//------------------------------// // An explanation // Story: Gong Yi Tem Ponies // by TrombonePlayingPony //------------------------------// I woke up feeling like my head had been bashed into a wall, and considering the crazy dream I had, head injury was a likely option. I mean, purple talking unicorns and tree buildings definitely aren’t what the normal, non-drugee sees everyday. I blinked my eyes open to find my bangs were blocking my view, forcing me to move my arm and brush the hair to the side. Seems I’ve put off getting a haircut just a bit too long. With that out of the way, I pushed myself into a sitting position, ignoring the fact the room was wobbling as I tried to figure out where I was. It was pretty dark as the only light source was the starlight coming through the window. The entire place seemed to be made of wood with no seams between the floors, walls, and ceiling, giving it an organic look. There were a few pieces of furniture like a bed, small book shelf, and a basket I assumed was a bed for a dog or something. One door to the room was shut while the other was left partially open to reveal a closet. I was on the floor with a pillow and blanket, which I assumed was because the bed was much too small for me. Why am I in a kid’s room though? I glanced around for a bit before seeing that the scroll I had gotten from the creepy merchant was propped up against the wall, thought the ruby was nowhere to be seen. I’m not sure why but I reasoned I would feel safer if I had it on my person so I worked on reaching it. Took me a fair bit of time but I managed to stand up and make it over to that side of the room. As I worked the strap over my head, I heard voices coming from behind the one door in the room that wasn’t open. “I say we send this thing packing. Who knows what it could do if it gets loose!” said a gruff yet feminine voice. “But it appeared to be sentient. Not only that but a creature like him has never before been seen. Think about what we could learn!” said the voice of the purple unicorn from before. Wait… if that’s the same voice, does that mean… I looked down at myself to see I was still wearing the robes I had on in my not-a-dream. For a moment I had to lean against the door as my brain went back into overdrive with the bonus of the headache I still had since waking up. “Qué demonios...” I muttered before relaxing somewhat. So… I’m in some world where tiny caballos with horns and wings not only exist but can also speak. I have no idea how I got here and all I have is these new clothes and some copy of a scroll from a TV show I barely remember. “But what about the ponies Twi? I don’t want to risk getting any of my kin hurt by some monster.” said the most stereotypical southern accent I’ve ever heard. Woah there! Hold up! They’re calling me a monstro?! I’m not the mutated horse! Wait… are they all those things? I guess there could be other animals like that gecko. “Oh come now Applejack. If anything it’s only reason to want us harm would be because you slammed its head into the door frame bringing it inside.” said yet another stereotypical accent, though this one was on the opposite end of the spectrum and sounded rather posh. I brought a hand up to my head to find a bandage. It was wrapped snuggly around my head with expert care, alluding that someone knew their first aid. As I ran my fingers along the fabric, a sharp jolt of pain was oh so kind as to point out where my head was split open. “Ay!” I muttered, flinching away from the spot. Well that explains why I feel worse than uncle Ricardo after the black friday rush. Still though, that isn’t much of a reason to want to harm someone, even if it is a talking horse. “I didn’t mean to do that! That feller’s a big one. Besides, Fluttershy here says it’s a meat eater, ain’t that right?” The next voice I recognized as the third of the voices I had heard outside. At least, I think it was the same but whoever it was never learned to project. “Well… yes. It has canines like a meat eater but…” “But what?” said an incredibly cheery voice. “Oh… it’s just… when we saw it in front of the tree it seemed… well, scared. Like it was lost or something.” Scared? I would more call it “having a mental crisis as logic itself seems to become unravelled” but I guess scared is one way of describing it. “Well if it’s scared than we need to make it happy! There won’t be any frowns in Ponyville while Pinkie’s around!” said the cheery voice. “I agree, Pinkie dear,” returned the posh voice. “It should be our job to welcome this new po- er, person to Ponyville, not run it out of town for doing nothing.” Alright, not too much of a