After the ending of gen 4, a young brony that joined the fandom shortly after words, would looked forward to what the new generation will have in store. What he didn't count on was being dragged into a world unlike his own, and unlike the world he has knowledge of.
Boring, Just boring. That’s one thing I can say about my life. Always getting up, trying to find something to do, learning for college then getting back to bed. Sometimes on days like these you just want something interesting to happen, even if it was something incredibly small… It would at least be interesting.
I enjoyed watching gen 4 of my little pony, sure it’s for little girls, but hey I’m a lover of all kinds of animated shows. The characters were awesome and fun, the stories sometimes had good morals or just a good laugh and the world had such interesting lore. So seeing the ending of the series sucked and hearing that a new gen was coming made me quite anxious.
Just thinking about how they could mess up the show by focusing on the market aspect of the franchise and ignoring the story sent shivers down my spine. As the many reviews I sometimes read say: “A good story has more marketing sway than making the series into a commercial.” Maybe I’m being unfair to the new writers and talents coming in to work on the new gen, so I decided to wait and watch the movie when it was coming out.
So when it was released on Netflix, I was ready. I made myself some popcorn, a cold can of soda and got myself comfortable on the bed. I had this feeling that this would be my chance to experience what many of the gen 4 bronies experienced when they first watched the season premiere of friendship is magic.
Boy was I taken on a loop. For some reason the movie was glitching out on me. Different colors, static vision, cutting audio…it almost felt like it was being possessed by something. So naturally I got up, looked at it for a bit and tried to figure out the problem with my TV or WIFI. I did manage to see the beginning of the movie where they had a little animation sequence of the mane 6. Seeing our main character Sunny playing with them was a nice little throwback to gen 4 and an unexpected introduction too.
As her dad closed the door of his daughter's room, the TV turned completely black. I was really angry because I was hoping to see how the movie would turn out but as I headed to my router and the WIFI to see if it was a technical problem, I felt the air being pulled away from me. I turned around and stared in shock at my TV. Where the screen should have been was, what seemed to be, a portal.
It was consuming anything that wasn’t nailed to the floor. At least that was what I thought at first. I started to be pulled into the void, grabbing the door to not get sucked into the portal. I was completely scared out of my mind and before I lost my grip I screamed: “What the heck is going on here!?“. Those were my last words before I was flung into the void.
When I was in it, I saw light at the other side of where I got sucked in. Feeling myself being pulled into the light, I thought to myself: “what is happening to me!? And why me of all people?“. Little did I know that this was the beginning of something new. My wish of something interesting happening came true and now I got a chance to explore a world just waiting to be explored and discovered!
After waking up from my trip of flying through who knows what, the first sight I saw was a lighthouse off in the distance. It was a sunny day that felt much like a spring day and a town not too far off could be seen as well. As I was getting up and standing on my two legs, I instantly fell on my back. I thought to myself:“Wait…that can’t be right.” I then tried to move my hands and feet. “Nothing. What’s going on?”. I raised my arms to my face only to reveal… hooves? “Hooves!” I shouted. I used them to feel my face and body: A snout on my face, ears pointing upwards and something on my back? Wings, bat wings to be precise and fangs in my mouth. “I’M A PONY!!!”
Of course I panicked a bit, trying to figure out how and why I was a pony. I’m sure anyone would’ve panicked too if they suddenly turned into a pony as well. I slowly calmed myself down, figuring I might as well learn how to properly move this new body before I’d make myself look like a complete fool. I stood on all fours for the first time, feeling a little off balance and almost falling onto my side. I quickly got my balance back though and started to walk around a bit. Sadly, that was a little tricky and I tripped over my own hooves multiple times. I was glad no one was watching me or I would’ve died of embarrassment.
About ten minutes later, I could finally walk without tripping most of the time and I started practicing running around a little bit. Just in case if I ever found myself in some tight spots. After that I wondered if I should practice flying a little bit, seeing as I have wings and to be perfectly honest: Flying around is so much more fun than using magic or having strong muscles. Surprisingly it worked. Feeling the air ruffling your mane, having a bird‘s eye view of the land beneath you? It all felt so free and liberating.
After a while I started to hear screams from the town not too far from where I was at. I immediately thought the town was under attack by something and feeling like I should help out in any way I could, I flew over to the town looking out for any monsters or ponies that were hurt or trapped. From up above I spotted two ponies that were running through allies and everyone seemed to be hurrying away from them. “Ok, what’s going on here?” I mumbled when I saw them back in the open and the unicorn being caught inside what seemed to be a metal box.
