//------------------------------// // 3. A new friend and a letter // Story: Divine Entertainment // by Orthoros //------------------------------// Alex awoke to the sound of birds merrily singing their songs outside the window. He still felt tired, so he decided to keep his eyes closed for now, just relaxing. As some time passed, and his mind slowly started to join his body in the world of the waking, he started to notice several things that were… off. Firstly, Alex lived in a city, so waking up to birdsong was pretty unusual. Secondly, he could feel the sun on his face, which was pretty much impossible, because his bed was all the way on the other side of the room from his windows. As he contemplated those two things, he also noticed that his bedsheets smelled wrong. Alex tended to not change his sheets too often because he was a lazy bum whenever housework was concerned, so his sheets smelled quite sweaty most of the time. But all of that was nothing, compared to the one piece of information his brain registered next. He just awoke to birdsong while the sun was able to shine onto his face, which could only mean one thing. He overslept. Going into a full blown panic Alex’s eyes opened wide. He immediately tried to sit up, so he could look at his alarm clock, which was located next to his bed. But instead of being greeted by the blue light of his digital alarm, his eyes, and the rest of his face too, were greeted by the cold, hard floor. Instead of sitting up, all he managed to do was launch himself over the side of his bed. Wondering what went wrong, he started to untangle the mess that was himself and sat up. Looking at his four hooves in confusion, he dumbly wondered why there weren’t two legs as usual. And suddenly, like a dam breaking, the memories of his encounter with Hermes flooded his mind. Everything. From meeting the strange suited man, to being yanked from his dimension into this one. And like every sane person would in his situation, he started to panic. Hermes promised him a wish, and more or less did this for Alex; being sent to Equestria was a dream he had since he started reading all those Human in Equestria fanfics, but that was nothing more than a little fantasy! Looking back, he was more than royally fucked over by the gods. Instead of meeting the mane six and going on adventures, he was stuck here. At the beginning of time, in a new body he had no idea how to properly control. And to top that all off, they made him immortal. While there would certainly be those who would look at this as a gift, Alex was not one of them. He was more of the opinion that being immortal was more of a curse than a blessing. A long life? That deal he would have made instantly. One or two hundred years added to his lifetime would be amazing. So much time to explore and experience new things. But immortality? No. Doomed to wander the earth for all eternity, watching loved ones come and go, all the while being denied the pleasure of one's own final rest? What else could this be but a curse? He could have had it all. Wealth. Fame. Love. He could have wished for anything. But then again, his divine benefactors probably would have screwed him over in those cases as well. But could it really be any worse than this? Alex felt his eyes starting to burn, as tears started to stream down his face. He thought about his family, his friends and all the familiar views he probably would never see again. It all just started piling up in his mind, as realisation after realisation started to hit him. Until… “AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!” A mighty scream escaped his throat. After fully emptying his lungs, he just collapsed on the floor, quietly crying. Shortly after, his ears perked up. Literally. He could actually feel his new ears adjusting themselves. Someone or something was getting closer to his current location. It sounded not unlike the galloping of a horse; hooves clopping onto wood at a rapid pace. He started to look around to pinpoint the location of the sound, when he realised a strange thing. He was in an actual room, most likely belonging to a house. It had a bed, windows, a small closet, a mirror, and what appeared to be a chest at the end of the bed. Another impossibility thrown onto him, Hermes clearly stated that this world, or dimension, was created with his arrival . So there shouldn’t be anyone else for now, much less living beings who were advanced enough to build houses. His musings were interrupted by a door violently being thrown open. He turned around from his prone position to get his first look at the door, which apparently just barely missed him. But what was even more interesting was the pony standing in it’s frame. A honest-to-god pony stood in front of him, panting slightly from running to “his” room. Alex took the few seconds that they were just staring at each other to look the apparently female pony over. Her coat was of a vibrant green, not unlike the grass of the field he arrived in. Her mane, a light purple, was combed to a straight waterfall cascading down her neck and the front of her face. She had no horn or wings, so she must have been an earth pony. He couldn’t see her cutie mark due to the fact she was standing right in front of him, so he opted to look into her eyes instead. They were of a soft rose color, going incredibly well with her mane, and were staring straight back at him. He could see worry in her eyes, as well as a bit of… fear? Alex wondered what she possibly could be afraid of, so he decided the only way to make any progress whatsoever was to start up a conversation. Trying to bring his crying at least somewhat under