Otherworldly

by twisparkle95


Day 1: New Body, New World

As the light began to fade, the ponies slowly opened their eyes. The portal had disappeared, but on the floor lay a collapsed pony. They approached him as he started to groan and move. He opened his eyes and his first thought was how pretty the tiles on the floor looked. He slowly shifted his gaze up, but stopped when he noticed the ivory hooves he was staring at.

"Are you okay?" a gentle voice from above him asked. His head quickly rose to the source of the voice. Before him stood a very regal looking... pony? Unicorn? Pegasus? What? From her attire he could tell that she must be some kind of nobility. She had a flowing mane with ethereal colors in it. Wait a minute...

"YOU JUST TALKED! But you're a horse. Horses don't talk!" he shouted.

"Hey! Don't talk to the princess like that!" another, more brash voice said. He turned his head to see a light blue pony with a rainbow mane glaring at him. At least this one was easy to identify. Clearly a pegasus, no confusing horn to throw off his guess. At least he was right about one thing. The white one was nobility, a princess no less!

"I'm sorry... I didn't know." He could feel himself shaking. "But still, talking! I've never met a talking horse!"

"You must not be from around here are you?" the white one asked.

"No, I'm sorry." He lowered his head.

"There's no need to apologize. You seem just as confused about this as we are. Just take your time and let's figure out what we can. Are you okay?" the white one said. So gentle. So nice. There must be a reason she is the leader. At the moment, she seems trustworthy.

"I, uhm. I think so?" he stammered out.

"Good. Can you tell us your name?" the white pony said.

"My name... My name is... Wait... Why can't I remember my name!?" he cried. "I can remember everything else. My whole life until this point, at least, I THINK it's my whole life... but I can't remember my name."

"That is unfortunate to hear. Can you stand?" she asked.

"Oh yeah ri-HOOVES! WHERE DID THESE COME FROM? WHERE DID MY HANDS GO?" he shouted.

"Excuse me?" the white one looked puzzled.

"What is happening? Why do I look like this? Am I a horse too? ..." he rambled question after question without letting anyone get a word in edgewise.

"Reminds me of someone else Ah know," a new voice said. He stopped asking questions and turned.

"Who?" asked a second new voice. The two horses talking were an orange one with a yellow mane wearing a hat with no horns or wings, a basic horse, and the other was a purple unicorn with a purple mane.

"I take it something has happened to your body?" He turned his attention back to the princess.

"Uhm, yes. I used to have two legs... and two arms. With hands and feet instead of four hooves," he replied.

"Oh, brother! Not another one!" the blue one said. He turned and gave her look mixed with confusion and a bit of annoyance.

"What do you mean?" he asked. The purple unicorn tried to stop the blue pegasus, but there was nothing that could stop her next words.

"You're obsessed with humans! They aren't real! They're just old mare's tales!" she said.

"Hey! Who are you to tell ME that I'm not real! YOU'RE the one who isn't real to me. There's no such thing as blue pegasi who fly around saying nasty comments without any regard to how annoying they are!" he retorted back. The pegasus began to zoom towards him to get in his face but a yellow aura surrounded her.

"Spike? Would you mind looking after Rainbow Dash outside please?" the princess asked. He looked around and found a small purple... DRAGON? follow the floating pegasus out of the room. So her name is "Rainbow Dash" and that dragon's is "Spike".

"Would you mind describing that portal spell you used?" the princess asked.

"Sure. Well, back where I'm from I was in... well... a situation I'm not comfortable discussing and that portal spell was my only means of escape. Unfortunately, I had already been using so much magic so I was weak. All I could was make an entrance but not an exit. I was trapped in the nexus between worlds without a way out because there's no way for my magic to recharge there. If I had to guess, I'd say that I'm in a total different world than the world I'm from," he retold.

"And how long were you in there?"

"Only a couple of hours. I'm thankful you were able to help me in my escape, um... Miss...?"

"My sincerest apologies! It is rude of a host to not introduce herself to her guests. My name is Princess Celestia. I am not, however, the one responsible for your release. You have the five ponies in this room plus Rainbow Dash for that," she explained.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle," the purple unicorn stated.

"Ah'm Applejack," the orange mare said.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie!" A pink pony with a pink mane popped up. "I need to start planning your 'Welcome to our world' party!" And with that she just started bouncing around the room.

"Don't mind her darling, she's like that. I'm Rarity," a white unicorn with an expertly styled purple mane and tail said.

"And I'm Fluttershy," a voice squeaked. He looked around trying to find the source of the voice, but couldn't find it.

