Arrival
4
The sun was high in the sky, signalling midday. At least, that’s how Jay thought it worked.
He had been walking for what seemed like hours. How the purple mare he was following managed to keep going, Jay would never know. He was supposed to be a conditioned athlete, but here he was, dragging himself along the dirt path, head hanging low, breath coming in pants, each movement a strain on his steadily growing sore legs.
He just hoped that Twilight wouldn’t look back, he obviously didn’t want to be emasculated so soon in this new world.
Jay lifted his head and looked beyond his guide, spotting the village still far off into the distance. He tried to judge the distance between him and it, only to come up with the conclusion that it, in fact, is the same distance it was when he checked an hour ago.
Jay heaved a sigh as the trials of the day started to set in on him. The heat from the sun radiating on his back and the numerous rocks on the path starting to make his newfound hooves sore.
He trudged on anyway, bitterly following the still pondering stranger.
‘Seriously, what could she even be thinking about?’
A hint of annoyance creeps into Jay’s head as he tried to decipher Twilight’s features. Something had this mare deep in thought, and the lack of communication was starting to annoy him.
‘If you offer to bring someone home to interrogate them, at least make a little small talk on the way there.’ Jay reasoned. ‘Ya know, how’s the weather? Wife doin’ all right? Does waterboarding sound like a reasonable way to get answers?’
He froze his thought process for a second, actually wondering what his reaction would be if that came up because of small talk.
He shuddered ever so slightly and, deciding to give up on Twilight, he turned back to his own thoughts.
He knew he could have easily jumped to this new town: the image of it alone off in the distance was enough to imprint into his mind and send him on his way. Sure, he could of, but did he want to risk detection?
If the first person to ever know what he was in his world tried to kill him (‘On the toilet, too! The nerve of some people!’), how would they react to him here? Jay had already heard that teleportation was, at least, a thing here, but he had no idea if it was the same or not. Keeping it on the downlow, for now anyways, might not be such a bad thing.
Jay then angrily turned to look at his sides. He was extremely frustrated at the two feathered appendages that sat folded uselessly at his sides. He had never before dreamed of the possibility of being capable of flight, always lacking the means to, but here sat the tools to an aerial freedom, and they were worthless to him. He thought about embarrassing himself in front of Rainbow Dash by actually admitting that he couldn’t fly when he eventually showed up for that race, and maybe, just maybe, she would take pity on him and show him how to fly.
Jay snorted at that last bit. He had only been in her presence for, at most, 10 minutes, and knew that the resulting outcome of a situation like that would be a fit of laughter from her part, right in his face.
Jay pushed those thoughts aside. He was mortified of the idea of being laughed at, rejected and humiliated at the same time. He pushed his mind to a more analytical state.
He began to wonder if he could just jump back to his own world. If that’s how he got here, then why can’t he get back.
Jay looked ahead, noticing Twilight was paying no attention to him, still wrapped up in whatever. He looked around, trying to spot any wandering eyes, but coming up empty. If he jumped, no one would even notice.
Jay still remembered everything from his own world, from his house, to his room, and even the trivial things like his toothbrush. He knew no one was around, so he figured he give his jump a shot.
He had to stop himself from going back to his room, afraid that that psycho hunter had decided to remain in his house. Instead, he thought of something no one would expect to look for him in.
He remembered a men’s room bathroom in a downtown bus station he used to sleep in when he was out on his own. The feeling and memories of abandonment threatened to invade his mind once more, and his eyes started to water. Jay had to actually concentrate to get rid of the rising memories, pushing them into the farthest, darkest parts of his mind, hoping they would not resurface.
He began his process of jumping. In his mind, time seemed to slow down around him as he brought up his destination, but to an outsider, his jumps would occur within hundreths of a second, barely even enough time to register what happened.
Bringing up the memory of his destination, his body began to shimmer. Bits and pieces of him began to fade in and out of reality. Something was definitely not right.
Jay had no idea what to do. Could he stop a jump? Is it even possible? He would have to figure something out fast, because Twilight would eventually have to notice that something was going on.
His whole body just kept shimmering, moving in between the plane of existence.
Once again, the darkness crept on the edges of his vision, his perception of the world around him becoming foggy and distorted.
His mind shut down in an attempt to stop him from jumping into the nothingness.
The darkness engulfed his vision as he blacked out.
**********
Darkness surrounded him.
Jay looked around, seeing nothing but a black abyss in all directions. He noticed he was back on his two legs, his mind back in his human body.
He couldn’t think, his brain was scrambling for a grasp on the situation. His ability impaired.
He began to run forward, not knowing what else to do. He ran on, and on, and on, only to be welcomed by more abyss.
A sudden pain forced him to his knees; a thousand white hot needles being pushed against the inside of his head. He tried to bury his head in his arms, hoping that holding his head would help numb the pain.
The pressure just seemed to increase.
A buzzing noise began to fill his ears. The white noise soon becoming unbearable. Jay would have gladly welcomed slipping into unconsciousness, as he knew no one person could take this much pain, but for some reason, unconsciousness never came. His mind bearing the full force of the pain and noise.
The noise was maddening. He couldn’t describe it as anything but white noise. There was just no other description for it. It grew louder and louder, matching the growing pain in his head.
