“I told you that I shall deal with Huffington today, and I meant it when I said it as much as I do now,” Celestia said staring down at her sister. The two were alone as they walked through the hallways of the palace.
“I know what you said, but I feel that your personal proximity to this matter might cloud your judgment,” Luna replied.
Celestia gaped, wondering if she had heard her sister correctly. “What do you think that Huffington is to me exactly Luna?”
“Celestia, I know how much time you have spent with the stallion.” Luna began, turning to open the doors to the throne room. “I do not presume…” Luna stopped in her tracks, looking into the room with a mix of fear and confusion showing on her face.
Celestia stepped up to her sister peering into the room as well. In the middle of the room sat a creature completely covered in black lying across her and her sister’s thrones. Though the creature seemed to have four limbs it was very different from a pony. For the most part it was completely bald, except for a patch of long black hair hanging from what Celestia assumed to be it’s head. Upon closer inspection Celestia realized that the creature wore all black clothes, which covered most of its body, except its front legs. Where there should have been hoofs the creature had what appeared to be talons though they did not appear sharp, in one of these it held a metal flask, which it swirled around before tilting to its mouth and taking a large swig of whatever beverage it contained.
It took a moment but the two sisters gathered themselves and proceeded into the room. They stared at the creature as they made their approach, but it remained completely oblivious to them. When they stood a mere ten feet from the cloaked figure, Celestia cleared her throat, annoyed at being ignored for so long. The noise didn’t seem to surprise the being that laid across her throne, it lazily turned its head to look at the two regal sisters. For a moment the three stared at each other, Celestia unable to break her gaze from its amber eyes. When it spoke, Celestia almost jumped. Almost.
“Why hello there, I didn’t see you come in. It has been a long time Tia,” the creature said smiling at the eldest sister.
“What brings you here Apollo? I don’t have much time for your games today,” she replied flatly.
“You will not even indulge me in small talk? Tia where have your manners gone? Oh I didn’t see you Luna. Are you having a nice day?” it asked Luna who now had its attention.
“How long has it been since we last spoke Apollo? A thousand years?” Luna replied, not allowing herself to be put off guard by the intruder.
“More or less. I heard that you recently got back from vacation. How was it?” He took another swig of his flask.
“The moon is a desolate place as you no doubt know,” Luna said, annoyance beginning to creep into her voice.
“Yes, not much to do there,” he replied, taking another draw of his drink before turning back to Celestia. “Is that really so hard Tia? You didn’t always use to be so uptight. What happened to the good ole’ days when you would enjoy a laugh and the finer points of conversation?”
“We must all grow up at some point. Have you merely broken into our castle to frustrate me?” she asked, keeping her expression stoic.
“I was just hoping to have a nice pleasant conversation with some dear old friends before I told you of the problem at hand,” he replied before tilting back the flask again and draining the last of it. He then tossed it across the floor where it slid into a wall, it seemed that he was purposefully trying to annoy the sisters.
“If you have something that you want to say then I suggest you be out with it,” Luna advised.
The creature attempted to stand, and on the third attempt managed to keep its balance. Apollo stood now looking down at the two sisters. Being surrounded by small ponies sometimes made Celestia forget that she was not the tallest being in the universe. He then cleared his throat.
“Princess Celestia and Luna, Stewards of the Sun and Moon respectively. I come to you today to deliver a message of grave importance. It would seem that earlier today a hole in the fabric of the universe was ripped open and through it fell a being of immense power. Fret not my fair maidens for there is a spell in place which protects this world from the outsider’s interference. I just felt that you might need to know,” he gave the princesses a very shaky bow.
“When you say a being of immense power what are you talking about exactly?” Celestia asked.
“A human of course,” Apollo answered.
“Of course,” she responded flatly. “You said that there is a spell in place to protect Equestria?”
“Yes! It is a fun little thing I came up with.”
“What exactly is it if you don’t mind me asking?” Luna prodded.
“Oh you know some basic elemental fabrication along with a wide spread filtration barrier. The basic kind of stuff.” He gave Celestia a wicked smile.
“I do not have time for your games! We have a kingdom that we have to take care of. Tell me who has brought the human here?” Celestia demanded.
