[1] Definitely NOT a Backstory

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Most days I just wanted to be left alone. Others? I didn't mind having a little fun with my few friends. Honestly, we grouped together as we were all being bullied. Chances of us being bullied together were slim than they are when we're alone. That, I'm grateful for.

Following my life at school, I was okay to some extent when it came to sociability. My friends and I loved it when most of us got a space at our respected colleges and in our same schedule sixth form subjects. From creative writing to media and games, we enjoyed it all. Shame we were often called nerds and geeks for our innate ability to talk in terms nobody else knew. We kinda separated for a year or so after we finished, but our bonds just brought us back together and we began to flourish as a group of kids again, but this time as teens and young adults.

Rushing through the boring parts of my life and the time I was in hospital after a not-so-severe but very painful ski trip accident, my life was fairly okay, if not for constant family bickering that always seems to end up being aimed at me.

'Cal, dinner is downstairs, can you come down please! It's your favourite! I'll feed it to Molly if you're not down here soon!'

There's my eldest sister. Ariana. She's nineteen. Molly, the youngest, is only eight. I'm Calvin, Calvin Pelton to be exact, or Cal to my family and friends. I'm also soon going to be twenty one and yet I'm still living at home!

I'm technically an only child, as both my sisters were actually adopted. Without going into too much detail, that always grossed me out, after my parents realised something had "changed" to prevent me from having more siblings. Hence why my parents chose two siblings who got adopted four years ago.

'COMING! Sorry lads, gotta dash.'

'aww man...'

'Rip you, dude!'

'Haha, bad luck!'

'..., and we just got into a game too! Damn you and your family routine Cal!'

That got a wholehearted but disappointing laugh out of me.

'I won't be on for any more tonight, you guys ready for our school trip on Tuesday?'

'You betcha!'

'cant wait!'

'I'm ready and I'm bringing my Switch!'

'Yeah! Wait your wha-?'

'Yup! I've already got my stuff sorted! Dan, did you even read the rules?'

'Bruh, I'm streaming!'

'Haha, that's great you guys! I'll be ba-'

Another yell flows up the stairs to my bedroom as I'm trying to say goodbye to them.

'Now Cal! It's getting cold and Molly might start eating it!'

'yeah, gotta dash! See you all tomorrow!'

That earned a long laugh before I shut the game down, then left the group voice chat. The six of us, well, we're a new eSports group called the "GarlicGHunters", because our entry video somehow involved a lot of garlic and a cartoon videogame that abused the player with garlic based attacks while saving the friendly vampires and really bad garlic jokes whenever we found a secret. Not one of our best moments in my opinion, but Jordan was skilled enough to make the game corny like that.

Anyway, our group consists of 6 members. A girl I once had a crush on called Rebecca who I've never had the courage of asking out, but I somehow figured out she had a crush on me without her knowing and it lead to us dating three months later, after she asked me out. Weird but true. Lucky me! Then there's my oldest friend Daniel, along with another girl called Ruebys who makes Minecraft videos and videogame lets plays on our amateur team website.

Then there's Lucas who is the teams leading secrets and Easter egg hunter and finally Jordan our local vehicle engineer and main game and website programmer. Yeah, he runs our site since we got noticed in our first win streak during some unpaid tournaments. Dan was also a small streamer with only a few people watching his streams when he joined us, so he's our go to guy for social updates and game information. We always joined him to help grow his target audiences. Overall, we've been together for the good part of almost five years now.

Anyway, snapping back to the meal from my internal monologue, dinner flies past with new, irritating and annoying dad jokes from my father and funny moments from while my mother and Ariana were out shopping. I find myself slowly packing up the essentials for my academy trip while Molly, who's very young, innocent and hyperactive, is in her vividly coloured bedroom listening to very squeaky voices on her small television while I hear the undeniable clang of spoon on bowl. Yeah, somehow my dad did something at his job and got this guy fired for not only belittling a disabled team member who'd been employed for longer than him but also for solving a crisis that almost put them out of business and got a marginal but noticeable pay rise to his promotion to co-manager of his department.

As I'm in the middle of writing a report for one of my chosen subjects on my academy course, I notice how my younger sister loves this show to the extent of watching it over and over, just like some others I regretfully watched with her and enjoyed, but the one she's watching is one I'd never heard the name of nor have I ever watched it before. It was just too childish for me.

Seeing a text on my phone, it turns out the trip was reorganised due to conflicting arrivals with another academy. I hurriedly rush downstairs to inform my parents of the news.

'Uh, mum, dad, I just got a text from Daventale Academy.'

The looks of surprise on their faces made me chuckle. My mother was the first to break the sudden silence while reaching for her phone as well.

'Oh! Well, what does it say?'

'It says "Due to unforseen circumstances, the pre-summer trip has been refunded and reallocated to begin on this coming week, not the week after." but the trip was supposed to give us time to get everything we needed and I'm still only half done with the list of necessities.'

Ari reaches over to read the text. Something seemed to click in her head that I didn't see and she just guzzles her food down and, as my plate is empty just like hers suddenly was, she drags me into my bedroom much to my embarrassment to my parents.

We've strangely had a really good sibling relationship and I've never made much of a fuss about it, but she still gets on my nerves when it gets to the point of my feeling embarrassed in front of my parents.

Over the next few days, my sister helps me with the things I'm missing, with obvious "why do I need these? Or those?" questions as she reads through my printed list. On the day of the trip, I meet with my group of friends and somehow, through word of mouth, my sister has managed to group us together at the back of the bus.

Imagine my surprise when it turns out her cousin, my step-cousin, was the daughter of the academy's headmaster, but is attending a different school to mine.

It's a small world, huh? I thought silently, as we strategized our week of summer activities around our custom dungeons and dragons game we had brought with us.

As we play a test game on the highway, with a temporary table made with legs and armrests, I'm hit with a throw of the twenty-sided die that forces my spell to cast a storm over my head and right as the number had landed, a flash of extremely bright light filled the bus followed by the immediate booming crack of thunder, making the pieces all scatter across the floor as we jumped along with the multitude of surprised voices filled the bus.

Tidying up the pieces and putting it away for later, it turns out this trip isn't going to be as sunny or as warm as we thought. Some nagging feeling in me, and somehow in Rue as well, causes us to suddenly start becoming erubescent whenever our eyes keep meeting during the rest of the trip. That's when we notice that two or so of the bullies, who have somehow been on a course that ties in with ours, are sitting ahead of us with deep glares.

After mentioning it to the rest of the group, we all audibly moan in frustration right before I noticed a missing piece of our game seems like it's just vanished from view.

For some reason the missing piece felt like it had literally disappeared, even though we'd cordoned off the floor below us with a bag to stop any from rolling away.

The strange thing about this piece? Well, without knowing it, it was also tied to my fate and what lay ahead for me.

And I hope it'll at least show up soon, when I need it most.

[2] Definitely NOT on Earth anymore...

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We've only been here for a few hours and already, one of the boys had begun heckling not just some of the other students, but my girlfriend too. I really didn't want to get into a fight regarding her, but luckily, one of the teaching assistants who travelled with us had noticed the way they were behaving and ended up reporting them to the head of the camp. I later found out two things; while staying near Ruebys that she's always preferred my nickname of Rue instead of the one everybody else give her, Ruby, and the bullies were given clean-up duty for our section of the camp.

TIme flies by and I'm sitting with Rue by the edge of our small campfire, as we both snuggle up in the cold air. While it's true that we have an actual building we're staying in, some of the quieter members of our class had suggested that to avoid being woken by the louder students late at night, the staff were able to confirm a cheaper but just as adequate form of housing for us and some students from a different class had been assigned to the outdoor outhouses.

Coincidentally, my friends and I weer all grouped outside. The teachers had spent a few hours discussing who gets paired with who so that students who would work together and also trust each other enough for personal privacy. Luckily, Rue and I were stuck together in our own outhouse. They're not very big, but they somehow feel extremely roomy. While sitting outside, I feel her snuggle closer to me.

'Hey, you okay Rue?'

'Yeah, those guys just give me the creeps everytime they look at me.'

Sitting by the fire, we scoot closely into each other as the gentle winds slowly get colder. The woods nearby giving us an open view down the mountain side into the valley that stretched almost to the horizon. If I were to describe it, it's the perfect place for a family trip or for the sales of couples, a "romantic week away". Luckily, Rue and I were definitely feeling these romantic ties as we sat there in our warm overalls staring together at the refeeding sunlight as we quietly talk about what we can see that has us so entranced.

This place only gets snowy weather if it's the right conditions, but tonight, there was another type of "right conditions" that lead to a surreal view of taller snow-topped mountains in the distance against an almost cloudless sky, bathed in a soft glow of the evening sun as it dipped off to our right. The twenty hour trip to get here from our state took us north enough to the point that if we were to take an evening tour later, the guides would take us to the summit where we could spot the Aurora Borealis.

It wasn't long before we had to head back inside to our cosy cabin and with it just being the two of us, we were definitely in a few awkward moments of teases, but the teachers allowed us to congregate separately from everyone else. Not that we were teachers pets or anything, but we were highly noticed for our talents. I worked a little in IT while studying something completely unrelated. I've been known for my prodigy-like abilities when it comes to technology, but that's just because I have a part-time job at a tech company.

IT takes us an hour to wind down and get used to our little cabin, me in my red sweater hoodie, but without a shirt underneath it because it's a little stuffy in my bedroom. It got a bit stuffier when I saw Rue dressed in a very cute, mostly pink onesie as she passed by my door. I barely caught a glimpse of it, but the characters on it felt somewhat familiar when a weird feeling came over me for a good thirty seconds or so.

'What was that all about?' I thought, then dismissing with a shake of my head.

It didn't take long for the weird feeling to return. This time, it didn't happen when Rue passed the door, in a cute outfit, but when a weird colour flashed outside my window. It wasn't long before I noticed Rue was at my door, eyes wide in surprise, after I was just staring out of the window.

'DId you see that?!'

'Yup. I sure did!'

'I wonder what it was?'

A few minutes later, we're sitting on my bed, my heartbeat racing a little at our close proximity, while we keep our eyes peeled for this weird light but just as we were on the verge of calling it a one-off, I get the same odd feeling as it flashes from further into the forest. This time accompanied with a flash of neon green that seemed to follow the flash of a multitude of different coloured lights immediately after.

'D'you think one of us, or both of us should check it out?'

I mull over the question as Rue just continues to stare at the last spot in the forest we saw the flash.

'Maybe. Best be safe and leave a detailed note just in case.'

After a few minutes of writing the note and changing into clothes meant for outdoors, I suddenly realise that we both shared the same feeling I felt just before the first flash happened. This was followed by our eyes bulging just as another flash of weird light goes off, followed by a more turquoise coloured flash.

Leaving the now finished note on the table, Rue and I were adamant to see and discover what the weird lights were. Little did we know that the rest of our friends in the hostel building were watching us sneak out past bedtime hours.

The trek into the woods went on successfully, using our joint knowledge, a phone's flashlight with a portable charger and my notebook to pinpoint where and when the three flashes occurred. The sudden appearance of another pair of flashes, but this time with a yellow second flash, caught our attention and we both ran towards it.

We weren't ready for what came next, as I ended up slipping and sliding to the point that I landed on my arse. This also slowed me down to the point that Rue didn't have time to stop either. We slid together down the hill as a large flash of silver light surrounded us, followed by a multitude of colours.

Unfortunately for both of us, this was the start of a new life neither of us were expecting.

[3] Definitely NOT the only humans.

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I awoke to a fluffy-like buzzing sensation flowing in and around my body as I feel very tired and dizzy. I bare register the noise of someone either mumbling or moaning off to my left and my initial surface thoughts of Rue bubble forth. Then worry hits in and the weird sensation relaxes a little when I sit up. It's just becoming dusk and I'm aware enough to be looking for Rue, but when I look in the direction of the moan I just heard, I realise the forest feels a little different.

'Where are we?' I thought groggily as my anxiety levels level out. 'This forest doesn't look like any I've been to before.'

*'Mmnngh'*

The moan snaps my attention back to the moment and I slowly feel around with a mild tingle of pain in my legs while in the dark but soft, orange light of the sun rising. I rummage around then as I go to stand up, I find myself falling back down in intense pain.

'Oh.. you gotta ... be kiddin' me!' I whimpered, as my left ankle shoots out another pain spike, more extreme than the last.

Looking down at the sore ankle, I almost puke at the image before me of ... well, my foot badly broken and my shin snapped in half. I'm desperately wishing that it could heal, when a thicker but not as overwhelming familiar feeling flows all around and over me exactly after I stopped wishing for the pain to go away.

A faint but noticeable noise I recognised from a few seconds ago emanated from the thick grass ahead of me, so I slowly walked and crawled my way towards it without putting too much pressure on my ankle. I don't know how, but this feeling from earlier that I'm remembering again is constantly coursing through my body as I move, forcing me to stop. The weird feeling feels like it flows strongly down my leg and towards my ankle while I feel the pain receding.

When the sensation dissipated, I find my ankle doesn't feel as sore, but by looking down towards the sore leg, I can see it just looks very bruised compared to what it was previously. But my worries are now on the focus of the voice I hear ahead of me.

Slowly getting up, I cautiously make my way over to where I last hear the noise when I hear something else rustle in the grass taller than my crawling position. I dare not make a move, as this could be a very real threat not just to me, but Rue as well. As I slowly and quietly find my way up to the edge of the long grass, I hope to find her awake and safe, only to see her unconscious and laying on her side while being nudged by a small, familiar but even scarier in person wolf-like creature made entirely of timber.

It looks more like a pup from its size and it took a few more seconds to notice a bigger one, likely a parent, sitting like I am but in shorter grass just off to my right. If I were a military compass, it would be roughly off to my two o'clock.

'How do I make it to her?'

Without knowing it, the parent creature creeped slowly out of the dark zone into the small open land before me and begins to help the oak pup with my unconscious friend. I feel a little bit petrified watching it creep across the grass slowly, but then I notice the slight limp as its read end comes into view. I took a few seconds to calm my anxiety and my nerves as I watched it get closer to her.

I don't notice at first, but I realised I've stepped out into the clearing enough that the two creatures recoil from my quiet arrival. I immediately raise my hands and stop moving or doing anything while I watch the bigger one protect the smaller one.

'It's okay, I won't hurt you. Or your pup.' I call out gently, in the hope that I'm not seen as a threat. 'I just want to see my friend.'

For a few seconds, I waited for the parent to register my words, or if it even understood my words, until it started to relax and let me get closer.

'Thank you. I might jump or move suddenly, but please don't take it personally.' I add after the shock of awkwardness wore off.

The creature seemed to acknowledge my words, responding with a curt nod after a good fifteen or so seconds before laying down, with the oak pup nestling beside it. It whimpered a little at some kind of unknown pressure on her rear-left leg. Only for me to notice the lack of wood the would be considered the area of said leg.

I frantically over to Rue as quickly as I dared without scaring the creatures. However, while in the process of turning her over, another wood creature barrels into the grassy clearing. I notice it's eyes are different to the creature before me with its oak wood pup. T

he eyes on the new, bulkier looking beast were dark green, yet behaving like a neon light, and leaving a small, wispy trail out of what I thought should be where the edges of the eyes would be. On the one I'd unintentionally bonded with, I finally noticed that it had purple neon eyes with a more dominant wispy trail coming off of the eyes.

