It was a dark and stormy night, which was surprising since it was the middle of summer and way past storm season up here in Arnold, California. I just got back from work at McDonalds and after a quick shower I started to play some video games. While playing some Skyrim on my Xbox 360 I was on steam with my laptop talking to my best friends Pedro, Ben and Manuel.
After high school, we always tried to find time to hangout and visit each other, but with being so far away, job and school schedules we found it rather difficult to really get together and hang out. One day Ben suggested we just leave Steam chat open and just talk every Saturday or Sunday. We’ve been doing this for the past six months.
“So an airplane is about to crash, and a female passenger jumps up frantically and announces, ‘If I'm going to die, I want to die feeling like a woman.’ She removes all her clothing and asks, ‘Is there someone on this plane who is man enough to make me feel like a woman?’” Pedro said holding back his laughter as I sat on the edge of my seat waiting for the punch line. “So then a man stands up, removes his shirt and says, ‘Here, iron this!’” All I could hear through the speakers were my friends laughing their asses off while I was laughing with them.
After a couple minutes of laughing I asked “Jesus Christ Pedro have I ever told you how awesome your brother is?”
“What can I say my brother just one awesome guy” he said as a matter of fact “Oh and I believe were at the big one fifty one now”.
“So what’s been going on ‘Mountain man’ anything new up there?” Manny asked. You see after I moved up here to the mountains my friends assumed I became some sort of badass mountain person who kills bears and wolves with his bare hands. I personally don’t mind and I find it humors to just roll with it.
I just rolled my eyes and said “Nah just work and video games and what about you guys?”
“Same here” Pedro and Manny said at the same time.
“Well I’ve been working on some pony models, but nothing else really” Ben said with what I imagine was a shrug.
“Ugh really Ben ponies, I thought we agreed not to talk about that dumb show anymore while we were on chat” Pedro said angrily. You see Ben and I are fan of the show My Little Pony while Manny is neutral on the topic Pedro is complete against the idea of watching the show let alone having his friends talk about it.
“Yes Pedro like you said me and BJ have agreed not to talk about the show during our chats, but technically we're not talking about the show we’re talking about hacking mods into games that just so happen to be ponies” Ben said smugly.
“Ow yo doc we need some ice for that burn” Manny said laughing a bit.
I chuckled a bit and said “Come on Pedro were just talking it’s been forever since we last actually got sort of together like this. Just sit back…” A loud thunderous boom could be heard followed by a flash of lighting. “Damn the weather looks shity here” I said as I closed the blinds to my window.
“Yeah the weather is pretty bad here in Oakdale as well” Ben said.
“Same here in Sunnyvale” Pedro said while Manny agreed.
“Well hopefully the weather will clear up” I said while I continued to play some more Skyrim. “So what are you guys playing?”
“Playing some TF2” Manny said followed up by what sounded like him ragging because he got owned by rocket spam.
“Playing some Fallout New Vegas I just got Lonesome Road DLC and its fucking awesome” Pedro said with joy.
“Yeah I know and what about you Ben?” I asked.
“Just… playing some… Minecraft and a bit of…” Ben said but it started to static out.
“What’s that Ben I couldn’t hear you?” I asked before steam notified me I was kicked out of the party chat.
“Looks like steam crapped out on us” I typed, this just got me a bunch of messages of ‘Yeah same here’ and we planned to continued our chat tomorrow. Closing my laptop I turned to look at my clock to see It was only nine o’clock at night, which was pretty early so I decided to stay up for a couple more hours and play some more before I had to go to bed for work. Couple hours later and it was midnight, so I decided to go to bed now so I could wake up for work tomorrow. ‘I hate morning shifts’ I thought while I got up and stretched a bit. As I walked over to my T.V. stand I reached down and hit the power button on the Xbox, hearing a ding I reached for the power button on the T.V. when I notice the game was still running.
“What the…” I said and push the power button again, it gave the same ding noise, but the light was still on. “Ok you asked for it” I said while I reached for the cord and unplugged the Xbox completely. “Ha how do you like me…now?” I said before I notice it was still on. ‘What the fuck’ I thought before a bright blinding light came from my T.V. screen and then everything went dark.
Since I’m now unconscious how about a quick self intro. My name is Ron Anderson, but my friends call me BJ. I’m Caucasian about six feet tall with brown eyes and short wavy dark brown hair, think skater hair style, but short. After a year of going to college my family had to move to Arnold because we couldn’t afford the house down in Oakdale anymore. I’m nineteen years old and barely still a freshman in college.
Hours later
“BJ…BJ…come on man wake up” I heard a voice while I felt like I was being pushed back and forth.
“Five more minutes” I said trying to reach for my blanket until I realized I felt the cold wet earth instead of my nice warm bed. As I slowly got up I noticed it was night, but the moon was giving off enough light to help me see. I was outside surrounded by colorful trees with what look like scary faces on them though they would have been scarier if it wasn’t for the fact that the colors were too bright and cheery. “What the hell?” I asked.
“Yeah that’s an understatement” a familiar voice said to the left of me.
As I looked in his direction I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, for standing right in front of me was my friend Manny. Manny was a white Hispanic about six feet tall, only literally a few hair shorter than me with dark brown hair and brown eyes. He styled his hair short with his bangs gelled up to look like a ramp. Manny moved to Sunnyvale after a couple of semesters to go live with and transfer to a different college with our friend Pedro. But instead of his normal looking clothes he was completely dressed from head to toe like the Blue spy. “Manny is that you?” I asked with disbelief.
