//------------------------------// // Chapter Eight- Here We Go // Story: Manehattan Rose // by MLPxMaestro //------------------------------// Manehattan Rose: Chapter 8- Here We Go: So from Roseluck’s plan, she wanted me and her to go to Equestria for about a week or two, since it was winter break and during the holidays, which was perfect timing. We had finally arrived at the location of where the portal was, which she knew exactly where it was, since she arrived into my world from it in the first place. When I saw it, the site was really something, though obviously I wasn’t the only one wanting to go in. “There’s a line to Equestria? You’ve got to be kidding me!” “Well duh, it’s an incredibly beautiful and mesmerizing world to be a part of, and you could even live there if you wanted. You would just have to be awfully prepared to take such a leap of faith if you were not ready though. Princess Celestia has a way of assimilating ones appearance, to where their body takes the shape of a pony and everything. However, that only happens after the humans are in Equestria for about a year or so if they decide to become an official resident of Equestria. If she finds that they can contribute to the land, then they can stay, but only if they become a pony,” Roseluck stated back to me, looking ahead along with me at the daunting line I had to wait in. It seemed daunting, though it was literally only like four people, though it seemed to take them forever. After waiting for over an hour, my time had come and I was about to set foot into what seemed like the coolest world out there. So happy and so innocent of a world, how could it even be possible? “I need your identification sir,” a security guard asked of me, before I then handed him my driver’s license. He took a look at it before what appeared to be him typing my name and my information down into a computer, which I assumed their might be a database to help contain the flow of people and ponies coming in and out of the portal. “Okay sir, no loose objects, and be careful going in. You will feel an awful lot of tug on your body, but if you keep calm about it, your body and yourself in general will be fine.” The security guard, along with two armed guards then stood to the side, allowing me access to the portal. “You sure about this Roseluck? I don’t think I’m ready for this just yet?” I asked her with worry and concern for my own safety about this procedure. “I promise you won’t get hurt okay? It’s just a lot of tugging going through these things. The same thing happened even to me when I first arrived through this thing just a couple of years ago.” Rose then stood next to me, and began gently nudging me closer and closer to the glowing gateway between our worlds. “Oh goodness…um…Rose?” “Think fast!” she then pushed me with all of her strength, as she ended up going in along with me. “Waaaaaaahhh!!!!” I grabbed a hold of her head just before I went into the portal, causing her to be dragged in along with me. After traveling through what felt like my body being a rubber band being stretched, everything then went black for me after about several seconds. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - “Hello? Matthew are you okay?” a muffled voice was saying to me, clearing up with the passing seconds. “Please wake up, you’re starting to worry me here.” that familiar voice said once more, before finally my eyes seemed to flutter a bit eventually opening up slowly. “Uhhh…my head…” I trailed off moaning a bit, grabbing a hold of my head, and still feeling the tug on my body a little bit. “Thank Celestia you’re okay!” Roseluck then hugged me around my neck, as I found myself sitting on a patch of soft lush grass eye level with her. “Uh yeah, having a bit of a headache, but I’m doing fine I suppose,” I replied, still trying to regain my composure of where I was, and what I was currently doing. When my mind had been cleared up, and my vision the same, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing before my very eyes. It was the magical land of Equestria, a truly indescribable moment for someone like me or any human for that matter. I was actually here...I was really freaking here! I couldn’t believe my mind, I felt like I was going to lose my sanity due to my mind feeling so awestruck and speechless at all the sights before me. I steadily rose myself up, managing to finally look over these adorable little pastel colored equines once again. I noticed several ponies from every direction seemed to stop and look at me for a moment, but after a few moments of observing me, along with Roseluck, they seemed to just carry on with their day. I guess they were pretty used to humans being in their world now, visiting them on a daily basis. The flaw with the portal when it comes to humans from their world traveling to their world was that it would be random. Another words, their may be a single way in and out, but when a human went within the world and landed in it, they could be transported literally anywhere in Equestria. It was one of the flaws or “bugs” of the portal, though many blamed Discord, since it managed to be kept open by him in the first place. Luckily, I managed to wind up just outside a train station in Ponyville, thank goodness we didn’t wind up anywhere else, because we both barely had any money, and Roseluck forgot to bring some bits with her for my visit to her world so I could get back when it was time for me and her to leave. Her sisters, Lily and Daisy, were thankfully not with us. Though I was wondering why she didn’t tell them about this before we left? They would probably get pretty worried if they hadn’t heard from her in these two weeks we would both be spending in Equestria at her house in just inside of this cozy little town called Ponyville. Before I could say anything, I looked back behind me, and noticed that the portal closed up with a small flash of light as it got smaller and smaller, before finally disappearing into thin air. “How the heck do I get back!” I began freaking out and worrying like crazy now. “It’s okay Matthew, calm down! The original portal location is still in the royal castle in Canterlot, located close to the throne room where the princess is,” Roseluck assured me. Perhaps I did get a little carried away just then? After all, she knows this place like the back of her hand…or hoof in this case. So I think I should be able to get back home whenever I want. Thank goodness I took care of any expenses before I left, and went on ahead to pay the rent on my apartment a month ahead of time before I left there just in case. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - After traversing through the quaint little town, I finally arrived at Rose’s part home, part flower shop house, which was definitely something to call unique in my eyes. I had never seen anything quite like it, probably never will, and her house smelled so incredible. It was filled with fragrances I had never smelled in my life. The aromas from flowers that didn’t exist back in my world filled the air in a sweet scent of incredible satisfaction unlike I had ever experienced before just over something as petty as flowers were concerned. “So…what do you think? Pretty nice place I have here right?” Roseluck smiled at me. “Yeah, sure! I’m not complaining at all, If just this house seems so amazing, I could only wonder what it would be like living in your world for the next couple of weeks if that’s okay with you?” “Of course it is! I actually wanted you to live with m- I mean uh…I actually think that would be nice for you to visit with me here in Equestria,” said Rose, before turning away blushing a pinch. She then took a few steps closer, and then looking up at me standing in front of me from her stairs that led up to her second floor, where her along with her sisters lived within. I looked back at her slowly starting to wonder why she kept looking at me with a smile on her face. “Roseluck, you feeling okay there?” I wondered, laughing off what I said a bit to hopefully lighten the matter. “Of course I’m fine, it’s just so cool to finally have you here with me! You’ll like it here so much I just know it! However…I do know of a way you could perhaps experience this the pony way for a just little while if you would like to?” her eyebrow then raised back towards me, as she started giggling a little bit. Her giggling seemed adorable no doubt, but she as well seemed like she was up to something when she said that is what I was curious about? If only I could read her mind, and find out what she was really thinking of me just then…she seemed so mixed to me, and even unpredictable at times. “Well uh…so what do you mean by that?” my eyes then widened up a bit, assuming the crazy thoughts in my head. “There’s a potion for that…isn’t there?” “Mhmm,” she nodded smiling a bit. “Her name is Zecora, and she visits my shop every now and then for herbs and other ingredients she mixes with her little alchemy experiments and stuff. I’ve only been to her place once, and she seemed to have literally any kind of potion for anything you could imagine,” Roseluck added. This really sparked my interest now; perhaps I might have a chance to know what it was like to become a pony for the first time in my life? I certainly wouldn’t want to be that way forever, because I had a world of my own to get back to. But no way could I pass up an opportunity or chance quite amazing and awesome as this seemed to me. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - After a good long walk, and me apparently having to keep Roseluck at ease over a merely overgrown forest. I just didn’t see what the big deal was about when we went through it? She said that it grows on its own, and it has always felt “alive” for as long as Equestria folklore could recall about it. “Big deal, plants grow on their own, what is so bad about that?” I shrugged, shortly before we were supposed to arrive at Zecora’s hut. “No, you don’t understand, the animals feed themselves…the plants…they grow without any proper care. This forest just isn’t natural,” she replied back to me, as I noticed her walking next to me scanning all around her body and beyond like crazy. Making sure there wouldn’t be any vines that would come alive and grab her or whatever it was, I had no idea to be honest? “Okay, here we are, we’ve arrived at our destination!” “Thank you for flying with American Airlines,” I replied jokingly back to her. “Hey, come on now, I’m trying to be at least a little bit mature here before I see her. I haven’t seen her in months, so I am a little bit nervous.” “Please be sure and check your seatbelts and luggage before you depart…thank you,” I added in before laughing a little bit out loud. “Stop it! Ponies hate flying anyways,” she looked away, but fighting to hide a smile from my humor. “Except Pegasi, they love it from what I’ve seen, and they fly all their own…but anyways, am I going to be experimented on or whatever?" “No, if I know her, she might have a little something for a little someone.” Roseluck then nudges me before passing me up to the hut’s front door. “Okay then…whoever or whatever lives there…hope I don’t die in a forest like in some horror movies I’ve seen,” I gulped, totally unknown to what was within that tribal looking hut of a house. “Oh…and Zecora is a zebra by the way, so yeah,” Rose added to me standing next to her, before she then finally gave the door a firm knock three times. “A zebra? In Equestria? What!?” “Yep, she’s a zebra!” Rose smiled to me again, letting me know everything would be fine. “Oh…well then…guess that explains the African looking masks out side of her place I suppose,” I mumbled to myself.