No Words
I’d gotten up at about 1 in the morning. After failing to sleep for about four hours, I just gave up and headed downstairs. There’s not a lot that can be done this late at night without waking somebody up, whether it’s my family or my neighbours. I live in the suburbs, so there’s nowhere to go at night. I mean, it’s safe outside, but I don’t have any reason to leave the house, since there’s no bars or clubs or even any local friends who might still be awake.
By now, I’ve kind of gotten used to having a few extra hours of deadwood tacked onto my life at each end of each day. It gives me a lot of time to think, lying in bed or sitting on the couch, staring at the ceiling. It beats staring at my navel, which is the only thing I can do without turning on a light or making any noise.
Sometimes, if I’ve completely given up on sleeping, I’ll talk to a few of my friends online. Most of them are asleep late at night, but there’s a few people that I can catch late, and sometimes I’ll meet new people in IRC channels. Most of the time, though, nothing really happens at night. I guess that’s always been how it goes, though.
Normal people live normal lives in the daytime, and only weirdos and criminals act at night. I suppose I’ll never get robbed since I’m always awake, but the sleep isn’t the only thing I wish I could have like a normal person. Sometimes, I just wish I could have an interesting life, even if I had to embrace my insomnia to reach it.
I’ve heard that was a curse in ancient China: “May you live in interesting times.”
Anyway, I’d decided I might take a walk outside, since I live in a pretty safe suburb. I’ve been taking taekwondo classes for my fitness, but I still don’t think I could take on anyone with a knife and a will to take my stuff. I don’t even have that much stuff, besides my camouflage jacket, jeans and watch. They’re all pretty new, but I could afford to replace them if somebody wanted to try and steal them.
As I walked to the park nearby, I suddenly got a strange feeling in the air, like something not of this world was trying to enter. At first, it was just mild, and I shook it off as being nerves, but as I entered the park, the feeling started growing a lot stronger. It wasn’t just that the energy was invading this world, but entering my body specifically, filling me with a feeling of wrongness. All of a sudden, this feeling exploded into burning pain, as though my entire body had been torn apart, but I could still feel every part individually.
Suddenly, my body came back together, and the pain subsided as quickly as it had come. Instinctively, I checked to see if all my body parts really were where they were meant to be. First, my hands. They were the right way around, my mouth seemed to move properly, my feet looked okay, though I’d need to take my shoes off to tell properly. All my clothes were intact, so I could only assume that all my internal organs were fine.
That was the least of my worries at that point, though. I could hear somebody speaking nearby, though their words sounded like gibberish. My sight and hearing were blurry, but as they cleared, I quickly noticed two things: that they definitely weren’t speaking in any language I knew of, and that they weren’t human in the first place.
The closest point of reference I had to refer to them by was ‘ponies’, though their coat and mane colours and the size of their eyes weren’t like any breed of horse I knew. There were three of them, all facing me, one closer than the others. This one was notable for having a horn protruding from her forehead, making her a unicorn. I could only guess at her gender from how her voice sounded, but although I couldn’t understand what she was saying, there was something in her eyes that suggested a kind of warmth, and I reached out by asking, “Where am I?”
One of the ponies in the back screamed and started running away, despite the protestations? Cries to calm down? Despite whatever the other two were calling out after her, she was running in fear. Of me? Of the unknown I represented? Whatever the case, the second had started running after her, leaving me alone with the unicorn.
She said something else, and I replied, “I don’t understand what you’re saying,” as slowly as possible. “But you don’t understand me either, do you?” Her questioning response seemed to confirm that. “Well...”
The unicorn said something I couldn’t make out, before her horn began glowing and her wings flared out. Wait, wings? Unicorns don’t normally have wings. Did that make her some kind of—
The thought gave out as the strange, painful feeling returned, this time concentrated on my head. I couldn’t be sure what was happening, but I was clutching at my head, hoping the pain would go away, despite me being unable to do anything but clutch, scream and kick out. When the pain stopped again, I tried to stand up, but found myself falling over, disoriented.
I remember that I at least managed to say, “Hello, reception? There’s a beautiful woman in my bed and a dead man in my bath.” Then I lost consciousness.
~~~
Twilight didn’t know what to make of the creature’s final words. She supposed that the language spell must have still been calibrating itself, because the statement hadn’t made any more sense than what he’d said before. At least, the tenor of his voice sounded male, though she couldn’t be sure. Still, he’d seemed to be in a lot of pain while the spell was being cast.