“Uh yeah why wouldn’t it be?” He asked like it was a matter of fact.
“Dude you do know you’re wearing a full body suit of the Blue spy right?”
“Yeah I noticed” he said dryly “then again do you know what you’re wearing?”
As I stood up and got a good look at myself I couldn’t believe it either. I was wearing my dragon armor from Skyrim, it even had an eerie glow every now and again signifying my enchantments were attached. It was strange because armor should be heavy, especially dragon bone armor, but it didn’t’ weigh anything, in fact it felt light. I even had my dragon shield on my back and ebony sword on my left side in a sheath “Dude this is pretty freaky.”
“Yeah tell me about it I almost didn’t even recognize you guys” Ben said as he exited out of a bush wearing a grey t shirt with dark blue jeans and a pair of regular black sneakers. Ben was Caucasian about five foot six with brown hair and eyes. His hair style matched mine only his was a bit longer and not so wavy. He was the only one at of us four to stay in our hometown of Oakdale while still going to college.
“Wow Ben you look…normal” Manny said surprised who now had a lit cigarette in his mouth.
“Gee thanks” Ben said sourly.
“Uh Manny when did you start smoking?” I asked.
“What are you talking about I don’t smoke” he said has he took a puff from his cigarette.
“Uh dude you’re smoking right now look at your hand” Ben said pointing to Manny’s hand.
“What the…” he said as he threw the cigarette to the ground and then stomping on it to put it out. “That was weird I didn’t even notice I was smoking at all…BJ, Ben what the hell is going on?” he asked if we could see his face it would probably be a look of fear and confusion.
“That’s the million dollar question their Manny” said a familiar voice walking out from another bush wearing an elite riot gear armor from Lonesome Roads though his voice was gruff with the helmet on. On his left side I noticed he had a familiar looking knife also from the game I believe it was called ‘Blood Nap’.
“Pedro” we all asked looking at him with joy and uncertainty. Pedro was a Mexican about five foot three with black hair and brown eyes. His hairstyle was like that of the Beatles mop top. He was the shortest and youngest in our group by months since we were all born in the same year. Right after High school Pedro moved to Sunnyvale to go to the Art Institute living with his parents recently until him and Manny got their own apartment.
“Know anyone else this good looking” he said trying to do a sexy pose.
“What has been seen cannot be unseen” Ben said jokingly now in a fetal position
“Only you would make a crappy joke at a time like this” I said with a smile.
“Pedro stop that before I have to kick your ass” Manny said giving him a quick punch to the shoulder.
“Ow! Don’t hurt me I’m delicate” he said while we just rolled our eyes and continue looking over ourselves and each other trying to understand what was going on.
“So…” I broke the silence “anyone got an idea of what the hell is going on?”
“No” Manny said.
“Nada” Pedro said.
“Nope” Ben said trying to do a Big Mac impression.
“Ok then either this is one really elaborate prank, we all magical teleported to a random forest with these outfits or we’re all on drugs and we’re hallucinating while Steam chat is on.”
“Well I can safely assume were not on drugs” Ben said.
“So either it’s an elaborate prank or we teleported to a random forest” Pedro said with a shrug.
“I don’t think this is a random forest it looks…familiar I just can’t put my finger on it, but I know I’ve seen this forest before” I said rubbing my chin.
“Yeah I have that same feeling as well” Ben said with a nod.
“So what we do then ‘Mountain man’ and ‘Eagle scout’? Since you know all kinds of things about forest and surviving in the jungle” Pedro asked sarcastically.
“Well the best thing to do would be setting up a camp and try to find our way out of the forest during the day” Ben said rubbing his chin and continued “It would also be a good idea to find a source of water so that we could follow it to a larger body of water since most cities or small villages would be built near them or at least have some sort of pipeline system we could follow.”
“And if it is someplace Ben and I do recognize and if we can find some sort of landmark we might be able to find our way out of here. Alright then that’s what we’re going to do unless anyone else has a better idea?” Manny and Pedro just shrugged and nodded their heads in agreement. “Let’s get going” I said as I started to walk deeper into the forest.
Location: Canterlot Castle
*Knock knock knock*
“Who is it?” Celestia asked her voice was muffled underneath the pillow on top of her head.
“It’s me sister, I know you had a long day with the politicians, but may we speak with you?” Luna asked the sound of the door slowly being opened.
“Don’t you mean ‘I’ dear sister and is it about the surge of magical energy” Celestia said her head still underneath her pillow.
“Yes Tia, I’ve never felt such a strange surge of magic since…” Luna said before she trailed off sounding a bit ashamed.
“Since the Nightmare” Celestia finished for her.
“Yes” Luna said.
“Yes I’ve haven’t felt such power either since Nightmare Moon, but I would rather if we both went together than to let you go by yourself” Celestia said.
“I believe I’m more than capable sister” Luna said a bit annoyed now.
“That’s not what I meant Lulu and you know it. I’m just rather tired this evening and too have you go off to meet this possible threat by yourself would trouble me to no end” Celestia said slowly starting to fade back to sleep.
“No we…I mean you’re right sister I was just concern for our little ponies…” Luna said and stopped as she heard the sounds of her sister light breathing. With a slight smile she walked toward the door leading to the halls and said “Pleasant dreams sister.”