> Gold Just Stands Out...
>  by G 5-1-6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> What The Hell?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

You are at a bar, drunk, and with some other people at a table. It has been 2 months since you have turned 21, so to celebrate, you decided to go to your first bar. During your time there you met some people who wanted to play a game with you,  and what better way to ruin friendships than a good classic game of UNO.


“Get plus 4’d dude.” One of the men said making you the next one to choose, you decide to wait and get the 4 cards. “I pick yellow as the color.” The man says again after you drew your cards.


“You mean gold, right?” You say, loopy from the beer.


“Boy what you talkin’ bout?” The dude across from you on the table says, “That is clearly yellow.”


While yes, he is true. But gold has been your favorite color ever since you were 15, at that age your mom passed away and since her favorite color was gold, you changed your favorite color to that to keep a part of her always with you. 


It was your turn again, you were about to place a card down when you felt the chair below you go away. At first you thought someone snatched it and anger grew in your mind, you put your arms to the ground to catch yourself until you fell that below you there… is no ground as well. What the hell? You think to yourself as you fall through the hole and the men stand up, confused. Instead of falling through the hole and hitting the foundation below, you keep on falling, it’s like a big tunnel appeared below you. You are more confused about how this happened than scared. Soon you feel a wave of pain as your back hits something and then you black out. Damn it you think in your mind before succumbing to the pain and becoming unconscious.


You regain consciousness as you feel breathing on your face. You open your eyes just to be met with bright lights hurting your eyes making everything a blur, but what confused you was that you also saw a gray-ish blur jump back to the other side of the room with an audible yelp. As your vision comes back you can see yourself in a different room than the bar you were just at, it seemed to be the back room of a place, judging by packages all over the place you could be in a post office but why would you be in one if you were just at the bar.

You turn your head to face the blur you saw jump across the room and you see…you don’t know what you see, it’s definitely not a human, that’s for sure. It appears to be a short animal on four legs; it even has a mane and tail, a horse? Maybe, but it looks a little small to be a horse, maybe a pony? You then notice the two wings on the creature's side and your mind is stumped, Last time I remember, horses didn’t have wings, your brain says as you pay attention to the symbol on their butt. 7 bubbles were on the pony’s butt, you are confused before remembering that some horses were branded by farmers so you assume they belong to a farmer nearby.

You then see their big eyes and you realize that the pony seems too cartoony for the horses you know back home, you also see that they had big…golden..pupils. Your mind is actually happy for the first time since you came here, but the pony’s eyes look weird, they aren't facing the same direction, one looking at you, and the other looking at the ceiling. Their eyes lock on to yours as they make another yelp in surprise, it hurts your ears at the same time you get drowsy because of the beer.


“Uh, hello?” You say trying to calm her down, the pony gets shocked as soon as you speak.


“You, speak? W-What are you?” The pony said in a calm but disturbed voice.


“Yeah, I can speak. I have questions too but, I am a human, by the way you look, I assume you’re a pony?” You say as you get up and the pony’s ears droop when they see your height.


“Y-Yeah, I’m a pony. Can you sit down please? I-I'm scared.” The pony says, trying not to run away.


You sit down trying not to scare the pony as you hear other voices outside the back room, maybe more ponies? The pony calms down as they get a little close while cautious at the same time.


“M-My name is Derpy, Derpy Hooves. Well, Derpy is what most people call me because…” She goes silent before shaking her head and holding out her hoof, a handshake? You assume they call her Derpy because of her crossed eyes. You hold out your hang and shake her hoof, you can feel short fur on her smooth skin before letting go and bringing your hand back.

“Well, nice to meet you Derpy. Now can you answer me some questions?” You say before looking around again, thinking of them in your head.


“Yes, ask me anything, well not ANYTHING.” Derpy says in an adorable manner as her nose scrunched up.


“Well, first off, where am I?”


“You are in the PonyVille post office, I work here!” Derpy says, showing the bags hanging off her sides. You were so drunk you didn’t notice them till now.


“Ponyville?” Such a creative name… you say sarcastically in your head. 


“PonyVille is the town we are in right now. It is a large central place in Equestria, the world we are in!”


“Uh, then where is Earth?” You question your low knowledge of geography from high school.


“Earth? What is that place, well, that would explain why you are different. You must not be from here. Wait! Pinkie Pie can throw an awesome party!” Derpy said jumping up and down like a kid going to a McDonalds, wait, MORE PONIES? You say in the back of your mind. You already knew this was going to be a long day, man, what you would do for a nice bottle of beer right now.
> Things Get Worse
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hooves!” You hear from the voice outside the front door, both of you turn to the door as you hear footsteps getting closer. Oh Crap.


