The Element of Humanity

by Metsrule97

Chapter 1: A Flutter in the wind

Chapter 1: A Flutter in the wind

I should start off by telling you who I am, I’m Eric Rose, I live in New Jersey. This is my story of how I met my best friends and became an important factor in saving their world, and my own world, earth….
After a long day at school, I came home, there was no homework that night, it meant I had time to watch the season 4 finale of MLP . After watching said finale (it was amazing) I played games for awhile, ate dinner (mm pizza) and went to bed after playing games for some amount of hours after my “bedtime” was intended. I lay there tonight for awhile quite restless, I usually fall asleep very fast. However, I just couldn’t shake it off, so after another hour of laying there, tired, but unable to sleep, my eyes finally drifted shut. But while my eyes drifted shut, my mind’s sail filled with the smooth winds of dreams… I open my eyes only to be blinded by the sun temporarily. I look around and realize, I’m not in my home, but I'm in a forest. As I struggle to stand up, I look around to see that I am in a rather dark forest. I swear this forest looks familiar... I think about how real my surroundings are, and pinch myself to make sure I was still dreaming, however, I apparently wasn’t. Because I pinched, hard, and it hurt. The little voice in the back of my head screamed the answer, actually making me jump. “There is no way I’m in this forest... I’m just trying to distract myself”. I lean against a tree for support, looking around to get a better understanding of where I am. The wind is starting to pick up, storm is probably on the way,” I need to find out where I am so I can call for help”. I start to slowly walk through the forest, ignoring my hunger and thirst. With my hand I move my brown hair out of my eyes and continue walking. As I kept going, I hear what sounds like humming in the wind, so I begin tracing the angelic voice to it’s source. I look past a tree and my jaw drops, I see someone, (suppose you could say somepony!) very familiar... It’s Fluttershy.”H-How the.. t-thats fluttershy…”

Fluttershy’s gaze whips to me for a second and she yelps then flies away. In retrospect this made sense, considering she had never seen a human before. She may have mistook me for something bad, she didn’t know any better. I just stood there in a trance, unsure of how exactly to react to the situation.” How could that have been Fluttershy? My memory hadn’t failed me however, I was right that I knew this forest.. it’s the everfree forest!” ”But how is that possible? I must be lost… No no, I’m far more then lost, I’m... misplaced.” I run off in pursuit of Fluttershy, however she can fly making it considerably harder than I had thought through. I emerged from the dark canopy of the Everfree to find my suspicions were correct. I am in the world of Equestria. I look to my left and see Fluttershy’s cottage a ways away. I gaze toward the cottage, trying to focus on what was going on over there. I see Fluttershy’s terrified face peeking from behind her door, only for her to slam it shut, seeing I had noticed her. This is all real… I’m actually In Equestria, all of the role play, fanfiction, imagination, none of that can relate to how excited I am right now. I sit down and think of how I should go about this, after all, no one here has seen a human before. The logical thing to do would be go see Celestia in Canterlot, but I wouldn’t be able to make it without being seen. I decided upon going to Fluttershy, once she understood I was a friend and heard of my dilemma, I figured she would be the quickest to accept me and try to help.

I walked over to her cottage along the quaint little dirt and cobbled path, past rows of flowers in a small garden, little animal pens, and more of the like. I looked up after my slow (rather fragrant) walk through Fluttershy’s small scale equivalent to a park as I reached her door. I looked over at the small round window to the right to see the curtains sway a little. I sighed to myself, thinking how to best go about this, as I was caught up there thinking, my hand apparently decided of it’s own to start knocking on the door. “Well, I guess that solves that issue…” At first knock, no answer; though, what did I expect? I knocked lightly once, twice more. On the third knock (third time's a charm) I heard some muffled scraping and a rather loud bang for such a quiet little mare, then the door creaked open about an inch, but just enough that I could see the large almond eyes of Fluttershy.

Fluttershy made some type of squeaking noise which I interpreted as “Hello?” I said, “Hi there, my name is Eric. I am a little bit at a loss of what to do…” I explained the situation to her (never mentioning I already knew her name, even when she told me hers) and as expected, she wanted to help.