“Tia you really should relax. Trust me, there is nothing to get all worked up over. I am only telling you this information because of our long standing friendship, but I will not have you demand things of me as if I were one of your subjects.” He pulled another flask from his jacket and unscrewed it so he could take a swig.
“Do not attempt to change the subject. Tell me who has brought the human here,” she said again.
“This I do not know. All I know is that he is here. It would take an extremely strong magic user to cause a rift in the dimensions, and summon one here. Do you know of any being in Equestria capable of such a feat?” he asked.
“I can think of a few,” Celestia replied, hoping that she was wrong about whom she thought might have done this.
“Well then I leave this matter in your capable hands… or hooves, whatever,” Apollo said before trying to walk past the two alicorns towards the door.
“Wait. I haven’t seen you in so long, and you are just going to take off and not even help?” Luna asked catching his attention.
“Do not worry Luna. I will be around. I am curious to see how all of this works out.” Having said his piece, his body turned to black smoke and he was gone.
Celestia and Luna stood in the throne room silently contemplating the news that was brought to them. Apollo had never lied to them before, but he was never completely truthful either. It was Luna who broke the silence.
“Who do you think did this Tia?”
“In truth there is only one unicorn in Equestria capable of such a feat. I just hope I am wrong.”
The two sisters made their way to their respective thrones and laid across them. They beckoned the guards into the room so that they might start court for the day. The guards then quickly left the room and the sisters so that they may retrieve the first petitioner.
“You know what could happen if we do not address this matter Celestia,” Luna said, taking on a serious tone.
“I know what harm can come of a human sister. I also know that if Apollo said he had countermeasures in place, there is no reason to doubt him. Court has not been suspended in over a thousand years. If I were to close the castle so that we may leave to address this we may end up sending our subjects into a panic. We do not want that to happen.”
“I suppose you are right sister. I only fear because if this problem was serious enough to bring him here we should be taking it seriously as well,” Luna said relaxing a little more.
“I understand Luna. We will search for this human tonight.”
______________________________________________________________
This didn’t feel like my bed. No my bed is definitely not made of wood. How did I go from the semi-comfortable mattress of my bed, to lying on the wooden floor of a building staring up at a hole I had made in the ceiling? Lying painfully on the floor of a building I feel I should add. Perhaps I was dreaming, but aren’t dreams usually by definition painless? That probably tosses that explanation right out the window.
Maybe I was on a bad trip, and this was where my inner demons lie. No, that is stupid the worst thing I have ever done is Salvia, and I doubt that I’m am having some drug related hallucination. It is possible that I passed out here after getting wasted. I have never actually blacked out before, but they say that there is a first time for everything.
I don’t think that I should move. My back is probably already broken from falling straight through the roof, and from the looks of it another story of this building. Well look on the bright side at least it’s a nice sunny day. At least I think it is, kinda hard to tell with all those branches covering up that hole. Better call myself an ambulance. Oh that’s just great, no bars. Have I ever had no bars before?
Guess I will just lay here until somebody finds me. What is that? Is that a purple horse? I think dream and hallucinations have been placed back onto the board. I suppose insanity is a contestant now also. That one is kinda disturbing.
“Are you okay?” the purple horse asked me.
Talking purple horse, pain from falling through a roof, not in my room. Insanity seems to be like the front-runner now. Well what are you doing, might as well talk to it. Wait, isn’t talking to your hallucinations a bad thing? I definitely feel like that would be a bad thing. On the other hand she, at least it sounded like a she, seems to be nice enough. What does this mean about me if my insanity leads me to create a nice, imaginary, talking, purple horse. Mother issues maybe?
“Do you understand me?” she asked.
Looks like I somehow landed in a study. Maybe it’s a library or something. There are definitely enough bookcases for it to be either. This place looks more like a house than a library so I’m going with a study. I guess that these boards are from my little adventure through the ceiling. She is still staring at me I better do something.
“Yes I understand you.” Or at least that’s what I meant to say. My lips made the motions, but no words came out. That was very unsettling, somehow more so than the imaginary creature staring at me in confusion.
“What was that I didn’t hear you?” she said.
“I said yea I understand you.” Once again no sound.
