Running Like Clockwork

by ClockworkShield

Chapter 1: Where Am I?

Running Like Clockwork

Chapter 1: Where Am I?

Pitch black. That’s all I see right now. Just darkness. Am I awake? Am I sleeping? Probably unconscious, that’s all. Yeah. That’s it. This is usually what happens when I slip into an “unscheduled nap” (heh). Ok. Let’s see if I can remember how I passed out. Hmm… I remember going to a party, there was alcohol. Did I pass out from drinking? No, I only had a couple beers, way too little to pass out from. It must’ve been something else. Let’s see… I was dancing. I met a hot chick on the dance floor. We hooked up immediately. What happened next...? Oh yeah, after the party we went to her place… Wait. No, we never got to her place. We went into an alley. That was when she sprang on me. She ambushed me. I was able to fix the situation into my favor and then… nothing. That’s it. She did something to me. Ok. I feel like I’m coming to now.

This was what I remembered from the plethora of random thoughts that was going through my head as I was starting to come out of my mini-coma. Now before I continue my story, I just wanted to say that I do not like to stress out. Thankfully I don’t stress out that much, and rarely anything stresses me. Also, I don’t like change that well and as such it is uncomfortable when I am addressed with it. With that said when I came out of my brief period of unconsciousness to discover that I’m in a forest.

“Weird,” I said, “I don’t remember going into a forest last night.”

All of a sudden a sharp pain hits my head. I put my hooves onto my head and pressed against my temples till the pain left. When it did I took a sigh of relief from the pain passing and got up to look around to see where if there were any paths out of the forest. Then I realized something. I put up my hoof. It seemed like a normal dark red hoof, with a slightly lighter red fetlock. It seemed normal, except for one teensy-tiny little detail: I don’t have hooves.

“Huh.” I muttered, “I’m a pony.”

Confusing? Yes. Nonsensical? Definitely. Sign that I lost it? Possible. I wanted to freak out at that moment, but I did not have time for that. I needed to find out what was going on. I took a mint case out and popped a couple mints into my mouth and started walking. Then I stopped looked at the mint case and several dozen thoughts were running through my head. To make it easier for you, here were the most important ones:

Wait where did I get these?

How was I able to hold it?

How did I open it?

Can I pull other things out of where I got this?

Do I have body pockets? Like a kangaroo?

I got another headache after a while, and I decided not to worry about it for now. Before I put the mint case away I took a look at the lid. The mint case lid read Hayltoids, curiously strong mints.

“Heh. Hayltoids.” I chuckled.

I started walking through the woods, chewing on my mints the whole way, and got a good look at the forest itself. The forest looked more like a jungle, and it wasn’t anywhere near to the forests in Staten Island. Yet the more I look at the trees and the fauna, the more I feel like I’ve seen this place before, but can’t remember where. After a half hour of walking randomly through the forest, I was able to find a way out. As I walked out I looked around. It was nighttime, and in the distance there was a village. I looked up and saw, to my surprise, the moon, which bore a striking resemblance to a unicorn made up of its deep craters. I suddenly rushed to the village. There was no doubt in my mind. I was in Ponyville.

“No way…” I said, “ I’m in Equestria!?”

I was grinning ear to ear. The excitement that was rushing through me was enough to power a nuclear power plant. I found myself jumping up and down in an excited manner. For those who haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a brony. I love My Little Pony and am not afraid to say it. The show is great, the voice characters are perfect, the animation has a nice feel to it, and the storyline is sweet.

After my little episode I decided to serious up. I sat down and thought of my situation, and what I should do next. ‘Ok.’ I thought ‘I somehow landed in Equestria, I have no idea how I got here or who brought me here, and I’ve been turned into a pony. The best course of action is to go to one of the Mane 6 and see if hey can help me, but first, I think I should first find out what I look like.’

I then looked around the town for a mirror. Luckily I found a shop nearby that sells mirrors, and looked into one of the ones on display. That’s when I got a good look at myself: my hooves, as I explained earlier, were dark red, almost black with unshorn fetlocks, with my coat being blood red. I was the same height as Big Macintosh’s, except a bit skinnier and not as muscular. My eyes were still brown, and I noticed that I still had my metallic silver glasses, which covered half of my eyes with rectangle lenses and rested about halfway on my nose (snout? Whatever it’s called). My hair--er, mane was black with two thin red streaks, as well as my tail, which was long like Fluttershy’s and both laid flat against my body. It was then I noticed that I had a dark red horn, a little bit longer than Twilight’s, sticking out of my forehead. I immediately squee’d at the sight of the horn, then I looked at my cutie mark. This was a bit of an oddball. It was a silver-colored sword and shield, with a gold gear in the middle of the shield. The shield had gold trimming, and the hilt of the sword was a light brown with a red heart in the middle of the hilt. I had no idea what it was supposed to mean, but I did know it looked cool.

