Chapter 3: The Lake is Blue, but the Eyes are Green
As I slowly fluttered my eyes open the next morning, I had a vague sense that I was not alone. I couldn't quite place it, but I could've sworn I heard breathing that was not my own, and right in front of my face to boot. As my eyes slowly adjusted to the light, I could see the umistakeable green muzzle and golden eyes of my biggest admirer.
"Morning Jack!," Lyra beamed.
"Ahh!," I almost jumped out of my skin. Nobody deserves to get woken up like that. "Lyra! What are you doing!?"
"Observing you, of course." She said this so nonchalantly I was almost certain I hadn't heard her right.
"Observing me...as in, watching me sleep."
"Yeah. I want to learn as much about you as I possibly can, and that means keeping my eyes on you as much as possible."
"Lyra!" This time it was Bon Bon, coming down the stairs, "what in the name of Celestia's Sun are you doing!?"
"Exactly what I was trying to ask," I quickly said, not really thinking about the turn of phrase she had used.
"Uh...I was just...uh...," Lyra sputtered and stuttered, not able to talk and look Bon Bon in the eyes at the same time.
"Give the poor stallion some peace," the cream mare continued, "For Luna's sake, its a wonder I put up with you sometimes."
If I didn't know any better, I was causing strain in the their relationship, which was the last thing I wanted to do.
"I think I'm going to take a walk," I quickly said, trying to diffuse the situation, "see you two later."
"Wait...what," Lyra's stuttering continued as I made my way past her and toward the door, "What about breakfast?"
This stopped me in my tracks. The unicorn had a point. I was quite hungry, and I had a nagging feeling that the plastic in my wallet wasn't going to be accepted currency in this world.
"Well," I said, turning back to face the two mares, "you got me on that one. I'd love some breakfast."
"I'll go get something started," Bon Bon said, "Behave yourself, Lyra."
The mint unicorn gave her lover a look.
As the Earth pony mare went into the kitchen to get started on the meal, I returned to my seat on my couch-bed, leaving me once again seated beside Lyra.
"One question," I muttered before turning to look at her.
"Huh?"
"I'll make you a deal, you get to ask me one question about me or humans in general a day as long as I'm sleeping here. I have to repay your hospitality somehow. So, go ahead, ask me one question."
Lyra's lip began to tremble a bit, slowly cracking into a smile as her brain finally processed what I had said. Her smile continued to grow to an almost frightening size, and I began to regret giving her this power.
"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh," she uttered at little above a whisper, I suppose to keep Bon Bon from hearing her, "what am I going to ask?"
"Be careful," I warned, "if I answer that, you lose your question for the day."
Lyra's ears and face dropped at the seriousness of my tone. She then put her hand over her mouth in mute contemplation.
"OK," she finally spoke after a length of silence, "I'll ask a basic question to start off. You said I can ask anything about you, so how did you come here?"
"A good question. To be completely honest, I'm not sure. I was just sitting on my computer, finishing my work for the day, when I got unexplicably sucked into the monitor. Then, in less than a second, I got spit out of Button Mash's TV."
"Wow," Lyra breathed, "that's some trippy magic. So is there any way for you to get back?"
I smirked. "One question a day, Lyra, one question a day."
"Oh come on," the unicorn raised her voice, "that's along the same line of questioning."
"Still a different question," my smirk now reached douchebag proportions, "Start thinking about your one for tomorrow. I think I smell waffles."
"Come and get it," Bon Bon called from the kitchen, right on time. I gave Lyra another little look before rising from my seat and heading in the direction of food.
The breakfast of waffles and toast the Bon Bon whipped up was pefect, just what I needed to start my first full day in this weird world.
Soon after breakfast was done, my two hosts had to go to work, it seems that Bon Bon is a candy-maker and owns a sweet shop, while Lyra helps out and is the guinea pig. As I didn't feel like staying in their house by myself, I decided to go somewhere. At first, I thought of accompanying the two to their place of work, but I was figured the less I see of Lyra, the better. So I decided to go back to the scene of my appearance.
"Oh, hello Jack," Nursery Rhyme greeted at the door. Fortunately, Ponyville, as the town is called, is small enough to where I could remember how to get back.
"Hello, Ms. Rhyme. Say, is Button--"
"Hey, Jack," Button Mash appeared behind his mother, "how'd things go yesterday."
