I lay soundly in bed, the faintest glow of morning sun peering through the closed curtains. The birds outside the window were chirping happily without a care in the world. I tossed over, my body slowly waking up from the deep slumber I was in just moments ago.
'Goddamn...Fuck you sun...'
'And fuck you birds!'
I reluctantly opened my eyes and took a glance at the digital clock on the nightstand to my left.
'10:00 AM? Damn that's late...'
Taking my eyes off the clock I looked around the bed, immediately noticing the lack of two certain, adorable ponies. I was surprised to say the least, considering that Rainbow and Scootaloo definitely weren't morning... ponies?
They were up fairly early, at least for their standards.
... Because of that alone I should've known that that day definitely wasn't going to be a normal one.
Anyways.
It was exactly one month after we were at that strange spring and, fortunately, nothing really changed; Rainbow was still acting incredibly weird, especially when she was around me, and Twilight was making steady progress in her studies. I was sure that it wouldn't take her long anymore until she'd find a way home.
Their home.
A quick series of knocks on the door made me realize that I was, once again, lost deep in my thoughts. Applejack's muffled voice was the next thing I heard, calling me through the door. "Will, breakfast's ready, ya comin'?"
"Yeah, just gimme a minute." I called back, shaking my head clear.
It wasn't time to think about the future, it was time to finally get something inside my stomach.
My stomach audibly agreed.
After I took a quick shower and dressed myself, I headed downstairs to join the other four at breakfast. On my way to the kitchen my nose picked up the familiar smell of sweet sweet pancakes. I started drooling just at the sheer thought of devouring one of those delicious golden things. I was so lost in thoughts, thinking about pancakes, that I didn't even notice that I arrived in the kitchen until a blob of colors latched itself onto my leg, impacting it so hard that I nearly lost my balance for a second.
"...Rainbow?" I asked weirdly after the initial shock faded, giving her a concerned look.
That's what I mean by her acting incredibly weird!
"Good morning Will!" Said the overly excited mare, looking up to me and flashing me a huge smile before letting go of my leg and flying back to her place at the table. By the look Twilight and Applejack had on their faces, I wasn't the only one who was incredibly weirded out by Rainbow's behavior.
"Eh, yeah, good morning." I awkwardly greeted, walking over to the table and pulling out the chair to Scootaloo's left, sitting myself down on it.
It seemed like Applejack had, once again, prepared breakfast, if the smell of apples was anything to go by. I grabbed two apple-filled pancakes from the big plate in the center of the table and put them onto the plate in front of me, drool threatening to escape my mouth just at the thought of stuffing one of those delicious things into my mouth.
Wow, that came out incredibly weird.
I was so mesmerized by the two pancakes on my plate that I almost didn't notice the uncomfortable silence between us. Almost.
"So, uh, Twilight, how far are you with your researches?" I asked, trying to stir up a conversation and break the awkwardness. I slowly started on the first pancake, my stomach ordering me to start eating with a loud grumble.
"I narrowed the dimensions where our home could be down to about two thousand. Shouldn't take me that much longer to find our home!" She answered happily, a big smile on her face. I was about to congratulate her, but then that smile disappeared and turned into a frown. "But I still have no idea how I'm going to get us back..."
"You still don't know which spell brought you here?" I questioned, finishing the first pancake.
"Well...Yes and no."
I motioned with my hands for her to continue.
"I kinda do know which spell brought us here...but-" She began explaining, stopping for a moment to let out a long sigh. "-it's impossible for me to perform. There was no way I could've used it because it would've required me to use black magic."
"How did you find that out?" Rainbow asked her, a puzzled look on her face.
"We still had remains of black magic in and on our bodies, every single one of us." She said, and even before I was able to ask her my question, she answered it for me. "Yes, even you, Will."
'But that doesn't make any sen-wait, how did she find that out?'
"I don't remember that you tested me for black magic." I stated, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Eh, she did that while you were napping yesterday." Scootaloo answered for her. Princess weirdo gave me a sheepish smile.
"Scoots? She did nothing else besides testing me for dark magic, right?" I asked her, an unreadable expression on my face as I looked at Twilight's.
'She wouldn't do that...nonono.'
"I dunno, me and Rainbow went upstairs so that she could work in peace."
'Oh she didn't! While I was sleeping? Really?'
The neutral expression on my face quickly turned into a glare, a glare that told her everything she needed to know.
"We're going to have a little talk later on." I said, pointing at the intimidated Twilight, my voice ice-cold. As to prove how angry I was at her, I grabbed the second pancake from my plate and devoured it in one go, my eyes never leaving hers.