“It’s Ok, the unicorn has been caught. You may now cheer.”
After an earth pony said that, everyone started to cheer on command. This was getting so confusing. Did the unicorn do something wrong and why is everyone here an earth pony? Weren’t there any pegasi or unicorns around here? I was torn out of my thoughts when I saw another earth pony walking towards the box. The one who seemed to be in charge saw her too and shouted in a warning tone:
“Sunny!”
That was it, I needed some answers and someone was going to give them to me. I flew down and landed near the metal box. I looked at both of them.
“Sorry to interrupt but I need some answers on what’s going on here. What is this town, who are you two and why is there a unicorn trapped inside this metal box?”
To say I got mixed messages would be an understatement to say the least. The pony on my right looked at me with fear and caution, while the one on my left was curious and awe struck when seeing me. I guessed her name was Sunny going by what the male pony said to her and maybe she could show me around and fill in any of my questions… at least I hoped so.
“Y-your a pegasus!” Sunny said with a bit of a stutter while everyone else began to scream again, running away from me now and acting like I was some sort of monster.
“You stop right there! By the order of sheriff Hitch of Maretime bay, you are under arrest.”
Now I was completely confused and a bit angered to be honest:“Under arrest on what charge!?”
“For being a pegasus!”
“WHAT!!! That can’t be a real law, that doesn’t make any sense!”
“Well, it’s how it is here in Maretime bay and I suggest you turn yourself in.'' Hitch said, walking closer towards me. I pressed the button to let the unicorn inside out, though even she looked a little scared of me. Ok, now I was starting to take this a little personal but first getting away from the crazy sheriff, then getting some answers.
“Does one of you two know what to do now?” I asked, waiting for one of them to come up with a plan.
“I-I do, this way, we’ll go to my house.” Sunny said as she started running with the unicorn following right behind her. I beat my wings and flew behind them, looking back to see the sheriff pointing at us but thankfully a pony next to him slid his way into the same metal box the unicorn was in mere moments ago, kind of smiling a bit as he did that. I got the feeling that he was quite a coward.
A few minutes later, we entered the same lighthouse I saw earlier. To my surprise was it Sunny’s home. One look inside and I saw some maps, drawings and artifacts that seemed familiar to me. When I took another look at one of the maps, I saw one that showed Ponyville, Canterlot and Cloudsdale.
“I can’t believe it! A unicorn and a pegasus are in my house. This is so cool! Wait no, this is bad. Very, very bad! They are in my house. This is so fascinating.”
I looked at Sunny as she was staring at both me and the unicorn. The unicorn walked up to her: “Do earth ponies also like staring contests?” She started to look her directly in the eyes, acting like this was indeed a staring contest. Then she blinked and playfully declared:“Ah, you win, I blinked!“
“Um, excuse me, Sunny, right?” She nodded and I sat down on my hind legs. “Would you mind telling me what’s going on here? Why is everyone afraid of me and her? And why does everyone think I’m a pegasus? I’m a thestrial, a bat pony.”
“Wait, a bat pony? What are they?” Sunny asked curiously.
“You know, bat ponies. We are devoted followers of Lady Luna, our moon goddess.”
“Lady Luna?”
“Princess Luna, Sister of Celestia, Alicorn Ruler of Equestria, though I guess now it would be Twilight Sparkle.”
“Who’s Celestia and Who’s Twilight?”. When sunny said that, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. At this point, I was thinking she was joking or was trying to pull a prank on me.
“Ok, stop messing around Sunny, this isn’t funny. Twilight Sparkle is the princess of friendship, an alicorn for crying out loud. You even have her cutie mark here on your wall, see?” I pointed at the poster of twilight’s cutie mark, emphasising my point.
“Those were made by my father. He was researching ancient equestria and told me all the 3 pony tribes were once united.”
“Well of course they were united! pegasi worked on the weather, unicorns worked on the magic and earth ponies worked on the land. Bringing harmony to all three tribes. That‘s also what hearts warming eve is all about.”
“Hearts warming eve?”
I started to realize she wasn’t joking and was being completely serious. My ears folded down and I looked at her. “Y-you really don’t know, do you?” I stared down, feeling lost and nearly more confused than I ever was before in my life.
“So, what’s your name, mr. bat pony?” the unicorn spoke up, catching me off guard and shifting my attention fully to her.
“Call me…Snow Comet. And you are?”
“The name is Izzy Moonbow, nice to meet you!“ she extended her hoove towards me and I did the same, making a simple hoove shake.
“Alright, Izzy, I have so many questions for you, let me get my journal.” Sunny ran around the house, getting her journal and moving some stuff away from the table to make room for it.
