Permanent Vacation

by Apple_Crack

Prologue

“Permanent Vacation”

Prologue

I pull into my driveway and shut off my old ninety-five Dodge Intrepid. I open the door and place my foot on the ground, hearing the soft crunch of fresh snow beneath my boot as I step out. I turn around and inspect my clunker. It is not a pretty sight. Rust covers the entire car save for patches of blue on the roof and driver side door, the back bumper is missing, the hood is dented in (Never try jumping over a moving car), the heater doesn’t work, and both rear windows are missing and in their place is duct tape and cardboard. I slam the door shut and sigh, rubbing my gloved hand through my thick, curly hair. I could only hope that I would stumble onto a better car.

My hands fumble with the keys to my house. I manage to grab one of the keys and insert it into the lock. When the handle doesn’t turn, I realize that it is the wrong key. I really should label these things. After my tenth try, the door finally opens. I step inside to the warm comforts of my home and casually kick off my boots. I throw my keys and jacket on the floor beside the door and head for the kitchen. Opening the fridge door, I grab a Coke and some sliced ham. I rummage through my cabinets for some bread and after finding it, proceed to make a sandwich. I scarf it down in four bites and down the Coke in two gulps. Who knew working at a fast food joint could make you so hungry?

I smell like ketchup, French fries, and grease so showering is on the top of my list. I enter my bathroom and undress. I turn on the shower and let it heat up to a boiling hot temperature. After a quick rinse down, I step out and dry myself off. I wander down the hallway to my room but stop at the item hanging on the wall before my door. It’s my diploma, framed and out for the world to see. I rub the edge of the frame and sigh.

I throw on a pair of boxer shorts, a pair of fleece sleep pants, and a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt. I check the digital clock hanging on the wall. It’s seven-thirty P.M., which means that I still have time to watch some MLP and browse the net for pony news. I sit down at my desk, boot up my Toshiba laptop, and turn on my twenty-three inch flat screen mounted in the corner of my room. I browse through the list of episodes on my DVR and find the episode I’m looking for, Season One Episode Two, Friendship Is Magic Part Two. I’m not really paying much attention to the episode as I browse through Equestria Daily and DeviantArt looking for pictures and comics. After all, I have seen this like fifteen times now. I have just finished reading a comic and turn to watch the episode.

The Mane Six are just using the Elements on Nightmare Moon. As soon as Nightmare Moon is hit with the rainbow energy, my TV starts glowing and a bright light shines from it. I close my eyes and turn my head away. A humming sound forces me to open my eyes and look back. The light has now formed into a beam and is heading straight for me.

“Oh crap,” I manage to say before the beam hits me and I fall into darkness.

---

I flutter my eyes open as sunlight glistens through the curtains covering my window and straight into my face. I yawn and sit up, stretching my arms above my head. I am sitting at my desk with my laptop off. I must have been really tired to fall asleep at my desk like this and not in my heated water bed. I glance at the clock to see what time it was. I blink my eyes a couple of times to make sure I’m seeing this right. The clock has no display. I grab the TV remote and try to power on the TV but it’s unresponsive. This is not good. I’m supposed to start work at six thirty before the sun rises! If the sun is up, that means I overslept!

I hastily undress and throw on my work clothes, a plain white t-shirt and tan cargo pants. I also grab my pocket knife (Never leave home without one) and throw it into my left front pocket. I rush down the hallway, pausing briefly to rub my diploma again. Heeding the call of nature, I make a pit stop in the bathroom. I run into the kitchen looking for a quick snack and grab a Pop-Tart. As I’m throwing on my boots, I think up multiple excuses I could use when my boss asks me why I was late. I settle on saying the roads are bad and traffic was backed up as I finish zipping up my coat. I grab my keys and bolt out the door, turning around briefly to shut and lock the door. I turn around and begin heading for—

THUMP

I fall backwards onto the ground and rub my forehead. Grinding my teeth, I sit up and look at what I ran into. A tree. I ran into a tree. I scratch my head. Since when did I have a tree right outside my front door? I look around and notice an entire forest. And since when did I live in a forest? I stand up and look back at my house. Yep, same old home but now in the middle of a forest instead of a wide open field. I then turn around and look at the forest around me. Something seems off about this place but I can’t put my finger on it.

