It was an exceedingly boring, average day in Ponyville. No demon-centaurs sucked the magic from the citizens of Equestria, there were no Sirens attempting to dominate the minds of high-schoolers with impossibly well-rehearsed songs to create their own personal army, and even Discord was suspiciously quiet. Instead, when not out of town doing official royal business, Twilight was hanging out at the castle with her friends on one of the days they were all free. On these rare days, they would chat about what had been going on around town, the latest gossip, and make plans for events, among other things. Several times, Rarity tried to get Twilight to don more regal attire that she had created. Most of the time though, these meetings would be just hang out time where they would each do their own thing. Twilight would read a book or ten, Rarity would have her sketchpad and work on her latest designs, and Rainbow Dash would either be pulling pranks, yammering on about her latest idea for a stunt, or making some kind of challenge to Applejack.
It was on one of these hang out days that something odd happened. A mighty CRACK-BOOM came out of nowhere, scaring the daylights out of all them and making them jump at least 6 feet into the air. All at once, they looked outside to see if it had started raining. Thing was, it was a perfectly sunny day. Applejack turned a questioning glance to Rainbow whose only response was a simple shrug with as much confusion on her face.
CRACK-BOOM!!!
Another shot of thunder made them realize that it was not coming from outside, but from inside the throne room. They looked around, trying to figure out what might be causing the sound. As they searched, tiny bolts of electricity started to dance around the room towards the center. They followed the bolts, feeling the static electricity from them, and found that they were focusing on a central point where a shape had started to form. The shape quickly grew in size until it became a vortex. It looked as if someone had taken a tornado and flattened it. It swirled in cloudy blacks and dark greys for a few seconds before changing its colours to purple, blue and viridian, looking much like an odd coloured lollipop. In the center of the vortex, a shape grew. The shape started as a blob of the three colours, then grew and grew, sucking the vortex into itself until it was just the blob. The blob then contorted, stretched and tucked itself into a new shape. The mares, plus Spike, watched in fear and amazement as they realized that the shape the blob was taking, was in fact, the shape of a pony.
After fully materializing, the pony hung in midair above them for several seconds before falling unceremoniously to the ground in a crumpled heap. The mares looked from the pony to each other to Twilight, hoping someone would know what to do or how to handle the situation.
*************************************
All I could see was black. Made sense. My eyes were shut. My head was pounding and foggy. It felt like I was slowly waking from a coma. I was trying to figure out what had happened, why I had blacked out. Everything was such a blur. I was sitting in my living room, and then… nothing. It was like the memory had been wiped.
I was starting to hear something. I think it was voices.
“……………………………………………………………………………..”
“Ho…………ppen…………?”
“Who…………………………..he is?”
“……..ther.....hand………..a mystery.”
Voices. Definitely hearing voices. In my head? No, if they were in my head, I would be able to hear them clearly. Must be some people around me. So I’m not in my living room. Interesting. As my hearing returned, so did feeling in the rest of my body. Okay, body in a lot of pain. Ow. I seem to be laying on a hard surface. A floor maybe? The voices were getting a lot clearer.
“What do you thi……do with…….?”
“Hey! He’s got no cutie mark!”
“Don’tcha think that means we should be really cautious Twi?”
Did she say CUTIE MARK?! It couldn’t be. I must have left my TV on or something. I can’t be where I think I am!!
I tried and failed to open my eyes. My body had just not recovered enough, so all I could do was lay there and slowly regain my senses and listen to the voices. They seemed to be trying to figure out where I had come from and what they should do about the situation. At that point, I tried to move, which sent a shiver of dull pain right down my spine. I heard a bunch of gasps and eeps and I realize that I must have moaned out loud. I tried again to open my eyes and have more success than the last time. As my eyes slowly fluttered open, everything was extremely blurry and fuzzy. I blinked a few times, sluggishly, and things started to become a lot clearer. I started to see a bunch of colours and shapes come into my view.
“Looks like he’s waking up.”