Without thinking, I reacted a moment too soon because right as I picked up a thin but strong log-like stick, different in nature to the living wood before me, as I stupidly barrelled my way towards the green eyes one yeeling me head off. That was when, out of nowhere, I just fall awkwardly and close my eyes as the feeling of the green eyes glared into my mind before immediately . After what I think was just a very short nap, a yelp snaps me back to the world around me and a flash of wood covers my view as the pup ran in front of me. I just fell on my butt as the pup tried to protect me.

The green-eyes creature moves a little closer towards the hurt creature. I'm just sitting there, a tear in my eye as the hurt creature howls in pain as it gets bitten in the sore leg again. After a minute, the green eyed one has disappeared back into the thick forest and the purple eyed one is still here, but in a worse shape than before. The pup immediately started yelping in a very worried noise of somehow squeaky howls. I got the feeling this was a mother, as it was trying so hard to keep the pain and from worrying her pup too much.

'Oh god, she's in so much pain.' I thought, silently kicking myself for falling asleep and being useless in trying to help her.

It reminded me of Rue's condition. and I desperately wanted to help. I wished I could have helped save her, but it felt like I wasn't going to be able to do anything and I focused on the caring and emotional feelings I currently had and openly aimed them towards the hurt mother. That's when it felt like my senses open up to the world around me and I'm briefly aware of a surprised but sore yelp as I simply raise my hand up and continuously wished for her to heal.

The sensation of everything flowing around me and through me makes me extremely woozy and light-headed as a ball of white light appears from nowhere, as if it came from my raised hand. I feel an extremely tiny part of my soul flow from me to the hurt creature. The weird sensation felt mentally burning yet simultaneously soothing.

All of a sudden the burning feeling is replaced by the feeling of extreme fight or flight, yet it doesn't feel like my own. The background feelings of motherly love and a bond with the pup was followed by the feeling that instinctively knew something was helping. However, the strength of it alongside the weird, soothingly burning sensation is enough to wear me out to the point of passing out and after a few hobbling step, I fell to the floor right beside Rue.

I felt like I've been sleeping for ages, the sleepy awareness of this black void of nothing. I suddenly hear a wolf-like but recognisable female voice, followed by a weird purple crystal appearing in this void with me. It was surrounded with purple runes floating around it in front of me. I felt dreamy as I looked do to see what feels like an aura of white being surrounded by many rings of runes and numbers floating around me. I felt at ease in this dark void with the crystal and I, until my senses somehow detect something prodding at my consciousness, forcing me to wake up from this place.

The sensation of a distant thudding that isn't my own heartbeat brings me to the point that I can only hear my surroundings, when I become vaguely aware of an unusually very soft-spoken, female voice with the voices of one or two other females before losing consciousness again. All I can barely remember them saying, is the following:

" --irls? I think I found the source of the magic we sensed last week."
"Sweet Celestia! Who... or what are they?!"
"Oh dear, they're not looking so go--"

Author's Notes:

And that's where this story for Rue and Cal begins, arriving in a world that is not their own, with Cal barely conscious but unaware of the possibility that a few girls have arrived to save them.
And that's not the only surprise that's waiting in stock for them.

I hope you enjoyed the introduction of the two lead characters in this book! 😁

This was a story that I've always wanted to write about since I read my first anthro book! What do you two think of it so far?

Cal: I can't believe you're doing this.

Rue: me neither. But I love how you've captured our beginning so well. Almost like you knew what was going on around us!

I ... uh. nevermind. I just wrote what I thought was right.

Rue: When will you be telling the next part? I can't wait!

Soon young lady, real soon. And for the readers, the floating rings look a bit like this

[4] Definitely NOT panicking like crazy!

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I don't know how long I had been out for, but I was definitely in a lot of pain. Not that my physical body actually hurt, but that my mind hurt. There was a soft ringing in my ears, leading to almost no sound in my left and a quiet but faint beeping in my right. My body aches like hell and I had very incoherent thoughts passing through my head as I felt woozy and a bit dreamy as a light probed through my eyelids.

The soft voices of some others talking among themselves drifted into the room, slowly getting louder and clearer. Either the ringing is going down, or they're actually coming closer to wherever I am. I attempt to keep my eyes closed so they think I'm still unconscious.

'--ank you so much for bringing them in two days ago girls,' A woman says as I hear a slight squeal of a wheel by whatever bed I'm on. 'I don't quite know how it came to be almost comatose in the clearing from the Everfree Forest, but I'm glad the two you found are safe.'

'Thank you, Nurse Roseheart.' A soft voice says, from somewhere near the end of what I'm assuming is now a hospital bed. 'I hope they come around soon.' Another voice pipes up, with a stronger, more elegant tone to it.

'I'm glad that you kept us informed of their recovery, Darling. I'm just glad they weren't attacked by the Timberwolves.'

'Timberwolves? Wait, those were Timberwolves?!' I found myself thinking, as I felt my head clearing a little. ‘So it wasn’t just a really bad dream of Rue and I.’

After a few minutes of soft chatter with the nurse, the sound of what sounded like thick high heels appeared to call the nurse away.

The shock of being unconscious for the past two days and the relief of Ruebys being safe left me feeling conflicted between fear and relief. Unfortunately for me, my emotional confusion is the least of my problems when whatever device I'm hooked up to read out a blip in my heartbeat as it somehow blipped in sync with.

An audible and very cute 'EEP!' noise appears from the other end of the room I'm in, as the sound echoes a little. The voice of the other person let out an audible 'Oh my!' just before the same sound from earlier of heavy high heels ran out of the room along with the sense of panic I got from her.

'Oh dear,' The soft spoken girl speaks loudly, before I hear her talking to someone who I can't seem to sense. 'Rupert, can you go and tell my friends that something happened, okay?' A bird chirped from where I’m guessing is an open window. ‘Thank you, I’ll make sure to give you some extra seed for lunch tomorrow.’

The happy chirping of a bird faded as it flew away from the window, as if it was in fact responding to the girl's voice. It hadn't been even a minute before the other girl came back in with another set of the weird high heel noises.

'I know he's been out cold for the past few days, but something simply changed right after you left the room!' The lady steps closer to the machine, I'm assuming to check on some of the readings.

'Well it looks like whatever that spike in his heart rate was seems to match some of the other readings I'm seeing in other patients.' A brief moment passes before she continues, slightly agitated this time. 'It means it's a sure sign that he's either waking or has already woken up.'

The sound of the two girls suddenly understanding with a synchronised, soft and poshly accented 'Ohhhhh, okay' brought me a bit of interna joy. That didn't last very long though, as whatever they have to detect my condition without wires raises the suspicions of this "Nurse Roseheart" I keep hearing once again.

'Well I don't believe it.' The nurse says after a minute of unexpected silence, right before I feel the strong, lingering looks from the three of them gazing right at me.

'This feels a little awkward.' I thought as I slowly sat up.

Rubbing my eyes, my eyesight goes from blinding and out of focus to normal but barely focused, like when you put on a pair of reading glasses by accident, giving me a slight headache in the process. Grabbing my head from the sudden headache, I hear a rush of movement right before I feel two very soft pairs of hands grab on to me to prevent me from hitting my head.

‘Good heavens darling! Take it easy. You’ve been out for over two days already!’

I finally decided to take note of that and continued to clutch my head, even though most of the lightheadedness has gone. Looking up slowly, I noticed the nurse had left as the door to the room slowly closed, while two very well shaped girls stood on either side of me. What baffles me is how these girls have different coloured skin. And that isn’t the freakiest thing either.

Before my headache became a dull throb, the nurse who I assume is Nurse Roseheart walks over with a cup of water. But the cup was not in her hands; surrounded by a soft aura, it just floated in midair. I stared blankly at the floating object, when I felt a hand pat my back then rub it in slow and soft circles.

'Its okay, there's no need to worry.' The pink-haired, yellow skinned girl said, her gentle voice with a very calming tone to it. 'There's nothing to be afraid of.'

I don't know how she knew to rub my back, but it helped enough for me to shakily reach out for the floating cup and grab it. That was when I noticed a few things; Fluttershy had a pair of wings, each wing just a little bit longer than her own arms … and that I really needed a drink of water. Taking a few long swigs from the cup, I basically empty it in no time at all, surprising all three of them.

The looks on their faces changed to more genuine shock and surprise when my raspy and dry voice uttered the words: 'Thanks, have you got any more?'.

'EEP! Oh my!' Came from Fluttershy, who hid behind the purple haired and literally white skinned girl. I quickly noticed that their ears aren't at all human-like, but more animal-like, as the white girls point up just like a friend’s cat does. The other girl’s ears lay backwards and flat across her head in a fairly shocked or frightened position, at least I thought they looked like that.

‘Good heavens!’ Cried the white one, who’s name I haven’t actually caught yet. ‘You can talk?!’

‘Um, yeah?’ I replied back, my throat feeling sore while I spoke. ‘I’ve always been able to talk.’
I wondered if Fluttershy was just her nickname, but I quickly realised that that might not be the case when she spoke up.

‘Um, hi. I’m... fluttershy…’ Her timid behaviour just made me soften my gaze at how cute she was, right before I remembered that I have Rue. But I could barely hear what her name was.

‘What was that? I didn’t quite catch your name.’ I already knew her name, but with this reaction, I couldn’t fully understand why she was being so shy. That’s when the pun literally hit me.

‘...I’m … fluttershy…’

She just hides further behind the white lady, when I watch her hand like it’s suddenly out of focus as she gently holds her exposed arm. It took a little while, but that was when I noticed that her white arms aren’t actually skin. There’s somehow a soft layer of fur that seemed to be coating their entire bodies.

Having my thoughts annoyingly stray into ‘those’ kinds of thoughts, I quickly block the blush growing on my cheeks as I watch Fluttershy slowly come back out of hiding.

‘Fluttershy, darling. I’ll take it from here.’ The slightly pleading but kind look on Shy’s face further pushes the lady’s resolve.

‘... okay.’

‘Hello. Awfully sorry to see her like this. She’s not been like this since Twilight Sparkle showed up two years ago.’ She spoke, after stepping forward towards me during a brief pause. ‘And my name is Rarity.’

‘Who is Twilight Sparkle?’ I thought, as I reached for her hand that was already reaching out.

‘Nice to meet you Rarity. I’m Calvin, but my friends call me Cal.’

The look of surprise on her face, likely at the fact I said my name, also slightly brought out Fluttershy from behind her. But before anything else could happen, a blur of colours blasts into the room followed by a few other girls.

The one thing I noticed about this girl from the others was how her skin, sorry, her fur tone was a brilliant, vivid sky blue and her hair was shaded perfectly between five different colours, as if picked from a Rainbow.

‘What are you and why is Fluttershy so afraid of you?!’ She exclaimed loudly into my face.

‘Rainbow Dash!’ Spoke the blonde one angrily, in a thick country drawl.

‘How rude! Fluttershy is fine, darling. See? She’s right here.’ Added Rarity, flicking her hair with her hand while glaring at Rainbow Dash.

‘Sorry about that, young fella.’ The blonde said after telling Dash off for a good minute not to consistently barge into a room looking for danger.

‘No worries.’ I replied. ‘Imagine having hair that matched your own name.’ I add as an afterthought nonchalantly, but I feel myself slowly growing with anxiety on the inside at my current situation.

Hearing me talk back was probably a bit of a shocker to them, slightly excluding Rarity and Fluttershy who still reacted, but not as much. After the awkward but amusing scene of events passed, my eyes widened in fear as I clutched my head, not in pain, but out of a sudden explosion of anxiety.

The first to notice this was the most normal looking blonde girl, who’s name I haven’t learnt yet, followed by Rarity, the girl with the child-sized lizard, then the rest of them together.

‘No.. nonononono…’

I barely paid attention to the room immediately going quiet at my emtional outburst.

‘Darling? What’s wrong?’

I couldn’t focus, my mind was racing, until a strange light started appearing around my vision. I immediately recognised what I was feeling as a panic attack. I’ve had them before, but not to this extent. My senses started going haywire as I could only think of nothing.

‘--urse! We need a n--’

A brief lapse in my hearing begins as I find myself freaking out over the thought of my friends, my family and most importantly, Rue, curling up into a ball in this senseless void of nothing.

I don’t even realise my body feels like it’s back in that void-like place, as i’m crying into a floating fetal position, as I hear faint and very muffled voices from somewhere beyond this vast void ocean before they cut off entirely.

Things feel hopeless, until a warm flash of a purple-ish white glow appears close to me, with a smaller, silverish light beside it. As they were both present, I could somewhat make out snippets of sentences; ‘--u’ll be okay, just hang in th--’ followed by ‘--It’s been ov--...--inutes and he’s really strugg--’ before they cuts off again and the light dimmed a little.

After what felt like an extremely anxious length of time, with this ever present purple light in the dark, the sound of shock and surprise makes its way into this senseless void as something warm and strangely soft seems to emit a very strong compassion and caring aura that I begin to feel myself calming down and feel like I’m slowly but surely being placed on a bed, even though I’ve been curled up for ages..

‘--ood heavens! What manner of creatures is that?!’ A new voice exclaimed as the thick, furry softness enveloped me, while I could also feel a wooden-like firmness underneath the fur itself.

‘It must be a new kind of animal.’ I open my eyes to find a small pup huddled in my lap with a thin, soft white mane of fur around its neck. ‘I’ve got to take some notes on this.’

As she started rambling, I looked up and noticed a small and weirdly coloured bipedal dragon, about the height of my chest if I was to stand up. I started unconsciously moving my hand as I watched him pull out a quill and a long roll of paper to take down what she was saying.

Looking back down and tuning her voice out as she walked around me, I felt this almost overwhelming bond with the creature, to the point that I could feel its thoughts, emotions and what race it was.I had no idea what this weird feeling was, but in the midst of feeling distressed, a probing thought pushed its way into my head with the feeling of a weird, motherly hug from in my weird, void-like mindspace.

‘So, you cute thing, I think you’re called Euris, and I get the feeling you’re an Everwolf.’ I thought to myself, as a barely noticeable flash of white appeared around its neck followed by a weird but plain-looking collar that wasn’t there before.

Even though its soul had the same familiar feel it had back in the forest, as a small, living wood creature, the now more biologically correct appearance of a snowy coloured wolf. The wispy, purple glowing eyes had this strength and playfulness, but also caring and sibling-level compassion to them that calmed me down as I stroked its mane.

I felt something else from somewhere nearby, but didn’t really know how I could feel, or sense it. It was a lot stronger than it was previously, but also shared the same feeling that I think knocked me unconscious. Thinking about this lead to the Everwolf on my lap to yip twice and wag its tail, getting the attention of all the girls before jumping off and diving to the floor feet first. I couldn’t quite see what happened, but a visible flash of silver left all their eyes going wide in various ways. From Rainbow's amazement through to curiosity from Fluttershy and the smart looking girl.

‘I will say one thing,’ I thought to myself as I watch their reactions.

‘It would be a shame if this was all just a dream.’

[5] Definitely NOT an Unexpected Arrival

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I was glad enough to get permission to enter the restricted area of this supposed hospitaI I was in. I noticed the girls were all giving me cautious looks when I stood up from the hospital bed. When I took in my surroundings at the time I stood up, That was when I realised I was topless, but luckily the doctors and nurses had kept my lower clothes on.

