I don’t like confrontations, especially if it’s against a large number of people. Adding to the fact that I’m a loner, well...let’s just say that I talk more in my head than I do in real life. Not only that though, but sometimes, the tension in confrontations make the words coming out of my mouth all jumbly and messy. I prefer one on one conversations, but often times, I can also handle myself fine in group discussions, as long as there are no arguments involved.
So anyway, Missus Cow didn’t know where Twilight is. She also made it a point that she wouldn’t like to know where the crazy mare lives either. She simply led me to the bordering hills before we said our goodbyes and parted ways.
So here I am now, walking around the bases of the rolling hills as I work my way north. I’m walking through the tall grasses, which are almost reaching my neck, and they’re really lovely to look at, especially if a soft breeze passes by, making the grass stalks sway with the wind. Speaking of, despite the morning sun almost reaching the zenith, the air here’s cool, refreshing and oh so very soothing.
I would have climbed the hills and walked a straight line, but Missus Cow told me that it wasn’t a good idea. Why? Sheep lives on top of the hills. I can see a few of them grazing near the brow. Missus Cow told me that each hill has an “alpha ram” or whatever that is very, very territorial and will harm—or ram (her words, not mine)—anything that trespasses their territory or try to sheepnap his sheep...or whatever.
By the way, no, the cow’s name isn’t Missus Cow. I never got to ask for her name, so eh...
As I walk through the tall grass and hope that I won’t get bitten by snakes, and seeing as there’s nothing to distract me, my thoughts start to run from Twilight to Twilight and Twilight. And no matter how beautiful the scenery or how soothing the breeze, the thoughts in my head is weighing my spirit and my frown down.
Twilight can help me... That single sentence is no longer enough to lift me up. Twilight, in this alternate universe, cannot help me. And the cattle’s reactions were proof of that, and so were Missus Cow’s words during our short journey.
“She’s a very dangerous pony, dearie,” I recall her saying. “She suddenly appeared one day, crying and looking confused and she was asking for help. She was asking us strange and weird questions. We never really understood what she was saying as we spent minutes trying to calm her down, but after she did, she started giggling, and then laughing. She was laughing like crazy, dearie, as her horn glowed brighter and brighter. And then...she started harming us! It lasts for a couple of minutes, but it felt like hours... She then started crying as she apologized, and then she...disappeared.
“She doesn’t show up everyday, mind you, but every time she does, we panic and run away as far away from her as possible. It’s not because she harmed us during our first meeting, dearie, but when she showed up after the first time, she started taking our children! Heavens above, she almost took my child that one time! She has never been able to take away any of our children, thank the heavens above, but we cannot risk it, dearie. That is why our brave bulls started attacking her whenever she does show up, but she’s a clever mare, and not once did our bulls were able to even touch her...
“And that is why I don’t want you to go and see her. I don’t know if the horned ponies around that mountain knows where she is, but I’ll be thankful if you wouldn’t find her. I’m sorry, dearie, but whatever reason you may have for seeking her, I doubt it’s worth the risk, but...”
Twilight can’t help me. She can’t help me. She’s not the Twilight I’m hoping to meet... But I have nowhere else to go and no one else to go to... I... I...
“I want to go home...” I whisper in the wind.
“By the way, dearie... The horned ponies aren’t really...welcoming to whoever visits their land... Unlike the sheep, the horned ponies are growing more hostile as of late... There was a group of earth pony traders who stopped visiting the horned ponies a few moons ago after they were attacked by them... If you are determined to go there, then you need to be patient with them if you want them to listen to you, dearie...”
A soft breeze passes by, blowing the grass and my mane for a few seconds as I continue my slow walk towards the unicorns. The lone mountain of “Canterlot” is growing closer and closer as the minutes fly by. My hooves are starting to feel a little hurt and I’m starting to get hungry but I press on. I just...want to get this over with. Go to “Canterlot,” hope the unicorns will let me ask them where Twilight is, thank them, find Twilight, and...
She can’t help me... She can’t... She...can’t...
My eyes are starting to sting... I clench my eyes shut as I take a few deep breaths. Calm down, me... Just...calm down... Despite what they say... Despite what everyone says, I...I still don’t know yet if Twilight can or can’t help me. E-even if there’s a zero point zero one percent chance of her helping me back home, I’ll take it... I’ll try and take that chance...
...Because nopony else can help me...
Why are there so many clouds on the brown earth up ahead?
“Look, do you want these clouds or not?!” awesome pony asks as she hovers in the air, probably glaring at the glaring unicorns on the ground. I’m still a distance away from them, but damn, RD’s really losing her cool if I heard her loud and clear from here. Also, Dash’s here, too? Is she like the lead pegasus in delivering clouds? Eh...