I sat up, which was a really bad idea as I felt pain lance through my back. I would have let out a groan if my vocal cords were working. How come I couldn’t talk? I hate not being able to talk. Talking is a very important thing after all. The purple horse could see my pain and walked around behind me to examine my back. Luckily it didn’t feel like I had impaled myself on anything, but I was definitely going to hurt for a while.
She prodded my back with a hoof causing more pain. I had to restrain myself from throwing the small horse across the room. I was raised not to harm women, even the quadruped kind. Luckily, it seemed that she caught on how much that hurt as she raced around back in front of me, and began to apologize.
“I am so sorry did that hurt?”
I glared at her in answer.
“Yea that was a stupid question. So um, can you tell me what your name is?” she asked.
I seemed to have found a very inquisitive creature here. The whole fact that this was a hallucination brought on by my now apparent insanity seemed to solidify in my mind. Once again I attempted to answer her, but could not make any sound come out. The irony of the situation was not lost on me.
“So you can’t talk?”
I shook my head.
“Can you write?” she asked.
I gave her a thumbs up, but she didn’t seem to understand the gesture. So I decided to nod my head. An excited look came over her before she raced to the one table that was in the room. A paper and quill began to glow before it floated into the air.
Oh floating paper. Why not see how far this crazy train goes before we jump off.
I snatched the paper and quill out of the air when she offered them to me. I wrote a simple message “Hello nice to meet you” and held it up for her to read. She looked over the paper several times before turning back to me.
“I don’t know what this means,” she stated flatly.
Of course if she could read what I write this would just be too easy. Now this situation is not only impossible and insane, but also annoying. How do we go about communication then? Man I am thirsty I wonder if there is anything to drink around here.
I looked back at the lavender mare, and thought of how I should go about asking for a glass of water. With nothing better to do, I raised my hand and pantomimed drinking from a glass. She took a few steps backwards as I put my hand up, but seemed to get my meaning.
“Would you like something to drink?” she asked.
I nodded my head, glad that I was able to at least communicate a little bit. If she hadn’t understood me asking for a simple glass of water then I would have been really screwed.
“What would you like? we have carrot juice, water, milk, and a couple other vegetable drinks,” she inquired.
I shrugged. It wasn’t that I didn’t know exactly what I wanted. It was that I couldn’t actually tell her what I wanted. She seemed to pick up on this quickly.
“You can’t exactly tell me can you?”
I nodded again. She sighed, and walked away into another room that I could only assume was the kitchen. I felt that this was a good a time as any to try and stand up. At least I wouldn’t be embarrassed if I fell over in agony with no one around. My legs were shaky as I put my weight on them, but they held firm. From my new vantage point I could see just how small all of the furniture in the room was. It seemed that here I was a giant.
The purple horse made her way back into the room with a glass of water suspended behind her. She stopped as she entered and gazed up at me in awe, well at least what I assume was awe. I stood a good two feet taller than her. I had on my jeans and black hoodie with a grey Abercrombie T-shirt on underneath. It was curious that a figment of my imagination would regard me as looking strange. That seemed to somehow discredit the theory entirely.
Well if I am not insane, and this is not a hallucination. Perhaps I am no longer on Earth anymore. If I am not on earth then that means that I have somehow slid through dimensions or am on an alien planet, or both. Crossing the universe in my sleep seems unlikely so I guess I will take the multiverse theory at this point. That would explain the crash I suppose.
I was once again stirred from my musings as the cup of water was shaken in front of my face. The water did just that, and I drank it greedily. A sigh of relief escaped my lips as I handed the cup back to her.
“I forgot to introduce myself earlier. My name is Twilight Sparkle what is your name?” she said turning up to me.
My face connected to the palm of my hand in an instant. This mare just didn’t seem to be capable of not asking questions. I would be happy to tell her whatever she wished to know. At the moment however I was unable to. Her constant questions just drove home that fact.
“That is right, I forgot you can’t talk can you.”
I shook my head.
“Were you able to talk before you came here?”
I nodded.
“Do you know why you can’t talk now?”
I shook my head again.
“That is strange. You seem to understand me, but apparently can’t write. I guess I will only ask you yes or no questions then.”