I wasn’t ready to be, well, butt-naked in front of anyone but myself and I was grateful. The downside is that in the time I’ve been here, my stomach has turned from its usual, slightly pudgy stomach with a slightly defined six-pack, into a well-defined six-pack. And I noticed all the girls, well except Rainbow Dash, did a double take before one of them had to catch Rarity after she fainted on the spot.

Her reaction is what pursued my want to find out about Rue and so after a more formal introduction to the group of them, I finally knew all of them. In the order that we shared our names, it was Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and the last one, to my surprise was Twilight Sparkle.

After I’d asked about their appearance, Twilight immediately replied that they were a mixture of unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies. What surprised me was how they called themselves ponies, when they all looked like humans, besides their ears, tails and feet. The feet in particular, after seeing them for the first time, were the source of the constant clopping noises I was hearing.

‘Where did you say you kept Rue?’ I whispered to Twilight, after making sure that nobody was in earshot.

‘Two rooms down directly from the staircase, in the special cases area. The first room is still being decontaminated from the previous member we had in there.’ She whispered back, a weird, intense curiosity mixed with her quiet voice that I found a little bit scary.

True to her word, after being “escorted” up to the two floors above the one I’d woken up on, I was taken to the room and before my eyes, Rue was just laying there peacefully. Before I could break down into tears again, Twilight had requested that I not speak or react too emotionally in front of anyone beside her and her friends.

As was the case, I held back my emotions as I sat down by the bed, clutching her hand gently as she slumbered. Tears flowed freely as I slapped my fingers between hers. After Twilight had asked the nurses around us to leave with them, I was probably sitting there for the entire afternoon.

It wasn’t until much later when I was woken up to a ruffling of my hair. For a brief moment, I thought Rue had finally woken up too, but seeing our hands still intertwined and her looking softer and cuter than ever, I held back a strong blush I felt coming on before I looked to my left.

I was a little surprised to see Fluttershy by my side. Although, it did warm my heart a little when she jumped at my slow head turn. After her little squeal of embarrassment, she composed herself and started to rub my back, as a remnant of a few tears trailed down my face.

‘Um, you looked so peaceful when I came back here, so, um, I pulled over a chair while you were sleeping. Sorry for stroking your head, it’s a habit of mine.’ Her timid voice had an inconceivable strength to it, but was quiet and unbelievably soft and caring at the same time while I smiled back gently.

‘It’s fine.’ I replied sleepily, yawning as I finally attempted to release my grip, much to my surprise.

I say it was attempted, as I tried to release my grip as gently as possible, only for it to be resisted by her strongly interlocked fingers. Looking back at her hand, I suddenly felt a warm aura fill the room, with a weird beeping noise accompanying it, before disappearing back into a normal feeling and my hand was suddenly released from her grasp while the sound continued blaring in the background.

The surprise in my face, which I find mirrored in Fluttershy when I finally look away from Rue. The room was suddenly swarmed with at least three nurses and four doctors trying to figure out what had happened, when they saw me. Good thing we weren’t talking when they barged in.

I must have been just as weird to them as they were to me. A mixture of unicorns and earth ponies, according to what I remember Twilight described, appear and seem to be figuring out what just happened to Rue’s readings. I had no idea what the doctors were going on about, so I just sat there clueless with my heart aching for her to be okay.

Some parts I could only guess meant she was okay, but the use of other terminology flew right over my head. Words like “thaumic” and “magic” kept popping up around all of them, like it was a daily thing to worry about. I was almost about to ask what the word meant, but a strangely compelling side-stare from Fluttershy shut me up.

The strength behind the stare was incredible and I was left partially stunned by it. I couldn’t help but wonder how she’s so shy and timid, yet is able to give me a stare that nobody back on Earth could ever replicate. It’s like the stare bound chains to my limbs and strong tape across my mouth, and yet I only felt like this was just part of the strength behind it.

We sat there together, and at some point Rarity and Twilight joined us without me realising. Watching them finishing their tasks after disabling the annoying alarm, it felt kinda weird that they called the situation a false alarm. After they left, I was about to ask what that was all about, when I heard a soft moan of pain.

A weird, moving glow looked like it had started making its way around her body from under the thin sheet. The flow of the lights seemed to get the attention of the girls in the room with me. The few beads of sweat that streaked slowly across her face made me gasp, along with the girls.

‘Good heavens!’ The girl on my right exclaimed, dropping a pair of red and very stylish glasses on the floor as her eyes went wide in shock.

‘This is unprecedented! I’ve never seen a magical reaction like this before!’ Twilight stuttered, pulling out a notepad from nowhere visible on the edge of my vision.

I watched in a mixture of surprise and horror at the faint grimace on my friend’s face. In what felt like ages, but was likely just a few seconds, the glow recedes back to nothing, but I can now see a faint, almost burn like marking just below her clothing. On her neck was the beginning of a large array of what I would later find out to be a strong almost allergic reaction to the magic in the air around us.

But in the current moment, I’m definitely scared that I’ve done something to harm Rue. I hadn’t realised it until now, but while I was stuck in my thoughts once again, Fluttershy had probably sensed I was in distress and gave me what felt like a loving hug. I don’t know how, but it just felt exactly like ones I had with Rue, yet her hug felt more sincere and caring than any I’d ever felt before.

It was such a calming feeling, that I’d relaxed enough to realise I’d actually started crying again. After a while, Fluttershy guided me out of the room, ater giving my girlfriend a quick kiss on the forehead, which gave the area around her a warm feeling. Literally a warm aura filled the air around her, which felt like she was aware I was here by her side.

“Don’t worry, I will be back. Please wait for me when you wake up.” I bewailed, slowly leaving the room as the feeling of being watched followed me out of the room.

I kept quiet once again as Fluttershy guided me by her hand through what I thought was a hospital for the sick while keeping my eyes down until she dragged me outside into what looked like a large open-seated eating area.

This was followed by that feeling of being watched, but this time with a somewhat jealous feeling, as if they could sense my displeasure of finding her personality adorable and cute, making me realise what we were doing and let go of her hand. The watched feeling disappeared briefly, before returning with a familiar, warm glow. The glow got me thinking of Rue again, when I felt myself become really hungry as my eyes latched onto the smorgasbord of food being served here.

Oh my god, I feel so famished. I acknowledged, as my stomach suddenly growled loudly. The seating looked nothing like a restaurant, but bigger than a café. Probably a Diner. I added as an afterthought as Fluttershy seemingly held back a small and adorable laugh at my reaction to food. Gah, you already have Rue you nitwit, don’t overthink it! I thought, as I scolded myself for thinking these things, but she was still appearing adorable and cute.

“Oh my, you’re sounding a little hungry.” She giggled, snapping me out of my reverie and finding a quieter area for us to talk, as if there was a problem with me talking around others.

In just a few minutes, a waitress came over greeting Fluttershy in a way that resembled something like a saviour of some kind, but I couldn’t get any sense that she was anything like someone who saved people for a living.

I put this thought process on the back burner, as almost one of everything I’d taken an interest in had appeared before me. They looked so different from the meals I was beginning to remember from back in my world. I still wasn’t ready to accept this as my new norm, but the thought of it still brought a sad feeling and a tear to my eyes that Fluttershy hadn’t picked up on, but the thoughts were shoved aside when I started eating.

The dish I started with tasted so delicious, I accidentally let a habit of mine begin my “happy noises” while I ate. The first and second meals came and went as I ate down as much as I could, which seemed like a lot more than I previously remembered. Maybe the time we’d been in that forest had left me parched and fatigued without the food I was craving right now. However, this thought came with this sad feeling that matched my own, but somehow wasn’t mine yet very, very familiar.

While biting into my third dish, making Fluttershy giggle while she waved at some people, sorry, ponies passing by, that’s when the eyes felt like they were prodding at me for attention. I decided to let the eyes prod me a little too hard and that was when I made a startling discovery. Well, that’s what it felt like.

I realised the watching feeling was beginning to fade, while it gave a feeling that it wanted me to follow. I could sense it’s whereabouts as being somewhere from a table’s length or two away from me as if there was someone standing there. I looked at the spot, but even though I could sense it, I couldn’t see it.

Then I realised something extremely familiar with the watching eyes that kicked me into the next century for being so oblivious to the person watching. I turned to Fluttershy abruptly as I gulped down the mouthful I’d stopped eating in a rush. I reminded myself to apologise to her later, as I grabbed her wrist and ran back into the building we’d left from.

I didn’t pay attention to the large sign as the same alarm rang out in the reception the moment I stepped through the doors.

“What’s wrong?” I heard from the girl, who’s now beside me, her hand had slipped into mine.

I watched as realisation appeared on her face as we jogged quickly through the building towards Rue’s room. I only had five words for her:

“I think Rue’s waking up!”

[6] Definitely NOT Saving my Girlfriend

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Turning the corner from the top of the stairs, I was able to see that the commotion had been focused on Rue’s room. I saw a bunch of nurses and doctors edging out of the room, as if struggling with some overwhelming force. If doctors were doing that, then I thought I should probably be afraid.

I could feel mild panic swarming around in my head, but I wanted to see Rue. An unfamiliar wave of this weird pressure started radiating from beyond the door as I started to approach it, passing the others who were slowly backing away in the process.

I could hear voices behind me calling out not to enter, something about an “intense thaumic pressure” that was emanating from the room. It felt like some kind of mild pressure, something I couldn’t put a description or familiarisation to, but my heart overrode the want to step away from the pressure and step into the doorway. That’s when I felt like I’d walked into an invisible wind.

Instinctively, I bring my arms up to protect my head, at the insane, almost exponentially increased pressure as I started to creep into the room. It was like my body was being radiated with some unknown force, making me begin to feel warm and cold, sweaty and coldly shaking at the same time. And yet, I didn’t feel it, it was weird. Like almost unlimited potential, but I could start to feel my mind taking on a heavy weight and my ears began being overloaded with static-like white noise, but on a level that I don’t think I could describe normally.

Opening my eyes, the pressure waves kept pulsing, almost like a heartbeat, but it was as if nothing in the room was moving, until my eyes landed on her. I saw Rue floating, literally, floating. Her eyes were a cascade of white and the colours of a rainbow as the lights we’d seen earlier from under the sheets and her clothes had been in the process of unfurling from her body.

“RUE! CALM DOWN!” I called out, over the absurdly strong pressure and the deafening noise I was hearing, with a glimmer of hope that she would hear me. “RUE PLEASE, CALM DOWN! I’M SO GLAD YOU’RE OKAY! PLEASE, TRY AND RELAX! I KNOW YOU’RE STILL IN THERE!”

As if it was rehearsed, her head slowly turned to me, before I heard her call out to me, her voice like a knife through butter as it cut through the noise that had begun to become unbearable as she whispered my name.

“Cal… Please… Help… Me…” Came her whispered plea, as I began to wrack my mind around what I was experiencing.

I was in shock but while I was slowly edging my way towards her, I got this weird tugging in my mind that wanted me to follow it. For a few moments, I struggled between wanting to stay aware of Rue’s presence yet I also wanted to escape this pressure that I couldn't explain. I was contemplating this frantically, when all of a sudden I felt I was forcefully shifted into the black void I believe I had always been shifting to under high anxiety.

The world around me was lost to this vast void, when suddenly a glimpse of numerous colours slowly began drifting around me. They were flowing, warping, shifting, but staying outside of my black bubble. I guess I’m calling this my Void Realm. I don’t know if it was happening to me outside, but as I reached out, as if to approach the edge of the mass of what I could only describe as unearthly energy, I felt myself float towards the edge of the void that I didn't know was there.

I reached out for a random strand, when I felt a tug coming from behind stopping me in the process. A large, purple ball appeared behind me, before forming into one of those TImberwolves, but it looked a lot more like a creature than it’s previous wood-bundled generation I'd seen back in the forest. She looked familiar, then I realised she might have evolved from her wooden state since I'd last seen, or felt her.

‘Stay calm, human.’ A voice spoke, snapping my attention back from the gorgeous beast before me. ‘I am here to help assist you, but I do not know what it is you will ask of me.’

It sounded like a soft toned, elderly woman with decades of experience, and yet, it had a sincerity to it that displayed not only vast knowledge, but a loyalty towards me.

‘Who is that?!’ I yelled out into the void, only to be met with the face of the beast like it had stepped closer. ‘Gah! Please don’t scare me like that!’

‘I am sorry, hmm,’ It tilted it’s head to the side, as if thinking. That was when I realised it was the source of the everpresent voice. ‘Hoo-man Calvin.’

‘Uh, I think it’s pronounced, "human".’ I replied sheepishly, taken aback. 'And I don't think we ever use the word as a title or in our names. It's either Calvin or Cal to my friends.' I added defensively.

‘Duly noted.’ It replied warmly, then placed a soft, wooly paw on my shoulder. ‘Now let's help this girlfriend of yours.’

It took me a few seconds, or what felt like seconds, to realise she might be able to read my thoughts, or if her power was stronger than I thought, she could probably access some, if not most of my memories.

‘Grab the red strand of power first.’ She stated, standing firm by my side. ‘Grab it gently, and slowly pull it from the ball of light it surrounds.’

I didn’t want to touch the thing I was seeing, but instead I found that I had acknowledged her request and slowly began pulling a large red strand from the mass of colours. I watched it drift away hazardously into the void, but without getting a chance to watch it, I was tasked with removing one after another.

As I was on the fifth colour, after orange, yellow and green, I began to notice the orb inside wasn’t an orb, but what I could only sense as Rue’s soul. It was two overlapping poses of her curled up like an unborn baby, yet she was crying and fully grown with her eyes filled with a piercing white light. I then noticed a pair of delicate, broken-glass-looking wings protruding from somewhere on her back.

I looked away out of modesty towards her appearance, but I continued to pull at the remaining three strands. Within seconds, she began vanishing from the Void Realm after I caught a sleepy smile crawl across her watery face.

‘Thank you.’ I barely heard, just before she vanished entirely.

‘The pact has been completed and the girl has survived the overload. I am forever at your service, Young Master.’ Spoke the magnificent beast before me.

‘Who are you?’ I asked incredulously, fascination adorned upon my face. ‘And why did you call me “Young Master” just now?’

‘I do not have a name, nor am I a Timberwolf anymore.’ She spoke gently, as I felt a tug from my right. ‘I enjoy the respect I feel from your curiosity, but I cannot stay here for long. She needs you, as does my child. You are, by magic contract, my master and I shall follow one’s good deeds for as long as I live, or until the contract owner removes the pact.’

Most of these words were lost on me, but I understood that, in terms of the old RPG games I played, she was a creature used by summoners. ‘Wait, does that mean I can summon her?’ I thought, as I felt myself slip out of the void and into a room as I began moving again.

The room no longer had the pressure that I previously felt, but I definitely became more aware of the eyes staring at me. I don’t know how long I’d been out, but it felt like I’d been in my mind for ages, while doing something that felt nothing like helping my girlfriend out.

I was unaware of this unknown weight on my body, when I found myself standing there, with Rue hugging me tightly. I felt two damp stains on my right shoulder, then some down my face as I started to return the hug. I felt a mildly glaring pair of eyes from behind me, presumably from Twilight, but as I turned around it was a woman about a head taller than Twilight herself.

