but on a different time!" Twilight exclaimed enthusiastically.
"This is crazy", he said as he looked at Twilight, making sure that he wasn't dreaming.
"You know what this means, right?", she said ,"there's a lot of research to do! come on, help me to find my book about pony history, maybe we'll find something."
The human, concerned and curious about the things that they might discover, stood up and helped her to find the book called :"The year zero".