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Prologue.3,533 words
Chapter 1: Aquaintance3,054 words
Chapter 2: The Rain3,697 words
Chapter 3: The Morning Dream5,368 words
Chapter 4: Of apples and Pitfalls5,313 words

Chapter 1: Aquaintance

You know...

I really do wonder, why it is that I ended up in this situation. I mean...I never did ask for anything like this to happen, I was truly content in my life - even if it wasn’t stellar or outstanding. If someone asked me, “If you had the chance, would you trade your life for a new one?” Without even putting much thought into it, I would have said no.

I may not have had much good in my life, but I didn’t care enough about the bad parts to really want to change them. I would compare them to bug bites. There’s the initial moment of “Oh, this sucks”, as I scratch the itch, hoping for it to go away even though i know it won't. Then I realized, the best way to handle a bug bite, is to just ignore it. So that’s just what I did.

Damn it, as much as I wish I could, I can’t simply ignore a baby (a pony baby at that) that I found alone in a field. What kind of person would I be if I just left it there? How is it that a person who has no difficulty avoiding responsibilities or outright ignoring them, is then placed with a great responsibility that they can’t ignore or avoid with almost no warning that it was coming?

I suddenly felt a kind of sympathy for those characters who had greatness thrust upon them without their asking for it. Bilbo, or Frodo from the lord of the rings, Luke Skywalker from Star Wars, Harry Potter from... well you know. All of them more willing to do the things that needed to be done then I. If I could have seen this coming, I would have been kicking, and screaming to go home and then try forget about it like it was no big deal.

At this point I knew there was no going back, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t complain about it.

The infant form of Celestia, was wrapped in the wool fabric of the blanket I had found her in. She didn’t squirm too much, nor did she cry or giggle the ways other babies back at home would. I wasn’t too keen on them in the first place due to those children being noisy, needy, and just a general hassle to deal with.

What this child version of Celestia did do however, was settle down instantly, like a child with her mother. Despite her calm demeanor, she gazed at me with adorable curiosity, her mouth slightly open and her eyes rushing side to side gaining focus for a moment before tilting her head in a way that would cause her to restart from the beginning.

Was she the reason I was here? What was I of all people going to do with a child? I had no experience raising babies, nor taking care of them in the slightest. Even less so when it came to baby ponies. I had no motherly intuition to rely upon either, since I was a guy. To my knowledge guys don’t have a ‘fatherly intuition’... and if they did, then I clearly hadn’t received it.

So, I just stared down to this little ball of fur and feathers, totally unsure and without a plan of action to follow. All the while she continued to look at and assess me with those shining purple orbs of hers.

I felt a sneeze creep up in my nose in preparation, my body instinctively opened my mouth wide, slamming my eyes closed, and bringing my arm up to shield anyone around me from the mucus. “ACHOO!” I sneezed loudly.

Instinctively, I cleaned up the residue with my sleeve. When I moved my arm away from my face, I looked down to the baby Celestia. Her expression had changed greatly. She sat there all dazed and confused, and kinda squirmed around in that state. I held her tightly and closely as she slowly recovered. I felt my stomach sink as I might have given the poor child a heart attack for all I knew.

Suddenly, her eyes closed, liked they wanted to cry, and I watched her mouth open as I began to regret spontaneously sneezing even if I hadn’t any control over that in the first place. “Achu.” She sneezed in an adorable way that only babies could achieve. I watched as her nose sniffled afterward. I could not suppress the smile that came so easily to my face. To top it off, the little filly giggled at her own sneeze bringing an odd warmth to my heart.

“Oh...Ew.” I said, noticing that little Celestia here had some of her own mucus across her nose. I genuinely paused in disgust, was I really going to clean up after her as well? She sat there looking at me with her happy face, staring at her dirty nose, her eyes becoming crossed as she did so making her look all kinds of silly.

She went to try and lick her her nose just then, and that was the last straw. “Oh no you don’t.” I said softly as I reached out with a portion of my own sleeve to wipe her nose. I wiped very softly and carefully so as to not upset her, but she still gasped, recoiling slightly as I did so.

“There you go.” I really disliked taking care of icky gross things like snot from other people or ponies for that matter. I don't even know why I did it in the first place to Celestia. Like It was just a feeling that took control of me.

Oh well... I wiped the sleeve of my jacket on the grass, trying to clear it of the snot. The poor thing began to sniffle again and her eyes closed once more. I was expecting her to sneeze again, but alas, she chose to instead cry.