Fluttershy stood up and stretched, looked over at the clock at the wall, and gasped. “What?” I said, rather nonchalantly considering my state. “It is almost dinnertime! The others will be wondering where I have been for so long, I was supposed to come back just to pick up Opalescence bow!”

“Oh, yeah, we have been talking for a good hour or so. You really should get back, but where should I go in the meantime?” I said, unsure of what to do in this situation.

“You can just come with me, just don’t say anything to anypony and we should be ok, I hope.” Fluttershy responded abit timidly and clearly nervous.

Meanwhile in the market of ponyville, a certain “No, those cherries are worth five bits a bag, that is what you sold it for to that colt over there!” said Twilight angrily, pointing her hoof at the salespony.

“My price stands, one bag of cherries is twelve bits. It’s not changing, neither am I, so you can take it or leave it.” said the owner of the fruit stall, Mr. Pincher.

Twilight glared at him and said, “Fine, you can have your cherries. I don’t need them that badly. Besides, Mrs. Cupcake's pastry stall probably has some cherry muffins.” (off in the distance, Derpy Whooves can be heard screaming muffins several times, echoing through Ponyville)

“Wait wait wait, I’m sure I could find a way to lower the price a little. Be reasonable.” Mr. Penny Pincher spoke quickly, trying not to lose a potential customer.

Twilight had to suppress a giggle, knowing she had made him worked up over some silly cherries. “Seven bits is the most I will settle for.” Twilight said firmly, regaining her composure after the brief funny moment.

“Fine, seven bits it is.” said Mr. Pincher. Twilight set the money on the stall’s table and grabbed the bag of cherries, dropping it into her side bags.

“Have a good day!” she yelled over her shoulder to the grumbling Mr. Penny. R. Pincher. Twilight got up to her humble tree home’s door, set down her bags and got the key from it’s special spot under the mat. After placing her shopping goods in their designated places, she went back out to find the rest of the Mane 6.

Fluttershy and I came into town to be greeted with empty stares and silence. Everypony seemed horrified, they didn’t know what to expect. I think I kinda understand how Zecora felt…
As Fluttershy and I walked into Ponyville all I saw on everypony’s face’s was terror, it makes sense considering they have never seen a human before. Off in the distance I see a familiar purple unicorn walking out of her treehouse. Fluttershy looks to me, seeing I am nervous she reassures me that everything would be ok. When we approach her and she turns around, she panics and falls backwards. ”Twilight are you okay?” I cover my mouth as soon as I say this, realizing I just blew my cover.

Twilight was going to wonder how I knew her name, she looks to me in curiosity wondering how I knew her name, of course. Twilight then asks Fluttershy if she had told me her name, Fluttershy replied with a shake of her head. The tip of twilight's horn glows as she points it at me, ”How do you know my name?! Who are you?!” she demanded to know, her wings spreading out menacingly. I took a few steps back, afraid of what she might do to me. Fluttershy was trying to calm her down, but Twilight wasn't listening. While stepping backwards, I trip and fall, knocking my head against Twilight’s mailbox as I fall. As I am blacking out, I hear Fluttershy shriek my name and hear her galloping over to me, then darkness.

I wake up in what seems like an infirmary, as I get out of bed I stumble, regain my balance, and look outside the window to see the garden of Canterlot. ”Oh great...its Canterlot... man how did I end up here? I can only assume Fluttershy and Twilight brought me here. I look into a mirror, realizing I looked like a mess, a bandage around my head and my eyes sorta bloodshot. How long was I out? What really mattered is the fact that I was in Canterlot, and that Fluttershy and Twilight were probably explaining to Celestia what was going on from the little that they knew. What should I do? I don’t want to just stand here waiting for something or somepony, I didn’t have very long to wait as the door opens up and Twilight walks in. I give a nervous glance at her and decide to apologize.”I-Im sorry about your mailbox, is it ok?” I ask nervously.

Twilight looks at me and giggles a little ”You are strange, you don’t need to apologize. Are YOU ok?” she asks with some concern, tilting her head abit.