control, he was the first to say anything. “Uhm… hello?” Great. Here he was, first contact with a pony in another world, something countless bronies would kill for back home, and all he managed to say was a weak ‘hello’ while looking like an absolute mess. Fucking A man; fucking A. “Oh by Faust! You’re awake! You finally woke up! I was just sitting downstairs when I heard this loud noise, and then someone screamed! That was you, right? I came as fast as I could! Are you okay? What happened? Do you need any help?” After the initial shock of apparently seeing him awake, whatever that was, the mare started shooting off questions like a machine gun. Alex, quickly getting annoyed, tried to close her mouth by wrapping his hoof around her muzzle. Only to be greeted by a dark grey hoof entering his field of vision, then promptly falling over from the lack of support. While not exactly working like he thought it would, it seemed to snap the mare out of it. She looked down at him, her worry starting to grow. “Oh, I’m terribly sorry, I kinda lost myself there didn’t I? Are you ok?” Alex let out a groan from having fallen over a second time in such a very short timespan. “Yeah I’m fine just... a little confused.” He got back up into a sitting position. “So, who are you, where am I and how did I even get here?” Seeing an opportunity to get some of his questions answered, he just asked the three which currently confused him the most. The mare, who apparently had calmed down, sat down on the floor opposite him. “So sorry, mister, let me introduce myself. My name is Vibrant Colors. You’re currently in the guestroom of my house. As for how you got here, I found you passed out in a field a few weeks ago. You really didn’t look too good, so I brought you back here.” “A few weeks?!? How many exactly?” “I think it’s been close to three weeks now.” Alex had to do a double take on this piece of information. “Three weeks? As in 21 days? But that’s impossible! If I was out that long, shouldn’t I have starved by now?” “I don’t know! I was so scared that you might never wake up again! I couldn’t really do much to help you, the next town with a doctor is a few days of walking away and I have honestly no idea why you’re not dead yet!” While Vibrant Colors was explaining his circumstances to him, a thought struck him. He was immortal now. He couldn’t die. Apparently not even through starvation. By all means, he should be dead right now. But he wasn’t. He started to tune out the ramblings of the mare in front of him, to really let this information sink in. He was immortal. He could not die. Whatever he did, death was not an option anymore. He almost felt like laughing. Here he was, in Equestria. A literal dream come true. But cursed beyond belief with immortality. And the weirdest thing about it all, was deep down he was kinda happy about all of this. It was, after all, a chance at a new start. “I was really wondering if I should just go and get the doctor, but I kept thinking: ‘What if he wakes up and I’m not around?’ That could have taken a turn for the worse!” The mare was still going off on a tangent, apparently trying to set a new world record for the amount of unnecessary information in one conversation. Huh. Considering how new this world was, it probably really was a new world record. “Or maybe that’s just how unicorns work, I thought to myself. You know? I don’t really know much about you guys, and with me being…” “Wait what? Did you just say unicorn?” “Umm… yes?” The mare looked at him, as if Alex just asked her if the sky was blue. That was to say, she looked very, very confused. “Hold on a sec, I need to check something.” Remembering there was a mirror in his room he stood up, turned around and marched over to it. Closing his eyes he stood in front of it. He was actually kind of scared to see what he looked like now. “I swear to god, if they made me ugly I’m gonna spend the rest of my immortal life hunting them down…” He muttered under his breath. Gathering his courage, he opened his eyes, to really look at his new body for the first time. The first thing he noticed, were his eyes. Apparently the ever so benevolent gods granted him at least to keep his own eye color. Which was to say he looked at a pair of curious deep silver eyes. Some would say, his eyes were more of a greyish, slightly green color, but to Alex they always looked like silver. He liked his eyes, it gave off an almost mysterious air at times. And now that they were about 5 times the size, it looked even better. Next up was his coat, just like he previously noticed on his hoof, the rest of his body was also a dark grey. His mane was a light grey, almost bordering on white. Together they worked pretty well, he thought. But then he spotted the best thing he had seen all day. There on his head, was an honest to god unicorn horn. Which in turn meant magic. Suddenly his mood brightened up considerably. Next to going to Equestria, being able to do magic was probably at the number one spot of things he wanted, but could never have. And now he had it. A big smile formed on his face as he contemplated all the possibilities now open to him. He even forgot how bad he was feeling about all of this just a minute ago. Thinking about magic, the thought of cutie marks entered his thoughts once again. So he turned to his side, to see if he was the proud new owner of one such magical tattoo. But on his flank, only vast grey emptiness greeted him. “Please be magic, please be magic, please be magic…” Repeating that thought over and over again in his head. He just stood there looking at his flank in the mirror. Vibrant Colors, who was silent for the entirety