Delusions of Equestria

by Opal Rider

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A bright light shone overhead, and a reddish hue shone into Matt’s eyes through the lids. Though he was a bit groggy from the sudden wake up, the thought occurred to him that he didn’t have a hangover at all. He gave a silent cheer for himself before focusing on sitting up, eyes still closed to keep the light from getting in. Finally, he opened them a crack, letting his eyes adjust for a minute before opening them completely. Many thoughts ran to his brain at once, as he tried to take in his surroundings. The first and foremost was that his surroundings were completely white. The floor he sat on seemed to stretch out forever, without any landmarks for him to get a sense of direction. The horizon was marked where the white became a lighter grey, which seemed to hang in the air like a dense fog. He was so preoccupied that he didn’t notice his friends, lying next to him, still asleep. However, as Steve began to stir, his eyes focused on the people at his feet.

“Do I want to open my eyes?” Steve asked, probably more to himself than anybody.

“Probably not, man,” Matt responded.

The sound of Matt’s voice, however, caused Steve’s eyes to snap open wide, as the events from that night came flooding back to him. “What the hell happened!? Are we dead? I know we must be... Whoa, what is this place?” The sudden realization of his surroundings hit Steve like a wave, which was more than enough to get him to stop panicking for the few seconds Matt needed to get in a word edgewise.

“You, sir, need to clam down. Deep breaths now. Deep breaths. Okay, now stop saying we’re dead, it’s starting to freak me out.”

“You’re not dead,” a voice said to their left.

Both heads turned towards the stranger. The man looked to be in his late twenties, brown hair cut long, and parted on the left side. He was dressed entirely in white, from the sleeveless shirt to the sagging pants, which hung way too low.

“And who do ya think you are?” Matt asked. His other friends were starting to wake up now as well mumbling things such as “Where am I?” and “Eminem with his hair grown out?”

“I go by multiple names,” the man said. “You can call me Gabe, if you want.”

“Okay, and I assume you know everything about this here place, don’t you?” Matt replied to ‘Gabe’.

“Well if you want the short answer, then yes. I know a whole lot about you, too, but your friends don’t need to hear about how you used to wet your bed when you slept.”

Matt quickly masked his shock, although everyone could still see that he was blushing. “Alright, fine, then. Just tell us where we are.”

“You’re in between life and death.” He explained. After a confused look from the group, he explained farther. “Yes, you technically died. But unlike normal death, you didn’t die enough to completely die. The bit of life that was left inside your bodies was taken here, in a place we call Sector. Unfortunately, humans can’t stay in Sector, as their life starts degrading until they’re left with nothing. This poses a bit of a problem, as going back to your own universe poses a risk of encountering someone who knew you, and this could also cause a risk of someone seeing, hearing, or even smelling you, which could become a problem due to the fact that everyone there thinks you’re dead.
“So, what we do is take you to a completely different universe, usually one that you’ve had some connection to, yet have never actually seen. This gives you the advantage of having prior knowledge of your surroundings, and can possibly enjoy your time there. Wait. Weren’t there supposed to be five of you?”

Matt took a look at the others standing in the circle. There was Steve, Josh, and Kyle…. Wait. Where was Sam? His thoughts were cut short as Gabe began to glow with an increasingly bright white. A dull roar began to fill the space where they stood.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I have to go. Have fun wherever you end up”

“Wait!” Matt exclaimed. “It there anything else we’d need to know?!”

“You’re not completely alive!” Gabe called back, the noise becoming too loud to talk in quieter tones. “Remember! The residents might not be able to-…” They never caught his last words. In a flash so bright, it nearly blinded them, Gabe was gone, and in his place was a single, white, glowing orb. A small tag hung off the side, with the words take this written on it in graffiti style letters. The group looked around at each other, mixed expressions on their faces. Matt took the first move, and placed his hand over the sphere. His friends, with nothing else to do, followed the cliché anime idea, and stacked their hands, one on top of the other, until each one was touching the orb in some form or fashion. As the last hand was placed, the white landscape around them slowly started to melt away, and the vision of Gabe and their time there ended as soon as it had begun.

