Rainbow Dash sulked just behind the human, eyeing him warily. She still didn’t trust it as far as she could kick it, and with the group steadily approaching the forest threshold, she began to get more and more anxious. The human was trailing slightly behind the others and had it’s weird front hoof things tucked inside the pockets of it’s long coat, which was fluttering a little in the breeze. As they walked, she saw her friends Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack begin to engage in conversation with the human.
‘What the heck? Why are they acting so comfortable around this thing? I mean, I get why Rarity is ‘cause it supposedly saved her little sister,’ Rainbow thought, rolling her eyes, ‘And Pinkie Pie wants to be friends with everypony, but AJ, too?! She’s the Element of Honesty, so why can’t she see through this thing’s ruse?’
‘...Maybe because it’s not a ruse?’ A tiny voice in the back of her head piped up.
Rainbow shook the errant thought out of her mind. ‘No! Of course it’s a ruse! It has to be. I mean, just look at what it’s wearing! Nothing that wears that much black can be any good.’ She rationalized. ‘Yeah, I bet it’s just biding it’s time, playing nice till we get to town. Then, it’ll spring it’s trap! Well, if it thinks it’s gonna catch me off-guard, it’s got another thing coming.’
***************
It didn’t take Braxton long to realize that Rainbow Dash was watching him. He could feel her glare drilling holes in his back ever since they left Zecora’s hut. He was tempted to turn around and call her out, but figured that would probably do more harm than good. So for now he kept trudging along in relative silence behind the rest, that is until three of the ponies began to slow their paces to match his.
“So, Braxton, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?” Rarity asked, intending to strike up a conversation.
Braxton cocked an eyebrow at the unicorn. “Well, what exactly do you wanna know?” He asked.
Rarity thought for a moment before answering. “Hmm, for starters, why don’t you tell us how old you are?”
“Just south of thirty. I’m twenty-eight.”
Rarity’s eyes widened in obvious surprise. “Twenty-eight?!” She exclaimed. “Admittedly, I don’t know how your species ages compared to ours, but you look far too young to be twenty-eight, darling.”
Braxton felt his face heat up a bit at the compliment. “Ah, you’re just trying to butter me up.” He said, smiling despite himself.
“Rarity’s right, pardner.” Applejack chimed in. “Ah woulda never guessed ya ta' be that old. Heh heh, I bet ya were quite the mare-killer back home, huh?” She said with a sly grin, elbowing him in the side.
Braxton’s smile faded a little. “Yeah... right...” He said quietly, gaining a sort of faraway look in his eyes. The ponies, however, failed to notice Braxton’s slight dip in mood.
“Speaking of back home, where exactly do you live, Braxie?” Pinkie Pie asked, bouncing merrily alongside him. Braxton briefly contemplated why every one of Pinkie’s bounces were punctuated by an audible springing noise, but decided to just write it off as another strange quirk of the new world he was in. Besides, he had more important issues to address.
“Braxie?” He asked with a smirk.
“Yeah, it’s my new nickname for you!” Pinkie’s smiling face suddenly fell. “Why, do you not like it?” She asked with a saddened tone.
Braxton shook his head, still smirking. “No, the nickname’s fine, Pinkie. It just kinda threw me for a second.” He said.
Pinkie raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Threw you? Threw you where? You’ve been standing right here the whole time!” Applejack produced an audible facehoof at the pink mare’s statement, while Rarity was content to merely roll her eyes. Braxton, on the other hand, was a different story.
“Hohohohahahaha!” He laughed uproariously, prompting strange looks from the ponies. After about twenty seconds, he finally calmed down enough to speak. “Hehehe... oh, man, that was too funny.” He said, wiping a tear from his eye.
“Ya thought that was funny? But, it was so... corny.” Applejack said.
Braxton smile only got wider. “I know, right? That’s why it’s so funny! I’ve always been a mark for humor like that.” Braxton returned his attention to the pink pony bouncing next to him. “Anyway, before I answer your question Pinkie, I have one of my own. I know this sounds stupid, but... what’s the name of this planet?” Braxton was almost certain that he was no longer on Earth or, if he was, that he was somehow in a crazy alternate version of it.
Sure enough, the ponies all looked at him like he was nuts. “Pfft, what kind of idiot doesn’t know what planet he’s on?” Rainbow Dash insulted from behind him.
“Just humor me, will ya?” Braxton said, glaring at her from over his shoulder, and earning a grunt and eye roll from the feisty pegasus.
“The planet’s name is Equis, and you’re currently in Equestria, one of it’s largest countries.” Twilight answered. “But, I don’t see what difference the name of the planet makes.”
