Going Home

by abandoned14

Chapter 1 - Pegasus

“May I help you?” A voice breaks his concentration and spooks him. He has heard nothing but quiet and the echoing of his thoughts for an amount of time he can’t judge.

“Magnesium Sulfate!” Nicholas shouts in panic. He blushes and focuses on the situation. A pretty, dark blue pegasus with a soft, yellowish mane hovers before him, her eyes wide in confusion. He clearly startled this mare with his yelling.

“I’m- I’m so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention. I hope I didn’t scare you?” He relaxes and sits down in place. A pony? I’m still in this dream, aren’t I. How long has it been?

“Oh, it’s quite alright. What brings you out to my home?” The pegasus stares at him though he cannot tell whether her expression seems friendly or accusatory. Nicholas questioningly looks about the area as he feels her gaze spread around him, noticing his colors and horn. The stream has led him to a small wooden house alone in the forest to his right. It doesn’t seem to be in bad condition, but it is still a small wooden house alone in a forest. The cottage remains unpainted as far as he can see, as if it’s owner is too busy to manage it. Who is this character? Is this Everfree Forest? Is this even Equestria?

“Are you alright?” The mare’s voice penetrates his thoughts again, making him look back up at her face.

“I- Yes, I’m fine. Who are you?” He looks again at her sleek dark blue pelt and soft yellowish-orange mane. She has sparkling yellowish-orange eyes to match. She doesn’t seem much different in appearance from most of the characters he knows.

“My name is Aura Flair.” She replies with a suspicious expression. “Who are you?” Aura Flair? Is this someone’s O.C. or something? I don’t recognize her at all. Maybe I’m not in Equestria. Regardless, I’m not sure this is the best time for an elevator pitch.

“Right. I’m… Nicholas.” I’m not sure what else to say, to be honest. Aura Flair looks at him curiously. This feels a little too real to be a dream. I’ve been here for quite some time and haven’t woken up.

“Your name is Nickal Hiss?” Oh, I probably should have used a pony name to make things easier. Too late now.

“It is... Might I ask where I am?” The mare’s head drops. She looks as if she was just asked to do a day’s worth of chores.

“Uh, I can just guide you back to the train for Rainbow Falls. It’s a little walk but not that bad. Follow me.” She replies, landing and turning to lead him away down a path only she can seem to see within the trees. Rainbow Falls. Equestria. Got it.

“Wait, what? I asked where I am. Just some forest near a train station? Why are you taking me there?” Aura Flair turns back around and looks confused.

“Are you not another lost tourist? This train stop is awful and travelers always get lost on the hiking trail and end up here.”

“I am not, no.” The pegasus gives him a questioning stare.

“Then why are you here?”

“I don’t... know. I was about to take an important exam, but then I was suddenly in this forest a ways back down stream. I just started following it and have now arrived here.” Nicholas watches the cool water flow across the ground as he tries to think of a simple way to explain what has happened to him.

“Somepony randomly teleported you here?” She seems puzzled yet slightly uneasy.

“I- I’m not sure. Could someone… somepony have also turned me into a unicorn? You see, uh, I’m not-”

Aura Flair roughly lands on the ground in front of him and stares deep into his eyes, noticeably upset. “Hilarious. Never heard that one before... You can find your own way back to... wherever you came from. And try using a decent fake name next time. What kind of a name is Nickal Hiss? That kind of gave it away.”

“Fake name? Gave what away?” Nicholas stares in disbelief as the pegasus walks away and slams the door to the house, leaving him standing beside the water alone. … What? He looks around before knocking on the door with one of his new hooves. “Did I say something? Are you alright?”

“Go away, you’ve made your point.” Aura Flair calls from inside. Nicholas waits a second before peeking inside one of the front windows. There’s a nice maroon couch, a clean wooden desk, and loads of books in the living room. More books than he has ever seen in one place outside of a library. Aura notices him observing and walks back out the door. “Do I have to make you leave?”

“No! What is wrong with you? I just need to know what’s going on.” Could she even make me leave if she tried? I suppose I don’t know how to use magic well yet. Nor even walk well for that matter. Aura Flair stops in front of him at her door.

“What’s ‘going on’ is that I’m tired of you all mocking me and my work. I know it seems unrealistic, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Look,” She turns to show her cutie mark, a blazing orange fireball on her flank to match her mane. “Even my cutie mark knows it.”

“Knows… what?” Nicholas looks up at Aura Flair . She looks frustrated.