“Quick! Hide in the closet!” Derpy whispers as she points towards the door behind you. You enter the closet and find out it is a dark walk-in closet with many dusty boxes and letters, you find two big boxes to the left of you so you hide behind them and the boxes cover you up while crouching and you can hear outside the closet.


“Yes boss?” you hear Derpy say to the other voice as the other door opens. The rest you hear is muffled voices before both of them walk out, close the door, and now you’re in silence.


“Well well well… “ You hear a voice say, you look around and the voice laughs to your confusion.


“What the hell? Derpy? Is that you?” you say with silence again greeting you except the voice.


“She’s just using you for her advantage, they will use your kindness to make them feel better. Don’t believe the lies they tell yo-” 


“Listen here!” You interrupt, “I don’t know who you are, but she is just trying to help me because I’m in this new world! I trust her, she is nice.” Your anger is starting to boil up, you have to stay quiet because you hear footsteps all around the post office.


“You seem to be calm, but how is your voice clear if you’re drunk?”


“We made a deal so that every time someone lost a game they took a shot. I don’t know why I'm not drunk yet if it was…..” You trail off thinking to that day, you remember before the game starts and you made the deal of the shots you saw that the bottle looked different. Your mind clicks the two together. Oh come on! They must have thought I was weak, so they gave me a bottle of Soju! Your mind said as your anger is replaced with fatigue, you need rest, you haven’t gotten it since last night and it seems to be getting late. You close your eyes.


“Don’t trust them!” You hear the voice remark, before you can say anything, you fall asleep.


***


Your mind connects to the world as you open your eyes and find yourself in the closet. So it was not a dream you think, of course I wasn’t dreaming, her hoof felt real. You blush slightly by the way you worded that. You duck behind the boxes as you hear the closet door open.


“You can come out of hiding now. Don’t worry, I didn’t bring anyone.” You can hear Derpy say, you calm down as you hear the pony’s voice. You stand up as you see Derpy hopping back in surprise. “Look, I don’t think you can go outside without causing chaos, I think your only option is to stay here. Don’t worry, I will bring you food every day and no pony goes in here  except for me.”


“So you are just going to leave me here with these dusty boxes and nothing to do?” You question trying not to be too aggressive.


“Look, I’m sorry, but there really is no other option. If anypony sees you they might freak out.” Derpy said give you a plate, the plate had some bread and some meat on it. Well, better than nothing I guess. 


“Thanks Derpy.” You say and she smiles back. “But, what's with your ey-” You aren't able to finish that sentence before Derpy runs out the closet door with tears in the back of her eyes. I messed up, real bad, you want to go after her but she is right, you don’t know what the other ponies would do to you. So you just sit down and eat your food while feeling like the worst person in the world.


The day goes by in Equestria, you wait there and try to listen to ponies talking to not be bored, but most of them are quiet and just come to the post office to send and take letters. You get food in the morning, at noon, and before the office closes for the day but every time you get food Derpy just puts the food in the closet and leaves. Derpy, I’m so sorry, you never had time to say that as she always leaves right after dropping the food off.

One day, things were different, when Derpy walked in the closet to drop off the food, another pony walked into the back room. Man.


“Hooves!” you hear as footsteps get closer to the closet. “What are you doing going into the closet, and WHY DO YOU HAVE FOOD WITH YOU? YOUR BREAK IS IN 15 MINUTES!” Derpy’s boss says, practically yelling at this point.


“U-Uh boss! I uh uh..” You can hear Derpy say trying to think of something. Oh no, you can’t let Derpy get in trouble just because of you. Then you think, you have been using Derpy this entire time because you appeared in her world. Well, there goes more of your self esteem as you feel even worse now, but you don’t want Derpy to get in trouble because of  you. So, you decide to do something bold.


“Ey! Don’t yell at her like that!” You say as you get up from your hiding spot, Derpy looks at you with a NOT NOW! Look on her face as her boss looks at you with horror. She seems to have a horn coming out of her head and is more of an orange color.

“WHAT THE HELL!?” You hear the pony scream before her horn glows and now there is a bright projectile going to your face Oh crap, the beam of energy hits you in the face as you back hits the wall as you black out. 


