Chapter 1
In what felt like a few hours later, Dim heard something, and stirred. At first, he thought he was dead, his consciousness floating about in nothingness. However, he felt something pressing on his side. That either meant he was lying down, or being crushed by something. The former seemed more feasible, for to be crushed, he had to be feeling excruciating pain. This just felt like an uncomfortable, hard surface. Then, he realized that if he felt something, it meant that he was not dead, but in fact, alive. At least, he thought he was. He really had no idea what came after death. Dim then came to the realization, that his head felt like it was being crushed by a vice, squeezing tighter and tighter, making his brain feel like it’s going to pop. He heard the sound again, and to him, it sounded like two people talking. Their voices sounded really dull and muted, as though they were talking behind a thick glass wall.
“Twilight, it worked! I knew it would work, after all, you are the most talented unicorn in all of Ponyville!”
“Ponyville? Where have I heard that name before…?” Dim thought groggily. He still didn’t feel like opening his eyes yet, since he felt as though he had been hit with a steel baseball bat. The voices then spoke again, but they sounded clearer this time.
“Oh, stop it Spike. It was just simple teleportation. I’ve done that before.”
“Yeah, but who knew you could teleport ponies from other lands! Do you think he has x-ray vision? Or breathes fire?”
“Ponies?” thought Dim again, confused. He had no idea what was going on. His head was still pounding, and he swore he could hear a bee flying around somewhere.
“Uh, doubtful. You need to stop reading those comic books, Spike… Anyways…he does appear to be unconscious…”
The pounding in his head subsided shortly, and Dim slowly opened his eyes to find himself face to face with… a pony. The pony was strangely light purple, and had a long dark mane, with what looked like a pink and purple highlight. Its tail matched its mane in color, and style. It was also long, and dark, with a single stripe of pink and purple.
“Oh, good! You’re awake!” said the pony, looking relieved. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, and-”
Dim yelped in shock, and quickly scrambled away from the pony until he hit a wall. “W-what the hell?! A purple pony?! And it talks?!” he exclaimed, sweating a little.
“Uh, well, duh? How is that surprising? I mean, you’re a pony too.” said what looked like a large, purple scaled lizard. It had green spines running down its back, and was also standing on its hind legs. That just made Dim freak out even more.
“A talking lizard too?!” Dim said, his heart pounding quickly within his chest.
“Lizard?” said the little lizard, clearly irritated. “I’m a dragon!”
“A dragon?! What?! Dragon’s don’t exist!” Dim said, frantically. “And what are you talking about?! I’m not a pony, I’m a human! See, I don’t have hooves, I have ha-”
He lifted up one of his hands to show that he was human. Instead, something yellow, and solid came into view. At first, Dim was stunned. He shook it a few times, to see if it was a trick. Nothing happened. He then tried to move his fingers. Again, nothing happened. It took a few seconds for Dim to realize what he was seeing.
“AAUGH! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY HANDS?!” Dim shouted, his blood running cold. He stared at his hooves in horror. If anything else would have happened to him, he would’ve passed out from shock.
“Sheesh, this guy sure likes freaking out, doesn’t he?” the lizard said, mumbling under his breath.
“Calm down! Why are you panicking so much about your hooves?” the pony said, concerned.
“Well, I don’t know, maybe it’s because I normally don’t have hooves?!” said Dim, glaring at the pony.
“Don’t normally have hooves?” said the lizard, now looking slightly confused. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
It seemed to mean something to the purple pony, because she (Dim assumed it was a she) let out a small “Uh-oh.”
“Uh-oh? Why Uh-oh?” said the lizard, worried. “Is he going to explode? ”
“No, of course not. It’s actually nothing really…I guess I wasn’t concentrating hard enough, and instead of casting a spell that summons a pony from another land, I think I may have accidentally casted a spell that summons one from another land, as a pony…” said the pony, looking sheepish.
“Oh…That is Uh-oh.” said the lizard, looking significantly less worried.
“Wh-what’s going on?!” said Dim, still panicking, but not as frantically as earlier. “Where am I? Why do I have these… hoof things?!”
“Well, to start, you’re in the land of Equestria. And, well…I made a mistake while casting a spell, so now you’re a pony.” said the purple pony.
“Equestria? That also sounds familiar…” thought Dim. He then suddenly realized why the name seemed to ring a bell.
“Oh my god…She looks exactly like one of those characters from that cartoon. What was it called… My Little Pony?” Dim thought. He didn’t really know much about the show, and he certainly didn’t watch it. But he had heard a little bit about it from a friend of his back in college, before he dropped out.
“O-okay, I see.” Dim said, calming down more significantly. Now that he knew what was going on, and where he was, he was able to take a better look at his surroundings. It still amazed him that he was in a land based on a television show (“or was it the other way around?” Dim wasn’t sure). Everything was colored brightly, and things seemed to be lit differently as well. Most of the colors of things didn’t transition into different shades, so much as stayed the relatively same color. He then realized that he was in what looked like a large, circular library made entirely of wood, with shelves lining the circular room. The shelves were chock full of books of varying sizes. There were ladders on wheels propped up against the shelves, reaching up to the top shelf to allow people to get books from up there. He then realized the room was round and wooden, because he it was made from a tree, based on the rings on the floor. Dim couldn’t help but wonder if the combination of a library, and it being a tree, made it a severe fire-hazard. A glint caught the corner of his eye, and it made him notice a mirror. He attempted to walk over to it.