A few more blinks and moans later, my vision was finally fully focused. I looked up and standing in front of me were six ponies and a small dragon with faces filled with both worry and fear. That sight right there confirmed my fear and a flash of fear crossed my face. I put my hand to my head as the light is giving me a massive headache, when something felt off. I looked at my hand and I realized that I was looking at a blue-grey hoof. HOOF!!!??? I shot into a sitting position and looked at the rest of me and sure enough, I had turned into a violet pony with a medium dark blue mane and tail, both streaked with a light shade of green, and blue-grey hooves. My glasses were still on my nose er… muzzle somehow. This was where I went into full blown panic. I knew this wasn't a dream because of the amount of pain I was feeling, hence the panic.
How is this possible? How can I possibly be here?
Looking around, I realized that I was sitting in the middle of the throne room in Twilight’s castle in Ponyville. Sitting, standing, and hovering in front of me were the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony known as the Mane 6. And Spike. My emotions became a jumbled mess of panic, fear, joy, confusion, and sheer dumbfoundedness. They were all looking at me with suspicious eyes. Twilight was the first to speak up.
“Are you okay?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. My voice couldn't quite find itself. A few sputtering sounds escaped from my throat before I cleared it and asked for some water. At my request, Twilight turned to Spike, who gave a nod of understanding. He ran off and quickly returned with a glass full of water. As Spike handed me the water, I was too focused on how thirsty I was and how I wanted that cool water to coat my throat and take away the soreness. I didn’t even realize until all the water was gone that I was not actually holding the glass. Rather, it was floating in front of me in a dark royal blue aura.
Wait… Dark royal blue? Who’s levitating the cup? Twilight’s magic is that pink colour and Rarity’s magic is light blue. There aren’t any other magic users around. Could it be…?
I slowly reached a hoof to my forehead and sure enough, there was a horn sticking out of my head. I’m a unicorn!! Once the realization sank in, I gasped and the cup fell to the floor. Fortunately, the cup Spike had chosen had been made of polished wood instead of ceramic, so the cup just bounced a couple times and then rolled away. The girls were just looking at me in confusion at this point while Spike retrieved the cup.
“Sorry.” I finally managed to get out, looking down sheepishly.
“That’s okay.” Twilight said softly, trying to cheer me up. Though when I looked in her eyes, I could see that she was still extremely confused by what was going on, as was everypony else.
Rarity was the next to speak, “Can you tell us your name, dear?”
“Sure. My name is…” I stopped there to think of what I should actually tell them. I didn’t want to give my human name, it just didn’t feel right. I’m not saying that lying felt right, it didn’t, lying is never right, it’s just that when I thought about my human name, I would get this weird feeling and a voice in the back of my mind saying that I should not bother with that name anymore. My human name felt foreign to my mind.
Pulling myself out of my thoughts, I realized that they were all looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to finish my sentence. So, I gave the first pony type name I could think of.
“Avid Fiction. My name is Avid Fiction.”
“Good to meet you. My name is…”
“Princess Twilight Sparkle. The Princess of Friendship.” I cut Twilight off before she could finish. “And the rest of you are Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Spike.” Their faces were full of stunned confusion, I turned to Spike and said, “Thanks by the way, for the water.” He just nodded, as stunned as the rest.
I had decided that I was going to get everything out of the way rather than lie. I kept my face as stoic as I could keep it. I sat there waiting for them to regain their senses and braced myself for the barrage of questions I was sure were coming my way. I watched as they came around, though they didn’t relax and I saw both Rainbow Dash and Applejack go into very subtle defensive stances.
“How do you know our names?” Twilight asked, looking like she was ready to blast me into next month if I didn’t give a good enough answer.
Taking a deep breath, I sighed. Well, here goes.
“Okay, so this is probably going to be a lot to take in, but just bear with me. So, as you all know, especially Twilight, there are worlds out there besides Equestria. For example,” I looked at Twilight, “the world that has Canterlot High. Well, I am from another world entirely, and in my world, I am not a pony, but a human. The thing is, in my world, all of you are just characters in a TV show called ‘My Little Pony’. Now, this TV show has a huge fanbase that goes all around my world. And to be honest, my real name isn’t actually Avid Fiction, but when I saw that I had turned into a pony, my human name just doesn’t feel right. If you want to know my real name, I will tell you, but I think that it will just make things really confusing.” I stopped there and let them soak in everything I had said.