“Ok, first off, where do you live, Izzy?”
“Bridlewood.”
“Bridlewood? Where‘s that?” I asked, trying to get a grasp of this new world and learning about these two ponies.
“Oh, it’s a forest that’s about a day or two from here.” Izzy commented, smiling brightly at me as I started to cheer up a little from the fact that the last generation seemed to be ancient or something similar to a make believe.
“I knew it! Second question: do you really live in trees? Do you like pizza? If so, what toppings? If not, why not?” Sunny then went wide-eyed and threw a can full of beans onto the floor. “Oh, can you make this levitate?”
We all looked down and Izzy happily replied: “No, but I can do this!” She scooped up the can and started hitting it, keeping it up in the air, then opening it for the beans to spill onto the floor with the can falling on top of the heap shortly after. “Ta da!”
I chuckled a little. The sight of Izzy just being wholesome was incredibly cute and funny, though Sunny started to feel let down by something.
“You don’t have any magic-”
“Sunny Starscout!” We heard a mic, though it was more like it was screeching afterwards, hurting my ears a bit and it definitely seemed like it hurt hitch’s as well. Sunny walked over to see what was going on and behold: The sheriff and his deputy were here.
“Sunny Starscout! I know you’re in there with the unicorn and pegasus. Come out with your hooves up in the air and surrender.”
We heard the deputy talking, saying they had us surrounded. At this point, I was starting to miss the royal guards. Sure, they were idiots but at least they were trying and not embarrassing themselves… well most of the time anyways.
“You are under arrest, Sunny! I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Oh, this is bad! Tell me: how sneaky are you two?”
Izzy said medium sneaky, and I said pretty good at it, seeing how I can fly and all. “Perfect, I’ll go distract them while you two sneak out of the back door.”
Izzy rolled her eyes and told her to relax, she’d just talk to them. Sunny and I both thought at the same time:“that’s a bad idea.“. Before we could get her back inside though, she was already talking to them.
“Hey guys, now I know what you're thinking…“
Seeing the deputy wearing whatever it was on his head and reacting to that statement with fear, I was at a loss for words at this point. I wanted to bang my head against this wall, trying to make sense of this crazy world. But seeing him running away and saying he’ll get some reinforcements, both Sunny and I bolted out the door, running away from the sight of the sheriff. Off in the distance I heard him complaining. A chuckle escaped me and I was very tempted to add salt to the wound. This crazy journey could be fun and who knows? Maybe I’d discover what happened here. One thing was sure: with Sunny and Izzy by my side, it’d be exciting no matter what happend!
All three of us ran towards the outskirts of town and towards the open lands. I gotta say: the plains were beautiful and the scent of nature was nowhere near as noticeable as back home.
“So, you don’t have any magic?” Sunny ran next to Izzy who just looked back at Sunny with a bright smile.
“Nope!”
Sunny stopped dead in her tracks, catching her breath and sitting down on her haunches, looking at Izzy disbelievingly. Both of us stopped as well, wanting to comfort the obviously distraught Sunny. “Well if it makes you feel any better, we did have it at one point…and then POOF! It was gone. Everypony thinks the pegasi had something to do with it but…” Izzy trailed off.
Sunny got up with a look of loss and confusion plastered on her face. “I’m on the run with a unicorn with no magic and a pegasus who’s actually a bat pony… what’re we gonna do?”
Izzy came up to her and me and began to…sniff the both of us. Perplexed, I asked: “Um, Izzy, what are you doing?” I was going to need an adult sooner rather than later… Wait,I am an adult.
“You two don’t smell.” Sunny replied with a thanks but then she and I just looked at her with bewilderment. “I was told you earth ponies and pegasi-”
“I’m a Thestrial!”
“Oh right! Anyways, I was told you smell like rotten food and fish, not to mention that you are not the brightest crystals in the forest.”
“And what do they say about pegasi, Izzy?” I asked with a bit of regret. If they already saw the earth ponies like that, what would they see the pegasi as? I may not be a pegasus but I do believe that birds of a feather flock together.
“That you were bruts, always scary and that you would eat your young!”
“Charming” Both of us said in unison, thinking exactly that this was beyond gossip. “Alright, so that’s it. We’re gonna go on an adventure! We’re going to zephyr heights!” Sunny presented her journal to us, showing a map of Maretime bay, bridlewood and zephyr heights.
“The pegasus city? But they are bad news.” Izzy said with a bit of worry in her tone. We both gave her a reassuring smile to ease her worries.
