Chapter Three: Body
Water.
Known throughout human history, science and everything in between, it’s usually considered to be among the most essential components of what creates life as we know it.
As you’d imagine though, it doesn’t really feel that way when it’s pouring down and freezing your tail off.
I tried to open my eyes, but contrary to what video games might teach you, falling into a shallow pool of water doesn’t instantly negate all falling damage!
One of my eyes was directly against the pavement, so I couldn’t open that one, and I suspected that at the very least I had a black eye because the other one wouldn’t open at all and hurt like hell.
After spending a minute assessing the situation and trying to determine whether anything was broken, I decided that the best option was probably to try and stand up. It would give me a chance to see my surroundings with my one good eye, and hopefully give me some indication as to the amount of damage my body had just received.
I managed to get my head upright and open my good eye, which seemed to be on a bad mood because it wasn’t showing me much. It was the middle of the night, it was still raining and I could barely see a light post in the distance, which was the only source of light in my vicinity. I was sprawled out in the middle of the small alleyway, and I could see some trash bins close by.
Looking down at my forelegs, I noticed that while they looked bruised, they didn’t actually hurt as much as I had expected considering that the fall felt like it went on forever...Or that might have been just my own warped perspective, since at that time I was about 3 feet tall, give or take a couple of inches.
Although that did bring into question, considering how small ponies actually were compared to humans, how in the world do most HiE fics actually work? Even in the generous case in that the average adult pony was 4 feet tall, once again give or take, why did humans hang out with such a comparatively small species who have houses designed for their own heights? Wouldn’t hanging out with dragons make more logical sense, considering they were also sentient like the ponies and were closer to human height?
At the time, I obviously didn’t consider this since I was slightly preoccupied with the pounding headache, bruised forelegs and honestly the shitty birthday I’d had up to this point. I would start off a long story of horrible human birthdays where they weren’t celebrated by my abusive parents, but the truth is I’d had a fairly average human life, with a loving family and some ups and downs so this actually WAS my worst birthday ever!
I know, impressive.
Nevertheless, I managed to get my hooves under me despite the head pain as I tentatively tried to take a step forward. Amusingly enough, I didn’t instantly fail and fall down to the ground as many ponified humans tend to do. Instead, while my balance was slightly off, I actually managed a slow shuffle towards the light post that I had seen earlier.
As I walked, my mind was jumbled, confused and maybe even a little bit angry. I knew that my parents clearly didn’t like me as shown by their initial reactions, but outright abandoning me in the middle of the night? I had expected a few frosty years and maybe even having to sing a song after which they’d immediately become great parents, but I certainly didn’t expect such a drastic reaction! Maybe in the human world I would’ve seen the signs better, but this was Equestria! A paradise land of talking marshmallow mini-horses where almost every single problem gets resolved in less than 23 minutes and a place where all ponies live in harmony!
But, it seemed like this Equestria that didn’t have all of that. Here, I watched as a pegasus doctor’s advice got ignored by my asshole of a father. I saw disgust and shame on my mother's face as soon as she saw me for the first time, just because I didn’t meet her expectations. Hell, what had just happened was an act of parental abandonment and even discrimination against another pony phenotype!
For some reason, it was clear that this Equestria was different in some ways to the canon one. I decided that I would try and get to the bottom of this, to see where or when the differences began.
I finally arrived at the land post after what felt like one of those long laps around the field the sadistic PE teacher forces you to do in 4th grade. It was still raining buckets and by this point, I was shivering. My coat was completely drenched and all I really wanted was a roof over my head, so I could go to sleep and deal with all of this tomorrow.
No such luck though; the streets looked deserted and it seemed like the rain wasn’t stopping soon. The fact that I could already feel my tiny body tiring and asking to go to sleep was not helping. Every moment that passed I could feel my eyelids drooping and I had to force them open, otherwise I’d fall asleep.
Suddenly after a particularly strong bolt of lighting struck down nearby, I could see a house in the distance! It wasn’t much and I wouldn’t be able to open the door anyway, but at least I could sleep on the doorstep, which was thankfully not being hit by the rain.
Desperately, I forced my body to move and eventually managed to reach the door. As I dropped off to sleep, I hoped that at least the locals wouldn’t judge me too hard for looking like a hobo sleeping at their door…
I was awakened by the sound of a loud gasp and what sounded vaguely like a female voice saying, ‘oh my goodness’.
