> The Awakening Of A Kaiju > by Kaiju4ever > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Where Am I? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first thing I noticed when I awoke was the unbelievable headache. That, and the fact that I was in a cottage near a forest; and in a soft bed, to be precise. Last thing I remembered was packing my bags to go to my friend Jerry's house. Ugh... What just happened to me? Wait. I could hear humming, beautiful humming in fact, coming from downstairs. If I could just get out of bed... I realized something must really had happened to me while I was sleeping, because I could not walk for the life of me without my legs getting wobbly. I took two steps and fell face-first with a dull thud. I heard a loud gasp downstairs, followed by hurried footsteps coming up the stairs. The door to the room slowly creaked open and I heard a soft voice whisper, "I’m glad you’re finally awake. So umm... are you feeling ok?” "Do I look ok?" I groaned, lifting my head. For a second, I couldn't believe my eyes. Standing before me was a yellow horse lady wearing a green turtleneck decorated with three pink butterflies and a green skirt. She also had wings, WINGS, She hid her face behind her pink and curly hair and hurriedly apologized. Due to the fact that she was freaking adorable and well, because I felt bad- I said, "Sorry, could you help me up please?” She helped me straighten back on the bed, carefully lifting me up. It was time to get some answers. "What's your name?” She shyly replied, "F-Fluttershy." "Well, my name is Kira." I couldn’t help but feel my introduction was too shallow, so I added, “I’m a human.” I didn’t know what else to say, and we remained silent for a few moments. Fluttershy was fidgeting in place. Eventually, she looked at my left eye and asked, trying to sound casual, “N-not like I want to p-pry but, how did you get that scar on your left eye?” I decided to reply frankly, "I don't really remember, By the way, Fluttershy, where am I?” "Oh, you're in Equestria." Equestria… that name, it sounds so familiar! I shook the thought away. "But how did I get here?" "You mean my cottage or Equestria?” I motioned my arm vaguely around the room and she got the hint. "I was out tending my animals when I saw a bright glow at the entrance of the E-Everfree Forest.” I noticed the evident trembling in her voice when she named that forest, but opted to ask later and let her continue. "When I went to investigate, I saw you on the ground, covered in scratch marks and bruises and with a big black bag beside you. When you looked at me and fainted, I took you here so you could get better," Fluttershy finished. "Wait, you took me in without knowing who or what I was?" I said bewildered. "Well you looked hurt, and I couldn't just leave you there to die." “But I don't even have any scratches or bruises!" She gazed at me. "Well, you did have a couple of injuries, but when I brought you in they were suddenly all gone." I raised an eyebrow at that. How could my injuries just disappear? I let out an unexpected yawn. I hadn’t noticed how sleepy I was. Fluttershy giggled. "Sweet dreams." She left and went downstairs, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I sighed, knowing that this ordeal was probably going to be a pain in the ass. I decided to drop it for the time being and get some sleep. It probably wouldn’t do much to think in this state anyway. I closed my eye and my mind went shut. Unfortunately, even my dreams were weird that day. I was in a strange forest in front of a very old castle- at least that’s what I thought, considering it looked like no one had been there in centuries. Despite my better instincts telling me to not go near the castle, I walked closer anyway. I stared at the bridge leading to the castle and started having second thoughts. I glanced at the castle again. There was some kind of shimmering dark blue smoke at the entrance. I was watching it intently, when all of a sudden two teal eyes appeared in the smoke and just stood there, looking at me. I awoke in a flash. What was that, where was I, and why did it feel so real? There were too many questions circling in my head. I had barely noticed I was sweating when I heard the indistinct sound of voices downstairs. I instantly recognized Fluttershy as the next one speaking, "Not so loud, Twilight, Kira could still be sleeping." “Fluttershy!” I could tell whoever was talking was clearly annoyed and struggling to keep calm. “Are you even listening? This is important!” There was a moment of what I imagined could only be an awkward silence. Fluttershy’s reply came in a muffled tone, almost whimpering, “I-I don’t know…” She started sobbing lightly. “He seemed like he needed h-help, I c-couldn’t just leave him there.” Another silence followed. I couldn’t stand hearing Fluttershy like this, what with her kindness and all that, I was trying my best to get out of bed silently when I heard a new voice from downstairs. “Now now, Dear, don’t be so gloomy. I for one think that was very brave and noble of you.” The voice speaking was refined, almost aristocratic. Do they even have such a thing as aristocracy in Equestria? I grumbled inwardly. Something about that word -Equestria- echoed deep inside of me, but I had no idea why. “Yeah, I’m with Rarity!” chirped a bubbly voice. “You were really really brave and kind and unselfish because you never thought about yourself you just went straight to help like what if he turned out to be a monst-” “Pinkie!” snarled another voice, this one sounding kinda tomboyish. “Great job and all ‘Shy, but could we just go and see your ‘Hooman’ now? I can’t wait to show him my latest moves, he’ll flip out!” The next voice spoke with a distinct southern accent, “I reckon we’ll meet him soon, Sugarcube. Ya’ll done with the lecturin’ I hope, Twilight?” My body tensed and I snapped right back into attention. The conversation downstairs had suddenly died out. I could feel how much was on the line, pending on the next words, until finally an audible sigh broke the silence. “Girls, you have to understand, there hasn’t been a human in Equestria since... forever! I couldn’t even find proper research material, just a few old legends and the few things Celestia told me.” She paused for a moment before resuming, “I’ll admit I want to meet him too, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for research, after all. Just... remember to be careful until we find out more. Please?” I let out a sigh in relief; at least I wasn’t being rejected out of the blue. There was no point in delaying it further, then, so I decided to fake a loud yawn and see if they would hear it. "Oh, it sounds like he's awake," said the aristocratic voice. "Now girls, please be careful. He seemed a bit confused when he met me, so let's try not to overwhelm him," Fluttershy told them. I heard their footsteps -or maybe hoofsteps?- coming my way. I contemplated jumping out the window out of nervousness, but rejected the idea. I still didn't know how I’d gotten here, but maybe they could help me figure that out. I was brought out of my thoughts by a high-pitched voice. “Hi!” I looked up and saw six colourful horses had walked into the room. Two of them had horns, two had wings and two had nothing special. Why me? I sighed and looked at the owner of the voice. She was a pink horse-lady, with a curly mane that looked like cotton candy and a matching tail. The wide yellow T-shirt she was wearing showed what looked like three balloons carelessly drawn with red crayons. I was about to respond, but she started talking very rapidly, "My name is Pinkie Pie, what are you? Where are you from? How di-” "Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy politely asked us not to overwhelm him, remember?" interrupted the white… unicorn? At least that’s what I thought she was, because of the horn. I turned to face Pinkie again. "Well, hi Pinkie Pie, my name is Kira, I'm a Human and I'm from Earth; or to be more geologically specific, San Mosura.” Now that I had a moment to reflect on the mood of the room, I noticed everyone was silent, almost expectant; everyone except Pinkie, of course. "San Mosura! What's that?" I could have sworn I saw a question mark above her head. "It’s an island in the Caribbean Sea” “But Darling, what exactly is an island?” “Huh? Well, it's a small piece of land in the middle of an ocean or sea.” When I realized who I was talking to, I turned my head to look at the white unicorn. She looked absolutely stunning in that light-blue gown, her well-groomed purple hair casually hanging around her shoulders, nearly hiding the pin with the three blue diamonds. “You must be Rarity." "How did you know my name?" she asked, looking genuinely confused. I snickered. "I was listening the whole time you were talking." The room fell into silence again; worse, it was an awkward silence this time. Sweet Jesus, I’d fucked it up again now, they sure thought I was eavesdropping. Urgh, I had to attempt a save or I was done for. “Uhm, I mean… you were talking kinda loud and it woke me up, so I may have overheard some things…” It was now or never to change the subject. “Anyway, before you ask any more questions, could I have something to eat, please? If it’s not too much trouble.” Fluttershy gasped. "Oh my goodness, I never asked if you were hungry, I am so very sorry. What can I get you? I'm not familiar with a human’s diet." Phew, it worked. "Well, I personally prefer meat." They all looked at me surprised. I looked at them and immediately added "Don't worry, I'm not gonna eat you, I’m not a monster. Besides, where I come from it’s frowned upon to eat horses." At least in most places; not gonna tell them that, though. "Now wait a second dear, what did you call us?" Rarity asked. "Horses, why? Isn't that what you are?" I had no idea why she looked so upset. The violet unicorn cleared her throat. “Ponies and horses are related, but we aren't the same: they were known to be uncivilized brutes, which we are not. Besides, horses disappeared centuries ago and are no longer living in Equestria. I was lost as to why the hell that was a thing, but I kept my mouth shut and instead tried to think of what food they could have. "Anyway, if you don't have meat, do you have apples or something else?" "Sure, I'll be right back," Fluttershy said quietly, leaving the room. I turned to the others. This was my best chance to get through the introductions. "Ok,so I'm already familiar with three of you, but I don’t think I know the name of the rest." The purple pony recovered first and offered a light smile. "I can’t believe I forgot to even introduce myself.” She chuckled. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m in charge of the library here in Ponyville, and I was hoping-" Due to my ADD, my eyes wandered around while she was talking. I noticed Twilight was wearing a purple turtleneck with a big magenta star surrounded by smaller white ones. She also had blue jeans on, and her hair had a dark blue hue striped in pink and purple. I couldn’t help but look at her feet- or should I say hooves? Because she didn't have any freaking TOES! I was… more than a bit weirded out. Oh, and also she had a horn, of course... “-anywhere, actually. And that is basically why I would appreciate if you came over once you start feeling better,” she finished, her smile unfazed. Her eyes were still focused on me, waiting for an answer. I nodded, feeling a bit unsure, but I didn’t get the time to reflect on what I was agreeing to. "Sup dude! I'm the totally amazing Rainbow Dash, the coolest pegasus in all of Equestria." She flashed a smug grin before giving me a high five. Rainbow Dash was a blue-skinned... pegasus. She was wearing a jean jacket and an undershirt with a print cloud shooting rainbow-lighting. The best part though was that her hair looked like the goddamn colors of the GODDAMN rainbow. At last, the one pony I really wanted to meet held out her hand. "Howdy partner, Name’s Applejack.” I took her hand and shook it eagerly. It was covered in a thin layer of fur, very pleasant to the touch. What could I say about her? She was an orange pony; no wings, no horn, no funny stuff. She had a green shirt wrapped around her hip, and was wearing jean shorts with the image of three apples on the side. Her blond hair was neatly arranged in a ponytail and topped by an amazingly fitting cowboy hat. Hell, even the freckles on her cheeks looked cute. She let go of my hand and tipped her hat. I smiled. "Nice to meet you all.” "It was our pleasure.” Twilight’s smile turned into a slight frown. “Although I have to admit I’m curious, where did you get that scar?” I flinched. "I don't like to talk about it," I said curtly. She must had sensed how annoyed I was, because she took a few steps backwards. "O-ok, I understand. It’s none of my business.” I looked at her and forced myself to calm down. "Don't worry about it, you didn't know." I had no idea why that scar bothered me so much either... Anyway, I may sound like a pervert right now, but earlier I also checked out their chests. It seems Fluttershy tops the group. I don't mean anything by it, it's just my nature to take in every detail of people- or in this case ponies- that I meet. Speaking of Fluttershy, she chose that moment to appear with a bowl of sliced apples. “Uhm… is everypony getting along?" I chuckled. "Yeah, I like them already." She offered a bright smile and handed me the bowl. I started eating the apples as if I were starving, amazed at the sheer flavor they had, worlds apart from the cardboard ones back home. When I was done, I sighed in satisfaction. “Those were some good apples.” "Well, you have Applejack to thank for them," Fluttershy said, gesturing to Applejack. I turned to Applejack with my best grin. "You take really good care of your apples. They were amazing." She blushed. "Aw shucks, that's mighty kind, Sugarcube. Ah'll be sure to bring some more.” "If it’s not too much trouble," I said with a laugh, “I’d lo-” I paused. They were all looking at me in worry now. "Kira, dear, are you alright?" I didn't know what was happening. All of a sudden, I had an odd feeling, like… like something was about to happen. It took all my will, but I shook it off. "Y-yeah... I'm alright." Twilight looked at me suspiciously. "Are you sure?" "Twilight, I'm fine," I assured, putting on my best fake smile. An uncomfortable silence followed, but she eventually shrugged. "Ok, if you say so..." The mood in the room had dropped down considerably. Wondering how I could light things up, I remembered I still had my phone in my pocket: my totally generic, non-branded phone. I subtly reached for it and tried my best to activate the alarm. Oh boy am I glad I made it the 'sanic theme'. When I finally succeeded in activating it, they were all startled. I started laughing really hard: their expressions were priceless! They glared at me, realizing I had made the noise. Even with their disapproving looks, I couldn't stop laughing. I even started crying out of laughter. "Kira, that wasn't very nice, you know," Fluttershy said, disapprovingly. Rainbow dash smirked. "Don't listen to her, Kira, that was pretty cool! Heh, you caught us all by surprise." "Uuuuh, that was a doozie! You totally caught me by surprise!" chirped Pinkie Pie, giggling. She snorted every now and then, and I found it irresistibly cute. This time, I took out my phone to check the time: 3:45 pm. "What's that strange device?" Twilight asked me, intrigued. I looked up and showed it to her. "It’s called a cell phone back where I'm from." She looked at it dumbfounded. "So this... 'cell phone' made that noise?" "Yep. It can also make other sounds. Like this one." I searched for the horse sound and pressed on it. She gave me a blank stare. ... "Did you really have to do that?" I grinned widely “Hehe, yup! Couldn't resist." She was positively adorable when she was angry. After a moment, her features relaxed. "Well, you are certainly interesting. I’d better write to the Princess about you later." I raised my eyebrow at the mention of princesses. "Huh, wait, you guys still have a monarchy?" "Hmm, yes?” she said, looking confused. “Why do you ask?" "Because where I'm from, we don't. We have presidents or governors for the states we have." "But didn't you say you were from an island?" "Yeah, and it’s a part of a bigger country called America.” "I see... That’s fascinating news! I’m sure Princess Celestia will be interested in hearing all of it.” She rubbed her chin. “And who's the current President?" "It's some guy named Charles Garnett." I let my eyes wander around the room again. Resting in a corner, I spotted my black bag. "Um, can somebody bring me that bag?" "Somebody? Don't you mean somepony?” Rainbow Dash asked. I frowned in confusion. "No, it’s somebody. Ponies aren't sapient where I'm from." They all looked shocked. "Whaddya mean they aren’t…” “Sapient,” helped Twilight. “That! Are there other… sapient creatures where you’re from, then?” Twilight took out a notepad from.....I have no idea where. I decided to ignore that and faced Rainbow. "No. No, unfortunately we do not." I had a hard time keeping the sad tinge out of my voice. They all looked surprised once again. "But wouldn't that be kind of lonely?" said Fluttershy in a low voice. "Probably; but humans don't always get along with each other, so I guess it’s safer this way." "What do you mean?” Twilight asked, scribbling on her notebook. I decided to not regale her with the horrors of humanity. "I'll tell you another time. I am not really in the mood right now.” I recalled then where the topic had started. “Also, I asked for my bag." "Oh, allow me, Darling," Rarity chimed in. Her horn gained a light-blue aura. That same aura enveloped my bag, and slowly levitated it to me. "Here you go." Oh sweet Christ… I was dazed for a few moments, trying to process what had just happened in front of me. I looked at her horn, then at my bag. This went on a couple of times. "Rarity... did you just use telekinesis?" She laughed, but Pinkie Pie jumped in first, "No silly! She used magic, all unicorns can! Can't humans do it too?" I didn't respond. Pinkie let out a huge gasp. "Nowaynowaynowaynoway! You guys don't have magic!” I shrugged. Everyone else looked just as surprised as her. "But how do you guys get anything done then?" Twilight asked, still writing furiously on her notebook. "We get by with the help of technology. Our technology is pretty advanced.” "How advanced?” I decided to tell her about my favorite modern invention. "Advanced enough that we made a machine that let's us access an impossibly large amount of information.” "How big are we talking here?" From the way her eyes were shining and her ears perked up, I could tell she was genuinely interested now. The others seemed to be listening carefully too. "All of recorded human history." Twilight made an adorable squeak. "Th-that’s incredible! What is this magnificent machine called?" "It's called a computer." I was finding this very amusing, considering this was common knowledge in my world. "Wow. I have to admit you humans are nothing short of impressive." "Yeah, we kind of are." I chuckled and looked into my bag. Everything was there. Checking my phone again, it was now 5 pm. Time sure flies when you’re having an interesting conversation. Even if by some chance this wasn’t a dream and I was stuck here, at least these ponies were nice enough. They were also quite hot... but I’d better keep that to myself. It was at that point I noticed I really, really had to go to the bathroom. "Um, Fluttershy? Can I use your bathroom?" "Of course. It’s right outside this room, first one to the left." "Ok, thanks." As I started walking, I realized my legs were working again. One more weird thing to add to the list, I guess... The rest of the evening went by uneventfully, everyone making small talk and just having a good time until it got late. When the girls left, I waved goodbye to them and closed the door, turning to Fluttershy. "Well, they are certainly fun to have around." "I'm glad you all got along.” A faint smile adorned her face. “It's pretty late, so I'll be going to bed." I nodded. "Yeah, I'll go to bed too." I picked up my bag and went to the guest room, which was right next to hers. Getting ready for the night proved tricky, but thankfully I at least had pajamas in my bag. I should probably ask Rarity if she could make me more clothes, though. It turns out she owns a Boutique. Once I finished my routine, I lay down limply on the bed and reached for my bag. “I could sure use some distraction,” I sighed softly. I took out my Nintendo Switch and played Breath of the Wild until I ran out of battery. Time to get some rest. I turned the bedside lamp off and pulled the covers over my head, but alas, I couldn't sleep. I simply lay there, restless, staring at the ceiling and thinking about everything I had just been through. Why did I end up here? Was there any reason behind it? If so, what could it be? I kept mulling over it for quite some time, but eventually my brain got sleepy and I dozed off. I was fairly sure it was a dream. Where was I? I looked around. The castle