Chapter 1
"Come on Discord, we just can't be late for the picnic with the girls, can we?", Fluttershy asked, as she and Discord walked through Ponyville.
"Ah yes, I just wouldn't want to miss a picnic with my favorite ponies in all of Equestria!"
"Then let's hurry up, we need to get to Sweet Apple Acres as soon as possible", Fluttershy said.
As they neared the outskirts of Ponyville, they saw five other ponies and a baby dragon sitting on an outstretched red-and-white checkered picnic blanket. As they approached the group, they all turned and gave friendly smiles and waves to the two.
"Hiya Fluttershy, hiya Disi!", Pinkie said as they both sat down on the blanket.
"Hello Pinkie Pie", Fluttershy greeted.
"Greetings Pinkie", Discord said
"Well, since we're all here, let's eat!", Twilight suggested.
"I second that, I'm truly famished!", said Rarity.
As the group ate, they talked about what was going on in their daily lives. Pinkie said that she was making a new recipe for her cupcakes. Applejack said she that she was getting ready for harvesting season. Rainbow said that she was perfecting some new tricks that she had come up with recently. Rarity chimed in that she was making a new fashion line for some ponies in Canterlot. Fluttershy said that she was helping take care of some injured pets from owners in Ponyville.
"I'm working on a new spell that Celestia said can travel between dimensions!"
"What?!?!", the five other ponies and Spike yelled.
"Truly remarkable!", Rarity exclaimed.
"How do you do it?", Dash asked.
"Well, considering that you wouldn't want to hear a long, drawn out, much more informative explanation, then I'll just cut to the chase", Twilight said. "Basically, it takes a certain combination of different enchanted items and spells to pull off."
"Interesting, what are these spells and specific items?", asked Discord.
"Why should I tell you?", asked Twilight hesitantly.
"Well, I just don't want you to work your little unicorn head so hard to preform that spell", teased Discord.
"How do I know your not going to use the spell wrongly on purpose?"
"Please Twilight", Fluttershy begged. "He won't do that, he's reformed remember?"
"Really Fluttershy?", Rainbow inquired "Just look at what happened to Ponyville when him and Tirek teamed up!
"He promised us that he wouldn't do anything like that again!", Fluttershy defended.
"Fine, I'll give him a chance Fluttershy", Twilight said reluctantly.
"Alright, so how would one do this?", Discord asked.
"Well, you need some enchanted gems to circle around a crystal magically." "And then you just use a couple of transportation spells, along with some binding magic to achieve the wanted affect."
"Ok, do you have the Elements?", asked Discord.
"Check", said Twilight.
"Crystal?"
"Check"
"Alright, I can do the rest."
As the Elements floated around the enchanted crystal, Discord snapped his talons, and...
"Perfect", Discord said, as everything came to a halt. The ponies, Spike, even the breeze and the birds in the sky stopped moving. Discord had frozen time itself!
"Now, to have a little fun"
Discord made the gems encircle the crystal once more, but did this without the particular time freezing spell. Then, a portal opened. It was purple, with ancient Equestrian symbols on the base. Discord walked through it and then, both him and the portal disappeared.
New York City, Time Square, February, 2015, 9:30 PM
Charlie Miller walked through Time Square, feeling the cold breeze blow through his blonde hair. It was a nice night for a walk through town, or at least he thought. He was going for a stroll, and he planned to be back before ten. So far, he'd walked from his house to Time Square, which was only about a half a mile away. He was just thinking about life while he was walking, nothing too serious, but nothing too bland. Just life in general.
He thought about his his friends, and how they were doing. He didn't normally think about them since he moved to New York. When he'd moved from his hometown of Houston, he left almost everything he could think of back there. His old house, his parents, his friends. So far, he got a dead end job at a gas station, and wished that he had something better. He wished that he hadn't move away from everything and everyone he held so dear. But most of all, he wished that he had some friends to help him get past these restless nights.
Just then, he saw a silhouette of something, hunched over by some bushes he took his phone out of his pocket, turned on the flashlight, and shined it in the general direction of the figure. But it was gone. Then he heard something behind him.
"Fortune for you boy?"