‘I see the issue has been resolved.’ She spoke, her eyes reverting from her curious glare into a soft, almost loving gaze as Rue and I continued hugging as we slumped to the floor. ‘My faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, had informed me of your … situation, so I came as soon as I had the time.’ At this comment I could see Twilight’s erubescent cheeks glow through her fur.

‘Sorry, but I thought it was best for my teacher to know what you were going through.’ Twilight replied, embarrassed at the praise she was being given by her tutor. ‘But I guess I was worrying over nothing! Haha!’ She added nervously.

Before I could get a response out, my girlfriend in my arms shot upright as if she just registered something that I wasn’t aware of. She was mumbling loudly as her eyes looked as wide as they could go, her mouth agape at something. When she turned to me, all she muttered before fainting and falling unconscious against me, was almost two entire sentences:

‘Why on Earth are we in Equestria in front of Princess Celestia?! I think i'm going to fain...’

[7] Definitely NOT a Usual Day in Ponyville

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It had been a few days since Rue fainted; she’s no longer unconscious since then, but her hysterical comment got me thinking wildly about the implications we were under. The situation was definitely worse than I thought. Especially when it took me around a full hour after her comment when she woke up to realise what she’d said.

It was during our second session together when she was awake, calmer and a lot more lucid than before. That was when she revealed we arrived in an anthropomorphic, or as she had mentioned at the time, an “anthroponic” version of a television show. One which Rue knew a fair amount about back on Earth. Apparently, the world we’re now on is called the “Lands of Equis” and, without second guessing, had guessed their god was the name of the woman who made the show back on our home planet.

SInce then, we've been learning about this world and how it differs. Correction, I’ve been learning since Rue and I found ourselves dumped here. Rue is still recovering from her fainting session, which knocked her out and left her bed ridden for another few days. When I’d been informed she was a lot more lucid, I was in awe as she slowly described everyone that she pointed out as she practiced getting on top of her “episodes”.

Currently, we’re just enjoying the sights as I’m pushing her around. Oh, right, after the events that had transpired over a week ago, I forgot to mention that something from our arrival has magically disabled her from using her legs. Literally. Twilight was still flabbergasted to this very day after seeing me endure sure a strong amount of … how did she put it again? Oh, that’s right, “Thaumic Pressure”.

Luckily, with a bit of hindsight, Fluttershy and I were able to collect a wheelchair for her so I could push her around after we found out she was immobile from the hips down. Right now, I’m being snapped back to reality as a shrill noise broke through the sounds around me. A bit too loudly for my liking.

‘..This is just amazing! So that’s Lyra and Bon-Bon, they’re travelling towards-- OOH! That’s Sugarcube Corner!’ Rue squealed, as we stopped halfway down the sidewalk.

In contrast to the show, according to the overexcited Rue, most ponies were walking around with at least something in their hands, sorry, hooves.

No, they’re hands… Gah! Shaking my head mentaily, still making my mind juggle the words loosely, as they literally have hands just like ours. As I looked around, the streets were pretty much completely paved, unlike the solid and pure ground on the show. It made me laugh at how she described it as some kind of tarmac and concrete appearance and feel to them as we strolled over it.

I was snapped out of my thoughts as Rue started wheeling herself into the place she labelled as Sugarcube Corner. I quickly did a look backwards, to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash who’d come along with us, before they quickly followed suit. Entering the little café, the warmth and the almost intoxicating aroma of the biscuits, cookies, cakes and both hot and cold drinks made my mouth water at the sides as well as stopping me in my tracks.

‘I’ve never felt or smelt a place as satisfying as this café in my life!’ I thought, a little hazily. ‘I can’t help but wonder what gets cooked here to have it smell so heavenly!’ I mentally added, before a punch on my shoulder brought me out of my stupor.

‘Hey, buckethead. Might wanna keep an eye on you-know-who over there.’ Rainbow stated, pointing a backward thumb towards Rue. She just sat there in the middle of the room, face clasped in her hands as I walked over.

‘Hey, you okay?’ I asked gently but loudly enough to be heard over the ambient noise, placing a hand on her shoulder.

I was met with a partially covered smile and tear-filled eyes staring back at mine. After only a few seconds, of our interlocked eyes, I broke the stare by moving behind her, rubbing her shoulders then pushed us back outside, where the smell wasn’t as heavy as it was indoors. Taking the time to grab a table, we sat there as I grabbed a napkin from the little holder for them and dabbed at her watery eyes.

It was a few minutes before Dash and ‘Shy came out - they’d ordered us some food while we were busy taking in the sights from the little seating area. Rue had calmed down considerably, her reaction had shown some onlookers like she’d not been anywhere near here before. But before we could relax any further, a voice catches her off guard again.

‘So, I hear you know alot about us, uhhh.’ Spoke Rainbow, placing a finger of hers against her chin while she thought of Rue’s name.

‘Um, it’s Rue, Rainbow Dash.’ Fluttershy whispered loudly, which I didn’t know was possible.

‘Oh yeah, my bad!’ Dash replied, earning her a warm giggle from Rue and a questioning look from ‘Shy.

‘So, from what I saw, you seem to know more than you let on about everyone around us.’ Dash continued, twiddling her smoothie straw in her fingers.

‘While I know she’s very knowledgeable of this world you guys all reside in, in all honesty, I had no clue she was that invested in the … uh, world and the peep-- ponies in it.’ I replied, getting both their attention.

They both tilted their heads oppositely, in unison, making Rue giggle a bit. She leant over to me and whispered something along the lines of “They have no idea what you’re going on about.”. I sheepishly replied with an apology after Fluttershy voiced her confusion.

‘It’s fine. I think Twilight would understand us the most, but I can’t help but get the feeling she’d freak out if we told her, well, if Rue told her the truth. You see...’ I rattled on, as I gave a brief but not too overbearing story I came up with when I had discussed earlier with Rue.

When Rue had been discharged, we had unintentionally argued a little about how much detail she can reveal about the inhabitants around us. Luckily, nobody was around for what we both decided to call the “heated discussion” of ours. We’d never really fought like that before, but it had placed a small wall between us for about a week.

After a week of the six girls worrying about me, they offered to let me stay at each of their homes, doing a daily activity to help me relax and get my mind off of whatever they could sense I was struggling through. I didn’t want to admit it, but after two days, the stress and emotions had begun to balance again. However, I still agreed to each of their offers and activities and it wasn’t until I was house with Twilight on the fifth day of what I had dubbed as “teenage sleepovers”, that I realised I was wrong during our earlier argument.

I’d waited until the end of the week, to get all of my emotions settled before I’d visited Rue and waited for her rehab session to finish. She’d forgiven me around the same time I’d begun to feel better after the argument.

The two girls, Rue and I were all headed to a newly created house near Twilight’s rather… unusual home as the day rolled towards an end. Apparently, the large, crystallized castle structure was from a few years ago, when the six girls had done something amazing, but they were very modest whenever I asked about it.

The scale of this crystalline structure was a breath to behold. It towered far above us, but didn’t feel suppressive or overwhelming in the least. Something must have let them know we were staring with our mouths open, as the next thing I feel is a pair of eyes on us coming from the doorway. I was about to reply a few seconds later, when I found my eyesight blocked by a large bundle of pink fluffiness.

The sound of pure joy and laughter along with this suffocating wall of vivid, cotton-like and oversized pink hair could only make Rue burst into laughter from somewhere ahead of me as I tried prying off the girl who’d enveloped my vision with a strong hug and overbearing personality. She was one of the girls who'd been told to stay quiet during a visit to my bedside and Rue’s at the hospital; Pinkie Pie.

Before I knew it, I’d tripped on the edge of a slab on the cement-like pavement and fell over backwards, landing on my back. It was a little sore, but that was the least of my problems - Pinke and Rue just burst out laughing at my predicament, which I didn’t find funny at all. After a minute or so of Rue and Pinkie just laughing their head off at my predicament, I found myself not wanting to join the contagious laughter due to our positions.

I went from flustered and embarrassed to full on laughter after another couple of seconds had passed. However, due to the angle at which I was in, I doubt Rue could see the impossibly red cheeks on Pinkie’s face. Luckily, somehow, the warmth I had seen on her face had vanished completely as she helped me up to my feet.

‘Hehe, sorry!’ She giggled, covering her mouth a little. ‘I didn’t mean to scare ya!’

‘It’s alright,’ I replied, swiping my hands across my clothes, checking for patches of dirt or re-opened tears in my hoodie from the fall. ‘Besides, I think we’re due a meeting at Twilight’s humble abode anyway.’

‘Oh cool! I wonder if--’

‘No Pinkie. No Parties. Not yet anyway.’ Rue interrupted, as she wheeled herself over to us. ‘I don’t think a “Welcome to Ponyville” party should be done just yet. I’m truly sorry, but I think we should speak with Twilight before you go planning anything.’

The flabbergasted look on Pinkie’s face was priceless. Her jaw dropping twice as far as I was expecting sold it even more, causing Rue to start giggling again. The day went on rather smoothly after this interaction, as Twilight had rushed us over by grabbing us in what I can only describe as telekinetic magic.

My anxiety rose a little, ironically as I literally rose into the air. I looked over to Rue, only to see her and her new wheelchair floating a little bit ahead of me. My features relaxed when I was put back down, while Rue continued hovering. I looked back to say goodbye to Pinkie Pie when she waved too quickly to be normal, as a “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it” after-image of her appeared before she vanished in a small cloud of dust.

‘That was… weird.’ I mumbled mentally, as I walked over to Rue being placed down by the entrance. ‘Thank god that’s over.’

‘Welcome to my home!’ The mare claimed, twirling in a circle as I took in the breathtaking environment. ‘It’s a bit, well, crystalline, but it’s more than adequate as a temporary home for you two!’

‘This just feels so unreal!’ Rambled my girlfriend, as she ran her hand across the surface of the material. ‘It looks so sharp, but it’s surprisingly soft and gentle on touch.’

I reached over and held my hand on top of hers, unintentionally making her jump a little. As our eyes met, it took me a minute to notice an erubescent glow on both our cheeks. However, with perfect timing, a small cough stops us from feeling too awkward and we turn to see Twilight staring at the two of us. Our fingers had unintentionally intertwined, but neither of us felt like letting go in that moment.

‘Ohhh-kayy then, so who’s excited for a tour of the castle?’ She asked animatedly, but it was too late for her to realise she let slip a slight change in her voice.

‘Was it something we did?’ I thought, looking at our hands. ‘Or is it something in this world that just makes me want to spend more time with Rue? I’ll have to ask her later.’

It wasn’t long before Rue started following Twilight around the castle, while I stayed in the lobby area. Kinda ironic, how she’s so geeky about this world, yet she’s the one getting directions between all the similar looking doorways while I’m down here in the lobby area. Or what looks like a lobby area.

‘Hello! How can I help?’

I find myself literally a few feet in the air, my anxiety going haywire for a split second, before placing my hand heavily against my chest. I took a few calming breaths, before turning towards the origin of the voice that had startled me almost into a heart attack itself.

The sight before me wasn’t just of a young boy, but the colour of his vibrant, green hair blending into a line of jutted out scales down his back spoke volumes against his mostly purple-scaled body. I was about to calm down, when I saw his wings as well. I think I caused Twilight and Rue to return in a flash of a purplish light from my reaction, and yes, I will admit, I did yell out the only words that went through my head after I noticed what he was.

My last words before I fainted? Embarrassingly, I’ll later come to regret them after fainting in front of what could be my very first friend in this world.

‘Wait… you’re… YOU’RE A DRAGON?!’

[8] Definitely NOT Getting Some Answers....

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The warmth of a thick duvet was the first thing I felt when I woke up. Followed by something resting across my stomach. With my head feeling a little sore, I let out a soft groan, but the arm doesn’t budge.

It’s amazing how this world has not just an abundance of magical items and magical creatures, but also mystical and ethereal beings that are part of their modern history and not in any myths and folklore.

‘Hey Cal, come here real quick!’ Rue squealed, like she had just found something amazing, just before I heard a squeaking of wheels from somewhere outside the kitchen with a soft hum mixed in with it.

‘Coming Rue!’ I yelled back, grabbing my current and only hoodie off the back of the chair.

As I quickly plodded my way towards wherever I heard her voice come from, my ears were filled by a childish giggle and a flash of yellow light from around the corner. The sounds seemed to come from behind the staircase, but the humming now seems to have stopped.

I slowly and quietly took gentle steps as I attempted to sneak up on where I thought she was, but when I jumped around the corner, I was greeted by a weird pedestal with a receding glow of light coming from an embedded crystal. It looked like it was half reflecting my current location, but mostly showing a view of somewhere above the stairs. I heard a soft giggle emanating from it, but also a louder and clearer one from the floor above.

‘Bet you can’t find me!’ Floated down the stairs, the bubbly undertone making her sound like she was on a sugar high with her laugh following shortly after.

That was it. I took off for the stairs, but turned around half-way up while making my footsteps sound louder as I went back down. I don’t know why, but I definitely guessed correctly at where I thought she was going to be. My annoyed yet playful grin quickly gets wider and turns up at the sides as I snuck back to the pedestal. Luck was on my side; she appeared with her back to me after a brief flash of the same light from earlier.

‘Betcha can’t f-- GAH!!’

‘Oh you’re in for it now, you cheeky girl!’ I chortled, grabbing her sides from behind and tickling her sides with strong intent.

Neither of us had noticed our front door had swung open slightly, but before I knew it, I was on the floor. One seconds, I was playfully tickling Rue, the next I was on my back, arms pinned to the floor and being straddled by the young, blue-furred flyer as she held me down with more strength than I gave her credit for. Her stare was actually a little bit intimidating, despite her impulsive and tomboy-ish attitude.

What do you think you’re doing?’ she spoke, while her strong attitude withered her tone from annoyed to ... something I couldn’t put my mind to. ‘I-it‘s not ... W-what were y-you going to do to her?’

Both Dash and I looked up after a bright yet rather small flash of white light. I recognised the light, but I was still surprised by it. Luckily, it avoided the awkward situation, but our cheeks still glowed a little as Dash was quicker to react to the flash.

‘Woah, woah woah, hold up! What is that?!’

‘This? It’s a phone.’ Rue replied nonchalantly, tucking it back into a pocket inside her recently obtained and fashionable top.

‘No way, I thought phones were large and bulky like the one Twilight invented!’

‘Wait, they have the equivalent of phones from our twentieth century?!’ I found myself thinking, before Dash gestured her hand gently towards me and thus pulling me up to my feet.

‘Heh, um, sorry for knocking you over like that.’ She said, lifting herself into the air with her wings. ‘I also didn’t mean to barge in on you two.’ A noticeable glow spread across her cheeks appeared before she left abruptly in a rush of wind.

‘Well that was different.’

Turning around, I see Rue looking at her phone. Most likely looking at the picture with Dash and I stuck in a very awkward position. Walking back behind her wheelchair, I rubbed her shoulder with my right hand while we both looked at her phone screen.

‘I’ve never known Dash to be one to break herself away that slowly from a situation like that. Like she’s not as tomboyish as I remember her being.’

‘True, but like you mentioned before, you did mention that this world is entirely different to the one we all know about.’ I shift my hand so my thumb rubs a knot I found on her back.

‘Mmm… Yeah, I did say that, didn’t I?’ Her voice turned very soft, causing me to giggle quietly.