That was strange in and of itself, because normally that spell was entirely benign. It was a little bit invasive, but it didn’t actually read any memories or thoughts, only language patterns. Still, being able to communicate with him would come in handy, if he was still alive.
Trying to cast the least invasive spell she could that would help her, she cast a diagnostic spell for the singular purpose of finding out if he was still alive.
~~~
Another jolt of pain shot through me, yanking me out of oblivion like a bungee cord around my neck. “Anyone lost a large roll of 20 dollar bills in a rubber band?” I asked deliriously, holding one hand up. “Because I found the rubber band.” Shaking the blurs out of my vision, I started looking around. I was in the same room as before, with the purple... winged unicorn. I didn’t know what to call her, as a species I mean. For now, though, ‘pony’ would have to do.
The pony said something to herself, and I pointed out again that I didn’t understand her. “Oh, sorry!” she suddenly exclaimed in plain English. “I forgot that you don’t speak Common Equis. Though, I’ve never heard anything like your language before...”
“Common Equis?” I asked. “Is that what you call it here?”
“No, but it’s the closest thing I could find in your language. You’re missing out on so many things... Your names, for example. They don’t seem to carry any meaning or poetry at all!”
“Mostly, that’s because we stole them from other languages,” I admitted. “My own name, Soren, means ‘stern’ in Danish or something like that.” I quickly sat up as I realised something. “Wait, why am I arguing linguistics with a pony? There’s more pressing concerns right now!”
The pony seemed shocked by the statement, but quickly pressed her ears down, blushing and laughing quietly. “Oh, I’m sorry... Soren. What do you mean?”
I took a deep breath before launching into a rant. “For instance, the fact that I’m stuck in a world full of talking ponies, one of whom has the ability to put me in excruciating pain with a single thought!” I didn’t even know I had that inside me, but I was on a roll and couldn’t slow down. “And if that’s the case, then I can’t just pinch myself to wake up, not that I could have gone to sleep in the first place, because I’m a chronic insomniac who has either just gone completely insane from a lack of sleep, or I’ve actually been transported across worlds!”
Out of breath after the rant, I started breathing quickly, feeling the anger flooding my cheeks and trying to reel myself back in. If I’d scared the other ponies just by talking before, then this one would be running from my rant, especially if she understood it. As I was thinking that, what she said next threw me for a loop. “I’m sorry you feel that way,” she said. “I guess that makes me kind of responsible for you... Do you want to sleep here, at least for tonight until we can figure out something more permanent?”
I was surprised to see such kindness coming after my explosive rant, and it cooled me off immediately. “Uh, yeah, sure,” I mumbled, not bothering to point out that I had trouble sleeping in the best of circumstances.
The pony smiled brightly in response. “That’s settled, then! You can sleep in my bed; I’ve stayed up nights before, and I need to figure out at least why you’re here, if not how to fix it.” She turned away and started heading up a flight of stairs, mumbling to herself in her own language. Suddenly, she stopped and turned back. “What are you waiting for? The bed’s up here!”
Shrugging slightly, I stood up and followed her, coming into a room that seemed to be a library with a bed stuck in one corner. As I sat on the bed, the pony looked me over and suddenly giggled and blushed again. “I didn’t realise you were so tall before,” she said. “You might not be able to fit...”
I took my shoes off, leaving the rest. Even if she’d never seen a human before, and even though she wasn’t wearing clothes, I personally didn’t feel comfortable being naked with a member of the opposite sex in the room. Stretching myself out on the bed fully, I found there was just enough room if I curled up slightly. “No, it’ll be fine,” I reported back, turning towards the wall as she smiled and walked off, mumbling in Common Equis again.
Slowly, I started to take stock of my situation. I was trapped in a world where, as far as I could tell, the dominant species was talking ponies who didn’t speak English. The only one who knew it was capable of torturing me better than any human could hope to, but seemed apologetic and overly friendly considering we hardly knew each other. And on top of that, I still couldn’t sleep, though I didn’t want to turn down the bed.
“Some things never change, huh,” I mused to myself as I closed my eyes. Even if sleep never came, I still needed the rest. And with any luck, this would turn out to be just a fever dream in the end.
~~~
To see Soren in such pain, and to hear his accusations that she was causing it, had driven Twilight to be perhaps overly compensatory to him. Then again, considering that she was the cornerstone of harmony and friendship, it was only natural that she would be willing to at least try and be nice to him, she thought. Even after the rant he’d given, she still believed that it wasn’t all directed at her, and was merely venting his frustration, like she did by setting herself on fire.
