Chapter 4
By KidtheBrony
Surrounded by light, he didn't know whether he was coming or going. There was no weight on his feet, no sound outside of his heart beating loudly in his ears, and any attempt at seeing with his eyes left eerie images behind his now closed eyelids. Left to the whims of the light, he began to doubt his sudden adventurous attitude and decision to step through the portal. However, he couldn't also help but think that, in the end, the light had perhaps simply given him the time to gather his things before whisking him away. He likely would have been given no choice as to whether he'd go or not if he'd tried to escape - it had appeared in his doorway after all, the only way out of his room besides a three story drop.
Then, without warning things changed around him. The constant glow outside his eyelids began to fade, and as the beat of his heart grew softer other sounds began to take its place. The whistling of wind, the ruffling of leaves, the chirps of birds and small animals. The warmth of the sun was unmistakable overhead, and opening his eyes, he drank in a sight completely opposite of his cold, midnight shadowed bedroom.
He stood in the middle of a dirt road, well kept yet clearly marked with the wheels of numerous carts. To either side of him stretched countless green trees, all tall and healthy unlike the hibernating twigs that the woods around his own home had been. In the distance toward where he'd been facing lay numerous mountains and rolling hills, a few even high enough for snow to cap them. Behind him rose more mountains, and to each side a field of trees stretched out of sight down the road. Not only was the scenery picturesque, but so too was the air he was breathing. Inhaling deep, he held his breath for a moment before exhaling again. It was as if all his life he'd been breathing stale air - perhaps a tank like from his short venture into scuba diving. The crisp, clean air invigorated him like nothing before in his life, and the taste! It was silly to say, but he would swear there was indeed a flavor to the air here, an indescribable blend of nature that filled his lungs and already began to purge the impurities inside him. Rarely did he experience this feeling, even on the numerous camping trips he made during the weekends.
Smiling, he closed his eyes and raised his head and arms to the sky, stretching as far as he could reach toward the noonday sun. "Aaaaahhhhhh." He sighed happily. Then he frowned and dropped back to earth.
"Wait a minute...what's wrong with my voice?" He muttered, noting again the strange change as he spoke. Raising a hand to his throat, he rubbed it gently before roaming over his face, searching for other unseen changes. A noticeable one was obvious within seconds as he felt his chin - rather, felt what wasn't on his chin. "My beard...where's my beard?" He said eyes widening. Now rushing, he flipped his backpack off and quickly scrounged around inside for the compact shaving kit he'd packed away, which included a miniature mirror. Quickly locating it, he pulled it out and raised it up to inspect himself.
What he saw nearly made him drop it.
As he'd noted already his beard was gone; it had been a one time joke that he'd come to love and somewhat cherish. He'd grown it in after one of his co-workers - a fellow Star Trek fan - had pointed out how similar he appeared to Commander Riker, and with Halloween a month away he'd decided to actually grow one and dress up as him for the holiday. Afterwards he'd kept it, jokingly saying that next year he'd dye his hair brown and go as Gordan Freeman with his reading glasses on. But with it gone, and while the resemblance still held, he felt silly and somewhat naked.
The other thing he noted was how young he looked. The loss of the beard could explain some of it, but not all. More importantly, what tipped him off the most was the missing pierced ears and earrings. If he had to guess, it was very likely that he'd somehow de-aged during his time inside the light. The missing earrings meant that, at least, he was now six years younger. The small amounts of baby fat that had reappeared though suggested younger, so perhaps somewhere in the range of eight to ten, making him either sixteen or fourteen. Looking down at the ground, he certainly felt the latter; his once tall frame was closer to the ground than he could recall being for quite some time. At best he was probably five foot eight, five inches now missing along with what muscle he'd built up during his hikes and camping trips in the woods around his home. At the very least he was still fit, thanks to having lived a healthy and exercise filled life since birth.
Sighing, he packed the mirror away and instead pulled out a compass. Pointing it toward the what he believed was east down the road, he stared in surprise as the needle focused, wavered, and then began spinning so fast he was afraid that it would somehow explode in his hand. Well so much for that, this place must be packed with minerals to make it jump this badly. He thought. Putting the useless bobble back, he instead decided to simply follow the road to whatever town or city it lead to. Hopefully such a peaceful place would hold peaceful inhabitants, and ones accepting of his (possibly) strange appearance too.
