Keeping a promise
Sunset looked back with a smile before she walked through the base of the statue. She had asked for two minutes to make sure that the room on the other side was empty of anyone per my request. Ideally, it would be the last thing said between us until we came back through the portal. I had asked for the room to be empty of anyone because I wanted to experience this new world on my own terms, without interruption or any guide. Short of an emergency I didn’t want to have to speak to someone or be spoken to. I wanted to have a pure uninterrupted first-time experience. I patiently waited for those two minutes to pass. I was sure it was going to be worth it.
Sunset had promised to take me to the world where she said she was from. My efforts prior to helping save Equestria weren’t enough alone to justify my visit. Sunset eventually had to claim that we were dating to finally get it approved. As much as I liked the idea of growing our relationship Sunset was firm on this being a one-off date. We were going to see a play was our date cover story. Princess Twilight had given us her private suite to enjoy the play from. A gesture I was quite honored to receive. We had planned to enter Equestria hours before the play to give me time to acclimate as a pony.
With those two minutes finally up it was finally time. The nervousness of going to a completely new place was starting to build as I approached. I had gone to new places before. That was normal for the child of someone in the military. However, this was different. I was going somewhere where there wouldn’t be any humans at all. I placed my hand on the surface. What was once stone felt cold and rippled while offering slight resistance to the pressure of my hand. I reflexively withdrew my hand. The portal left a tingling sensation on my hand. What was once stone now felt almost like a gelatin mix. After hesitating briefly, I pushed the building nervousness away and stepped into the portal.
What felt like an instant later I was flung some distance and came crashing to the ground. Feeling dizzy from the flight, I laid still for a moment collecting myself. As I finally came to my senses, I quickly realized that I wasn’t in my human body anymore. Things were quite different. New sensations were overwhelming me. The first of which was the smell.
The smell of old and new books dominated the room. There was an underlying smell of an open grassy field as well making for an interesting combination. I then looked around at the room I was in. It was a circular room with sturdy blue bookshelves lining the walls. The walls were separated into four sections with a purple crystalline formation separating each wall. These formations stretched to the domed blueish-purple ceiling where they met in an intricate crystalline web. Above each bookshelf was an alternating pattern of windows with wire mesh in an x-pattern and green tapestry.
There were four round wooden tables with several books on them. One table even had a few quills and ink bottles with a few blank pieces of paper. There was a mirror with an elongated horseshoe shaped frame, which I must have come through given the direction I felt myself propelled across the room and my position to the mirror. The mirror was surrounded by a contraption that I could only describe as a mess of wooden, brass and steel parts thrown together with a book that had a sun emblem on the cover sitting in what appeared to be a purposely created slot in the top. The work done looked both jury-rigged and Jerry-built.
The only entrance to the room was through double glass doors with a wire pattern similar to the windows. Above the doors was a large arrowhead shaped pane of glass. It was all surrounded by a purple crystalline structure that made a small entryway into the library room due to the fact that the doors recessed about a foot into the crystalline structure that made the doorway.
I then started to look over my new body, arms, err, well, front legs first as they were right in front of me. They were covered in fine hair that was the same color as the skin of my human body was. Where my hands and fingers were now ended in hooves. The hooves still, perplexingly, had near wrist like motion as I rolled them in front of me. I patted each leg up and down with the other. Everything felt more sensitive than it would have as a human. The level of sensitivity was amazing as I could feel the gentle breeze go through the hair on my legs if I moved them quickly enough through the air. The feeling of the wind through the hair must feel great I thought to myself. Everything also felt more powerful. My front legs alone felt more powerful than my human legs did. The knees on my rear legs were backward compared to humans. It felt extremely unnatural. My rear ankles weren’t near as flexible as my front ‘wrists’ either having very limited movement.
I then moved to my body. Everything looked as I would expect from a pony except for one strange thing. There was an image on my hip. It was a broken purple heart held together with tape. I shifted to look at my other hip and that same image was there. The only other thing to note was my dirty blond tail, which I could swish about at will, and similarly colored mane, which just ran freely however it wished. Even though I was, for all intents and purposes, naked the fine hairs all over felt more like a blanket easing the otherwise awkward naked feeling I had. That wasn’t all. I could also feel something throughout my body that focused mostly around my forehead. While I could feel it, I couldn’t find a way to manipulate it.
Giving up on trying to manipulate that sensation, I looked at Sunset in her pony form. She still looked beautiful as ever despite being in her pony body. Remarkably her mane looked exactly the same as her hair would be if she were human. I’ll have to remember to ask how that works, I thought to myself. The horn stretching out of her forehead somehow made her look even better.
Eventually focusing on her face, I noticed that she was more excited than what I was expecting her to be given the circumstances. I gave her a confused look in reply. She then used one of her hooves to point to the horn extruding from her forehead. In reaction, I quickly moved my left forehoof to my forehead, and it collided with something. Immediately intense pain originated from my forehead. I recoiled and closed my eyes as tears filled them. After a bit of time, the pain subsided. I had learned the hard way that I too had a horn as I rubbed it with my hoof as the pain waned. Sunset looked at me with an apologetic look. I gave her a smile to reassure her I was ok. I will have to come back and learn magic if what Sunset said about unicorns is true.
