A Warming Fire

by Randomizer77

Discovery

Snow, streetlights, and lit signs prominently stood out against the black, clouded night sky. The crunch crunch crunch of snow under my boots partially blocked out the semi-common sound of a motor that indicated a passing vehicle. Hanging from my right arm was the reassuring weight of my few groceries. A small white cloud appeared in front of my face everytime I exhaled.

And I felt happy.

It was a chilly winter here in Washington state, cold enough for it to be snowing as much as it was. It wasn't snowing nearly as heavily as it would be in, say, Alaska, but it was enough for the local news stations to advise motorists to equip snow tires, as well as tire chains if you lived in an area that generally received more snow than average.

I didn't live in a particularly snowy area, so I didn't need tire chains unless I was going up to the mountains to have some fun in the snow. And down here, my little hatchback did perfect with its winter tires.

But the grocery store I went to, which was also the closest to my house, took less than five minutes if the crosswalks were timed well with the traffic, and I was only buying a few things, small enough for me to carry. And I felt like going for a walk.

As I waited to cross the street, I went over my plans for tonight: cook what I just bought a few minutes ago, watch my DVD set of all nine seasons of The King Of Queens, and inevitably fall asleep before watching all nine seasons. Not the most exciting way to spend an evening, but that didn't mean I wouldn't enjoy it.

I lived alone, and didn't have any pets; a gopher snake that I owned since I was in pre-school (about four years old, during which the snake itself was also very young) passed away when I was seventeen, and a cat that my family and I owned before I moved out stayed with them, half because he often didn't like it when somebody he knew well left the house, and half because with my job, I wouldn't be able to spend much time with him.

Yet I wasn't bothered by any of this. I got to work with cars (as well as trucks, SUVs, and an occasional van), which was the type of job I wanted, and it had a good pay, not to mention it introduced me to some great people and fellow auto enthusiasts.

And I had the internet to help keep me entertained. If I hadn't been frequently checking out the channel of a YouTuber I liked, I never would've done some research and discovered (and later joined) the Friendship is Magic fanbase (or possibly even known about the show). I had even written some FiM fanfics.

I was approaching the short uphill path that ended at the cul-de-sac where I lived when I was brought back to full awareness of the world around me by...

I looked down at my left foot.

... A pebble?

The way it bopped into my leg, as well as the lack of places where it could've fallen from told me that it didn't happen naturally; somebody had tossed it.

"... Anybody there?" I asked the cold air.

Silence responded.

I was about to keep walking when another pebble bounced off of me. I turned in the direction I assumed it had come from.

And, in some bushes, effortlessly spotted three pairs of eyes. Big eyes. Cartoonish big eyes. They all had yellow irises, but were unique in that they all had vertical slit pupils, like a cat's, or a typical dragon's.

Two of the pairs were the same size, but the third pair was smaller, appearing to be, at most, 60-percent the size of the other two pairs.

"What in the... ?"

I was struck speechless by the trio that emerged from the bushes.

They were ponies; Friendship is Magic bat ponies.

I blinked a few times, rubbed my eyes, and stared, wondering if for some reason I had begun hallucinating.

They didn't disappear; they just stared back.

"..."

"..."

What heck was going on here? I was just planning to relax at home and watch a sitcom so popular that reruns were still being aired even though the show's final episode aired several years ago, back in 2008. Now, three characters from a crazy popular cartoon were suddenly real? Was this going to be like the heart-wrenching fanfic My Little Dashie? Were they going to try to convince me to go back to Equestria with them? Was the multiverse theory actually true, or was this just a very vivid dream or even a very vivid hallucination?

What in the world was going on?!

Yet another pebble bouncing off of my boots brought me out of my mental ramble, and I noticed something had been written in the snow.

help

I looked back at the ponies.

"..."

They blankly stared back.

"..."

I looked around, seeing nobody.

"... Follow me." I said, breaking the awkward and tense silence that hung in the air, before resuming my walk home. The softer sound of crunching snow confirmed that they were doing so, or at least understood English.

The latter case was especially good, because I'm only fluent in English. I know a few words and sentences in a handful of other languages, but that's it.

