Act I: Collision of Worlds
Chapter 1: Familiar Place, Unfamiliar Stigma
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It had been what felt like forever before Corey could open his eyes again. The first he realized, he was lying out face-up on the ground. He could see, very clearly, the sky above. Somehow or other, he hadn’t quite lost his glasses during that trippy vortex. More importantly, though, he felt something was…off, to say the least. Willing himself to move, Corey first lifted his head, and noticed something was off almost immediately: one, he was in actual clothes and not pajamas—able to see his favorite shirt and hoodie instead of a white T-shirt. He was basically fully clothed. He even had shoes on and all. This wasn’t exactly a normal occurrence.
Questionable vortexes, Corey thought to himself, putting his hands up in front of him to feel his torso to see if he really had slimmed down somehow, They burn several million calories per—
His train of thought derailed as soon as he saw his hands—when he got a good look at them. They still had five fingers, but that wasn’t his concern.
His hands were green.
“What in the—“ Corey began, pushing himself up into a sitting position now, still looking upon his hands. There was no mistake about it, they weren’t the pale color they usually were. The fact he was suddenly in real clothes—the gray hoodie, gray shirt with green logos on the front of it, dark gray pants, and of course his white shoes too—was the least of his concerns. Why was his skin green?
No—not skin, as he put his hands to his head, he realized his skin was actually covered in fur. His head hair felt, lengthened—he even had a tail now, dark green in color! The boy remained frozen in position, looking around.
Okay, stay calm… Corey thought to himself, It won’t do me any good to start panicking…You get sucked into your computer, definitely human, and in your pajamas…You come out the other end, questionably—
During his internal monologue, Corey ran his hands over his head. His ears weren’t in their usual spot, but now were on top of his head, folded downwards.
Definitely an animal, but…think! What could have—?
He would have facepalmed, but something pricked his hand when he went to do that. Confused and bewildered, Corey ran his hands over his head, more specifically, the upper part. He felt a drill of sorts coming out of it. Looking specifically at it, he realized what it was.
A…unicorn horn!? Corey recognized it almost immediately. Looking around, Corey stood up.
So you ran the program, you went into that vortex…and came out, more than likely a unicorn…which means…!
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The quaint town of Ponyville would usually be filled with chatter by now. It was about noon—the high point of any day, after all. Ponies were out of their houses, some walking about, others doing their jobs. But for the ponies in the middle of town, it was an entirely different story.
All of them were frozen in place, looking towards the center. There was something standing hunched over: something eight feet tall, black, blue, and scaly. He only wore what appeared to be a pair of blue jeans and a black open vest. Some of the crowd observing the dragon in the center of the town noted the look of dazed confusion on his face. He seemed to be more interested in examining himself than his surroundings.
“What’s he doing here? Didn’t they migrate out southeast?” one onlooker asked, in a hushed voice.
“You really never know with dragons sometimes…” another said, “Remember the librarian’s assistant? One time he got greedy, and…”
“I know, I know…Normally a nice little…dragon, though…”
“So what’s…?”
The dragon raised both of his clawed hands, looking like he came in peace, but instead a random mis-mash of what could barely be described as gibberish began to issue from his mouth. The ponies in the square all froze. The horribly confused look on his face did little to mitigate the fact that nopony understood what he was trying to say.
Again, he tried to speak, and again, he failed to form a coherent sentence. However, he made some progress:
“...eye…hear…no…” But these were the only three words he uttered that the gathered ponies could even begin to understand. The sentence still consisted of what sounded like grunts and growls.
By now, some ponies among the crowd were starting to get worried.
“I don’t think he’s come looking for some bread and eggs…” somepony said, now sounding scared.
“What’s he here for then?”
The dragon looked distinctly frustrated, and tried once again to communicate, but the only thing that was clear to the gathered crowd was that he was growling and grunting as though he were a feral dragon whose vocabulary was obliterated by his aging.