As she put her phone away, we both agreed to keep our smartphones out of sight. Especially since Dash has probably told Twilight by now what Rue was up to. Helping her down the two stairs, we then both made our way towards the centre of the city-like place of Ponyville. Which, stupidly, is still known as a village, not a town or city.

The trip took a few minutes, but we were still being given a few odd looks from everyone around us. One pair of girls were walking our way and they both seemed very animated in their conversation. There wasn’t much space on the sidewalk for all of us and I was worried they wouldn’t notice us. Being wrapped up in conversation like they were.

‘Hey, uhm… Melody? You too Octavia. I know you two love your music, but could you be dears and let us through?’ Rue coaxed, after getting their attention.

The looks of surprise on both their faces, immediately cut the conversation. Octavia was first to react by moving aside while pushing Melody from behind. Once we passed, the two of them immediately burst into conversation once we were out of earshot.

The walk to Sugercube Corner was slow but peaceful. Rue was in her element, replying to anybody offering their sympathy for whatever landed her in the wheelchair. Upon arrival, I immediately got the feeling I was being watched, but it quickly disappeared after I felt a giddy, chaotic feel to them.

Upon entering and after ordering, with these weird gold-like coins commonly known as “bits”, a flash of purple appeared through the window. Twilight’s signature arrival. Annoyingly, Rue isn’t the only one in here with a wheelchair. There were at least three others in them. Definitely different to the world Rue remembers.

‘Hey Rue, Twilight’s outside. Fluttershy’s with her too.’ I say, after I finished a long sip of my coffee. I ordered decaf, to be on the safe side.

‘Oh okay! Let’s go meet them.’ She replied, hoping to finish her latte before we went outside.

Walking outside, Fluttershy flinched a little from Rue’s energetic “hello” as we made our way over, but gently waved in response after quickly and visibly relaxing.

‘Hey you two! I heard what happened with Rainbow Dash and although I find it a little funny myself, I think she forgot to mention that I was finally looking to talk with you.’ Twilight spoke.

‘Oh, okay.’ Rue and I replied in sync, earning a warm grin from both Twilight and a smaller but cuter one from Fluttershy.

‘Nope, Rue’s your girl.’ I thought, scratching behind my left ear. ‘Although, I guess it’s okay to call Fluttershy cute?’

Without me even noticing, Twilight had enveloped us in a teleportation spell. This was my first time experiencing it while awake. I had been teleported while asleep, but I can’t remember any other time than now when I teleported I felt a heavy, nauseous, burning sensation coming up my throat. I felt a hand on my shoulder, as I was guided quickly to an open door, or window; I wasn't paying much attention to where I was going.

Luckily, I didn’t actually vomit, but I was definitely feeling the urge to heave badly. Truth be told, I was wondering what the feeling was like for the ponies who could teleport. I’ve only ever seen Twilight and I think two others who were able to teleport.

One thing that’s different in this reality compared to Rue’s memories is the fact that there are indeed modern-ish toilets, but outdated to what we used daily before, using a gravity fed system. I was unfortunate enough to be guided to one once the nauseous feeling hit again. This time, it was because Twilight had teleported with me to a spare bathroom.

One thing I’m sure I’ll never get used to, is the not-so-instantaneous teleportation that Rue had seen on the television show. Cleaning my mouth out with a large glass of water, courtesy of the young dragon named Spike, I found myself being guided to a large room with an arrangement of crystal-like seats with royally coloured cushions that matched the tattoos Rue told me were each of their “Cutie Marks”.

In the time we’ve been here, Rue’s tours have calmed down a lot since her first two weeks of an emotional high. I have also got used to being around Spike. Rue calls him an adorable baby dragon. At least that's what Twilight and Rue immediately agreed on. He did have a growth spurt session a while ago, followed by an evolution-like stage, but if it weren’t for his scales, fire breath and tail, he could easily pass for a young boy who just started his teenage years.

‘So, I had asked you here to hopefully answer some of your questions and for you to answer some of mine, but your reaction to my teleportation spell was a little unexpected. I was not expecting it at all if I’m to be perfectly honest.’ Twilight stated embarrassingly, her cheeks gaining a soft pink flush as I felt a hand on my leg.

‘It’s okay, she was just a little excited and impatient about getting a propeller chance to talk to us.’ Spoke Rue, as she moved her hand to hold mine. ‘You’ll feel better soon. Just hang in there for now, ‘kay?’ The slight worry in her tone made me relax and simply nod in response.

Taking another look at Rue, her pale yet determined face holding back her own discomfort. Her discreet holding of her own stomach unfortunately didn’t go unnoticed when Fluttershy leaned towards Twilight and whispered something to her. With a quick nod, Fluttershy came over. With a short and very quiet conversation I could barely hear, Rue was wheeled off.

She returned with a more relaxed face that had a bit more colour in it. I guess she was feeling the same way I was after that awkward teleportation.

‘Thank you, Fluttershy. I really needed that.’ Rue thanked Fluttershy as she got wheeled back beside me.

‘Um, don’t mention it.’ She replied timidly, rushing over to a comfy looking stool I hadn’t noticed previously.

‘So I’m glad you two have managed to settle down here in Ponyville rather quickly.’ Twilight began, as Spike joined Fluttershy on the stool as he grabbed a notepad and pencil from somewhere. ‘I’ve been giving you some distance since you arrived and from the looks of it, Rue has been rather successful in some interesting relationships with my fellow ponies here.’

‘That I have.’ Rue gushed. ‘It’s been so wonderful making friends here.’ She added, which made the room itself feel like it radiated her happiness all around.

‘I’ve been waiting a while, but I think now is a good time to start talking about your … uhhh…’

‘Their “arrival”, right, Twilight?’ Fluttershy whispered loudly enough for all to hear.

A slow but noticeable chill ran through the room. Like the positive life force it previously had was sucked dry. This was something I was personally dreading, as the imagery of the horrific scene I saw of Rue and I in the Everfree Forest was still strongly imprinted in my memory.

‘I know it’s a hard topic, but it would be nice to know what it was that brought you to appear there.’ Twilight continued, while Spike wrote into his notepad.

‘Well, I can’t really say anything, but Calvin should be able to tell you more about what happened. He’s told me snippets of what he can remember.’ Rue replied as her hand reached out and grabbed mine, while smiling softly at me.

Bracing myself for this conversation, I took a few long inhales and exhales of air, before starting off my retelling of the events that I encountered. This time, I just let the memory of it flow through my head as I recalled the details. Rather vividly, might I add. From the weird floating orbs floating and flashing in the forest, to the fighting Timberwolves. I also included the female and the pup with the odd, purple eyes before I fell unconscious again.

'The event just felt so surreal. I don't know what it was I was feeling or seeing, but it was extremely overwhelming. That's pretty much everything I can remember at the minute.' I concluded, looking down from a spot on the ceiling I found myself staring at during the entire spiel.

Twilight's face seemed to express both an intent for knowledge of our world, but also compassion and worry. Fluttershy had both her hands covering her mouth, two wet streaks flowing down her cheeks as her eyes were almost flooded with tears. Even Spike was under the same emotional distress as Fluttershy, but he was holding it a lot better than she was. That was when the timid girl got up from her seat after what felt like ages as she trotted over to us.

'Oh sweet Celestia, I'm so sorry for making you recall that, Cal.' Twilight responded after the awkwardly long pause.

"I'm so sorry." Fluttershy whispered, grabbing my shoulders before she hugged me tightly.

I was a little startled, but I slowly returned the hug with my arms at a slightly awkward angle from our positions. After a while, with Rue’s help, I did have to pry her off a little after it started to feel uncomfortable. Her timid behaviour caused her to rush back over to her seat and hide behind her mane.

If I had looked at just the right angle, I possibly could’ve seen her cheeks glowing strongly. Unfortunately, my position at the other side of the round table made it hard to tell if she was blushing that hard.

‘Okay, so we’ve covered a rather … emotional recalling of something. Which I do apologise for.’ Twilight mentioned, after she added her apology once again. ‘But I sense that you’re just covering the start of it all.’

‘Something like that.’ I admitted with a small sigh, rubbing my head from a headache that was brewing. ‘I don’t know if you know anything about it, but are Timberwolves able to evolve?’

‘I’m prettier sure they can’t ev... Wait, they evolved?! HOW?!’ Twilight exclaimed, her sudden interest on the subject making her stand up very quickly, slamming her hands on the table.

Just like on the show, both Fluttershy and Spike facepalm loudly.

‘Aheheh… sorry.’ Twilight apologised, rubbing her head.

She quickly recovered from her outburst with a few forced coughs.

‘Speaking of apologies, I’m sorry for that reaction to you earlier, Spike. I wasn’t entirely expecting to actually meet a young dragon.’ I stated, my eyes softening after I looked over at him. ‘No offense of course.’ I added hastily, scratching my head.

‘Eh, none taken. Besides, I’ve had plenty of reactions like that long into the past. I’m fine with it.’ He replied, shrugging. ‘Wasn’t expecting you to faint though!’

I laughed and took that as a sign that it was just water under the bridge. I looked from Spike to Fluttershy and she appeared to be anxiously daydreaming, stroking her hair at the same time.

‘Umm, Fluttershy?’ I softly inquired, hoping to get her attention.

‘Eep! Um… Oh, sorry.’ She quietly yelped, somehow. ‘What did you want to ask me?’ She replied softly, her attention now focused on me.

‘I was wanting to ask you about that godly stare you gave me back in the hospital. How did you do that?!’ I asked incredulously.

‘Well, um....’ She hesitated, her anxiety flaring up visibly as she hid behind her mane even more than before. Her sudden shyness made her response barely audible for both of us.

‘She said she was sorry and that it was a force of habit from working there with troublesome creatures.’ Answered Twilight, who had placed a .... hand? hoof? Oh whatever, hand gently on Fluttershy’s exposed shoulder. ‘After all, she helps out there with the other animals who are a bit more challenging when they obviously need the help.’ A grimace slowly appeared on her face as a shocked one grew onto mine while our eyes stayed locked together.

There was one thing in her explanation that clicked in my head, because it really stood out. As we broke eye contact, I didn’t say a word. My eyes quickly locked with Rue’s eyes as I turned to check her reaction. It’s 100% likely we both thought the exact same words while our faces paled from the shock:

Wait… That hospital is for ANIMALS?!

[9] Definitely NOT Having an Unusual Morning

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So it turned out that we had been submitted to a veterinary hospital. That’s sort of a big deal for the two of us. The situation left a bitter taste in my mouth. I was really upset that we’d been admitted to a place that pets and hurt creatures go to when they’re in bad health.

At least Fluttershy helped to clear up the confusion. Twilight was ecstatic that we were able to communicate effortlessly with her. However, even though Twilight and I were now on the same page, there were still a lot of words exchanged between her and Rue that flew over my head. These thoughts roamed my mind as I barely paid attention to a very subtle aura encompassing the sun and slowly dragged it towards the horizon.

It’s like a whole new side to Rue, as she asked about things like “thaumic bleed” and “chronic distortion”. I knew enough science, but everything here would turn the heads of scientists back home.

'Home….' That’s something I hadn’t thought of since we’d arrived. I wonder what’s going on back in our home reality. I felt a soft vibration start from my chest and spread out across my body as I thought of my friends and family. My vision went out of focus slightly, but the images that flashed through my head of my sister, Becs, Lucas and the others.

I think it’s a little strange that I’ve not really been thinking of them since I woke up. My thought process was interrupted by a soft tap of my shoulders.

‘You okay, Calvin?’

‘Hmm? Oh, yeah. Just lost in thought really. What's up?’ I replied.

‘I, um, I just thought I'd check up on you. It was a long day after all.’ Came Fluttershy’s response, as she approached from behind as she quietly shut the door.

The soft voiced girl joined me at my side, as I stared out at the evening sunset. It's weird, how the magic here works a little slower than how Rue described it on the show. Longer transitions between daytime and nighttime lead to gorgeous sunsets. Spells needing full concentration before use, luckily without saying them out loud. Thank Faust for that!

You know you're adapting to a new world too quickly when you start using their verbal customs, like “sweet Celestia” or “Thank Faust” instead of what you usually used back on Earth. Speaking of, I couldn't help but feel ... lost. Distant.

I don't know what conveyed the feelings I was experiencing, but Fluttershy gently placed a hand on my arm and the other started to rub my back.

‘It's okay. I’m not very good at expressing myself like this, but I'm sorry for that glare in the hospital.’ Her voice had noticeably grown more confident as she talked, but there were still hints of shyness as we stared out together at the setting sun. ‘If it wasn't for my friends, I don't think I'd have the strength today to admit how embarrassing and worrying it was that I had glared at you like that.’

I looked down at her in wonder after her confession. Being just under half a foot from my height she might feel intimidated by me, to some extent. However, with the calmness of the situation, she didn't even flinch when I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and puller to my side for a heartfelt hug.

‘It's okay.’ I whispered, rubbing her shoulder gently. ‘I was a little upset at the thought of being at your equivalent of what we call “the vets”, but I can see you were only acting on instinct and habit.’

‘The … “vets”?’ She questioned, while she tilted her head to the side.

I found that action adorable. Especially when a strand of her hair fell across her face. I let the memory slip away as I went on to explain a few of our earthly customs regarding pets. Surprisingly, they did most of them here too. With a few, rather noticeable differences. Here I was, discussing animal information I didn't know I knew with a girl fascinated by animals and could communicate with them. It was a sight to behold; a bipedal pony making conversation with a little Bluejack called Mortimer who had appeared on the balcony railing.

Something bugged me a little, but I couldn't figure out what. Then a flash of silver came from my right. Startling both of us.

‘Yip yip!’

The voice I barely recognised belonged to that young, male and evolved Timberwolf pup.

‘What was their kind called again?’ I racked my brain to think of their species, but the name “evolved Timberwolf” just didn't sit well for me since that conversation I had with the pup’s mother. ‘Well then, guess we'll need to call you something.’

‘Oh my, you are adorable!’ Squealed Fluttershy, blocking up the little pup and cuddling him. ‘You never mentioned you had a pet!’ She added, looking the pup all over to try as if trying to see if she knows what it is.

‘That's kinda funny, because I thought I mentioned the two creatures in our meeting earlier today.’ I replied.

‘Oh. Sorry. I must have missed that in all the emotions.’ She said, a solemn look came across her eyes before the pup licked her face. ‘Hey!’ She giggled, earning her a confident “yip” from the pup.

A larger flash went off again on my right. This time, it was the mother.

‘Forgive me, Cal.’ She said, in my head somehow. ‘My pup wanted to meet the young pony.’

‘It's fine, you're free to come and go whenever you want to after all.’ I replied verbally, stroking the soft, white mane of the creature that was taller than my shoulders.

‘Wait, you can talk to creatures too?!’ Fluttershy asked loudly and cheerfully.

Her eyes lit up like the stars that were now beginning to appear as the sun dipped below the horizon, the soft glow of the remaining light making her features glow brightly. The moon’s slightly faster appearance was courtesy of Princess Luna.

‘Nope. When you were talking to those birds and other critters earlier, I couldn't understand a word.’

‘Oh, I see.’ Her eyes didn’t sparkle as much, but she was still surprised nonetheless.