He looks over at something of a scraggly old man half hidden under his old robes. He was obviously homeless and half crazy but something about him seemed like he could have some fun.
"Heh... sure old man... what kind of fortunes do you tell?"
He smiled with an odd set of teeth
"Tell?.... no no no ... I sell fortunes...good fortune.... power.... whatever you so desire... it will only cost you....a joke...."
Charlie laughed.
"A joke?...sure ha! right give me that fortune and power... and I'll tell you why the chicken crossed the road."
"So you agree to the terms?"
He laughs, not so much out of entertainment but simply the seriousness that the old man spoke. He seemed so sure of himself almost too sure to be insane yet the tone of his voice foretold something hidden and legitimately off.
"Sure old man...I'll play your game... so do you know why the chicken cross-"
Before he could finish the old man's eyes turned an off color of yellow and his pupils turned red as he drew back the hood to reveal a pair of mismatched horns. His hand slipped from his long sleeves revealing itself to be a set of talons, they snapped and the air seemed to blur and bend as he was torn off his feet.
"What the heeeeelllll!!!", Charlie screamed, as he fell into the abyss.
Sweet Apple Acres, Equestria
"And there you have it", said Discord, as he entered back through the portal. It closed, and then faded into existence behind him. Then, he snapped his talons, and time restarted itself.
"Did you do it?", asked Rainbow.
"Why yes I did"
"Correctly?", Twilight inquired.
"Yes"
Ah ya sure, 'bout that", Applejack asked. " 'Cause I don't think we went anywhere.
"Oh trust me, we did", said Discord with an evil smirk.
"So what do we do now?", asked Fluttershy.
The group thought about that one for a second.
Suddenly, the silence was shattered by scream that rivaled Fluttershy's. The group looked toward the direction of the scream, and had varying degrees of shock on their faces. For hurtling towards them was... a pegasus. He was falling extremely fast, and was showing no signs of stopping.
Well, I don't care where we are, but this stallion needs our help!", said Rainbow, as she flew off towards the falling stallion.
Charlie was falling. He knew he was right when that weird old man-thing snapped it's talons. He was also sure that said old man-thing teleported him to another dimension. He just hoped that it's natives were friendly.
Just then, he heard wind whistling by his ears. Then, he actually took the time to investigate his new surroundings. He was falling, fast! He was over a field on the outskirts of a little farm, which was not too far away from a moderately-sized town.
Then, he started to scream. He kept screaming for Celestia knows how long, before he heard something start... talking?
..."I said hey, can you hear me? Are you deaf or something?", was spoken to his right. When Charlie looked there, he saw a small blue horse with wings, and a rainbow mane and tail.
"What... WHAT THE HELL?!?!", Charlie yelled.
"I said: Do you need my help or something?", the blue horse asked him. Now that he thought about it, it was either a male going through puberty, or a tomboy female. Wait, why was he even thinking about that, this thing could save his life!
"Yes, that would be nice right about now", Charlie yelled over the rush of wind blowing all around them.
"And why would you need my help, I mean, you ARE a PEGASUS after all"
"I'm a what?"
A pegasus, like, you know, pegasus, unicorn, Earth Po-"
"No, I don't know what ANY of that is. Now, PLEASE DON'T LET ME DIE!!!"
Ugh, why do I always have to help all the weirdos in Ponyville, Rainbow thought as she, very carefully and awkwardly, scooped him up in her forelegs
As they slowly touched down, Charlie could see other ponies, a lizard, and a weird mix of creatures that seemed strangely familiar.
"Thanks", Charlie said, as the group came together around them. For once in this strange new world, peace...
And that peace was completely shattered when a pink pony came up to him and asked him a whole dictionary worth of questions.
"Hi what's your name, wait hold on I know it's Charlie which is weird because we all have regular names here but you're probably not used to them since you're from another world and you don't know what I'm saying because I'm talking faster than you can comprehend but that's okay because I'm Pinkie Pie and NO PONY EXPECTS PINKIE PIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She said this all in a matter of about 5 seconds; Charlie didn't know or care, his brain couldn't take any more of this, and he promptly fainted.
"Awww", Pinkie Pie cooed. "And here I thought we were having a good day!"