Wait, that doesn't make any sense. I was hungry and my stomach demanded food, that's all.
"Soooo, that means there's a possibility we'll never find a way home?" Rainbow asked, completely ignoring my silliness, letting out a long groan. "Great, we'll never find a way home..."
My eyes widened. My breath caught in my throat and I'm pretty sure that my heart stopped beating.
'Oh hell no.'
Suddenly, there was a bright, golden flash, so bright that it felt like I was looking straight into the sun, only a thousand times brighter. It came out of nowhere, and I immediately lifted my hands up to my closed eyes to cover them, but with little success. It was so bright that it went right through them without a problem.
Then there was a loud crashing sound, like wood breaking under a heavy weight, followed by a strong gust that hit me right into my face, carrying a pleasant scent with it.
Bananas. It smelled like bananas.
The light slowly faded and after a few seconds it was completely gone, disappearing just as suddenly as it appeared. The next thing I heard were gasps from all around me, and strangely, also from directly in front of me. I let my hands fall back down and opened my eyes.
At first the only thing I could see was a blob of black and white, but as soon as I gained back the ability to see properly, I noticed one teeny-tiny thing.
There were two new ponies standing right in front of me, right where the table once stood. The left one had a dark blue, while the right one had a snow white fur. Both of them had really strange manes, even stranger than Rainbow's; they were magically flowing behind them, giving both of them a rather majestic touch. The mane of the left pony was a mix of many kinds of blue colors, the main one being a sapphire blue color, while the mane of the right one had streaks of several different colors in it, mainly light blue, turquoise and pink.
I stared at the two new ponies wide-eyed, my mouth wide open in astonishment. I tried to say anything to break the awkward silence, but I was way too amazed from the sight before me.
I mean, just imagine two big, strange ponies landing on a table right in front of you during breakfast. You'd be speechless too, wouldn't you?
Fortunately, the dark-blue pony decided that enough was enough.
Unfortunately, she (Yes, she) didn't seem to like me.
"STAY AWAY, CREATURE!" She shouted so loud I feared that my eardrums may explode, lightening up her horn which was then coated in a dark-blue aura. In a blink of an eye, not even giving me the chance to follow her command, she let loose of a blue ball of magic, which hit me right into my chest.
Suddenly I started feeling really dizzy, like I was about to throw up, and sitting still on the chair proved to be increasingly difficult. I desperately tried to steady myself on top of the chair with my hands, but to no avail. I fell off of it, my limp body hitting the tile floor of the kitchen like a sack of potatoes.
My eyes fluttered closed and I started drifting off into unconsciousness almost immediately after.
I let out a long groan before slowly opening my eyes, blinking a few times to clear my blurred vision. It took them a few seconds to adjust, but when they did and I finally was able to see again, I was greeted by the sight of two big magenta spheres.
It took me a few seconds until I realized that those spheres belonged to Rainbow's eyes, said pony looking at me with relief in its eyes.
"He's back!" She shouted into my face, a few globes of spit escaping her mouth and landing on my face.
"Eww! Stop spitting at me!" I said in disgust, one hand already in my face to wipe away all that spit, while the other one was busy shoving Rainbow's face out of mine. "What happened?"
I felt myself being lifted up into the air, momentarily startling me until I realized that it was just Twilight's doing, who was standing behind Rainbow and to Applejack's left in front of where once a table stood. She straightened me and then let me back down onto my feet, giving me a big smile. As soon as I was standing properly, something impacted with my leg hard, nearly sending me back down onto the ground.
"Everything okay, dad?" The orange blob that was tightly hugging my leg asked, glancing up at me worriedly.
"Yeah...I think so." I said warily, rubbing my forehead with one hand. I was still incredibly confused and somehow lost all memories of what happened before I fell unconscious, so I had troubles remembering why the table behind Twilight was completely destroyed. "Just what happened here?"
"You don't remember?" Twilight asked, giving me a concerned look. I slowly shook my head, waiting for her to answer me, but her answer never came. She just pointed at something behind me.
I turned around.
"We... I am truly sorry, creature. I thought you were trying to harm our subjects." A dark-blue pony answered, bowing her head at me in shame.
"I apologize for the behavior of my dear sister, she wasn't thinking properly." A snow-white pony besides the dark-blue's side said, also bowing her head at me. Now that I saw them, the memories of what happened came back to me.
I blinked. Hard.
"Oh, yeah, that." I lamely said after a minute of awkward silence, seemingly unfazed by their appearance, but deep down I was immensely scared. Those two new ponies that barely reached up to my shoulders, not counting their horns, just seemed to be radiating power. I truly felt like they could eradicate me within a millisecond. "Apology accepted, I guess."