The crowd was deathly quiet now. More ponies had gathered around, and their faces morphed from cautious curiosity to fear. The dragon looked from pony to pony, seemingly understanding he had failed to communicate what he was here to do at all, and sighed.
As he sighed, a stream of orange flames came from his mouth. His eyes, half-closed from what could have been annoyance, shot open as he continued to spew fire.
But that was all the ponies saw, a dragon spewing a warning shot. The ponies were now in panic mode, and most of them began to scatter in all directions.
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John didn’t know what was going on. Not even a little. All he knew was that he was a dragon, surrounded by ponies—anthromorphed ponies, to be exact, since they clearly walked on two legs—and they were looking at him suspiciously if anything. It wasn’t hard for him to see why—the ground wasn’t quite so far away and he didn’t remember being so scaly—or dressing like a thug.
Well, to say he didn’t know what was going on at all wasn’t true—he did just cause a panic. All he wanted to do was sigh in frustration, and fire began to spew from his mouth!
John looked around at the ponies, trying to use his new throat and mouth to speak.
“Hold on, everyone! That was an accident!” That was what he wanted to say, but to the onlookers—and him, it came out as more guttural noises. John slumped his shoulders.
It’s no good! John bit his lip, which probably didn’t do well for his image right now, but he’d already caused a panic entirely by accident, so he didn’t care too much about that anymore. This won’t end well…
John summed up what he did know quickly: Corey ran the program, Skype began downloading something questionable and…surprisingly chillingly-named. Then, he woke up, was obviously a dragon; and now, in a world he knew all too well—with a slight twist.
And he’d just caused a mass panic.
And, to cap things off, he could see a distant rainbow turning around.
I’d better move…
John didn’t quite need to move past anypony; no one dared to try to get in his way as he took off running the first direction he could go. As he ran, the dragon could only think of one thing.
Corey, if you’re here too…!
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Corey walked through the forest, looking down on himself. He’d worked out most of the details, and the gist of it was, somehow or other, that code had sent him here—to Equestria, of all places. He still didn’t know all of it, though. Why did it send them here?
As he walked, he sighted Ponyville in the distance: the sight of a very distant moving rainbow going into town wasn’t quite hard to miss, especially since he still had his glasses on. Assuming it was in fact Rainbow Dash, he began to move towards town.
The code stopped after Season 3…Could that be a rough indicator of where in the timeline I am? For that matter, was John pulled in too? Corey thought to himself, his thoughts still not quite in sync following the sudden warp.
Shaking his head and pushing his glasses up on his face, the green unicorn looked up, resoluteness on his face.
I won’t get my answers, if I just stand around like an idiot! Corey thought, If I did cause it, I’ll solve it! So…I’ll start my search in Ponyville, at the Golden Oaks library…
Unknowing of John’s current predicament, Corey continued on his way towards Ponyville, the forest thinning out more and more as he continued into the forest.
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“There’s a what, in the town?!”
She had seen a lot of things since moving to Ponyville. She had been a part of several bad situations. But this was a new one to Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia, local librarian, and recently-coronated alicorn Princess. However, though she was officially a princess now, she didn’t always wear her tiara: one of those times wasn’t now. She more or less wore what many considered to be her usual outfit: a white long-sleeve shirt with a sort of crystal pattern to it, and white dress pants and a pair of brown shoes. The only real change was the slits in the back that accommodated her new wings.
“A d-d-d-dragon!” The pony delivering the bad news: Element of Kindness, and one of her best friends, Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus was physically trembling in fear; no doubt having encountered the beast she spoke of as it ran through town. Twilight knew, from prior experience, that dragons—at least, dragons that were bigger than Spike—were her biggest fear. It was really no surprise then, that she chose to run to Twilight tell her, rather than chase it down with the others. On this day, she wore a green sweater, pale blue skirt, white, knee-high socks, and black shoes.
“W-we don’t kn-kn-know why, b-but he just crash in the middle of t-town!” She continued, “Everypony was already afraid, then—fire—fire—he started to breathe f-f-fi-fire--!”