I feel the bump on my head, ”Yea, I’m ok, I will just be sore for awhile” Twilight smiles a bit then looks toward the door, trying to think of what to say, before nodding to herself and looking back towards me.

“Celestia wants to speak to you” I sigh, realizing I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do to them. Of who I am and where I’m from.

As I follow Twilight out of the room, we get strange stares from all the guards we pass. We come upon a large, gold embossed door ”This is Celestia’s throneroom I suppose?” Twilight nods her head, and opens the door with her magic.The door slowly swings open and I see her. Celestia sends me a sideways glance as she finishes her conversation with Fluttershy, who I can only assume was being asked many questions.

Celestia then motions for me to come closer and immediately launches into a tirade of questions, ”Who are you? Why have you come to Equestria? What are you?” and other such questions. I felt like I was infinitesimal in her presence. She didn't seem very happy to see me, considering I was a foreign being SOMEHOW transported to her domain.

As I was asked all these questions, I spoke in a near inaudible whisper ”I’m Eric Rose, and as for why I am here in Equestria.. I- I really don’t know” I said.”I’m a human, and come here from a place called Earth, but it seems that home is a ways away…” For now those answers seemed to placate her and she looked to Fluttershy and Twilight, then asked them to leave the room for a minute.

Celestia turned her head back towards me and gave me a hard stare ”Now how did you know Twilights name, Eric?” she asks almost coldly.

My heart jumps into my throat… ”Well it’s kinda hard to explain, but I can try my best…” I mutter outloud, my voice shaky as I take a deep breath.

Celestia looking down on me (literally) makes explaining everything rather uncomfortable, but I guess I just have to deal… “Okay, so… I know many ponies names. I know you are Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria and raiser of the sun. You have a sister, Luna, also a princess and ruler. She is the raiser of the moon.” At this point Celestia is rather intrigued and I try not to laugh, realizing I have the ruler of Equestria ensnared in my narrative. I regain my composure and continue on. “I know that there are the physical elements of harmony, usually locked somewhere safe. I also know that there are six ponies that are the personality representations of said elements.” I look at the massive double doors behind me, “For instance, Twilight represents magic, and Fluttershy represents kindness.”

Celestia appears more confused than before, “You still haven’t answered my question, and you seem to have extensive knowledge of many things here in Equestria.”

“Oh, well see… In the world I come from, everypony here and the whole of Equestria, is fictional, in a cartoon that airs weekly. It is known as My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic.” I say, trying to be as honest with her as possible.

“It is indeed magical Eric, but how do the others like you know of everything that happens here?” Celestia responds, her head tilted to the side alittle bit as she stared down at me.

“Well, they don’t, really. It is a show that was thought up before I was even born, but it has been modified and altered throughout different generations. It is… very much alike this world, but probably not an exact copy of the version they write of.” I explain. We talk some more, and I explain to her a few (rather quite alot actually) of the things there are and what happens in my world. I told her of lawnmowers, how there is no magic and everything must be achieved through physical labor, much like earth ponies, I explain how there are millions wishing they could be in my exact spot right now. She thought that was rather funny, but I explained to her that there are many fans of the show, and I also told her there are a few odd ones out there too, who she WOULDN’T want to come here. Considering they prefer the show in a… different way… I decided upon not elaborating on that darker side of the internet, they had no need to know about that. I just told her that they were extremely and obscenely rude in their own way and left it at that.

After a few hours of talking, I realized that I was very much hungry, and would love to get something to eat. I stopped explaining how a refrigerator works in our world, scientifically, and looked around hungrily. “What ever are you looking for?” Celestia asked.

“Well, I’m sorry to ask, but do you have any food? I’m rather hungry and I can’t exactly eat hay or grass…” I explained sheepishly, blushing as I rubbed the back of my head, wincing as I rubbed the large bump that was still there.

“Oh my, I had forgotten about that, Fluttershy had said she wasn’t able to give you much of a meal, as you were unable to eat some of the food she had. Would fruit and bread be alright?” Celestia asked.

“Yes, that would be amazing.” I replied, I guess I will have to get used to a no meat diet, they don’t eat meats here, I think I will be able to transition relatively fine.

