Somewhere Along the Way

by GrimPInkamena


Chapter 3

Twilight was stomped. The book she had used to prepare the spell that summoned you didn't seem to hold any answers of how to send you back. And another thing bothered her equally as much. How did this simple spell go so wrong as to bring something from another dimension?

While she was searching through every volume in her library to find a way to correct her wrong-doings, you sat by the round table in the center of the room and tried to keep up conversations with her. It wasn't a problem once they got going.

Every time you mentioned something science related, Twilight's ears would perk up, as you would expect knowing she was a bookworm hungry for knowledge. Her attention would be fixed at you for a moment, before she seemingly snapped out of the trance and continued her search. It was like she wanted to have discussions with you, but guilt was winning all the internal battles.

This had gone on for hours. Looking outside, you saw the bright moon high in the black sky. There was obviously a time difference here, since your cell phone told you the time was three in the PM. Was a day even twenty four hours in Equestria?

"Hey, Twilight."

"Hmm? What is it?" Twilight responded, looking up from the three books she had levitating in front of her. You couldn't get quite used to seeing things fly around on their own without anything supporting them. Though the purple glow emitted by the items that were floating indicated that there was some physical - or rather, magical - law in this world that would probably be common knowledge if you had lived here.

After a moment of being distracted by the floating books, you remembered that you were going to say something.

"It’s the middle of the night, right? Aren’t you tired? We should get some sleep, then continue tomorrow fully rested." She really did look tired, but the thought of stopping her from quickly finding a way to return you to Earth also played a role in your request.

"I wouldn't be able to sleep knowing I brought you all this trouble." She frowned. "I was really hoping there was an easy way to fix this. But it looks like we're not that lucky." You felt kind of relieved, but the fact that it was making Twilight miserable made you feel bad about it.

"Don't worry about me Twilight. You shouldn't tire yourself out. Your overall efficiency would probably go up if you rested for a while anyway."

"You're probably right... I'm not getting anywhere like this. I would have sent a letter to the princess and asked for her input on the matter, but my dragon is out of town, and sending a letter by mail would take a long time."

"Dragon?" You asked, knowing it was probably Spike she was referring to, but you didn't want to let her know you knew that.

"Yes. He is my number one assistant, and a good friend of mine," She said, smiling again.

"U-huh. And you're also friends with a princess?" You raise an eyebrow, but only because you think it would have been your normal reaction if anyone said they knew a princess.

"I am princess Celestia's protégé." She said proudly, lifting a hoof to her chest. "I usually consult her if I'm stomped on something. Maybe she could at least shine some light on what has happened, or give me special permission to go into the Canterlot archives and search for any clues there." Her confident voice quickly faded as she was openly admitting she was out of her league on this one.

"I still say we should call it a night, and get some sleep."

"Yea I guess." Twilight sighed. "But... I don't have a guest bed for you."

"No matter, I could fall asleep just about anywhere." It sounded like you just didn't want to be a bother, but it was true. "Just give me a pillow and I'll sleep on the floor down here." You smiled at Twilight, trying to make sure she knew you wouldn't mind.

Twilight looked at you with a frown of guilt you've grown quite familiar with tonight.

"Alright. Just wait a minute and I will bring you some things." Twilight went up the stairs and into the room she had been hiding in when you first arrived, it was presumably her bedroom. A few moments passed and she came trotting back out with a hovering pillow above her head and a blanket on her back.

She walked up next to you, handing you the pillow with her magic and picking up the blanket from her back with her mouth.

'Looks kind of peculiar in real life,' you thought while grabbing the blanket. You walked up to the library wall opposite of the stairs and got ready to sleep, letting out with a low, but exciting voice.

"I've never tried to deal with jet lag before."

Twilight looked puzzled.

"What's jetlag?"

With a smirk on your face you got cozy under the blanket. It wasn't big enough to cover you from neck to toe. You had to curl up a bit to get your feet tucked in underneath.

"Nothing Twilight." Your smirk widening. "Go get some rest, and we'll see each other in the morning," you said whilst looking up at Twilight, who was looking back at you. She closed her eyes and smiled.

"You're good company." Twilight said, opening her eyes again with a thoughtful look. "There's not much we can do before Spike gets home the day after tomorrow. And with you kind of being my guest, we shouldn't be keeping you cooped up in here until we get this sorted out. What do you say I show you around Ponyville tomorrow?" Her smile reappeared as she told you her suggestion.