“Was it provoked in any way?” Twilight asked, cutting her off before she could go on any longer.
Fluttershy merely shook her head no—well, not “merely”. She violently shook it back and forth. This didn’t go well by Twilight.
That isn’t good, dragons and ponies generally don’t get along…But the ones I’ve run into only attacked when provoked…except for those three Spike tried to hang out with, and even then, they didn’t immediately start attacking! If it just breathed fire for no given reason, then…
“Ponyville may have some fighters, but they aren’t trained for something like this…” Twilight said to herself, already planning a course of action, “Where are the others?’ The lavender alicorn asked her friend.
“P-Pinkie and Rarity are trying to keep the town calm…Rainbow a-and Applejack are trying to catch the dragon…” Twilight bit down on her thumb: it was true they’ve probably faced worse in the grand scheme of things, but facing down a dragon was never a good idea. Even if the one in town was around teen age if anything, it was still probably strong enough to overpower any pony easily.
“Fluttershy…” Twilight began, “I need you to help them…”
Fluttershy squeaked and stopped shaking, instead becoming as stiff as a board. Twilight leaned forward, trying to sound as understanding as possible as she put her hands on Fluttershy’s shoulders.
She also knew from past experience Fluttershy could get a bit…rough should you try to force her to go see dragons…
“I know you’re afraid, but we don’t have any other options at the moment…I need you to use your stare…That worked before. With any luck, you’ll be able to persuade him to leave…”
Fluttershy turned her head weakly towards the town. Twilight took a quick peek as well. It was odd—if there was a rampaging dragon on the loose, certainly more of the town would be on fire by now? Nonetheless, the dragon was still a problem that needed to be resolved.
“I…I…” Fluttershy stuttered, “I…I can’t…but…”
Fluttershy hung her head and squeaked, “I’d never forgive myself if something were to happen to my friends…or the townsponies, because I was too afraid to help…”
The pegasus looked up to meet the alicorn’s eyes—or at least, tried to, her eyes slightly off to the left of Twilight now, “What about you?”
“I’ll catch up with you in just a bit,” Twilight said, “We don’t know anything—it could be a random attack, or it could be a sign of things to come…I’ll have to inform Princess Celestia. Hopefully she’ll be able to send help…” Twilight’s horn lit up a magenta color, a quill and parchment quickly floating into view just behind her.
“O-okay…I’ll try to find Rainbow then, she’ll be the easiest to find…” Fluttershy reasoned, running for the door.
“Fluttershy! One more thing!”
Fluttershy stopped, turning around.
“Be careful, all of you…” She added with a nod.
The pegasus could only offer the slightest, meekest of smiles as she nodded back. Fluttershy turned and, after taking a few steps, began to use her wings. With Fluttershy gone, Twilight turned back, writing the letter to her mentor.
This just doesn’t make sense…why would a dragon suddenly attack unprovoked? What’s he after, anyway? Twilight shook her head, trying to focus, No time for this! I can get answers later!
She quickly scanned over her letter.
“Dear Princess Celestia … dragon has unexpectedly shown up in Ponyville … requesting help on dealing with this … Your Student… P.S., does this have anything to do with…” Twilight mumbled as she proofread her message. She quickly nodded, satisfied with her message here, and rolled up the parchment, tying it with a red ribbon.
“Spike, I need you to send a letter!”
“What for?” Spike asked from another room.
“It’s urgent,” Twilight responded, “I’ll be out in town! Just please watch over the library until I get back! This won’t be long…I hope…”
“That didn’t sound good…” Her assistant snarked, “What’s ‘this’ about then, Twilight?”
No answer.
“Twilight?”
Spike never got his answer, Twilight already up and leaving—she wasn’t quite used to her new wings yet. She wasn’t quite sure how she managed—maybe it was the sheer excitement of her coronation that got her through it that first time, but whatever the case, it wasn’t entirely reliable yet.
Twilight didn’t know what was going on, but she knew it needed to be dealt with all the same…