Now that I had a closer look at them, I noticed that they had both a horn and a pair of wings, just like Twilight did, which could only mean one thing.
"Lemme guess, you're Celestia-" I started, pointing at the white pony before moving my index finger over to the dark-blue one. "-and you are Luna, right?"
I could feel Twilight's and Applejack's glare at the back of my head, probably because I didn't address them as 'Princess Celestia' and 'Princess Luna' and bowed, but I don't know why I should've done that. They weren't the princesses of my country, so bowing down to them just didn't seem appropriate to me.
Hell, bowing down to anyone doesn't seem very appropriate to me, now that I think about it.
Both of the princesses shared a brief look at each other before turning their heads back at me, giving me thankful smiles, like they were grateful that I was at least so kind to drop the formalities.
"Yeah, Twilight told me a lot 'bout you." I answered, visibly shuddering, thinking about at all those 'history lessons' she gave. They were very... in-depth. Too many details.
I really didn't want to know who banged who and how.
I pushed those unwanted memories out of my head to my best abilities, instead focusing on the situation at hand.
"So, why are you here?" I calmly asked, even though I already knew the answer. I mean, what were the chances for them traveling to another dimension just to have a friendly chat with us?
"My sister and I came to-" Luna started, but then was rudely interrupted by a certain orange filly.
"WE'RE GOING HOME!" Scootaloo shouted happily, bouncing around me in circles, an adorable smile adorning her face. Luna cleared her throat loudly and shot her an annoyed look, clearly not appreciating the rude interruption.
"...As I was trying to say, my sister and I came to take Twilight and her friends home. They went missing around two days ago, and with the help of-" She put on a grimace "-Discord we were able to locate them in this dimension."
'... Two days?'
"We were gone fer only two days? And Discord helped ya?" Applejack asked disbelievingly, her mouth wide open.
"Yes, at least in our dimension, and yes, Discord did help us. He also created a portal to this dimension." Celestia answered. "Fortunately he was so kind to aid us, or else there would've been no way for me and my sister to travel here."
"Ya'll can say what ya want 'bout him, I still ain't trusting that varmint."
"Well, I'm afraid that we have to keep this discussion short, Discord should reopen the portal at any minute now." Celestia said before giving me a friendly smile upon seeing my conflicted expression. "Of course you are allowed to come with us, William. Twilight and the other three told us so many good things about you."
"How you saved my life, for example!" Rainbow chimed in.
"Or how you adopted Scootaloo without even thinking twice about it!" Twilight added, the addressed filly nodding her head frantically.
Everyone moved up in front of me, forming a half circle in front of me, big smiles upon their faces.
I couldn't help myself but to join them, a small smile of my own tugging at the corner of my lips. But that smile quickly disappeared and was replaced by a frown as soon as I realized that I couldn't go with them. There was no way that would've worked out.
Me, a human, living in a way too peaceful world, filled with speaking ponies and many other magical creatures? No, there was definitely no way something like that would've turned out good. It would be disorienting for me, to say the least. Maybe it would even turn me mad after some time.
But those weren't the only concerns I had.
There was also the fact that I'd need to leave earth, my home. It was quite possible that I'd never see it again. That there would be no way for me to reach out to other humans.
That I wouldn't be able to start anew.
Let's just say I went with them, what would've happened? Sure, I could've started a normal life with Scootaloo as my daughter, but deep inside something told me that I'd never be able to start a relationship, not with a pony. That wouldn't be right.
They were ponies; stupid, mindless animals, right?
No, not quite.
Yes, they were ponies, but they were by no means stupid or mindless. In those two months I've had the pleasure to live with them I learned a lot about them and from them.
Twilight Sparkle was extraordinarily intelligent, easily the smartest being I've ever met, and also had an incredible need and thirst for knowledge. We didn't call her an egghead for nothing.
Rainbow Dash: by far the coolest being I've ever met (just look at her mane!). Competitive, self-confident and brash. She was hard to get along with at first, but once I got to know her better, I found out that she's soft on the inside. She was willing to show affection around me, something she wouldn't even dare when she was around her other friends, as Twilight told me.
Applejack: the honest, hard-working (at least if what the others told me was true) and friendly country mare. She was pleasant to talk to, and that cute accent of hers always made me feel happy. I can't explain why though.
And last but not least, Scootaloo, my daughter. She was pretty much a clone of Rainbow, just more open about showing affection. You know, looking back to the day I met her, I'd say we hit off pretty well considering that she was an alien from a completely different dimension, and, looking back to the day I 'adopted' her, I'm happy I decided to just go with it. Sure, it may have been a rash decision, but I just couldn't help it. I pitied her.