was nowhere to be found this time, and all around was a seemingly endless open field covered in grass. I heard a chuckle and turned to see a cloaked figure towering in front of me. "Well well, it seems you have finally arrived.” His voice was deep, but soothing. “Unfortunately, even though I would love for you to stay and chat, your time has not come yet. Thus, I bid you farewell." He lifted a scaled hand and rested it on my forehead. I woke up with a startle. The urge to check the time again was getting intense, like every time I was nervous, a habit I’d been trying to give up lately. It was well past two in the morning. I got out of bed and looked out the window. I could feel it again. Something important was going to happen. As quickly as the feeling came, it left. I chose to ignore it and went back to sleep. Little did I know, I was about to have the adventure of my life. > New Life > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In my dreams, I was once again near the castle. Why do I keep coming here? This time I crossed the bridge. When I reached the entrance I looked around for the smoke creature, but it was nowhere to be seen. When I entered it proved that I was right about this place being old. Everything had moss, cracks or holes. I eventually reached two thrones, one had a flag of the moon and the other a flag of the sun. I walked closer to look at them. I stopped looking at the thrones after awhile and glanced around. Something or someone was watching me. I kept looking around until I saw the same smoke creature from last time hiding behind a pillar. I looked at it and spoke in a soft tone "It’s ok. I won't hurt you,". It didn't move from its spot. "Come on, I won't bite" Eventually, it floated over to me and just stayed there. Well, this is awkward. "So, what's your name?". All I got was silence. "Come on I did say I wouldn’t bite" It eventually spoke in a mature female tone "Why are you here?" Oh great, this thing is female I thought to myself sarcastically. "I would tell you if I knew but I don't" She chuckled "Well what are you anyway?" "I'm a human" Her eyes widened "A human you say? Fascinating". Before I could respond the world suddenly flashed white and I woke up startled and slightly sweating. I looked around the room and noticed I was still in Fluttershy’s guestroom. "Well, I guess anthro pony land wasn't a dream" I mumbled to myself. I got up and stretched when I was done I got clothes from my bag and headed to the bathroom. I was a bit apprehensive about using Fluttershy's shower but I eventually got in and took a shower. Shortly after, I brushed my teeth and got dressed before heading down the stairs. As I walked down the stairs I smelled something that usually lifts my spirits, food. I really love food. Knowing Fluttershy was skittish I gently walked over and said hi. She was lightly startled but when she saw it was me she smiled "Good morning sleepy head, I made scrambled eggs,"She paused for a second "Um, you do eat scrambled eggs right?" I nodded and sat down at a nearby table. When she was done she gave a plate of scrambled eggs. I ate it in under 15 seconds. Fluttershy giggled "Wow you sure were hungry" I smiled sheepishly "Yeah and it tasted pretty good" She blushed a cute shade of pink and shyly said "Thank you" "But wait, Fluttershy you didn't eat" She smiled and said "Don't worry I ate before you woke up" I relaxed when she said this "Oh, ok" "Can you give me your plate so I can wash it" I was about to give it to her when I realized something. I'm a guest in Fluttershy’s home, I can't just mooch off of her. I shook my head "No Fluttershy I'll wash it, don't worry about it" "Are you sure? I don't mind washing it" Fluttershy assured me. I stood up to go to the sink to begin washing my plate "Yes Fluttershy I'm sure, I can't just mooch off of someone as sweet and kind like you" Fluttershy blushed a cute shade of pink "Oh, ok" She stayed silent for a while and asked me "So what are you going to do today?" "Explore, I want to know Ponyville better," I told her as I kept washing the plate. "Oh, just be careful, I wouldn't want anything to happen to you, " Fluttershy told me sweetly. Wow, she really is sweet and kind, I've only known her for a day and she's already worried about my well being. I finished washing the plate and went over and hugged her, only for her to tense up at the sudden hug. I instantly let go, now there was an awkward silence. I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment "Uh I should go" I told her as I slowly moved towards the door. She nodded slowly and I left the cottage. "Holy fuck that was awkward" I mumbled to myself as I left. I looked around and saw a river, a few birdhouses, and a chicken coop. I was tempted to go to the Chicken coop, I liked chickens they were cute animals, but I decided against going in since I needed to explore the town. Walking helps me think and right now I had a lot to think about. Like how did I end up here? It’s obviously not a dream but since magic exists in this world it could be something mystical, like a mage, an evil God, Demon or something like that. At least the inhabitants are nice. I've never heard of 'Equestria' in any mythology I've ever read and yet it sounds so familiar. It took me awhile to get there, but once I got there I wanted to hide under a rock. I could hear whispering among them as I walked by. The ponies looked at me with a mix of caution and awe, but otherwise didn't really do anything. I couldn't help but notice the colorful coats they had, ponies on earth could never have coats like that, but they also don't walk on two legs and have wings or horns. I just kept wandering around aimlessly till I found a place that looked like it was edible. I looked at a sign that said 'Sugarcube corner' and decided to head inside. The moment I entered I saw Pinkie give a random pony a cupcake and say "Thank you Come again!". However, when she looked at me her eyes widened and she gave me a smile that Quite honestly looked like a nervous smile. "Hey, Kira what brings you here?" Pinkie asked me nervously. I think she's nervous, but I'm not sure. Once I know a person long enough I can sometimes tell what they are thinking by their expressions, but I haven't known her long enough for that so for all I know this is normal. "So you work here Pinkie?" I asked her while ignoring her creepy smile. She nodded so quickly I thought her head would come off and said " Yeah!" The whole time her smile did not waiver and it was honestly starting to creep me out. " Well it was nice talking to you but I have to keep exploring," I told her as I moved closer to the door. She nodded and waved goodbye while keeping up that weird smile. I quickly got out and kept walking until I was a pretty good distance away from sugar cube corner. "Holy hell that was kind of creepy" I muttered to myself as I kept walking until I got to a shopping area I could see lots of carts and shops. "Well this is ni - holy fuck its a dragon," I said as I spotted a freaking anthro purple dragon. He was walking forwards as he was holding a bag and a really big list. He seemed to be muttering to himself as he looked at the list and he looked around and noticed me. He smiled and walked over to me. I kept my guard up just in case. "You're Kira right?" He asked me. I nodded and said "Yeah, who wants to know?" He held out his hand "The names Spike, I'm Twilight’s number one assistant. She told me all about you." I shook it and chuckled "Good things I hope". He was wearing a sleeveless green shirt and blue jeans that had a hole for his tail. He had green spikes on his head and smaller ones on his cheeks. He was wearing fingerless black gloves. "Well she did say you were a tad strange but that you seemed friendly and sweet," Spike said with a grin. "Yeah, I'm known for being strange," I told him as he looked at his list again. "Well, Kira I'll see ya around. Stop by if you want to chat" we bumped fists and he wandered off. It wasn't until later we both realized our mistakes...I didn't know where he lived. After a while of wandering around town, I decided to search for his house, I was about to ask for directions until I heard someone say "Out of the way!!!" My body tensed and I sidestepped as I saw a familiar blue pegasus zoom past me. I've always had pretty fast reflexes but this had to be my new best in reaction time. I watched as Rainbow Dash turned around and landed in front of me. She smiled and said, "Damn, those are some pretty good reflexes their pal". "Well, I wouldn't have had to dodge if you didn't almost crash into me," I told her bluntly. She laughed sheepishly "My bad I was not looking where I was going" I rolled my eye when she said that but I don't hold it against her. "So what are you doing out here, are you exploring?" She asked me desperate to change the subject. "Yeah I'm exploring, I want to get a feeling of my surroundings. I'm also heading to Twilight’s home if I can find it." I explained to her. "Oh Twilight’s house?, I know where that is. Follow me!" Rainbow Dash told me as she flew in the direction of Twilight’s house with me close behind. After a while of following her, we came up to a giant tree "Is her house a freaking tree?" I asked Rainbow dash in disbelief. Rainbow Dash shrugged "Yeah, I don't know why its a tree either," she told me as she walked to the front door and let herself in. "Yo Twilight, me and Kira are here." I heard rapid footsteps and suddenly Twilight appeared "Oh Kira you came!" "Of course I came Twilight, I wanted to get to know you better," I told her as I looked around. "So where's Spike?" "Spike? He's upstairs cleaning, I'll go get him" Twilight said as she looked at the stairs and shouted "Spike! Come down, Kira and Rainbow are here!". Once more I heard footsteps and then Spike appears with a duster in his hand. He looked at me and chuckled sheepishly "Sorry for not telling you where we live, my bad." I shrugged and waved my hand. "Don't worry about it mistakes happen" Twilight interrupted us and asked, "Do humans have cutie marks?" "What the flippity fuck is a cutie mark?" She went wide-eyed "Humans don't have cutie marks? Well, a cutie mark is a special mark on our flanks that we get when we discover our talents." All of this was sounding weirder by the second "so.....you get a mark on your ass when you discover your talent?" Twilight looked and me in a weird way before nodding. It only took a second before I burst out laughing. After I calmed down we all just kept chatting and I learned quite a few things about this world, like how the currency in Equestria is called 'bits'. When they told me who Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were and how they moved the sun and moon I was shocked. I mean I can understand the moon is difficult to move but the Sun?!, The Freaking sun! How in the world do they move that thing?! She laughed at my Shocked face and told me "I've already sent a letter to them about you and they said they would like to meet you and that we would get a letter telling us when we could go see them!" "Cool, that sounds like fun," I told her as we heard knocking on the door. "I'll get it!" Said Twilight as she went to the door and opened it to reveal a mare in a Mailman outfit, I wonder what they are called here, she was a grey pegasus who was carrying a satchel full of Mail and the poor thing had walleyes. The mare reached into her satchel and pulled out a colorful envelope and gave it to Twilight who then opened it and confetti came out. "What Kind of Black Magic is that!" I said in a funny tone which made everyone in this room laugh. "It’s not Black Magic but I'm still not sure how Pinkie Pie does this," Said Twilight as she read the contents inside the envelope and smiled "Pinkie Pie needs me And Rainbow Dash to do some errands" Rainbow Dash tilted her head and asked "Errands? What do you mean?" "Just come with me Rainbow Dash, Spike keep Kira company while I'm gone" He nodded and we watched her and Rainbow dash go out the door and close it. Leaving me and Spike to talk amongst ourselves "So Spike, what's the deal with you and Twilight? How come you live together? Are you guys siblings, are you dating? Are you the help?" I asked him curiously "She raised me ever since she hatched me from an egg, she's practically my mom" "Ah I see, why did she have your egg anyway? " "She had to do it to enter Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns" I blinked a few times and said "So let me get this straight, they told a young mare to hatch a dragon egg not caring for the consequences of what could happen to the kid or the dragon? What would happen if the momma dragon came looking for her baby?" He stared at me for a while and said "Huh, I never thought of it like that, at least she succeeded and she became Celestia’s personal student" "Well at least something good came out of that, still seems irresponsible if you ask me, so anything interesting to read here? I want to read something before I leave for Fluttershy’s house" He nodded and went to one of the shelves and asked "What would you like to read?" "How about something related to Equestria? I’d like to know more about this place" He nodded once more and looked around until he grabbed a book titled 'Equestria and its inhabitants' He walked over and handed it to me "While this book doesn't cover Everything it still explains things pretty good" I eagerly grabbed it and got up to leave and shook Spikes hand "Thanks for this, I'll be sure to bring it back once I'm done". I started heading towards the door but stopped in my tracks and turned around to look at him and shyly asked "Um.....how do I get back to Fluttershy’s house?" Once I finally got to Fluttershy’s house I noticed a note on the door that said 'Kira if you've come back to the cottage don't be scared that I'm not there, I'll be back later and don't be afraid to help yourself to the cookies on the table.' I smiled and opened the door which was left unlocked. That's pretty unsafe, but to be fair she is a bit far from everyone else. I spotted the plate of cookies and proceeded to devour them. By my count, there were 25 cookies and I ate them all. They were also my favorite type, chocolate chip. I took out my phone and noticed it was 1:35. Damn, that means I was gone for awhile, I ate those cookies and I'm still hungry. Well, might as well read this book to pass the time till Fluttershy gets back. I went up to the guest room and laid down on the bed to read the book. I read the first 60 pages and I have to say this book is very interesting, so unicorns use magic, pegasi can fly and control the weather and earth ponies are strong. So that's what Pinkie Pie and Applejack are. What they lack in wings and magic they make up in strength for tilling the land, although Pinkie doesn't till the land I'm guessing that's what a lot of earth ponies do. I kept reading and reading till I felt a little sleepy. I closed the book while making sure I remembered where I left off and put it on the nightstand and turned over to sleep. I was later awoken by someone gently poking my side, my right eye fluttered open and I saw it was Fluttershy. She looked at me shyly and asked "S-sorry to wake you but I need to go to Sugarcube Corner to pick up something b-but I was wondering if you would accompany me?" I sighed because I don't like being woken up, but since it was Fluttershy I didn’t mind. I got up and popped the bones in my back which made Fluttershy wince. I sighed in relief as it always felt good to do that when you wake up."Ok, let's go." She smiled and I followed her downstairs out the door and into town. I shuddered a bit as it was pretty cold and I hate the cold. To me it seemed like Fluttershy was shaking from something else. Luckily Sugarcube corner wasn't that far and we both quickly entered. I breathed shakily and tried warming myself before speaking to Fluttershy "You're scared of the dark?" She nodded "Yeah it’s pretty scary when I'm out somewhere and it's really dark" I suddenly got a shiver up my spine and looked behind me to see Pinkie Pie standing there with a creepy smile again. I backed up until I was a few feet away from her. "Hi, guys! Kira, can you stay here while Fluttershy and I get the stuff?" Pinkie said as she grabbed Fluttershy’s hand and took her upstairs. I watched as they went up the stairs and I sat down in a chair to wait. Why was Pinkie acting so weird? For all, I know this is probably a ruse and they just want to sacrifice me to their horrific pony cult God who will pull my heart out of my ass.......I hope that's not the case. If that's the case then I’m going to run faster than a fat guy after food or a kid who just learned his mom saw his terrible report card and he's running to avoid a serious ass whooping. I hummed to myself as a few minutes past and I even heard a few noises from upstairs until I heard Pinkie say "Kira could you help us with this stuff? It's kind of heavy!". That raised my suspicion a bit higher and I was starting to get worried. I stood up and hoped that I was just being a paranoid person but once I was at the door I paused. It felt like more people were behind the door.....strange. I shook my head and opened the door before searching for a light and when I did all the ponies I met the first day I arrived were there and yelled "Surprise!". I screamed and moved back which was a bad idea and it caused me to start falling down the stairs. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!" I yelled as I fell down the steps and once I landed at the bottom, I also yelled "Fuuuuuuuuuuuck! Bob Sagget!". I heard gasps and heard the rapid movement of hooves down the stairs. "Holy shit dude! Are you alright?" asked Rainbow Dash which caused me to glare at her. "Yeah, I'm fine! If you consider my foot up my own ass fine! Puñeta!" I said as I groaned in pain, my arm kind of hurt. "No need to get snarky! I'm just asking you if you're fine!" I was too focused on the pain in my arm to care about what she was saying and I groaned once more but after a few moments, I realized the pain was gone. Strange, it felt like I broke my arm. I've hurt myself enough to know. "Yeah yeah, just help me up, why were you guys here anyway?" I asked as Rainbow Dash and Applejack helped me up. Pinkie Pie came up to me and I noticed that her hair was no longer poofy but straight."We planned on throwing you a surprise party." "Then take me. I'm fine and I don't want to ruin my own party" I told her as I was already feeling better. I walked up the stairs with the others following me and I noticed quite a few decorations here and there. Lots of balloons, a giant basin for bobbing apples, punch, a lot of pastries and a cake that said 'Welcome to ponyville!'