of this display, started to worry again. The stallion had been staring at his flank in the mirror for a solid five minutes. Which, if you asked her, was far from normal behaviour. So she rose from her spot on the floor and walked over to him, placing a hoof on his shoulder. “Can I help you somehow?” Alex snapped back to attention, turning his head to look at the mare. “Woah, sorry. I kinda spaced out there didn’t I?” “Yes, you were just looking at your flank for like, five minutes… Is something wrong?” Alex took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let it out again. Slowly reopening his eyes, he felt much calmer. “No, I just have a lot to think about right now… Say, do you maybe have something to drink? I’m just now realizing how dry my throat is. And maybe a little food? I’m feeling famished.” Alex looked at her with an apologetic smile, and hoped for the best. After all, if she was willing to let him stay for a few weeks while unconscious, she surely wouldn’t mind giving him some food. “Of course! How could I forget something so important! I must apologize, I’m a bit of a featherbrain at times. Please follow me downstairs and we’ll get you something.” She turned around and waved a hoof, indicating to follow her. Alex was more than happy to oblige and didn’t miss a beat to do so. They went out the door into a small hallway, with another door directly opposite the one they exited, probably Vibrant Colors’ bedroom, he thought. She led him to the right, down the relatively short hallway. He couldn’t help but notice the two beautiful paintings hung up at either side of the hallway; one depicting a vast flowerfield, while the other showed a nice little two story building surrounded by a small garden, and a wooden fence. While he was admiring the paintings, he failed to actually look where he was going. Have you ever had this moment, where you stepped somewhere, fully expecting solid ground, only to find nothing, and then experience a moment of complete panic? Yes? Because that was exactly what was happening to Alex right now. His face adopted a look of utter shock, as physics not only betrayed him, but stabbed him in the back. As if he didn’t suffer enough already, the very fundamentals of the universe were now after him as well. “Et tu, Bruuuuute?” Needless to say, Alex fell down the stairs in a most spectacular way. Vibrant Colors failed to dodge the human turned pony, who was trying his best to imitate a tumbleweed. Alex collided with Vibrant Colors, taking them both the rest of the way down the stairs, until they met with Alex’s new best friend. The floor. A groan escaped from the bundle of ponies lying on the floor. “Let’s not do that again…” Vibrant Colors groaned. With a few grunts and groans, the two ponies managed to untangle themselves, once again sitting in front of each other. Vibrant Colors was rubbing her head with her fetlock, obviously in pain. “You ok? Did you hurt anything?” Alex queried. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for the mare. It was his fault they fell down the stairs, and apparently she had to take the brunt of the fall. “Yeah… yeah I’m okay. I’m kind of a klutz sometimes, so getting hit in the head isn’t anything new.” She admitted. “Why don’t you go sit at the table over there while I get you something to drink.” She gestured at a small table across the room, and went through a door on the table’s left side, that presumably led into the kitchen. Alex nodded and went to sit down at the table. He was thankful that there weren’t any chairs, because that was probably just another incident waiting to happen. While waiting he started to look around the room. It wasn’t anything big or fancy, just what you’d expect to see when entering a farmer's house. Aside from the table, there was a cupboard to his right which had glass doors, revealing several plates and cups. There was a fireplace next to it, with a couch before it; an open book was lying on the floor next to it. She must have been reading before she came running upstairs. Once again, he noticed various paintings hung on the walls. Each and every one depicted some beautiful scenery. His attention was drawn back to the table as a plate filled with fruit was placed on it, as well as a glass of water. “It isn’t much, but it should suffice for now. Do you want anything else?” Vibrant Colors had returned with her own food. She sat herself at the opposite side of the table, facing him. That’s when he got his first good look at her cutie mark. A color palette with a diagonally overlaid brush. “No, thank you very much. This is more than I could hope for.” he nodded thankfully at her. “Have you painted all of those pictures? They’re beautiful!” Vibrant Color blushed a bit and started to smile. “Oh yes, my special talent is painting, more specifically, landscapes. I just really love being able to explore and share the sights I come across with other ponies; it just makes me happy to make other ponies happy. Not to mention, it really is the greatest honor to make something and have another pony willing to pay for it, for it to be hung their home.” She finished with a dreamy look in her eyes and an even bigger smile than before. “Do you need any help perhaps?” Alex looked up from his hooves, with which he had tried until just now, to grab his glass of water. He adapted a very serious look and simply said. “No?” He really hoped she wouldn’t catch on to his inability to execute even the simplest of tasks. Like lifting up a solid object. They stared at each other for a few seconds; Vibrant Color trying to figure out if he was serious or not, and Alex simply trying to look