After giving myself a good look around I decided to go to Twilight’s house as she was the most likely to be up at this time. I looked around the village and found the library rather quickly; since the library was in the middle of the village, it was a quick trot. I approached the door, and as I knocked it occurred to me that I have no idea what to say. I can’t just say ‘Hi. I may look like a pony, but I’m actually a human from another world. May I come in?’ they would think I was crazy! Hell, I’m still sure I might’ve lost it already. But it was too late, the door opened, and a familiar purple unicorn answered the door.

“Hello,” Twilight Sparkle said, “welcome to the Books and Branches Library. I’m sorry, but the library is closed, so you will have to come back until morning.”

I was amazed at what I saw. Twilight Sparkle, the most prized pupil of the goddess incarnate and ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia, as well as one of my favorite ponies was standing right in front of me. This was hands down the greatest day of my life. I must have been staring funny at her, cause after a while Twilight tilted her head and said, “Um, are you ok?”

That was when I did possibly the dumbest thing I could ever do in this situation: I glomped her. Yeah. I know. Highly inappropriate, but at that point all of my common sense went out the window.

“Twilight~!” I shouted to the heavens. Yeah I know. Shut up.

We both hit the ground of the library, me wrapping my arms around her and smiling like a giddy little schoolgirl (school filly?) as soon as I open my eyes though I noticed that I freaked her out and corrected myself.

“Oh crap, I’m so sorry about that.” I said, “I get easily excited sometimes and when I saw you I couldn’t control myself. Are you ok?”

Twilight stared at me for a while before answering. “What? Oh, um, I’m ok, just a bit caught off guard. Um, I don’t think I have met you before, who are you again?”

“Oh, um, right now it doesn’t matter. I’ll tell you later. I really need your help. I woke up in the Everfree Forest about an hour ago and I had no idea how I got there. I thought you would know what to do, since you’re practically the smartest pony in Ponyville.”

“Um… Thank you?”

“No prob. May I come in so we can talk about it?”

With a confused look Twilight let me into the library. I made a beeline towards a bench and sat down.

“Um, would you like something to drink?” she asked.

“Oh, yes please. Water if you don’t mind.” I said.

As she was getting the drinks I looked around the library. The main room was huge; practically the entire tree was hollowed out. I found myself admiring the smell of the old books that lingered around the room, feeling very relaxed. After a few minutes Twilight came out of the kitchen, a tray floating behind her thanks to her magic. She set the tray down and sat next to me.

“So, where should we start?” Twilight said.

“Ummm… well, to be honest, I’m not familiar with this place as a whole.” I said.

“Ponyville?”

“Equestria.”

Twilight blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Ok, here is where it gets weird. I’m not actually from this world. I’m not even a pony.”

Twilight blinked, and looked me up and down.

“But you look like a pony.”

“Yeah, but I think that has to do with whatever brought me here. You see I am what is called a human from another world called Earth. I don’t have any recollection of how I got here, but what I do know is that you, along with the other Elements of Harmony, are my best chance at helping me out and figuring out how I got here, and, if possible, how I can get back.”

Twilight just stared at me... and kept staring at me... still staring... well shit, I broke her. I went to snap my fingers at her, realized that i didn't have any fingers, cursed under my breath and opted to just clap my whooves together. Twilight broke out of her trance, and immediately addressed what i just said.

“ Um, ok. I think we should just give each other some basic information about each other, because your story is basically horrendous and shady at best.”

I thought it over for a while, and then I yawned and took a look at the clock that was hanging on the wall. 4 a.m. It’s that late?! No wonder I’m yawning, I can only make it past 2:15 without yawning… getting off topic, focusing on matter at hand now.

“…Fair enough. However, can we wait till morning? I really don’t wanna make you stay up at this hour.”

“No, its ok. I’m used to staying up late.”

“No, I insist, I wouldn’t want to be the reason that you’re not getting enough sleep. I’ll just see myself out and I’ll wait till morning.” I walked towards the door, “Good Night.”

“Wait, didn’t you say you were not from this world? Where are you going to sleep?”

“I’ll just find a spot outside of town and just lay down till morning.”

I went to walk out the door, only to have her teleport in front of me, suddenly blocking my path.

“No. I insist that you sleep here for the night.”

I was a bit confused, but not surprised. I wasn’t surprised that Twilight would offer me a place to stay, but I was a bit confused that she trusted me so much as to do just that, despite the fact that I’m someone she just met.

“Are you sure? You just met me.” I asked.

“Of course. I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing that you would be sleeping outside, especially since the weather team was planning on rain later tonight. Besides, do you honestly think ill let you roam the town freely after hearing your story?”