“Oh what a show! That was so funny!” The random voice says, trying not to laugh, “You really are stupid aren’t you?” the voice teases. Then you think, why did I do that? Now your secret is revealed and now ponies might experiment on me, and even worse Derpy might get fired because of this. I really am a terrible person.
> Apologies and Ponies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

You stood there in the void, darkness was all around you, and there you stood, right in the center. No noise except for your breathing, you stood there thinking about what you did, you know your actions have consequences, but man, you don’t care about your consequences, all you care about is knowing what’s happening outside your body.


“Are you just going to stand there in silence?”  The voice teased seeing how there was nothing else in this black void.


“Shut it alright!?” You yell back, “I’m in a world I do not understand and your comments aren’t doing anything you’re trying to do! So how about you show yourself and get this over with!?”


After that, you hear footsteps, and it’s getting louder, before you can do anything your mind is brought back to the real world as you wake up. You now feel yourself on a more comfortable surface than the closet floor you are used to, it feels like a bed and your back is heething a sigh of relief. You can also hear scratches, like someone writing. You open your eyes to see that you are now on a bed and in a library. What The He-

You couldn’t finish that thought as you hear the writing sound stop and you hear a gasp.


“Oh! You’re awake!” You hear a voice say, you never heard it before and turn to find a pony with notes and a pencil. The pony you see seems to be a purple and lavender unicorn with a sorta stary design on her butt. “You’ve been out for quite a while, so where are you from? I have never se-”


“Look if I answer that you wouldn’t believe me.” You interrupt causing the pony to look with shock and confusion. “All I want to know is what the hell is going on, and where Derpy is.” That last part came out even if you didn’t intentionally want to say that.

“Ooo, you are so worried over that little parasite. Trust me when I say that they are going to use you, you can escape, the door is right behind you.” You try not to speak to the voice and instead just sigh in anger.


“You're not from here, aren’t you? I suspect you’re from the beyond.”


“The what?” With that the unicorn showed you a map and as you suspected. It was not the maps of Earth you know.


“This is a map of Equestria, we are here.” She said, pointing to a part labeled ‘PonyVille’. “I suspect you are from here, correct?” she said before pointing to somewhere near the top of the map labeled ‘into the beyond’. You can’t get anything out as you hear footsteps from behind you, both of you turn to see a familiar pony walk in before looking at you and smiling and jumping into you and giving you a hug.


“You’re okay! I was so worried!” Derpy said with tears in her eyes. You get her off of you, thinking of your apology.


“Hey, I’m sorry that I blew my cover, I should have stayed down.” You say trying not to look into her golden eyes.


“No! Your heart was in the right place. I’m glad you cared enough to try and defend me. Because you were revealed, now I am suspended from my job for 2 da-” She was saying to you before your mind snapped.


“What!?”


“It’s alright, I’m just glad you’re okay.” She smiles at you and you smile back and didn’t realize that the unicorn was there the entire time. She cleared her throat, reminding you two that you weren’t alone, you blush slightly as you realize that. Then you hear the door open again, you see a bright pink mare with poofy hair walk in.


“Hey Twi! I heard a new voice, '' the pink pony said before squealing when seeing you. “OH! THAT’S WHO!” She said before running off.

“Oh dear.” The purple unicorn says.


“What is she going to do?”


“She always throws a big party anytime there is someone new here.” Derpy looks at you with a smile.


“That was the Pinkie Pie I told you about earlier.” It didn’t matter about that though, all you thought was the party. Your entire life you have not been good with parties, you don’t like large crowds and you would rather prefer being alone with your thoughts. This party is going to make the crap hit the fan.


“You don’t have to be in the large crowd if you just escape.” “No matter what you try and believe you know I'm right. Once the ponies use you for their gains, don’t come crawling back to me.”

"̶I̴'̴m̸ ̷t̷h̶e̸ ̷o̴n̷l̵y̶ ̶o̸n̴e̸ ̸w̷h̴o̸ ̶c̴a̵n̶ ̷h̸e̴l̶p̷ ̶y̸o̵u̸ ̸i̴n̴ ̵t̴h̸i̵s̷ ̵w̴o̶r̴l̶d̴!̷"̶
> Gold Amongst The Gray
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

You were only 15 years old when it happened, your mom had called in sick from work a few weeks ago and she had gotten worse over time. Since it was a day off you were lying down on the couch scrolling through your phone. You heard your mom fall off the bed and started coughing violently, you quickly came to her side as you saw the woman with blood coming out of her mouth.


“Mom!” You say trying to get her up, she stands up and tries not to worry you.


