//------------------------------// // A Stranger In The Woods // Story: The Dreambender // by The Phantom Joker //------------------------------// Hello, there, mortals... I understand that you've come to hear the story of how I ended up in the famous land of ponies known as Equestria, and how I used my god-like power to prevent certain doom from befalling the ponies there from threats both from my world and theirs, and how I won the heart of the beautiful Princess Luna? Well, I’m afraid before I can tell you that story, I need to tell you THIS story. You see, my name was once  Mason "Dipper" Pines. I used to be a normal 12-year old boy, spending a summer with his great-uncle in Gravity Falls, Oregon. Thing is, NOTHING is normal in Gravity Falls. But now even the abnormal seems SANE compared to what I’ve been through over the past few centuries. What I’ve been through ever since I became the Dreambender: Alcor. I’m sure you’ll want to know my origin story. So, that being the case, let me take you back to the summer of 2012. Back when I was just Dipper Pines... Mom and Dad had decided me and my twin sister, Mabel, could use some fresh air, so they shipped us off to a sleepy little town in Oregon called Gravity Falls to stay at our great-uncle's place in the woods. As it turned out, our dear Grunkle Stan, had converted his home into a tourist trap called The Mystery Shack, and as soon as we got unpacked, Stan put us to work there. It had looked like a never-ending cycle of sheer boredom. Until, one day... I found a journal marked with a 3. From then on, everything got totally crazy. Hardly a week passed without some supernatural encounter or another. From fighting zombies to facing down sociopathic phony psychics, me and my sister came to realize just how many secrets this town held. But, even then, we were just scratching the surface. During my adventures, I met a triangular dream demon named Bill Cipher. He was psychotic, to say the least. He wanted to use a portal that my Great-Uncle Stanford Pines, who as it turns out, was none other than the Author of the Journals, the very man who I'd spent half the summer searching for, had built in order to unite the dream world and reality, also known as the Spectral and Material Planes. Unfortunately, this would ultimately lead to the apocalypse. So, that meant we had to stop Bill from getting his hands on the dimensional rift created by the Portal. Ultimately, it came down to one last showdown: me and Mabel versus Bill, for the fate of the entire world. The spectral and physical planes were just about to merge, and we were running out of time. After a long, hard fought battle, we managed to severely weaken Bill, who then attempted to possess me without a contract. I fought against Bill with everything I had, and you know what? I actually won against him. Bill Cipher was destroyed, and it looked like my family and I were going to live happily ever after. It was not to be. No sooner had Bill’s body shattered and dispersed like glass, my body began to flicker and distort. Until, finally, I was… poof. Gone. Everyone thought I was dead, even my own sister did at first. Nothing could be farther from the truth. You see, Bill had left a portion of his power inside me before he died. Unfortunately, that power was only meant to be used by a dream demon, not a human. So, as a result, I became a dream demon. As the centuries passed, I became the most powerful dream demon of them all. So powerful, that I was actually able to construct my own physical form, no rifts required. However, it wasn’t all UNLIMITED POWAH!!! and eternal youth. I had to watch as each member of my family died, one by one, followed by their descendants. I can safely say that immortality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. That being said, I’ve had my fair share of thrilling adventures, both before and after Mabel died. I once had to deal with an evil version of myself and Mabel, both of whom had dream demon powers, named Rocla and Razim. Honestly, that was one of the hardest-fought battles I’ve ever fought in my eternal life, and I’ve fought some hard battles. And yet, my greatest adventure was about to unfold. All it took was a mishap with a feedback loop while I was experimenting with my powers… … In the middle of a meadow near a river called Daisy Stream, a butter yellow anthro pegasus mare with a soft pink mane and tail wearing a white blouse, a green skirt, and tan sandals was having a picnic with some of her animal friends. Among said friends was a great big grizzly bear, an ill-tempered, bossy, and all around asshole of a white bunny, a few birds, an otter, and a gopher. “Angel, you really should eat more of your carrots, don’t you think?” Fluttershy asked the bunny,who had two-and-a-half carrots in front of him, and who simply blew a raspberry at his owner while the other animals simply rolled their eyes, being far too used to this at this point. “Just one more?” begged Fluttershy, to which Angel crossed his tiny little arms with an expression that clearly said NO. “Just finish off that half of one?” Angel’s expression remained unchanged at this offer. “How about a-” Before Fluttershy could finish speaking, a resounding explosion echoed over the meadow, causing the animals to jump and scatter with fright, and causing Fluttershy to turn her head towards the source of the blast, just in time to see something that looked like a pony fall from the sky into the woods not far from where she was. “Oh, my goodness! Somepony could be hurt! I’d better go and check and see if that pony’s okay!” said Fluttershy, getting up and darting over to where it had looked like the figure had fallen. But, when she got there, she quickly realized that thing that had fallen wasn’t a pony… or any kind of creature she was familiar with at all. It was about as tall as the Princesses, and had no fur, except for a small brown patch on the top of its head, and it had bat wings growing out of the lower part of its back. It wore a black tailcoat, a white dress shirt with a black bowtie, black dress pants, and black dress shoes. Fluttershy cautiously approached the creature, her body positively shaking with terror as she did. “E-excuse m-m-me Mr. M-Monster