“That I can use magic! Is that what you needed to hear?” What?

“But you’re a pegasus? Since when can pegasi use magic?” Nicholas tilts his head slightly to the side. This angered her. She stamped a hoof on the front stair and stretched her neck up for a second.

“Gah! You all try to tell me that I can't do it, that only unicorns can cast spells, that my cutie mark is for my remarkable flying skills or whatever. No! You’re all wrong! And I’ll laugh the day I prove you wrong.” Aura Flair snickers and trots inside, closing the door behind her. Umm… What? This is new. Nicholas approaches the house.

“If you can use magic why don’t you just prove them all wrong right now?” Nicholas calls through the cracks of the door. A moment passes filled with nothing but silence. The door opens back up to see the mare pouting with a tear in each eye.

“Just leave me alone. Please. What did I do to you?” She stands in the doorway looking down. Oh, geeze. This girl is a wreck.

“Look, Aura Flair, I’m sorry that you’ve been bullied by other ponies but I honestly don’t know who you are. Could you please explain to me what’s wrong?” If she closes the door again I’m leaving. I have more important tasks at hand. Is that a bad idea though? What if that causes a bad relationship with this pony? That may matter if it turns out that I’m not dreaming. Nicholas laughs in his head. This is insane. I’ve never not been able to tell if I was dreaming before. Maybe that means I’m not? Aura Flair looks back up at him and sighs.

“I suppose you won’t leave until I talk, huh?” Nicholas stands unmoving, waiting for her to finish her response. He doesn’t want to ruin his chance to gain any sort of information.

“Well I’m a pegasus, clearly. Our bodies have no natural way of harnessing any form of magic like a unicorn such as yourself can.” Oh right, I’m a unicorn.

“So you can’t cast magic? But you just said you could?” Aura Flair’s mood lowers again.

“I will one day. Just not today. You see, I’m kind of a magic scholar... but only in my free time. No one will ever accept or even give my papers and studies a chance because I can’t cast spells yet. It’s like... a blind pony trying to sell his own paintings... No one wants them besides him.” She begins to tear up again but stops herself.

“But you’re searching for a way to?” Aura Flair’s ears perk back up.

“Oh yes, yes I am. I have been for a long time. It’s just difficult because I can’t officially make it a profession if no one can agree to my work. It takes up all of my free time, so I’m just always so busy.” I think she’s avoiding talking about where she works. Does that not feel like a waste, though? Pouring countless hours into a project that no one else wants to see?

“So why do you live out here alone?” Aura Flair takes a seat in place as she formulates her answer to the question.

“I can’t live around other ponies again. It’s too hard. I feel like Princess Celestia walking through town but instead of everypony smiling and waving, they all just laugh or judge... Oh! Well, not all of them of course... But the majority.” She sniffles and looks back down at her hooves. Wow, this is… tragic. I feel so bad for her. This character is so different from any that I know. Is this really not a dream? Am I really in Equestria? Focus. Nicholas looks around again. Nothing in sight but her house. I might regret this later.

“Would you mind… showing me some of your work?” The pegasus’ head shoots up and her jaw drops slightly. I hate to invite myself into a stranger’s home, but I can’t find anything else to do and maybe I can learn something about what’s going on. I don’t even know what time period this is. If she’s a My Little Pony she’s probably trustworthy. Even if she’s some sort of villain, I can still get information.

“Well, um, why yes! Let me, uh, here come in.” Aura Flair hurriedly starts tidying up the room as she pulls out different books and scraps of paper.

“Close the door behind you, please.” Nicholas walks in and pushes the door closed behind him. It makes a loud squeak. He turns back around to see Aura Flair slightly confused but she goes back to searching.

“Here’s this… one. And that, there, and-” She begins a pile on one side of the desk and keeps them in a specific order.

“So what did you do before all of this?” Nicholas sits on the couch next to the desk. What? This couch is softer than the bed in my dorm. He begins browsing the room. It’s not as dark as he had expected due to the amount of candles around the room. The bookshelves seem neatly organized, though the piles of books on the floor suggest otherwise. The room presents a warm, cozy atmosphere.

“Um,” She begins, sorting through papers, “I was born in Cloudsdale, but moved to Canterlot on a Strong Flyer’s scholarship. I was training to join the Royal Guard like my grandpop, but one day after class when I was in the library, you see I liked to read a lot, oh! Here’s this article, too!” She places another paper on the desk as Nicholas glaces out the main window. Man, she is frantic. He notices that you can see a nice view of the stream from where he’s seated. He snaps out of his thinking and re-enters the conversation. “And then she gave me the wrong book! Well I didn’t notice until I got back, so I decided to give it a try. It blew my mind! I had never read about magic before. Never knew it was more than stuck-up unicorns floating around tea cups at fancy parties, and-” She halted. “Uh, no offense.”