"Well, after you left me stranded and at the mercy of Pinkie, she took me to Sugarcube Corner, gave me a cupcake, and I ran into Lyra and Bon Bon."
Button snickered, "Uh-oh, Lyra got her hands on you didn't she?"
"Yes, she did," I deadpanned, "but at least I got a place to sleep out of it. Shouldn't you be in school or something?"
"Shoot, you're right," Button squeezed past his mom, "I wouldn't be late for the first day. See you later, Jack."
"Bye," I said weekly as the colt was already long gone down the road.
"I hope he remembered his lunch box," Nursery mused before turning her attention back to me.
"Is it really the first day of school," I asked, trying to get a grasp of the time of year.
"Yeah, Button's first day of school in Ponyville. I hope his classmates treat him nice.
We stood in awkward silence for a spell before Nursery spoke again.
"Oh, I'm sorry, but I have to get ready for work myself. See you later, Jack."
"No problem, goodbye," I turned around and went on my way, hearing the door close behind me.
There was still a few hours before I was supposed to meet Pinkie's friends at the lake, and I wasn't sure what to do with myself. Soon, I found a park bench and sat down, contemplating this very question.
I only had a few options. I could go back to Sugarcube Corner, but that would only take so much of my time. On the other hand, I could try to track down where that princess lived. If anybody here was going to help me figure out this mess, it was going to be her. As it turned out, I got my question answered for me.
"I see they let you out of the hospital," looking, I found the voice to be that of the town princess.
"Yes, yes they did."
"Good," she said, sitting next to me on the bench, "so I assume that your injuries are healed?"
"I think so," I replied, working my formerly-injured shoulder.
"Tell me, have you met any interesting ponies since you've been here?"
"Well, the moment I left the hospital, I got sort of assaulted by somebody named Pinkie Pie."
"Oh, don't worry about Pinkie, she does that to everypony. You should have seen how she reacted when she met me."
"If you say so. And then after that I met Lyra Heartstrings and Bon Bon, I assume you know them."
"Everypony knows everypony in Ponyville," she explained, "Wait a minute, you said Lyra, didn't you? Oh boy, I'm sure that was fun."
"If you call being interrogated until your interrogator's lover tells them to, and I quote, 'shut the buck up', fun, then yeah, it was fun."
"Don't worry about Lyra. Once she gets past the novelty of you, I'm sure she'll settle down."
"Hmph," I snorted, "the more you tell me not to worry, the more worried I become. So tell me, since you know my story, how do I get back to where I belong?"
"Well, I'm not sure yet," she admitted, "I did send a letter to Princess Celestia about you and your situation, so she may come up with something. But she hasn't replied yet."
"Wait, I heard Bon Bon mention a Celestia, something about her son, who is this Celestia?"
"Oh, she's one of the co-rulers of Equestria, along with her sister, Princess Luna. She also is, or was, my personal teacher."
"Doesn't that make her a queen?"
"It's a complicated history."
"I'm sure it is. Well, your highness, I'm supposed to be meeting some of Pinkie's friends by the lake this afternoon, and I still have to figure out what I'm going to do for lunch."
"There's no need to call me 'your highness', you can just call me Twilight. And since I am one of Pinkie's friends that you'll be meeting, how about I treat you to lunch. I take it that you don't have any Bits on you."
"What are Bits, and no I don't have any."
"You'll see, come on."
So Twilight and I walked back through town for awhile. We passed numerous ponies along the way, some of whom stopped to gawk at me, but most just went about their business. I guess what Mrs. Cake said about strange creatures was the truth.
Eventually, we got to a building which didn't look that much different than all the others in town, except for the numerous tables and chairs sitting outside.
"This is Cafe du Mane," Twilight explained, pointing to the sign above the door that read as such.
We walked inside and were immediately spotted by a white unicorn stallion in a waiter's uniform.
"Ah, good day, Princess Twilight," he said with a short bow, "table for two then?"
"Yes, please."
"Right this way."
The waiter led us to a small table by the wall and handed us a pair of menus. After taking orders for two glasses of water, he went on his way.
As I surveyed the menu, something came to my attention that I hadn't had the chance to think about before, as this was my first time eating in a Ponyville resturant.
"Twilight, question."
"Yes," she said, not looking up from the menu.
"Are all of you... ponies... vegetarians?"