“It’s okay,” She wiped off the blood, “I’m going to be okay, don’t your friends want to hang out?” You knew this trick where parents made you try not to worry by acting fine, but you were no child at this point. But then your phone rang, after picking it up your friends had an emergency on their hands. So you left your mom in her room, alone in the house since dad was at work, she stayed in that old house, where her last breath would take place.


Your mind reels as the day flashes into your mind at the time Pinkie left. You looked around in fear to again find yourself in the library.

“So where is this party going to be?” The unicorn said with a sigh.

“The first time I saw him was when he appeared in the post office, so I think it will be here.” Derpy said in that adorable voice. Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes, she looked at you with a questionable and angered expression.


“Where are you from? I don’t want to have another party in my house.” The unicorn said, you just stare at her, trying to think of an answer.


“I’m….” You trail off, you don’t want to lie but you worry they will not believe you if you tell the truth. “It’s a tough question, I don’t I’m on my home planet anyway.” You say you cover your mouth as your mind slipped and accidentally said that last sentence.


“Great. Just great! You really are stupid aren’t you? What is stopping you from listening!?  I am trying to help you out!”


“What?” Derpy said sitting in front of you to focus on you more. The unicorn also got curious and walked up to you as well. You really didn’t want to say it but you thought of a solution.


“Look, I’ll explain after the party. I don’t come from anywhere so the party is going to have to be here. That’s all I’m telling you.


After you said that, you hear a crash from the front door as all three of you look towards the noise. Pinkie came back into the library with a giant cannon WHAT THE-? You aren’t able to finish that thought as the cannon fired right at your chest, the confetti launched at your heart as your chest burned. You flew up and forward with the blast, but instead of hitting the hard wooden floor like you expected, you found yourself on a bed in a different place.

You got up as much as you could with your chest feeling like death and saw a purple lizard notice you and run away while screaming down the stairs. You hear footsteps and Derpy and the unicorn both find you in the bed. The purple lizard hid behind the unicorn’s front leg while pointing at you in fear.


“T-Twilight! What is that THING?” The lizard said while looking at the unicorn Twilight huh? Your mind slowly slips as the pain in your chest slows your breathing down so much you collapse, the last thing you see before blacking out is Derpy  running towards you with worry.


You stood in the field, the field of a gray world. Everything was gray, the sky, the ground, everything. You got up and started walking in a random direction, the farther you got the more distorted the landscape became. Eventually the landscape was sharp and rigid shapes all around you. You saw something in the distance from where you stood. It was a bright golden light, floating and glowing in beauty. The light began going away as you chased, the land becoming more and more dangerous as you tried not to cut yourself.

The light stopped in front of you as the gray landscape turned into a gray void. Silhouettes of ponies gathered around you as they started closing in on you with laughing faces. But amongst the empty void and enclosing figures far off in the distance, you saw your mom. Staring at you with a neutral expression. You ran up to her as fast as you could. Right as you got up to her, she started to fade.


“No matter what you do, you need to make a difference.” You mom in front of you said before turning to Derpy but her eyes were all golden, her pure golden eyes staring at you. “Show them who you are.” The figure said before you felt yourself pulled into a black void instead.

You felt your hearing and strength come back, you knew that you were waking up.


Your eyes opened up and you were on the bed again where you last were. You question that as you see that all the lights are off, and it’s incredibly quiet. Where is everyone? You stand up and notice that there are some bandages on your chest from the cannon. As you walk downstairs it gets even quieter somehow. You stand at the bottom of the stairs, looking into the dark. Oh no… you knew what was about to happen.


“SURPRISE!” You hear from many voices as the light turns on and now there are many ponies, balloons, confetti, and lots of desert along with food. You almost fall over as your heart rate increases. You then see all the ponies spread around to talk to each other as the music ringed in your ears. You then see Twilight walk up to you with an annoyed look.


“Follow me to the couch, we have a lot to talk about.” You saw no reason to reject it so you followed Twilight to a big red couch in the back of the room.


“Just remember, don’t tell them anything about where you came from. You need to learn to follow my directions!” 
> Notes of The Past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was hard trying to relax in the party, the loud music blasting into your ears, the bright flashing of lights, and the big crowd of ponies. At this point you really started to accept that you would be staying in this world, you don’t know now you got here at all so you doubt you will find a way to go back. But why, out of all people in the world, was I chosen to go to this new place that I now have to call home?


“It’s because you were sent on a mission.”


That doesn’t make sense. What do you mean by ‘mission’?


“You will learn that along your way in this new world.”