And cry she did, I felt scared and anxious my hands started to tremble. I didn't know what to do. The last time she was crying she’d been alone in a field, and then immediately stopped when I picked her up. The worst part about that was that I was still holding her in the first place, so that solution was a bust. All I wanted was for the baby to quiet down, was that so hard to ask?

I thought back to any kind of knowledge about treating babies, real life examples, TV, music (I’m desperate here), books, and so on. My mind kept turning up blanks whatever the medium. The pressure of a crying and screaming baby kept me from collecting my thoughts and making any real progress into fixing the problem.

Fuck it. I was never much for plans anyway, I’ll just wing it. I probably couldn't do anymore harm then I had already done. I had a feeling I would regret that last statement but whatever, I’ve got a crying baby pony to deal with.

Leaning in close to this ‘darling’ child I started to make silly faces, any that I could possibly bend my facial muscles to perform. However, no matter what kinds of faces I made, there was just no effect at all. I briefly wondered if the Celestia from the show was THIS picky.

At a lose of what to do, I gave up the act of trying to put on a show for this kid, then realized how dumb I was for not noticing why I was so ineffectual. Her damn eyes were closed. Oh...duh, a crying baby probably isn’t busy looking around or enjoying some stupid faces for that matter. To be fair to the kid, I’m sure my faces probably would have made things worse.

I exhaled in frustration. Oddly enough, my mouth was still formed in such a way that my exhaling breath became an exasperated whistle. Celestia started to quiet down, her sniffles were still there, but she was much less vocal. Did she like the whistle? I watched as she slowly returned back to her upset state. I guess theres only one way to find out if I’m wrong.

I tried whistling again. This caught her attention, causing those weary dreary purple dots to look up at me. I blew another quiet whistle and she seemed to enjoy it. Or it was enough to distract her from... whatever it was I did to set her off.

I decided it might be in my best interest to whistle a tune for her. For the life of me I couldn’t think of anything to whistle to her, I mean... how many whistling tunes do you know? But then again it didn’t seem to matter to this kid in the first place. But I had an Idea. Who says I need to whistle a whistling tune?

I inhaled a deep breath, probably the largest one I’d taken in a while. Forming my lips into an ‘O’ shape, I began whistling the first thing that came to my head. It just so happened to be the “A B C” or “alphabet” song. I whistled profusely, trying to reach all the notes possible, but inevitably missing some. But by the end of the song, It didn’t matter how much I’d screwed up. Celestia had...fallen asleep in my arms, a cute little smile etched in her face.

It caused my heart to explode in cuteness, and a single tear from my eye was riding its way down my cheek. I would have been embarrassed if any of my friends were around. But I just basked in the opportunity and hugged little Celestia closer, whispering, “Sleep well.”

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It didn’t take long for me to get bored. Well... maybe bored isn't the correct word for this kind of situation. So far I had spent my time in a grassy field dealing with a child. Now that she’d fallen asleep, I had nothing to do but stare at her somber image as she breathed peacefully. I couldn’t stay here forever, despite how nice and warm I felt. I would probably have to worry about food and shelter eventually, if I didn't wake up from this supposed dream of mine by then.

I took care to stand up on my feet without stirring too much. The kid was quiet and I wanted her to stay that way. Looking about whilst using my free hand to keep the sun from my eyes, I turned around, looking for any kind of landmark which would serve as my interest point to walk towards.

A large mountain, actually the tallest mountain I had ever seen, seemed to hang over me, like a colossal figure standing over a simple beast. I felt so insignificant, and yet with this baby in my arms, I felt oddly very significant, almost like I was the biblical king David versus Goliath. I had no idea why felt like it either. Maybe it didn’t matter anyway.

I started walking in the direction of the mountain hoping to better my situation. I wasn’t really interested in survival. To be honest I was just restless, and just wanted to walk. I heard somewhere that walking cleared your mind. And if that was true, I could use that about now. So long as I didn’t wake Celestia crying spree doing so.

The sky had turned into a beautiful orange sunset before we arrived at the base of the mountain. The sun and all her warmth had begun to say farewell to the countryside, leaving a cool air to run through the plains.

At the mountain base, there was a small, but nice lake, flowing gently, the ripples in the water hitting the rocky shores with peaceful tones reaching out to me, soothing my ears. It was good I’d come across this lake, both physically and psychologically.