Matt rubbed his eyes, trying to get rid of the spots. The grass underneath him felt a homely comfort after where he had just come, and no harsh light glared down at him from above, as it had seconds before. The shade of trees overhead provided a cool spot to lay back, and opening his eyes, he flipped his head from side to side to get a better picture of where he was at. He was lying just to the inside of a forest, which continued on to his left. Large oak trees blotted out the sky, with very few patches of sunlight leaking in through the branches. They seemed to have been there for ages, their bark gnarled, and a few vines hanging from the lower limbs.

In the other direction, on the other hand, was a much more interesting sight. A large village sat in a valley, the thatched roofs visible over the crest of the hill that he was resting on. Matt sat up to get a better look. Below the thatched roofs sat Wood beamed houses, almost tan in color, surrounding what he assumed was the city hall. The town was decorated with flowers, and the inhabitants walking around were- Wait, is that a pony?

“Guys?” Matt called for his friends, looking around the area. “Guys, no really. Guys guys guysguysguysguys you really want to see this, now.”

A muffled response came from the tree to his left, and Matt pulled Steve out from a hollow, foot first, and set him upright beside him.

“You haven’t seen Josh or Kyle around, have you?” Matt asked him.

“I’ve had my head stuck in a tree for the past five minutes, you think I saw anything other than that spider that had to land on my face?” Steve replied. “What’s this all about, anyways?”

“Feel free to look to your left.”

Matt smiled large as his friend took in the nearby village, his face getting more and more priceless. “I’d recognize Ponyville anywhere,” Steve said. “That doesn’t mean I believe what I’m seeing.”

“I know, right?” Matt grinned again. “But hey, there’s only one way to find if it’s real or not. I’ll race ya to the bottom!” He began to charge down the hill, only barely hearing Steve’s doubts of “Shouldn’t we be trying to make ourselves seem as normal as possible?”

Heading down onto the streets, Matt ran past a couple of fillies playing hopscotch, jumped over a produce cart, and made in all the way to the town square before shouting out, “Hello everyone! My name’s Matt, and that’s my friend over there Steve!” He pointed down the street he had run in from, where Steve was scampering to catch up. “We’re sort of new here in town, so feel free to say hi!” He waited for a response from one of the villagers. None came. No one even looked.

“Maybe you just didn’t yell loud enough,” Steve said, rolling his eyes at him. “Way to make yourself known.”

“I don’t get it,” Mat said. “Surely one of them would at least notice…” He walked up to the nearest pony. “Excuse me ma’am, you wouldn’t happen to know a place to stay around here, would you?” She didn’t respond. At all. The mare just kept on walking in the direction she was headed, as if he hadn’t even spoken to her.

“Wow, these guys are really good at ignoring you,” Steve said. “I should take lessons from them.”

Matt tried to think of a witty comeback. After a brief pause, he finally settled on “Shut up,” and walked down a random pathway in a huff.

“Hey man, it was sarcasm. Trust me, there’s no way they couldn’t have heard you. Unless…” Steve left off his train of thought. As Matt turned around to see what his friend was up to, Steve turned towards the nearest wall and ran straight at it. Before Matt could even shout a warning, he hit the wall head first. But instead of the crumpled body Matt thought he’d see his body disappeared completely, leaving nothing. Just as quickly, Steve’s head popped through the wall and gave Matt a devilish grin.

Matt wasn’t sure what to think of what just happened. “You just… how did you… What did I even just watch?!”

“Well, that Gabe guy mentioned that we were mostly dead. No one can see us, no one can hear us. Chances are no one can touch us or smell us either. What I just tested confirmed what I was already thinking. We, sir, are ghosts,” Steve replied, floating a few feet off the ground as he said so. “Anyhow, the couple in this house over here is doing some particularly naughty stuff; I think I’ll leave them to their privacy.” With that, he walked fully out of the wall, and leaned against it.

“But we’re still able to pick up stuff, right?” Matt asked.

“I wouldn’t know. Why don’t you do some tests on your own? It’s not like I’m a walking instruction guide or anything. Although I guess I could help you with this one. Here, think fast.” With that, Steve tossed a piece of brick to Matt, who caught it easily.

“I guess we have a lot to learn,” Matt said.

“That we do,” Steve replied. “But first, I think we should find Kyle and Josh, see what they figured out.”