Inwardly thanking Fortuna for the fact that she hadn’t done that in over a year, she immediately set about grabbing every book she could find that she thought would be useful. Setting the books in a pile near her desk, she took one last look at Soren, who was turning over and over, though he was quiet otherwise, not snoring or mumbling at all. Still, Spike had been a restless sleeper once, to say nothing of Pinkie Pie, and she didn’t let it distract her research.
She’d need to know everything she could about long-distance teleportation, involuntary teleportation and cryptozoology before he woke up, so that she could have at least some answers to his questions. She owed him at least that much for the trouble he was going through, before she sent him back to wherever he’d come from.
As the hours wore on, though, she became less and less certain that he would like the answers if she told him the truth.
~~~
I woke up, or at least got up, a little after eight o’clock. The pony was staring at the cover of a closed book, and didn’t notice until I greeted her. She seemed to jolt up, but quickly recovered as she turned around and returned the greeting. “Did you sleep well?” she asked.
“Not really. I don’t usually sleep,” I replied.
“Really? That’s amazing!” she cried. “Humans don’t need to sleep very much? You’d be able to...”
I shook my head, and she stopped. “Insomnia isn’t that common among humans. And it’s really not that amazing. It’s more of a pain in the butt than anything. Ponies usually sleep at night, right?” She nodded, and I continued, “So do humans. And since I can’t really do anything without waking someone else up, all I can really do is stare at the ceiling and think.”
“What do you think about?”
“Lots of things. For instance, last night I was mostly thinking about how I mistreated you before. I didn’t mean to snap at you, and I’m really sorry about it.”
“Maybe it’s because you were tired? I can help you sleep with magic—”
“Also, where I’m from, unicorns are mostly fictional, but are generally associated with magic. And when your horn was glowing before, that was when the pain started. I don’t think that even if you have a sleeping spell, it’d really do much to me except hurt.”
“Oh... I thought something like that might be the case.” Her ears drooped and she turned away, frowning sadly. “But, isn’t it hard never getting any sleep?”
“Sleep and rest aren’t mutually exclusive. Besides, it’s been like this for a long time, even after I started taking pills for it. I can manage.” Casting about for a topic to get off my insomnia, I hit on the books behind her. “What were you reading about last night?” I asked.
“Well, I was looking into anything about how you could have gotten here.” She gulped and added, “But I don’t know if I should tell you...”
I sat down to meet her eye level and said, “I can handle anything you can throw at me. The truth hurts, but finding out you’ve been lied to hurts more in the end. Catharsis, y’know?”
She nodded slowly, saying something to herself. “Most importantly, I can’t send you back.” That did hurt to hear, but I simply nodded. “You’re not from this world, or even this dimension. I haven’t been using my magic recently, and it kind of built up and overloaded. The spell I cast to burn it off was probably the one that brought you here, but I don’t know exactly which dimension I pulled you in from, so trying to send you back would be inexact at best and most likely lethal. Besides, considering your allergic reaction to magic, it’d be even harder to accurately send you. I’m sorry, but you’re going to be here for a very long time.”
Standing up, I shook my head. “Don’t be sorry. And don’t apologise for the magic you cast on me earlier. It’s not your fault, you couldn’t have known.” She smiled at that, her ears finally perking up completely. I was about to say something else when I was cut off by the sound of a rumbling stomach. “Heh, guess it must be about breakfast time.”
The pony nodded, only for her own stomach to betray her. She laughed, agreeing. “The others should be having breakfast right about now. If you’re going to be staying here, you might want to meet them with me, so I can introduce you.”
“Oh yeah, that reminds me,” I interrupted. “What’s your name?”
She paused for a while, sounding out something in Common Equis (I assumed) before saying more loudly, “In your language, I suppose the closest translation is ‘Twilight Sparkle’. Though, since those are just words—”
“That sounds fine, Twilight,” I cut her off before she could launch into another argument about English linguistics. “It suits you, I think.” She seemed annoyed that I’d cut her off, but her annoyance faded as she recognised the compliment. “Let’s go get something to eat.”
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MMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!
keep it up.
You have my interest, I'm looking forward to more.
What I don't understand... Twilight has a Castle now... a C A S T L E, and she brings him to her own bed?
Ehm... I'm pretty sure if 'mansions' usually have guest bedrooms, then 'castles' must have them for sure.
5204418
Twilight hasn't always been one to think THAT practically when she has made a mistake.
This is rough. Very rough. Most of the text is a ramble that doesn't say anything or go anywhere. What dialog you have is flat, utilitarian, and without any kind of emotion behind it.
not realistic