The walk had been long and arduous and feet ached as a result. I was also quite thirsty from the trek, the lake would help remedy that. I felt a tinge of excitement pull me the rest of the way. The terrain may not have been difficult to walk on, but my insisted avoidance of outdoorsmanship made this journey more tedious than expected. I almost wanted to remove my shoes and let the water numb some of the soreness out of my aching feet.

Looking back at the journey, it was surprising that Celestia hadn’t woken up, and still she slept in my arms in a deep sleep, totally comfortable and at ease with everything going around her. It certainly made the journey, the sightseeing of the countryside, and the mountain much more pleasurable.

I went by the lake, figuring that I was more than entitled to a drink and maybe some relaxation. I set Celestia down next to a tree on the side of the lake, careful not to wake her up. I took a good long gulp out of the lake, deciding to immerse my head entirely to shake the residual heat of the sun. It was truly a refreshing event, the cool water washing away the sweat from my face, and I don’t think I’ve tasted such amazing water before either.

After shaking the water off my head in delight. I decided to remove my shoes and socks, laying them both next to Celestia, and let my feet soak in the lake, as I enjoyed the view of the great mountain.

The water ran through my toes easily, calming the pain of my new callouses and it almost seemed like they faded away themselves. I felt so at ease that I just wanted lay down on my back and enjoy the beautiful orange sky. Although the sun was low in the sky the air was still warm enough to make sleeping possible.

I wondered if I went to sleep in a dream, would I wake up, or would I go into a dream within a dream? That is assuming this was a dream itself, and not the real thing. Then again, I’ve never had a dream that was this vivid and clear to me.

There is a state of sleeping that is known as lucid dreaming, that allows you to take control of your dream. When you become aware that you are dreaming, and once in that state, you can do anything... your wildest imaginations, your most daring fantasies, hell...your entire subconscious, including deepest wishes can come true.

Oh... I wish I was home.... If only I wasn’t here right now, and back in my own bed. Away from this damn world, dreamscape, or whatever. How I missed the simple things in life, anything that didn't have to do with a baby and some place that I having no earthly idea of where I am.

Then again if I’m to believe my gut feeling, this was Eques- no this wasn’t Equestria, I refuse to believe I’ve gone into a world of a TV show that I enjoyed. I wanted nothing to do with ponies, incredible magic, dangerous creatures, or even the insanely strange Pinkie Senses.

I... Just wanted to grow up to be normal, have a desk job, fall in love with an average girl, drink beer, and play video games. Just so long as I wasn’t giving a damn about anything else that upset or bothered me. A life of mediocrity is all I ask.

I sniffled as if I’d gotten a cold, but soon felt my tear divulging from my tear ducts. This reminiscing was getting to me, maybe I wasn’t in a dream world like I thought? Was this the real deal? I was going to pinch myself, I heard that you couldn’t feel pain in a dream, but then realized my feet still ached from the journey. That counted as pain right?

A counter argument could be made if this was a lucid dream, you could feel pain in those and not be disturbed. I also wondered, how much pain would it take to wake you up? I felt pretty bad already, and then a thought weighed in on my head like a ton of bricks. Would I have to kill myself to wake up? Was that even possible? Or maybe... is it possible that if I kill myself in the dream, could I die in real life?

I heard of a story of a civil war prisoner who was put up against a wall and shot by a firing squad. As expected, he died. The strange thing is, none of the old lead balls from the muskets had hit him. He was in perfect condition, but according to an old autopsy, his heart just stopped. Its possible to say that he was so sure he was dead, that as soon as the muskets fired, he believed he was dead and died just like that... If I died in this world, real, or dream. It may be possible I could die for real.

Ehhh... I’m too exhausted to figure this out right now. Besides, if I just slept I could figure things out tomorrow, or just simply wake up at home, call up everyone I knew and told them I loved them out of the blue, like some kind of lunatic.

Heh, I should really just stop thinking and sleep. No need to hope, that will just keep you awake.

So I closed eyes thinking of home, and let sleep take hold of me

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A/N:
I hope that you guys enjoyed the first chapter. Lemme know what you think in the comments. :D

I’d also like thank Anon3mous1 for the editing in this chapter as a huge favor to me. Coeus as well because hes been at work with editing the prologue (which is longer than this chapter.) Bless their souls.

Also I’m going to try to post a chapter a week. And if you can folks, please read Fallout equestria: Wetgrave (my other story) as well. I’ve got an epic story planned for it. :D

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