. I couldn't help but smile at the party they put together for me. I turned around and said "Pinkie come here" The pink party slowly walked up to me with her ears against her head. I smiled and said, "Pinkie I'm fine, now what do you say we just have some fun at the party you guys made for me?" She looked up at me and shyly asked "Really? You're not mad?" She gave me a big smile when I shook my head 'no'. She jumped and her hair seemingly inflated and she reached behind her back and PULLED OUT A CANNON!. I yelped and jumped out of the way as the cannon shot.....confetti. I blinked a few times and said "What?....but physics!" They all just giggled at my flabbergasted expression and I shook my head "Whatever, let's just party already" They all nodded and cheered and Pinkie went to a record player and turned it on and upbeat music began to play. Me being me I went to look for food but there was mostly cupcakes and the actual big cake, I inwardly groaned as I didn't eat cake and groaned louder as Pinkie started cutting a piece for me. "I noticed you staring at it so I assumed you wanted a piece." She told me as she tried handing me the plate. I was about to tell her I didn't eat cake but one look at those cute eyes and I nervously chuckled before taking the plate and hesitantly taking a bite. My right eye went wide open as I tasted the cake....it was delicious!. I quickly devoured it which made Pinkie giggle and snort "I'm guessing you liked it, but don't forget to leave some for us! Me most of all!" She told me as she went to the center of the room to dance. I chuckled before heading towards the basin full of water and apples. I've never really bobbed for apples before so this should be fun. I instantly noticed Applejack and Rainbow dash were competing for the most apples they could get. Rainbow was the first to see me and she still had an apple in her mouth which she then spat out so she could speak with me. "So you want to bob some apples with us?" I nodded and knelt down next to her and took a deep breath before dunking my head and coming out with an apple. I cheered triumphantly around the apple and took a big bite out of it which made it fall out of my mouth and onto the floor. I continued to do this for awhile until I felt hungry again and left to get some more cake. Rarity, Twilight, and Spike were sitting down and eating cake so I sat next to them once I grabbed my own slice. We stayed there eating in silence while the music played until Pinkie dragged me to the center and said "Come on, dance with me!" "Pinkie I don't usually-," I told her bluntly but the moment she started looking crestfallen I quickly said, "B-but I can try to do it!" I inwardly sighed as I began to dance and to be honest I started to enjoy it. It’s not that I don't know how to dance, I just don't usually do it in public unless I'm feeling playful or goofy. The girls cheered as I danced but Pinkie seemed like a better dancer than me, not that I minded of course. She really knew how to move her body to the beat, although her hips did hit Rarity when she decided to join us and she was sent into a wall......she even left the shape of her body in the wall. Damn, Earth ponies are stronger than they look. By the end of it, I was a bit tired and decided to just chat with them so I could rest a bit. We had fun talking and drinking punch. I even learned that the thing Pinkie used earlier was her 'party cannon'. I shook my head in disbelief, this place just keeps getting stranger and stranger. Thankfully the music wasn't too loud so we could hear each other pretty fine. Eventually, we ran out of Punch and I offered to get some more and Pinkie instructed me where to get more. As I was returning, however, I heard my name in a conversation and I couldn't help but press my ear to the door. "I feel shameful to admit it but I still don't quite trust him," Said Twilight as I heard a sigh. "Sugarcube, why don't ya trust him still? He seems like a nice human" Responded Applejack "Exactly! He SEEMS like a nice human but how do we know that for sure? We don't know much about humans. For all, we know he's a being of Anti-Magic or he works for Eris!" Twilight told her in an annoyed tone. "Oh come on Twilight! Eris is turned to a stone again and it’s not like she's escaping anytime soon, quit being so paranoid" Rainbow responded sounding annoyed as well. Huh, Eris is the name of the Greek Goddess of Chaos and Discord, but what really creeped me out was the fact that they said that she was turned to stone again.....the again part leads me to believe it’s not the first time. It didn't bother me that much to hear that Twilight and the others might not trust me completely. After all, I don't fully trust them either, they might be nice but they are still foreign creatures that I know little about. For now, we are just good acquaintances and nothing more, the only one I trust more than the others is Fluttershy. She took me in and let me stay in her home. I'll need to repay her for that someday. "Girls, all I ask is that you keep being cautious and be on the lookout for suspicious behavior," Twilight told them as they made sounds of agreement. At least they aren't kicking me out so that's fine, I tightly clenched my hands around the big bowl of punch I was carrying, I can't believe it just hit me now...my friends back on Earth must be worried sick about me and to be honest I'm suddenly feeling homesick. I frowned and carefully opened the door and entered while the girls looked at me in slight nervousness. I kept my frown as I placed the bowl down on the table and walked towards them and asked "Girls, is there any way to send me back to my world?" They looked at me and then at Twilight who sadly shook her head. "We don't know Kira, it's been so long since a human has been here and if you don't know how you got here then chances are we won't either but.." She told me and I walked a bit closer and held onto that but with hope. "The princesses might have a clue, perhaps they can help you!" I almost jumped for joy but I didn't because she said there is a chance they could help me so it was not 100% confirmed. I nodded "Thank you Twilight, I'll be sure to remember that" Thankfully the rest of the party went off without a hitch and I made an appointment with Rarity tomorrow so she could measure me and make some clothes for me. I along with Pinkie ate most of the cake and whatever sweets were present which made the others laugh. "It seems like Pinkie found a friend to enjoy sweets with her!" Said Rarity with a chuckle as I And Pinkie looked at each other and smiled. Perhaps these ponies aren't so bad once I get to fully know them but until I know for sure I'll be on my guard. I got everyone's attention and took out my phone "Hey girls take a picture with me!" They all nodded and grouped together with me before I said "Smile!" And took the picture. I was happy with how it came out and put my phone away. The rest of the activities included A Piñata, pin the tail on the donkey, etc. After a few more hours of partying, we all went to our respective homes, I of course left with Fluttershy since I'm living with her for now. Once we got home I took a quick shower after she did and told each other goodnight. I threw myself on to the bed and almost fell asleep until the knot in my stomach returned when I remembered there is a chance I can never return home. I could feel tears in the corners of my eyes but I too took a deep breath and wiped them away. I must hold on to the hope that the princesses can help me. There is always the chance that they can't and I'm mentally preparing myself for that. I grumbled and tried to fall asleep but it still took me a good while, thankfully I eventually did fall asleep. Perhaps I'll meet that smoke creature again? I guess I'm about to find out. > Meeting Equestria's Rulers > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I yelled as I awoke very startled and very frightened after having an awful nightmare. The screams, so many screams. The creature responsible was like a Vengeful God destroying everything in his path. The screams were so hard to drown out, the creature felt so familiar. This nightmare used to be very frequent when I was younger, but why is it surfacing again now? I took a shaky breath before standing up after hearing rapid footsteps coming up the stairs. Fluttershy burst into the room looking very worried "Kira! I heard you yell, are you ok?" I gave her a weak smile " It was just a nightmare, I'll be fine" "Nightmares that make you yell and wake up sweating aren't something to be ignored," she told me with a frown. When I didn't answer she crossed her arms and shook her head. "We will talk about this later, at least you being awake saves me from having to wake you up," Said Fluttershy as she walked out the door. I cocked my head to the side and asked "Huh? What for?" "To get ready to meet Celestia and Luna later this evening," She replied happily. My right eye opened widely as I heard her mention the names of Equestria's rulers. Why would they want to meet me so soon? I've only been here for two days. I groaned as I walked towards my black bag to get a very special item that I normally have on me at all times. I Unzipped one of the pockets and pulled out my lucky pendant which was a necklace with a small stone tablet that had a shining cross on the front. I was only 5 years old when it was given to me by sisters who live next door to my house. They said it would give me good luck and keep me safe. They've always been super nice to me and my Father ever since I've known them. They are a bit strange though, they tend to speak at the same time. I slowly put it around my neck as I whispered "You've always brought me good luck and I need that now more than ever" I smiled as I walked to the bathroom to get ready for the day. I just need to stay hopeful and positive and I'm sure everything will be fine...right? I Yawned loudly as I got on the train with the rest of the girls and the moment we sat down it started moving. "I can't believe that even though you guys have magic you still use steam trains like this one" "You don't have steam trains in your world?" Twilight asked me curiously. "Well, yes but they aren't our main mode of transportation anymore" Twilight chuckled and said "You humans sure are interesting" "I guess so" I replied flatly as I grabbed the pendant around my neck and held it close. "Kira? Are you alright? " Rarity asked me full of concern. "I'm just hoping the princesses can help me, don't get me wrong, you guys have been really nice to me but I miss my friends." "And I'm sure your parents miss you very much," Fluttershy told me reassuringly. I nodded I'm agreement with Fluttershy. " I know they do, heh, my sister is probably tearing up the neighborhood looking for me. Best big sister I could ask for. I miss them already" After that we had a few moments of silence with only the sound of the train not making this too awkward, after a while I noticed Twilight had been staring at my pendant the whole time. I grabbed it and said "Your staring suggests you're curious about this thing" She chuckled sheepishly and nodded "Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that a pendant?" When I nodded she looked at me strangely before she asked "How come we haven't seen you wearing that before?" "With everything that's been happening, I completely forgot about it, which is odd considering I usually wear it at all times" She then reached behind her back and pulled out that god-damned notebook along with a pen. Where does she keep getting them!? "How much sentimental value and/or religious significance does it have for you?" She asked with slight excitement in her voice as she waited for my answer. "It has a lot of sentimental value, but I don't follow this religion, It belongs to a religion called The Followers Of The Holy Moth" Fluttershy looked at me curiously before shyly asking "Holy Moth? What's that?" "Its just a title they gave their Goddess, She's also called The Goddess of happiness" As I spoke Twilight fervently wrote down everything I said. She had a glint of excitement in her eyes as she listened to me. She looked from her notepad to ask "What's the Goddesses real name?" I chuckled "Ironically her name is Mothra". "A moth Goddess named Mothra? It sounds a bit silly" Fluttershy admitted while twiddling her thumbs. Twilight nodded in agreement as she continued to write everything down. "I agree but each culture has their own beliefs, so is that your worlds religion?" I shook my head before explaining " There are a whole multitude of beliefs in my world" "I imagine its because Humanity isn't a single culture but a combination of many right?" I went wide-eyed when she successfully guessed it and I gave her a thumbs up to show she was right. I then noticed her horn gained a shimmering purple aura before that same aura wrapped itself around my pendant and started to lightly pull it towards her. My hand instantly went towards my pendant before I shouted "Hey let go of my pendant!" As I grabbed the pendant the purple aura around it fluctuated before dissipating. I growled as I stood up and looked at Twilight who went wide-eyed "I already told you It has a lot of sentimental value If you want to touch if you have to ask first!" Twilight and the others just stared at me after my sudden outburst and I looked around and saw a few ponies staring. They looked away once I glared at them. Fluttershy was the first to make a move as she got up from the spot next to Rainbow dash and moved closer to me before gently saying "Kira, I need you to calm down, sit next to me and relax" She sat down and patted the area next to her. I took a few deep breaths before crossing my arms and sitting down. "I'm sure Twilight didn't mean anything by it, right Twilight?" When I looked at her again she quickly nodded while sweating a bit. After that, the next thing I knew my head was being moved. I slowly looked up at her and She smiled widely, I couldn't help but smile back at her. I looked at Spike who had been next to Twilight the whole time and he just gave me a thumbs up before putting on a sleep mask as he took a nap. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see that it was Five Pm. The minute I put my phone in my pocket I let out a light yawn. I said "Wake me up when we get to Canterlot" "Rest now little one," She told me gently as she softly stroked my head. I could feel myself blushing again and I feel like my blush was visible through my tan skin. All I could say was "Ok, but I'm not a 'little one' I'm Seventeen". I yawned gently as I was becoming super relaxed in her presence. After just a few seconds of having my eyes closed, I could already feel myself drifting to sleep. Let's see what awaits me when I wake up. I could feel myself being gently shaken and I instantly knew it was Fluttershy so I took my head off her lap. I looked around and saw the rest of the group preparing to get off the train. I was Half-asleep so I didn't get up right away and I could once again feel myself being lightly shaken. "Kira, wakey wakey" Fluttershy gently whispered to try to get me to fully wake up. With a little grumbling, I reluctantly stood up and stretched to alleviate the tension in my body. It was nearly Seven Pm according to my phone and the night air was a little chilly as I got off the train. Although it felt pretty nice. "So I'm assuming we are going to the palace now? " I asked as I saw them get off the train. I received sounds of confirmation from all of them as we walked. I looked around and saw several ponies that looked quite fancy, I even saw two ponies who walked with their heads literally pointing up. Chuckling under my breath I noticed the pedestrian ponies were beginning to stare. Judging by their clothes I'm guessing they are rich ponies. "I hope these guys don't start bothering me." Thankfully all I got was a few stares of disgust and the walk to the castle was uneventful. Once we arrived at the drawbridge that leads to the castle, I whistled as I admired the outside of the castle. I looked forward at took notice of two white Pegasi in full body armor and wearing what looked like Roman helmets. As I approached one of them looked at me and asked "Are you the human known as Kira?" "No I'm the pokemon trainer Ass Ketchup and I'm looking for my Deus Ex Machina Pikachu!" I joked only to get blank stares from the guards. I groaned "Yes I'm Kira" They nodded and made a motion with their head to follow them. You know, two days ago if someone said I'd be in a castle belonging to Anthropomorphic ponies, I would ask what the hell they smoked and if I could have some. It took us awhile but we eventually made it to two big blue double doors. The Guards then stood on each side before opening both doors. "The Princesses will see you now, be on your best behavior," Said the Guard on the left I didn't feel any malice when he said that. He just seemed to say it like it was a fact that needed to be followed. I merely nodded before entering along with the others. There were two things I noticed as I entered the throne room. The beautiful stained glass windows and the two tall ponies standing in front of the throne. I have to admit they both look very regal and beautiful. The Dresses they are wearing hug their figures well. As I got closer I started noticing the distinct features on both of them. One of them was that they had both wings and a horn, their manes, and tails seemed to be flowing in an invisible breeze, They also had much longer horns than any Unicorn I've seen, every other unicorns horn is small compared to theirs. Their wings seemed much bigger too, more proportionate. The Alabaster mare in the white dress with golden regalia spoke first "Greetings, you must be Kira, I am Princess Celestia and this is my sister, Luna" She then gestured towards the Dark blue pony who was in a dress that was a lighter shade of blue. Even though I knew I was in the presence of royalty, part of me couldn't resist only saying "What up" Twilights response was to lightly hit the back of my head and look at me sternly while Rainbow chuckled quietly behind her. I quietly groaned before bowing and saying "My apologies" They chuckled softly before making me stand upright "Its quite alright little one" I turned to Luna and said "So I hear you're the princess of the night and you're a sister is the princess of the sun" "Yes, what of it?" Luna asked me in a soft voice "Nothing, I just wanted to say I think that's super rad, in my world we don't really have anything like that" I started to look at the stained glass windows out of curiosity as I'm known to have my focus shift around constantly. After looking around I noticed one in particular that caught my attention. I began walking closer so I could observe it closely. It was a strange creature hovering over the three pony races with puppet strings on each one. I could tell it was female because of the depiction of two round objects on its chest. It looks like it might have been a chimera because of the various animal body parts, but I somehow knew that wasn't what it was called. She looked so familiar like I've met her before. At some point I could have sworn I heard a feminine giggle and it sounded like it came from the stained glass window. Without actually putting any thought into my words I whispered "Eris" A tap to my right shoulder took me out of my trance. I turned and noticed it was Celestia who tapped me. "Does this particular stained glass window catch your interest?" I nodded and turned to it once more "May I ask what it's about?" "It represents how the previous ruler Eris, kept the ponies of Equestria in a state of misery and unhappiness." She explained and I then turned my head to look at two other windows with Eris in them, but in these, she was getting attacked By Celestia and her sister or Twilight and her friends. I don't know why, but my heart ached a little at seeing that happen, I looked Celestia and suddenly I was filled with a little confidence. "Celestia, why was I called here?" I asked rather bluntly. "You were called cause we simply desire to know you better and to discuss the possibility of sending you home" I nodded and walked back to the ponies who brought me here. I suddenly felt a bit dizzy and had a slight headache once I looked away from the stained glass windows. What was the hell going on? I shook my head once and it quickly went away. Before I could say anything my stomach growled rather loudly signifying I was hungry. I stood there frozen while Pinkie and Rainbow Dash started laughing. Even the princesses started laughing. I grumbled and crossed my arms. So what if my stomach growled? I'm hungry! "Well it seems like our friend here is hungry, shall we get something to eat?" Luna proposed to which the ponies agreed to. "Follow me then," Luna told us as we began walking behind her. I stopped Midway and looked at the stained window depicting Eris being cruel. "How the hell did I know your name?" I thought as I resumed walking. I sat in my chair quietly as everyone else was talking amongst themselves. I was too deep in thought to pay them any mind. Spike was sitting on my left while Fluttershy was sitting on my right. Strange things have been happening to me ever since I got here. First, the name Equestria sounds familiar, the bruises and cuts disappearing and now I instantly know the name of someone I've never met. What the fuck is going on. I was instantly brought out of my thoughts as I smelled our food coming this way. I grinned and luckily didn't drool once I saw my order coming. It was a plate of Spaghetti with tomato sauce and some other stuff I can't bother to remember. Its food and that's all that matters to me. I waited until everyone had their food too before I started eating it. I moaned as it tasted so good!. In no time the food was gone and I internally cried since I was still hungry. As if reading my mind Celestia said: "Kira if you're still hungry you can ask for more, eat till your full!" "Really? Thanks!" I replied with a big smile. "On a side note, how old are you?" I asked innocently "Can't believe she's more than one thousand years old and still looking young" I mumbled as I lay in bed in pajamas provided to me by the princesses, unfortunately since they don't know my underwear size I'm currently going commando. I patted my full belly and sighed blissfully, I can't believe I ate 3 whole plates. Everyone else was pretty surprised too. I looked at my phone to see that its 10:00. I felt a little anxious because Celestia and Luna said they were going to leave discussing the idea of being able to send me home for tomorrow. Speaking of home, I told Twilight more wonders of the human world at dinner. I swear she gets as excited as Grand Zeno in the universe survival tournament whenever I mention stuff from my home. Just as I was about to fall asleep I felt a presence and sat up before looking around the room. When I didn't see anybody I shrugged and laid back down on the bed. Maybe it was just my imagination. I don't know why but my thoughts instantly went to my family. I could feel myself slightly tearing up at the thought of never seeing them again. I mean sure we have our differences, but I love them with all my heart and they've always been there for me even when I've been extremely stubborn and hard headed. I shook those thoughts away and wiped the tears away and tried to focus on sleeping and eventually, it paid off. I opened up my right eye and once again found myself in the same endless open field that I dreamt of the first night