My eyes slowly opened, a fuzzy and out of focused image appeared in front of my eyes of a strange forest of which I have never seen before. My head started hurting and as I put my hand to my head to try and ease the pain. A hard knock follows an even harsher pain almost like I was holding a rock when I took my hand up. I open my eyes and see not a hand in front of my face, but a hoof. I jumped and shrieked, trying to look and see what I had become.
I couldn't see myself very well, but I saw that I had the shape of a horse, four legs with hooves and an overall peach colored coat with a dark brown tail. I tried to get up, but I was having a hard time walking on my new legs, at first I tried to walk the way I have been walking for the past 19 years but I found it very awkward. After a good half hour I got the hang of walking on all fours and found my way to a pond somewhere in this strange forest.
I tried testing the water to see if it was drinkable when suddenly I heard some rustling in one of the bushes behind me, it was the first sound I’ve heard since arriving here and I quickly hid behind the nearest tree as something pink began emerging from the bush. I peeked and saw another horse, no it was too small to be a horse. It was a pony with a yellow coat emerging backwards followed by a group of ducks. She talked calmly and softly as she led the ducks to the pond, I watched and noticed that she had wings on her sides as she talked to them and ensured them that they were safe in their new home before I slipped and fell into the pond.
When I got out of the water I could not see her until I saw her widened eyes from the bushes she first emerged from, I looked at her with sorrowful eyes and apologized for startling her while I made my way to shore she let the ducks in. After shaking myself off, I had but wondered, since she was speaking English, or at least a language I could understand, maybe she could tell me what happened or where I am.
“Excuse me, but may I ask you where I am?”
She was timid and scared, too frightened of me to answer, so I asked again, “please, I don't know where I am, or how I got here.” Not mentioning that I was not a pony before arriving.
It took a few minutes before she answered me in a timid and scared manor, “y... you're in the... e... Everfree forest... j... just s... south of Ponyville.”
I didn't know what to say, I was at a loss for words as a sat myself down and just looked around me. The sky had a softer glow to it then normal and no flies were anywhere, anyone would imagine that a thousand flies would be around a pond in the middle of a forest like this. she had come out of the bush but was still cautious of me as she went to the ducks still getting settled, I noticed she had butterflies on her rear, I looked down at mine and did not see anything, guessing she had something put on hers or something. But getting to the matter at hand, where I am, and what I am doing here, not to mention how. “Um... I hate to be rude, but when you're going back, would you mind showing me to town?”
“I... I duno...” she said shyly and still barely making more then a squeak as she confronted the ducks while avoiding me.
“Well my name is Bailey, but most people call me Beirirangu. What's yours?”
“I... I'm Fluttershy.” still bairly audible but still loud enough for me to hear.
“It's nice to meet you Fluttershy. Are you showing these ducks to a new waterhole on their way south?”
“I... I'm just moving them to a new, less crowded home.”
“So nice of you to do all this for them.”
“Oh, it's no trouble, no trouble at all.” She replied, in a slightly louder tone, somewhere between a whisper and a normal conversation.
“back where I'm from no one will give you the time of day unless you have done something for them, and that's not even a guarantee.”
“That sounds like an awful place. No wonder you left.”
“It's not really that bad, it's my birthplace, my home. and I didn't leave by choice”
“Oh my! What happened?”
“I'd like to know myself, the last thing I knew I was in my room reading a book when I suddenly blacked out and woke up here. you don't mind if I get a ride to town? do you?”
“I... I don't particularly mind... I’m just a little nervous around new people.”
“I completely understand, it's just that I have no idea how I got here, where I am, or even which way is which.”
I couldn't tell if she was joking or what, but she looked at me weird and replied, “maybe your horn zapped you here when you were trying a spell?”
Confused, I stared up, trying to catch a glimpse of my alleged horn, turning in circles to get a better view when I heard her gasp.
“Y... you don't have a... a... cutie mark!”
I looked at her confused, “what's a cutie mark?”
She looked startled, shocked even, upon hearing that I’ve never heard of a cutie mark before. Still with a shocked expression she quickly said, “You've never heard of a cutie mark? I'll lead you to my friend Twilight, she knows a lot more then me.”
I managed to somehow follow her quick but still timid trot as she made her way to town, still getting used to moving on all fours. We passed a barn in front of a large apple grove, easily fifty acres, then getting to town all the houses seemed a bit medieval in construction but homely in it's straw and wood make. It wasn't until we got into town that I saw a collection of ponies, some with wings and others with horns, all a wide variety of coats and manes and it wasn't until I noticed a rainbow that I realized that there was a pony at the beginning of the rainbow as well as many others just barely visible in the sky, all with different pictures of various things on their back side. I tried not to draw attention to myself, but it seemed that everywhere I turned, all their eyes were drawn to me, maybe it was the way I was walking or that I don't have a cute mark or whatever. We made our way to a tree made into a house with a sign in front of it displaying a book, the door had a candle on it and appeared to swing open like a stable door and as she knocked I could hear crashing books and a light male voice yelling “I'm coming. I'm coming.”
“Oh, I hope spike knows where twilight is, if she's not home.” Fluttershy said as she turned towards me.
The door finally creaked open and out came a large reptile of some sort, it wasn't quite as big as us but still big enough to reach our heads with ease, with purple scales and green spikes. After opening the door, he looked around and sees almost everyone in town starting this way and asked, “What's everypony doing?”
While I was still in shock from seeing him, Fluttershy answered him, “Oh, good morning spike, is Twilight around?”
“She went with Applejack to bring in the harvest. Is everything alright?”
“I think it would be better if I talk to Twilight about this.”
“Oh, alright. Well let me know if you need anything.”