“Don’t worry, Izzy! Earth ponies were wrong about unicorns. Maybe unicorns are wrong about pegasi. They could welcome us with open wings!” Sunny assured, believing that it was time to finally meet some actual pegasi.
“Then let's get a move on, ladies! I wanna see this city for myself. Maybe they have some answers which, by the way, I’m still gonna get and maybe you can learn something from me too on the way there, Sunny.” I said happily.
As we traveled through the lands, I couldn’t help but admire the beautiful plains and open, blue skies. I felt so free, so alive in the beautiful lands of spring in Equestria. I wanted to fly off, soar through the skies and explore the many areas this world had to offer me…but first I would stick to the group and learn more about my situation here.
“So, Snow…would you mind if I asked you some things?” Sunny asked as dusk was setting in and the shadows began to grow longer. Looking back, I nodded. She smiled and asked her first question: “Would you mind telling me more about this ‘princess Luna’ and about thestrals?”
“Of course, Sunny! Luna was an alicorn who controlled the night. She and her sister Celestia were supposed to rule together for princess Celestia controlled the sun. As thestrals, we were closer to the night than our fathered brethren. Pledging our loyalty and lives to her, we are eternally grateful for Luna calling us ‘her little ponies‘!“
“Her little ponies?”
“That’s right! Celestia called all the ponies in the land her little ponies but she never cared about us that much. Or at least that’s what we were led to believe. Luna came to us in our dreams, promising us a hopeful future when we were in such a cold and lonely existence. We became Luna's night guards, defending her and protecting the lands during the night.”
“Wow. So Luna must be very important to thestrals.”
“Yes, she is our alicorn goddess of the night.” I said with my hooves pumped out, as if it was a salute to her name. “Then you won’t mind if I ask: where do thestrals live? I know now the unicorns live in bridlewood, the pegasus live in zephyr heights and even earth ponies live in Maretime bay.” Sunny asked while writing some things down in her journal.
“That’s a good question, Sunny!…I have no idea.”
“WHAT?! Then how are you here? No, in fact, why are you here, Snow?”
“That’s a mystery on it’s own. One minute, I was at home, relaxing after another mundane, boring day. The next thing I know, a portal appeared out of nowhere and sent me to Maretime bay!“
“Ok, but that still doesn’t explain why you don’t know where you're from, Snow…”
“She got me there! I could say I have amnesia but then she’ll think I’m making all this stuff up.“ I panicked inside. Then I remembered something. I always enjoyed reading fanfics from the bronies in the fandom, so I’d use one of their head cannons.
“Well, that is actually pretty simple, Sunny. You see, thestrals thrive in the dark, so we prefer living in areas where it’s dark. Most of us live in caves while others live in jungles and arctic lands. I was born in a cave, so I can’t tell you where I'm from because I don’t know where it is on your map!”
“Oh, that does explain some things, I guess. I’m still going to learn more about thestrals though. Maybe they too can be our friends!” Sunny had the most optimistic face I had ever seen when she said that. To be honest, it actually sounds nice. Having thestrals working together with the other 3 tribes, discovering the world they were living in together. I just hoped thestrals were real…otherwise there’d be so many questions about me.
“You learn more about thestrals, I learn more about the land and its history. I think we can discover more than we would’ve thought. Though speaking of history: what’s the story behind the sheriff?”
“You mean Hitch?”
“That’s his name, huh. Well, yeah. Why did he try to arrest me for being a pegasus, even though I’m a freaking bat pony?“
“Oh, he’s always like that. He takes being sheriff way too seriously. But deep down? He is kind and caring. He’s my only friend in Maretime bay.”
“Wait! Why?”
“No pony believes me when I tell them we were friends with the pegasi and unicorns once. They think we’re enemies. Always saying that there was a huge battle between the three races.”
“B-but that doesn’t make any sense! Twilight or the bearers of the elements would’ve tried and stopped them. And the windigos would’ve frozen the lands over until they were nothing but wastelands!”
“Winda what?” Sunny asked with a look of confusion on her face which I have seen so often in the last few hours.
“Nevermind! I have so many questions but I’ll ask them later. We should rest for today. Zephyr Heights is just a few hours away.”
We all decided to sleep a bit early, though I stayed up a little, looking at the mountains with determination.
“I hope the pegasi can give me some more information because this is getting more and more confusing by the second...”
“And you will get them, my friend.”
That voice! It sounded so familiar and close by. When I turned around though, I just looked at Izzy and Suny sleeping.“Maybe I’m more tired than I thought…I should relax a bit more and rest.“ Those were my last thoughts before I drifted into the dreamworld