She was abandoned by her own parents, just because there was a chance that she wouldn't be able to fly.
I know what growing up without your parents feels like, at least to a degree, but I don't know what getting abandoned by your parents because of your inability to fly must feel like.
I felt like it was my duty to take her under my arms, to give her a new perspective on live. To show her what having a dad feels like.
I smiled absentmindedly at the memories of those past two months, the big decision I still had to make momentarily forgotten.
"William, it's time for us to depart, the portal won't be open for long." Celestia snapped me out of my thoughts, her tone gentle and sympathetic at the same time, like she perfectly understood what I was going through. "Just remember, it's your decision whether you want to come with us or stay here."
"But keep in mind that there won't be a second chance for you to come back should you ever change your mind. Your decision is final." Luna continued for her sister, her tone also surprisingly understanding.
I closed my eyes, tears that I never knew I shed slowly trailing down my cheeks, leaving a wet trail in their wake. I balled my hands up into fists, clenching strongly.
"Will, what's taking you so long to decide?" Rainbow worriedly asked. I could feel those beautiful magenta eyes of hers tearing up. I could feel the fear steadily growing inside of her. I could feel how she was getting more nervous with every passing second, jumping from hoof to hoof.
"Dad?" Scootaloo asked. I could see her face right in front of my closed eyes, a confused look on it.
Applejack and Twilight stayed silent, but I still could see their faces right in front of me, just as sad-looking as Rainbow's.
I opened my eyes as I felt a soft, smooth thing touching the surface of one of my clenched fists. It was Rainbow and I was right with my assumptions; her eyes were starting to get moist, my own conflicted face reflecting in them.
I thought they tried to grab a hold of my hand, so I slowly opened it and wrapped it around the base of her hoof. She put on a fake smile, but her body betrayed her as a lone tear managed to squeeze itself out of her eyes.
The next thing I felt was another hoof, way smaller than Rainbow's, touching my other fist, begging to be squeezed. It belonged to Scootaloo, who apparently started understanding what was going on. I instinctively opened that fist too, taking the small hoof of my daughter into my hands, squeezing it gently. I gave her a small smile before looking back at Celestia and Luna, my smile faltering at an instant.
"My heart says that I should come with you and start a new life, somewhere far away from here, but my brain tells me that I would have no chance to live a normal life in a world filled with speaking ponies and other magical creatures. That I would get mad after some time of being the only human in the whole world. That ponies would only fear me for my appearance, maybe even despise me.
I simply can't live a life like that, a life under constant fear of being a social outcast. I know you ponies are very similar to us humans -minus the constant war part-, so there's even the possibility that ponies could try to let me... disappear, just because they think I'm a dangerous predator."
I stopped for a moment, taking in the reactions of each pony present. Celestia and Luna kept their straight faces, but I could see right through their masks. They were at least as sad as the others.
The fur on Scootaloo's cheeks was now positively drenched, her bottom lips quivering, and Twilight didn't look better of either.
Applejack and Rainbow tried to keep a straight face, but I knew that they were only a few more words away from breaking down into a sobbing mess.
I decided to end this quickly.
"I have to say, my brain is probably right. The chances of me living a normal life in your world are slim to none." I said, letting out a long sigh.
I heard someone starting to sob. Scootaloo and Rainbow let their hooves fall out of my hands, setting them back down onto the floor.
"... But I really don't care what it has to say." I said, shrugging once.
"You.Bucking.Idiot!" Something hard connected with my shin, sending a huge amount of pain through my whole body. Rainbow had punched me and I definitely deserved it.
The same pony that hit me suddenly lunched forward and embraced the point where she hit me, instantly followed by another body which collided with my chest. I tried to hold my balance, but to no avail. I fell down onto the ground, a blob of orange and purple tightly latched onto my chest while another one, a blob of multiple colors, was squeezing the blood out of my leg. I lay there for a few seconds before I felt two other masses colliding with my body, trying to find a free place to squeeze the shit out of.
I was overcome with emotions. Of course I was sad that I was going to leave earth, but I was incredibly happy that I had the chance to start a new life with Scootaloo and the others, somewhere far away from my old one.
Without another word spoken, Celestia and Luna lit up their horns. Another bright flash, just like the one when both princesses arrived, was what followed, and I felt my body being tossed around violently. The mares held on my body for dear life, nearly digging their hooves into my flesh, as we were forcefully hurled through time and space.
Together.