I was still confused and flabbergasted to say anything as Fluttershy and I made our way back to the apple-grove we passed as we came into town. While getting into the farm and onto the grove itself I could barely hear a girl with a strong southern accent in the distance and then I finally saw her, a orange coated mare with a breaded yellow main flowing over her strong shoulder and three apples arranged as a triangle on her backside, “You're doing great Twi, just a few more and we'll have this section done.”
She was looking off into the trees just to our left when Fluttershy began to speak, “Um, Twilight... If you have some time...”
“Just a second Fluttershy, Twilight's almost done helpin me. What is it you wanted with her?”
“I met this strange stallion today, and I want twilight to help find out what's going on.” She leaned over to point in my direction and the southern pony took notice of me, all I could think to do was nod.
“Well what's wrong with him? he seems just fine to me.” The southern pony replied.
“Well he... he doesn’t know what a cutie mark is.”
“How do ya know he's not just playing with you?”
“Because this.” She moved towards me, obviously trying to make me turn to my side and show my backside. I turned and looked back to see her and her reaction.
I heard the country pony gasp as she saw it, “Well it sure looks like his flank is blank. Are you sure he didn't just put something over him to cover it up?”
“I never thought of that...” Fluttershy began to speak as the country pony walked over and scratched my... flank was it?
“Whoah, you could at least buy a guy a drink first.” I jokingly said but she seamed to ignore my comment and scratch and feel my fur to see if I actually had done anything to it. “Can I at least get your name?”
“Oh, sorry there mister, my name's Applejack.”
“My name's Bailey, and that's quite a way to greet someone.” noticing that her hoof never left my flank.
She quickly took notice and jumped off me, embarrassed. “Oh, sorry about that, I was just makin sense of what fluttershy was sayin.”
“I understand, I'm the same way, just give me some warning next time.”
“I will, now let's see if Twi is done harvesting the Apples.” It took only a few short minutes before we caught up with who I'm assuming is Twilight, a light purple coated mare with dark purple tail and main with a streak of pink in her hair with a horn glowing a light-purple, almost like her coat but closer to pink while aiming towards a large bucket of apples that is floating in the air and glowing with that same light-purpleish light. “That's good Twi, Looks like we're done, now Fluttershy needs to tell ya somethin.”
“Oh, what is it?” Twilight asked, spinning her head after placing the now empty bucket down.
“Well, when I was leading a family of ducks to a new home in the Everfree Forest, I met a strange pony that didn't know how he got there and... um...”
“And?” Twilight asked after a second of silence as Fluttershy tried to say I didn't have a cutie mark.
“She means this!” Applejack yelled impatiently as she pushed me around to show Twilight my flank.
Twilight let out a clear gasp and almost jumped back in shock, I think because she is the pony everyone says is the smartest, I'm guessing not having a cutie mark is a bad thing or something. “How can this be? Is he covering it with something?”
“Nope, I looked, he's completely bare.” Applejack replied.
“How can that be? Not even magic can effect cutie marks... What happened?”
“I'd like to know that myself, All I know is that of a sudden I found myself in the... um... Everfree forest and started walking around until I found Fluttershy at a small pond.”
“Where are you from?”
“Last thing I remember was that I was in my house in Orlando Florida.” The looks on all of their faces was that of utter confusion, I had guessed, or more like hoped that they simply did not know where Florida was, “It's the southeastern-most state in the USA” And again they stared questioningly, not knowing anything of what I was talking about. “It's probably in a completely different dimension from where we are now.” They were confused at that last sentence differently from when I tried explaining where I lived, almost like they haven't even heard of the word before. “I just want to know how I got here and how I can get back.”
“Wh... what happened? What do you remember?” Twilight asked
“All I remember was reading a book I've read many times over when I passed out and found myself in the... everfree forest was it?”
“What book were you reading?”
“It was book called 'Aesop's Fables' which is basically a group of stories that each tell a lesson.”
“Like those books we read to fillies to get them to sleep?”
“In a way, but not really.”
“What about before you were reading the book, what happened?”
“Before that I did my regular daily rutine, checking my e-mails on my computer, watching recorded shows on my TV and texting with some of my friends. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“I've never heard of things like those. but it sounds like nothing you knew of caused you to come here.”
“Strange,” Applejack interrupted me and Twilight's conversation. “Maybe Princess Celestia knows about those things?”
I pondered for a second, 'a princess? Is this word a hierarchy where lords and ladies rule over the common-folk? I definitly need to look into this.'
“Maybe. I may as well check my library for those things as well.” Twilight said as the four of us made our way back to the library.
We went into the house and I saw that the inside of this tree was simply hollowed out with bookcases carved out on the sides with a staircase to the upper levels. Spike was not seen, I assumed he was on the second floor as Twilight called for him, “Spike! I need you right now!”
“Just a second.” It sounded as if he was rearranging the books as they dropped with bangs as they hit the floor. It only took him about a minute before coming down to see what Twilight wanted.
“Spike, I need you to get the dictionary and look somethings up for me.”
“Sure, what do you want me to look up?”
“I want you to look up 'eemale', 'kompyuter', 'tivi', 'teksting', and 'dimenshon' ” Twilight demanded spike as he sat the dictionary down on the table on the far side of the room. She flicked her head as her horn began to glow again, this time a book came off the shelves and opened in front of her, an atlas, “You said Orlando Florida. right?”
“That's right, but I don't think you're going to ever find it.”
“Why? is it not on the maps?”
“No, it's a big city, much much bigger then this one”
“How many ponies live there?”
“Last I heard, it had a population of almost 200,000.”
The Ponies were flabbergasted at the number. “That's over twenty times the size of canterlot!” Spike said practically jumping out on top of the dictionary.
"But where I come from, that's not even considered a big city, some have populations of over 10,000,000"
They were petrified, I guess I said too much too soon, "Gosh, you'd think if there was a city that big, ponies all over the world would know about it." Applejack finally said in the silence.