I could tell she was smitten with the playful pup who slowly felt sleepy. As if on cue, she picked him up and brought him indoors, with the mother and I following her. Unsurprisingly, the room didn’t contain a section for both the motherly creature and her pup. As Fluttershy put the now sleepy pup in the middle of the floor, there was a nod of appreciation to her from the motherly creature and a gentle bow, before making her way to the area.

‘If I'm being perfectly honest, I don't know what these two are.’ I whispered after a minute, as the motherly creature threw me a curious glance before wrapping herself around the sleeping pup in the new area.

‘Really? Hmm..’ Fluttershy replied quietly, before she let out a yawn so quiet I hadn't noticed it until I looked back at her from the two docile creatures before me.

‘You're sleepy, I think you should call it a night.’ I spoke, luckily not loud enough to awaken the two wolves. ‘

‘Mm? Oh, right, okay. Goodnight then.’ She replied, quietly making her way out the bedroom door.

I sat there, staring at the creatures in fascination and awe in the quiet, moonlit bedroom, wondering what to call these wolf-like creatures. I thought about their appearance, their origins, their possible life before meeting me and whatnot. My thoughts were running around my head like fireworks stuck in a glass jar, probably not the best analogy, but it's what it felt like. Before dozing off, I thought that it was a good idea to wait until I spoke to Rue about what to call them.

* * *

‘–al! Cal! CAL! Wake up!’

Those were the words that snapped me awake the next morning. I hadn't realised I'd slept for so long, but I guess that's what happens when you stay up late thinking like crazy. I noticed that this wasn’t the room back in our little home

‘C’mon, wake up already!’ The voice squealed happily, but with a bit more urgency. Enough urgency that it roused me from my grogginess.

As my thoughts began to clear up, the rather close voice sounded like Rue. She was awkwardly leaning across to me as she gently grasped my shoulders. The first thing I noticed were a pair of erubescent cheeks, followed by her sparkling eyes. The way her long, silky smooth hair drooped over her shoulders as she leant over me.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like this, but with everything that’s been going on, well, you can tell why I’m nervous about the next step. Instead of complying with her request, I decided to feign ignorance and sleepiness.

‘Ugh, five more minutes…’ I mumbled loudly.

‘No, now Cal!’ She giggled, as she leant back to sit on my legs.

I couldn’t hold my stoic face any longer, as the corners of my mouth gave away my fake disappointment from waking up like this. My smile was growing along with her increasingly cute giggling. That was, until she dropped a question that woke me up.

‘What's this I hear from Fluttershy about some adorable creatures you summoned?’

After last night's memories flashed back in my head, I remembered the conversation Fluttershy and I had about the creatures.

‘If you want me to be perfectly honest, I have no clue. Wait… How’d you get into the bedroom?’ I replied, puzzled at her appearance.

‘That doesn’t matter. I did think of hopping in beside you and falling asleep, but the thought of Twilight catching us and the sight of the two beauties stopped me from doing so.’

‘... I see.’ I hesitated, curious about how she got in bed beside me, when she’s unable to move from the waist down. ‘Any reason why you wanted to get in bed beside me?’ I added.

Her long silence was enough. It wasn’t awkward,

‘I…’ She closed her eyes and rolled onto her side, pulling her close to me. ‘I really don’t know, yet.’ She muttered into my chest. ‘But one thing’s for sure - we need time for “us” to take that next step.’

I was a bit taken aback, but I kinda liked it this way. The calm morning breeze through the now open balcony, but something nagged at the back of my mind that Rue and I had to get up. Quickly at that.

‘Okay then, but first, I want to talk to Twilight.’ I replied.

I waited for Rue to give me the room to myself before changing. The two creatures that had gone to sleep the night before were no longer asleep on the floor. They felt like they’d “wisped away” some time earlier this morning. It took less time than I thought to get dressed this time. I vaguely noticed what the two creatures felt like in their wispy form, before I was somehow being dragged by Rue towards the stairs as she wheeled herself along.

Let’s just say that I hadn’t expected the floor to create a platform to carry her and I down the stairs. It was impossible. Then again, this was a world of magic. After animatedly blabbering about meeting Princess Luna in her dream, she went on to wind down her experience into casual morning chat as I wheeled her into the kitchen-like area.

Personally, I’m surprised I was able to take in all this information. I remember that period where I was a bit of an isekai weeb when I was younger, but looking back, I could probably explain it somehow. Not in a way Twilight would likely understand though.

‘Morning you two. Especially you, Cal.’ Twilight spoke, as she was reading through a book while others floated around her.

I was going to reply, but I hadn’t noticed that a book had hovered directly into my path for the table until I walked right into it a second later. For a brief moment, my vision sparkled with lights and colours, before I found myself staring up at the ceiling.

An old memory flitted across my mind then lingered quietly whilst I was being helped up to sit on a seat, with the book I’d walked into being stacked into a pile with the others rather quickly.

‘Oh sweet Celestia, I’m so sorry!’ Twilight gasped, coming round the table to help me up.

‘It’s okay, just surprised me is all.’ I replied, rubbing my nose while getting up only to get a strong feeling of light-headedness. ‘Huh, my vision is filled with colours and spots but it’s lasting longer than it should …’ That’s when a headache hit, followed by blackness.

I didn’t know when I’d fainted but the next thing I knew, I was probably laying on a couch, if it weren’t for the cushiony feeling beneath my body that felt different to the one under my head. My head was propped up by something soft with my vision blanketed by what could only be a damp, white cloth.

‘-ope he’s okay. Doesn’t sound like it would knock somebody out like that.’ An immediately recognisable, soft-spoken voice spoke. The gentle tones were unmissable.

‘He looks fine to me. Are you sure you didn’t do it deliberately, Twilight?’ A hyper-sounding, yet worried voice replied. Must be Pinkie Pie, if I remember correctly.

‘I’m positive I didn’t do it.’ Twilight answered in return, worry laced into her words.

I slowly peeled back the cloth on my eyes after a soft groan. Luckily, I was in a slightly dimmer room than before. I didn’t recognise the surroundings though.

‘Oh, hey, Cal.’ I heard from directly above.

‘Uhh, hey.’ I mumbled, the soft glow of sunlight from the not-so-closed curtains reflecting off something against Rue’s cheeks.

‘You feeling okay?’ The worry in her voice was strong.

‘Yeah, I am now.’ I felt a soft pressure shift its way around my head as I replied, before I realised she was stroking my head.

It took a few minutes for me to completely come around. Luckily, I didn’t have much to worry about. After we were both guided back to our house, I found myself closing an open window to my bedroom, followed by going through a few rather neat piles of clothes sat on my bed.

‘Thanks, Rarity.’ I thought happily, before swapping into a rather soft, well-fitting set of running clothes.

The morning went by without much going on. From what Rue had been talking to Twilight about before we left, they were able to agree and make sure only Princess Twilight’s messages would get out of the little town we were in. Some people still eyed us warily, like this weirdly expensive guy. Spoiled Brat or something, I can’t exactly remember his name, but his daughter was definitely someone you wouldn’t want to trifle with.

Personally, I just hope we can learn to settle into this new world and not get caught up in any more madness. I pray that we get to live a calmer life in this world. For Rue, our new friends … and especially myself. I never thought I’d get reincarnated here, but at least Twilight and a friend of hers are looking into our arrival.

I sure hope we can go home someday, but I think this world has some stuff in store for us before that ever comes to pass.

[10] Definitely NOT Some Unexpected Circumstances (Part 1)

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I still find it insane that this has all but been an unusual bundle of coincidences. From one to the next, I still found it hard to believe that Rue and I were in the middle of a theatre-like platform, reporting ourselves to the people below. In front of us, Princess Twilight and Princess Celestia attended to the deluge of questions that came from the crowd. This was an attempt to calm them down from their … How did Rarity put it? Oh right, their “Reporter’s High”.

We hadn’t done anything wrong, according to Twilight herself, as well as Applejack and Fluttershy, but it seemed like the crowd begged to differ. At least some were being considerate to Rue. After all, she’s still been in her wheelchair since the start of this entire mess of an event. At least it helped that we were invited by Twilight, to some extent.

The biggest problem was how short-tempered I’ve seen Rue behave during this interview. It took a lot to make sure she didn’t suddenly explode with rage like she last did. Especially after that rude pony guard got a bloody nose right before this ceremony started.

‘How did it all come to this?!’ I thought, trying to make sense of what happened in the past two days for everything to lead to this.

48 Hours Earlier...
‘Mm! This is delicious! Definitely gonna try and cook that at ours later! Maybe with a few twists!’ Rue stated ecstatically, biting down on a new type of pie, both sweet and savoury, courtesy of AJ.

‘Oh you must!’ Replied Applejack, as she placed a card down on her rug. The Jack of Clubs. ‘It’s a special dish ah’m working on for Sugarcube Corner! Let me know if ah need some changes to make it taste better.’

Let me paint a lovely picture for you: We were sitting on a wooden table and a magically summoned picnic rug just outside Twilight’s castle, in the shade of a thick branch. Rue and I are having a picnic with Fluttershy, AJ, Dash, Twilight and two others. Dash is playing a card game I introduced her to with AJ, whilst I’m sat opposite Twilight and our two new arrivals.

Fluttershy and Rue had earlier bonded over animals whilst out getting things for the little get together and I have no idea how.

One thing Rue hadn’t counted on today, was the arrival of Sunset Shimmer and her friends, Starlight Glimmer and Wallflower Blush. Especially Wallflower. It was something you had to have prior knowledge of to be as surprised as she was. According to our world’s knowledge, Sunset had made the human world version of Equis her own, but it looks like this was one of many major differences for her to get used to.

‘I think it’s something rather interesting, if you ask me.’ Sunset replied, in response to the conversation between the four of us; Sunset, Rue, Twilight and I. ‘I mean, I did spend some time in a human world, where I met some girls who helped me get over the anger issues I had back then, but nothing could’ve prepared me for what you’ve gone through. Was it weird, or simply quick and swift?’

‘I second that,’ I answered. ‘And to answer your question, it was quick, but I don’t remember much. I’ve explained the situation to Twilight and at least Fluttershy so far.’ I added, scratching my head.

The midday sun was just the perfect level of warmth for us to sit outside in. Good thing Twilight knew exactly what days would be good to relax on with friends. The creatures from last night were laying down just outside the shade of the crystal branch, dozing happily. We’d had a discussion earlier about them, which ended up being the first topic of discussion when Sunset made her surprise arrival; naming the new species “BirchenWolves”.

‘Still, it is rather weird.’ Mulled Sunset, fiddling a little absentmindedly with her salad.

‘Yeah, I guess it is.’ Twilight joined in, after closing a small notebook with her magic and placing it on the table. ‘Plus, knowing what you’ve experienced, the closest thing to it is either one of two things: Either Dark Magic or, if I put it in simpler terms I’ve heard you and Rue saying, a “mana overload”. I still find it incredible that neither of you currently can’t use any magic, despite the signs saying you can.’ She added that last bit rather quickly, as her eyes drifted to a curious filled, out of focus look. It wasn’t until I clicked my fingers by her left ear that she snapped back to reality.

It wasn’t long before Rue and I found ourselves thanking Twilight for her hospitality and her support in helping us feel at home here in Ponyville. The conversation went from our “Arrival” to casual chats by the time we’d said our goodbyes and “see you later” hugs.

The walk down to our new home took us through a rather well kept part of Ponyville. Probably due to the fact that there was some new construction work going on with a newly created powerline that reminded me of home. The alternative route for our walk wasn’t very eventful for the most part but we knew, with some surprising hindsight from both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, that there are a few colts who are a little too stuck-up for their liking living down one of the streets every now and then.

It would usually be a calm and cheerful walk, until some stuck-up idiots decided to walk into our path, then looked us up and down, as if attempting to make a scene. Luckily they let us pass, but not without expressing their inner thoughts out loud.

‘Oh my, Feather Hoof, my fellow pony of good stature, what do you think of these weird, hairless monkeys trying to live like us, hmm?’ Said one, an earth pony at first glance, as his golden monocle really shoving the fact that they’re probably trying to openly display their wealthiness.

‘Goodness gracious! How appalling! I do say, Wintor Gust, I think they should just return to whatever jungle they came from. They look like they were trained to do this! Especially in those clothes’ The pegasus replied, his deep, baritone voice sounding forced as he fiddled with something in his pocket.

Now I know some people simply prefer to say their thoughts out loud, but I could feel the veins on my neck thickening at the thought of them calling us monkeys. Sure, we share common ancestors and such, but somehow, this comment really irked me. Especially towards Rarity’s rather incredible fashion sense. I nudged my phone as I attempted to hide a clenched fist in my hoodie pocket.

Speaking of Rarity, one thing I know Rue enjoyed was being able to visit her on her slow working days. Especially when she was getting “guru-style fashion lessons”. Her words, not mine. Whilst I sat down outside and spoke with Sweetie Belle. Sometimes Spike would arrive and sit with us whenever Twilight was around, but I’ve digressed from the current situation that’s afoot.

However, to have Rarity’s hard work getting shamed by these two muttonheads really pinched a nerve in me. Her work is astonishing and looks way better than those awkwardly tight-fitting, overpriced pieces of clothing the two … guys? Colts? Whatever, what the two idiots are currently wearing.

‘Ha, I hear that monkeys will do anything you tell them to. Why don’t you try it out? I bet these two will do anything you tell them to.’ The voice guffawed, snobbily too.

‘I shall, my old friend.’

‘Here goes nothing…’ I thought, tapping Rue’s shoulder gently.

She reached up and held my hand as I leant down and whispered the rough conversation of the two idiots somewhat stalking us from behind. She nodded quietly, then told me to act dumb until she butted in.

‘Hey, you, you Weird Hairless Monkey! What have you?’ I turned to look at him with an incredulous look, not because he was speaking to me, but because of the odd words he used. ‘Could you be a gentlecolt and fetch me a bottle of champagne and a few glasses? My friend and I are going to a rather...’ He paused, as if finding the right word was tougher than thinking itself. ‘... dashing celebration later and it’s required that we bring a drink for the host.’

Without saying anything, I simply nodded. More comically than I would have normally. I wondered when she was going to make her move, as I didn’t know how long I’d have to put off with behaving like this. However, this world just seems to enjoy making my life weird, lucky and safe.

As I started to push Rue forward, the other idiot started to block our path. Standing there, he pulled out a golden pocket-watch and started to hum disappointedly.

‘Oh my, looks like you’re going the wrong way. The items are that way.’ He said, not bothering to point as he pulled out a cloth and wiped down his pocket-watch.

‘Now why don’t you come with me and-- OOFF! WHY YOU LITTLE-- !’

I hadn’t even noticed the guy who’d asked me to get his stuff, when Rue had seemingly snapped around to thwack his chest. Rather harshly might I add, despite being stuck in the wheelchair. As he doubled over, the idiot ahead of us was about to take a step towards us, when some kind of armoured guard flew down from above.

‘Is every’ing all a’ight down ‘ere?’ He asked, his accent thick. Almost like an Irish accent.

‘This hairless ape just assaulted my good fellow! I demand that you lock these two cloth-bound primates up in a pound or whatever goes for primates like these!’ The guard flinched at the idiot, whilst still keeping a remarkably calm and straight face.