Braxton sighed heavily. “Yeah, I guess that pretty much confirms it.” He muttered under his breath.
“Er, confirms what, darling?” Rarity asked.
“It confirms that I am definitely not from around here.”
“Well, duh! Anypony with half a brain could’ve figured that one out.” Rainbow Dash said, tapping the side of her head with a hoof.
Braxton shook his head. “No, you don’t get it.” He said, “I don’t just mean not from this land or country. I mean I’m not from this planet. For all I know, I could even be in a completely different dimension.” The thought had been swirling around in his head for a while, and now that he had said it, Braxton had to admit that it seemed to be the most likely explanation. Of course, this only served to raise further questions in his mind.
The ponies gasped in shock at Braxton’s theory. “Now hold up a sec, sugarcube. Ya mean ta' tell me that ya really are an alien?” Applejack questioned.
“That’s the only explanation I can think of why I’m suddenly in a world of talking ponies.” Braxton said.
“Oooh, this is so exciting! I was gonna throw you a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party when we got to town, but this is so much better! Now I get the throw the first ever ‘Welcome to Equis’ party!” Pinkie shouted, bouncing almost to Braxton’s eye level.
Suddenly, she halted at the peak of a bounce and gasped loudly. “That means I’ve got to invite everypony on the planet! Oh boy, I have to get started on planning right away!” She landed perfectly on her hooves and reached into her poofy mane. After fumbling around for a moment, she pulled out a notepad and pencil and began to frantically scribble in it, mumbling to herself all the while.
“What do you mean by ‘talking ponies’, dear?” Rarity asked, “Don’t ponies talk in your world?”
“No, they don’t. Back on my planet, Earth, horses and ponies are no different than say, cows or any other animal. They can’t communicate with humans, or at least not in any way we can truly understand.” Braxton said.
“Actually,” Twilight said, “cows can talk here too, just like ponies. Although, they don’t integrate into regular pony society too often because they usually prefer to stay in the fields outside of towns.”
“Also,” She continued, launching into full-blown lecture mode, “while horses are considered the biological cousins of ponies, they aren't really too common around Equestria anymore. Most of the early tribes of horses migrated to distant lands millennia ago, long before even the Princesses came to power, and fell out of contact with the Equestria. Luckily though, Their Highnesses have recently managed to reopen minimal diplomatic relations. Anyway, back in olden times, horses were considered--”
“Yeah, yeah, we get it, Twi! You’re an egghead who knows a bunch of junk about stuff. Can we move on now? Geez...” Rainbow Dash interrupted, earning a snort of annoyance from the scholarly unicorn.
Applejack spoke up next. “Ya said that ya come from some place called ‘Earth’, right?” Braxton nodded. “D’ya mean Earth as in earth ponies, like Pinkie an’ me? ‘Cause that’s kind of a big coincidence if’n ya ask me.”
Braxton raised a hand to his chin. “Now that you mention it, you and Pinkie are the closest thing I’ve seen here to a regular pony from my world. Unicorns and pegasi are mostly just considered myths or legends because there’s no real evidence proving their existence.” Twilight donned a disbelieving look and opened her mouth to speak, but was promptly cut off by Sweetie Belle.
“Look, there’s the exit! C’mon, everypony!” The filly said, dashing towards the forest threshold.
“Sweetie Belle, wait!” Shouted Rarity, already in pursuit of her sister. The rest of the ponies and Braxton were not far behind, and within moments the group had burst through the underbrush and into the field beyond. As soon as he stepped through, Braxton’s eyes were immediately overwhelmed by the sudden brightness of the midday sun. When his eyes finally adjusted to the light, however, they were assaulted by another sensation altogether: color, and lots of it.
He had thought that the forest was abnormally colored, but it had nothing on the outside world. The pastel colors surrounding him were nothing short of cartoonish, with a light blue sky completely devoid of clouds and grass so green and soft-looking that he could imagine laying down right there and napping contently for all of eternity.
He looked down at his gloved hands and saw that even they were more brightly colored than usual, though not to the same extent as the rest of the world. They were definitely still his hands, but they seemed to mesh with the style of the world he was in, lacking just a little of the detail and definition that he was accustomed to.
‘Holy. Crap. W-What’s with all the color? M-my hands... they look different somehow. They’re all flat, l-like a drawing or something. Woah, everything’s like that! It’s almost like... like I’m in some kind of weird-ass cartoon show! What in the fuck is going on?!’ He thought, still eyeing his hands.
“Braxie? You okay?”
At the sound of Pinkie’s voice, Braxton snapped his head up to see all of the ponies looking at him with moderately worried expressions. Even Rainbow Dash was staring at him with raised eyebrows.