After I had gone to the banquet hall and had my fill whilst Celestia called a meeting which included herself, Luna, and all of the guard, she called me back into the throne room with Twilight and Fluttershy. “Twilight, would you be okay with taking Eric back to Ponyville to find a home? And Eric, would you be fine goi-”

“YES” I replied, then realizing I just interrupted Celestia, sheepishly said “Sorry, yes, I would like to go back to Ponyville with them.”

Celestia smiled and looked to Twilight. Twilight sighed and Fluttershy leaned forward just a tiny bit, as if she wanted to say something, then thought better of it and resumed her original stance. “Yes, I suppose I could do that.” Twilight said after what seemed like an eternity. Inside I was “pinkieing out”, I wanted to jump around all stupid happy-like. However, I knew this was a terrible idea and just settled to say Thank you to Twilight, and see Fluttershy give me a little smile.

Celestia starts to speak once again “I have informed all the guards of your presence and told them to explain to the citizens of Equestria who you are and that you are friend to them.” You should receive a warm welcome no matter where you go.” she said warmly. I nod my head and say thank you to show my gratitude.

Twilight, Fluttershy and I exit Canterlot, we walk in silence, not knowing what to say to each other. ”Thank you, I appreciate being welcomed here fairly quickly” I say, just trying to break the awkward silence.

Fluttershy looks at me and smiles warmly “You are very welcome. Lets hurry back to Ponyville” she replies, speaking kindly and softly.

I once again say thank you to Twilight, and she replies with a sigh, followed by saying “No problem.” I don’t think she is annoyed, just having a long day.

As we enter Ponyville it looks too empty, there isn’t a single pony in sight. “I don’t see anypony, where are they?” I ask, confused as to how there was not a single soul rushing home.

Twilight responds with, ”I don’t know, we should just head to the library.” As we get closer to the library I see a curtain twitch slightly, but I just dismiss it as a draft of wind. Twilight uses her magic to open the library door and it’s pitch black inside.

”Jeez, why is it so dark in here Twilight?” I ask. Fluttershy and Twilight look at each other, and in unison nod their heads. Suddenly the lights flick on, I am blinded by them for a moment and I hear Dozens of different ponies yell “SURPRISE!” I look around and see Dozens of ponies everywhere one could possibly be, On the couch, on the bed, squeezed into empty spots on bookshelves, everywhere.

I see Pinkie Pie bouncing up and down smiling like there is no tomorrow. She takes one giant bounce over to me and lands in front of me and starts talking a mile a minute. ”HI! Youmustbethenewpersontheguardstoldeveryponyabout! OH YEAH! I'm Pinkie Pie! And I'm bestest friends with everypony in ponyville! And I wanna be your friend what’s your name!?”

I look at her amazed, she is exactly like she is in the show. I smile to her and say “My name is Eric, and we were friends the second we met!” She apparently loved this answer and giggle-snorted and floated up to the ceiling with balloons that somehow appeared from Celestia knows where.

I see Rainbowdash over in one “corner” of the room doing some backflips in the air, completely relaxed and looking like she would rather be outside. I walk over to Rainbowdash, her bored expression changing to serious as I approach her. ”Hi I’m-”

I got cut off by Rainbowdash, ”Save it buster. I don’t trust you quite yet. The others might, but I’m not gonna let myself get tricked by you... thing!” I look at her, I'm kind of hurt but what did I expect? Not everypony was going like me right off the bat.

”Well uh, okay. I’m Eric. You don’t really need to worry about me” I slowly walk away from her, she proceeds to fly over to Twilight and they seem to get in a sort of argument. I look over by the food table and see Applejack, I make an assumption in my head she will act sort of like Rainbow did just a bit more kind about it. As I approach her, I can see her visibly tense, ”Hi im Eric, nice to meet you.”