The guard didn’t show any signs of recognising us, taking out two pairs of cuffs from his belt and applying one set to Rue’s wrists, the other to mine. My anger rose, but I didn’t want to let them see that they were getting to me. It wasn’t until the guard asked what my smartphone was that I realised two things - I’d somehow turned my video feature from my camera on, then had what felt like an ingenious idea: a quote from a film I remembered.

‘Um, you do realise, you just accidentally hustled yourself, right?’ I blurted, stopping the recording as I turned the phone towards the guard as I found and, against heavy complaints, played the video of the past few minutes.

It started mid sentence, but it was definitely them trying to belittle us. The situation felt like it could be made better with a hidden recording device that wasn’t an accidental recording, but I guess that’s just my anxiety talking. It wasn't at all that convincing to either Rue or I, but the guard immediately changed their mind after a glint of recognition appeared in their eyes.

Let’s just say, I wasn’t entirely expecting these belittling situations to crop up at all. Nonetheless, Rue seemed to take it all in stride. She behaved like she knew exactly what was going to happen. I queried her about it when I caught her smirking with the guard. After the guard gave both the fake gentlecolts a warning not to pester us.

Well, I'll just quote exactly what he said: 'Now please, let these two... unique someponies be, or ay'll be required to bring some more of the Royal Guard next time.'

After the noble stuck-ups dragged their sad behinds away, the guard, bless his heart, started shaking a little in his hands as he offered me a handshake. I took a moment to notice his rank badge, then returned it in both my hands as I briefly displayed a man-crush for his brave efforts, despite being a brand new pony in the Royal Guard and us being respected without the judgement we'd just endured.

'T-Terribly sorry 'bout that, you young ponies! What can-ay do for you's to help out?'

After a little negotiation, he briefly escorted us home as far as he could until he had to go back on patrol. He said his cousin was working as a guard in Canterlot City, wherever that was. The day passed by slowly, but it was spent working with Rue on some practice designs, with me meditating so I don’t have any panic attacks.

It turned out the meditation techniques Twilight uses are indeed much more reliable than those we used back on Earth. Speaking of Earth, we both kinda miss it. Not on a conscious level, but enough to keep us hoping we could someday return home.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[11] Definitely NOT Some Unexpected Circumstances (Part 2)

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39 Hours Earlier...

It was around the late evening, whilst Rue was being visited by Rarity and Fluttershy to help out with some clothing issues. Fluttershy stayed whilst Rarity left after they were finished. She’d been more open with me about how she felt being here every day, but despite today leaving a little patch of a grey-ish gloom over our heads, she still isn’t open enough to let me help her with some of her clothes.

I can respect that choice. Truthfully, I’ve not actually offered to help, just envisioned how it would go down mentally.

Today, we’ve had at least one encounter with some rudely entitled colts who think they can boss “lesser beings” around. Ironic, since we kinda did vice versa back on Earth. It’s strange, having almost human-like ponies, hmm… anthroponies if you will… and trying to belittle you as stuck up tw--

‘Cal, could you come here for a sec?’ Came Rue’s soft yet strong voice.

Her surprise question interrupted my thoughts perfectly before they could go anywhere else.

‘Yeah?’ I replied, an eyebrow raised as I peeked up from the magic book I forgot I was studying. ‘What’s up?’

‘Could you…’ She yawned, with a small “eep” on the end. ‘Could you carry me to bed? I’m too tired to take the wheels to that short-range portal machine.’

I knew exactly what she was meaning, but she’s never asked me to help her before. That was sometimes done with the other girls as well. I love how Rue has bonded with the eight girls.

‘What were their names again?’ I thought, as I carried her upstairs carefully whilst my thoughts flitted about. ‘Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Wallflower Blush, Starlight Glimmer... Wait a second, is my memory better than it used to be? I don’t recall being able to remember all of them so vividly and so easily.’

I left the thoughts to flutter away, for no better term, as she grasped around my neck. Our proximity was a new one. After reaching her bedroom door, I found my erubescent cheeks felt like they were burning strongly. Rue and I were definitely at the friend stage, but our bond just feels like it’s grown more than that.

After wishing her a good night’s sleep, and getting one in return, I felt a cozy and fairly warm glow form in my chest. Well, until it was replaced with a rather tingly, fluttery sensation. Of course, not like I’d been knocked out in a cartoon with stars, or birds around my head. Just like you felt like you had a crush, or were falling for someone.

Sure, we verbally flirted from time to time, but that was simply a platonic, mutual friendship. Probably like a pair of siblings who get along really well, regardless of what others think. But for those who don't know us, well, we liked to keep them guessing if we're siblings or not, just to keep our thoughts distracted.

I fell into a blissful sleep, hoping that tomorrow would be a better day for us. I wasn’t ready for the next step in this what-are-we-now stage of our friendship. If I could even dare to call it what I thought it was turning into; a growing love interest.

22 Hours Earlier...
The following morning, I awoke softly with a smile on my face. Only for a thick wad of something to thwack into the side of my head at the same time as a loud-ish crash reached my ears. I picked it up without looking at it, rubbed the side of my head and took a peek out of my open window. Well, the one that faced the road.

'Sorry, Mister!' A young voice, sounding sad and slightly hurt, called from below. 'I didn't mean to throw it that hard! I kinda got a bump and it kinda got thrown faster than I thought.' It was young Scootaloo, the little gir-- filly from the group of fillies who called themselves The Cutie Mark Crusaders.

'Are you okay though?' I yelled back just before I saw her with a faintly tear stained face, and her bike on top of her with lots of newspaper rolls sprawled around her.

'I'm fi-- no, I'm not fine...' She hesitantly replied, her tears flowing a little faster. 'My leg, it hurts.'

'Yeesh, talk about timing. I completely forgot the window was open. But I'm glad it was.' I thought to myself, after I closed the window and put on a temporary set of clothes.

I rushed downstairs loudly as I struggled to put a loose hoodie on, ignoring the zipper entirely as I opened the door and pounded my feet across the short section of grass. It was a bit of a struggle but eventually, I carefully pulled and pried Scootaloo's bike from her bruised legs, making sure she was okay and hadn't damaged her legs.

To make things worse, some snobby colt came trotting by and started sneering menacingly towards me. His deep blue fur a subtle shade brighter than the clothing he wore, I couldn’t help but sense his name was blue-related.

‘Oh look, the monkey has tried to trick a young foal into being helpful!’ He called out, the spoiled tone of his voice worse than the two from yesterday. ‘What’s the point of being nice when all you are is a weird looking, hairless ape that couldn’t care less for others than you do for yourself! You should be ashamed to be in the presence of us royal ponies in such atrocious attire! It’s not like y--’

‘OH SHUT-UP YOU BLUE-BLOODED, HALF-WITTED, ROYAL COAL-BAG AND LEAVE SCOOTALOO AND MY ALMOST-BOYFRIEND ALONE!’ Came the interrupting and extremely surprising screech from behind Scootaloo and I, which was so loud we both covered our ears and stared at each other.

To know that Rue had such a strong pair of lungs was astonishing. But the surprise that she dropped the B-word did feel a little embarrassing. After all, last time I thought of her as my girlfriend, it was just an afterthought. Or did I mention it? I don’t know, but either way, I know for a fact we’re both kinda falling for each other.

Back to the moment, I could feel a strongly growing, albeit indescribable pressure coming from Rue’s direction, followed by a loud, bodily thump. Once I looked over at the stuck-up colt, he was barely able to crawl, let alone hold himself up from the ground. I could immediately tell Scootaloo was having trouble as well.

‘What is that… thing, doing?! She’s going to kill us all!’ The spoiled colt screamed, as loud as he could just before I shakily made my way over to him and gave a solid, yet very sore left hook across his muzzle. Almost knocking him out completely, but he probably fell unconscious anyway from the odd pressure building around us.

I turned to face Rue and saw she was floating above her wheelchair. Her long dress whipped around her dangling legs as I stared in shock. A strong aura glowed around and off of her body, and clothes, as the black likes one could mistake for tattoos glowed in waves and sparkles of every colour from the rainbow. I was snapped out of my staring when I saw her eyes slowly widen in fear.

‘RUE! CALM DOWN!’ I yelled as loudly as I could muster, the magical pressure creating that same, indescribable static-like noise in my ears. ‘PLEASE! BEFORE ANYONE GETS HURT!’

I felt a tug then an immediate pull from inside my mind, then immediately realised who wanted to come out. I watched as I dropped whatever mental barrier that I unconsciously had up as a silver thread weaved its way down my arm and out of my palm, to a rotating white circle encompassing my wrist. The circle had odd symbols littered around it, almost as if I was summoning the BirchenWolf.

I barely registered the faint outline of a white, flat, runic circle around my wrist as I watched the BirchenWolf mother appear and put up a shield between Scootaloo, at least five other ponies nearby and that spoiled colt as she stood between Rue and I.

‘Master, her magic levels are increasing. You need to release her power from her by force, just like last time.’ She growled, but the words sounded like they were directly spoken to my mind.

‘How do I do that?’ I replied, keeping my voice loud enough for her to hear as I stepped closer and leant gently on her side.

‘Just focus on the strands, like last time, but aim them upwards this time. I sense destructive power with these ones.’ Her voice strained as she continued to focus on communicating whilst she kept her barriers around everyone.

I complied, as I felt for the magic with my free hand and my mind, the one without the silver strand flowing from it. I couldn’t feel the strands there, so I did the next thing that crossed my mind. I closed my eyes, focused on the pressure and reached out with my arm and tried something I’ve not done before; creating an inverted cone, the base aimed towards the sky.

I felt a skim of a strand touch the image I was using, then mentally grabbed it and aimed it upward. I did so with every strand I sensed pushing through my own magical barrier. Well, what felt like a magical barrier. It was almost unreal, how clear and crisp the image was. I opened my eyes only to see, and feel, Rue staring at me with wispy, yellow filled eyes. I saw a purple, rune covered cone surrounding her, the runes fading towards the visual “top” of the cone.

The pressure suddenly lifted and I don’t know how, but I felt and saw Rue’s magic build up and shoot skywards. The beam of silver-ish pink energy pierced the skies, before it coalesced into a ball and exploded.

I fell onto my knees, coughing heavily. I felt the corner of my mouth raise as I looked up at Rue, her eyes now back to normal, who now sat back in her wheelchair. She had a very thankful look in her eyes.

‘Thanks Cal. I didn’t think I could control it.’ She snivelled, her voice weak from what I guess Twilight would call an “influx of magic”. ‘I’m really sorry Scootaloo. Come, let’s get you inside.’ She simply nodded, desperate to hide her pain.

We made our way inside but as I closed the door, after helping Scootaloo with her arm slung over my shoulder, I spotted a broken, pavement-coloured but thought nothing of it as I closed the door. After all, any injuries take immediate precedence over pure speculation. However, I think her display of raw power may have tipped the scales ever so slightly.

Luck was slightly on our side though; Scootaloo loved the summoned creature I’m bonded with and suggested a name for her that the BirchenWolf found rather fitting. I then told her what the female Birchenwolf had said to me, as we all agreed on the name.

Nari.

14 Hours Earlier...
It took a good two and a half hours to calm Rainbow Dash down when she found out her sister had been injured no less than thirty minutes after the event transpired. Luckily, Applejack arrived with Rainbow to make sure she was kept in check. Rue had gone back to bed. Whatever just happened, didn’t just take it out a lot for me, but seemed to have an even stronger toll on Rue.

However, this wasn’t the last straw that tipped the scales. In the past two hours, stuck up colts and mares were the cause of so many negative comments and accusations about the two of us living just like everypony else. Luckily, Nari and her cub, helped to keep Scootaloo preoccupied whilst

Not like such luck could help with that Blueblood guy, who’d managed to coerce some guards to come and arrest both of us. Especially after Rue’s display of raw power earlier.

‘I wonder if Twilight knows how to teach her how to use that power of hers?’ I thought silently, as a rather, hmm… “heated discussion” ensued from beyond our front door.

‘So what’s the little guy called?’

That question bumped me out of my thoughts, briefly startling me. I couldn’t seem to remember naming the pup, but it must have come up at some point.

‘Honestly? I can’t remember.’ I replied, as I scratched my head.

I’d just finished my third coffee of the day, when I got an idea. I got up and pulled out a drawer from below the lounge table. Removing a piece of paper, I wrote some random ideas down for names, to see if it would jog my memory. Names like Gaeles, Leris, Ceres, Kowl, and Keos littered the page, hoping to come across the name I feel like I’d mentioned previously.

After writing all the ideas down, I went to sit by Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash when a large knocking barely obscured the soft din of verbal onslaught from outside. It came from behind the house. Rue and I shared a look of surprise, before I got up, being careful of Scootaloo’s damaged leg, which had annoyingly found its way onto my lap whilst I sat with her on the sofa.

‘Oh thank Celestia!’ Came the surprised voice of Sunset Shimmer. ‘I’m so glad you answered! Your front garden is covered in angry snobs and reporters.’ She stammered, making her way inside. ‘You have no idea what Twilight’s doing outside to keep them from barging in and taking your girl Rue there. Besides, to be blunt with you two, I was tasked to make sure none of them get inside.’ She added before taking a long breath, removing her leather-like jacket and sitting down on the smaller sofa beside Rue.

Her comment about Rue and I made our cheeks erubescent for a good minute or so, causing Sunset to chuckle at our expense when she noticed. The swarm of voices outside decreased a little, enough so I could finally hear my thoughts again, but it felt like it wouldn’t last long.

‘I have some idea, but I guess we’ll have to wait and find out.’ I replied, sitting down beside Scootaloo again.

‘Hey Sunset,’ Rue began, as she put her drink down in her wheelchair’s new cup holder. ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me.’ She asked, leaning forward as much as she could from her position.

‘Sure, go ahead!’ She answered, with a soft smile forming on her face. That’s when the strangest and shortest conversation between the two happened.

‘Do you know of the humans from a world on the other side of a mirror portal by any chance?’

‘Nope. Do you know any ponies like us from your world?’ All was silent, sans outside, until a giggle came from my left.

It left Rue a little speechless whilst Scootaloo just giggled loudly. Sunset slowly unable to hold back her knowing smile for any longer, joining Scootaloo with a whole-hearted laugh. Her cheerful laughter caused the rest of us to join in.

‘If it makes you feel better, I do know them and they’re all out of school now.’ Sunset replied, pulling out a geode from her shirt’s neckline. ‘I just wasn’t expecting humans to actually arrive in Ponyville without turning into ponies. I- well, Twilight and I have experienced a few issues with having duplicates of us after a cruise liner crashed, but nothing’s happened like that since then.’ That comment made Rue’s eyes widen into a pair of saucers.

‘I remember our world had Rainbow seeing the Storm King’s mark in the water before the whole ordeal went down! Was it the same for your friends over there?’ Effused Rue, fully focused on Sunset.

I tuned them out as I started to just let my mind wander to what’s going on around us today.

‘The day couldn’t get any worse, could it?’ I thought, biting a nail in the process.

Well. To make a long story short; it did. That Blueblood guy or whatever tried so hard to get the Royal Guards to take us in as prisoners for ruining his good looks.

‘Like he has any good looks.’ I added silently.