“Y-Yeah, I’m f-fine...” He lied.
“Are you sure, darling? You’re shaking a little...” Rarity observed.
Braxton looked down at his hands again and saw that she was right. Not only were his hands shaking rather violently, but his breathing had started to become ragged and labored. Braxton was suddenly feeling very light-headed, with the urge to pass out steadily creeping up on him.
‘No. No!’, He thought, fighting off the darkness with the bit of lucidity he had left. ‘Get a grip, Brax! This isn’t the time to go blacking out! You’re... just h-having a little freak-out o-over this whole ‘new world’ thing. Yeah. Yeah, that’s it. Now, just calm down and pull your shit together!’ Braxton closed his eyes and concentrated on steadying his breaths. Slowly, but surely it worked, as he could feel himself calming down. After about a minute, he opened his eyes again to see that the shakes were all but nonexistent, and the darkness on the edges of his vision had completely disappeared.
Clenching his fists and allowing himself a small smile at his victory, he returned his attention to the ponies around him, who were looking even more worried than before.
“Braxton? Are you gonna be alright? You didn’t look so good for a second...” Sweetie Belle said from his feet. Her ears were folded against her head in obvious concern.
Braxton smiled reassuringly. “Yeah, don’t worry. I’m fine now, Sweets.” He said with much more confidence than before.
“What the heck was that, anyway? You looked like you were about to keel over or something.” Rainbow Dash said, masking her own mild worry with a look of annoyance.
“Don’t really know.” He said, shrugging his shoulders. “Best I can figure is that I was probably having some sorta delayed reaction to finding out I had somehow jumped worlds. Like my mind was finally processing what I had realized earlier, and signaled my body to go into panic mode.” Braxton explained.
Twilight nodded her head in agreement. “Yes, that makes sense. I would imagine that being teleported that vast of a distance would be stressful for anypony.” She eyed him up and down again warily. “But, are you sure you’re okay, now?” She asked.
Braxton nodded vigorously and said, “Yep, I’m sure. It’s nothing to worry about. Now, let’s--”
“CHAAAAAAAARRRRGGGEEE!!!!”
Braxton and the ponies whipped their heads towards the sudden battle cry to see two fillies coming at them in a dead sprint. Or, more specifically, at the human himself. Their eyes were locked on him as they ran, full of anger and determination. Braxton only had time to utter one phrase just before the fillies descended upon their target.
“Uh-oh.”
***************
--20 minutes earlier--
Scootaloo paced back and forth across the picnic blanket, worry etched on her face. She was accompanied by Apple Bloom and Spike, the former of which was sitting on her haunches and fiddling nervously with the red bow in her mane. The latter was indulging in his sixteenth cupcake of the day. The orange filly halted and eyed Spike with mild disgust.
“Hey!” She shouted, prompting Spike to look in her direction, cupcake frosting still plastered on his maw.
“Whumph?” He asked with a mouthful of said pastry.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes and scoffed. “You’re sitting there eating cupcakes when, for all you know, Sweetie Belle and the others are still lost in the Everfree, that’s what!”
Spike swallowed the last bit of cupcake and furrowed his brow in annoyance. “Please, I’m sure that the girls are fine. They’ve probably already found Sweetie Belle and are on their way back here right now.” He said, hoisting cupcake number seventeen to his mouth.
Scootaloo swatted the confection out of Spike’s hand, where it landed on the blanket with a splat. Spike stood up and glared at the offender, claws on his hips. “What the heck did ya do that for?! I was gonna eat that!”
“Yeah, well get over it!” She shouted indignantly, “How can you be so nonchalant about this? There’s obviously something up, they’ve been gone way too long!” Scootaloo turned to Apple Bloom. “I say we go back in and look for ‘em!” She declared.
“A-Ah dunno, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said, shuffling her hooves together. “Maybe Spike’s right. Ah’m sure that they’ll be back any minute. Besides, Applejack looked real serious when she told us ta stay here. We’re already in enough trouble as it is, and if we leave, she’ll tan mah hide fer sure!”
Scootaloo trotted over to her friend and said, “Look, Apple Bloom, I know that AJ said to stay put, but it’s our fault that Sweetie Belle is lost to begin with. I can’t sit around and do nothing knowing that our friends might be in danger!” She said with a serious look.
“But--”
“No buts!” The determined filly cut Apple Bloom off, “You can stay here if you want, but I have to make sure they’re okay. I’m going, and neither of you try to stop me!” She addressed Spike and Apple Bloom, before charging towards the Everfree.