I’ve already walked pass the rolling hills and I’m now on a plain of tall grasses heading towards the base of the giant “Canterlot” mountain. Speaking off, the mountain is really freaking huge! The base itself stretches beyond my x-axis vision area, and from the looks of it, the mountainside seems to be very, very steep. Oh, and there’s a big and dark cave on it as well, and in front of that cave is where the commotion is happening. I wonder if lone mountains are supposed to look like this.
Hm... I think I remember Pinkie saying that the unicorns live around the northern mountains, and not around one lonely mountain. Eh, I guess I must have misheard her.
I step out of the tall grasses as I stare at the peak. I blink and look at the ground, which is brown, rocky and has a few patches of green grasses here and there. There are also rocks and boulders of different shapes and sizes that are scattered everywhere I look, and as I continue walking and ignoring the arguing pegasi and unicorns up ahead, I notice quite a good number of rock formations where a flat-like rock is on top of two large boulders, forming a makeshift house or tent. So I guess it’s safe to assume that the unicorns are smart enough to make shelter.
Then again, if the weather’s controlled by the pegasi, then I suppose there’s little to no need of a roof to protect themselves from rains or storms, but then again, unlike in the pasture, the air here’s kinda warm, probably because of the lack of trees, so I guess they need something to shield themselves from the sun, and I’m babbling, and a few unicorns are already giving me death glares now. Right... I should try and be patient with them... I stop and look around, hoping to see a friendly face whom I can talk to.
“Last chance!” I hear Rainbow Dash shout. The unicorns who are glaring at me turn their attention to the loud-mouth pegasus who's still a few paces ahead. Dash is glaring at none other than an unfabulous version of Rarity. “Either you give us the gems or the deal’s off!”
“How many times to I have to repeat myself?” Rarity says as he counters the pegasus’ glare with her own. “We lost them just this morning!” She doesn’t have her signature curly mane and tail. Just like the rest of the unicorns around, her mane and tail are flat, and her mane’s length is only up to her shoulders.
“Puh!” Rainbow spits on the ground between them, but Rarity didn’t flinch. “There's your water. Enjoy,” she says as she looks at her pegasus companions. “We’ve wasted enough time.”
“Wait!” a unicorn calls out amongst the crowd. “Just give us until sundown! We’ll give you the gems as promised!”
I hear a growl close by. I turn to the direction of the noise and see a bunch of unicorns inside a rock house glaring at me with their horns and floating rocks aglow. My ears droop. “Uh...”
“The deal was,” Rainbow says, “we give you guys the clouds and then you give us the gems.”
“But...but...”
A unicorn mare steps out from the shadow of their home. “You have one breath to tell us what you’re doing here, dirt pony,” she says, a rock floating beside her head as she glares at me. “Or else...”
Cool! So that's what magic looks like in real life. But that’s not a friendly face... I gulp and take a step back, but then I start hearing sounds of uprooted rocks from the ground. I look around and see a few more unicorns levitating rocks as they glare at me. Welp, so much for the “friendship is magic” slogan of the franchise...
I take a breath as I turn to the unicorn who gave me the warning. Better ask directly then to save myself some time and pain, and to get the hell out of here. “I’m looking for T—”
“But Twilight took them all!”
The magical aura surrounding the floating rocks flicker as the unicorns wince.
“She suddenly appeared by the gems and then disappeared! Along with the gems!”
“You and your stupid and freakish magic...” Rainbow Dash shakes her head as she grabs a cloud. “We’re out.” And she zooms away, the other pegasi following her.
“Wait!”
“Great...” the unicorn in front of me sighs angrily as she eyes the retreating pegasi. She then shifts her glare on me. “We don’t have any water, and we have a dirt pony on our midst.”
I start hearing a chorus of frustrated groans from where the pegasi and the unicorns were having a discussion.
“Look!” one of them shouts. “A dirt pony!”
“What? Where?”
“Only one? How boring!”
“Well, at least we have something to channel our anger!”
Well, shit... More and more unicorns lift up rocks from under the ground, aiming their glares at me.
I feel my ears droop. R-right... Can’t stay here for long. “I ah, um, looking fo—gah!” I got hit! On the back of my neck! And it almost blacked me out as I stumble forward, my muzzle bumping on the unicorn who I was speaking with earlier.
And then she slaps me off of her. “How dare you touch me!”
I wince as I rub my nec—OW!—I feel another painful rock hitting my side! Then another, and another rock lands a few inches from my hooves. “W-wait!” I shout. “I need to—” a rock flies painfully on my cheek! I reel back, fighting the dizziness. Fuck, this isn’t working! I kick my hooves on the ground as I run away from the rock storm, zigzagging to avoid as much of the rocks as much as possible. I get a few more hits on my back but I try to man it up as I run towards the grass fields. But as I reach the tall grasses, the rocks still are falling around me, and when I finally put a lot of distance from them, a rock painfully hits the back of my head, knocking me to the grassy ground. I shiver from the pain as I place both my hooves over my head to at least protect it from the continuous onslaught of rocks, rocks and more rocks. Thankfully, the tall grasses are tall enough to hide my presence... And then a rock slams on where my cutie mark should have been. Ow...