fan of the accent on the latter one, but those two are sounding way better than the bumpkin and her tomboy friend. Still not sure on the purple unicorn and the quiet one but at least they aren’t trying to kick me out. Now as I was thinking this I failed to realize I was still leaning on the door rather heavily. So when said door suddenly swung out I was left to the mercy of gravity. Thing is, gravity knows no mercy so my face met the floor for the second time. Look on the bright side! At least you didn’t get grass in your mouth this time. I turned my head up to see six faces looking at me with different degrees of shock, and all of them with muzzles. With my stellar entrance already ruined this was my one chance to try and not look like an idiot. “Uh… hola.” Nailed it. “Oh my gosh, it can talk!” said the purple unicorn I believe was named Twi. She seemed about ready to jump on me, though in a much kinder way than the rainbow haired one and the one with the hat. Gonna guess these two are the bumpkin and tomboy. The other three were much more varied, the pink one bouncing like a ball, the white one smiling softly, while the yellow one was trying to hide behind the white one. I pushed myself up into a crosslegged position, making sure to go slowly so as to not give any of them a reason to think I was violent. Once I was seated and comfortable, I looked around at everyone still staring at me. It was honestly rather nerve racking to have six people- or ponies I guess- giving me their full attention and I without a clue what to say. “So… should I ask the first question or shall I let all of you go first?” “Twi” was who I expected to answer first but the rainbow tomboy beat her to it as she got right up in my face. “What are you here for, huh? You an alien planning to attack Equus? Gonna capture all the ponies and eat ‘em?” Is she serious? Was all I could think before bursting out laughing. I mean really, have you ever heard something so clearly ripped out of a crappy alien movie? When I calmed down, all the ponies seemed to be looking at me confused minus the pink one who continued to bounce. “Ehem. In order, I have no idea what I’m here for. One moment I was in a building on a world filled with my kind, and the next I was outside the tree where these two found me.” I waved a hand in the direction of Twi and the yellow one who had miraculously stopped shivering. “I am not an alien, at least I don’t think I am. The universe is endless after all. Planning to attack though would be impossible with my kind because the most space travel we have done is go to our moon. Anything further has just been recon drones which are little more than solar powered cameras on wheels.” I noticed Twi had gotten out a notepad and quill and was now furiously taking notes. With no hands. The quill was just moving on its own. No, don’t think about it too much. “As for capture, you guys seem well beyond my ability. Some of you can fly, this one is using magic as far as I can tell, and if you, “ I nodded toward the bumpkin with the hat “are capable of lifting me, you are plenty stronger than I am. Also, I’ve never had horse meat and considering you are sentient I don’t plan on starting.” That seemed to calm the two of them down. The bumpkin looked down and pawed the ground with a single hoof before asking “You ain’t too mad about hitting your head on the way in, are ya?” “What, this?” I rubbed the side of the bandage, causing another pain induced flinch. “Nah.” I said while gritting my teeth. “It was an accident. Besides, whoever you got to wrap me up clearly knew their stuff.” “That was me.” A small voice squeaked out from behind the white unicorn. I bent my neck enough to see the yellow pegasus looking at me. Dios mio. I haven’t seen something this cute since Rachel was five. “Well thanks for that. Are you a doctor or something?” “N-no. I just take care of animals a lot.” Sounds even more like Rachel. Freaky. I was about to ask more about her animals when my face was suddenly filled with pink and my ears filled with superspeed chatter. “Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! You missed the bestest party ever for Twilight but I guess you couldn’t help it since you were all sleepy and such. When Twilight opened the door and said she needed help bringing someone inside I was like ‘Oh no! What pony got hurt?’ but then Applejack came in with you on her back and I was all like ‘Woah! That’s not a pony!’ which was crazy because I already got to meet someone else who wasn’t a pony today named Spike who is a dragon that came with Twilight and-” The rest of her crazed rush of words became muffled as