"Wouldn't seeing me scare peop- ... somepony?"

"Maybe at first, but if we're not able to get you home very soon it would be a shame to have you closed up in the library your whole stay."

Things couldn't have turned out any better. You're going to meet the whole gang! The thought gave you butterflies of excitement, but being in full control of your emotions you only put on a warm smile.

"That would be great. I can't wait to see your world."

"That's the spirit" Twilight said smiling back at you. She walked off up the stairs, turning back towards you a last time outside her bedroom door.

"Goodnight." She said, and proceeded to walk into her room.

"Goodnight."

You were more tired than you had first anticipated. Perhaps the rough trip had tired you out somehow, and you were just too distracted up until now by everything to notice.

Your pillow and blanket smelled good, like a field of flowers on a sunny day. It also reminded you of the scent that roamed around Twilight.

It didn't take long before you were fast asleep.




The sound of Twilight walking down the stairs woke you the following morning. You got up in a sitting position with your back against the wall, still not quite awake. Twilight was looking at you with sleepy eyes from the bottom of the staircase, with a bed head for the books. You chuckled lightly at the sight of the messy pony. She looked up at her mane and put a grin on her face.

"Ha-ha. You look like you've slept quite well yourself there." She returned the chuckle at you and your messy hair. "Did you sleep well? The floor really doesn't look very comfortable."

"My neck seems to have taken a hit, but I slept fine." Stretching your neck, you could see Twilight's face turn a slight shade of red, like last night when you asked what she was supposed to summon.

"We'll have to figure something out for tonight. We can’t have you sleeping on the floor every night while you're here."
Twilight planning ahead like this probably indicated she didn't have much against you staying here at least. Which was a relief in itself. Not only that though, she looked rather happy while saying it. This spiked your curiosity once more.

"Twilight, just what were you trying to summon last night?" Again, startled by the question, her face gained a deeper shade of red as she stood silent for a moment. She looked down at the floor with an embarrassed look on her face.

"The spell was supposed to bring forth somepony meant for me." She said reluctantly with a low voice. "I don't know why the spell summoned you, but then again, I don't really know how love works either."

By now you were just staring at the purple unicorn. Gears in your head turning. She did a spell to find a boyfriend? Or rather, colt-friend. And the spell chose me? Why didn't the spell bring her a pony?

"Anyway.." Twilight continued before you had processed all this, obviously trying to change the subject. "Has it been long since you last ate? You're probably hungry, right?" Snapping out of your daze you barely got what she was saying.

"Hm? Oh yeah. It’s been awhile since I ate, I guess." Just being here in this fantasy world had made even your basic instincts retreat while you were digesting just how awesome these circumstances were. Now reminded of those cravings again, you felt that you're starving. You haven’t had anything since that glass of juice yesterday morning after all.

"Well would you like some breakfast? I got fresh hay and daisies in the fridge."

'One abnormal situation after another.' You were hungry, but not that hungry.

You try to explain to Twilight that humans didn't like the taste of hay, and that you wouldn't get much nutrition even if you did eat it. Twilight looked a little concerned.

"So what do humans eat?" Your mind was racing for a second. You couldn't say meats, and dairy products were probably not a good idea either. Thinking back on what the characters eat on the TV show, you find the answers. Trying not to make it too specific you answer her question.

"Fruit and pastries." You say victoriously.

"Oh. That shouldn't be a problem acquiring. My friend Applejack owns an apple farm, and Pinkie Pie works at a bakery."

"You think your friends would react any differently than what you did when you first saw me?"

Twilight didn't look worried.

"It's fine. I'll just explain to them why you're here. I'm sure they will understand. I bet they will come around liking you in no-time." Butterflies were emerging in your stomach again, now a mix of excitement and plain being nervous. Twilight walked towards the door. "Let’s get going then shall we?"

"Wait, you're not gonna, you know, fix your mane first?"

Twilight froze in mid walk, looking up at her mane again.

"That's probably a good idea."

You both share a laugh.



You had borrowed Twilight's bathroom after she was done there. The roof was much lower than that of the library, but it was just high enough for you not needing to crouch. By the back wall there was a bathtub with a shower head above it. You didn’t use any of Twilight's soaps, but the warm water alone would probably suffice for a day. You dried yourself with a towel Twilight said you could use.

Putting your clothes back on, a thought struck you as amusing.

'Good thing I didn't wear my "Loyalty" T-shirt yesterday. Now that would've been awkward.'