I...guess I now know how ponies are going to act when pegasi stops delivering them rain clouds. If they stop delivering on that one pasture, then AJ and Pinkie are gonna be miserable the next time I see them...
Oh, and to Pinkie Freaking Pie, running away from a rock storm is not fun!
“—nough! Enough, I say!” I faintly hear Rarity’s voice. “This is why we can’t have things! We don’t know how to behave properly!”
“Tell that to Twilight! If she didn’t show up, then we could have already gotten some water!”
“That’s not the point!”
Their exchange continues, but for some reason, I suddenly can’t quite hear them properly. At least the rocks slowly starts to die down until no more rocks are falling from the air... Guh... I...think I’m bleeding somewhere... My mouth is so painful... My everything is so painful! Ow...especially my head...
I...I need to get outta here... Nnnnnggggg...! Ugh, I’m too painful to move... I need help... But through my hazy vision, all I can see is the tall grass and my bloody muzzle... I don’t think anyone can see me unless they stumble into me. Ow...my head and ow...my mouth...
Damn it all... I can’t stay here. Not like this... I...need to find Twilight. Get up, me! Nggg! Get...up...! I-I don’t have time for this! Don’t black out... J-just...get up... Ge—
...Ow. Why...do I feel like I’m—ow—sliding on the ground? Nnnggg... I feel...my tail...I feel like I’m being dragged on the ground by my tail... ...ow... Probably because someone’s pretty much dragging me on the ground by pulling my tail? Ow...
It’s not a continuous drag though. It’s like...pull, and then pause, pull—ow, my head slides on a poking rock on the ground—and pause. I can also faintly hear grunting noises... It’s probably from whoever’s dragging me...
I’m...too weak to move... Too weak to even open my heavy eyes... Ungh... I’m...I feel myself slipping from consciousness again... D-darn...
I hope the main character starts acting intelligently soon, because his stupid idealism is only going to get him hurt.
Hmm, looks like he isn't the only one to be lost in this place.
We really need to learn that this world is not the Equestria that we know. I really don't want to get hit in the face with rocks again...
again, great chapter. Well the unicorns are certainly not helping them selves bu acting like a bunch of mean nenes. All do Rarity seem to be aware of that or maybe she has better diplomatic skills than the others, and knows that antagonizing outsiders for no reasons isn't conducive toward good negotiations.
I see that the unicorns trade gems for water, are they miners or something like that?! What uses do the pegassues would have for them, they certainly can't eat them! Is it a tax racket to keep dragons from hunting them? this is getting interesting
6207979
how could he act more intelligently? he doesn't know any thing of this world other than the name of a few individual ponies. He doesn't know any the politics, the cultures of the area he is in . I have studded abroad in Europe and things can work very different from what we know and it is very easy to get overwhelmed in an environment that you are not families with, he is waking completely into the unknown for to him. he is lucky enough that he can take the same language as ponies. Jay is actual doing a very good job at keeping his withs about him, and he is actively searching for a way to get home, and not sob endlessly because lost or he doesn't have his thrums any more.
Sweet im enjoying this so far that would suck if that happened to me waking up as a pony i would be fangirling out for a minute then before realizing that i'm no where near ponyville I would freak out
“Well that didn’t work.”
While the only option he has is to try the same thing with something else, later. Hopefully not rams, bears, lynxes..
Good chapter! The tension builds!
Not sure what you did in the end, but i get the feeling he found Twilight, either that or Rarity tries to help him, howeber i am not sure how much she wants to help.
I get the feeling that Twilight isn´t from this world either, but why would she take the children? I know that she probably got crazy, because she doesn´t get any help, but i guess i have to less information to know why she would take the children.
6208074 He was told multiple times that the unicorns were violent racists, and yet he behaved like they were straight from the show. That counts as stupid.
6208628 multiple times by the same pony. I would love to believe Pinkie, but we truly don't know what append that time and there mite have been a miss communication somewhere. Would you believe hold hardily from a strangers that an inlier community would trow stones for no apparent reasons, without seeing it for yourself first. I would at least give the benefit of a doubt before setting an opinion on them. Beside, Twilight is his best shot of getting and for that to happened he will hast to deal with the unicorns anyway.
I suppose Twilight is equestrian actually. and she is building something using gems. some magical machine possibly…
Personally if I was turned into an Earth pony and had magic I'd probably cast Thwack of those who throw rocks or attack me either that or cast Kaswoosh of the Pegasi wings
Spell info
Thwack: A cursed incantation if succussful kills a group of enemies (instant kill spell)
Kaswoosh: A Tier 3 woosh spell Attacks with deadly hurricanes
6208672
"They are violent people who kill everyone who is not one of them, I managed to escape, look at the cuts on me"
"That's just your opinion on them, I can't believe they could possibly be violent until I meet them."