"Just forget about what I said, I'm drawing more and more to the conclusion that this is not the world I was from."
"It sure sounds like it partner."
"You have no idea, if I even try to describe where I came from, it would sound like the craziest fantasy in the most bizzar dream you can imagine."
A silence drew upon the room as they took in what I had said as the honest truth before Twilight gave up looking for my home town, "Ugh, I just can't find any land like what you're describing. Did you find anything Spike?"
"I can't find anything, it's like he's just making up words."
"But why would he make these things up? and how could he not have a cutie mark? That's the part that don't make no sense" Applejack inquired.
"I know the books about Cutie marks forward and backwards, only fillies that have not learned their special talent don't have their cutie mark." Twilight answered.
So that's what a cutie mark is, a symbol that describes their talents and what they are best at. That explains a lot, but not what I'm wanting to know. "Fluttershy, you mentioned before about telepoartation. is that right?"
Still shyly and quietly, Fluttershy responded, "Y... yes, she dose it every-so-often. That's what I thought happened to you, you teleported somewhere you didn't know."
"How do you do it?" I asked, not expecting a real response.
"Oh, I just use this spell" Twilight excitedly replied as her horn glowed brighter and another book on the shelves took flight and opened in front of me with a strange language of which I have never seen before, almost like hoove prints and some parts like arabic, I couldn't even tell which direction the writing was going until I saw where the last sentence stopped in the paragraph.
"Um... I can't read this, and I don't even know how to use magic, if I can at all."
It was clear that Applejack and Fluttershy had no knowledge of magic, but Twilight began to speak, "well you do have a horn, that means that you have at least a little bit of magic. "
"But before I woke up a few hours ago I didn't have a horn..."
Twilight quickly interrupted me saying, "but you have one now and you might as well try."
"Ok, so what should I do?"
"First let's try something easy." She looked around the room quickly and put the book she was levitating on the table, open to a random page, "Ok, I want you to consentrate on moving the page over."
I closes my eyes and concentrated, thinking about the page turning and each time the page turned I would open one of my eyes and peek at the book to see if it moved. After about the fourth try, something caught my eye behind Twilight, I looked up and saw another pony, completely pink with a chaotic poofy pink mane, when she saw me looking at her, she finally spoke in a high toned, clearly excited voice, startling the others, "hey, what's everypony doing?"
"Woah, Pinkie! When did you get here?" Twilight inquired.
"I got here when you were talking about cutie marks... who's your friend?" She asked between giggles, obviously questioning who I am.
"Oh, I'm new to town..."
"Sounds like you're new to more then just Ponyville." She said with a pleasant smile.
"Well... yeah, what do you make of it?"
"Well it sounds to me like you need some welcoming to our holmly little town with lots of people, so you can make some good friends."
"You mean like a party?" Twilight interrupted.
"That's exactly what I mean! You're so smart Twilight."
"Well I'd hate to be rude, but I would rather like to know why I'm here first. But I would love a party in my honor."
"Great, I'll go set up the party! Meet you guys at Shugarcube Corner!" She said as she bounced out the door.
"Who was that?" I asked, not really knowing what just happened.
"Oh, that was just Pinkie Pie, she's always like that." Applejack answered with a feeling like she's the one who knew her the longest.
"Pinkie Pie?"
"Pinkamena Pie is her real name, she works at the local bakery, we all just call her Pinkie." Twilight replied inquisitively.
"Well it seams like she's the life of any party, always laughing and giggling, was her family rock farmers of something?"
The girls looked at me weird, almost like, 'what are you talking about' but more like, 'how did you know?' and silence grew in the library before Twilight broke the silence, "Well she only worked there when she was a filly, but how did you know that?"
"Oh, I took psychology when I was in school, I could tell that she was overly happy because of her unhappy childhood... and I was just joking about the rock farm... was she really?"
"She was, her family harvests rocks a few miles north-west of here." Twilight informed me, allowing another long silence grow before getting back to the task at hand, "Why don't I read you the book on simple spells, you said you can't read it right?"
"Can't you just tell me the jest of it? You know, sum it up to a simple statement."
"You know we should probably get Rarity, she might be able to help." Fluttershy quietly stated.
"Rarity?"
"Oh, she's another unicorn..." Fluttershy begins to say.
"Yeah, but she's so snooty and up-tight... she might not even want to see him, let alone help him on his magic." Applejack asserted.
"Well it wouldn't hurt to try." I interjected, wanting to meet as many ponies as I can on a personal level, plus Twilight wasn't exactly a good teacher either.
"Alright, if you want to that much then follow me." Applejack stated as she bluntly walked out the door.
It was just me and Applejack while we walked towards a house a few blocks away, and still many ponies stared as whispers spread throughout the crowd. Upon entering, it was obviously a fashion butique as a white coated unicorn with a delicately curled purple mane and tail that had three diamonds on her flank was sewing together bits of cloth onto a dress form the shape of a pony. She was mentioning the states of the dress with a delicate and sophisticated manor in french, "Cette robe est tout simplement ne s'ajustent pas correctement. Je pense avoir besoin d'attacher une..."
"Que diriez-vous attacher une longueur violette dans le style de Watteau pleats en utilisant un point de attraper." I stated, noticing the dress and what it looked to me like it was missing.
"Ô oui, merci! Merci! Ce serait sont magnifiques!" She exclaimed as she lifted a purple cloth and began to sew it onto the dress.
"Why's you two speaking in fancy? I can't understand a word of it!" Applejack exclaimed.
"Oh, sorry Applejack, I just needed to finish this dress..." Rarity started to say before noticing me. "Are you the one who said that?"
"Oui, mon nom est Bailey, mais je suis souvent appelé Beirirangu. Et je suppose que vous êtes la belle Rarity."
