Midnight was resting in the shade a large tree in blossom, situated on a small rise in the ground.
Since leaving the hospital, his panic had subsided quite considerable and he began releasing that his initial fears were unfounded. No military ponies in shiny armour were giving chase in mass formations. Sure there were some ponies looking for him but they were medical staff, not military. And after seeing some foals and fillies playing happily in a stream, Midnight started to see that he had been acting foolishly.
He would have made his way back to the Hospital but instead was drawn to the sight of the lingering black smoke in the air and a strange unnatural smell in brought.
And he ended up here, in the shade of this pink tree. From here he had a perfect vantage point of what was generating the smoke, the crash site. Most of the fire had burnt itself out with only a couple of patches still smouldering. The plane was almost unrecognisable as such with only the tail and the remaining engine was somewhat intact, the rest was of it was a mass of broken and twisted debris.
Midnight just stared at the site’ his mind filled with flashes of memory. These started to join together to form one terrifying vision in his head.
Strapping into his seat, the plane taking off, settling in for a long journey. Suddenly a blinding white flash filled the cabin from the long line of windows on either side. When sight returned to him, chaos had gripped the cabin.
Shouts, screams, cries and the plane violent shaking when the only noises that could be heard. Turning his head around’ searching for a friendly face or an explanation to what was happening, only finding a sea of strange creatures gripped in panic.
Then there was a severe jolt that sent some of the unseated creatures flying into the ceiling. The plane then listing over to one side, causing him to almost fall out of his seat.
Then Midnight remembers looking out of the window, now below him. Seeing the ground rush up towards hi. And then…
“There you are,” Came a voice.
Midnight snapped back to reality with a physical jolt, snapping his head in the direction the pony approaching him.
Walking up the rise was a unicorn of the royal guard, in armour and spotless white coat.
Midnight stood up and started backing off but to his surprise so did the guard, lifting a hoof in a calming fashion.
“Its ok,” The guard reassured. “I mean you no harm.”
“Who are you?” Midnight snapped back.
There was a moment of still silence as the guard’s hoof lifted up to its helmet. Upon removing it, Midnight was stunned to see the pony’s coat change from a clear white to a bluish, grey-violet' and a mane of regal blue turning to an emerald green.
“My name is Foxtrot,” She said’ before giving a warm smile reassuring smile
Foxtrot was taller than Midnight by a couple of inches and was of slender build.
The thing that threw Midnight off was that her kind freckled face and warm emerald eyes do not seem to fit someone military regalia.
“Your coat,” -Midnight pointed- “How did you change its..”
“Oh, there's magical seals all over my armour,” Foxtrot answered. “Its so that we all look uniform.”
"Magic!?!” Midnight said incredulously.
“Yes,” Foxtrot replied before tilting her to one side “You do know what magic is don't you?"
Midnight looked down and shook his head.
“Sorry’ I’m kinda new around here”
“you're new in town!” Came a voice from above.
Midnight looked up to see a large mass of bright pink hair’ attached to it was a very energetic pony.
“Oh, oh, if you're new in town. Then I must throw you a Welcome To Town party” Pinkie Pie said in her upbeat manner.
Midnight and Foxtrot were both dumbstruck by Pinkie’s sudden appearance and the fact that she appeared to stand on the underside of a tree branch with no ill effects from gravity.
“Oh, oh, I’ve to get everything ready’ it's already midday!” Pinkie rambled’ as she seemingly floated to the ground.
“Miss Pie,” Foxtrot started’ after regaining her composure. “I don’t think that a…”
“CAKE!” Pinkie interrupted. “We need cake if we are to have a party! You like cake, don’t you? Of course you do’ everyone likes cakes. What kind of cakes do you like?”
Midnight was still dumbstruck by the spectacle of pink in front of him.
“Oh, I know!” Pinkie continued after getting no response. “I’ll bring you some cupcakes of different flavours and you can tell me which one you want.”
And before any other words could be said, Pinkie started bouncing off towards Sugar Cube Corner, leaving the other two ponies in complete silence.
“What was that?” Asked Midnight eventually.
“That’ was Pinkie Pie,” Foxtrot replied. “And before you ask, No, most ponies don’t know how she does what she does.”
“A' hah….” Midnight acknowledged. “She’ kinda exhausted me.”
“Hehe,” Foxtrot giggled. “Yeah, she can have that effect on ponies.”