I smiled in response to this. ‘At least it seems she is learning. She asked if I was able to speak before I got here. Which means that I have traveled some place. Does she know how I got here? I can't really ask her if she does now can I?’
“So I assume you have a name. I don’t exactly know what you are, but you seem to be intelligent. At least I think so,” she said to herself.
I was slightly miffed by the comment, which didn’t go unnoticed. A clear sign that a being is intelligent is that they get annoyed when one implicates they are not. At least that is how I view it, and apparently how she did as well.
“Okay so maybe you are intelligent. This is amazing. When I did the summoning spell I had no idea what would happen, but now that you are here I can learn so much,” she said giddy with excitement.
‘Summoning spell? That sounds like something that would pull a poor man out of his sleep and cause him to crash through a roof in another world. So it was her fault all of this happened?’
Twilight seemed to catch a small amount of anger that I directed her way. Perhaps she realized for the first time that I had not asked to come to a strange new world, and had been abducted against my will.
“Are you okay? I didn’t mean to hurt you when I cast the spell. It is strictly temporary trust me. Can you wait here while I go and get some of my friends? They will be so excited!”
With that she raced out of the building leaving me alone with my thoughts.
‘Great I have been brought to a different world against my will, and now I am expected to just sit here. She will be back with friends who will probably ask me a bunch of questions, and I can't answer any. Still, it isn’t everyday that you find yourself in a different world. I should try to be optimistic about this.’
I walked a short ways over to the table in the room and sat down on top of it. I would wait here patiently for a while before the excited young mare returned. I thought that it would be wise not to wander around aimlessly in a world I knew nothing about. Being able not to communicate with anyone would probably not help my make a good first impression either.
______________________________________________________________
“5,706”
“She is still doing it.”
“Just ignore her.”
“5,707”
“That’s easy for you to say.”
“Oh you think it is easier for me to ignore that counting than it is for you?”
“5,708”
“Of course it is easier for you. You are so anti-social that it shouldn’t be difficult at all.”
“Is that how you see me? Anti-social?”
“5,709”
“It is so annoying.”
“I said ignore it!”
“5,710”
“I SAID I CAN'T!”
“That sounds like more of a you problem than an us problem.”
“5,711”
“Would you two be quiet! We have more important worries than her counting.”
“5,712”
“Are you serious. I am stuck here and have to listen to that. What could be a bigger worry? This is going to drive me insane.”
“You already are insane.”
“5,713”
“I have had enough of this.”
“5,714”
“I said stop it.”
“5,715”
“STOP COUNTING!”
“5,716”
“23, 512, 345, 792, 5706, 314, 56509, 52”
“….”
“Ha!”
“1”
“I am going to kill you!”
“Silence!”
“What are you yelling at me for?”
“2”
“You are being aggravating.”
“She is the one aggravating me.”
“3”
“You have been listening to her count for how long now? And you still can’t block it out?”
“Haha you got in trouble.”
“4”
“Be quiet Bre, don’t think I forgot about your involvement in this.”
“What did I do?”
“5”
“You kept pushing her. If the two of you keep arguing you will wake up my brother. Do you really want that?”
“No mam.”
“No mam”
“6”
“Good. Now we need to talk.”
“Talk about what? Another one of your rants about how you are going to get revenge?”
“7”
“INSOLENT FOAL!”
“Shhhh. I thought you said that you didn't want to wake him up.”
“8”
“Moving forwards. We need to talk about Discord.”
“Why would you want to talk about that blowhard?”
“9”
“If you hadn’t noticed he hasn’t talked to us in a while.”
“Good. He is almost as annoying as she is.”
“10”
“What exactly are you getting at?”
“What I’m saying is that either he is free or he has died.”
“11”
“Good riddance.”
“Oh so you think it’s a good thing that an immortal died while imprisoned? I wonder how a mortal pony would fair.”
“12”
“Okay I see your point.”
“I don’t get it.”
“13”
“Imbecile. If he died while locked away then we will too.”
“Oh is that what you are worried about?”
“15”
“You skipped a number Pris”
“… 1”
“Can we shut her up please?”
“Pristine can you please stop counting?”
“What else would I do Bre?”
“I don’t know perhaps you can play a game.”