“Um, Spike? Do you know what he’s trying to do?” the pony asked, confused by the way Dim was moving.
“I dunno Twilight. Maybe, he’s trying to get to that mirror that just came in today?” Spike said. “I just hope he doesn’t do anything to it…I spent hours polishing the thing…”
Dim was having a bit of trouble, as he was trying to walk over to the mirror. At first, he was able to stand up for a few seconds, but then he fell down immediately on his face. The pony and lizard looked at each other, confused, then gave Dim some weird looks, but he ignored them. He gave up after the 3rd face plant, and instead, crawled to the mirror. Looking into the mirror, what he saw made him almost have another panic attack.
In the mirror, there stood another pony staring back at him. The pony had a sort of dull, mustard colored coat, and a short mane that was his hair color, a dark hazelnut. Strangely enough, its mane had a green highlight in it. He noticed that the pony also had a short tail that matched it’s mane in color. Dim raised a hand above his head, and the pony lifted its corresponding hoof as well. When he stuck his tongue out, the pony did as well.
Dim gave a sigh (so did the pony). He really had turned into a weird, oddly colored pony. He shook his head (as did the pony), surprised at himself at how fast he had recovered from his freak session, which was only natural. Being turned into a cartoony animal wasn’t exactly a common occurrence.
“Um, if you’ve calmed down enough, could you give us your name?” asked the pony.
“Oh, um, okay…” said Dim, a little hesitant. “My name’s Dim-Bulb.”
“Ack! Why’d I say that stupid nickname?” thought Dim, annoyed. But before he could correct himself, the pony spoke.
“Dim Bulb? That seems like a pretty normal name, for somepony that wasn’t normally a pony.” the pony said, “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this here is my assistant.”
“‘Sup? I’m Spike.” said the little lizard.
“It’s nice to meet you, Twilight and Spike…I guess.” Dim said, deciding it’d be easier to go with his nick-name here. He found it funny that, a name like John, that was usually a very common name, would be considered strange here. “So, why exactly am I here in… Equestria? And as a pony as well?”
“Well, Twilight here kind of messed up on a spell. But we can fix it, since Twilight can fix anything magic related! ... Right?” said Spike semi-confidently.
“Spell? What’s he talking about?” Dim thought, confused.
“Um, I don’t know about that, actually…If I knew what you were before I accidentally turned you into a pony, it might help me figure out a solution.” said Twilight, trying to think of ideas that might work.
“Alright then, fine. I was a human.” answered Dim quickly, just wanting to get out of that room. The colorfulness of everything was starting to make him feel kind of sick.
Twilight and Spike both just stared at him blankly.
“Um…did I say it too fast?” Dim said, worried by the fact that humans may not even be a concept in this world. “I said I was human, you know, H as in horse, U as in-”
“No, we heard you alright.” said Spike. “By ‘human’, do you mean those hairless monkey things? Y’know, the ones that always walk on their hind legs?”
“Um…yeah, basically…I guess?” said Dim, a bit confused by how the question was phrased.
Spike looked at Twilight with an incredulous and excited look. “I thought humans didn’t exist! Are you sure this guy’s not crazy?”
Twilight shook her head. “I thought so too, but the way he reacted to his ‘hands’ being hooves seemed genuine to me.”
“Oh, good, you know exactly what I am.” said Dim, giving a small sigh of relief. “So, does that mean you can fix this?”
“I’m afraid not…” Twilight said, apologetically, “I don’t know how I’m going to teleport you back to where you came, because I don’t even know where that is. Even if you described it to me in full, it wouldn’t tell me where it was.”
“Oh…” Dim said, dejectedly, his spirits falling. He knew that that meant, he wasn’t going home.
Twilight bit her lip. “We… might be able to find a solution, but it’ll probably take a few weeks.”
“There’s still hope then!” thought Dim, his spirits rising, but only slightly. Suddenly, he had a realization. He was going to be away from his home for a few weeks, and in another world no less. That meant he had more time to pay back the mafia, and they wouldn’t have to come and beat him up.
“Oh, that’s great then!” said Dim, a grin playing on his face. “At least I’ll be able to go home…eventually.”
“Well, I can see he’s going to stick around for a while, so why don’t we show him around Ponyville?” suggested Spike. “We could even give him a lesson or two on how Equestria works!”
“Good idea Spike. We’ll show you around Ponyville, so you can get used to living here for a few weeks. I could probably introduce you to my friends too.” Twilight said, agreeing. She looked a little excited. “And it’ll be fun teaching you about how the way things work in Equestria.”
“Hmm…Doesn’t sound like a bad idea…” mumbled Dim, “I could get some things off my mind.” But in his head, he was thinking: “Oh great, learning. I had enough of that in college…”
“Then it’s settled! Let’s take you on a tour of Ponyville!” said Twilight, clapping her hooves together. “We just need to make some preparations first, so go wait by the door, Dim.”
Dim attempted to go to the door, but he just ended up falling on his face first again.
“Er, maybe we should teach him how to walk properly first…” said Spike, wincing.
Dim rubbed his nose, face red with embarrassment.