"Ô vous flatteur, je dois dire que vous parlez la langue magnifiquement."
"Non... mon français n'est pas aussi bon que mon anglais."
"Français? Anglais? Ce n'est canterais."
"Toutes mes excuses. Mais d'où je viens, il est appelé en français et il est bien connu sous le nom le langage de la mode."
"Alright, I've had enough! If you all're goin ta keep talkin in fancy, I'll just drag y'all back to Twilight's!" Applejack suddenly shouted.
"Sorry, Applejack, I was just making introductions. more then less..." I humbly stated.
"So what is it you wanted? Barging in here like that and throwing off my concentration." Rarity snutedly pouted at Applejack
"Ya see this fella here? Apparently before he woke up this morning, he wasn't a unicorn."
"I find that pritty hard to believe Applejack."
"What about a pony our age that don't have no cutie mark? That easier to believe?"
I took that as the signal to turn and show yet another person my blank flank. As soon as she saw it she gasped, "Th... That's not possible! Unless he really did become a unicorn overnight!" Still in shock i guess she could've believed anything, but as long as things were smooth, no need to make ripples.
By the time we got back to Twilight's, She had a whole stack of books piled around her with Fluttershy and Spike in smaller piles of their own. "There's just nothing like him in any of these books, not even in the fictional ones."
"And I can't find any book called 'Esop's Fables' either." Spike said, still sorting through his pile.
It took a second for Twilight to see that we had arrived, and after a quick explanation of what she knew and was trying to do, Rraity agreed that teaching me would be helpful. We soon got back to her butique allowing the three of them to look deeper into the matter in peace, "alright Bailey, I want you to close your eyes and clear your mind.... Now imagine the needle on my desk were to be lifted up by you." I peeked through my eyes and saw the needle she was mentioning, thinking rather hard I felt a strange feeling almost like a flowing energy from my forhead was leaking out of the top of my head, and while imagining the needle lifting streight up, I peeked again to see that it was glowing a light peach color and floating where I imagined it was. "Very nice! Now see if you can pick up that piece of cloth over there." Meanning the cloth she had layed on the table while I was consentrating, I consentrated on feeling the power and making sure the needle was still in the air while pickng up the cloth.
I peeked again, seeing both still in the air i asked Rarity, "do you want me to practice both my magic and sewing?"
"Yes, that's the idea, you just needed to practice on easy things first, turning a book is much harder because you don't want to tear the book appart. You can use the spool of thread I put next to the cloth, it's the cheepest I have so use as much as you want."
still getting the hang of this magic down, i consentrated on the spool of thread, getting a hold on it and turning it so the string would flow out as i pulled on it with magic. I brought the spool closer and threded the needle with ease, and bringging the needle to the cloth I decided to start with the classic running stitch, by easing the needle throught the cloth in a streight line going from above to below and back until I reached the end of the material and found that the line was streighter and smoother then I believed it could be. I wanted to test myself by going through the lines of the running stitch making it a twisted runing stitch. Still not believing how easy it could be done. I tried again with the chain stitch, both laddered and feathered, outline stitch, stem stitch, padded stitch, all types of blanket and feathered stitches as well as many other types until I ran out of thread and was no longer thinking hard about using my magic effectively, even getting to the point where i was watching the needle go in and out of the material, not having to consentrate and close my eyes. "Wow, I think I got the hang of this!"
Rarity looked over at me and saw that my cloth was covered in an organized pattern of stitchings and replied, "Oh my that's wonderful darling! You even made each line streight and..." she began to trail off, "did you really do all of this?"
"Yes, and sorry for using all of the thread, I just couldn't believe how easy I could sew in a perfectly straight line."
"It's perfectly alright, i just can't believe how you know this many styles of sewing; I've never seen such a beautiful looking practice cloth. And it looks like you've expertised floating and controlling objects," She said as she brought me to a back room where it was filled with large rocks. "Ok, now watch me." She knelt down and her horn glew again, but this time within the rocks, thousands of large gems started glowing through the rocks. "Now the trick about this spell is not making the gems shine, but finding the gems. Picture the gems and look for them within the rock, your magic should take care of the rest, sometimes it will even find them without you wanting to," She said laughingly. "Now this is a much harder spell so don't get discuraged when you don't get it, they're in very hard rock, and quite hard to get out, i might not be able to get any from them until spike comes over." It took me a few seconds to think about how to do that, and soon Rarity went back to her work saying, "just call if you need anything darling."
Now i took it a step further, remembering where the gems were in at least the closest rock, i thought hard about the rock's molecules shifting as if melting enough to let the gem slip out while being pulled my my magic. It took a while but i found that i could feel the gem slipping out, I consentrated on the rock being more liquid and the gem slipped out faster, soon after i felt the gem and the melting rock apart and as i opened my eyes i saw that in fact the rock had liquidated slightly, as if it was starting to drip and to the side a ruby, just like the ones in the real world, only HUGE. I tried pulling the other gems out of the rock and found that there was not single types of gems but a random combination of all gems, diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, opal, quarts, all in sparkely form that looks like it should be on a ring instead of how it's naturally found. I sorted through some of the other rocks and see the same things, gems of all types in the purfect forms, when i looked back and saw the droopy, liquidated rocks and since i've gotten good at, i tried shifting them back to the form they were.