Midnight joined the giggle, as the mood in the air lifted slightly.
“So’ erm…” Midnight started. “Where are we?”
“This is the Ponyville,” Foxtrot stated, gesturing to the town. “And we are in the land of Equestria.”
“I’m not familiar with these places, its” Midnight said.
Foxtrot cocked an eye at midnight. An alicorn not even knowing the concept of magic was bizarre on its own but a pony not knowing of Equestria was unheard off.
“I’m not a pony,” He said answering the look in foxtrot’s red eye, which only increased with that statement. “At least I didn’t use to be”
“Hows that possible?” She inquired.
“ I’m not from this world,” Midnight stated firmly, whilst pointing out to the crash site. “At least I think I’m not. I was on that’ I was on it when it crashed. But I don’t know how I got here”
Foxtrot watched Midnight carefully. He was getting agitated, holding his head trying to remember.
“I…I..” Midnight stuttered trying to force a memory that was not there to the surface.
Midnight felt a hoof on his forehead, looking up to that Foxtrot had closed the distance between them. Her essence bore a calming aurora, that seemed to transfer to him.
“Shhh…” She comforted, "It's ok, I believe you. After all’ it's not every day that an alicorn appears out of nowhere, especially a male one.”
Midnight started breathing normally, calming himself before smiling.
“There we go,” Foxtrot said with a smile. “Feeling better…erm..”
“It’s Snow, Midnight Snow”
“A pleasure to meet you, Midnight Snow,” Came the majestic voice of Celestia.
The two turned to see Celestia and Twilight walking up to them from the direction of Ponyville.
“Princesses,” Foxtrot said I can acknowledging their presence.
She turned and bowed as they approached. Upon seeing this and hearing Foxtrot call them ‘Princesses’ ‘attempted to the same. This, however resulted in him losing his balance and landing on his front with an annoyed oww’ before being helped back up by Foxtrot.
“We’ve been looking for you everywhere,” Celestia said, with concern lacing her voice. “How are feeling?”
“I don’t really know,” Midnight said weakly’ ruling his temple. “I know it was silly to leave the hospital but’ I had to see it.”
He looked out over the crash site, Twilight and Celestia nodding understandingly.
“Do you know how I got here” -Midnight turned back to the princesses- “To this world?”
Twilight stepped up’ and took in a deep breath.
“There's a mystical device called The Crystal Mirror,” Twilight stated calmly and clearly. “Its a portal’ a corridor connecting our two worlds. Normally it's only big enough for a single pony to pass through at a time but for reasons I can’t explain, it created a one big enough to swallow the transport you were on.”
All through the explanation, Midnight was slowly nodding his woozy head, trying to process the information.
“Is it still open?” He asked’ looking skyward.
“No,” Twilight answered.
Midnight looked back rubbing his head. Clearly still in discomfit.
“We should get you back to the hospital,” Celestia said. “It would not do well, to cause further injury”
Midnight was about to agree to this when his attention was drawn to a bizarre sight. It was Pinkie Pie coming bounding up the path, whilst balancing a tray of cupcakes on her head.
“Pinkie’ this is not the time for cake,” Twilight said.
“Oh silly, there’s always time for cake,” Pinkie retorted, bouncing around them in her usual happy mood.
Then she did something that surprised them all’ she managed to trip over a seemingly tiny pebble, sending the tray and cupcakes flying.
Before any of them hit the dirt, they were all caught and held in mid-flight with gold-tinted magic.
“How am I doing this?” Midnight asked eventually.
He was holding the cupcakes alof,’ while Pinkie took them from his magic and put them back on the tray, before scoffing them.
“You just used magic” Twilight “Its a mystic energy that flows through every living thing. It's incredibly rare in your world, but here it is in abundance.”
“I remember this…” Midnight said running a hoof along his horn. “I remember using this…”
“You do,” Celestia coaxed. “When was this?”
“There,” -Midnight pointed back to the wrecked plane- “When I saw the ground coming up, when I released we were crashing. I hoped that a bubble would come up and protect me and then for a brief moment I was surrounded by golden light”
“A shield spell!” Twilight said surprised. “To now a shield spell from instinct is highly unusual”
Again Midnight wasn’t paying full attention. His mind was abuzz with activity. Memories of the event of three days ago were finally falling into place but there was one thing he still didn’t know.
He turned to face the princesses and asked the question that both knew was coming but had been dreading.
“Where are the others?”