Once I had stopped talking, they all looked to each other with a moderate amount of confusion on their faces. All except Twilight, who had her ‘seriously in deep thought’ face on as her mind sorted all the information and she came up with relevant questions to ask. As Twilight sat pondering, everypony sat waiting for her to speak. Everypony, that is, except Pinkie Pie. She was bouncing around muttering to herself about what kind of welcome party to throw and, at one point, she actually bounced over to me and started to poke me in random places, like she was making sure that I was indeed sitting in front of them. Or making sure whether or not I was made out of Jell-o or something. Who knew with Pinkie. I just swiveled my head watching her and gave a small chuckle. Ah Pinkie Pie. So predictably random. After what seemed like ten minutes, Twilight finally broke out of her trance and looked straight at me, ready to ask and receive.
“Okay, I have sorted through what you have said, and a few things still don’t make sense. The whole ‘other world’ theory makes sense, but my biggest concern with that is the fact that we are just TV show in your world. If that’s true, then how can you possibly be in this world?”
I turned back to Twilight. “The only theory I have in regards to that is the alternate dimension theory. I don’t know about here, but in my world there is a theory that not many believe, where there is an infinite number of dimensions where literally any possible reality could exist. I don’t know how I got to this reality, but it certainly proves the theory correct.”
“That is certainly a plausible theory. That also sort of explains why you’ve turned into a pony. However, it doesn’t explain why you don’t have a cutie mark. Even the humans at Canterlot High had their cutie marks.”
“In my world, nobody has a cutie mark. Also, at Canterlot High, they didn’t actually have cutie marks. They just wore jewelry or designs that happen to be their Equestrian counterparts cutie marks. People in my world still try to figure out what they want to do with their lives, some do and some don’t, but there is no clear definition what their talent is just by looking at them. I guess if someone else came from my world and they knew what they were going to do with their lives, they might have a cutie mark. I never knew what I was going to do with my life, which considering how old I am, is a little sad, I just drifted through life. Going to work everyday to a job that didn’t really do anything but pay my bills. Going for walks around the city I lived in, just listening to my music. Only thing that kept me hopeful was going to sing with the choir every week.”
When I looked up after explaining the cutie mark situation, they all had sadness in their eyes. I felt a small twinge in my heart when I saw this. I didn’t like to cause any kind of sadness, even if it was just pity. Saying what I had did actually hurt me as well, but I put on my fake smile that I had perfected and told them, “Don’t look so sad, I accepted this a long time ago and I know that eventually I will find my path.”
Their faces brightened a little when they were sure that it was indeed okay with me. Except Applejack. She just gave me this look that said I know that’s not the truth, but it’s okay. I nodded at her in thanks for understanding.
“Ah’d like t’ know why ya didn’ tell us yer real name right off the bat?” Applejack asked with a soft accusatory look in her eyes.
I cringed a little and looked down before answering, “W-well, like I said, it j-just didn’t feel right. When I think about my human name, it feels like I am thinking about a stranger. But when I think about the name I gave you, it just feels right, like that is my actual name. I’m sorry if that doesn’t make much sense. I’ll still tell you my human name though, if you’d rather.” I kept my eyes glued to my hooves, That’s gonna take some getting used to, while waiting for them to make up their minds.
I didn’t look up till I heard a soft, quiet voice say, “That’s okay. You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to. While some may not understand your reasons, we can certainly respect them.”
I looked up to see that it was Fluttershy that had spoken, which thoroughly surprised me. Then it hit me that it shouldn’t surprise me that the timid and soft-spoken Pegasus that personified the Element of Kindness was trying to cheer me up. I gave her a small (genuine) smile and simply said, “Thanks.”
“BUCK THAT!!” I heard this seconds before my vision filled with cyan and I was pushed to the ground by Rainbow Dash. I winced a little when my head hit the floor, which caused the headache I’d had come back full force. “I want to know! I mean, I get why he doesn't want to tell, sorta, but if he’s hiding something like that from us, who knows what else he’s hiding!”