“But we have already played all the games we know.”
“Then think up a new game.”
“Okay Bre.”
“You mean you could have gotten her to stop whenever you wanted?”
“Of course. Pris is my little sister.”
“I’m going to kill you now.”
“Focus you two!”
“Sssshhh.”
“We need to focus on this matter. If Discord is dead then we wont last much longer.”
“How do you figure that?”
“We haven’t been here nearly as long as he has.”
“But we aren’t immortal.”
“I have to agree with you on that one”
“Discord. I guess you didn’t die.”
“Of course not A, you know I cannot die.”
“Discy! I have been waiting for you.”
“Is that right my little Pristine?”
“Yea I have been counting, but meanie Spite made me lose count.”
“Why would she do something like that?”
“Because she is a meanie.”
“Watch it runt!”
“A, Spite is being mean and loud again.”
“Quiet both of you. Now, Discord what brings you here today?”
“Well I have been running around for Equestria for a while, but I just missed you guys so much I had to come back and pay a visit.”
“The Princesses caught you again?”
“No Bre. It wasn’t the princesses this time. It was some ponies from a town called Ponyville. They had the elements of harmony.”
“You got beaten by a couple of hick ponies. You are so lame Discord.”
“That isn’t very nice Spiteful. I was going to help you escape this prison, but now I don’t know about it.”
“Pay her no heed Discord. I am the one that speaks for us.”
“I was actually hoping to converse with your brother.”
“He is sleeping, and I feel it unwise to disturb him.”
“Discy, look at this new game I made.”
“That seems like a fun game Pris. Well A, I suppose I will speak with you then.”
“Yea don’t mind me.”
“Do you feel left out Bre?”
“No I was seriously saying don’t mind me. I am going to play with my little sis for a while.”
“See you later then.”
“Yea later.”
“Well like I was saying A. I can get you out of this infernal prison, but the offer is only for a limited time. I won't have the power to do it for long.”
“What do you want in return?”
“Oh A. You are a paranoid pony aren’t you? I want nothing in return. I just want to help out a friend of mine.”
“We have never been friends Discord.”
“I thought that over the past three hundred years the two of us have become acquaintances at least. I wasn’t talking about you anyways I was referring to your brother.”
“I didn’t think that you and my brother were on such pleasant terms.”
“Are you two just going to ignore me like I’m not here?”
“Spite why don’t you go sit in the corner. The adults are talking.”
“I am as old as you are A.”
“You are dreaming if you think that is true.”
“Family troubles?”
“Spite leave. I need to talk with Discord in private.”
“Fine. Whatever. See if I care.”
“Where was I?”
“You were saying that you would get us out of here out of the kindness of your heart.”
“That is right. Also there is something else you should be aware of.”
“What would that be?”
“I know that you have searched for the Well of Eternity for a long while. Would you like me to tell you where it is?”
“You mean you knew where it was this whole time and never told me!”
“Calm down. What good would it have done to tell you if you couldn’t even go there.”
“Okay then Discord. Where is the well?”
“Now that bit of information is restricted.”
“Why would you bring it up just to not tell me?”
“I need you to make a promise for me before I tell you where it is. In exchange for the information on the well you will release me from my prison once again.”
“You would have me release one of the most dangerous beings ever because of a simple promise?”
“I know that you will not go back on your word. He won't let you.”
“You do have a point there. Fine, Discord I give you our word that after we find the Well of Eternity we will release you from your prison. Shouldn’t be too difficult after we have all that power.”
“I agree. Now hold on this might be a bit painful.”
The stone around the statue began to crack and break. A light poured out of the cracks and quickly became blinding to look at. There was a loud snap and the statue of a unicorn was replaced by the living visage. The mare was green with a pink mane. On her flank were two masks, one smiling and the other frowning. She took a few hesitant steps before she sank to her haunches. She hadn’t used her legs in over three hundred years, and they felt quite weak.
“You should probably hurry and disguise yourself before the guards show up.”
The green mare nodded to the statue of the Draconequus before she focused on her magic. A green glow enveloped the unicorn and slowly her body began to change shape. After a few moments a large white pegasus stallion stood where she once was. It looked around at its new body for a moment.