Applejack looks at me for a second and returns the greeting, ”Howdy, I’m Applejack. I live on Sweet Apple Acres, and we sell the highest quality apples throughout all of Equestria.” she extends her hoof out to me for a hand/hoof shake (You have no idea how weird that felt). ”Just remember pard’ner, I can’t fully trust ya yet, but I can tell ya if ya try anything to hurt my friends, my family, or me, ya ain’t getting very far” I look at her whilst she smiles and trots off to Twilight, Rainbow, and Fluttershy (Pinkie pie is still floating above them with those balloons, somehow dancing in while floating)

After a few hours of partying, everypony begins to leave. I got to meet Big Mac (Exactly like he is in the show), The Cutie Mark Crusaders who were up way past their bedtimes, Derpy (who loved the chocolate chip muffins there), and I met Vinyl Scratch who's dubstep was freaking awesome! As everypony leaves, Rainbow and Applejack leave to go to their respective homes, leaving Twilight, Fluttershy, and I in the library. I look up and realize Pinkie pie is still flying with the balloons. ”Pinkie, isn’t it time you went home?” I ask the flying pink pony.

Pinkie then quickly replies with “Oh yea! I need to go feed gummy!” She then takes a pin from her hair, pops all the balloons in rapid succession, and bolted out the window, why the window?

Twilight suggests that we go see Rarity before it gets too late. Fluttershy and I agree, so we all begin our walk to the Carousel Boutique. ”Thank you for the party, it was really fun.”

Fluttershy smiles at my comment and says, “It was the least we could do, you were frightened, so we figured this would calm your nerves.” I thanked them both, and before we knew it, we were at the front door to the Carousel boutique.

”Do you think she will freak out when she sees me? Does she even know about me?” I ask with a almost chuckle, curious to see how this would play out.

Twilight shrugs and opens up the door with her magic “Rarity you in here?” she asks as we all walked in slowly, myself being the last one to enter.

Rarity calls from in the back of her shop “Ohhh! Hello Twi! Just come in, I will be right out!” she comes out from the back and falls flat on her flank looking horrified. I sigh as I half expected this, suppressing the urge to chuckle however.

”Rarity this is Eric, he is a human from a different plane of existence, didn’t Pinkie tell you about the party?” Twilight asks, taking a few steps towards Rarity.

Rarity stands up, fixing her hair and blushing furiously “Yes, she told me about the party, but I was far too busy to attend! Eric was the one so generously spoken of?" I saw what seemed to be a new dress she was working on and leaned in to observe it before Rarity spoke again. "Oh please don’t touch that. You all must go, I have much work to do, I wasn’t ready for guests either, you simply must warn me Twilight!”

Suddenly we hear the sound of the sweet and innocent filly Sweetie Bell yelling from upstairs, “Rarity!! what is taking so long?!”

Rarity sighs ”Coming Sweetie bell! Now please, do have a good night” as we walk out, we hear Sweetie bell giggling and Rarity giggling, perhaps they were having some sister bonding time.

"Well, I guess we should all go to bed now" I suggest, Fluttershy nods her head in agreement before she waves goodnight and flies back to her cottage. Twilight and I walk back to the library, walking in peaceful silence as we did. When we arrived and entered the library, Twilight shows where I will be sleeping and goes off to get some sleep herself. My bedroom was in a small room off to the side of the stairs, the bed was just alittle bit small, but that can always be changed later, I was amazed at just how fast they managed to set the room up for me. I walk to the bed and sit down thinking about everything that has happened today. ”I can’t believe this all happened… I’m really here! I guess I should get some sleep, who knows what tomorrow holds..” I lay down, my eyes already heavy with anticipation of sleep, they close and I fall into a deep, heavy sleep.

Author's Note:

This is chapter 1 of my fanfiction, I have a chapter 2 written and am working on a chapter 3, I hope that you all enjoy this. and if you have any suggestions, let me know them ^^

Comments

[FicusCat]

Nice check-list of all the HiE clichés since 2011. Condensing them in one chapter is kind of a feat. Not a glorious one, but a feat nonetheless.

[DAMN HAMSTER]

[xSuperNovax]

Loving this fic already.

[Metsrule97]

Well I appreciate the feedback already, this is my first ever fanfiction so I will be doing my best to improve! Also I wrote the majority of this about 2 years ago, so hopefully from chapter 2 onward my writing shall improve

[Windstrike Nightrunner]

You have grabbed me. Can't wait for Chapter 2. Keep it up because you are doing fine.