Much later that day as the sun began to dip toward the horizon, Twilight Sparkle was slowly winding down from a long and tiring day. Pinkie Pie had managed to find yet another reason to throw a party (a 'Super-Duper Pre-Suprise' party, whatever that meant) and had invited the rest of their friends over to the library. Of course she'd done it without Twilight knowing in advance, but once the pinky party pony had shown up it had been impossible to convince her to move it over to Sugarcube Corner or even the park. As a result, many of the books had fallen out of place, and there were miles of streamers and deflated balloons littered all around the main floor. To top it all off, all of her friends had left her and Spike to clean up the mess alone, each stating they had something else to do after the party and couldn't remain behind to help clean. It was only thanks to the heartfelt apologies that she wasn't as annoyed at them as she felt she should be. Still it had done little to speed up her cleaning, and since the books had become disarranged she'd decided to re-shelve the whole library ahead of schedule, much to her assistants dismay.
"And...done." Twilight said, levitating the last book into place. Behind her, Spike sighed in relief and fell onto his back, feather duster clattering to the ground.
"Finally! I thought we'd never finish cleaning!" He moaned.
"It wasn't that bad Spike, and besides now we don't have to re-shelve later this week like scheduled." Bringing a list over by magic, Twilight began writing something down with a quill. "Of course, now my checklist needs to be re-done...and I suppose we'll have to advance the next date to compensate..." She frowned in thought.
"C'mon Twilight, can't we just stick to the old schedule and just wait a little longer this time?"
"Well..."
"Pleeeeaaaase?" Spike popped up in front of her list, claws clasped together and his eyes wide. For added begging he even made his lower lip quiver. Twilight giggled at the sight and patted the baby dragon on the head.
"Fine, we can do it later like planned." Spike beamed. "Of course now we have a day off to deal with. Is there anything you'd like to do?" She asked.
"How about we go gem hunting? My stash is getting a little low."
"Alright sure, but afterwards we have to do something that I want to do, okay?"
"Deal!" Suddenly Spike yawned. "Aw man I'm beat, I think I'll just go and hit the hay. Goodnight Twilight."
"Goodnight Spike." Watching as the little dragon walked up to the loft, Twilight felt her own exhaustion suddenly set in. If it wasn't so early still she felt that joining her assistant would be best. But with her stomach rumbling she instead trotted into the kitchen to make a nice sandwich and do a little light reading before bed. As she settled in with her meal at the table, the sky outside darkened and became illuminated with Princess Luna's moon. Numerous stars filled the sky, and enraptured by their twinkling lights she felt her mind drift as she took the occasional bite of her sandwich. As usual these days, they eventually led her back to local events.
Ponyville had been very quiet recently; No monster attacks or sudden overblown crisis had struck the village, which sadly was more common than most ponies would want. And since Twilight and her friends were almost always involved, whether by choice or chance, it went without saying that the girls were always adventuring and learning something new about the magic of friendship. In fact, because of this peace, she had yet to send Princess Celestia a friendship report this month, and neither had any of her friends to her knowledge. Instead she'd simply been sending personal letters asking about her parents, Canterlot, herself, and her sister Princess Luna. The Princess had been delighted by the informal letters if her responses were anything to go by, and it was helping Twilight reconnect somewhat with her distant teacher. As much as she loved living in Ponyville, living most of her fillyhood in the castle with the Princess was something she missed dearly in the quiet moments she had nothing to do in. Like now really, as she subconsciously turned her head to look at the wall she knew faced towards Canterlot.
With the last bite done, Twilight cleaned up and moved back to the main room of the library. There she selected a novel (Enchanting Enchantments by Glitter Veil) and moved to the mid-level balcony, feeling in the mood to read by moonlight. Within minutes she was asleep before even the first chapter was finished, the warm night breeze having taken its toll on her. Unseen by her because of this was the faint glow that came from over the southern horizon. It lasted only a few seconds, but left something much more amazing behind in its wake.
As a new day dawned, he awoke to find that the fire he'd built had gone out, and that thankfully nothing had disturbed his little campsite off the side of the road. He'd made good progress since arriving in this land; the mountains towered over him a scant few minutes away on both sides, and there were the first hints of farmland up ahead. So far nothing had appeared on the road to greet him, but the few signs scattered along the way had shown that he was indeed heading toward civilization. In fact, he even knew where he was now, and recalling that revelation brought with it a surge of excitement and pure happiness that not even the sweetest candy could beat.
In bold black letters, the words 'Canterlot' and 'Ponyville' had been written onto two arrows pointing east.
He didn't know why he'd ended up on the world of My Little Pony, but the very thought of meeting the ponies -any pony really- made him feel as young as his body now was. But as much as he'd wanted to rush down the road all the way until the village was in sight, he knew better than to push himself so hard with little to no supplies. Setting up camp had been difficult with his thoughts tumbling over one another, but as soon as he'd laid down his wisdom had paid off when he fell asleep almost instantly.