It was clearly not because of no reason, it was due to the inferior dirt ponies not accepting less for the food and for being inferior.
... and anyway, if you were in a new land and someone friendly to you told you 'don't go over there, the people there are violent racists who will attack anyone not born there', would you disregard what they said instantly?
6209110 I think she has other more mundane uses for gems. who do we know around twilight that has uses for gems I would wander why it would hav to be her how gets the gems rather than him self.
6209355
If she is equestrian Twilight - I doubt she has Spike with her. They would likely be together on the first meeting with cows in that case, but she was alone asking for help. From cow's story it looks like it was Twilight's first or one of the first meetings with locals. Although, while writing this I came to conclusion that there were no info on what help she was looking for. If they were transferred together and Spike was injured or otherwise indisposed - your point could work too.
6209191 if the unicorns where that violent they would have never had trade with the earth ponies. Instead of that could just come into there pastier and steal the food them selves, and with there magic to keep the earth ponies and horses at-bay, they would have long enough time to get what they want with little risk to them selfs. Instead of raiding, they traded with them. the subject of race as been raised ones but nothing that would suggest Major hostilities. Ms. cow mentioned that the hostilities from the unicorns started a few months ago, which collaborate with when they started trowing rocks at the like pinkie said which mean something append in that time to make them act like jerks.
6208628
Agreed. It's understandable that he wants to push the plot forward regardless of warnings because he sees Twilight as a way to get home, but instead of just completely disregarding the warnings he could've actually taken the warnings halfway seriously and tried to disguise himself as a unicorn.
6209634
How would you do that? Legit question.
6209627 ... I probably shouldn't have exaggerated it into a dark human setting...
6210380 no, the warning jay should have put him on guard for possible hostilities from the unicorn herd; not that he had a chance to do so, sens he was distracted by the dispute between Rainbow Dash and Rarity and the unicorns just decided to vent their frustrations on him regarded if he was the cause of it or not. after all he is an outsider that no one in the group cares about. Jay is in a world of lawlessness full of very real dangers were mob rule is law in communities. The best analogy that can make of this is that jay is dealing with groups that has the reasoning capacity of eighth year old schoolyard kid, that can't reflect on the pass, can't thinks of any thing of the consequence of the future; they live in the present of the emotions of the feelings of that moment, the rest is immaterial to them.
Ouch...
That's gotta hurt. And no, I do not mean on a purely physical level. That's like seeing a lifeboat pass you by when you're swimming in the ocean. Now, hopefully, this is actually Rarity dragging him away.
Awww poor guy, I think his realization that Twilight isn't Twilight hurt him more than the rocks. But only barely.
6210232
Just pull a toilet paper tube and some scotch tape from... somewhere. You're an earth pony, should be second nature, right?
Racism just doesn't sit well with me. While the story is interesting and done to an acceptable standard, I'm going to stop reading here.
Possible human-turned-Twilight?
Nightmare-Human-Twilight?
Nightmare-Human-Twilight that likes to eat Burger from time to time?
I really want them to get their flanks kicked already at this point.
This really proved to me that he really isn't the smartest around.
If he would actually analyze the words spoken by the cows, while comparing them to what he knows about the real twilight, it is absolutely obvious that THIS particular twilight knows more then any other species in this world. Just like him, she reacted strangely to the answers of the "wierd questions" she asked the cows. More so her panicky and desperately crazy reaction fits her usual behaviour tackling an impossible task, like pinkie pie for example.
Therefore, this twilight clearly isn't from around this place.
I am dissapoint in this guys knowledge and perceptiveness.
Huh, I wonder if Twilight is a HiE too or not. If she's using gems to do magic, it might yet be the case.
Also, as the only horny pony to try to stop the whole rock-throwing thing, Rares is best pony.
So far that protagonist is a bit of a pain. There's good moments.. but he's really all over the place.
First thing he does in the fic : he barely react at all to his sudden transformation/transportation to primitive EQ.. hell, its like he was BORED with it, of all things. Like yesterday's weather report... so that makes him a supremely calm and collected individual?
Not really. He have a emo attack when a cow misunderstand Twi's ranting (super strong hints that she is "transported" too) and tell him about it...
Gets attacked for no reasons; no real reaction. He just take it.
Gets annoyed when trying to sleep? Blows up (wich was funny).
Why is he seem so dim to the most obvious clues, but seem to clearly understand innuendos and social/physical cues from several species like its nothing?
I don't get him at all.
Still, the story is interesting.. just wish for the guy to make sense.
Is it just me, or would it have been incredibly badass for him to give his name as Lone Wolf?
7283539
I prefer Lone Wanderer