"Ahem. Behind you," Twilight said. He strained to turn his neck far enough to see behind him. There, he saw a yellow pegasus with a pink mane.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't know you were there." He struggled to try and turn his body around, but it was difficult due to his strange new appendages. Eventually he was facing her. "What was your name again?" he asked.

"Fluttershy," she said after a delay. 'Shy' is right.

"And what may we call you?" Celestia asked. He attempted to turn around again, but after some time the Princess just walked around to be in front of him.

"I don't know. Remember?" he replied lowering his face in sadness.

"So we'll give ya a name!" Applejack said. He lifted his face and then quickly buried it in his front leg to hide his tears.

"Hmm..." Twilight said circling him. "Well, you're an alicorn like the Princess, you've got a ring on your horn, you have light brown fur and a dark brown mane, and your cutie mark is some blue light coming from a blue gem that matches the one in your ring on your horn..."

None of this was clicking. All of it kept bouncing off of him and he didn't know which piece to pick up first. He decided to start with his appearance. Not too hard to grasp. He had dark brown hair as a human so this wasn't too hard a concept. Next was the ring. A wave of relief washed over him. He was so worried that it might not have made into this world. Without it, he wouldn't have been able to use magic. What was next? His 'cutiemark'? He had no idea what that was anyway. He did understand it's meaning though. Whenever he used magic, the sapphire in his ring would glow. That just left the "alicorn" bit. An alicorn like the princess... If the princess wasn't an ordinary pony like Applejack or Pinkie Pie, or a pegasus like Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy, or even a unicorn like Twilight Sparkle or Rarity, what was she? An alicorn. She had both wings and a horn...

"I HAVE WINGS?!" he exclaimed. His comment shocked the room's other occupants who had become engrossed in coming up with a name.

"He clearly still has questions. Rarity? Maybe you could help him a little," Twilight said.

"Sure thing, darling." Rarity left the group. "What do you want to know about?" she asked him.

"Okay, so with wings I can fly, correct?"

"Correct."

"That's weird though. I didn't have wings as a human. I mean, I had some flight spells. Could it be because... no! Don't mind me."

"I'm sorry, but I don't feel comfortable with you leaving some details out. This is the second time you started to explain but never did."

"I'm sorry, but if you knew the first one, you'd be scared of me. And if you knew the second... you'd probably exile me and shove me right back through that portal."

Rarity's face made a sudden change from inquisition to worried concerned. "Are you sure you're okay, darling?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. I just... I can never tell ANY of you those details. I promise I'm safe. I won't hurt any of you." He mumbled this next bit under his breath, "not WILLINGLY anyway..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing! So, um, what are those horns for? Do they have a function? Or are they for aesthetic reasons? Is this a society whose classes are MUHP!" He put a hoof over his mouth. "Sorry I almost started to ramble questions again. But what I was gonna ask is if this is a society where the classes are determined by the species of pony you were?"

"Well, a horn is how unicorns and alicorns use magic. And to answer you're second I'm going to try to quote my high school social studies teacher. Ahem 'Equestria is an egalitarian society where all are equal in class level'. Although, without wings, one might find it hard to do any of the weather controlling jobs the pegasi usually do, and without a horn, it is impossible to control the sun and moon like Celestia and her sister do."

"So this world is called Equestria?"

"Country. Equestria is one country in this world."

"Oh, okay. So Celestia has a sister?"

These questions continued back and forth with Rarity answering questions as best she could. Most of it was just simple, basic trivia. After a few minutes, the naming group disbanded and returned to his side.

"We came up with the name... Sapphire Spell!" Twilight announced. He was a little less than impressed.

"Sapphire Spell? Doesn't that sound kind of... girly?" he responded.

"I'm sorry. It's not like we had much to go on," Twilight said a little disappointed at his displeasure.

"Well, it fits I guess. If it weren't for the Sapphire in my ring, I wouldn't be able to use spells. And I AM the most potent magic user I know. I don't know of anyone who can make a portal that jumps worlds!"

"What was that about your sapphire?" Twilight asked.

"Well, in my world, everyone has the POTENTIAL to use magic, but very few ever accomplish it. It's such a rare talent, that only about a million people out of seven billion can use it. And the remainder of those seven billion? They don't even know magic exists! It's kept secret from them. People can only use magic if they have a special magical artifact. These come in many forms. I know someone who has a sword, someone with a necklace, a gauntlet, and even another ring bearer like myself. Oh yeah, it's easy to find other magic users in my world once you're one yourself. Once you get a magic artifact, it becomes "loyal" to you. Only you can use it until your death and then it remains powerless until someone else comes along and picks it up. Magic is limited though. If you use too much, it can drain your physical energy and eventually even lead to death if overexerted. You have to let it recharge before you can safely use it again. Well, that just about covers the basics."