As I slowly woke up from my uncomfortable position on the doorstep, I noticed that the rain was gone and it was sunny outside. Lifting my head, I also noticed that my body hadn’t chosen any place on the doorstep to sleep in, but it was actually lying on top of the carpet!
Rapidly standing up, I turned around to see the pony whose home I had unintentionally violated.
She was a unicorn, something I was not surprised by in Canterlot. What did surprise me however, was the lack of any sort of jewelry or accessories on her body. She somehow felt like a simple pony, who enjoyed the little things in life. Maybe it was her cutie mark? It was a heart, and what looked like the silhouette of a small foal inside of it.
She had green eyes, but the rest of her colouring was strangely subdued, think Mayor Mare but younger and with a different mane style that is brown in color. The only reason I had the time to analyze her like this is because she appeared to be currently facehoofing herself.
“Why do ponies always do this? Is it that difficult to show up at the door to the orphanage and have some proper procedure?” She seemed to be talking to herself. Either that or she didn’t quite realize my age and expected a response, which I couldn’t give to her without completely blowing my cover.
She looked towards me sadly and sighed. “I know you might not understand what’s going on, my little pony. But, I’ll try to explain it as best as I can in simple terms,” she explained before continuing. “My name is Emerald Dream and I am the headmistress of ‘Princess Celestia’s Orphanage for Ponies in Need’. You may call me ‘Ms. Emerald’ or ‘Headmistress Emerald’ if you prefer.”
I immediately thought; ‘Of course it’s called “Celestia’s Orphanage for Ponies in Need”, what else would it be...’
“Usually when ponies show up at my doorstep, they either come with their parents or at least one authority figure. Why are you so alone, my little pony?” She asked.
My only response was shaking my head. Inwardly though, I was reeling. What were the odds of me finding the owner of an orphanage as soon as my parents left me to myself?
“Well… I suppose I understand. Sometimes ponies truly have nowhere else to go... Or no one to go with,” she said, looking sombre. In what I suspected was a move to try and brighten my mood though, she invited me inside and told me to sit next to her table for a few moments.
“Ah, here we go. I suppose you don’t mind milk?” I didn’t. “Then here you go, my little pony.”
She gave me a warm piece of toast and a milk bottle. Don’t ask how I was supposed to grab the milk bottle, it’s embarrassing.
After that, absolutely nothing happened. No, really.
Oh sure, I was entered into Ms. Emerald’s orphanage. It was fairly simple as far as living arrangements go, but food and a semi-comfortable bed was all I truly needed, particularly as a newborn foal. Of course, let me tell you something; having to pretend to be a toddler for two years was excruciatingly painful. The reason I say nothing happened is that no pony will ever give toddlers/foals any homework or even books until they’re at least age 3, so I had nothing to do!
After sneaking my way into the small orphanage library one boring night and being discovered with one of their books hidden under my pillow, I was finally allowed to attend to the small reading/writing classes they usually reserved for ponies who were over the age of three, but weren’t old enough to actually go to school. I tried to make sure my handwriting was scrawled at first, but it still got praised regardless. And finally after what felt like forever, I was allowed books on equestrian history, even if they thought I wouldn’t understand them.
This allowed me to check my place in the timeline. I had my suspicions, considering how there were no references to Luna as a Princess at all, but this confirmed it; I had travelled to Equestria about 980 years after Nightmare Moon’s confrontation with Princess Celestia, which meant that I would be an adult by the time she came back.
This was incredibly suspicious.
If there was any doubt that some external influence had made sure that events aligned in my favor in such a way that I would be there during the Summer Sun Celebration, this pretty much removed it. Sure, I didn’t get to be transported to Equestria in the adult unicorn body I’d expected, but this was incredibly common in most ponification fanfictions.
After all, how else would the main character possibly contribute to the plot if they weren’t an Element of Harmony that discovered it at the last minute in the middle of Nightmare Moon’s defeat, who also happened to be the same age as the Mane six and the opposite sex!
After checking out the equestrian history books, I asked one of the multiple caretakers from the orphanage whether there was any place in which I could read about magic. She told me that magic books weren’t found anywhere in the orphanage library because young unicorns might accidentally end up casting a spell wrong and seriously hurting themselves or others, albeit rather expeditiously, so they were only found in schools where unicorn teachers were there in case anything went wrong.
Considering the fact that most of the unicorn foals that lived in the orphanage with me were already more prone to accidental magic than your average Hogwarts student, I got her point.