“Dammit A. Why do you always stick me in a male’s body?”
There was a short pause as the white stallion waited for an answer.
“Fine I’ll get us out of here, but don’t you think that I have dropped this,” it said before taking off into the sky.
“You will find the Well of Eternity in the Everfree Forest not too far from the ruins of the castle. Hurry won’t you I do not enjoy being frozen in this pose.”
The former unicorn did not look back as it vanished from sight and into the sky. A few moments later the guards that were alerted by the noise in the garden found the pile of rubble where a statue had been a few moments earlier. After the incident a few months earlier with Discord they wasted no time making their way to Princess Celestia to inform her.
______________________________________________________________
The situation wasn’t exactly what I would call uncomfortable, but I definitely wasn’t feeling safe with the pink pony staring me in the face. Twilight had just returned when a pink blur shot into the building, and stopped an inch away from my face. She just stared at me for a long time, and I was afraid to make a move and startle her.
“Hi I’m Pinkie Pie!” she exclaimed nearly causing me to fall off the table.
I collected myself and gave her a wave. She turned and bounced back to the center of the room, yes she bounced. I was so thrown off by Pinkie Pie that I didn’t notice the other four unknown mares enter the room. Twilight got my attention and motioned to her friends. The white pony that had entered with the rest stepped forwards and gave a bow.
“My name is Rarity. it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” she said.
This was weird. The three colorful horses I had seen speak so far were a pink lunatic, a purple bookworm, and now a WASP. Next, you will be telling me that one of them will have a thick southern accent.
“Well howdy. Ah’m Applejack, and it's mighty nice ta meet y’all,” Applejack gave me a tip of her hat. I didn’t know why a pony was wearing a cowboy hat, but it seemed to fit.
The remaining two winged ponies remained silent and stared at me. Well the blue one stared. The yellow one glanced at me through her pink mane that hung over her face. I wasn’t even bothered that these two had wings; I had stopped trying to make sense of the world by this point.
“It is customary to give your name in return,” chimed the white unicorn in front of me. Twilight was about to inform her of my inability to speak, but was cut off by a pink ball of energy.
“Don’t be silly Rarity. He can’t talk!” she said, bouncing around the room.
“How do you know that Pinkie Pie?” Twilight asked.
“Well its obvious Twilight. I said that I was Pinkie Pie, and he didn’t tell me what his name was. Which means that either he doesn’t have a name or he can’t talk. It would be so sad if he didn’t have a name, I mean imagine going through your whole life never having a name. But then I looked at him, and he doesn’t seem sad so it has to be that he can’t talk. I mean, duh,” she replied stopping to face the purple unicorn as she spoke.
I facepalmed once again because of how convoluted her logic was, which was made worse by the fact that she was right. The other mares in the room seemed to share my feelings, but quickly moved past it.
“Oh my. He can’t talk? Is something wrong with him?” asked the yellow pegasus (yeah I know what a winged horse is called) as she peeked out from behind her mane. She saw that I was looking at her and quickly hid again.
“I was hoping that you could help me out with that one Fluttershy. You are good with animals so you might be able to do something,” Twilight said, prodding her friend trying to get her to come out of hiding.
I folded my arms at the remark, and gave Twilight a warning glance. I didn’t like to be referred to as an animal. I mean it's true that humans are animals, but we generally avoid making that association. To be called an animal by a talking horse just seemed downright insulting. Twilight noticed my glare, and shot back one of her own.
“What?” she asked. I turned my nose up at her, that would show her.
“He probably doesn’t like being called an animal Twilight,” Rarity informed her.
“Well look at him. He obviously isn’t a plant or any kind of single celled organism. What else should I call him?” Twilight replied to her friend.
“Well you should probably address him formally by his name. I mean look at him he is wearing clothes so he is obviously not some dumb beast,” Rarity stated motioning to me.
The blue pegasus that had been still throughout this entire scene shot into motion and was staring me in the face in a second, she was really fast. She hovered in the air inches from my nose glaring daggers at me. I returned the stare, and we sat there glaring at each other for a while.
“I don’t know Rare,” she started, “he doesn’t look all that smart to me.”