I didn't see anybody else as we walked up to my house, alleviating my concern that this could really go south. I was also glad that all of my home's blinds and curtains were closed, in case anybody happened to cast a passing glance at one of the windows.

They were understandably hesitant to enter at first, but once they saw the inside after I switched on the lights, they entered without hesitation. After directing them to the couch, I went into the kitchen and started cooking my dinner.

Once that was in progress, I sat on the other end of the couch.

"Okay..." I said, breaking the dead air. "First thing's first: how did you end up here in the first place?"

Now in full light, I could see their specific appearences. The one I assumed was the leader was a male, with a pitch black mane, tail, and coat, broken only by his yellow irises. Aside from the last detail and the whites of his eyes, he looked like Mad Max's Interceptor in pony form.

Second, and by far the most eye-catching of the three, was a female who appeared to be about the same age as the black-on-black one; eye-catching due to her bright red fur, yellow mane tied back in a single braid (finished with a turquoise bead just before the end) that hung in front of her chest and I assumed extended halfway down her forelegs, also-braided yellow tail, and, quite surprisingly, a horn portruding from her forehead. I decided to put that on my mental "ask about later" shelf.

Finally was a male colt that I guessed was 10 or 11 years old. Like Black-on-black, he had a pitch black mane and tail, but was distinguished by a dark blue coat.

Black-on-black spoke, his voice confirming my guess that he was in his late teens to early twenties.

"We were escaping." He said. "This was the only place we could get to, and we'd been hiding in that bush for just ten minutes when you came by."

"Well, either this is the most vivid dream I've ever had, the first time I've had a hallucination, or there's much more to the universe than the whole world knows about, because logically, you shouldn't be real here." I replied, making Black-on-black lower one of his ears in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"Have you ever heard of the multiverse theory?" I asked, making all three of them pause.

"... It says that there are an infinite number of universes, all with different realities, some only differed by one event, right?" Said the lone female of the group, who for now I decided to refer to as "Fire".

"Precisely. Only here, we've never actually ever traveled between universes."

"Don't you have magic?" Asked the youngest, who I for now named "Colt".

"Actually, magic is merely fictional in this 'verse." I explained. "We instead use advanced technology for many things, and while we've created some extremely rare elements that only exist for a fraction of a second, we've never managed to travel between universes."

Black-on-black was about to speak, but was cut off by the microwave's alarm.

"This'll only take, at most, fifteen seconds." I said while getting up and going to the kitchen.

After I followed the instructions and set the microwave again, I returned to the couch to resume our conversation. But I glanced at the clock, and saw that it was almost 10 p.m.

"Listen, it's getting late, I've gotta get into bed in about an hour, I've still gotta eat, and the three of you no doubt have many questions. How about I put on some entertainment for us to watch, and we pick this up tomorrow morning?" I said.

"Fine by me." Replied Fire.

"Good."

I paused.

"What are you're names, anyway?" I asked.

"I'm Raven." Black-on-black said. I decided not to tell him that his name was generally considered to be a girl's name. "This is my sister Pyra." He motioned to Fire with one wing. "And my younger brother Sil." He motioned to Colt with his other wing.

"Well, I hope the three of you can make yourselves comfortable, because I don't know how long you'll be here. And, because this is a place you've never seen before." I said.

"I think we'll manage." Raven replied. "We're used to it by now."

I wondered what he meant as I turned on the TV and DVD player.

Author's Note:

There it is; the first chapter of my Life With A Wonderbolt spin-off, featuring three new characters. Fun fact: the state and area the narrator lives in, as well as the snake he mentioned, are the same as my real life (I live in Washington state, and a gopher snake I had since I was in pre-school passed away when I was 17... which was earlier this year. In early October (Oct. 3rd), I turned 18). I'm still working on the details of what's going to happen in the next chapter, so don't expect it to be finished quickly.

Comments

[soulknight13]

Interesting like the set uo so far can't wait to see the next chapter.

[That Sun Praising Author]

Update plz!

[Randomizer77]

6874110 XD It's in progress, I'll hopefully get it done this week so I can move on to the cuteness overload chapters.