We were about to be outed as animals that didn’t deserve a house, when something incredible happened. All the sound disappeared, except for one voice. Well, maybe two, but I couldn’t be certain. The voices were hard to miss, especially in a crowd that big. I recall that I peeked out of the closed window and immediately closed it when about 50 ponies were corralled outside our house. Anyway, when the two voices shut the crowd up, I could see Sunset snap her head towards the front door at a speed just above what would be considered normal.

Within seconds of the ‘angry mob’ going silent, two muffled but authoritative voices could be heard corralling and guiding them away. After a painfully long two minutes, Twilight made her way inside. Rue must have given her the spare key when she visited earlier.

‘Cal? Rue? Where are you?’ She hollered into the house.

‘We’re in here, Twilight.’ Sunset replied. I noticed that she was fiddling with her hair. Sorry, mane.

‘Oh good, the back lounging area was a good choice. I can’t even hear most of them from here!’ Twilight gushed, before she realised that we hadn’t been introduced yet. ‘Oh, right, sorry! These are the Princesses. Cal, Rue, this is Princess Celestia.’

‘It’s lovely to meet you.’ she articulated. ‘Twilight’s told me a lot about your situation.’ She added, her eyes darting between me and someone to my left. I guess she was looking between Rue and I.

‘Well, first things first,’ Rue stated matter-of-factly. ‘You’re free to relax around us, like you do around Twilight when it’s just the two of you in the throne room. Or three, if you count Princess Luna. I don’t mind it if you’d like to complain about your roles either, we all need a break from time to time.’

The two figures, who were about a head taller than any of us in the room, possibly two heads for Scootaloo, didn’t really react to Rue’s statement. However, their slightly widening eyes that looked intently focused on Rue whilst Scootaloo nudged me and leaned to whisper.

‘That’s the first time somepony’s ever made both Princesses speechless!’ She giggled, whilst I caught her staring at Rue.

‘Well, Twilight told us you knew about things nopony else knew about, but for you to know that… well…’ Out of nowhere, both Luna and Celestia seemed to get flustered and, to my surprise, dropped a little in their shoulders whilst they lowered their guards.

‘T’is such a surprise for thou to let one relax around thee.’ Luna marvelled, before pulling out a blocky phone. ‘One struggles with the use of these devices from time to time…’ She hesitated, before she continued, relaxing into our normal speech patterns. ‘BUt I have no idea how I hear that you two have got devices from the world Sunset has briefly returned from.’

Even Sunset was surprised at this revelation. Rue’s eyes glossed a little, like she remembered something.

‘I had no idea you couldn’t use these phones!’ Sunset exclaimed quickly, interrupting Rue’s chance to jump into the conversation again. ‘Your counterpart over at Canterlot High is rather skilled in her use of a smartphone.’

‘Now that’s not such a big surprise. Seeing how I remember her not using her phone as much as Principal Celestia does, it goes to say that Luna will still be Luna, no matter what world she’s from.’ Rue teased, making us, including Luna and Celestia, laugh.

We all spent a good two hours sorting out the issues we’d had these past two days after that reveal. Rainbow Dash had left right as we discussed our situation to the princesses to get some help for Scootaloo.

This time, with help from who Rue, Sunset, and Twilight called the “Royal Sisters”, luck was definitely on our side. We quickly got word that Blueblood had unintentionally been behind Scootaloo’s crash on her morning job and had put the blame onto us to, and I quote, “keep his image clean”. Rue absolutely loved how the Cutie Mark Crusaders were a lot more grown up than their television counterparts.

We both shared a secret glance during the conversation, hoping that none of the others could sense our hidden, non-verbal conversation: ‘Let’s hope nothing worse happens than what happened earlier.’

2 Hours Earlier...
Hopefully, everything goes according to the plan we all came up with before our two hour lunch break. With a little help from Sweetie Belle, who came visiting Scoolatoo just half an hour before we set out, we were able to take Scootaloo back to her home. Afterwards, we got Rarity’s help in designing some... dare I say it, absolutely stunning outfits for the upcoming welcoming ceremony.

It wasn’t much, but we definitely got the ball rolling. We're both hoping, despite everything, that this was the last of our issues…

[12] Definitely NOT Some Unexpected Circumstances (Final Part)

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Present Day…

(Well, 30 minutes before, but you get the idea)

I was hoping I was right about that pompous colt not appearing at the Mayor’s pedestal, but I guess I was wrong. Just fifteen minutes ago, a mob came out of nowhere demanding that Rue and I be evicted from our home to “let somepony else” use it. I mean, come on, Twilight went out her way, with her friends too, to get that house created and designed for Rue and I!

Luckily, Sunset was more attuned to her magic here on Equestria than Rue previously thought and was able to cast a layered spell on top of us. How do I know? I overheard Rue ask her how she put a silence spell on top of a shield spell as we made our way through the taut crowd without being noticed. I would’ve listened in, but Sunset was pushing her, not me.

‘So Calvin, hear me out-’ Came a hyperactive voice from behind me. I tilted my head forward and rested it in my left hand, pinching my forehead in the process.

‘No thanks Pinkie, not until this is over. Please… just wait a little longer.' I groaned, interrupting her once again.

‘Well, I was just going to ask if you wanted a hug, seeing how you’re all sulky and upset.’ She beamed, whilst she twiddled with a part of her extremely fluffy-looking mane.

‘Go ahead.’ I replied, after a surprisingly reassuring side glance from Rue.

The hug was surprisingly calming; who knew Pinkie’s hugs were almost as calming as Fluttershy’s. Then again, this world was different in some way or another. After returning the hug, we found ourselves walking towards the Mayor’s central office. It stuck out in the centre of Ponyville like a sore thumb, but also didn’t draw attention to itself. Almost like the story of Twilight’s previous abode.

Twilight and Sunset helped to calm our nerves before Rue and I were to appear on stage. The days had gone rather quickly, the ones leading up to this very thing, and we were mostly read for what we were to reveal in front of everyone who not only lived here, but also those who have visited from out of town.

It was overwhelming yet incredible to witness so many ponies coming in from all over Equis. Luckily, Mayor Mare was there to guide us through how to present ourselves in front of so many ponies around us.

Because there were so many people around the place, the stage had to be put away, then we had to make our way inside, head upstairs and talk from an overhanging platform. It looked like it’s seen its fair use over the years. A noticeable path was beginning to show in the middle of the archway to a microphone-like stand by the slowly lowering railing.

‘Welcome everypony! To all the Mares, Colts, Yaks, Felines and all who have made their way to today’s incredible event, I will pass you on to the young mares who’d made this amazing discovery!’ Mayor Mare had exclaimed into the stand, the volume making Rue and I jump in our designated spots. Her voice is being amplified, despite not seeing any form of visible speakers or anything like them.

The questions started off simple, with questions directed at Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy. Sometimes Twilight or Rarity had to speak on Fluttershy’s behalf for those at the back of the extraordinarily large crowd. Luckily, Sunset stood by the two of us, as a request from Twilight to make sure we stayed calm, that we knew what our lines were going to be, and to not go off topic or start any verbal fights once we stood up to speak for ourselves.

After going over our small sheets with simple notes on them, beforehand, we were pretty much ready to converse with any of the reporters, when one question suddenly got yelled over all the others trying to get a grasp of Twilights previous answer: ‘Wait, so these so-called hairless apes aren’t apes at all? Then what else are they?!’

I was at a loss for the way they were treating us. The question all started blowing out of proportion even before we’d stepped up the podium, but that didn’t stop Rue by any means. I didn’t even know how short-tempered she was until right now. She’d always been so calm and rational. I personally didn’t have anything against it, seeing how we’d had this before.

Speaking of which, I’d been tuning out most of the speech, but something just seemed to click in my head. I suddenly found it insane that this has all but been an unusual bundle of coincidences. From one to the next, I still found it hard to believe that Rue and I were in the middle of a theatre-like platform, reporting ourselves to the people below.

In front of us, Princess Twilight and Princess Celestia attended to the deluge of questions that came from the crowd. This was an attempt to calm them down from their … How did Rarity put it? Oh right, their “Reporter’s High”.

‘How did it all come to this?!’ I thought, trying to make sense of what happened in the past two days for everything to lead to this. In fact, I think I noticed the guard just off to the side of him and his eyes glinted as we recognised each other.

Now that I mention it, I don’t remember seeing Applejack, Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash make their way upstairs until now. Well, except for Dash, who I saw flying down to the ledge from a cloud that looks a little too low in the sky.

If I was in a book right now, I’d probably do some fourth wall Deadpool thing and mention something about not much conversation being held, but I just feel so flabbergasted that all the ponies seemingly looked down on us. As luck would have it, Rue and I were given full citizenship from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

Somehow, this distilled the thought that we were nothing like the usually sentient creatures dotted around the lands.

‘Cal, did you hear?!’ Rue exclaimed happily, shaking my arm violently.

I was taken out of my dazed state of surprise, but still speechless.

‘Yay, goodie! Can we have that welcome party now?’ Beamed Pinkie Pie, grinning happily.

‘For sure, I don’t see why not now!’ Rue replied, patting my back as I dumbfoundedly half-smiled back at Pinkie.

I’m just glad I didn’t have to prove myself to the people of the world that I’m not just some stupid animals they can boss around.

I saw Rarity waving at a male feline in an auburn long-coat as Pinkie pushed Rue inside, with as much care as Fluttershy would. Seems like there’s a lot more consideration going on for Rue than for me. But that’s life I guess.

Pinkie Pie’s party was a blast. The cakes were delicious, the “Welcome to Ponyville” cake was absolutely humongous! The party had been put up in an old barn Applejack hadn’t noticed was on her farm before, despite once bragging that she knew all of the land in her family’s apple farm.

‘Thanks for the party Pinkie.’ I thanked Pinkie, giving her a genuine thumbs up as I bit down on yet another scrumptious cupcake, topped in a soft, pink cream and littered with tiny, ball-shaped blue sprinkles.

‘Don’t mention it! You looked like you needed a break from all that thinking you were doing earlier.’ She smiled, waving a hand in my direction.

Despite her having most of her television personality, this version of Pinkie Pie is a more controlled version of the Pinkie Rue knows. At least, that's what Rue thinks. I still wish I’d seen the show.

All was well when the party started. Only those who’d gotten to know Rue and I properly were invited, then as time drew on, only about five or so others came along to meet us. Despite Pinkie Pie getting this party set up for the two of us, she didn’t expand into inviting random ponies from the earlier arrival ceremony, which Rue and Sunset were dubbing “The Arrival Ceremony”.

Speaking of, I don’t remember much of what happened post mention of the two of us getting full citizenship, but we did finally get a chance to speak with the interviewers. Rue, the film and television show loving girl that she is, told me to use the technique that Judy Hopps and Leodore Lionheart used from Zootopia. Now that was a film I remember watching a little too often with my youngest sister.

It was also a rather big surprise not just to me, but to Rue too when Discord showed up with Fluttershy. They’d appeared upside down, walking down from the ceiling upstairs. Turns out whatever magic Rue and I are currently infused with, it was interfering with his Chaos Magic and instead of appearing in the centre of the party, he’d appeared a bit too close for comfort to the dangling light in Rue’s bedroom.

Fluttershy did manage to calm him down after the somewhat funny fiasco of finding himself impaled with a lightbulb. No idea why, but it seems like something normal, for the Lord of Chaos Supreme.

‘It’s not funny y’know.’ He’d replied, after everyone but Sunset and I laughed at the mental image of him turning into a lampshade.

However, he did end up being a lot of fun to be around. Once again, Rue took note of the differences between this Discord and his counterpart. This version of Discord calls himself a Chimera. Not a draconequus like on the show. His father had once ruled the Lands of Chaos before him, to the point that Discord’s brief introduction left him sharing a weird, almost photorealistic of him and his father, a true draconequus, having what looked like a selfie in a rather large room, almost like the fire-lathed world of Hades’ homelands from Earth’s religions.

Luckily, Discord had done away with the flames and despite it being all chaotic looking, he’d shown us how to navigate it with ease. Oh, right , Discord looks more human than his show version, but still has his counterparts’ multi-creature limbs.

After a few hours and numerous stories, the party had dwindled down to a few remaining party goers, . Rue and I eventually found ourselves together, holding hands, in a corner of the barn on a long curved sofa, courtesy of Discord’s powers. It wasn’t long before Rue fell asleep next to me, learning on my shoulder. I did end up falling asleep just minutes after her, despite wanting to stay away and enjoy the joyous atmosphere one last time. Just before I dozed off, I gave Fluttershy and Discord a warm goodbye as they walked into what looked like a depiction of a white hole, shaped like a door. Despite the two of them going back to Discord’s place, the sofa remained.

The fact that the sofa stayed whilst he was in another dimension reminded me of the extent of his powers.

Without realising it, the two of us had decided to snooze off into the dreamworld late into the following morning. I hadn’t even noticed that the party food, tables, chairs, streamers and such had all been cleaned away when I awoke to a warm, glowing sunrise the next day. I didn’t even know when we’d been covered with a warm quilt, but I’m glad it appeared.

Luckily the barn was weatherproofed and whilst we had slept soundlessly, I think I had been woken briefly in the night. If I could recall, I think it was the sound of muffled hoofsteps coming towards us. I can’t remember who it was that I felt I locked tired eyes with, but the warm quilt sent me back to sleep again.

Applejack’s sister had been the one to eventually come and get us, only to find us snuggled up and not wanting to move or get up. Rue had planted a soft kiss on my left cheek before she settled into a sitting position, smiling warmly. Nothing felt odd about the kiss and we’d just sat there on the sofa, until Rue eventually pulled an almost fully exposed arm out from below the quilt and pointed at her wheelchair silently.

Turns out we’d slept through most of the morning and it was now nearing lunchtime, and it wasn’t just a small spread either. The food was sprawled out across at least two, if not all of the entire table.

‘Woah,’ Rue exclaimed, as she wheeled herself towards the table. This one had bacon stacked up into a single pile as if for a beast, a small grouping of steaming eggs ranging from hard-boiled to “sunny-side-up” and a bowl filled to the brim of lettuce leaves, cucumbers, .

She didn’t even make it far, before I suddenly heard her stomach gurgle loudly. Then mine did the same. Last thing we expected was to have a food coma. Turns out last night was the tipping point that our bodies weren’t used to all that sugary food in such a short amount of time.

At least it was the last of our problems for the day. Especially now that we’re both official citizens. Let’s just hope we’re not caught up in this type of stuff anytime in the future.

After all, I’m looking forward to what comes next. If this world is as exciting as Twilight and Sunset say it is, I’m probably almost as excited as Rue is. Then again, probably not. The reason?

Rue’s the fangirl living out her wildest dreams... Whilst I'm just watching from the sidelines.

My Anthroponic Reincarnation Story [On Pause except for Summer]

by TheOneAndOnlyRhyanSparks

[1] Definitely NOT a Backstory

[2] Definitely NOT on Earth anymore...

[3] Definitely NOT the only humans.

[4] Definitely NOT panicking like crazy!

[5] Definitely NOT an Unexpected Arrival

[6] Definitely NOT Saving my Girlfriend

[7] Definitely NOT a Usual Day in Ponyville

[8] Definitely NOT Getting Some Answers....

[9] Definitely NOT Having an Unusual Morning

[10] Definitely NOT Some Unexpected Circumstances (Part 1)

[11] Definitely NOT Some Unexpected Circumstances (Part 2)

[12] Definitely NOT Some Unexpected Circumstances (Final Part)