I snapped my teeth at her causing her to shoot backwards and slam into a bookcase on the other side of the room. I then proceeded to burst out in laughter, well silent laughter. My actions caused Applejack to also start to chuckle lightly.
“That wasn’t funny,” said the blue pony as she climbed out of a pile of books.
“Perhaps you shouldn’t go around insulting ponies,” Rarity told her before she turned her attention back to me. “So I understand that you can't talk, but we must certainly call you something. Could you perhaps write your name down for us?” she asked.
I had already been down this road with Twilight, but the mare has asked so nicely so I decided to give it another try. I picked up a piece of paper that was sitting next to me on the table and pulled a quill out of whatever it was that held quills. I then wrote my name down for all of them to see and held it out hoping that one of them could read it. They all gazed at the paper, and tried to decipher its contents.
“Fluzzah?” guessed Twilight.
“No, Ah think it says Horgin,” Applejack chimed in.
“That definitely says Gallroop,” the blue pegasus said confidently.
“Well I am certain I don’t know what it says,” Rarity resigned.
“Don’t be silly it says Darky, clear as day,” Pinkie Pie offered.
I turned the sheet of paper back around to inspect it. I could clearly see the name written on the paper, and it didn’t have any Z’s in it. While I was studying the paper everyone else’s attention seemed to have turned to Pinkie Pie.
“Why do you think it says that Pinkie?” Twilight inquired.
“Well I mean look at him. He has dark hair and is wearing dark colored clothes. What else would his name be,” she explained.
Twilight then turned to me, “Is your name really Darky?” she asked.
It seemed like a mile better than any of the other names they had managed to come up with for me so I shrugged and nodded at her question. At least they would have something to call me and not just have to refer to me as “It” or “Him”.
“Well okay then. Fluttershy can you go take a look at Darky and see if something is wrong with him,” Twilight said turning to the her winged friend again.
Fluttershy nodded and trotted over to where I was sitting and looked up at me. I was guessing that the “shy” part of her name meant that she was naturally bashful. She prodded my leg with a hoof, and looked up at me.
“Doesn’t it hurt to sit like that?” she asked.
The question caught me slightly off guard. I had never really thought of a different way to sit. I looked down at her and shook my head. She smiled at my confirmation.
“Um, if it’s okay I mean, can I take a look at your throat. That is what where there would probably be a problem that would stop you from talking,” she asked.
I nodded an affirmative, and she stood on her back hooves and braced herself against me. She then raised one of her front legs to my throat and began to feel it. It was kind of strange, the feel of her hoof. I thought that a pony’s hoof was supposed to be hard, but her’s wasn’t. They seemed to even feel kind of soft. She rubbed my throat for a little while, and I held myself still so she could finish her inspection. I was as anxious to hear her diagnosis as anyone else was.
After a moment she took a step back, and turned to Twilight again. “I can’t find anything wrong with him physically. I don’t know why he can’t talk.”
I silently swore to myself, and looked at the ground in defeat. I felt a yellow hoof make its way under my chin and lift my head up.
“Now don’t look so sad. You are perfectly healthy, which is a good thing. I am sure Twilight will be able to figure out what is wrong in no time,” Fluttershy said reassuring me.
“Yea Twilight is a smarty smart smartypants. She can look in her books and find out anything about anything,” Pinkie Pie added, bouncing into my vision.
“In the meantime, Darky we can learn so much about each other,” Twilight said approaching me. “I can show you all about the history of Equestria, and about our government. I guess I could even see how good you are at math. Oh this will be so much fun!” she exclaimed.
The girls seemed to take that as their queue to leave.
“I got a party to plan,” Pinkie pie stated as she dashed out the door.
“I have work to get back to,” Applejack explained as she hastily made her way out as well.
“Me and Fluttershy have uh, pegasus stuff to do,” the blue mare said grabbing Fluttershy as she made her way out of the room.
“I am just so backed up in my designing. I must simply get back to it,” Rarity said quickly making her escape.
Twilight didn’t seem to notice all of their hurried excuses and waved to them as they raced out of the building. She then turned to a bookcase, and I saw dozens of thick history books fly off the shelf, and land next to her.
“Okay so where should we begin?” she asked.
Dear god what have I gotten myself into?