Walking back into the library you saw Twilight waiting at the front door. She had a blue and purple satchel over her back, giving her pockets on either sides.

"Do humans always fully dress themselves?" Twilight asked. You ponder a second about how to answer.

"We don’t have fur all over like you guys do, so we use clothes to keep warm."

"Ah, that makes sense." Twilight said, like she just learned valuable piece of information. "We can head directly to Applejack's farm. Maybe we should keep your exposure to Pinkie Pie to a minimum for now. Also I don’t think cupcakes counts as a breakfast."

"I'm sure she's not that bad. But I can agree on that second reason. Let's head to the farm then."



The walk to the farm was longer than you had expected. Everything looked like it was close together on television, but now the two of you had walked a country road for about fifteen minutes, and only now could you see the red barn in the distance.

It was a beautiful sunny day. You tried to the best of your ability to juggle enjoying the scenery and talking with Twilight as you walked, though the latter was far more interesting. Twilight wanted to know all about you, and humans in general. And you wanted to know all about her, and enjoyed listening to her telling you about her friends, about her life, and the communities in Equestria consisting of a mix of pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies.

Even though you knew a lot about what she was telling you, listening to them being told as facts was a feeling that differed from that of knowing a TV show. It really felt like being on clean slates after all, which made you even happier about all this.

You halted in the middle of the gravel path. Twilight did the same after noticing you had slowed to a stop, and looked puzzled back at you.

"Do you hear that?" You asked. You could hear what sounded like a jet engine in the distance, slowly increasing in volume. It was barely noticeable though.

"I don’t think I hear anything. What does it sound like?"

"I can't really explain it. Sounds like-"

"WATCH OUT!" was the last thing you heard before being knocked off your feet. Something had crashed into your side. Knocking the air out of your lungs and made you soar several feet before hitting the ground. Gasping for your lost air, you rolled over on your back, and heard something getting up besides you.

"Excuse me, I didn’t mean to hit you. The tunnel vision becomes really bad when I go at full speed. I didn't even see you until just before-WOW!" The pegasus let out a surprised cry as she looked over and saw what it was she had crashed into. "Just what are you?!" She said as she took off the ground and hovered at a safe distance from you.

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight caught the blue pegasus' attention.

"Huh, Twilight? What are you doing here? And what’s up with that thing?" Rainbow Dash points a hoof in your general direction while looking at Twilight.

"He is with me, and he's a human. He isn't from Equestria. A spell went wrong yesterday and brought him here." Twilight explained, trying to get across that you weren't not a threat.

"Oh." Rainbow Dash descended. With her hooves on the ground she looked at you more closely as you slowly stumbled back on your feet. You were still disorientated from the crash, and your side smarted in rhythm with your heartbeat. "He's kinda... funny lookin'." Rainbow stated.

"Well humans are not even from our dimension, it may be expected for them to look a bit different." Twilight explains.
"Another dimension, huh." You finally catch your breath fully and look up at the cyan coated pegasus standing besides Twilight.

'Rainbow Dash! Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh!' You try to contain your ever pressing excitement.

"Ye, hi there." You put on the same warm smile you showed Twilight, as it was becoming your standard poker face in these situations. The pain was suddenly not a problem you cared about anymore.

"We're going to Sweet Apple Acres to buy some apple products, as his kind doesn't eat hay." Twilight couldn't get out another word before Rainbow's ears perked up, and her eyes opened wide.

"That reminds me! I gotta go. Guess I'll see you at the farm. I'll give Applejack the heads up that you're on your way." With that, the rainbow maned pegasus shot like a bullet in the direction she was originally heading.

"What was that about?" Scratching your head, you look at Twilight for an explanation.

"I am just as blank as you are. Though it isn't unusual for her to be in a rush." Twilight said as she started heading towards the red barn. "She did say she was on her way to the same place we are. We'll find out what this is about when we get there I reckon."

"How much further is it?"

"We're over halfway now, so not much further."

Hoping you didn't blow it with Rainbow Dash, a feeling of anxiety built up in your chest. You would really have liked to be on everypony's good side, and not be left out because you were so different. But you thought that might be inevitable.

The road to Sweet Apple Acres was spent talking to Twilight about anything that came to mind. Though in the back of your head brewed what Twilight said back at the library, about the spell to summon her a mate. If she was a human girl, her personality alone would probably be more than enough to win your heart. But she was a pony...

Would a relationship with her even be possible?