Amazing filly, that Twilight.

“…Alright, I’ll stay. But only because it wouldn’t help my case if I didn’t.”

Twilight smiled as I walked back into the lobby and hopped onto the couch. She got a blanket out of the closet and gave it to me. She then said good night and went back upstairs to her room. I took out the mint case and popped two more mints into my mouth. As I put the case back, something struck me. Not physically, mind you, but more of a thought struck me. ‘What else do I have on me?’ I thought. I decided to take a look and see what I had. As it turns out, I had a lot of stuff on me, albeit having no pockets, body or otherwise. I just decided it was due to hammerspace and didn’t let it bother me. So anyway, along with my case of Hayltoids (heh), I also had a pair of ear buds, my iPhone, my wallet, a lighter, a box of cigarettes, a full flask (thank God!), about 10 leaf tag-size sheets of schematic paper (blueprint sheets) and three books; my sketch book, a fanfic book, and my journal. I looked at all the stuff I had on me and was surprised to have them since I only brought my iPhone and my wallet to that party last night. Guess that mystery will be solved another time. I decided to take a look at the book of fanfics and after reading a few i noticed that all the fanfics i saw were ones i read already.

"Hmm, lets see... Through the Eyes of Another Pony, Name's Ellis, The Vinyl Scratch Tapes, The Empty Room, Cu-" I suddenly went wide-eyed and abruptly close the book, felling a shudder down my spine at the thought of anypony finding this book and reading the stories within. I put it away and made sure no one else will see it. I wanted to think more on the matter, but I was too tired, so I hopped back onto the couch and went to sleep.

----

I woke up several hours later (3 hours later to be exact) to my chagrin as someone decided to poke me till I did. As I opened my eyes I noticed that the sun was just coming up, but wasn’t fully up yet, so I laid back down, completely ignoring the person who woke me. For that I got a slap to the face. I got up and looked around, ready to hit whoever did that, and saw a little purple dragon next to me with a stern look on his face.

“Ok, who are you and why are you here?” Spike said.

“Huh?” I said, half awake, ”Oh, sorry, Spike, I’m still a little asleep here. I came here last night looking for some help, and since I’m not from Ponyville, Twilight decided to let me stay for the night.”

“Ok… wait, how do you know my name?”

“Not important.” Damn, did it again. “What are you doing up this early?”

“I get up around this time to make breakfast for Twilight and me. Want anything?”

“Don’t worry ‘bout me. Hey, do you mind if I help? I want to make it up to Twilight for letting me sleep here last night.”

“Sure. Come with me to the kitchen.”

I followed Spike into the kitchen and we made breakfast for Twilight. I noticed that there was some bread and a toaster, oddly enough for the latter, and after making Twilight’s breakfast I made some toast with butter for myself, but not without a little trouble (Damn you hooves!). I wolfed it down and helped Spike bring breakfast upstairs to Twilight.

“Wakey, wakey” I said, nudging Twilight. Twilight groaned, and shifted in her bed.

“That won’t work.” said Spike, “It’s best just to let her wake up on her own.”

I nodded and went back out the room to the lobby with Spike, where I explained to him the situation. After about twenty minutes, and a brief attempt in convincing Spike that I’m not an alien, Twilight came down.

“Morning, Twilight.” I said.

“Oh, Good Morning, um… hey I never caught your name last night. What was it again?”

“And yet you still let me sleep the night here.” I said matter-of-factly, and when I got a glare from Twilight I quickly corrected myself, ”Which I’m grateful for, by the way. As for my name we could either use my real name, which is boring compared to the names here, or we could make a pony name for me. I prefer the latter though, as humans don’t name their offspring like ponies do. But maybe some other time. We have more important things to do. For instance, you probably want to know about us humans don’t you?”

“Well, yes, but I think it’s best to get everyone else here before you explained that.”

“Say no more. I’ll go and get your friends for you. While I do that, can you get some books on magic for me? And maybe a
book and some maps on the geography of Equestria?”

“The books and maps I can do, but are you sure you want to get them? You never met them and they would probably won’t come with you.”

“Don’t worry, I got a couple ideas on how to get them to come along.”

“Well… ok. But here, take this.” Twilight said. She used her magic (so cool!) to open a drawer and pulled out a large rolled up piece of paper. “This is a map of Ponyville, so you don’t get lost getting them.”

“Thanks.” I grabbed the map with my teeth and put it in my hammerspace pocket (that what I decided to call it btw) and went on my way. I took a look at the map and scanned it until I found where I wanted to go first. After I found it I put the map back, took my mint case out, grabbed a couple of mints, popped them into my mouth and left for Sweet Apple Acres.