Before you could think about that, Twilight sat you on the red couch and you saw Pinkie eat a big cake with one bite and swallow it as a large club went down her throat and disappeared. WHAT. THE. FU-


“That’s Pinkie for you. So are you going to tell me about your world or not?” Jeez, no need for the sass Twi. 

As the party went on you two started to get into more and more conversations. It started with questions about where you came from and your world and then started just getting into talking about your story since you appeared in this world. Eventually, it got late enough to where ponies were walking out of the library and into their homes in the night. After the last of the ponies walked out, Pinkie jumped and landed in a sitting position right in front of you.


“SO! What’s YOUR story? How did you get here?” You were dreading that question. Then you saw Twilight and Derpy all look at you, waiting for your response. So you took a deep breath and explained everything.


***


After you were done saying everything you needed to all three of them gave different looks. Pinkie was laughing as if it was a joke, Twilight looked at you with a really? Kind of look, and Derpy had her mouth on the floor, zoning out and trying to understand all you just said.


“Are you telling the truth? Really? You were in a bar and then all of a sudden in the post office? You’ve got to be playing something here.” Twilight said, giving you an annoyed expression.


“It’s true, it really happened. I remember the sounds of them calling my name, the confusion I had when I fell and the pain I felt when I hit the ground. I’m not lying to you, I really did come from another world.” Once you said that Pinkie stopped laughing and sat up as a smile grew. She jumped up to you and started talking and a high pitched voice that made you want to die.


“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! A CREATURE FROM ANOTHER WORLD IS IN EQUESTRIA!?” Pinkie said again, shining her bright blue eyes into mine as her pupils grew in excitement.


“PINKIE! For the love of Celestia! Sit down!” Twi said as her horn glowed and a purple aura appeared around pinkie as she was dragged onto the ground.


“I can’t believe it. You actually did it. You actually told them! I’m impressed, but also disappointed.”


“Yes, and I don’t think I wi-. Wait, who’s Celestia?” Your mind tries to think of who would have that name, you assume it’s another pony but why would this one pony be used in sentences?

Twilight then walked to the bookshelf behind her and used her horn to move a book and put it on your lap. It was a sorta big book labeled ‘The Tale of The Two Princesses’. So this place is a monarchy? Wait, TWO PRINCESSES? You look back at Twilight with a confused look and she looks at you back with a confirmation look.


“This will explain everything about the history of the world, it’s even updated to include the new stuff!” She said with a smile new stuff?


It had been around an hour after the party, Twilight had gotten a mattress and put your sleeping spot in the basement, despite Spike’s protests. Since it was late Pinkie and Derpy both left, but you already began to miss the nice pegasus. Once you sat down on your mattress on the basement floor you realized that it was very quiet. You knew that it always took you around two hours to actually go to sleep. Really nothing else to pass the time. Usually you would scroll through your phone for hours before sleeping, so you decide to pass the time you would read the book Twi gave to you.


***


After reading all the book had to offer, and you just stood there, dumbfounded. Twilight and her friends beat Nightmare Moon!? You also remained confused as usually monarchies back at home had one monarch, both kings and queens. You then are hit with a wave of fatigue, what I would do for a watch right now. Before you can do anything, the fatigue takes over as you fall on the mattress and fall asleep faster than you have ever done in your life.


Your mind once again appears in the black void as the crimson smoke moves around you while you stand there in silence. You keep thinking of where you heard the name ‘Celestia’ before, just then your mind clicks as you are taken back to that day.


You were 15 years old and you were going out for a night to hang out with your friends, you were all going to a candy store as you all wanted to stock up so you could give out treats for the kids going to your house on Halloween. The entire time you all walked on the sidewalk you were all talking about how you were all going to plan out the decorations for your house, you had gone by many crowds but one stood out to you and only you. It was two girls laughing while looking at one of their phones while rambling about cartoons.


“Spongebob can’t be beaten by anything alright?”


“Yea right, trying saying that to Celestia, you will be pummeled to the ground.”

Even after all the time had passed you always wondered what that name was at the park, at your house, and with your friends. After getting the candy you all quickly went home as all of you had curfew at your houses.


“You never knew who that was, but after all that time you can’t run away from THAT part of your life.”


Your mind hits back as you try to forget THAT part of your life, you didn’t want to talk or even think about it so you instead went to the part of your mind you only went to when you needed to, the dream section. For some odd reason you went like other people and you could choose whether to dream of being in the void and think, since you were now in the dream section, you started to experience a dream as if you were any other person while sleeping.