“Scootaloo, wait!” Spike immediately tried to stop her, but he was too late. He groaned loudly at the filly’s stubbornness, and turned back to Apple Bloom. “Great, what do we do now?! I’m supposed to watch you two, and now Scoots went and ran off on her own! Ooh, when Twilight comes back, she’s gonna kill me, and I don’t even wanna think about what Dash is gonna do!” Spike ranted, trying and failing not to imagine the lashing he would receive from the rainbow-maned mare.
Apple Bloom tuned Spike out as she stood nearly motionless off to the side. She bit her lip in hesitation, considering the possible options laid before her. On the one hoof, she could stay here and wait for the others to return. After all, with all six of them together, they were sure to find Sweetie Belle, right? But, on the other, Scootaloo was right. They were the reason Sweetie was missing. If not for their obsession with getting cutie marks, they never would’ve gone into the forest. They owed it to her, as Sweetie’s friend, to help look for her.
Apple Bloom’s eyes darted between the direction Scootaloo had run off to, and the picnic blanket where Spike was still talking. After a long bout with indecision, she finally made her choice.
“Scootaloo, wait up! Ah’m comin', too!” She shouted, rearing back a little before dashing after her pegasus friend.
Spike whipped his head around at Apple Bloom’s outburst, just in time to catch a glimpse of her red tail as she ran into the distance. The young drake facepalmed and groaned once again. “Darn it, not her, too! Apple Bloom, slow down, will ya?!” Left with no other choice, Spike jogged after the two fillies, hoping he could talk some sense into them before they did something he’d regret.
***************
Due to Apple Bloom’s heritage as an earth pony, not to mention helping her siblings with laborious farmwork, her stamina was remarkable for a filly her age. As such, she had almost no trouble catching up with Scootaloo. The orange pegasus furrowed her brow at the filly who had galloped up beside her.
“Apple Bloom, I told you not to try and stop me. I’m going after Sweetie Belle, and that’s that!” She announced with finality.
Apple Bloom looked at her and said, “Ah’m not here ta stop ya! Ah’m comin’ with ya!” Scootaloo stopped in her tracks and spun to face her friend.
“What? But, won’t Applejack be mad at you? I thought you said--”
“Ah know what Ah said,” Apple Bloom interrupted, “And Ah don’t care if AJ is mad. Ah ain’t about ta' let mah friend go into the Everfree alone. We both got Sweetie Belle into this mess, and we’re both gonna get her out!” She declared with strengthened resolve burning in her eyes.
Scootaloo smiled and nodded firmly in agreement. “Yeah, that’s the spirit! With the two of us working together, we’ll find Sweetie Belle for sure!” She said, earning a cheer of concordance from the other filly.
The two determined youngsters turned to make their way to the forest threshold... only to see the missing filly in question burst from it’s undergrowth, soon to be followed by Rarity and the rest of the Elements. They still had yet to see the fillies standing off to the side.
“Hey, look! There she is!” Apple Bloom pointed with a hoof. “And mah sister and her friends, too! They’re all okay!” No sooner had she said that, however, than another figure emerged from the forest behind the others. The two fillies eyes widened in shock as they beheld the new creature before them. It was very tall, wearing what looked like a long, black cloak, and had no visible hair or fur aside from a cluster of short, loosely hanging braids on it’s head.
Scootaloo gasped in horror when she saw what the creature was after. “Oh, no! Apple Bloom, that thing is chasing our friends!” She exclaimed, prompting Apple Bloom to gasp in similar fashion.
“Yer right, Scootaloo! Ah bet it was holdin’ Sweetie Belle hostage, and when the girls rescued her, it’s been chasin’ ‘em across the entire forest tryin’ ta' get her back!”
“You really think so?”
“Course Ah do! Ah mean, what other reason could a monster like that be after ‘em?”
Scootaloo nodded at her friend’s clearly logical reasoning. “Yeah, that makes sense. Grr, I’m gonna show that thing what happens when you mess with my friends!” She announced, getting into a low charging stance and pawing at the ground threateningly.
“Yeah, let’s do it! Ah’ll buck that monster inta orbit!” Apple Bloom declared, getting into a similar position as her friend.
“Okay, count of three,” Scootaloo said, “1... 2... 3!”
“CHAAAAAAAARRRRGGGEEE!!!!”
***************
“Uh-oh.”
The filly with the bow was the first to strike. Skidding to a halt in front of Braxton’s left leg, she spun on a dime and raised her hind hooves up, preparing to deliver a mighty buck. Well, the buck itself wasn’t particularly mighty, being that she was just a filly, but combined with the hardness of the pony’s hooves was more than enough to deal some damage.