I arrived. I looked around, but I did not spot the cloaked stranger that was here before. With nothing else to do, I walked and walked for what felt like ages. I eventually spotted a big tree in the distance and cocked my head to side wondering why there is a tree here. I was about to walk again, but then remembered I was in a dream. I grinned before tensing up my muscles and jumping forward. In less than a few seconds the tree was in front of me. "Heh, cool," I said to myself before spotting a chest at the base of the tree. I reached out to grab it only to have a headache stop me from getting to it. The whole world seemed to shake as my headache intensified. What scared me the most was that after the pain reached a certain point I spoke in the same voice as the cloaked stranger, except this time it was full of authority and power. "Get out of my head! Get out, Get out! " I yelled as the world around me distorted as I felt like something was trying to cram itself into my skull. I noticed a glow coming from my chest and noticed it was my pendant. The more the pain increased the brighter the pendant glowed. I growled and yelled "I said GET OOOUUUUT!" as the pendant shone extremely bright and I saw something before everything went white. I woke up gasping for breath and sweating profusely. I groaned loudly and just stayed there on the edge of the bed and it felt like time was moving slower than normal. I sighed and thought about what I saw before everything went white. I honestly don't know what I saw, I saw a figure, but I couldn't fully make it out. I shook my head and laid down, hopefully, I won't have the same dream again. > Things Keep Getting Weirder > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I instantly awoke when I heard knocking on the door to the room. I rubbed my temples as I still had a dull headache from last night. It took me quite a while to fall back asleep once I had calmed down a little. I groaned and put a pillow over my head as the knocking resumed when I didn't answer. "Go away please!" I said a little loudly as lifted the pillow off of my face. I perked up a bit when the pony on the other side spoke and it was Fluttershy. "I-I just came to tell you to come out since we are all having breakfast soon." I got up from my bed and walked slowly to the door before opening it. Fluttershy was already fully dressed, well she can't blame me for not being in day clothes considering I don't have any left, at least none that are clean. "Alright, I could do with some breakfast, lead the way" A few minutes into our walk Fluttershy decided to ask me a question "Are you ok? You don't look like you slept well" I sighed and shook my head at what she said. " Not the best sleep I've have, but not the worst either. I had a dream that was pretty weird and I had a hard time going back to sleep afterwards" "What was so weird about it?" "Well I was in an endless open field and I wandered around, found a tree and some sort of chest and then it felt like something was trying to jam itself into my head." She lightly gasped and walked closer to inspect my head for any injuries. There she goes again, she's showing genuine concern for me. It's cute how she worries about me. I moved her hands away from my head while lightly smiling. "Fluttershy I'm fine, It was just a dream," I said to her reassuringly. "I still had to make sure you were ok" "That's sweet of you, but I can assure you that I am fine" She stared at me for a bit before sighing "Well if you say so, I just worry about you, you're young and this whole situation must be confusing," I raised my eyebrows and said, " Uh, excuse me, I'm seventeen and that's not that young," "Maybe so, but you're still not an adult yet," She told me crossing her arms. I grumbled while looking away as I knew she was right. "Oh yeah that reminds me, Rarity told me to tell you to talk to her about your clothes as she could not do it yesterday because of the sudden summons from the Princesses," Fluttershy told me as we neared the dining room. "A'ight will do," I responded as I saw the other girls and the princesses who were already seated. I sat down next to Spike since Fluttershy decided to sit between Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash and the only chair left was next to Spike. I fist bumped Spike the moment I sat down. Once I sat down I heard Celestia say " Good morning, sleep well?" "Aside from a weird dream, I slept ok." Luna looked at me a tad strangely and asked, "Pray tell, what was it about?" The look she was giving unnerved me quite a bit. Why was she looking at me like that? "I saw a tree, went to it, tried to touch a treasure chest, suddenly had a really painful headache and I woke up." Her gaze softened once I finished talking about my dream "I see, nothing else happened?" I shook my head and she gave me that strange look again, she only stopped when her sister asked me a question. "So Kira, tell us about yourself, we hardly know anything about you." "Alright, my full name is Kira Aoki and before I got here I was being raised by my Parents Asuza and Kazuma, alongside my sister Kichi. My mom is sometimes busy with her biology research but she makes time for us all" Twilight turned her head to look at me the moment I mentioned my Mom was a researcher. "Wait, your Mom is a scientist?" She asked me with excitement very evident in her voice. I nodded before she seemingly popped out of existence with a flash of light and appeared by my side which startled me enough for me to fall out of my chair. "You can effing teleport!?" I asked in shock as I got up and sat back down while glaring at her. "Sorry for startling you, I was just excited once you said, you live with a scientist!" I nodded in confirmation to her question and said "Yeah, She studies all kinds of things" Before Twilight could ask anything else, Celestia cleared her throat and motioned for Twilight to sit down, "Now Twilight, you may ask more about that later, please sit down" Twilight started stammering nervously once Celestia told her to sit, "B-B-But-" I tapped Twilight to get her attention before I said "Twilight I'll answer your questions later, ok?" She perked up once I said that and happily sat back down in her seat, Celestia then asked me another question. "So what exactly were you doing before you suddenly arrived here?" "I was preparing for a sleepover with a few friends and next thing I knew, I was here." "Ok, was anything weird happening in your world that you think might have caused you to end up here?" "Well, a new land mass did appear in the coral sea a few weeks before I arrived here and the weather was acting weird" "I've been told your people don't possess magic, so I assume it's not as simple as just manipulating the weather back to normal?" I nodded in confirmation to what she said. Thankfully the food arrived just as soon as our conversation ended. I could feel myself salivating at a large amount of food in front of me. Pancakes, Hash browns, sunny side up eggs and a basket of fruit. Oh yeah, I'm eating well today. "How much longer do I need to stand here?" I asked Rarity with slight annoyance as I've been standing here for almost 40 minutes with her measuring me and trying stuff on me in a room given to us by the royal tailor. "Only a few more minutes darling." "I'm calling bullshit on that." Rarity stopped before she disapprovingly said, "Kira, no need to be crass. Such language is unbecoming of a young human" "The term you're looking for is 'young man'" "Yes, a young man, it will only take a little more time, I promise we will be done soon" I reluctantly nodded as I continued standing like a lifeless mannequin. After a sudden realization, I turned my head to her and asked "Rarity?" "What is it?" "Who's paying for this?" Huh, these clothes feel good, Rarity really is a good tailor. I can't believe she made them for free. Thank God that she did, I don't have any equestrian money and it would feel wrong to let Fluttershy pay for it. Great, now I owe Rarity as well. Oh well, I'll think about that later. Right now I need to focus. I was currently in the castle garden under a tree and surrounded by bushes. I seemed far enough that nobody would bother me. There were quite a few different types of animals here, but they seem too scared to come near me. Once I was sure I was alone I pulled my pendant out. I've been getting a strange vibe from it since last night. When it glowed really bright in my dream it felt like I was being protected by something...or someone. I poked and inspected the pendant, but I couldn't see anything wrong with it. It seemed like it was just as ordinary as it always is. However, I couldn't shake the feeling that I'm missing something, Something important. This is starting to get annoying. I can't find anything wrong with it. As I was inspecting the pendant, my phone suddenly lets out a loud beep which brought me out of my thoughts. I pulled it out to see what was wrong. After giving it a look, I couldn't find anything wrong. Except for it beeping like that and all. While I was thinking about what just happened I noticed a bluejay had landed a few feet away from me. That's cool, bluejays are pretty birds. Birds are naturally skittish so I knew my chances of touching it were low. I tried approaching the bird slowly so it wouldn't be scared. Just as I reached out my hand to touch it my phone beeped loudly again and the bird flew away. "God Dammit" I muttered to myself as I checked my phone again and nothing was out of the ordinary this time either. With a frustrated sigh, I was about to put in my pocket, but then it started beeping loudly and making other weird sounds until the sounds just turned into static before stopping. After blinking several times in confusion I got out from under the tree to go back to the others. As I walked and passed by the animals. I could faintly hear the flapping of wings getting closer and closer. I turned around and saw it was just Celestia flying towards me as she gracefully landed. I gave her a polite bow before I asked "Hello Princess Celestia, what can I do for you?" "Just Celestia is fine Kira, I managed to fit some time in to talk about your 'predicament'" I felt a little nervous cause I know she's talking about me being stuck here in Equestria. I know there's a chance I could never go back home. That's honestly a little scary. "I see, thank you for telling me, so where do we go?" I asked as I got a little closer. "I was thinking we could walk and talk if that was alright with you," She asked with a smile. I nodded and we began walking together. It's kind of odd being next to a woman who is taller than me. Most other ponies I've seen have been a little shorter than me. Both Celestia and Luna seem taller than other ponies. Probably has something to do with their magic or their ages. I turned my head to face Celestia and decided to be blunt with her. Although I've been speaking bluntly with her from the start so it makes no difference. "Be honest with me Celestia, what are the chances of you being able to successfully send me back home" "I don't really know Kira, I don't know how you got here and something like this isn't really common so it's hard to say" "In other words, my chances are close to nothing" She sighed before putting a hand on my shoulder " Kira I just know there has to be a way for you to go back home, rest assured me and my sister will find it" I looked at her dead in the eyes and asked " You promise?" She hesitated before nodding and replying with " Yes, I promise" I feel like she's making a promise she's not sure can be kept. I'm honestly going to be more than a little upset if she's lying. Celestia once again grabbed my shoulder before looking me in the eye. "Kira, I can sense you're doubting me, I can understand that, but please have a little faith in us, ok?" She finished with a smile that honestly touched my heart a little. It was like a mother's smile. I nodded and she sighed in relief before saying " Good" The silence that followed after was kind of awkward so I started thinking on things to ask her. After a few minutes, I decided on asking her about the last time a human was in Equestria. "So how do you ponies know about humans anyway?I haven't seen any humans around here" "Well, you see-" Celestia was interrupted by a pegasus knight with light gray fur and deep red mane landing in front of us. Celestia smiled at the guy before saying "Oh lieutenant Skyquake, what can I do for you?" This guys name is Skyquake? It's kind of a cool name, but what's he doing here all of a sudden. Skyquake bowed respectfully to Celestia before saying " Apologies for the interruption Princess Celestia, we just received news from Princess Cadence that's for you and admittedly, I wanted to see the human for myself" He then turned to me and held out his hand " Hello there, I am lieutenant Skyquake, how are you today?" I stared at his hand for a bit and hesitantly gave him mine. He gave me a hard handshake which I returned. I scratched the back of my head as I said "Uh, I'm doing OK considering my whole situation" He nodded before giving me a friendly pat on the shoulder " Hey, if there are any ponies who can help you it's the princesses, have faith kid" Once he was done saying that he walked a few feet away and gestured Celestia over to him. Celestia bent down a little so her ear was a little closer to Skyquakes mouth. He then began whispering something to her which I could barely make sense of. I felt like it was a little rude to do this in front of me, but oh well. I silently tapped my foot impatiently as I waited for them to be done. A few words I heard caught my interest, like Sombra, Crystal heart and Crystal Empire. I have no idea what those are, but I think I should leave my questions for another time. He stepped away once he was done and stood with his hands behind his back "And that is the gist of it my princess, also one more thing-" Before he could finish his sentence Celestia interrupted him. " I know what you're going to say Skyquake, but I can handle being alone for a few minutes and I didn't want to intimidate our young friend by approaching him with a bunch of guards following me" The lieutenant sighed and ruffled his mane in frustration as he spoke, "OK I guess I can see your point about the guards intimidating Kira, but you never know what could happen" This light bickering continues on for some time with them talking about her safety before I cleared my throat loudly causing both of them to look at me. I crossed my arms and gave them a look that asked if they were done. Celestia cleared her throat as well before she began to speak, "Right, right, well if that's all Skyquake id like to get back to my conversation with Kira" "Well that's the thing princess, you have to get back today court. Something has come up that needs your attention" Celestia sighed softly before looking at me apologetically. "I'm sorry Kira, I didn't expect this to happen. We can continue this conversation another time, do you need me to escort you back?" "I'm good, pretty sure I can find my way back" "Alright, be sure to ask any castle staff for directions if you're lost" Celestia spread her beautiful white wings to fly or so I thought. She proceeded to gently hug me like a mother would hug her child. It felt kind of nice and I couldn't help but return it. Once the hug was finished she took a few steps back before taking off into the air with Skyquake, leaving me by myself. I groaned loudly and began walking back to where the others were. Admittedly I did get a little lost at first but then found my way back to the entrance. There I saw a white unicorn stallion with a light blue mane in a very fancy tuxedo looking around. Once his eyes were on me his face turned into one of disgust. Oh boy, here we go. "Ugh, I should have know you were here filthy monkey, you are a beast after all," His voice sounded very snobby, the kind that's very annoying. "Filthy monkey? Who are you? Frieza? I have a name, you dolt!" "I am Flawless White, a high ranking noble in Canterlot and above you," Dear God his voice was annoying, it doesn't help that he's full of himself too. I took a deep breath before giving this guy a fake smile. " I have an idea, how about you take your nobility and shove it waaaaaay up your ass, just jam it waaaaaaay up there sound good?" He gasped in surprise as if he wasn't expecting me to talk to him like that. His face was now a deep frown and he was glaring daggers at me. However, once he looked at my pendant his frown turned into a malicious smile causing me to go past him and into the castle halls. I didn't make it too far in before I felt his hand on my shoulder and turned me around to face him."Touch my pendant and I break whatever you use to touch it," I told him with an annoyed tone. I had my hands clenched into fists in case he tried anything. He merely smiled once more before his horn glowed a white color and that same color enveloped my pendant before it fizzled out. Flawless white looked at me surprised before trying it again a few times. On the 6th try, he growled seemingly very frustrated and he only grew angrier as I laughed at his misfortune. " I'll teach you not to laugh at me!" after saying that his right hand forcefully grabbed me by the shirt while his left headed toward my pendant..big mistake. I pushed him away hard making him hit a wall and I reared my right arm back preparing to punch his face, but before my fist connected I moved it hitting next to his head instead. I can't hurt him, well I mean I can if I wanted to but, I shouldn't because beating a pony up would give other ponies a reason to distrust me. "Ok Fucker, let's get a few things straight, one is never touch my pendant without my consent or try to steal it ever, two, I'm pretty stressed out right now because of my whole situation so don't mess with me, three, Don't boss me around" I grabbed him by the shirt with my left. Thank God I'm taller than him, it makes this whole thing more intimidating. I looked at him dead in the eyes as I continued speaking. "And Four, Pissing me off is always a mistake, now get outta here before I change my mind about not kicking your ass, I don't need the princesses on mine for beating up a pony" I moved away from him and he glared at me as he fixed his hair and tuxedo a bit before walking away grumbling. Once he was far away enough I rubbed my right hand slowly because of the pain in it. Punching that wall hurt a bit. I mean it is a stone wall after all. After a while, though I could feel the pain fading away like it was never there. While rubbing my hand I heard the sound of something hitting the floor. I looked and noticed it came from a hole in the wall. The same wall I punched. I walked towards it and put my fist in it and sure enough, it was a perfect fit. I pulled my hand out and hurriedly left wanting to get away as fast as possible, however, I barely took more than a few steps before collapsing on the floor. Try as I might I couldn't move a muscle. I could see everything turning dark before finally passing out. When I came to I was no longer in the castle, but back in the open field with the big tree. This time there was someone close to the tree, I ran to that person to see who it is and to my surprise, it was me or at least something similar to me. I looked at the guy in front of me with deep confusion. He looks just like me, except for his dark grey skin, pointy ears, and orange eyes. "Who the hell are you? Some sort of evil version of me?" He smirked before answering my question "Evil? I've been called evil in the past by your kind before. I'm more neutral than anything, with the occasional saving here and there. As for your first question, think of me as a Kira 2.0" I made a confused sound once he said Kira 2.0. "Oh really? What makes you better than me? Also, what do you mean by 'your kind'. Even if you're supposedly better than me, wouldn't you still be human?" "Well yes and no on the human question, It's a little complicated and i'd rather not get into that right now and as for being better than you, just take my word for it," His orange eyes glowed bright like a raging fire when he finished saying that and after that he turned around to walk towards the tree. Now that he was turned around I could see that he had these small spiky things coming out of his back. I only looked away when he stopped and began speaking once more. "Kira, I brought you here to tell you a few things, one of them is when the time comes don't be the hero they want, be the monster they need" I quirked my eyebrows in confusion as he said that. What does that even mean? Why would I ever need to be a monster? Regardless of what questions I had, I decided it would be best to ask them when he's done speaking. "Secondly There is an ally for you in The Everfree Forest, two actually. This 'Zecora' you heard about at dinner yesterday is one of them, you'll need her for the events that are about to unfold" "Who's the second one?" "Ask Zecora about The goddess flower and that should help you, just be careful with the corrosive sap" I just stared at him blankly when he mentioned the sap " Zecoras a zebra, why would she have corrosive sap?" "Not her, the flower is the one I'm talking about, you should be fine as long as you're careful, seriously be careful" "Why do you care? I don't even know you" "You know me more than you think you do, why the hostility? Even after I went to the trouble of giving you a gift" "What gift would that be?" "The gift of self-healing of course! I was known for having powerful regenerative capabilities back in the day. Surely you've noticed yourself healing from injuries faster than usual" I didn't believe him at first, but I eventually realized he was telling the truth. Back when I fell down the stairs, it felt like I broke my arm, but since the pain left in a few seconds I thought I just imagined it. Now I know that it did break, but to heal something like a broken arm in seconds is unheard of. Not to mention I probably broke my hand punching that wall earlier. Who is this guy and how did he give me this ability? I shook my head before getting up close and personal with him. I need to know who he is. "Ok, cut the crap just who are you?" "I have a few names, call me Gigantis for now" For some reason, I knew something was missing from that name and I automatically said " Gigantis The Fire Monster?" "Haha! Yes indeed! You're remembering things little by little, this is great! Maybe you'll even remember Rose!" Once again I automatically filled in the blanks and responded. "T-that's the name of the f-flower right?" Gigantis noticed my stuttering and looked at me in slight concern "Hey boy, don't push yourself, if you try remembering everything at once you'll hurt yourself, these things will come back in time" I nodded and sat down to ease the aching in my skull. He sat down in front of me and began to speak " I should send you back before something bad happens to you, like remembering that golden three-headed jerk or Mr shoulder crystals." Before I could ask who he was talking about he brought a clawed finger up to his mouth to tell me not to ask. " It's best you don't know about all the details, for now, you're still not ready" Wait a minute, that voice. That's the voice of the first guy I met in here. He noticed the look I was giving him and his right arm grew dark scales on it before he finger flicked my forehead sending me flying and causing my surroundings to disappear. The last thing I heard was " We will meet again soon, I'm always with ya bud. You just never knew it" When his voice faded away I was suddenly further inside the castle far from the garden. I still felt tired though. I shook my head before beginning to walk to find the girls. Even though its probably dumb to listen to Gigantis it might be worth checking out. Time to find out where Zecora lives so I can find 'Rose'. I have the feeling I'm getting involved in things that I shouldn't . Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. > The Flower And The Zebra > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- So the princesses have a statue garden, that's cool I guess. Although it's honestly kind of creepy, since some of these statues look alive. Well, it's my own fault, I was the one who decided to come here after seeing a sign that pointed to this place. "I feel like one of these might be a weeping angel" I muttered under my breath as I looked around the place. These all look pretty old, but it doesn't mean they don't look good. Some of these seem to be depicting warriors that lived centuries ago. I even found a statue showing this worlds version of a horse, it's just like an earth pony but bigger and I assume stronger judging by the muscles. He was called Black Bolt and according to the gold plate on his statue, he never lost a fight. This guy was at least 8 feet tall and built like a bodybuilder. I wouldn't want to mess with him, he looks like could snap my spine with one finger. I highly doubt one of these statues will hurt me, however, I can't shake this feeling that I'm being watched, but I can't see anybody near me, how strange. Maybe its just that Gigantis guy watching me, I wonder why he needs me to look for rose instead of doing it himself. I wish I was back home, I never had to worry about stuff like this, I guess I'll look around a little more and head back. As I began to walk I felt like I was being watched again and then heard distant giggling. I turned around to say "Whoever you are just come out, I won't hurt you," The only response I got was the gentle breeze passing through the area so I continued walking. A few seconds later a pebble hit me in the back of the head annoying me a bit and before I could do anything two more hit me again. I turned around to where the pebbles were coming from. "Stop throwing pebbles at me you-" Before it hit me I caught the pebble and threw it back as hard as I could then began walking towards the thrower while doing my best to dodge or catch any pebbles the stranger threw at me, but quite a few still managed to hit me. Once I was close enough they giggled and ran away with me close behind. I'm going to identify this pony as a mare on account of the pony having slight feminine features when I caught a glimpse of her face and she was quick because she was getting away from me and I was running as fast as I can. I could barely keep up and I'm a pretty fast runner. Now I can barely see her, at this rate I'll lose her. "Get back here!" I shouted as I chased her across the garden. We ran for a good few minutes until she teleported somewhere. I stopped after that and was about to head back before I felt a hand touch my shoulder. "Hiya! Haven't seen you around before! Shake my hand don't be rude" I sighed and grabbed the hand touching me before promptly getting zapped by a powerful joy buzzer and it actually hurt. Laughter filled the air as the pony seemed to enjoy the fact I fell for that trick. Extremely annoyed at this I grabbed her hand and took the joy buzzer before tossing it as far as I could. I turned to face the pony and came face to face with a smiling unicorn mare. I looked down and in her other hand were pebbles. She noticed I saw the pebbles and tossed them away. "Sorry, had to get your attention somehow" "You could have just said hi" Now that I look at her closely I can see that she has Heterochromia. Her right eye was a deep red while the left was a sickly yellow. Her mane was quite odd, one side was white while the other was black, and her coat was a light gray which was covered by her casual clothing consisting of a t-shirt and some shorts. I was so busy checking her out that I almost didn't see the fingers snapping in my face. Damn, I lost myself to my thoughts for a second. I hate it when that happens. Looking at her I see that she is smirking mischievously at me. It's making me slightly uncomfortable. "I know I'm good looking, but please don't ignore me when I'm speaking. So, mister human, what brings you around these parts?" "I'm just exploring a bit before I head back to my friends" "Alrighty then, mind hanging out with little ole me for a while then, if it's not too much trouble" "I would, but I really have to get back to my-" My sentence was cut short as I noticed her right hand was grabbing my pendant without permission. I gently grabbed her hand and pulled it away. "If you wanted to touch it you should have just asked miss.....what's your name?" She clasped her other hand on mine and said" Call me Pandora, how about you? What's yours?" "It's Kira" I told her before letting go of her hand, only for that hand to grab my pendant again. Is this mare for real? Unbelievable. Before I could say anything she looked at me straight in the eye and fluttered her eyelashes at me. "I'm sorry I'm just curious about this thing, please can I look at it? Pretty, pretty please?" She asked me this while giving me puppy eyes. Dammit, every guy's weakness. With a defeated sigh I motioned with my hand for her to continue. She giggled happily and continued checking it out. She seemed to be muttering something under her breath as she looked at it. The only thing I caught was her saying something about never seeing anything like this. I impatiently tapped my right foot as she started taking awhile. Her horn lit up and the polka-dotted aura it possessed began to surround my good luck charm. Unlike with Flawless, it didn't dissipate, after a few seconds, I received quite a slightly painful shock when her magic seemed to react to the pendant. My cry of pain spooked Pandora making her turn off her magic. "Oh gosh, I'm so sorry I didn't mean for that to happen," She told me apologetically as her hands let go of the charm. I groaned in slight pain and shook my head lightly before replying to her "It's alright, you didn't do it on purpose so it's fine" She sighed in relief before giving me a wide happy smile and saying "Ok, cool, also what time are you supposed to leaving here?" I scratched my head in thought before checking my phone. Thankfully it didn't do the weird noises from earlier. Ok, let's see, according to my phone we have about an hour. Holy shit I really should leave and find the others. I put my phone away and began heading back. "Well it was nice knowing you Pandora, see you la-" I was cut off by a sudden yank to the back of my shirt. I turned around and saw a grinning Pandora. "Pandora I need to leave or I'll be late!" She held out her arms toward me while wiggling her hips " C'mon give Pandora a hug before you go" My deadpan stare made her chuckle a bit. Is she for real? Really? Fine, whatever gets me away faster. "Alright, Alright I'll give you a hug" I quickly wrapped my arms around the mare intending for it to be quick, but now that she's this close I noticed something. She faintly smelled like Jasmine, it smelled nice. Inhaling it helped me relax a bit, but I was brought back to full alert when she hugged me tighter and she was lightly shaking a bit. I was about to ask her what's wrong, but she spoke first. Her voice made it sound like she was holding in the urge to cry. "You'll come back, right?" I gently put my right hand on her head and held her there while she took a few shaky breaths. This is so awkward! I just met this mare! How did this even happen? She was perfectly fine a second ago. Aw geez, I better make this quick. "Yeah, I'll come back. Don't know when, but I will, I'd like to see more of this place before Celestia and Luna actually find a way home for me" "And you'll come to see me too won't you?" "I don't see why not, where do you live?" That made her go quiet and stiffen up while she simultaneously tightened her grip around me, even more, making it a little harder to breathe. I think I might have touched a sensitive subject. The seconds it took for her to respond felt like they lasted much longer than that. "Just come back to this garden when you get the chance" "Alright, so can you let me go, please? You're squeezing me a little too hard" Pandora nodded in understanding and before she let me go she gently grabbed my face and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Ok, first I get a hug from her and now this, again, I just met her! This would have never happened back home. "That's your goodbye gift Kira, now make sure you actually come back, you hear?!" Wasn't she sad just a few moments ago? Is she bipolar or something? Ugh, I can't think about that right now, I need to go NOW! "Yeah, I'll come back at some point I promise!" I told her as I began moving quickly towards the entrance to this place. I turned my head to see her slowly waving goodbye before turning around and walking away. What a strange mare. Ok, I'm making good time. I just need to go on for a little longer. While running I couldn't help but think about what Zecora and Rose would be like. Is it racist for me to think Zecora will have an African accent? I mean she is a zebra, after all, How about Rose? What kind of flower is she? What is she like? So many things running through my mind right now. Gigantis is the one who intrigues me the most. Despite him resembling me, I can tell he's very much not human, he himself said so. Then what or who is he? Is he the one giving me strange dreams? I have questions that need to be answered! No matter what I must see Zecora, hopefully, she'll have the answers I seek. I know she lives in the Everfree forest, but I don't know where specifically. I'll have to ask the girls for her specific location. I don't think they'd suspect anything if I asked. Hopefully not because Gigantis said not to tell anyone about the 'plan', whatever that may be. Ugh, I'm too accepting of this shit. "There you are, Kira!" Said Rainbow Dash as she suddenly appeared in front of me, looking quite annoyed. "Where have you been?! We need to leave or we are going to-" she suddenly froze before squinting her eyes and coming a little closer to me. "Um, is there something on my face?" I asked her, curious about her staring. She smirked at me in a way that seemed to imply she knew something I didn't. "It's nothing, now come on!" She got up in the air and flew away very quickly creating a little wind from the speed and leaving a rainbow trail. "Oi, Speedy cloud! Wait up!" I yell at her as I sprinted at full speed to at least try to catch up, but it was a futile attempt because hot damn, she's fast, that shouldn't even be possible. No living thing outside of comic books can move that fast. I'm going to chalk that up to magic being magic. At this speed, we should get there pretty fast. That's twice I had to run after somebody today. I got to the throne room in no time at all and saw the girls waiting for me alongside the princesses. "Alright, sorry I'm late. I got kind of sidetracked" Rarity was the first one to speak to me "Kira, why is there a lipstick mark on your right cheek?" Lipstick mark? I wiped my cheek with my hand and sure enough, my hand seemed to have wiped some lipstick off. Pandora is the only one who could have done this, but I don't remember her wearing lipstick. Upon closer inspection, I can see the lipstick color is a light gray. I guess since her fur is gray the lipstick would be hard to spot. Rainbow flew over to me and put an arm around me "Look at you! You've been here a few days and you already bagged yourself a mare!" " I didn't do anything with her Rainbow, She just randomly gave me a kiss on the cheek. Anyway, we have more important things to think about, like how are we going to get the train station in time?" "Don't worry Kira, I'll handle it, everypony, huddle close to me," Said Celestia as her horn glowed and in a flash of light we were at the train station. I felt a little dizzy from the sudden change of scenery which caused me to have a slight wobble in my step. Thankfully I was able to get a hold of myself pretty quickly. "Teleporting takes some getting used to, you'll be fine," Said Twilight as she walked over to Pat me on the back before she went to give the conductor our tickets. One by one Twilight and the others entered the train with me going last. Just before I went in I gave Celestia a look that told her I was counting on her. She gave me a heartwarming smile in return before promptly teleporting back to the castle or at least I assume she went back to the castle. I quickly went inside the train so I can get to the girls. I found them right away and took my seat next to Fluttershy. I know we still have some time before the train actually starts moving, so I should use this chance to ask about Zecora. Who do I ask though? I looked at all of them one by one to see who to ask. Wait a minute, I should obviously ask Fluttershy! She lives right next to the Everfree forest. I need to play it cool though. "Kira, can I ask you something that might be a little personal?" Twilight asked me all of a sudden. Something personal? I guess I should hear her out. "Sure, what is it?" "Most of the time you wear a indifferent expression on your face. It's not like when a pony has their normal face on when not in a conversation. Your face seems entirely devoid of any and all emotion when your not doing anything and you sometimes even do it during a conversation. Even though we've seen you express emotions you seem to suppress them shortly after or at least it seems like it, why is that?" I could tell that the others wanted to know the answer to Twilight's question as well. My God why did she have to ask this now? "I don't mean anything by it, it's just the way I am and it's better this way" "How come? Bottling up emotions isn't a healthy thing to do, especially for a teen of your age" "Twilight it's just-" I sigh and rub my temples before continuing "my emotions are...fickle, I'm an explosive person underneath this indifference. I can still laugh and cry, but no matter what, my expression always becomes kind of neutral after I'm done expressing any kind of emotion" "Did you ever figure out why that happens? Perhaps you have some type of mental illness that affects your emotions" "Don't worry about it, it's not like I can't feel anything, even if everyone else thinks otherwise" "But you should probably-" "No" "But-" "No Twilight" "But-" "Stop" " I'm only trying to-" "Cease" "Kira let me fi-" "Desist" "Are you done, Kira?" "Twilight I appreciate your concern, but it's fine. I'm not going to a doctor" I told her sternly so she could stop. With a sigh Twilight finally stopped bothering me over the subject. Much to my relief, but you know what, I'll ask Fluttershy later. I decided to look out the window to see Canterlot one last time before we leave. To my surprise, I saw Pandora a few dozen feet away. She was looking right at me and was waving at me. I slowly waved back to her, which made her smile and blow me a kiss before the train rumbled and began to move away from the station. As the train got farther and farther away she became little more than a distant dot. What a strange mare, she seems nice enough I guess. I'd rest on Fluttershy's shoulder again, but I feel like I might be getting into a habit of napping too much...Aw what the hell I'll do it one more time. "Hey Fluttershy if it's not too much trouble, could I rest on your shoulder?" Fluttershy nodded and put my head on her shoulder. She's so nice to me, her kindness reminds me of someone else, not sure who. I'll try to remember later, right now I'll focus on napping. "Zecora? Yeah I know where she lives, why do you ask?" Asked Fluttershy as she was giving food to her animal friends. She has a quite a few of them, one is even a bear. I got scared at first, but he turned out to be cool. I can't believe I didn't notice the huge amounts of animals near this house till now. Ok, enough thinking about that I have to answer her question. "I'm just curious is all, can you tell me how to get there?" I hope she buys this. I need to get my questions answered and the answer might like with Zecora or Rose. She seemed satisfied with my answer and relaxed a little. "Sure I can, just remind me when I get back. I need to pick up Angel from the vet" "Angel? Is he one of your animal friends?" I asked as I saw her enter her house and come out with a small bag of bits. "Yes he's my pet rabbit, he hurt himself on the same day you arrived. He wanted to stay at the vet, but it's time for him to come home now, I'll be back soon" And just like that she starts flapping her wings and flies away leaving me frustrated. Oh well, no use in getting sore over it. I'll just wait inside and ask her when she gets back. "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa" Da fuck was that? I looked around to see if I could spot what made that noise but no dice. "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa" That wailing sounds familiar, but where is it coming from? I looked again until I settled on the entrance to the Everfree. It's coming from there, I know it. I walked slowly to the entrance as the wailing continued. Something is calling to me, I can feel it. This is probably a very stupid idea, but I'm doing it anyway. With a deep breath I moved forward into the potentially very dangerous woods. The moment I stepped inside it stopped, but the strange feeling in me did not subside so I kept going. This place is hella creepy, everything looks like it's ready to kill me at any moment. I sincerely hope I don't run into any predators if there are any in here. I mean sure I know how to hold my own in a fight but I'm not crazy enough to think I'm strong enough to kill a bear or something. I don't even have any weapons and my hands alone aren't good weapons against predators or maybe they are? I think I have enhanced strength now. I'll test it out on something that won't kill me, like a wall. I don't feel very confident just wandering around following nothing but my instincts. "A map would be nice, then at least-" without even thinking I swiftly moved to the right and narrowly avoided something that tried to attack me. I looked in front of me to see a wolf made out of wood. Honestly it looked like a wizard was bored and just stuck stuck a bunch of wood together and made this. It's glowing eyes stared directly at me as the name for this creature suddenly popped in my head, it's a timberwolf. This thing was just circling around me as if it was sizing me up. Kind of odd that it's alone, it may be made out of wood, but