Chapter 1
Light from the early morning sun streamed in through the sliver like slits of the blinds. They danced their way straight for the sensitive eyelid covered eyes of the room’s sole occupant, much to her dismay. With a grunt she rolled over, grabbing aimlessly to pull the warm blankets over her head.
“Five…more…minutes.” Came the muffled reply to the unwelcome intrusion.
Having successfully caught on to the edge of the micro suede fabric of her bed sheets, the teenaged girl blocked out her oldest enemy once more and retreated into the land of safety and serenity; the land of dreamhood and possibilities abound.
When next she awoke, it was not to the unpleasant sensation of light piercing needles, but to the sound of birds cawing. Without the previous disturbance she was able to happily snuggle into her precious red panda plushie and awaken at her own leisure, at her very own pace; known to most as the pace a snail would take. Stretching out, her toes reached past the edge of the blankets and into the cold morning air.
A little too cold for it to belong to her bedroom at the apartment.
“Possum?”
She wriggled her toes around feeling for the squishiness of her dog. Nothing. She still hadn’t opened her eyes but she could make assumptions.
“I swear dog, if you took a dump downstairs again…”
Cracking her eyes open she grabbed for her phone. That, at least, was in its usual position beside her on one of her numerous pillows. Two messages, both two hours old.
"Hey."
"Maggie...?"
Lips upturned in the slightest of smiles, she slid the lock screen to the side and started poking the six button to unlock it. One too many times. Groaning she repeated the action, being careful this time to end with a nine as originally intended. Typing in her message quickly she hit send.
"Error sending message. Try again?"
A scowl slid across her face, replacing the bright smile, as she read this and her eyes flicked just slightly upwards to see how many bars she had.
"Damn, stupid phone."
Looking up for the first time it dawned on her that no longer was she in her book-filled haven but rather someplace that a cell signal has no right to. A place of magic and unpredictability. A place known by monsters as home and called by others the...
"The Everfree Forest?" She uttered out loud, thinking of the show she was watching right before bed. The thought was soon brushed from her head though as she realized that her subconscious was making her think that just because she had so recently watched it.
Her pupils contracted to pinpricks as her sight landed on what gave away this terrible truth to her. A paw, thrice the size of your average lion's but bearing a resemblance none the less, was pushing through the underbrush that surrounded her. A paw that could not possibly exist if she was still was home.
Could she be in Kansas?
No, she rationalized that would make even less sense than being in a fantastical land of pastel ponies. One does not go to sleep north of Chicago and end up that far south without noticing such a disturbance. More than likely she was still sleeping. With that thought firmly lodged she rolled back over, pressing a pillow solidly over over hear ears.
Something prodded curiously at her backside.
Tap, tap.
Aw, fudge nuggets. What now? Irritation was clear as daylight as her pale face popped out from underneath the pillow, a cloud of blue hair haloing around her head. Above her a long strand dangled. A long, wet strand she noticed. A long, wet strand of saliva that was connected to a creature straight out of any fantasy novels.
“Well, would you look at that.”
As the strand reaches her cheek it occurs to her that even if this is a dream, maybe, just maybe, she shouldn’t lay around waiting to get eaten.
“Oof.”
Then again, maybe falling to the forest floor wasn’t the smartest idea she has had today. Wiping the slimy substance off the side of her cheek she realized that the ground beneath her felt a lot more solid than any dream material had a right to be.
The manticore did not care.
Throwing the bed into the depths of the bushes, he advanced upon his new and quite bizarre prey. Being a top predator, he didn’t have any worries over the strangeness of this new beast or its oddly soft nest. All he knew was one thing- it was dinner time.
There was, however, one thing he did not count on. It was not, in fact, dinner time, but rather breakfast time.
Such a difference was vital for a creature such as the manticore and as the sun peaked over the grasping branches of the forest it realized this with a fright.
Maggie, still laying on the moldy leaves of the floor could only stare with a blatant look of confusion as the manticore turned tail and ran off whimpering into, well, the exact opposite of the sunset.
“Oh, dear me. Are you alright?” A melodious voice filled what could have turned to looming silence, “I have never seen a creature quite like you before.”
Turning her head around as much as she could, our human companion laid eyes upon the most ocean-like eyes she had ever seen. They were not only huge in size, but quite liquid with worry. The color, too, matched that of an ocean at peace. Maggie blinked her much smaller eyes in surprise, rubbing frantically to make sure she wasn’t imagining what was before her.
“Oh, you must be so scared,” The voice spoke again, “My name is Fluttershy, I only want to help, the Everfree can be a terribly scary place you know.”
Welcome to Equestria, enjoy your stay.