inconspicuous. “Nonsense! You must be weak from all this time doing nothing! Here, let me help you.” With this she stood up again and came over to Alex’s side. He tried to protest, but she wouldn’t listen to any of it. So a few minutes later, with the help of Vibrant Colors, Alex was well watered and fed. Once again they found themselves facing each other at opposite sides of the table. “So listen, I think now would be a good time to introduce yourself, don’t you think?” Vibrant Colors coaxed expectantly towards Alex, who felt like an idiot right now. Just a short time ago he all but demanded to know her name, asked for food, and yet he didn’t even think to give her his name! “My name is Alexander Atlas Riptis, but you can call me Alex. Excuse me for not introducing myself earlier.” He gave a curt nod in her direction. “Oh it’s quite alright, I’m sure you had other things going through your head. Though I must admit, I’ve never heard of a name like that before. Is this usual amongst unicorns?” Alex raised a brow at this. It was the second time she displayed a very limited knowledge about unicorns. Considering he had no idea where he was in the timeline of Equestria, it was probably safe to assume the three pony tribes were not yet united. It sure as hell wasn’t the beginning of time like he was led to assume by Hermes. Thinking of Hermes, he remembered another detail about that fateful night. “Say, Vibrant, would you have happened to find anything next to me? Like, other objects that might have belonged to me?” Her face lit up in as she seemed to remember something. “Actually, yes now that you mention it. Just hold on a second, I’ll get it.” With this she shot off, thundering up the stairs, from where she returned shortly after. She was carrying a letter in her mouth, which was promptly dropped in front of him on the table. “It’s interesting, I actually tried to open the letter, to maybe find a clue about who you are or something. But I couldn’t open it for the life of me. Is it enchanted? Do unicorns not use scrolls; I’ve never seen paper like this before.” Ignoring the last piece of that statement, Alex turned the letter around in his hooves. “Could be enchanted, yes, let me check.” As Alex finally managed to turn over the letter he noticed it was sealed with wax, a strange bolt-like insignia imprinted on it, which he didn’t recognize. As he touched it with his hoof, the wax lit up a bright red, and started to crumble away into nothingness. After some difficulty he managed to pull out the piece of paper it contained. “Uhhh! Was that magic? I’ve never actually seen it before! That was so cool!” Alex looked up at Vibrant Colors, who was apparently losing her shit over the little display the wax just pulled off. “Uhuh… yeah magic, whatever… Listen this letter is top secret so, no snooping, alright?” Vibrant Colors nodded happily, barely able to contain her excitement about witnessing magic firsthand. Alex, content with her response, started reading. To Alexander Atlas Riptis I extend to you my greetings, mortal. I, Zeus, heard your wish, and have decided to fulfill it. Your wish, I have to say, was on a never before seen scale; thus me and my friends have had to invest a little more effort than usual into executing it. As you were with no doubt informed of, we have done this for our entertainment and because of that, we wish to watch your adventures for yet a long time to come. Which is why we decided to make you immortal. My dear friend Chronos, has “stopped” your time, meaning you will no longer age from here on. You will still be able to get sick, or get hurt. But none of that will ultimately kill you. I’m sure you have a lot of questions after you have woken, but you will just have to figure most things out for yourself, as we will not contact you ever again after this. As such, here are a few important things about your situation: When you were transported into this new world, it was the beginning of time for this new dimension. However just watching you trying to survive alone, would have been terribly boring, so we put you into a magically induced coma for a few days, and sped up time around you. The planet you are residing on, should now be properly populated. Having one's body transformed can be a painful experience, especially having to relearn everything. You will find that we have “preloaded” most of the basic movements required. We created the land of Equestria as accurate to the show you love so much as possible. For the rest of the planet we essentially hit random. Have fun exploring. I hope you will be a never ending source of entertainment for my friends and I. I wish you the best of luck, and have fun with your wish. Signed Zeus After finishing reading the letter, Alex blinked a few times, then read it again to make sure he didn’t miss anything. It didn’t exactly reveal anything new to his situation, but managed to clarify some details. For example why he apparently was able to walk around no problem with his new body. Or why he was so far along in time. He was just about to read it a third time, when the letter started to glow the same red as the wax seal did before. Fearing it might disintegrate soon he sped up his reading, until the glow just got too bright. Instead of just vanishing, the letter pulled off an exit wholly different from his waxy brother before. It literally exploded into colorful confetti startling Alex into backpedalling away from the table. He once again stumbled over his new appendages and fell. While being surprise hugged from behind by his best friend, he muttered something under his breath. “I hope you got a good laugh out of that one, you assholes…”