It took longer then i thought to get the form right, since i'm a bit too detail oriented, but i got them back to at least looking nice and firm, not holding the gems anymore they had to be a bit smaller. Then i remembered what i was doing this for, i took a few of the gems and consentrated very hard on what the gems are made of, the energy seemed to flow through my forhead through the gems and back into me felt weird, but allowed me to obsorb the information about the gems, and found that they are in fact the same as the articles i've read about the molecular structure of the gems. I put the gems down and consentrated on searching for the structural differences between the gems and the rocks in the rocs still holding gems, i peeked to see that the gems have indeed glowed showing the gems as well as the types of gems as if they were stuck in ice. Then i thought about the teleportation, "In for a penny, in for a pound." I thought about the full rock, suddenly being from where it is to another place on the floor, and after consentrating, it didn't happen, nothing was working. Then i thought about wornholes, a fluxuation in spacetime that makes a bridge between two points that is much shorter then the actual distance, and thought about the rock going into one that had the other opening where i wanted the rock to be, and the feeling was back, and a poofing sound followed where the rock was. I opened my eyes to see that the rock was not there, i checked where i wanted the rock to be and it was! Now how about the gems itself, using the 'gem finder spell' i located the gems and consentrated on a wormhole opening to catch only the gems and transporting them outside of the gem, another poofing sound, this time very muffled followed by the sound of the gem hitting the floor, louder then i thought it would be.
"Is everything alright?" Rarity asked before peeking through the door.
"Yes, i'm just experimenting with a few things."
Confused with what i meant, she comes through the door to find a small pile of gems around me and still the same number of whole rocks, "wh... what did you do?"
"I was just trying out getting the gems out of the rocks, getting a feel for my magic."
"But you got the gems out of the rocks, it usually takes a strong stallion with a hammer to get them out!" It took me a second to get around how they can use hammers before she continued, "you must speek to Twilight about how you can do these things!" We made our way back to Twilight's place, and once again all the ponies inside are surrounded by books, almost none are still on the shelves as they finished the last of the books. "Twilight, you must see him do magic! I've never seen anything like it! He's already learned how to teleport things around!"
Twilight responds quickly, "How is that possible? you don't know how to do it. How could he have learned?"
"How did the first pony learn to do it? there was no pony to teach him how to do it if he was the first." I answered.
"But i know for a fact that he studied for over three years about it before he could even teleport the simplest things."
"Well give me a second and i'll prove it." I consentrated hard, thinking not just about one book or two, but all the books that were not being read as well as the ponies that were on top of the books, consentrating on gathering the information about the books, specifically how they were to go on the shelves. I took only a few books at a time and arranged them neatly on the shelves one poof after another until the three spike, applejack and rarity were reading were left.
Twilight and Rarity were left breathless, not only were all the books teleported, but in the correct locations in the library! Twilight thought only she and spike knew the order enough to do it in such a short amount of time. All Twilight could say was "amazing!"
Spike heard the astonishment in twilight's voice and poped from the book, "what?! Did you find something?" Before a gasp as the pile of books he was sitting on was no longer there and all the books were arranged on the shelves correctly and neatly. "Woah. Did you do this Twilight?"
"No, it was him!"
"He did this?! When? and how long did it take him?"
"He did it just now, and about ten seconds flat!"
"That's impossible, that means he'd have more magic then you Twilight."
"Not nessessarily," I mentioned. "It just means that I can use my efficiently. Not that I have more."
"You don't understand, to be able to take something and make it apere somewhere else takes a lot of magic."
"Well that's not exactly how i do it, i just imagine... well it's hard to explain..." I started to say as suddenly the window to my left breaks open and everything goes topsy-turvey as if a bombshell erupted in the room.
Dazed, confused and covered in books, i uncovered myself and saw a blue coated pony with a rainbow colored mane and tail laying on top of the scattered books all thrown off the shelves who said in a tomboyish tone, "Sorry gals. Is everypony alright?"
The other ponies growned to their feet virtually unscathed, nothing serious and as the one that caused the disaster got back to her feet I saw that she had wings like Fluttershy, only hers more sleek and airodynamic in proportion to her body. "Rainbow Dash, this is the third time this month you've done this!" Twilight said in a huff as soon as she got to her senses.
"Sorry Twilight, i was just practicing..."
"And things happen. I know, you've said that."
"I know and i'm sorry, let me help you clean up..."
"Oh, do't worry about that, it seems our friend here can do it in the blink of an eye." Twilight gestured at me.
"Um, nice to meet you, my name's Bailey."
"And I'm Rainbow Dash! Soon to be Wonderbolt!"
"Wonderbolt?"
"Oh, they're..." Twilight begins to say.
"HOW COULD YOU NOT HAVE HEARD OF THE WONDERBOLTS?!?!?!?!?!?! They're only the best fliers in the land! Everypony has heard of them."
After a second or two of silence, i shyly responded, "well I just got here today, so I couldn't really know that much about them."
Embarressed, she replied, "Oh, sorry. I thought you were from around here. You need some help cleaning up Twilight?"
"If you don't mind."
"Oh it's no problem at all, let me just..."
"Hey, why don't ya'll let Bailey here do it? He done it in lickedy-split just a moment ago." Applejack interupted.
"Well i would hate to take some trainning away from someone like you, Rainbow Dash." I replied as humbly as i could.
"What do you mean training?" Rainbow Dash inquired.
"Well there are an few old sayings where i come from, like: 'anything can become training, as long as you remember what it's for. For, even carrying a simple pale of water for a bath becomes a test of strength if you want it to be.' or 'even the most powerful of masters train harshly to sharpen their skills by doing everyday rutine we do anyway.' " (please not that i'm looking for better quotes and any suggestions are encuraged)
"I didn't think of it like that. Well in that case, give me a sec to get some of these books here." With that, Rainbow Dash started picking up books left and right, getting more of a workload then i thought she could handle and not long after, the room was back to it's previous clenlieness. "Wow, i didn't think i could get this much of a workout from that! Thanks."
"Well you did push yourself to get as many books as you could." Twilight informed.
"That's because she's used to trainning in the 'push yourself harder' meanning." I replied. "And might i say rainbow, that you have an excelent stature and build for airodynamics"
Raonbow dash looked at me proudly and a bit confused, "th... thank you?"