I should be standing on four legs, I thought to myself before I tried to stand up. With that as the focus in my mind, I slowly lifted myself up off the floor. I eventually reach a full standing position without falling, albeit on shaky legs. I looked at Sunset to see her smirking at me. I look at her perplexed and her smirk grows. I need to ask what that smirk is about when we get back. Eventually she waves a hoof at me, encouraging me to walk.
In my mind, I think of the pattern that I must walk to keep my balance. Front leg, opposite rear leg, other front leg, other rear leg. With my mind intently focusing on that, I take my first step with my left foreleg. Then my right rear hind leg, right foreleg and left hind leg. I then look at Sunset, smiling as I try to take a few more steps and proceed to fall. Sunset stifles a giggle as I slowly pick myself up.
Learning to walk again was something I was expecting to be difficult. I got to watch my dad go through physical therapy trying to learn to walk again when I was young. He had replacement hip surgery due to a battle wound, and I got him to take me to every session. Watching him struggle to learn to walk again was difficult. Watching was nothing compared to experiencing it. Knowing that I didn’t have to deal with the same pain only encouraged me to keep trying as he eventually walked again. It took me five tries and all of my attention to just take two full strides. Learning to walk again in a new way was the reason we had planned to arrive so early and with no one else around. We both agreed that I would need the practice if I wasn’t going to look like a drunk fool and I didn’t want that at all. My dad hated drunk people because they were an irresponsible mess. I didn’t want to get caught looking the part.
With more practice I managed to go further than before and eventually managed a lap of the library after over an hour of trying. I was slowly getting the hang of walking on four legs. With that lap Sunset tapped the floor getting my attention. Her horn lit with a red glow. A beautiful moderately high-pitched ringing also sounded. The handles of the door to the library glowed too and the doors swung open. Sunset encouraged me to go into the hallway with a wave of her hoof.
I stepped outside of the library into a hallway. The library was at one end of the hallway. A stairwell was at the other. The patterns I saw in the library were mostly repeated in the hallway of a crystal blue floor, royal purple walls with checkered glass doors between. There were a few new additions however. The lavender crystalline pillars now stopped at hearts at the line where the ceiling began. Something I thought was cute. The ceiling was now black instead of blue. The doorways were framed in gold and a gold strip ran head height along the walls. The stairwell was all black except for stone grey steps and gold railings. Why the railings were there made no practical sense to me as ponies didn’t have hands. The stairwell made its way into a large open area that I could only assume was the main hall. Oh, was it beautiful.
The main hall had two floors. The second floor was just paths leading to the many doorways at the second level. As a result, the amount of space in the room was enormous. The second level was also far enough up that I wasn’t sure I would survive a fall to the first. A wall bisected the first floor in the middle. It had an archway to allow someone on the first floor to pass from one side to the other. The second-floor walls were a deep blue. The first floor walls had multiple shades of purple that made up the colors of the wall. The darkest shade, I think plum, made up a tree and its leaves on the right with a dark lavender as the background. On the left were various shades of purple making up clouds of various shapes and sizes.
At the bottom of the stairs was a light plum carpet with weaving gold strands and a plum edging that went all the way to the front door. As I stepped onto the carpet, I enjoyed its soft, warm feel compared to the cold, hard floor I had been walking on. I then looked down the hallways that were to the left and right. The doors down both hallways were closed.
The archway in the middle of the room had a stone bench on each side. Hanging behind each bench was a tapestry very similar in design to the carpet. On either side of the bench was also a candle hanging from the wall. Each candle was burning and smelled like the source of the grassy field with how strong the smell was. It was nice to smell that Equestria made scented candles.
The other half of the main room was more of the purple clouds. The main door, however, was something else. Two massive golden doors with two massive purple hearts. Each heart was about a third of the way of the height of the door. Using her magic Sunset opened the door and I got to see the world of Equestria for the first time.
The smell of the air was pure, crisp and refreshing in a way nothing I had breathed before could ever compare. The surrounding area was just as beautiful. Before I could really take it in, however, Sunset cleared her throat. I looked at her and she tapped one hoof over the other in a manner in which a human would to hint at the time. She was very likely right as I had been dawdling about taking everything in as well as learning to walk. I nodded in reply and we made our way to the play.
After the play, we made our way straight back to the mirror in the library. The closer we got the more bittersweet I felt. This place was amazing. I wanted to stay, or at least visit again. When we got back to the library I headed for the table with the quills. Before I grabbed one Sunset stopped me. She pointed at the book above the mirror. I nodded realizing that the book was almost exactly like her message journal. With that reassurance in mind, we walked through the portal. Once we were back in the human world Sunset gave me her message journal and I wrote a letter to Princess Twilight.
Dear Princess Twilight,
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to visit Sunset’s home and your world. The praise she gives it doesn’t do it justice. I apologize that I requested that everyone stay away, but I wanted as pure and uninterrupted an experience as possible. With your permission I would like to have the chance to visit again so I can meet the people and see more of this wonderful place you call home.
Humbly,
Sunset’s friend
I then gave Sunset a big smile and a big thank you hug.