Then, nothing. As soon as this wave of pain and noise came, it went.
Jay looked up, fully aware of his surroundings.
His eyes were met by another set. The blood red of these eyes staring directly at him, a mere foot away, unblinking.
He held his breath and his gaze, frozen in place.
He blinked, the eyes lunged forward.
**********
Jay awoke with a gasp, searching for his breath. Sweat matted his coat and mane and soaked through the beanie, still on his head.. The room around him was dimly lit by an odd assortment of candles and the light of the moon that shone through the window.
He looked around him, realizing that he had somehow ended up in a bed in some strange room. His eyes suddenly locked onto a pink pony standing in the corner staring at him.
Her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.
“GASP!” It sounded like air escaping from a tire.
She launched herself into the air and shot out the window.
Jay shrugged to himself. ‘As long as she’s gone.’
He flopped back down onto the padding underneath him and groaned, realizing that the bedding and pillow was soaked with his sweat. It made for a very uncomfortable bed.
He looked to the spot next to the bed, and jumped, materializing in a standing position.
“I still got it.” He said, smiling to himself.
He performed his stretching routine, yet again, popping the bones along his back and stretching the muscles and ligaments in his four new legs. With a bit of concentration, he managed to move his wings outwards, away from his body. He found himself laughing as the sensation of having two more controllable appendages tickled his insides.
He took off his hat and sunglasses, staring at his two remaining worldly possessions before tossing them on the bed, making sure they landed anywhere other than the spots soaked with sweat. His red eyes gleaming in the flickering candle light.
He then performed the minute jump to the door, wanting to jump as many times as possible in secrecy before he grew restless from the lack of being able to use his abilities. He opened the door and followed a spiralling staircase downwards that led into a large library: bookshelves filled with all sorts of different texts.
Jay spotted Twilight off in the corner of it all, sitting at a desk, hunched over a piece of parchment that she was furiously scribbling on.
“So, who was that pink pony that was up there?” He asked as he approached, causing Twilight to jerk a little in her seat, apparently startled by the sound of his voice.
“Oh good, you’re up!” She turned to look at him with a cheerful, almost giddy look on her face. She caught her breath a moment when she saw his eyes, but recomposed herself quickly. “That was probably Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.”
The tone in her voice sounded almost as if Jay should have known this.
“Yeah, sure. Where am I?” he paused for a moment, considering his next question. “And how did I get here?”
“Well when you blacked out, I had to teleport us back to my home here in Ponyville!” she said, obviously proud of her quick thinking. “I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it sooner, we wasted most of the day walking!”
‘Damn,’ Jay cursed in his mind. ‘A chance to see how this other teleportation works and I was nothing but dead weight.’
“Ok, so what now?” he asked her.
“Now, we find out why you were in that crater!” she said as a devious smile slid onto her smile.
**********
“So these burns will go away, right? They’re not permanently etched into me because of that stupid machine?” Jay asked, examining himself in a mirror hung on the wall.
“I said I was sorry....” was Twilight’s defense.
Her way of ‘finding out why someone is in a crater’ is strapping them into extremely painful devices located in her basement. And, apart from the burns, nothing had been gained from the experience.
“No seriously, if you wanted to kill me, all you had to do was ask.” Jay said, doing little to hide his annoyance.
“Just sit,” Twilight growled, “There’s a couple more things I need to ask you.”
Jay took a seat on a couch located in the center of the library, seeming oddly out of place.
“Ok, first, and again, where are you from?”
Jay got up and moved to the window, he then turned to her and pointed in the general direction of the forest, a blank look on his face.
Twilight took a deep breath before continuing. It was like dealing with a child.
“What caused that crater?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Can you remember anything before the waking up in the forest?”
“Sure.”
“And?” Twilight leaned forward, coaxing an answer from him.
“And what?”
“Can you elaborate?” she said, leaning closer.
“Elaborate ‘and’? No, I don’t think I can.”
Jay watched Twilight slump back. He resisted the urge to smile as his ploy to be as difficult as possible seemed to be getting to the mare.
“Will you tell me what you remember before waking up?” she pressed on.
“No.”
“What?! Why not?”
“You wouldn’t believe me.”
Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Try me.” She had whipped out a notepad, a quill and an inkwell as she finished her challenge. Apparently she thought she had won.
Jay was, again, left in a situation where he had absolutely no idea what to do. He was, for sure, not going to tell her about his jumping, but was on the fence about telling her where he actually came from. He didn’t know whether or not to trust this complete stranger. He’s never been good with trust.
So why should he start now? “I can’t.”
Twilight deflated as she heard that. Her scientific mind being forced to a hold as she had failed to get any answers out of Jay.
“Just listen to me when I say that it’s probably best you don’t know.” he mumbled.
“Well, alright,” she sighed. She was clearly disappointed in his answers, or lack thereof. “You can sleep in the guest bed upstairs, for now. I assume that you really have nowhere else to go, waking up in a crater and all that.”
With that, she trotted off into her own room and closed the door behind her. Jay made sure he was alone before bringing up the visual of the room he awoke in and jumping, materializing just above the bed, already asleep just before he hit the bedding.