I start sweating in my heavy jacket. Wait, sweating in the middle of winter? I close my eyes and stomp my right leg a few times. There’s no crunching sound so I open my eyes and look down. Yep, just like I thought. Not a single ounce of snow anywhere. Before doing anything else, I walk back towards my house and unlock the door. I take off my jacket and throw it inside before shutting and locking the door again.

I hear a twig snap behind me. On instinct, I reach into my pocket and pull out my knife, blade open and ready to strike. While I’m not one for harming others, I’ll do what needs to be done. I spin around to see exactly what is sneaking up on me. What I see is something that shouldn’t exist, unless I am on some secret government facility for testing. It has the body and head of a lion, ears and wings from a bat, and the tail of a scorpion. It is a manticore.

A sharp, stinging pain shoots through my left leg. I scream out in pain and look down. The stinger on the tail is lodged in my leg. I must have been so transfixed by the manticore that I didn’t notice the tail heading for my leg. Through teary eyes, I slash my knife down at the tail. I’m rewarded with a hissing sound as my knife cuts through the stinger, causing the blood to boil. The manticore retracts its tail and stares at me. I stare right back. Waving my knife in front of me causes the manticore to whimper and run off into the forest. I shake my head. First, did I really just scare off a maticore? Secondly, those things shouldn’t exist. Thirdly, what was up with that hissing sound and the boiling blood? Lastly, where am I?

I’m shaken out of my thoughts when I feel a burning sensation in my leg. I look at my leg and see a red stain around the hole in my pants. I roll my pant leg up and am sickened by the sight. The entire area where the stinger pierced the skin has swollen and the skin around it has turned a dark shade of red. I lightly touch the skin around the hole and wince in pain. Just perfect. Not only do I need to find out where I am, I also need to find someone to heal me.

I look to the sky to find any noticeable things to follow. Way off in the distance, I make out a flag and the top of a building. A possible town? Having no other choice, I head in the direction of the flag. I had better get there fast because this burning sensation really hurts.

---

By now, I have reached the edge of the forest and can see multiple houses. The land is bathed in colors, looking like it is straight out of a cartoon. I am sweating profusely and the burning sensation in my leg has increased. The swelling and redness also increased in size. The pain is so bad, I am now limping along. I feel like dropping right there and letting darkness wash over me. But I push on, hoping that someone in this town could help me.

As I enter the town, everything seems quiet. Almost as if the town is abandoned. I place my hand over the knife in my pocket, half expecting something, or someone, to attack me. Everything is starting to get blurry at this point. I can’t tell if I am even heading towards the flag anymore. Thankfully, I hear sounds off in the distance. It sounds like a celebration of some kind with music blaring and cheering. I move as fast as I can towards the celebration.

By now, my vision consists of gray blobs. I round a corner, at least I think it is a corner, to see a huge mass of gray blobs. I shuffle towards them, my energy having disappeared from my body.

I hear a gasp and a voice with a southern twang to it say, “What in tarnation is that thing?!” With these words, the sounds from before silence themselves. I stop dead in my tracks.

I reach down and roll up my pant leg, hearing a collective gasp shortly after. I lean back up, reach my hand out, and mouth with as much energy as I can muster, help me.

With that, I close my eyes and fall forward, my strength being completely drained. Before hitting the ground, I black out.

---

I twitch my eye as sunlight hits it. What is it with the sun today? It’s like it’s out to get me. I groan slightly and lick my lips. I slowly sit up and blink my eyes a few times to remove the blurriness from my vision before looking around and taking stock of my surroundings.

It looks like I woke up on a wooden bed with purple covers with stars all over it atop me. Everything around me seems to be made out of wood. Bookshelves built into the walls are filled to the brim with books (Duh, what else?). Two stairwells sit on opposite sides of the room, one leading up and the other down. A little hallway directly across from me branches off to the left and right at the end. A little to the right of this doorway is a sofa in front of a flat screen mounted on the wall. I also notice two other beds, a smaller bed with green covers and another bed that is the same size but with plain, white covers a few feet away. There is also a telescope pointing out the window to the sky above. From where I’m at, I can see branches and leaves outside the window.