Later that day, an idea suddenly struck me. I asked one of the few earth pony caretakers where I could learn about earth pony magic. He then struck a strange face and told me that he had no idea what I was talking about. Apparently, earth ponies had no magic and their only trait was being very physically strong. When I then asked how we were considered such good farmers if there was no magic involved, he simply informed me that it had nothing to do with magic at all, but simply patience.
Your average unicorn might have patience to learn new spells and slowly try them out, but they had no such thing for ‘mundane’ things, like farming. Usually a unicorn would get impatient, force the plant to grow with magic and have it tire itself out very quickly, which in the long run would end up killing the plant faster and also having it produce less fruit.
It was even worse with the pegasi; while they might have the ability to ensure the plant they’re trying to grow has perfect weather on top of it, they were very ignorant on the nutrients and different elements inside the earth that allowed food to grow. This would usually result in them forgetting to water the corps, giving them the necessary nutrients, or even having them take too much sunlight through constant ‘perfect weather’, which ends up killing the crops.
Shocked by his logic and astounded at the fact that I’d never thought of it that way, I thanked him for the lesson and went on my way…
And that’s when another realization hit me, but this wasn’t a good one: in this version of Equestria, earth ponies, possibly excluding Pinkie Pie, had no magic. There were unicorn adults willing to abandon their children because they were born earth ponies. And while there were a few unicorn foals here and there, there were generally more pegasi and earth ponies in the orphanage. Did that mean that this Equestria had a class system, as the fandom had theorized for years? Are the earth ponies here the ‘working class’? Or is it all a big coincidence?
That was the point in which I realized that I wasn’t willing to play nice anymore. As much as it may end up causing my future knowledge to eventually become useless, I wasn’t going to sit around and let the canon events play out.
I had to figure out a way to contribute, to change this world for the better so that no pony had to go by the horrible name “Lost Hope” ever again, if only because it was so incredibly edgy that it was really starting to bother me.
And the only way to make a change was to take a risk.
I wasn’t going to sit idly by. I needed to talk to Princess Celestia...
On second thought, talking to Celestia might take a while...
First, I needed to find a way to counter magic.
As always, any reviews, comments and suggestions are appreciated 
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Counter magic? I have no idea where this is going but I like it!
Thanks for all the comments! College is being annoying, but I've been working hard on Chapter 4, hopefully you all like it
And so he found a couple of gangly redheaded unicorn colts with big dreams, and one thing led to another and well, we sort of have to bulldoze Sweet Apple Acres now, amid clouds of choking smog. Can't get in the way of progress!
How do they know his name is Lost Hope? He was abandoned without anything that could tell them that and it's not like he could tell them that personally in the first few years...
Okay, I'm reading Chapter Three, and I'm extremely confused. How did he survive being thrown out the window as a JUST-BORN INFANT?
Why is this orphanage matron speaking to him as if he's going to understand her when he was JUST BORN?
If ponies are four feet tall, why would he be three feet tall if he was JUST BORN?
Did I miss some kind of huge time skip? WHAT IS HAPPENING?
8347325
I understand your confusion, but you're thinking in very human terms. I imagine MLP ponies to have a similar body structure to our ponies.
A just-born infant pony can not only walk, but will shortly learn how to run within the same day. They are much sturdier than our own infants.
Add in the fact that he's an earth pony, who have always been a stubborn bunch, and also that there's no window since it's a carriage and I don't think it's too unbelievable...
As for the height thing, it's very difficult to get accurate height's on show ponies. They are supposed to be 'small' cause you know, not horses, but when you compare the height of like Sweetie Bell to Rarity it's clear they don't grow THAT much over time. If it makes you feel any better, you can argue his perception is skewed by his low height.
Hope that answers some questions.
Okay start. I hope the story starts showing more events rather than time skips and exposition dumps, though.
8309068
Because his father (Golden watch) said "Goodbye, Lost Hope" before throwing him out the window. If you need to, go and check the last chapter.
9465208
He was probably talking about the orphanage knowing Hope's name, not Hope himself. In which case, it has been a few years since Hope landed in the orphanage, so he may have told them his given name.
F#CK YEAH!!!!
Earth Pony Magic Does Exist!!!!
Pove them Wrong!!!!
I don’t believe it, did the preview turn out to be true and for some time I’m reading not the most banal, clichéd story about a loser, but something creative and extraordinary? Moreover, what is important is that so far the story is going quite logically, because obviously REAL Equestria should be strikingly different from the children's cartoon and I like how it is shown.