a white hooves clamped down on her muzzle. I… was that another language? Definitely wasn’t spanish. “Now Pinkie dear,” the white unicorn spoke as I found out the owner of the posh voice. “You are scaring the poor thing. If I were to guess he has never even met a pony before, correct?” I was momentarily shocked at her ability to read me before nodding. “Si señora. At least not ponies like you.” “Ponies like us? You will have to explain that sometime. For now though we should introduce ourselves. I am Miss Rarity, though Rarity is just fine. This little ball of energy,” she nodded toward the pony who was still talking into Rarity’s hooves “is Pinkie Pie. She’s a bit of a handful if you aren’t used to her.” “I’m Fluttershy.” I was surprised to see that the yellow pegasus had made her way out from behind Rarity and was now standing on her own, though she still hid behind her long pink hair when I looked in her direction. Still cute, but could she be any shier? Wait… Flutter “shy”? So God does have a sense of humor. The cowgirl pony tipped her hat as she spoke. “Applejack’s the name.” “And I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in all of Equestria!” You can guess which one said that. “And I’m Twilight Sparkle. Oh, I’m just so excited! A new species and it talks! I’ll need to write a letter to the princess and-” “Twilight! This gentlestallion,” Rarity turned to me “you are a stallion, right?” “Well the male gender is called a man or hombre for my species, but yes.” “Thank you. This gentleman has enough problems, showing up in a place he knows nothing about surrounded by strangers, without you treating him like a science experiment.” “But Rarity, just think about it. His species has done space travel with so little magic! Just imagine what we-” “Whatever it is, it can wait until after the summer sun celebration, which I may remind you is tomorrow morning.” Rarity turned back to me. “I imagine you will be needing a place to stay until we sort out getting you home.” “I guess, but I’m fine with where I just was. I’ve slept on worse on the few camping trips I’ve been on.” The mention of camping seemed to send a shiver down her spine. “Oh gracious no! You can take the guest room at my boutique for now. I insist.” Now, normally with someone being as generous as this I’d give them the benefit of the doubt. But considering the last generous person seemed to send me to magical pony world I was less than welcome to the thought. I rose my hands defensively. “You really don’t need to do that. Besides, if others see me they might think I’m a monstro like your friends here.” Rainbow Dash cocked her head in confusion. “Monstro? The heck does that mean?” It took me a moment to realize I had showed off my heritage a bit. “Oh. Back where I’m from there are multiple languages. Monstro means monster in the second language I am fluent in.” Twilight perked up at this. “You can speak iguanish! Cómo aprendió a hablarlo?” Okay, the caballo speaks spanish. “Well first off the language is called spanish where I’m from. Second, to answer your question I learned from my family as I was growing up. But back to my original concern, what about the ponies?” “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about it.” Twilight said back in english. “When Applejack brought you in practically everyone in Ponyville was here enjoying Pinkie’s party. They all saw you and they’d still be here too if I hadn’t insisted they leave.” Rarity nodded. “And I will be walking with you of course. With me by your side, no one would dare question you were anything more than a gentle soul.” With no better excuse to make I conceded to my fate. “Very well. A bed will be better than the floor I guess.” “Marvelous!” She let go of Pinkie Pie’s muzzle, who was apparently done with whatever story she had been telling. “Do you have any other things you need to bring?” I checked to make sure the scroll was still on my back, a feeling of security washing over me. “No, though I seem to be missing something. A ruby with spikes along the base of it.” “Ruby?” Twilight spoke. “We didn’t see you with any ruby when we found you outside the library.” Maldita sea. Guess it got left behind or something. “Is it important?” I shook my head. “No, it’s just that the ruby and this scroll are the only things I have from where I came from. Even my clothes got changed when I was brought here by whatever it was.” “Interesting.” She scribbled a few things on her notepad. “Could you tell me more about this? I might be able to find what happened and reverse it.” “Well, lets see. I was at a convention. Do you all know what a convention is?” “What, like