"Can we see you use some magic?" Twilight asked.

"Sure," he replied. He closed his eyes and tried to send magical energy to his ring. Nothing happened though. Sapphire couldn't feel anything. He concentrated harder, searching his body for what was wrong. He couldn't feel any magic from inside his body. He felt a force outside. He figured that it was the princess and her powerful magic. He opened his eyes.

"I can't! I don't know why, but I can't tap into my magic. I can't even feel it!"

"Maybe because you're in our world, you use your magic the way that we do now," Twilight suggested. Celestia, Twilight, and Rarity explained how unicorns used magic in this world. They envision the spell they wish to cast and push it out using their horn as a conduit. Sapphire attempted this but this too failed.

"My magic is gone! How am I supposed to get back home now!" he cried and hung his head.

"It's okay, we'll figure this out. Maybe you'll have better luck flying. Fluttershy? Could you help him?" Twilight said.

"I'm sorry, my neck is really starting to hurt. Can you teach me how to stand up first?"

"Ah've got this," Applejack said. After several minutes of Sapphire failing to stand and stumbling over, he eventually managed to pull off a shaky standing position. Next it was time to walk, and time to go back to square one. Sapphire fell over right away and took a long time to stand back up. He eventually managed being able to stand and take slow steps. Next, Fluttershy taught Sapphire to fly.

Standing still he managed to open his wings. He gave them a few flaps to get used to them. Then, he started to flap them continuously, just like Fluttershy had taught him. A wave of dread came over him when he failed to feel the lifting sensation she had described. So he started to flap faster. And faster. And faster still. When this failed, he even tried to jump to force it to work. He fell flat on his face.

"I can't fly either," he said, face still attached to the ground.

"What's going on, princess? Why can't he use his magic or fly?" Twilight asked.

"I'm not sure," was all she could say.

"Great! I'm an alicorn with wings and a horn, and BOTH are defective," he said, legs shaking as he stood up.

"Maybe there's something in the world that can help him?" Rarity suggested.

"Before we go any further, I'd like to work out where you'll be living while in Equestria," Princess Celestia began. "I would suggest Ponyville with the other ponies. They can help you adjust and this exchange of knowledge from a foreigner could certainly be useful."

"I agree, princess. This presents a wonderful learning opportunity," Twilight chimed in.

"In that case, Twilight, would you mind taking him in with you?"

"Sure, princess! Come on girls, Sapphire, let's go back home."

Sapphire watched as four of them took off necklaces that were similarly shaped and colored to the marks on their flanks. He turned to look at his own and recognized what Twilight had described earlier. So this must be a 'cutiemark'. The door to the hall opened to allow a fifth necklace to enter encased in a yellow aura. Twilight took off the crown she was wearing and gave it to the Princess. Sapphire noticed that Celestia's horn was glowing the same yellow as the jewelry. So that's how magic is identified and used. Then Sapphire felt a jolt pass through his mind.

"Hold on a minute!" he said and slowly approached the jewelry. "These aren't normal are they? They have great magical power within them right? These must be what completed my portal here!"

"Almost correct. While these are powerful objects, they are only so when the six ponies are wearing them. The power of their friendship and cooperation is what powers these, the Elements of Harmony. Their combined power is what brought you here," Celestia explained.

'Elements of Harmony'. These three words rang in his mind. THIS was the force he had felt earlier. So, he couldn't use magic, but his magical sense was still intact. There was more though. It was almost as if he knew something about them. No... THEY knew something about HIM! But they weren't telling. Sapphire shook his head and turned away. "I'm sorry. I just, got a weird feeling from them. They're the second most powerful things I've ever felt."

"What's the first?" Rarity asked.

"Secret number two."

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Soon enough, Sapphire, Spike, and the six ponies were on a train heading to Ponyville. During the walk to the station, Rainbow Dash had remained in the front with Sapphire Spell in the back to try to avoid problems, but Rainbow Dash still complained about how slow he walked. When they returned, all but Rainbow Dash wanted to spend time with him, but Twilight shooed them away, taking him to get accustomed to his new home in her library. He was too exhausted to even notice where he was.

After dinner, she walked up to him with a present. "I thought this might help you collect your thoughts," she said.

He had difficulty adjusting to using his hooves as hands, but eventually managed to open the present to reveal a journal.

"A journal? Let me guess... so I can write down all I learn while in this world, right?" he asked.

"Correct. I figured being here must stressful. So this will help you collect your thoughts in an organized way," she explained.

"Thank you, Twilight. I just wish I knew how to write with these hooves!"

After learning how to write with his mouth with mediocrity, he began to write:

"Day 1: New Body, New World..."