G-Guy, b-b-but are y-y-you o-o-o-k-k-k-ay?” she whimpered, poking the creature gently with her foot. The creature on the ground groaned loudly, causing Fluttershy to seize up and faint dead away, her body thudding to the ground in a kind of “play dead” position with her eyes wide in terror. Oddly enough, a goat seemed to bleat somewhere as she did so. “Oh, man… that’s what I get for screwing around with feedback loops,” groaned the creature on the ground, placing a black claw on its face as it opened its black and yellow eyes and standing up and looking around. “Where in the Sam Hell am I? Sure doesn’t look like Gravity Falls,” he muttered, before catching sight of Fluttershy on the ground. “Oh! Hello there! Please tell me you speak a language I know, preferably English.” Fluttershy didn’t respond, but instead remained immobile in her state of paralyzing terror as the creature snapped his fingers and caused a black cane and a black top hat with a yellow stripe near the brim to appear. “My name is Alcor! I am a dream demon-human hybrid! I am from a planet called Earth! Am I still on the planet called Earth?! If not, what planet am I on and what country is this?! And, now that I think about it, are you familiar with a four-legged pony by the name of Fluttershy, because you look a Helluva lot like her!” yelled Alcor, while poking Fluttershy with his cane. “Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?” Fluttershy continued to remain immobile however. Finally giving up, Alcor just shrugged and turned to walk away… only to get tackled by something very fast and very blue and fall on his back. “Ow! Hey, that was a cheap shot!” yelled Alcor, turning his head in the direction the fast blue thing had gone to find that it was a cyan blue anthro pegasus with a rainbow-patterned mane and tail wearing blue hoodie with a black t-shirt underneath that had the image of a rainbow-patterned lightning bolt on it, blue jeans, and pink and white tennis shoes. “Leave Fluttershy alone, freak!” yelled Rainbow Dash as she came at Alcor for another charge, only to have the creature somehow sidestep out of the way with a weird noise following his movements.. “Missed me, Dashie!” said Alcor with a confident smirk. Rainbow blinked in surprise at not only how fast this creature had moved, but at the fact that it seemed to know her name. “Wha-? How did you-? How do you-?” she stammered in shock and confusion. “Oh, please. You called that fear stricken vegetable on the ground Fluttershy. Which can only mean you’re Rainbow Dash, and THAT means I’ve somehow wound up in the magical land of Equestria, except the locals seem to walk on two legs, are taller, have hands, and wear clothes,” said Alcor, while Rainbow Dash just gave him a blank look. “In any case, it’s nice to know that I can understand you. Now, then where is Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack?” Not even a second later, a beam of purple energy punched a hole in Alcor’s hat, which of course, fixed itself instantly. Turning around, Alcor found four more anthro ponies behind him. The ponies, all four of which were mares, consisted of two Unicorns and two Earth Ponies. One of the Unicorns was a lovely shade of lavender and had a dark blue mane and tail, both of which had a magenta stripe through them, and wore a dark purple shirt with a magenta starburst on the front, black pants, and purple and pink sneakers. This was Twilight Sparkle, a very gifted and powerful unicorn sorceress. The second Unicorn was chalk white with a curly purple mane and tail wearing a white t-shirt,designer jeans, and black and white sneakers. This was Rarity Belle, and she was the local fashionista of Ponyville. One of the Earth Ponies was orange with a blonde mane, which was tied back in a ponytail, and wore a brown stetson hat, a white t-shirt underneath a green short-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and brown cowboy boots. This was Applejack, and she was in charge of Sweet Apple Acres, the apple orchard of Ponyville. The second Earth Pony was a bright and bubbly shade of pink, from her fur to her bushy mane and tail. She wore a white t-shirt with a heart on it underneath a light blue t-shirt, a pink skirt, with three balloons on it, and blue heels with little pink ribbons on them. This was Pinkamena "Pinkie" Pie, and she was the crazy one of the bunch, as well as a major party enthusiast. “Oh, well, looks like the gang’s… mostly here,” said Alcor, glancing down at Fluttershy’s frozen form. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Alcor. I’m… from out of town. Out of this dimension, actually, and I-” “You attacked Fluttershy, yeah, we’ve already figured that one out, pal,” said Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, stop it!” scolded Twilight. “Now, did you say you were from another dimension?” “Yep. Fun fact, in my dimension, you guys are all four-legged, and you’re all a bunch of  toymaker’s creations, as well as insanely popular. You even have your own TV show, comic books, and merchandise,” said Alcor with a smirk. “I knew I was being followed,” said Pinkie Pie in a serious voice as she slowly turned her head to the left and the right, leering as she did so, while the other ponies shifted uncomfortably. “Weeeellll…” Twilight said awkwardly before regaining her composure. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to run some tests on you back at my place in Ponyville. And I’d love to hear more about your world. And I’m sure the Princesses would like to meet you as well.” Alcor thought about it for a moment. “Eh, what the Hell, why not?” he said. “Perfect. If you’ll follow me, then, Mr. Alcor,” said Twilight. “And whilst we’re walking, do tell me who gave you your suit. It looks quite… classy,” said Rarity. “And you can tell me all about your favorite kind of cupcakes and other assorted pastries!” said Pinkie Pie. “And you can help carry Fluttershy home,” said Rainbow Dash, nudging the animal caretaker’s immobile form. Alcor sighed and snapped his fingers, causing Fluttershy to levitate a few inches above the ground. “You can do magic?!” said Twilight in shock. “...of a sort,” Alcor said as he and the girls started walking back to Ponyville with Fluttershy in tow.