I do a double take. Wait… leaves? As in leaves from a tree? So I’m in a hollowed out tree? Why a tree and not a hospital?

I quickly realize that I feel no pain in my left leg. I panic slightly and gulp, fearing that the worst has happened. I reach down and throw the covers off of me. Carefully rolling up my pant leg, all my fears subside when I see my leg perfectly fine. The area around the hole is bandaged up and the burning sensation has disappeared. Whoever patched me up sure did a wonderful job. Speaking of which, I believe that it’s about time to find whoever owns this place.

I roll out of the bed and carefully place my feet on the ground. I wince slightly as pain travels up my left leg. So much for being fully healed. I, being as silent as I could, creep over to the stairwell in the corner of the room that leads down. I can make out some voices talking as I near the top of the stairwell. I only catch part of the conversation.

“I just don’t know girls. None of my books make any reference to the creature upstairs.”

So they are talking about me. But why didn’t a human know a human? Looking down the stairs into what opens into a central library, I take notice of the room. Padded chairs, a couch, and a few tables and desks are placed around the room. More bookshelves line the walls of the room, filled to capacity with books of various colors. I do a double take at six figures standing near the center of the room that leaves me confused but wanting to shout with glee. So that’s why they don’t know what a human is.

Standing in a half circle with their backs somewhat to me, is the Mane Six. Well, not the pony version but a more anthro version. It seems they have the same look from the Equestria Girls movie, but with the addition of tails, large wings on the pegasi, horns jutting out on the unicorns (Not far enough to hurt someone but still pronounced), hooves instead of feet, and equine ears. From my current location, I can’t get a good look at their faces.

Applejack is wearing a white and red striped shirt under a black jacket and a pair of blue jeans, along with her trademark Stetson. Fluttershy is wearing a loose fitting green t-shirt, with holes in the back for wings, and a long white skirt. Twilight has on a light brown vest over a white long sleeve and dark purple jeans. Pinkie is wearing a pink jacket over a white shirt and a medium length pink skirt. Rarity is wearing a light blue t-shirt and a light grey medium length skirt. Rainbow has on a white tank top, with holes in the back for wings, and tan cargo shorts. Somewhere on each of their clothes is their Cutie Mark.

While I may seem calm on the outside, my mind is screaming at me how impossible this is. Part of me wants to jump up and down at the joy of meeting the Mane Six and being in Equestria while the other half screams, “Error! Error! This does not compute! Force shutdown! CTRL-Z! CTRL-Z!”

I mouth a single phrase. What the fuck is going on here?

Author's Note:

My first time ever really trying to do something bigger than one chapter and without a pre-reader/editor so if anyone wants to leave feedback or help out, I would appreciate it.

Comments

[Sky Raider]

You still need art mate

[Apple_Crack]

5120901 I know that, just looking for someone to draw it.

[Sky Raider]

5120913 whata need man I can get it to you

[akarock]

Well, he's got his priorities straight. "Wtf is going on!" definitely outweighs "eeee ponies!"

[Jack Kellar]

Past tense or present tense. Pick one, run with it and stop using both.

[Vates Despero]

Thirdly, what was up with that hissing sound and the boiling blood?

Fey based magical system? With the blood reacting to the iron in the knife?

[hailspider]

hurts.

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By

Would it kill you to just use the [hr] tag?

[JOEBLACK]

I hastily undress and throw on my work clothes, a plain white t-shirt and tan cargo pants. I also grab my pocket knife (Never leave home without one) and throw it into my left front pocket. I rush down the hallway, pausing briefly to rub my diploma again. Heeding the call of nature, I make a pit stop in the bathroom. I run into the kitchen looking for a quick snack and grab a Pop-Tart. As I’m throwing on my boots, I think up multiple excuses I could use when my boss asks me why I was late. I settle on saying the roads are bad and traffic was backed up as I finish zipping up my coat. I grab my keys and bolt out the door, turning around briefly to shut and lock the door. I turn around and begin heading for—

Does he not realize he doesn't need an excuse? The power went out and his alarm didn't go off. This is the truth so his job could not blame him.

[Kailoken]

“Oh crap,” I manage to say before the beam hits me and I fall into darkness.

Light speed feats on chapter one lol