"I mean that you look like you could slice right through the air with ease. Would you mind if i took a look at you?"
"Taking a good look at just how awesome i am? Why would i say no?"
she soon struck a pose of valor as i looked around her and when i knew i was out of direct sight i used my magic to surround her wings and back to see exactly how her wings worked and seemed to be extraordinarily simmilar to most birds. It is as if their dna contains the genome for wings to be grown on their backs, like how the wings grow on a bird's body, and the activation genes are only is the ponies that have them, but i would have to run much more detailed tests to confirm anything. "Thank you, it sure seems like you're perfect for flying at high speeds."
"You ain't kidding about that!" Rainbow dash exclaimed, "I'm the only pony in history to do a sonic Rainboom!"
"It's where she makes a sonic boom and a rainbow at the same time, and it is amazing to watch." Twilight explained.
"Wow! I didn't think it was possible to go over 340 meters a second by yourself."
"Meters? second? what are you talking about?" Rainbow asked.
"Oh, sorry, they are units of measurements where i come from. A meter is used to measure length and second is for time." Now i had to stop myself for a second, I now had to accept that they don't have the same measurements that i know of, not only that but the fact that i have nothing to relate the measurements i know to this place, not to even mention that the laws of physics could be very different: for all i know, light could travel much faster or even slow, maybe the density of air is lower, maybe the speed of sound is different, even with simmilar air pressures.
"So about how long is one?"
"Well... i'm trying to think, but i can't think of a way to say how long they are."
"Well is it longer then a hoof?" Twilight asked, raising her front leg, showing my the hoof.
"It's much longer, i just can't tell by how much."
"Ugh... enough of this, I'm going to go practice some more." Rainbow exclaimed before rushing out the open window.
"I guess I'll go too, I feel like taking a walk around." I said, wanting to get some time to think.
"I can come with you if you want." Twilight suggested.
"I'd hate to trouble you..."
"It's no trouble at all, I've already finished my work this week and i was already going to just sit and read after i was done helping Applejack."
"Well, alright. But can you bring a map with you?"
"Sure." Twilight said as she used her magic to levitate a piece of paper in one of the shelves and put into a backpack of sorts as she put it on her back.
"And thank you Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Spike, I won't be bothering you anymore." I said polightly as a joke.
"Twern't nothin. Just give us a call if you every need anythin." Applejack happily stated
"Yes darling, please do, it was a pleasure meating you." Rarity complied
"Oh... um... what about Pinkie Pie's party?" Fluttershy gently commented.
"Oh! We completely forgot!" Twilight replied in supprise.
"I'll go and see if she's already got the party done. Just give me a sec." Applejack stated as she rushed out the door.
"Well we don't want to keep you all here, you can go if you want." I asked, thinking Rarity and Fluttershy would return to what they were previously doing.
"We'll wait and at least see when Pinkie's party is." Rarity said comfortingly.
"Alright, i was thinking about waiting outside actually."
"Why don't you look through the Balcony?" Twilight suggested, "it's just upstairs."
"Ok, do you mind showing me there spike?"
"Me?" he replied really confused.
"Yeah, why not?"
"Ok..."
As we made our way up the stairs and got out of sight of the others, i wispered to spike, "you love Rarity, don't you?"
He jumped, almost screeming when he replied in a paniked whisper, "how... how do you know about that?"
"Oh, so i was right."
he blushed, then angraly wispered, "so? what about it?"
"I'm only saying because i saw you glarring at me when i was talking with Rarity."
"Oh, you saw that." he replied sorrowfully.
"It's fine. I'd do the same thing if i saw the woman i love talking so nicely to some other guy." I saw him lightly nod in agreement. "I'll tell you what, I'll help you get Rarity if you help me understand this place by answering any questions i have."
"really? But what about Twilight? Wouldn't she be better at teaching you?"
"She's too busy trying to understand who i am and what i'm doing, plus she won't understand like a bro would."
"Bro? like brother? Do you think we're related?"
"No, where i'm from, a bro is a very good guy friend."
"Oh, that makes sense."
"So we have an agreement?" I asked as i lifted my hoof in the motions of a fist, almost like a puch. I saw he was confused, and started to reach it like a handshake, "do you know what a brofist is?" I had asked as informative and helpful as I could.
"No, and it kinds sounds like i don't wanna know."
"Where i come from, it's a sign of understanding and respect between men. All you have to do is put out your hand into a fist and i do the same, then we bump knickles."
"Oh, i get it! Bro-Fist!... well in your case it would be a brohoof." spike zinged as i giggled at the pun.
"We good bro?"
"Yeah... Bro." Spike replied happily, bumping my hoof. We had been walking throughout the conversation and as we finished, spike opened the door to the balcony and i got to see my first real glimps of the town. The Balcony was just above most of the houses, i could see a great deal, all the way past the applegrove and see the forest i had found myself arriving in with the sun getting ready to set, and while gazing at the beautiful landscape, like the most imaginative fairytale could bairly describe, something caught my eye, the sun seemed to tick bye, like the ticking of a second hand on a clock, only more like every minute or five. Off in the distance, on the side of a mountain, i could see the make of a castle, as if growing like a white, elegant crystal out of the side of the mountain. "Isn't canterlot beautiful this time of day?" Spike mentioned, seeing where i was looking.
"Canterlot?"
"Oh, sorry, it's that white place over there on the side of the mountain. That's where me and Twilight lived and grew up, until about a year ago when we moved here." (Time frame to be adjusted)
"Oh? and why'd you come all the way over to this place?"