“You’re fine, none taken.” I keep forgetting that I’m a unicorn. If this is real, I need to get that in my head. Er, well, my horn. I don’t know. That was a bad joke.

“So when I returned the book, the librarian apologized but I said ‘Oh no, this was a fantastic book! Do you have others like it?’ and it all went downhill from there.” She drops one last paper on the desk and stares at him through big, cheery eyes. I hope this is written in English. At least maybe I can pick up on some casting etiquette for myself?

* * *

As Nicholas begins reading through the second paper, Aura pipes up.

“So what’s your story? I feel kind of rude just dropping my life on you after you said somepony teleported you here.” Nicholas sets the paper back down.

“Oh, right. Well, I never exactly said that was the case. Either way, earlier I asked if it’s possible for someone- somepony to be turned into a unicorn, but seeing you now tells me that if it’s possible you would have been the first one to do it.” Aura seems to take this as a compliment.

“So what do you mean? Were you not previously a unicorn?” She quickly grows in excitement, relishing the opportunity to advance her studies. How do I say this?

“I was a human.” The mare’s expression immediately changes.

“A what?”

“Um, just don’t worry about it for now. Try writing Princess Twilight about it sometime. She might be able to explain it well.” Aura seems to wonder how difficult it must be to explain but she seems to want to respect Nicholas’ lack of desire to do so.

“Humans don’t work like Changelings, do they? Do you know what those are?” Mentioning Princess Twilight didn’t confuse her, I must be in the time of the Mane Six. It would make sense that the world is up-to-date with the show. Or is the show up-to-date with the world?

“I do know changelings, yes. No, humans cannot change. They’re quite similar to Earth ponies but they walk on only their hind legs.” That should be sufficient enough.

“I’m surprised that I’ve never heard of them.” Aura starts writing on the back of a nearby paper. Notes on humans, maybe?

“I’m not surprised. We’re not from this world.” Oh geeze, what did I just start?

“You’re what?” She drops her quill and it spins to the floor. “Surely you’re messing with me?” Nicholas sighs.

“I don’t believe that I have a way to prove it to you so I’ll just ask you to take my word for it.”

“I know what to do!” Aura Flair takes a glass mug off of her desk and chucks it at Nicholas, hitting him in the arm.

“Ow! What was that for?” He was unable to stand up and dodge it in time with how small the room was. The mug bounced off of his arm and landed on a round rug in the middle of the floor.

“Haha! A real unicorn wouldn’t have flinched! They would have just caught that with magic!” She seems proud of herself. That was actually pretty clever.

“That was… a good test I’ll admit. I suppose magic is always on your mind?”

“Well, it is, but I was already concerned when you didn’t close my door with magic. I’ve never seen a unicorn physically touch a door unless they were small fillies.” I hadn’t even considered that.

“But that’s not the only thing. I’ve also never seen a grown pony without a cutie mark before.” That’s right! I completely forgot!

“I suppose you’ll believe me then?” Aura smirks after a short pause.

“I’ll believe that you’re a human if you believe that I’ll learn to cast magic.” I like this mare. Nicholas holds out a hoof.

“Deal.”

* * *

Nicholas was just finishing up reading Aura Flair’s research when she looked outside. He’s been at her desk while she has been patiently waiting, sitting in her window-sill.

“It’s getting quite dark. I don’t suppose you have a place to stay?” She turns back to him.

“No, I don’t. All I’ve seen since I’ve been here has been trees, water, research, and you.” He looks up from the text.

“Feel free to stay here as long as you like. I’ve never had… real company before. Only my parents.” Aura stares back out the window at the sun setting over the horizon of trees and distant shadow-covered mountains.

“What exactly are your plans, … I’m sorry what was your name again?” She asked. Nicholas chuckled.

“Nicholas.”

“Right. What exactly are your plans right now? I can’t imagine what I would do if I was suddenly in another world in a different body. You mentioned something about an exam?”

“Yes, I was taking a very important exam when I appeared here. I’ve now missed it by a large chunk of time, but I’ve already done most all the work for the semester. My grade should be fine for now, especially if I can somehow do a make-up exam in a few days, but I’ll run into big trouble if I don’t get back in time for the final exam.” Aura shifts her glance away from the window and back to Nicholas.