I'm pretty sure it would travel in a pack like a regular wolf. "Stay away from me I'm warning you" even with my warning the timberwolf continued to slowly walk around me while it growled and snarled. Why wouldn't it? It's a wild animal, it will attack me if it damn well pleases, regardless of what I say. I have to be careful, I don't want this dumb thing to kill me. I could feel the sweat starting to accumulate on my brow. I feel like any sudden moves and it will attack. I slowly began to back up so I wouldn't cause it to strike. Slowly, slowly, it's kind of working. Just have to keep this up and I'll be fine. Unfortunately I stepped on a branch and the sudden noise caused the Timberwolf to lunge at me, I ducked just in time and it landed on it's face. I took the opportunity to run away from the stupid thing. I ran towards the part of the woods I was getting the strange feeling from. Fuck, fuck, fuck, I can already hear it catching up to me, I highly doubt I can outrun it, but I'll be damned if i just sit and let kill me. Looking in front of me I saw a tree with a low hanging branch, let's see if it his works. I slid under the branch and I raised my right hand to pull it with me, once I determined the Timberwolf was close enough I released the branch and it smacked into beast so hard it exploded. I blinked a few times to make sure I was seeing this correctly. Oh, I guess I did it, I got up and dusted myself off before I started to go back on the path, I only stopped when I heard what sounded like wood rattling. I turned around and felt my heart sink, because the pile of wood was beginning to fuse back into a Timberwolf. When it fully reformed it looked at me and growled more ferociously than before. I immediately started running again. That's bullshit! How can it just reform when it wants to? C'mon Kira faster! Run faster! Your life depends on it! Miraculously I could feel myself picking up speed and my legs started to feel supercharged. I looked behind myself and found that I was leaving that wolf in the dust. "Haha! You snooze you lose- oh shit!" My taunting was interrupted as I started to fall down a slope that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, luckily I made it to the bottom with minor cuts and bruises. My heart came to a stop as I heard sliding and a thud. I didn't want to look behind me, I know what's there. Everything seemed to slow down as I saw the Timberwolf lunge at me while baring it's teeth. I don't know what came over me or how I did it, but right before the timberwolf reached me I inhaled as much air as I could and I let out what I assume to be some kind of roar "Skreeeeeooo-" the sheer force of the roar sent the timberwolf back and made it run away whimpering. "eoooooo-ack!" I gripped my throat as an intense pain spread through as I coughed a few times. My vocal cords are definitely shredded after that. Shit, this is bad, I can't call for help. I could be in big trouble. I need to hide, my healing ability should heal me soon enough, I just need to stay hidden till then. Oh great, I hear something approaching me. I tensed up as the steps stopped just next to me. "I cannot believe what I am seeing, are you a human being?" I turned to look at who was talking to me and lo and behold, it was Zecora. It had to be her, unless there are more zebras here. I tried to speak to her, but the only sound that I could produce right now was a wheeze followed by coughing. "Do not strain yourself friend, come with me, if you stay here you might meet your end" She gently pulled me to her and began helping me walk. I coughed a few more times which Zecora noticed and looked at me with concerned eyes. She pulled me closer and grabbed my left arm to pull me to my feet. We both remained silent the whole time as she walked me deeper into the woods. At least she seems nice, but how am I going to ask her anything if I can't even speak? I'll stay quiet for now, hopefully I'll heal pretty soon. I took notice of her clothing, she was wearing some type of brown top that left much of her stomach exposed and a loincloth of some sorts to cover her lower half. Doesn't cover much but it gets the job done I guess. "We are almost there, once we arrive I will heal you so this pain is not something you will have to bear" Is...is she rhyming? I could have sworn she did this earlier too. Nah, I'm probably overthinking it. This ain't a children's cartoon with rhyming characters after all. I looked up ahead saw what she was talking about, it's basically just a hollowed out tree just like Twilight's house. Except this one was kind of cooler, Zecora opened the door and led me inside. Not to be offensive, but this place looks like it belongs to a witch. She has a freaking cauldron in the center of the room for God's sake! Not to mention those weird bottles outside on the tree. There are even potions and tribal masks here too. Zecora gently moved me so I was facing her and slowly let me go. It was at this point that she looked closely at me and noticed what I was wearing around my neck. She seemed so shocked that she took a step back. "H-how do you have that? That's the symbol of Mothra!" Asked Zecora in a slightly panicked voice. Now it was my turn to be shocked, how did she know who Mothra is? The girls didn't seem to know who Mothra was, either they lied to me or something fishy is going here. I grunted in slight pain as I forced myself to speak with my semi-healed voice. "I-im l-looking f-f-for the goddess f-flower" "How-" "G-Gigantis sent me, know him?" She looked at me with wide eyes before kneeling down in front me. "I never imagined I would ever meet a human servant of the Kaijus, it is an honor to be in your presence" I coughed in response and she quickly got up as she went over to a rack full of potions and brought me one. "Here, this should help with the pain" The potion itself was a greenish color, it looks weird. It's all I have though and I'm not healing fast enough for my taste. I carefully took it from her and took off the cork at the top. Slowly but surely I began to drink it, didn't taste half bad. Once I was done I noticed my throat felt a little better, enough for me to talk without too much pain anyway. "Thank you, now, can you take me to the goddess flower?" "Forgive me, but before I can take you I need to do something" I resisted the urge to facepalm to avoid being rude. "What is it?" I asked trying my best to hide my slight anger at her for not taking me right away. "The object around your neck seems to have lost most of it's might, I will restore some of it so that it may once more shine bright" She then grabbed a huge base with what appears to be very clear water and dumped it into the cauldron. Another thing she did was pray to it while adding in other things from bottles with stuff in them that I don't recognize. Once she was done she stirred all the contents together until the liquid began to to glow very bright, it was a little blinding at first but it died down pretty fast. The next thing I knew the faint light from the cauldron floated over to me and toward my pendant. The energy slowly began to fill it up, making it glow. Once it stopped my surroundings changed into the oh so familiar place where I talk to Gigantis. "Hey there kid, how's it going? I turned my head to the left to see him right there with a slight smile, his orange eyes are still a little intimidating. "I'm fine, why do you ask?" I asked cautiously, I never know what to expect with this guy. "I need you to do something else for me" I sighed loudly at that, not this again, "Come on man, I just want to go home and not get wrapped up in more bullshit". "I'm sorry Kira but, whether you like it or not this is happening and your body is already changing to be better, faster and stronger so it will be able to use new abilities for later" "New abilities? Like what?" I asked with intrigue. I'm genuinely curious to hear what I can do. "There is one I wish I could give you, but you're not ready for it" I lightly scoffed at Gigantis for saying that "Really? Do I have to do some special training to use it?" I asked him with a mocking tone. He merely laughed and shook his head before beginning to explain "No Kira, you misunderstand I didn't mean you had to train to get this ability. I meant your body literally isn't ready for it. Your throat needs time to adjust before I can grant you my Trump card" "My throat? Is it fire breath?" I asked him earnestly. Having fire breath would be so badass! "No, something better and far more... Destructive" when he finished saying that I noticed a faint blue glow coming from his back. He seemed like he was getting ready to do some sort of attack, but instead he tensed up and got into a coughing fit. Once he got his coughing under control he cleared his throat several times before sighing. "I don't even have enough power to show you what I mean" "What would actually happen if I used it before my body could handle it?" "Your throat would burn up and then eventually liquify, you ripped apart your vocal cords trying to roar earlier so I know for a fact your body still needs time" Yeah I remember that, it hurt like a bitch, thankfully this guy gave me the power of regeneration so it's all fixed. I lightly touched my throat in memory of that pain. I wonder just how strong my regeneration is, can I heal anything or do I have a limit? "Yes Kira, your healing has it's limits" "How in the hell di-" He cut me off by placing his finger on my lips. It feels cold and rough. "I'm afraid we are once more out of time, I need to continue resting to gain my strength back, oh and take Rose with you, she'll keep you safe" "Ok, I guess" He smiled at me one last time before the area around me started disappearing along with him. I took a deep breath and was greeted to Zecora standing in front of me with a smile. "Welcome back young master" "I'm going to take the flower with me" I told her blatantly much to her surprise. "Are you sure that is wise? Those who have tried before have met quite a painful demise," said Zecora with a worried expression. I motioned for her to move closer and said " I have a feeling she'll make an exception for me, now take me to her please" Zecora shook her head, when she saw me frown she quickly began to explain " There is no need, if you posses knowledge of these creatures like I think you do then you must simply shout the Divine flowers true name" She led me outside as she took me away from her home and into a very open area which was about a hundred feet away. Alright seems simple enough, I inhaled deeply and shouted "Rose! Come out!" When I got no response I growled and tried again " Rose? Rose! Come out damnit" No response once again. I could feel myself beginning to get very frustrated " Rose! Rose! Roooooooose!" Son of a bitch she's not answering! Did I come here for nothing? She's not responding! "Rose!.....Biollante you get out here right now!" I stopped and covered my mouth and the end of my shouting. Where did the name Biollante come from? Well it doesn't matter cause it seemed to do the trick, the ground is slightly shaking. I can feel it, something is coming this way. Soon, cracks began forming in the ground in front of me. I cautiously took a step back just in case something malicious comes out. I readied myself as the cracks grew larger and larger and at last a gargantuan flower came out of the ground. It was as big as me! It's body was very thick and seemed a few feet thick with a orange glowing center. It also had a few giant leaves sticking out. Wait a minute, are those teeth?! This thing has fucking teeth at the center of it's petals! Rose does not look like how I pictured her. She was unlike any plant I've ever seen. She just stood there staring at me, as if she was sizing me up. Other than that she didn't really react. I looked over to where Zecora was, but she was gone. Great, I'm on my own now. A soft growl caught my attention and I noticed just how close Biollante had gotten to me. Her "face" was right in front of mine, I don't see any eyes so I don't know how she's seeing. Reluctantly I reached out and patted her petals, which she seemed to enjoy, she leaned into my touch making me pet her more. For a weird looking plant she's kind of cute. "You look kind of weird, but I guess you're just a big softie. How am I going to take you though?" As if on cue Biollante straightened and moved farther away. She violently shook for a few seconds before she produced a smaller, more normal Rose just above her glowing center. She made a high pitched noise and put it closer to me. "Y-you want me to take this?" I asked as I reached out my hands . Her response was nodding and getting even closer. I sighed and slowly reached for the weird thing. Once I reached it I began to pull, it took a little effort, but I was able to get it out. Once I did her whole body went stiff and released spores that went into the flower in my hand before her body fell over. Oh shit did I kill her? I move over to inspect the body to see if she's actually dead. When I touch her she feels cold and if I pet her I get no response. Oh boy, I might've actually killed her. "I'm not dead" I jumped at the sudden voice that appeared out of nowhere and looked around, but nobody was here except me. "Down here in your left hand" I look down and saw the thing I ripped out was moving slightly now. "Biollante?" I asked feeling uneasy about this I heard a laugh from the flower as I noticed it had a big green mass with roots under it, it filled up my entire palm. "Yes I'm Biollante, you may also call me Rose if you wish. It's all the same to me" "I'll call you Rose for now, so what happens next?" I asked her as I poked the the flower which made it shake and caused her to giggle. "Just take me to where your staying and plant me into the ground" "Ok then, I just need to find Zecora first" "No time, just take me back to your place" I wonder what's got her in such a hurry. "Well first of all it's not my place it's Fluttershy's, second of all I need to see if Zecora is ok" "Kira she's fine, she safely made it back to her home" Without saying a word I left in the direction leading to Zecoras house much to Roses dismay. It didn't take long and when I got there Zecora was outside with a satchel around her waist. When she noticed I was there she lightly bowed to me. "Zecora are you going somewhere?" "Yes I am, I will be gone for one week, if you need something now please speak " "Ok, please stop rhyming for a bit and answer this question. Why did you just suddenly leave?" "I am not allowed to interfere with a Kaiju judging a soul, it is blasphemous" "Blasphe-" I took a deep breathe and calmed myself, " Really? So you were just going to leave me to her mercy?" Zecora merely looked away for a and didn't respond at first. When she did speak she said, "My apologies, it is the way of the Zebra to never interfere with that sort of thing, forgive me" and with that she bent one knee and bowed with her ears against her head. I sighed loudly and patted the top of her mohawk. "No worries, it all worked out so whatever, I'll be going back now" Zecora quickly stood up and said, " Wait, let me escort you" I nodded and allowed her to take me to the entrance of the woods. The journey was boring and uneventful, when we finally arrived I bid Zecora farewell as she headed back into the forest. The moment Zecora left I got to work and looked for a place to plant Rose. I think I'll put her on the left side of the cottage under the window of the guest room. "There you go, all nice and snug" I patted the dirt as I planted her. Not too shabby. I sighed and waved her, "Get your rest, I'll talk to you when you're at full strength, I can tell you're tired" "Well yes, but can you do something for me?" "Sure, why not. I've come this far already" "Let me get a good look at you" I walked over to her and kneeled, almost falling ok my ass when she got really close all of a sudden. "...I see you" "I see you too?" I'm not entirely sure what she was talking about. "That will be all, goodnight" Before I could say anything she sunk herself till only the petals were visible, the rest of her was underground. I shrugged and started to walk back inside. Hopefully I'll get the answers I want soon I'm starting to lose my patience. > More problems > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you know what you want to feel when you wake up? Refreshed. Do you know what I feel like? Shit, and whatever is rapid tapping my face isn't making me feel better, I slowly opened my eye and saw an angry white rabbit in front of me. Oh, it's Angel, I remember seeing him yesterday after I came back from the Everfree forest. Poor Fluttershy almost had a heart attack when she learned I went to the Everfree by myself. She tried to scold me, but she needs to work on being assertive. In the end, I promised her I wouldn't go back there without one of the girls to accompany me. More rapid tapping from Angel made me groan and get my ass out of bed. Whatever this headache is, it'll fade just like the others. It just needs some time. I slowly trudged my way to the bathroom with the white rabbit right behind me. " Yeah, Yeah, I'll be right down. You don't need to stay with me" as soon as I got to the bathroom Angel was gone. I sighed and did all my necessities there. Once I was done I walked down the stairs to the kitchen where Fluttershy was waiting for me by the table and she was drinking tea with some pancakes and syrup in front of her. "Good morning, sleep well? I made you some buttermilk pancakes and I washed your clothes," Said Fluttershy in her quiet voice, it's honestly a miracle I can hear her. "Yeah I slept fine, thank you for the food," I told her as I prepared to dig into this delicious food, you know I should see if there is somewhere to work out here. I've been eating so much with no exercise and I don't want to get a belly. "Kira, about yesterday, when you were in the Everfree Forest. Did you happen to see an animal of any kind? other than that Timberwolf?" "Not really, I only ran into the Timberwolf, that's about it" "The thing is, all of Ponyville heard that roar yesterday and I couldn't identify what kind of animal it was. What I could tell was the roar we heard was the roar of a creature trying to assert dominance" "Yeah I heard the roar too, but I never saw the creature who made it" "Ok, I just wanted to ask" Fluttershy took another sip of her tea before sighing softly. "Hey, Fluttershy did you eat? I don't see a plate for you" I glanced around the kitchen to make sure I just didn't see it. "Oh, I already ate, don't worry about me" "I see, so what do you have planned for today" I took my first bite as I awaited her response. I made a face when I noticed I forgot to add the syrup to these pancakes. "Oh the usual, I'll just take care of my animal friends and do some errands, nothing special" "Well mind if I help? It doesn't feel right letting you do that by yourself while I'm here" Fluttershy seemed to think it over for a moment. "Do you want to? I mean this is what I do all the time so it's no biggie to me" "Trust me Fluttershy, if my Mama was here and I didn't do this she'd scold me into next week, but I'm also doing this to show my appreciation, let me finish eating and then I'll change and help you out ok?" I didn't even wait for her response before I began to dig into the pancakes. "My goodness, you're really hungry" Once I was finished I flashed her a grin as I got up. "Thank you Fluttershy, that was delicious, now I'll go change and be right back" "Wow that took a while, you have quite a few animals. At least they were friendly to me" "They're all sweethearts, thank you so much for helping, you didn't have to do it" I waved my hand dismissively at her. "Eh it's no biggie, as lazy as I can be it didn't feel right to just mooch of ya if I can help ya" "Well we're done for the day so what are you going to do now?" I scratched my head in thought and shrugged. "Well...is Spike free or something? I have a game with me that he might enjoy" "He's usually at Twilights library doing chores but he should be free at his time to play with you sweetie" I nodded and went back inside to get my switch, lucky for me that this house miraculously has outlets for me to plug my switch into for charging. I grabbed all the necessary items I needed before stuffing them into my bag and heading out. "I'll be back later Fluttershy, see ya" I waved at her as I began to leave, once I was at a good distance I began to look around to make sure I was heading in the right direction. "You know this place is nice at least, it'd be really bad if they were a more violent species but they're so nice and kind" Even though this place was nice I'd still rather be at home where everything makes sense to me. I wonder when I find a way back home if I could return because I certainly wouldn't mind visiting here, to be honest. "Hey, mister look out!" Shouted a voice from behind me. My body kind of reacted on its own and I sidestepped and grabbed something that was falling and a scooter hit the floor. "Wow, good reflexes!" I looked at what I caught and it appeared to be an orange pegasus child with purple