"That's a long story, I'll tell you sometime you're not busy. But I can say that it was nice getting away from all those prissy ponies that judge everything so harshly to these relaxed, caring and easy-going ponies, I'd choose here over Canterlot anyday." I just nodded my head in agreement, staring into the scenery and once again losing myself in the beauty of the landscape. It was a good ten minutes of this bliss that spike prodded me into reality, "hey! Applejack's back!"
I leaned over the Balcony, "hey! When's the party?"
She continued trotting, almost like she couldn't hear me over her galloping, "I'm still lookin for her. I've got a feelin she's givin ya a surprise party."
"Alright, i'll let Twilight know." I yelled as Applejack ran off into the cluster of houses. "You comming down too?" I asked Spike.
"I'll tell Twilight, you seemed to be enjoying the view."
"It's the most beautiful thing i've ever seen."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I heard there were places like this where i'm from. But there arn't, at least not anymore." I said softly, more like talking to myself then answering him.
"Sounds depressing..."
"Oh! Sorry, didn't mean to get you down like that, it has it's beauty too." I replied happily, thinking of all the beauty I saw.
"Alright, I'll be right back." Spike wasn't gone for more then a few seconds when i spotted a clowd that was different from the others, it was much bigger, almost like it had structures in it, I looked closer and thought i saw a rainbow waterfall. I looked closer and seemed like it was like something out of a greek fantasy. It wasn't until then that i could make out the little dots flying in and out of the city to be ponies, It looks like a city. "Looks like you found Cloudsdale"
"Hu?" I jerked.
"That cloud you're looking at is Cloudsdale, The Canterlot of Pegasi!"
"Pegasi?"
"Yeah, Pegasus ponies are the ones with wings, they're also the only ponies that can walk on clouds."
"Walk on clouds?"
"Not just walk, they can sit on them, lay on them, even play games with them. Any other type of pony will just fall streight through."
"Hm... i wonder why that is..."
"Well I do know there is a spell that lets non pegasus walk on clouds, Twilight used it on herself and all them a few weeks after we got here, when Rainbow Dash was in a competition there."
"And I can assume that she won?"
"I heard so, by doing a sonic rainboom. The second time she's even done it too."
"She only did it twice?"
"Yeah, dirring the competition and once when she was a filly, apparently that one was the reason all six of them have their cutie marks."
"Oh? I'd love to hear that story... After you tell me how you two came to Ponyville." I happily replied as we looked at the landscape.
"Um, can I ask you something?" Spike asked, breaking the silence.
"Sure, what is it?"
"You said you wern't a unicorn before, Dose that mean you were an earth pony?"
I giggled lightly, knowing that something like this would come up eventually, "actually, I wasn't a pony at all before today, i even had to learn to walk on these hooves when i got here."
Shocked, he continued, "so what were you?"
"I was something called a human." Thinking about how to describe humans, i asked, "do you know what monkeys are? or what they look like?"
"Monkeys? Those harry things that look like big squirls? I read about them in a book once, why?"
"Well that's close to what humans look like."
"They looked like this?" Spike asked as he grabbed a piece of empty parchment and a quil, sketching a monkey rather quickly on the table by the door to the balcony."
"Um, not exactly, here, let me see the quil." I grasped the quil with my magic and flipping the paper over. I started with the main bulk of the chest, getting an idea of where i'm going with this, and drawing the main aspects of the body, the arms, legs and the head, in better porportion then i thought. I didn't really care for detail, so the drawing was mostly blank. "This is just an outline, but that's what one usually looks like."
"That kinda looks familiar," Spike mentions as he ran over to the bookshelf that had mostly ancient looking books, grabbing the oldest one. "It was in one of the drawings in this book, something like that was in the middle." Spike flipped the pages as quickly as he could, trying not to harm any of the pages of the ancient book until he reached the middle, and right before my eyes was scetched a beautiful piece of art which shown the three general classifications of ponies, the ones with wings, the ones with horns and the ones without either all gathered around a single person along with beautiful etchings around them. The person was a fairly beautiful woman in her mid-early thirties, red hair and the plump cheeks of a Marylander but the style of a Californian, the artist took excrutiatingn detail on her, giving obvious attention to every little part of her as what looked like she was either preaching to the ponies or giving them something intangable.
"What dose the book say about this?"
"I'm not too sure, it's in a language that's been dead for a long time."
"Can you pronounce any of it? Or is a different script then you can read?"
"I'm not even sure we have another book that has this script in it."
"Oh, then unless there is someone that knows the script, there's no chance anyone can read it. Do you know anyone, like a historian or archeologist that may be able to read it?"
Spike thought for a few moments, "Except for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, i don't know anyone that might be able to read it."
"Oh? And why do you think they will be able to read it?"
"Because they're thousands of years old, they might've been the ones to write it for all i know."
I was shock at what he said, and saying it so calmly and clearly left no doubt, "and how long do ponies usually live?"
"Well most live into their seventies but some that don't use magic to prolong their life have live to be over 100. But if they use magic, they can live almost 200 years.
"So why do they live that long?"
"I think it's because have a special type of magic."
"Ok, and you said they were princesses? If that's true, then where are the king and queen?"
"There are a lot of rumors going around, some say that they turned themselves into the sun and moon, others say they died and the princesses couldn't take the thrown propperly until they took husbands. But i have no idea to be honest."
"Well that makes sense, so what else can you tell me about the princesses?"
"Well they are alicorns; having both horns and wings. They rule over all of equestria making sure everything is in balance and they make the sun and moon rise and fall, bringing day and night."
"They move the sun and moon?" I said in shock.
"Yeah, they use their unicorn powers to move them, Celestia moves the sun at dawn and Luna moves the moon in the evening. I heard it takes a lot of magic to move either of them, and that before they were in power, it took almost every unicorn working together to do it very well."
"So i wasn't seeing things when I saw the sun tick bye."
"Yeah, Though i'm not entirely sure how it works," we both kinda nodded our heads and sat there thinking.