"Sure, why do you--," a switch seemed to go off in her head when she stopped the sentence short, her eyes got quite a big bigger and she looked at me with something of a confused and worried expression, before continuing in a hushed tone, "You're not a... carnivore... are you?"
"No, no, not at all," I replied, alleviating her worries, "humans eat a wide variety of foods. Technically, we're omnivores."
"Oh, I understand. You'll have to explain that to Fluttershy. She noticed that your front teeth are kind of sharp."
"But our back teeth are flat," I said, unconsciously running my tongue along my top row of teeth.
"Are you ready to order," the waiter suddenly appeared back at our table.
"Oh, uh, sure," Twilight stuttered, giving the menu one last glance, "I'll have the Celestial Salad."
"Very good, and for you, sir?"
"I'll take a veggie burger with a side of hay fries."
"Got it, your food will be out presently."
Once the waiter was gone, Twilight gave me an inquisitive look.
"I'm surprised you jumped straight to the hay fries."
"Well," I explained, "I wasn't sure about them at first, but once I read that they weren't actually made of hay, I figured why not?"
The waiter wasn't lying about the speed of service. Before I knew it, I was halfway through a very good veggie burger.
"Take a breath, Jack," Twilight joked, "nopony's going to take it from you."
"Hey," I responded after a big gulp, "a big appetite is a sign of good health."
"True, but you could at least try to eat like a gentlecolt and not a timberwolf."
"What's a timberwolf," I asked, ignoring Twilight's suggestion by throwing down five hay fries at once.
"You don't want to know."
*--*--*--*--*
After finishing our lunch, Twilight and I made our way to the lake, which was quite a ways outside of town. When we turned the last bend, we saw that a red-and-white checkerboard blanket was set out. Sitting on it was two ponies, Fluttershy, who I remembered from the hospital, and another mare with white fur and a bright purple mane. I could see Pinkie Pie and a Rainbow-maned pegasus in the water, while another pony seemed content to sit up against a near-by tree, a cowboy hat covering their face.
"Twilight, Jack, you're here!" Pinkie called, swimming to shore.
"You didn't think we weren't going to make it, did you?" Twilight asked.
"Oh, it's not that, darling," said the mare with the purple mane, who I noticed was a unicorn, "it's just that Pinkie wouldn't let us partake in any of her snacks until everypony was here."
"Especially not until we introduce everypony to Jack," Pinkie said, throwing a wet arm around my shoulders, "Let's see, well you already know Twilight, Fluttershy, and I..."
"My name is Rarity, darling," the purple-maned unicorn said, "a pleasure to meet you...whatever you are."
"They call us humans," I explained.
"He's from another dimension," Twilight said.
"And before you ask," I cut her off, "no I don't know how exactly I got here."
"Yeah," the rainbow mare said, literally flying out of the water and landing quite close to me, "not the first time we've heard that one. Oh, and I'm Rainbow Dash."
She stuck out a closed fist in my direction, which I gladly bumped.
"Ah reckon that only leaves me then," the pony in the cowboy hat drawled as she stood up and tipped her hat back so that she could actually see me, "Name's Applejack. Put it there, pardner."
I shook the mare's hand, which I soon learned was a mistake, as she had strongest hands I had ever encountered, regardless of gender. When she finally let go, it took a minute for the blood to return to my fingers.
With everypony introduced, Pinkie produced a picnic basket filled with various goodies. She, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity grabbed a snack, while Rainbow returned to the lake, and Applejack returned to her resting.
I decided to grab something for myself, but as I was walking over, my entire field of vision flashed green. Thinking that it was merely the sunlight reflecting off the water, I took my glasses off and rubbed my eyes vigorously.
"What's the matter, darling," Rarity asked, concerned.
"Oh, it's nothing," I replied, "I think I just got something in my eyes.
"Well in that case," Rainbow's voice was suddenly right behind me, "I think I know a way to fix that.
She proceeded to wrap both her arms around the barrel of my chest.
"Time for a little swim."
"Oh, no, no, wait," I pleaded, but my cries fell on deaf ears.
Rainbow effortlessly lifted me off the ground, causing me to drop my glasses. I then realized that she wasn't simply throwing me into the lake, she was actually flying with me in tow. I was a bit scared at this point, but I was trying to roll with it.
The aptly-named pegasus flew slow and close to the ground at first, but in no time, she had picked up speed, and we had picked up altitude. Eventually, we were probably about 20 feet or so above the lake, and I was getting a little worried.