a scientific convention?” Rainbow jumped up. “I think he’s talking about comic conventions like nerds go to.” I grumbled at being called a “nerd” having been called it way too many times to count in the past. She seemed to pick up on my displeasure and added a “Whoops. My bad.” I sighed. “Yes, like a comic convention, only for a larger set of media. While I was there I went to the shop booths, found this one guy selling really cool stuff. One of them was this scroll.” I tugged on the strap. “I looked over it because I thought it looked familiar and the booth owner was more than happy to help me jog my memory. “After that, I was about to leave until he suddenly said he wanted to give me the scroll along with the ruby I mentioned earlier. I was surprised and decided there was no harm in taking them. Once I did though the ruby glinted some light in my eyes. I then felt something bump into me from behind and the next thing I knew I was face first in the grass in front of the library.” At the mention of something bumping into me Twilight gave a sheepish grin. “The something bumping into you was me. I wasn’t looking where I was going.” I chuckled and shook my head. “Well that’s one mystery solved. Still doesn’t explain how I jumped worlds in the split second I was blinded.” Twilight hummed to herself before trotting off. Pinkie Pie bounced after her along with Rainbow Dash and Applejack, leaving Fluttershy and Rarity, the former of which was the first to talk surprisingly. “Um… do you mind if... I check your bandage? I mean, if that’s okay with you.” She practically squeaked out. “Ya, sure. Doctor knows what’s best.” She walked around me and I felt what I think was feathers fiddling with the bandages on my head. As she did this, Rarity seemed to be looking over me oddly. “Is something wrong señorita?” “Hm? Oh nothing dear. I was just looking at your strange set of clothing. You say you weren’t wearing these before you got here?” “No. I was just wearing a t-shirt and jeans before. Nothing fancy like this.” “Well I must say, despite your lack of choosing the ensemble, it rather suits you. Makes you seem… calm yet at the same time strong. As if you were some sort of warrior.” I blushed at the compliments and even more at how not like me the words were. Calm I guess fits me about fifty percent of the time, but strong? My little sister could pick me up! “Well thank you.” “A quick question though. You were wearing something before, yes?” I nodded. “Does that mean you normally wear clothes?” I nodded again. “Why is that?” “Well my race isn’t exactly covered in fur. Plus it’s considered indecent. Always has.” “An entire race that wears clothes all the time. Why… why that’s just fabulous! Oh the fashions your people must have created! Tell me, just what sort of amazing work of art was this ‘t-shirt and jeans’?” “I wouldn’t call them a work of art, I’ll say that much. Those clothes were the most casual thing worn mostly. A t-shirt was just a shirt like this,” I tugged on the robes. “but with no break down the middle and shorter sleeves. The one I was wearing was just a single color. The jeans were even plainer than that. Navy blue, button and zipper at the waist, entire thing made of a material meant to last through wear and tear.” Despite how dull I had tried to make my old clothes sound, which were pretty dull to begin with, Rarity seemed to drink in everything I was saying as if I was some prophet of fashion. She seemed ready to ask even more questions but Fluttershy interrupted. “You’re fine, though I’ll need to change out the bandages tomorrow morning. It looks like these won’t last further than that.” I now noticed that the side of my head felt a bit moist. Well I guess if I’m going to hit my head, I might as well do it the right way and get a full on concussion. I got up slowly so as to not make myself dizzy before giving Fluttershy a light pat on the head. “Gracias Fluttershy. I’ll make sure to find you tomorrow.” She gave me a small smile before nodding and walking out the same way everyone else had. I looked to Rarity and gestured toward the exit with both hands. “Ladies first.” Rarity seemed somewhat surprised by my manners. “Such a polite man despite everything you’ve gone through.” She said as she walked by me. “I’ll admit that I’m ignoring a lot of the things that are bothering me right now.” I followed her down a set of stairs into what seemed to be the main room of the library. Twilight was already hard at work and didn’t notice us leave. Outside the air was warm despite it being the dead of the night, though I supposed that made sense as Rarity had mentioned some sort of summer party. “Oh? And just how much is bothering you?” “Well, I have no idea where I am, how I got here, or how to get back. As far as I’ve seen so far, what with Twilight levitating a quill and the pegasi having wings way too small for their bodies, this world works on laws that fly in the face of everything I’ve ever known. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that I am right now talking to a unicorn, something that should only exist in mythology.” Rarity hummed in thought. “You say unicorns don’t exist on your world? But you said you had met ponies before.” “Yes, but they were just animals. They weren’t sentient, or could talk, or really do much of anything other than eat grass. Also none of them have wings or horns.” “I… see…” Rarity said, her pace slowing a bit. “Does that mean you only see us as animals?” “Woah there now! I never said that. I don’t judge people based on their looks and as far as I’m concerned that includes you ponies too. I’ll admit it was a bit of a shock at first but I’m slowly getting used to it.” Rarity sighed. “Thank goodness. You had me worried for a bit there.” We continued our walk for a bit longer before she spoke again. “Though there is something else I am still concerned about.” “Que? What is it?” “You said you eat meat. Is it necessary in your diet because I don’t think I could stand having around.” I put a hand to my chin as I thought. “Well… there were people in my world who were vegetarian. Basically it meant they didn’t eat meat. From what I can remember they got their protein from other sources like nuts and beans.” “And you weren’t one of these vegetarians I take it?” I shrugged. “I never had a reason really. Most vegetarians were like that because they didn’t like how animals were treated or something along those lines. Some seemed to believe it was healthier but I never saw any proof that it was better.” I could already tell where Rarity was heading with this. “If you aren’t comfortable, I can live without meat.” “Really? I wasn’t going to ask, just suggest you eat it elsewhere, but I thank you all the same.” Her kindness was infectious to say the least as a smile came to my face. Nice to know I have some friends in this crazy new world. “It’s the least I can do for giving me a place to stay.” “Oh it’s nothing mister…. oh! It seems in all of the excitement we never asked for your name.” I thought back for a moment before snickering a bit. “Ya, I guess so. My name’s Allan. Allan Rhodes.” “A pleasure to meet you Mr. Rhodes.” “Please, just Allan is fine. We’re friends after all.” Rarity’s smile seemed to get a bit bigger. “Alright Allan. Thank you.” *     *     * “So let us get this straight.” Flim said as Wuya floated about around them. “You were once a powerful witch who was locked in this puzzle box.” He pointed to the box that sat on the table, his brother standing on the other side. “Except now you’re a ghost, and because you aren’t physical you need us to find these ‘Shen Gong Wu’.” “Precisely.” Wuya hissed. Flam held a hoof to his chin in thought. “I still have yet to see what getting you these things will do for us.” “Why, it will fulfill your dream. World domination will be ours!” “Ah, now you’re talking. So, you lead us to these magical artifacts as they appear, we take them and then what happens?” “Then?” She chuckled. “Then the world is plunged into ten thousand years of darkness.” She laughed evilly, the sound echoing through the basement. “Hmm. What do you think Flim?” “Sounds almost too easy Flam. We can’t be the only ponies looking for these, can we?” Wuya grumbled. “No. Unfortunately there is another. A man, not a pony, who has yet to realize the destiny he has before him. Once he discovers who he is, he will become a most formidable foe. You will have to use caution. “Thankfully I already have one Shen Gong Wu, magically stored within my puzzle box.” As she said this the box snapped open and a red light streamed out. Various balls of the light floated out and spun around, forming the image of a dragon before the picture solidified and the object floated down on the table next to the box. “This is the Longi Kite. Whoever uses it will be given the ability to fly.” The brothers looked over the dragon shaped artifact with interest. “Amazing! Sure pegasi can fly, but only the strongest of unicorns could replicate flight using magic, and the wings tended to fall apart rather easily.” “What other powers do these Shen Gong Wu possess?” Wuya rubbed together her spectral hands. “All in good time, Flim and Flam. I can feel a Shen Gong Wu readying to reveal itself. Be sure you are prepared when the time comes.”