I met her stern gaze and replied, albeit a tad scared, “I-I Pinkie Pie promise that I a-am not hiding a-anything else.” I made the motions for the promise to fortify what I had said.
Dash’s face went blank when I said this. She looked around and was met with upset looks from four out of her five best friends. Pinkie’s face was still plastered with her trademark grin. She paused, and I could see the gears slowly turning in her head. She looked back down at me with eyes that were both apologetic and angry, then she just jumped off me and trying to regain her ‘Cool’ air, simply said, “Whatever” and went to sulk in her throne, which happened to be behind everypony, so no one but me could see her.
I looked to Dash, who was looking away from everypony else with her head resting on her hoof and gave her a smile.
“Tell you what Rainbow Dash.” Her eyes turned towards me, “I will tell you another time in private, but if I do, you need to promise that you won’t tell anypony else.”
This seemed to perk her up. I looked at everypony else and made them the same offer. They all nodded and said their thanks for the offer. I turned back to Twilight, knowing she still had one question, and it was a question that I wanted to know the answer to myself.
“So, my last question. Do you know how you got here?”
I just closed my eyes and shook my head, “Not a clue. All I remember is blacking out then waking up here. For some reason I can’t remember what happened just before I blacked out. I remember sitting in my living room, listening to some music and then… nothing. I’m sorry I can’t be more help.”
“That’s okay. I’m sure it will come back to you in time.”
I smiled to her in thanks then looked out the window. It looked like it was late into the afternoon. I looked back to the others and then yawned rather unexpectedly. Then the exhaustion hit me. All of a sudden, I just had no strength left and I plopped down onto the floor.
“I’m sorry, for some reason I am just absolutely exhausted all of a sudden. Would it be okay if I used a room here in the castle and sleep for a bit?”
“Of course. I need to write a letter to Princess Celestia anyway telling her about all this. You go get some sleep and when you wake up we will go see her.”
“Thank you Princess Twilight. Would it be okay if we didn’t mention me to the rest of the town yet? I don’t know how they will react to me or how accepting they will be of me. What with the blank flank and… and…” I looked down as a burning sensation creeped its way across my muzzle.
“And what dear?” Rarity asked.
“W-well, I-I’m g-gay.” I managed to stutter out while looking down and rubbing my foreleg with the other hoof.
Everypony but Rainbow Dash looked at me in very mild shock. They certainly weren’t expecting me to say that. Dash just looked at me in confusion.
“I don’t get it. What’s wrong with being happy?”
My jaw just dropped as I looked at Dash, surprised that she knew the original meaning of the word and not the current one. It took everything I had not to face-hoof myself. I knew she could be dense, but this was ridiculous.
“Dashie, there’s nothing wrong with being happy, but that’s not what he means, silly.” Pinkie explained whilst giggling so much that she was on the verge of full blown laughter.
Dash just looked at her blankly, “Then what does he mean?”
“It… it means that I p-prefer males over females b-both romantically and... s-s-sexually.” I explained with a small, sheepish grin.
Dash blushed profusely with a startled look as she realized what I was saying. The others were blushing as well, but not as much as Dash was. My grin vanished when they still hadn’t told me how they felt about it. After a few moments, their looks of confusion, shock and bashfulness were replaced with calm, gentle, understanding looks.
“Aww. No need ta worry ‘bout that, Sugarcube. Granted there may be some closed minded ponies ‘round here, you’ll find that most ponies won’t care which side ya swing on.”
I looked at Applejack and gave her a small smile, thankful for her support. I was kinda expecting her to freak. Stupid. You of all people should know better than to stereotype.
“Thanks Applejack. I really appreciate that, but if it’s all the same to you, I’d still like to stay out of sight for a while until I figure some things out. I’ll still go see Princess Celestia, but otherwise I wouldn’t mind some time alone.” I yawned again.
“How about we discuss this after you get some rest?” Twilight asked.
“Okay.”
“Spike, could you lead him to one of the guest rooms?”
Spike saluted. “Sure Twilight.”
“Go get some rest. You look like you will barely make it up the stairs.”