"Be careful, Rainbow!" I yelled.
"Don't worry, dude, I do this all the time!"
She then pulled a new move, flying a little ways away from the lake, which scared me even more, as at least the water would be a softer landing than the ground. Then, with a sudden turn, we headed back toward the lake, slowly descending, as if the lake was a landing strip.
Who knows what Rainbow had in mind, but something got in the way.
My field of vision flashed green again, but I knew this time it couldn't be any reflection. On top of that, this time it literally hurt, like my eyeballs were on fire. I reflexively covered my eyes with my left arm. This sudden change in my posture seemed to throw Rainbow off just a tad, as she wobbled just a degree or two. But that was more than enough, as the wobble caused my right arm to flail and I felt my elbow connect with something soft and furry. The second after that happened, Rainbow let go of me, causing me to plummet toward the water like a payload dropped off by a bombadier.
I hit the water with a violent splash, and, to add injury to injury, I didn't hit the water straight like a diver, but on my side, directly on my previously-injured shoulder.
Once I regained my bearings and my equilibrium, I remembered another little something that caused me to panic: I couldn't swim. While I may have been living in California, I'm a midwestern kid. The largest body of water I had seen in person before I went to college was a river. I rose to the surface and began flailing again, this time just to keep my head above the water. The lake wasn't that deep, but it was still deeper than I was tall. I saw Pinkie jump up and start as if she was going to swim to me, but before that could happen, I noticed Twilight's horn glow an off-purple color. Soon, I was surrounded by a kind of aura or field of the same color, and I was gently lifted out of the water and brought back to dry land.
As soon as Twilight let me go, I collapsed onto the ground, a coughing, gasping, mess. I rolled over to my back and tried to relax as one of them handed me my glasses. I hadn't had them on for three seconds before I saw a pair of blue hands grab me by my soaking t-shirt and pull me to my feet, bringing me face-to-face with a very pissed off-looking Rainbow.
"Why'd you hit me, you idiot," Rainbow began shaking me bodily. Either all of these ponies were really strong, or it just wasn't my day.
"He didn't mean to, Dashie," Pinkie came to our side.
"Well I certainly didn't elbow myself in the head," Rainbow barked, not paying Pinkie any mind.
"Accident...," I gasped, my wind not yet having fully come back to me, "eyes...hurt..."
"Don't give me that crap! You coulda gotten both of us hurt. You're lucky you landed in the lake!" She then unexpectedly picked me up fully off my feet and dropped me hard onto my back, knocking the wind out of me again.
"Rainbow Dash," now it was Applejack's turn to yell, "knock it off!"
The cowgirl came right up and shoved Rainbow away from standing right over me.
"What the buck, AJ!"
"It was an accident and y'all know it. Let's just be glad nopony got hurt too bad and let it go."
"Well, if he hadn't panicked..."
"You shouldn't have flown him into the air like that."
"Well...I...he..." Rainbow didn't seem to have an answer. She gave up, crossing her arms over her chest with a huff.
"Jack," Twilight said, concerned, "what did you say about your eyes?"
"My eyes were on fire," I gasped, still trying to recover, "Green light."
"That can't be normal," the princess muttered, "maybe it has something to do with the dimensional jump."
"Plain Equuish, darling," Rarity said.
"When Jack jumped between his world and ours, his body may have been harmed in some way. I can't be sure, I'll need a second opinion."
"But who would know anything about this," Rarity pondered aloud, "besides Celestia, maybe."
"Well, before we involve the princess in this, I think we need to check a source closer to home, or more specifically, closer to the Everfree."
"Yay!" Pinkie exclaimed, "we're going to Zecora's!"
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well than. its getting SUPER good, KEEP GOING!!
Interesting.
hhmmmmm good enough to give a thumb up, my favourite have to wait till i see more
...Accident, Riiiiiiiight... -_-
when's the next chapter coming out?
4537273 I'm working on it. I can't give exact dates or anything because I work on things as they come to the forefront of my creative consciousness. But it is coming.
I pretty much lived walking distance to the beach in California for most of my life, and I can't swim either.
4710360 grew up in a flood zone I was swimming before I was two. Red river valley(aka water world) for the win!! Google it if you don't understand.
What's with every Rainbow Dash suddenly taking a main character flying like that?
5007186 maybe it is because it gives the story a
dashing expierience
5175045 Boooooo.
5175045
*weakly