“What kind of trouble? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“In my world, school is very expensive. I also have a scholarship, but I’ll lose it if I don’t keep my grades up. If I end up losing it, I won’t be able to go back and that may just ruin my life for a long time. My family will never let me live it down.” Aura looks back out of the window, expressionless.

“I lost my scholarship.” Oh, I hope I didn’t offend her. Is that why she skipped over mentioning where she works? Did I just describe fearing the life she has?

“I slowly stopped attending practices to study magic and skipped classes to go to the library. My grades fell and I just stopped caring. It seemed that every unicorn in Canterlot started to know me as the mare that flunked out of Royal Guard school to dedicate her time to something utterly useless. I honestly never even wanted to join the Royal Guard in the first place, that was my parents’ plan for me. I just happened to be a great flyer.”

“I’m… so sorry to hear all of that.” Aura stayed unmoved, staring out of the window.

“It’s no big deal.” Her head lowered as she now looked at the windowsill. Yes it is. I need to cheer her up somehow.

“At least you get to do what you love now. All of that trouble is in the past. Right now, all of my time goes into my schoolwork. I even have a private dorm so I don’t have a roommate to distract me. Sometimes it feels like I’m trapped in H- Tartarus, just waiting for my sentence to run up so I can move on with my life. You probably feel the same way, Aura Flair. I just want to remind you that one day we’ll both finish our studies and show the world what we can really do.” Aura looks up in shock. I hope that’s true. And--not too sappy.

“Thank you, Nickal Hiss. Those are very kind words and I needed to hear them. I wish I had more to offer you than just a place to sleep.” I need to find a pony name, she’s having trouble with Nicholas. Anyways, she seems a bit more mature than what I first thought.

“That’s more than enough, don’t worry about it.” Aura gazes back out the window up at the rising moon.

“You said that you hadn’t seen much besides the forest and stream, right?”

“That’s correct, why?” Aura gets up and moves towards the door.

“Follow me.” Nicholas stands up and curiously follows the mare out the door and down a path in the trees. He can hardly see, but Aura is unphased by the lack of light. I need to ask her about a flashlight spell sometime.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

She leads them to the top of a hill nearby her house, void of nearly any trees at it’s peak. She stops and sits in place atop the hill’s center, gazing up at the stars. Nicholas sits beside her and looks around over the forest. The horizon is covered in mountain ranges, though he can’t see much else in the dark. He notices Canterlot in the distance on a mountainside. Oh my--Celestia? Sure, I should probably say that now. Canterlot is spectacular. I never considered what a city like that would look like in person. Er, in pony. It’s actually fairly close. We must be right between it and Cloudsdale. Perhaps Aura Flair couldn’t decide which home to go to so she stopped in the middle?

“Isn’t it beautiful, Nickal Hiss?” Aura says without turning her gaze from the sky. He looks up to join her.

“It really is, thank you for this... That reminds me, though, do you think it would be easier for me to assume a more Ponish name?”

“Oh, am I messing it up?” Aura looks at him.

“Well, it’s fine, but I fear having to tell others in the future on my quest back home. A foreign name and no cutie mark may make me more enemies than friends.” This place is so beautiful. I really wish I could stay. Aura looks back up at the stars.

“That’s a fair point. It wouldn’t hurt.” The two ponies stare at the sky together as a shooting star crosses near the moon.

“Make a wish.” Nicholas says.

“I’m sorry?” Aura looks at him confused.

“Um, in my world, when humans see a shooting star they make a wish.”

“Do shooting stars have magical properties?”

“Well, no. It just kind of gives people... hope, I guess.”

“Like you. You kind of gave me hope… I guess. When you gave that little speech earlier. No one has ever been that nice to me. Or even believed in me.”

“I’m glad to hear I could help you.” A few moments pass.

“Star Wish.” Aura mentions, unmoving.

“What?” Nicholas looks over at her, noticing her mane outline against the night as her pelt blends in with the dark environment surrounding them.

“How about Star Wish? That could be your name. It matches both your pelt and your personality.” That’s absolutely brilliant.

“I love it, Aura Flair, thank you.” Aura and Star both look back to the moon as a white shooting star appears on Nicholas’ flanks.

Comments

[IDontWatchMLP]

"But the real question is, does Nicholas even want to return?" Probably not...

[abandoned14]

9410309
He might change his mind, but will he be the only one? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