hair. "Yeah no problem, what exactly happened though?" I put her down as I ask her this. "Oh, I was trying out a new trick! But it kind of went wrong, a good thing you were there though mister human sir. My name's scootaloo!" "Should you be talking to me so casually? I am a stranger after all" "Well Rainbow Dash talked about you and said you were ok, so it's no biggie" "Um ok, well I've got to get going so stay safe kid" I walked over to the scooter and picked it up, and handed it to her. "I'm guessing this is yours" She nodded and took her scooter. "Yeah it is, thank goodness it's not broken" she got on top of it and tested it out a bit. "Yup still works, well I'll see you around mister I have to go back to my friends, bye!" Before I could say anything her wings began to buzz and she zipped forward and away from me. I shrugged and continued walking to Twilight's literal treehouse, I did admittedly get a bit turned around as I looked for it. I had to stop once or twice to ask around until I finally got there. Once there I knocked on the door and it didn't take long for Spike to open it. "Oh hi Kira what brings you here" "I just came here cause I wanted to see if you wanted to hang out for a while or something. I brought a game for us to play together" "Hmmm well I would but-" Spike was interrupted by Twilight who suddenly appeared next to him "Oh, he's free to spend time with you and play! Come in come in!" Twilight more or less just pulled me inside and shut the door. Spike looked at twilight a bit confused by this. "Twilight I do still have some chores to handle" "Don't worry about it Spike, Kira is new here and is looking for a friend so it's fine" Spike Sighed and just walked over to me "Ok so how does this work?" "Well first we need some sort of surface for me to put my game on" "Would that work?" Spike pointed to the center of the room with a giant horse head on a stump with the kind of like around the middle. "Yeah that'll work" I took out my switch and turned it on, I walked towards the giant horse head as I entered the game. Once there I took out my GameCube controller adapter and my switch joy-con comfort grip. "Ok so I'm going to go where all the characters are and next I take this controller and you take the other one" I took both joycons and put them into the comfort grip and gave it to Spike, but not before saying, "Please don't break it, I can't exactly buy another one" "And now we pick a character?" Asked Spike as he looked at the controller from all angles, it's quite funny really. "Yeah just take your pick" "Whoah, how many characters are there here?" Asked Spike as he moved the cursor over the characters. "Heh don't worry about it, so take your time, I'll refrain from using my main for now" "Your what?" "The character I use the most and who I can use the best out of all these characters" I moved my cursor until it was on the assistant that came forth from the fiery depths of hell…. Isabelle. Spike began to laugh a little when he saw who I was talking about. "That's the character you use the most? She looks so helpless!" "Her slingshot has brought down entire Armies and taken down both gods and demons alike, do not underestimate her power" "Whatever you say, so who should I pick? I seriously can't decide" I looked at the screen scanning each character to see which one might fit him, in the end, I settled on Ridley, well he is kind of a dragon. "Pick this guy, his name is Ridley and he's a dragon just like you" "Are you sure he's a dragon? Yeah he has the wings of one, but he looks skinny and kind of creepy" "Well he's a Space Dragon so he's bound to look weird" Spike slowly turned his head to give me a questioning look. "He's from space?" "And a pirate, he's a Space dragon who's also a space pirate, I'll explain the history of his origins later, let's fight, and just to show you how good Isabelle is, I'm going to use her" I had a serious look on my face as I chose Isabelle, Spike isn't going to enjoy this. "Hahahahahaha, you're using a dog against a Space Dragon? You sure that's a good idea?" "Positive, now let me explain to you how this game works, and then I'll kick your butt" We've played ten times and each of those times I've three-stocked Spike, well except the first one, I went easy on him and let him get me down to one stock, and then I played without holding back and comboed him into Oblivion. I looked over at Spike with a shit-eating grin on my face. "Doggo beats Space dragon, told you she was dead" Spike seemed to be a tad frustrated as he saw Isabelle's victory screen for the tenth time "How are her ridiculous attacks so strong, she even used a broom for Celestia's sake!" "It's a game, realistically she would never be able to beat him or anybody else really, she's an assistant in her own game" "Assistant to who?" "Villager," I told Spike as my cursor was now on the aforementioned character. "He looks creepy" Spike shuddered as he looked into villagers' cold and evil eyes. "Yeah, the people of my world kept joking that he was homicidal and honestly he just might be, want to keep going?" " Yeah sure this is fun, just let me get a snack" before he could even get up, one popped into existence in front of him with a purple flash."Oh never mind, at least she gave me Rainbow bites" "Skittles" Spike looked at me inquisitively after I said that. "What are you talking about? these are Rainbow bites" "Spike I can see the candy in your hand, those are fucking Skittles, also did Twilight teleport those here?" "She did, she probably wants us to keep playing and look" Spike held out the candy and sure enough the wrapper said Rainbow bites. "Huh, ok my mistake let's just get back to playing the game" Before Spike could answer he let out a burp and the green fire that came out of his mouth appeared as a letter. "...I'm not even going to ask," I told Spike as I looked away Spike opened it but once he looked at it he handed it to me. "It's for you" I grabbed the letter from him and began to read it. "Greetings Kira, I hope you are well. Rest assured we are still looking for a way you can go home, however, there is something I think you might want to hear. Another human has appeared in Canterlot and she claims she is your best friend and has known you since childhood. Forgive me if this is sudden but I'd like you to come and meet her because I've tried convincing her to go with me but she seems to be afraid of going with me. I hope to see you soon and work this out" I stayed quiet for a bit before I looked at Spike and Twilight. "Guess I'm going back to Canterlot" > Dangerous Encounter > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Gah!" I shouted as I rolled over and got off my futon. I took a few deep calming breaths before standing up. "What a weird dream, I need to lay off the furry shit for a while." I lazily walked to the living room and looked around. "Hmmm, Mama and Mr.Kazuma seem to be out....where the hell are my pets though." I put two fingers in my mouth and whistled to attract their attention. I soon felt something on my leg and looked down to see Snowball, my white cat. "Hiiiii buddy, do you know where-" I grunted as a weight collided with me directly in the chest and I almost fell but managed to regain my balance. I look into my arms to see my pet Dodo Chicken nuggets, her pink tipped wings were flapping from her excitement. I chuckled as I pet her gently on the top of her head which made her coo softly. My cat meowed softly as if to remind me he's here too. "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you, now let's go get some breakfast." I gently put Nuggets down and walked to the kitchen with her and Snowball close behind. I got to their respective foods and put them in their bowls which they happily ate. I got myself some cereal and sat down near the kitchen island. I flinched when I saw movement out the corner of my eye but calmed down when I saw it was my sister Kichi, I tend to call her Kiki though because when I was little I could not pronounce her name properly. Her shoulder-length black hair was currently in its "bed head" state which means it hasn't been long since she woke up. "Sup Kiki." She Yawned and put her glasses on, "Morning Chuckles, how's it going?" "Had a bit of a weird dream last night, to be honest." "Really? Wanna tell me about it?" She took a few things out of the fridge so she could start cooking herself some breakfast. "Well I was in this weird place called Equestria, there were these strange horse people there and the whole thing was just super weird." Kiki snickered a little as she started cracking open some eggs and put bread in the toaster. "Heh horse people, did they just sit around and graze or something?" "Nah, they were just people. I wanted to get home, but as it turns out all I had to was wake up to get home." "That is typically how you get out of a dream" When I noticed Chicken nuggets had finished eating I patted my lap and said, "Up Up!" She made a honking noise before jumping on my lap and snuggled into me, with Snowball looking pretty jealous. "Hey you had me all to yourself yesterday, it's her turn now. We can all cuddle on the couch later." Kichi groaned and looked at me in irritation, "How many times do we gotta tell ya? Stop encouraging that bird to sit on your lap while eating in the kitchen! She'll get her feathers all over the table" I blew a raspberry at her in defiance, "you're just mad she likes me more than you." "Kira she's your pet, of course, she likes you the most" "My point still stands, ain't that right?" I gently gave her head scratches making her coo happily. "Aw, who's a pretty bird? You are! Best dodo in the world!" Kichi rolled her eyes and continued to cook, "I swear you spoil her and Snowball way too much." "They deserve it, speaking of which where are their treats?" Kichi pointed to a cabinet next to her and far away from me. Making me groan and dramatically reach with my arm, "To faaaaaar, Kiiiiiiikiiiiiiiiiii." "Get it yourself lazybones" "If only I was still dreaming I could snap my fingers and make it appear next to me." I snapped my fingers and yelled in surprise when the boxes of treats appeared out of thin air in front of me. "What the..." I reached out and grabbed them only for my hand to faze through them. "Uhhhh Kiki?" I looked over to my sister to see her standing perfectly still with the food still cooking and starting to burn. "Kiki!" I quickly put my Dodo on the floor and rushed over to her, except my hands also went right through her. I looked at my hands and began to panic a little. "What the fuck is going on!" I shouted and grabbed my head as an intense pain shot through my head for a few seconds before stopping. I felt something touch my shoulder which caused me to push it away and quickly back up to a wall. "Oh, I forgot not to surprise you like that, you'd think I'd remember from knowing you so long but whoops" I took a deep breath and looked at who was talking. It was Japanese girl with dark side-swept hair. The most surprising thing to me was that her eye color was a bright pink, it gave her a unique look. Admittedly her eyes were kind of pretty to look at. "Who....who are you?" "Who am I?" She crossed her arms and walked closer. "Really? You disappear out of nowhere, make all of us worry and you want to pretend you don't know me now?" "Listen...you, I've never met you in my life. I have no recollection of you anywhere in my memories" She groaned and stomped a foot angrily, "Oh just great, and to think I came here to help my best friend and he doesn't even remember me" "Help me? What are you talking about" "You are dreaming young Kira, I'd think the Dodo would make it obvious now that you're in a lucid state." I looked to my left to see princess Luna appear out of thin air and walk towards us. "Huh, but I do have a pet Dodo back home." The mystery girl nodded in confirmation much to Luna's confusion. "I beg your pardon? You mean to tell me the Dodo bird is not extinct in your world and they are...pets?" "They almost were, but they miraculously survived" "I see, well you seem fine at least. You fell asleep on the way to Canterlot and nobody seems able to wake you up, your sleep seems... unnatural" "Oh right, I'm guessing she's the one I came to see." I gestured over to the girl next to me before looking back at Luna. "Unnatural how?" "It's as if something forced you to sleep. Even now I feel it" her horn glowed and she began walking around. "Alright, then how do weeeeeeeeeee" I stayed on that word as the environment quickly changed into this empty and eerie environment with a water-like substance near my feet, I couldn't see a ceiling nor any walls. It was just endless in every direction. I tried walking but it didn't seem like o was going anywhere no matter how hard I tried. I kept on walking and walking but it felt like an eternity. Against my better judgment, I decided to shout into the void. "Yo! Anyone here?" I received no response, expected but still annoying. I squinted my eye as I noticed something in the distance. With nowhere else to go I went for it. I don't know how long it took me, but I eventually arrived and the next thing I knew I was on the shore of something. The sand beneath me shifted with every step I took. It looks like I was on some type of island. The sun shone brightly overhead and the path behind me was now just a vast ocean or Sea. It feels oddly familiar though like I've been here before. I went over to touch one of the trees, damn, for a dream, these feel real to me. I took a deep breath and continued onward. I have no idea where I am or where I'm going but I'd rather move than sit around and do nothing. I wonder when Luna is going to come around, she did say someone else was in here with us. I just hope they're friendly. Then there's that girl, I can't deny she seems familiar, but I can't remember her name. It's those eyes, when I looked into them I felt a sense of familiarity rush through me, her name....what's her name. I punched a tree in frustration and narrowly dodged a falling coconut. "You know what, even if I don't have a way to open you, you're coming with me coconut." I picked up the coconut in my hands and tossed it into the air now and then. "Hopefully I don't stay here long enough to paint a face on ya" No response from the coconut, how rude. I stopped in my tracks and decided to just kinda sit down for a bit, I've been walking for a while, and even though I don't feel tired I just wanna sit right now. "Any time now Luna, I'd rather be in the waking world than here, especially since I can't seem to change anything." I grunted with exertion as I closed my eyes and tried to focus, but no matter how hard I tried nothing happened. I threw the coconut in frustration only for it to fly away at high speeds because of my throw. "This is bogus, I teleported those treats earlier and now I throw a coconut at Mach speed yet I can't get back to where I was?" I fell on my back and just sighed while looking at the sky, I wonder if I can fall asleep in here and put myself in some kinda inception thing. Probably best not to do that. I jolted upright when I felt the ground shake a bit. Earthquake? No, it's not constant shaking, it's...like footsteps! I quickly stood up and looked up and around but I couldn't see what was walking about. I need to find a place to hide, I don't plan on being crushed or eaten. Even if this is a dream, considering magic and stuff is going on I have no idea if my dying here will kill me in the waking world. "Quickly! Over here!" I turned around to see a small flying creature fly away, with no other options I followed close behind as best as I could making sure not to trip or run into any trees. Before long I found a cave and quickly dove right in. I looked around for the thing that led me here but found no one until I looked down. To be honest I had no idea what I was looking at. It had a big head with big dark eyes to match, what I assume to be its ears on the side of its head. Short little arms, wings on its back, and a short little tail, this thing was only a few inches past my ankle in height. It was also covered in little scratches here and there. It was an odd combination of blue and red, it's wings, were red and so were his arms but then he was blue in various places. He had a tiny but sharp looking spike at the end of his tail. "Um, hi." "Hello, I think we are safe here." Its voice was quite high, like that of a child. I'm pretty sure this thing is a child. It sat down in what seemed like exhaustion. "Finally, friend. I been alone here so long" "Whoa whoa, slow your horses there. Who are you and how long have you been here." "I been here for many cycles of moon, I was just playing, even though it was a place my Mommy told me not to and I ended up here." "Mommy? is your mom here?" It sniffled and whimpered, that was all I need to know she wasn't here. "Mommy back home on the moon, I stuck here in the dream of a random person, being chased by meanies. All because I stole their shinies." "Shinies?" I stopped talking when I felt the footsteps even stronger this time which made the creature jump to me and cling to my shirt. "No, no hurt Hafun." I held him gently as I scooted deeper into the cave. "Uh, don't worry I gotcha bud." Ok just get deeper into the cave and hope nothing tries to come in because I can't do jack shit against a big monster. We both jumped when a giant red foot stomped near the entrance before slowly lifting and walking away. It felt like ages before we both breathed a sigh of relief when the footsteps felt far away enough. We could still feel the footsteps but it was obvious it wasn't that close anymore. We both coughed a bit since it kinda looks like he kicked up some dust. "Phew ok, so the big red thing is fair enough I think.....wait a minute now that I think about are you the one who put me to sleep?" Hafun flew from my hands and started flying in place before quickly shaking his head. " No, I stuck here, I no make you sleep" "Then who" "Ugly meanie, he tried to eat Hafun! Angry that I stole shiny!" Then seemingly out of nowhere, he materialized this small glowing ball into his hands. "Shiny! Full of mammaries!" "...do you mean memories?" "Yes! Memories of dreamer!" He paused for a second before gasping and flying closer. "You are dreamer! This yours!" I looked at the shining ball in his hands with some reluctance about touching it. "Uh, I don't know if I should touch that" Hafun did a cute little growl before chucking it at me, but I didn't feel anything hit me. Instead, I could feel it kind of just go into me which made me shudder from the odd sensation. I felt a kind of numbing sensation in my head and suddenly there was a rush of information going in my head. "I remember! that girl's name is Aika Saegusa. We've known each other since we were babies and have stuck to each other like glue ever since...damn I feel shit for not remembering her" "It's ok, ugly meanie just stole your shinies but I stole it back!" I pat him on the head much to his delight." Well thank you, Hafun I appreciate you getting my memories back, hm?" I looked down at my feet to see some weird blue smoke had accumulated across the floor of the cave. Holy crap it smelled awful too. I kicked my legs at this smoke to see if I could make it go away some but that didn't work at all. Hafun started whimpering and flying away from me. I wanted to ask him what was wrong, but I was interrupted by some odd warbling laughter coming from a few feet behind me. I was vaguely aware of Hafun telling me to look out before something punched me in the face as I was turning around. Not only did the punch hurt like a bitch it felt like somebody was using a taser on me at the same time. I was sent flying straight out of the cave and onto the hard ground. I groaned in pain while struggling to get back up, I was almost expecting to spit out a tooth from how hard I was hit, I did however spit out some blood. Hafun appeared next to me in a panic. "We have to go! He's here!" I did my best to shake off the effects of that hit before grabbing Hafun and running away as fast as I could. The monster continued to do its odd mocking laughter. I turned around to see it surrounded by the odd blue smoke, I could barely make out its shape. At least this thing seems slow, I appear to be leaving him in the dust. Thankfully there were a lot of trees around so Hopefully, I can lose him. I shouted in pain as something sharp whizzed past my face and left a burning sensation. Damnit now he's throwing shit at me! "Careful! He's throwing his claws at you!" It seems his aim is shit though as the claws he was throwing either hit a tree or hit near me, a few still hit me leaving that burning sensation behind. I was starting to slow down from the pain while the beast just kept getting closer and closer. "Put Hafun on the shoulder!" "What the hell is that supposed to do!" "Just do it!" I quickly did as I was told, I heard Hafun take a deep breath and I felt his body temperature increase drastically before I heard what sounded like him coughing something up followed by an explosion which almost made me lose my balance from the shockwave. "The hell was that!" He coughed a