“Ow!” Braxton exclaimed. He brought his leg up to his body and held the injured area with both hands, leaving him hopping on one leg and completely vulnerable. The orange filly quickly took advantage of the opening to deliver her own attack. Using her tiny wings to push off the ground, she launched into a flying headbutt aimed directly at Braxton’s midsection.
“Oof!!” Was the sound of air rapidly leaving Braxton’s lungs as the filly’s attack hit bullseye. The force of the filly’s attack and the lack of stabilization on Braxton’s part was, quite literally, his downfall, as he soon found himself toppling over like a Jenga tower.
“W-Whoa!!!” Braxton shouted, before landing on his back with the grace of the world’s nimblest brick. Braxton was reeling from the sudden onslaught, still trying to catch his breath from the last blow. The fillies wasted no time waiting for him to recover, though, and immediately hopped on top of his torso, jumping up and down in an attempt to pummel him into the dirt.
“Take this you monster!” The pegasus filly said.
“Yeah, this is fer messin’ with our friends!” The one with the bow added.
Despite the decisive whooping he was receiving, Braxton was still aware enough of his surroundings to hear Rainbow Dash off to his side, rolling on the grass in uproariously tearful laughter at his current misfortune. Applejack, on the other hand, was being decidedly more helpful.
“Scootaloo! Apple Bloom! What in Celestia’s name do y’all think yer doin’?! Get offa him, right now!” She said, causing the fillies to stop their bouncing and look at her in confusion.
“What? Why? This thing was chasing you guys!” Scootaloo said, pointing a hoof at the down and out human.
“No, girls,” Sweetie Belle corrected, a little miffed, “he wasn’t. His name’s Braxton, and he was following us back to Ponyville, so that we could learn more about him.” She finished. At the sight of their friend, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo jumped off of Braxton and embraced her.
“Sweetie Belle!! We were so worried about you!” Scootaloo stated.
“Yeah, we’re so glad that yer safe!” Apple Bloom concurred. “We’re so sorry! Can you ever forgive us?”
But Sweetie Belle was having none of it. She pushed her two friends away and glared at them in anger. “Oh,” She began, “you’re sorry, huh? After all I had to go through, you’re sorry? I told you that we should’ve given up and gone back to the treehouse, but no! We just had to go into the Everfree! It’s you’re fault I was stuck in there in the first place, and now you’re sorry?!” Sweetie’s voice had been rising steadily throughout her rant, until it was cracking from the strain by the end.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo could only look down in shame, doing their best to avoid eye contact with the upset unicorn. After a moment of tense silence between the three of them, Apple Bloom tearfully spoke up.
“Yer... Yer right, Sweetie Belle. It was all our fault. We were so into tryin’ fer our cutie marks, that we didn’t really think.”
“We know that you’re mad,” Scootaloo continued, “But, you should know that we really are sorry. And that we get it if maybe you... don’t wanna hang out or anything for a while...” She said sadly, rubbing the back of her neck with a hoof.
Sweetie Belle tried to stay angry, she really did, but when faced with the downtrodden expressions of her sorrowful friends, her resistance crumbled. Deep down, she knew that they didn’t mean for this to happen, and that they truly regretted their actions, and that was good enough for her.
Sweetie Belle sighed deeply. “Girls, of course I still wanna hang out with you.” She said after a minute, smiling despite herself.
The two fillies snapped their heads up in surprise. “R-Really? You... you do?” Scootaloo asked, confused.
“Yeah, I do. Even though I am still a little bit mad, I’ll never stop wanting to hang out with you guys. I’ll never stop wanting to go adventuring for our cutie marks. And most of all, I’ll never stop wanting to be you guys’ friend. No matter what, we’re still the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and that’s something that’s never gonna change!” Sweetie declared, beaming proudly.
In a flash, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were on Sweetie Belle, tackling her to the ground in a crushing double bear hug. The two fillies laughed and apologized simultaneously, leaving their words a nigh incoherent mess. Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but join in their merriment, and soon all three girls were laughing and smiling together, glad to have put the terrible events of the day behind them.
“Owwww...”
A low groan snapped the ponies out of their reverie, and Sweetie Belle turned her head in the direction of the sound, realizing that she had completely forgotten about the still dazed and downed human. She released herself from her friends’ hug and ran over to his side.
“Oh no, Braxton! Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?” Sweetie asked, worriedly checking his body for injuries.
Braxton slowly shook his head and sighed, still staring up into the clear, blue sky from his position on the soft, green grass. “No, I’ll be fine, Sweetie Belle. Nothing bruised but my ego... and my pride... and my dignity...” He said dejectedly, earning another giggle from Rainbow Dash, who had just recently regained her composure.
“Oh, good.” Sweetie said with relief.