Now refreshed, but hungry, he felt that he could manage the last leg of his journey and perhaps make it to the village in time for sunset. Scattering the ash and dusting himself off, he hoisted his backpack and stepped back onto the road. To his surprise he wasn't as alone as he thought.
A large wagon full of barrels was sitting on the other side of the road across from him, the back axle and wheels noticeably broken. A pony - male, with an orange body and red mane - was sitting on their flank next to the broken parts and attempting to repair it with some duck tape. The fact it had duck tape, oddly, was perhaps the strangest thing about the sight, much more than how an earth pony was managing to pull the tape and rip strips off the roll. As he walked closer, the ponies ears flopped and turned its head to look at him. Instead of shock or fear, it wore an exasperated look meant more for its task than the sight of a strange creature.
"Morning stranger, haven't seen something like you before." It informed him gruffly. "You any good at repairing wagons by chance?"
"Uh..." He paused, looking the wagon over, before turning back to the pony. "I'm afraid not. But I could take a look still, land a hand to help."
"At this rate anything you can do will only help." Snorting, the pony stood and tossed the duck tape over. "I've been fixing this darn thing since Vanhoover over and over again. Planned on buying a new one once I reached Canterlot - if only I can reach it that is."
Walking over and kneeling -and absently noting that the pony was about chest high to him - he asked, "Canterlot?"
"Probably never heard of it; I doubt you're from around here. That's the capitol of Equestria, the country you're in now. Beautiful place, but it's full of snobbish ponies - both the scholars and rich aristocrats. Still it's the best place to sell your wares if you can catch their eye, maybe even the princesses too if you're lucky."
"So you have royalty?"
"Mmm, you really are far from home aren't you?"
"Sorry..." He felt bad for lying, but the 'stranger from a far land' facade was a very useful alibi.
"Not your fault, and the name's High Road."
"Mine's Mark, Mark Magnum." Pulling a strip of tape off, Mark carefully wrapped it around the broken axle. "So what are the...err...princesses like?"
"Well, there's Princess Celestia of course. She's been ruling Equestria for over a thousand years now, and she moves the sun every day. Used to move the moon too, but now that her sister Princess Luna is back she's taken over her old duty and co-rule together again."
"A thousand years?!" Mark flinches as he realizes how weak his shocked exclamation sounded. Luckily High doesn't notice and just nods.
"Yup, she and her sister are immortal, one of a kind ponies. Have the traits of all three clans -Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns. Very beautiful too." He remarks with a blush.
"I guess there's a lot to learn about Equestria if I'm going to stay here for a while."
At this point Mark had managed to tape the parts all together again, and giving the wheel an experimental spin, he was happy to see it not wobble. Standing up, he hands the now thin roll of tape to High Road, who takes it with his mouth and places it into a saddlebag. Moving to the front, he positions himself into the straps and gives it a quick tug. A few feet with no sudden breakdowns and he stops, satisfied that it's fixed again. "Thanks for the hoof - or whatever it is you have. If you'd like, I could give you a ride to Canterlot in repayment."
"Oh no thanks, I don't think I could handle that kind of place right now." In truth, Mark had a different destination in mind. But how to... "Actually, I saw another sign saying that 'Ponyville' is also this way. What's it like?"
"Ponyville..." High Road mumbled something to himself and flicked his short tail. "Nice place, and the friendliest ponies I think I've ever met. Craziest too if I'm honest - beware any pink ponies you see there; she's a wild one." Mark doesn't try to cover his laugh, knowing full well who he's talking about. "Unfortunately that's out of my way, so while I'm happy to take you to the crossroad we'll have to part ways from there. Should make it there shortly after one, if you keep up the pace. Otherwise you can make it by sundown alone."
"Well, if you're sure..." Suddenly a loud growl comes from nearby, and blushing, Mark realizes it's his stomach. High Road chuckles, having heard it clearly from where he was.
"Tell you what, I'll throw in a snack too for the help. There's a barrel of oranges in the back and you can have two - but only two mind you, I need to sell the rest at market." High warned. With an offer of food, Mark really sees no point in declining the generous offer.
"Thank you so much High Road, you're a kind pony." Hopping onto the back of the wagon, Mark grabbed an orange and pulled out his knife to begin peeling it. "Can you tell me more about Equestria too?"
"Sure thing..." With a grunt High Road sets off down the road again, and begins telling Mark more about the history of Equestria.