few times before answering me. "Fireball, now my mouth hurts, we need to hide. Ugly meanie won't stop chasing us" I immediately jumped into a particularly thick bush and stayed as quiet as I could. It didn't take long for the thing's footsteps to go right past us with the monster roaring out its frustration. I would have sighed in relief if my wrists weren't grabbed so hard that I'm pretty sure that they're going to bruise. I looked behind me to see it was a man-eater plant, are you kidding me they have these things here too? I grunted while pulling as hard as I could but this thing had a damn death grip on me. "Hafun, I could use another fireball" I whispered over to Hafun. "I'm trying" Hafun coughed several times and gagged. "I'm still learning!" He coughed one last time and a tiny fireball managed to come out and hit the plant. It shrieked in pain from being lit on fire, its grip was weakening so I started pulling again. I felt two arms grab my waist and pull, the combined pulling along with the fire made it let me go. I looked behind me to see it was Aika, who currently seemed like she was out of breath. "Geez, stop disappearing. Pretty please?" "How did you find me?" "Kira, I always find you and you always find me. It's been that way since we were kids." I nodded at what she said, "heh that's true, like that time you got lost in the water park when you were 9 and I was the first one to get to you." She smiled widely and did a little happy dance, "You remember! I knew you wouldn't forget me" "You can thank this little guy for that, say hi Hafun...Hafun?" I looked around and couldn't find him, oh shit was he taken? but he was right here! "Ugh what is that smell?" Smell? I sniffed the air and gagged. Aika was right, oh no it was the same smell from the cave. I felt myself start to sweat as I heard that same warbly mocking laughter from before. Before I knew it, I Grabbed Aika and jumped back, the sound of clothes tearing and Aikas's shout of pain meant that I didn't act quick enough to fully avoid the attack. I held Aika close to me as she whimpered a bit, I looked at her back and saw it was bleeding quite a bit. The worst part was this icky green substance on the scratch marks. Wait do I have those too? I looked at the places where the claws had dug into me earlier while I was running and sure enough, it was there too. The creature was still surrounded by that blue smoke but I could make out more features on it. Namely its three horns and what it was holding in its right hand, which was Hafun. "H-Help me!" The creature roared in anger and his arm became covered in electricity and he started shocking Hafun, making him cry out in pain. "Hey let him go!" Aika carefully moved till she was next to me, it was clear to me she was in pain, "Kira, are you sure you want to pick a fight with that" "What choice do I have? He has my friend who he'll most likely kill then come after us too" "You're shaking" I looked down at my hands to see she was right, I was scared shitless. I'm talking the talk but I don't know if I'm going to be able to walk the walk. I tried calling myself down but it was pointless. The creature seemed to notice my fear and let out that annoying laughter. It's mocking me, it knows damn well I'm afraid. Aika and I moved back a step making it move a step closer. Damn this thing wants to toy with us. It could easily kill us right now if it wanted to but it just wants to mess around. I haven't felt this afraid since the Timber wolf, hold on, that's it. Maybe I can scare it away as I did with that Timberwolf. Ok here goes, I took a deep breath and, "Rawr!" I quickly shut my mouth, that was not the sound I wanted to make at all. "What the heck are you doing?" "Trying to roar!" "The heck do you mean roar!" It was getting closer, c'mon c'mon. I kept trying and trying while we both backed up until we hit something solid. Oh, we are so fucked. It charged at us, arms extended. Time slowed down as it got closer and closer, with one last deep breath I tried again. "Skreeeooooonk!" The roar was cut short by me coughing. At least this time my throat didn't feel like it got ripped apart. It did it's job though, now it was several feet away and scared to approach. Before it could decide on what to do next a beam of light hit it square in the chest causing it to fall back and let go of Hafun. Princess Luna dropped down from the sky in full armor in front of us. "Away dream demon! We command thee to leave these children alone" She unsheathed a sword and took a battle Stance, "Don't try it" The monster growled and tried anyway. This was a blink and you miss it type thing as Luna swung her sword at incredibly high speeds and cut off the biggest horn on the front. It yelped and disappeared into its smoke which eventually just dissipated. Luna's horn glowed as she moved her head left to right. "It seems like both those things are gone, we must go quickly" "Wait don't leave me!" Hafun flew at us as fast as he could, I didn't have a chance to fully process him flying towards us before Luna engulfed us all in bright light. Hopefully, the waking world is better than what just happened here. > Best friend time > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Gah!" I winced in discomfort as I felt the sting from the injuries I received earlier. Damn so everything that happened in that dream happened in the real world too, I was right then. I looked down at my wrists to see them very bruised from when that man-eater plant grabbed me. "W-we made it" I looked to my left and saw Aika there facing me with a pained look, I quickly got off the bed and got behind her to see the scratch marks still there. "Aw geez that thing did a number on you didn't it" "Y-yeah but it could have been worse, my bestie always has my back" I couldn't help but chuckle a little at that, "probably not that best choice of word Aiks" "Most troubling, it has been a long time since we have seen a dream demon" Luna approached and also winced a bit at Aikas's injury. "You are hurt too Kira" "Don't care, I'm more worried about my friend. So you and Celestia have fought dream demons before?" "Oh" Luna shook her head before resuming, "Forgive me I sometimes revert to royal we" "It's alright, wait wheres-" "Hafun is freeeeeeeee" Hafun shot out from under the bed and flew around in circles above us. He then flew straight into me with a tiny hug. "Thank youuuuuu" he also went over to Luna to hug her too. "Oh goodness, what is this tiny creature" He wanted to go over to Aika but gasped when he saw her condition. "Hafun help!" He held his hands together and closed his eyes in concentration. His hands started producing this slimy substance which he quickly tossed over on Aika's back. Aika whined a little and the green substance slowly vanished, Hafun also tossed one my way, I reflexively raised my hand to shield myself and I could feel that burning sensation from my injuries fade away. "Hafun do good?" "Hafun do real good!" I laughed and moved around a little, still some pain but I feel much better. I looked over to Aika who was still on the Bed. "Hey, you good?" "Yeah, just gimme a second" She made a whistling sound each time she moved till she was completely out of bed. "There we go, now for huuuuuugs" She spread her arms and went for me. I laughed as I reciprocated the hug. "I've missed you, Kira" "Me too, even if I didn't remember at the time" "Hehe not like I could ever forget your ugly mug" I gasped in mock horror and stopped hugging her, "I'll have you know I am an extremely handsome human male" Aika was about to retort but Princess Luna coughed to remind us she was here, Hafun was currently sitting on her head too. "Now if you two are doing.... whatever this is I do have to inform you that your dreams will now be regularly visited by me on a nightly basis. Dream demons can be vicious things" "Uhhhh, well I am legally obligated by my lawyer to tell you that I am a teenage male so don't blame me for what you might see" Luna slowly blinked in confusion, "What nonsense are you spouting out?" "What he's trying to say is if you see something weird in his dreams don't judge him too hard because he is a hormonal teenager, also my two cents is attack any triangular dream demons with a top hats on sight" Luna sighed and rubbed her temples, "Anyway, what is this creature. He is positively adorable" I held out my hand and Hafun flew over to it with a giggle, I gently placed him on my shoulder for him to sit on before addressing Luna's question, " Well his name is Hafun, he claims to be from the moon but other than that I have no idea. What I do know is he seems sweet enough and wants to genuinely help. At least so far, you're not secretly going to betray us are you?" Hafun shook his head, "No! Mama would be mad at me for doing that" He was cut off by a yawn from Luna, she rubbed her eyes with a small groan, "Forgive us, we are tired. We are usually asleep at this hour" "You're doing it again" "Apologies, I'll be going. If this creature is truly from the moon then I might be able to return him to his mother, but for now, I must go and rest. I recommend you two go see one of our medics for those wounds. The guards can tell you where some of them are" Luna let out one last yawn before teleporting away. "Aw man I got blood all over this nice bed" "Don't worry about it Aiky wiky" Hearing caused her to giggle, "I haven't heard that nickname in forever, anything else you remember?" "Wanna do our secret handshake?" "Oh hell yeah" Aika got closer and we started, We first do a spartan handshake, then we let go and bump each other's elbows on both arms, I grab her left hand put it high over her head and she does a little spin then we both stomp our feet and yell hoorah. The three of us were laughing by the end of it. "That's was fun, let's get out of here" "Ok, last one there is a rotten egg!" Before I could say anything Aika was already out of the room. "Oi stupid wait up!" "Gosh darn it where did she go" I even passed by a few guards who I asked if they'd seen another human, some of them hadn't seen her but the few that did point in the direction she left in. "I can't believe that girl, running off like that" I should have expected that, she's always been a bit silly. Although to be fair my memory of her wasn't really with me till now. Hafun bounced off my shoulder and started to fly next to me, "So you know girl since small?" "Mhm, since we were born. I'm only seven days older than her. Speaking of which, how old are you Hafun" "I...don't know. you all measure time weird" "Hmm, fair enough I guess" I stopped in my tracks and decided to take a deep breath. Come on concentrate, I know Aika, where could she be? we've always had a knack for being able to find each other, I just have to trust my instincts. "You know what? I'm going the wrong way" "How do you know?" "I just do, now follow me" I turned around with Hafun close behind. "Sooooo Hafun, what's your mom like?" "Mama is super pretty and strong! She also has lots of hair!" "Hair?" I gave him a quick sideways glance. "My hair, not coming yet. Maybe because of Daddy, he has no hair but is big and strong. He taught Hafun to breathe fire" "And who taught you the healing goop?" "Mama, Daddy fights, and Mama heals" "I guess that makes sense" I stopped walking and held my hand up for Hafun to do the same. "Aika is just around the corner, I can feel it" And just like I said, Aika quickly came into view from the end of the hallway where she was waving at me....then running at me at full speed. "Yo yo yo wait!" I sidestepped to avoid her bear hug. Well as much of a bear hug a girl who's 5'4 can give. "Hey! No avoiding hugs" "You were running full speed at me!" "Oh don't be such a baby" I just rolled my eye, though looking at her now. I realize she has an earring on her right with some ball or orb with the same symbol as my pendant inside. "Oh, I forgot I got you that for your birthday" "Hm? My earrings?" I nodded and she moved her hair to uncover her left ear and there was one there too. "I always wear these, I love them" "Oh, so the pet axolotl I got you wasn't good?" I said this with a big ass smirk since I know damn well she loves that animal. "How dare you, I love Mr. Kirby with all my heart" I put my hands in my pockets and started fake moping, "So you don't love me then?" "You're making it hard right now" "Oh woe is me, my best friend has stopped loving me, what a world" I narrowly dodged a smack on the head from her, "Ha! Too fast for ya" She pinched the bridge of her nose and started walking away while talking in Japanese. "You love me even though I'm a dummy?" I quickly followed behind with Hafun close by. She nodded and patted her right shoulder to see if Hafun would land there, which he did much to Aika's delight. "Eeeeeeee you're so cute, thank you for making us feel better and keeping this dum dum safe" Hafun stood up as straight as he could and did a cute little salute. "Hafun is here to help miss" "So cute!" She gave Hafun a few scratches on his neck making him close his eyes and his right leg started to kick. The sight of him doing that made me laugh. "So did you ask anybody where we could find the medic?" "Yes, I did, onwards!" "Hey hey" I grabbed her wrist to stop her from going any further. "No running off on your own" "Then hold my hand" "Excuse me?" "C'mon we used to walk holding hands all the time" "Yeah, when were kids!" "Please just one time" I groaned and looked around, then grabbed her hand. "Yay!" "You're just lucky it's hard for me to say no to you" "Gimme a million dollars!" "Don't push it" "And we are outta there!" Aika proudly proclaimed as we walked out the Castle. "Aika you're making people stare" "Oh" She looked around with a blush. "Sorry" Aika moved closed to me and stuck there until we walked out of Castle grounds. "That Celestia lady was really nice though, she even gave us some money" "I really like her flowy hair!" Chimed in Hafun "Yeah she's kinda like Equestria mom or god, whichever you want" "What do you mean" "You know how we say 'God' damnit? Well they'd put Celestia in front of it instead" I explained to her while using my fingers to make air quotations when I said God. "Ohhh, I see" "Yeah-ah! What are you doing" I felt Aika trying to suddenly climb my back. "I'm tired so carry me!" I squirmed and moved around to avoid her managing to get on. "I'm not fucking carrying you!" "But my back still hurts and you said it's a long way" "Aika I'm pretty sure the last time I carried you was when we went to Jurassic world all those years ago, Man we're lucky we weren't there for the Dinosaur break outs" Aika shook her head, "nuh uh it was when I hurt my ankle running last year, please Kira" Oh no, fuck she's doing the cutesy eyes. "Fine! I'll carry you to the station but no further" "Yay!" She hopped straight on, luckily she's not really heavy, for me anyway. "I needed a good workout anyway, haven't done any since I got here" "Well maybe there's a place we can do so in ponyville, I don't wanna lose my guns, boom!" I couldn't see behind me but judging from the lack of one of her arms on me I could tell she was flexing. I started walking at a steady pace along the road leading back to regular Canterlot. "By the way how are things back home" That made Aika go unnaturally quiet, usually she hums or at least does something for the silence. "It's a disaster, remember Emma Russell?" I quirked an eyebrow at the mention of Madison's Mom, we both know her well since we're pretty good friends with her daughter. I nodded to Aika. "She's some sort of terrorist now, releasing these things called Titans and, and then there was this loud noise like a voice, calling me and it made my head hurt" she took a deep breath and put her head on my shoulder. "I wish you had been there, you always manage to make me feel safe" Now it was my turn to be silent, I guess what she said is true. I've always been the more serious of the two of us even if on occasion I'll humor her and be silly too. Whenever she was scared or indecisive she'd come to me. Ok the mood is getting too gloomy for my liking. "You know what let's speed this up" I started running down the way much to Aikas delight who started laughing loudly. There we go, distracted her from the sad thoughts. We got weird looks from some of the ponies but who cares, we're having fun. Aikas good at reminding me to just be a kid sometimes. "Whoa stop!" I stopped dead in my tracks nearly causing us to fall from the balance shift but I managed to steady myself. "I smell donuts, onwards noble steed" I rolled my eye and just followed wherever she told me to go until we got to a donut shop. Aika carefully got down and the three of us entered the donut shop. I guess that would be some kind of bakery. The three of us were greeted by a pretty big unicorn stallion. "Well hello there, can't say I've had creatures like you in my shop but as long as you've got the bits to pay it don't matter to me. The names Joe" "Thanks, I guess" Aika quickly pressed her face close to the glass, "ooooh, I want chocolate with sprinkles!" I looked over to Hafun, "What about you Hafun?" "What is donut? Does it taste like moon berries?" "Tell ya what I'll give you one and if you don't like it I'll eat it. Ok so that's 2 chocolate donuts with sprinkles and 4 glazed" Joe nodded and went to work, "For here or to go" "To go" Joe quickly packed up what we wanted and put in on the counter, "That'll be 20 bits" I reached into my pocket and got the necessary bits and got the food. "Thank you come again" Once we were outside we sat down at a nearby place, I gave a piece of one of the glazed to Hafun first, it still looked big in his little hands. I got another glazed while Aika got her chocolate one. Hafun quizzically looked at his donut piece before shrugging and biting into it. I could have sworn his big eyes got even bigger. "Um you good?" My answer was him viciously devouring his donut, holy fuck apparently he has some sharp looking teeth in his mouth. "More!" "Ok ok" I decided to just give him the one I was holding and he absolutely devoured that one too. I quickly pulled out the last chocolate one before Hafun dove after the other remaining donuts and quickly ate them too, he let out a tiny burp before laying back and letting out a satisfied sigh. "Donuts good" I quickly ate mine too before I got a napkin or two, "Come here bud, your face is a mess" he whined a little from me wiping his face but I eventually managed to get it clean again. "Aw how cute look at you doting on him, it's those paternal instincts of yours." "What are you talking about?" "Kira, I've seen how much kids love you an how you treat your pets. For crying out loud you rock nuggets to sleep whenever there's thunder." "She's a big baby, quite literally she's 3 feet tall and 30 pounds." "An aggressive baby too sometimes." "I think that mailman is still traumatized, what about you? You sing to your axolotl sometimes, ironically you also play genuine Kirby music to him" "I'll have you know Mr Kirby loves my singing" I leaned back and crossed my arms, "Aika did you forget that not all animals hear like us? He lives in a tank!" "Why are you two fighting?" Hafun asked us with a worried look. "We're just messing around, don't worry about it little dude" I looked up to see the sun was pretty low in the sky. "Ok we should go, hop on Aika" "Really?" "Do it before I change my mind" Aika climbed back on to my back with Hafun on her and I started running towards the train station again. We managed to get there pretty fast even if I did almost crash into a few people here and there. We got our tickets and quickly boarded. The three of us sighed as we sat down. "Man, at least I have you here for the wild ride this is going to be" "Are we Isekai protagonists now?" Asked Aika curiously "I don't think so" Aika gave me a wide smirk, "Aren't all your new friends girls?" "Ok no no no, we're not doing that heck no...also Spike is a boy" Aika laughed and playfully pushed me, "Alright alright, don't get your panties in a bunch" "Last I checked only one of us is wearing panties" "You...checked?" I instantly realized how that sounded and corrected myself, "No no wait that's not what I meant" "I'm just messing with ya, hahaha" Aika leaned over to the side and laughed, I got a glimpse of her back and went wide eyed. The top scratch mark was pretty faded and the other two looked like they were in the process of healing too. Wait, is she like me? I looked down at my wrists to see them much less bruised then when we were back at the castle. "You ok Kira?" I shook my head and turned to her. "Yeah I'm fine just tired" "Me too" She leaned on me and closed her eyes. "Night night" "Night night" Damn, today was a mess. We both almost died I just can't believe it, well it wasn't just the two of us. I looked at my lap to see Hafun curled up and asleep. At least we got a new friend out of it. I should sleep too. I'll leave to future Kira to deal with how upset Fluttershy probably is. The last thing I saw when the train started leaving was...Pandora? I rubbed my eye and looked again to see she's wasn't there. Hm, maybe I'll see her again someday. Today's not the day though.