I felt like it too. Slowly and shakily, I stood up. As I expected, I almost had to learn how to walk all over again. As we left the throne room, I looked back at the Mane 6 to see that they all had gentle smiles on their muzzles, but the looks in their eyes said that they were still unsure what to think of me. Except Pinkie, who just bounced on the spot, ecstatic that she had made a new friend. It took about half the trip to the bedroom, tripping and stumbling more than I would have liked, but I eventually got the hang of walking on four legs rather than two. I was too exhausted to admire the castle I was in, so I just followed Spike as he navigated through the second floor until we reached a tall set of double doors. When Spike opened the doors to the room, despite my exhaustion, I was awestruck. The room I was looking at was gorgeous. It had a large four poster bed, an antique dresser with a mirror attached to the top, a large closet, a chez lounge sitting against the wall that had the door, and a small coffee table with four very plush pillows sitting around it. My jaw dropped. This is a GUEST ROOM?! I looked at Spike, who just gave me a sheepish grin.
“Sorry it's so extravagant. All the guest rooms are like this, since the majority of the guests we have are royalty and nobles.”
That makes sense. This is the castle of a princess. I looked at the bed again. I couldn't wait to feel how comfy it was. Fortunately I didn’t have to wait long. Walking over Spike, I made my way over to the bed and just plopped myself onto it. It was easily the most comfortable thing I had ever felt. I crawled under the sheets and made myself comfy and laid my head down to go to sleep. As I closed my eyes, I heard Spike close the door as softly as he could. When my eyes were closed and I was drifting into slumberland, I thought about the situation I was in.
What could have possibly caused this to happen? Am I ever going to get home? Or am I stuck here the rest of my life? If I am stuck here, what will I do with myself? I can’t mooch off Twilight and the others forever. I guess all I can do now is wait and see what happens.
Left with those thoughts, I drifted into sleep, letting the exhaustion take over.
******************************
Meanwhile, back in the throne room, after Spike had returned, the Mane 6 continued their discussion about the new pony.
“So, does anypony else think that he is still hiding something?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Ah think it’s just you Sugarcube.” Applejack semi-lied, keeping to herself the fact that she knew that Avid wasn’t honest about how sad his human life made him.
“I think that he does know how he got here, but he honestly does not remember. A trans-dimensional transference, especially one as violent as that, does have the potential to mess with a being’s mind.” Twilight had become fascinated with the prospect, as she was trying to word her letter to Princess Celestia.
“Well, if you ask me,” Rarity started with a flip of her mane, “his personality seemed to be a mix between Applejack and Fluttershy, so I don’t think he is hiding anything. Such a shame that such a handsome gentlecolt plays for the other team. *sigh* OH! Perhaps he could become my GBF! EEEEE, I’ll have stallion close by to talk fashion with!!”
“What’s a GBF? Oh! Is it a Gorrilla Banana Face? Or maybe it’s Gargling Bath Fish? Or, or maybe it’s mmffgb…”
Applejack had put a hoof to Pinkie’s muzzle after a glance from Rarity, “It means Gay Best Friend, Pinkie.”
“I still say that he is hiding something besides his name.”
“Well… Maybe if we j-just give him some time to adjust, he will tell us. I’m not sure if you noticed Rainbow Dash, but he was scared. I wouldn’t blame him though, being swept into a new place with no friends or family to turn to.” Fluttershy said as she tried to calm Rainbow Dash.
“Well, once he gets his strength back, I’m going to give him the third degree and make him come clean about everything.”
“Oh no you won’t Rainbow Dash. We’re gunna give him all the time he needs ta figure himself out. You hear me, Sugarcube?” Applejack used her ‘I don’t want no backtalk’ voice on her question. The same one she had given AppleBloom many times before.
Rainbow looked like she was going to argue, but after seeing the look on Applejack’s face, she gave up.
“Fine.”
“Good. Now why don’t we all head home. It’s startin’ ta get late and I fer one got to get ready for tomorrow.”
The others agreed with her, and after saying their goodbyes, they all departed to their prospective parts of Ponyville, leaving Twilight and Spike alone in the castle.
“Spike, take a letter.”
Spike pulled and leaf of paper and a quill out of nowhere, “Ready.”
“*Ahem* Dear Princess Celestia…”