"You know, something still bothers me, how did the book get into this library?"
"Twilight had gotten it as a present from Celestia when we officially moved to ponyville, saying something about it being more valuable to her."
"Hm... Maybe Princess Celestia thought i was comming." I said jokingly.
Spike turned and laughed with me, "Then she would've probably escorted you to town instead of fluttershy."
We continued to laugh until i heard Applejack from the balcony, "hey! Bailey! Spike! Either of you there?"
We make our way to the edge and leaned over, I was the first to reply, "Yeah, what's going on?"
"I couldn't find Pinkie. And it's gettin dark out, you'all wanna come down here and discuss where you's gonna sleep for the night?
"Yeah in a moment, I'm enjoying this beautiful view too much."
"Alright, I'll see you downstares!" Applejack concluded as she made her way to the door.
"I wonder where Pinkie is."
"Knowing her, she might've thrown you a surprise party while you were up here." Spike replied intuitively.
I replied quickly with a big smile, "well if that's the case, then we'd better go down the stares looking surprised, shouldn't we?"
We both nodded in agreement as we took another look at the sunset before closing the doors and head downstares.
"SURPRISE!"
I was shocked to say the least, I nearly falling down the stairs as everyone jumped from their hiding spot around the library lead by Pinky, talking at a mile a minute, "Surprise! YouknowIwasgoingtothrowyouaregularpartyatsugarcubecornersbutthenithoughtabouthavingthepartyatTwilight'splacesinceeveryponyelsewasasleepandiwantedittobaasurprisepartyandigotasurprisewhenApplejackcamethroughthedooraswewerefinishingbuthowdoyoulikeithereinPonyville?It'sagreatplaceisn'tit?Ifeellikewehavn'tbeenproperlyintroducedmynameisPinkiepiewhat'syours?"
"Ohthat'sgoodnowLETSGETTHISPARTYSTARTED!!!" Pinkie said as she put the music on a record player. The music was a typical party theme, happy and festive while inviting the ponies to either interact or dace their hooves off. Now i had to admit, I was never good with parties, I had always felt like George Custer when his wife had him attend social gatherings, but this was fun. I had gotten to have some good conversations, even cracked a few jokes (making sure they were ones i knew they would get) , heck! I even danced for a while after seeing that nobody knew how to dance any better then I did. The party went on for a good while when i saw spike to the side, gazing at Rarity while she happily drank some punch by herself.
"Hey spike."
"HU? Oh, it's you Bailey," Spike replied, jumping as if he got caught.
"You think i should ask her to dance?" I half jokingly asked about Rarity.
"WHAT?" Obviously not taking the joke.
"I'm just joking. But i think you can get you the next song."
"But I couldn't... I don't even know what to say."
I just smiled and asked, "how good is your memory?"
"Very good, why?"
"Because i'm going to tell you what to say."
"Oh? and what should i say?"
"Well if you want to be fancy, you should talk to her in Fren... I mean Canterais."
"But i don't know any."
"Don't worry, i'll tell you what to say." It was a good five-ten minutes before Spike got the lines down, but obviously still nervous, "and listen, when you are talking to her and you're feeling nervous, think about how wonderful it will be when you dance with her."
Spike thought for a moment and started to smile widely, "thanks Bailey." He then made his way quickly to Rarity, where i stayed within earshot, but keeping my distance. "Um... Excuse-moi mademoiselle..." Rarity placed her cup down, with eyes a bit widdened as she saw that Spike was the one who spoke, "mais je ne pouvais pas m'empêcher de voir que une belle jument comme vous était tout seul, donc je me demandais si vous voulez mon compagnie ou même un partenaire de danse." (to be changed for a better line)
"Ô monsieur, vous me flattez. J'aimerais avoir votre compagnie." Rarity replied, still a bit in shock. "mais je dois demander, comment savez-vous canterais?"
Almost like he knew what she was saying, he replies rather pleaseantly, "actually I don't, I just wanted to talk to you."
"Oh, well did you even know what you said?"
"Yes, and i meant every word, and i would be honored to dance with you."
She just smiled at his comment and replied gracefuly and kindly, "we'll see." I didn't bother to watch them much more after that as I went to mingle with the other ponies.
I saw that Applejack and Fluttershy were having a discussion about a problem Applejack is having, something about squirls taking her apples or something, Pinkie was manning the food, eatting just about everything she gets near her mouth and Twilight was in the corner watching everypony enjoy themselves while bobbing her head to the music. I casually stroll up behind her, swinging by the refreshment table to grab a drink first, "you enjoying the party?"
"I'm having a good time," Twilight replied kind of bashfuly, almost tipsy. "Pinkie always throws the best parties."
"I can imagine, is she always this festive?"
"Almost always. Kinda annoying at times, but fun. Did you know ponies like that where you're from?"
"I knew some that were like that, but nothing close to her. Back where i was from, I havn't gotten a party for me in years, and here, the same day i arrive, i have such an excelent party in my honor, it's just a shame everypony else was too tired to join us."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. Knowing Pinkie, she'll probably throw you a party everyday this week!"
I chuckled at the thought, "seems kind excessive but i'd be glad to meet everyone."
"Yes, seems like everyone in this town is nice as can be..."
"Especially being from a major city like Canterlot."
Twilight froze for a second, then remembering I was with spike, thinking to herself 'he must've told him they were from Canterlot.'
"Oh it's not that big a deal, we were just having a conversation and he happened to mention it." I replied to what i assume she was thinking, "So what is Canterlot like? I can imagine it's a husteling and busteling city filled with ponies that are too snooty to see past their own noses."
Chuckeling at the analagy, she with me and continues to talk about some of the stories she has about her life there, even mentioning the time she had her birthday party there because Rarity had to visit longer then they thought.