Disclaimer: I do not own MLP: FIM. It belongs to Hasbro and Lauren Faust. I own only the OCs that are mentioned here.
AN: Little something that I'm starting up. Why? Because I can! This thing started as a plot bunny once upon a time and eventually evolved into a lengthy novel epic in my mind. So here I am now...
Ch 1: Stuck in a New Location
"WHERE THE HAY AM I?!" It was rhetorical, as he was pretty sure he already knew where he was. Didn't mean he had to be happy about it though. Jackson did not like this, not one little bit. Nothing made a lick of sense anymore. There was absolutely no logical explanation for the insanity that he was now forced to deal with here. I mean, he was a bucking unicorn for Celestia's sake in a cartoon about freaking ponies and friendship!
Argh, there it was again! Every time he tried to express his displeasure at his current situation, he was met with a strict, verbal handicap. He couldn't even think a proper curse. Sure, he knew which one he wanted to say, but he simply couldn't! Even worse, all the replacements for his preferred explicatives were farm and horse-based. Buck, horse-apples, and crop- just to name a few; and who in Tartarus was Celestia?
"Screw these darned children's cartoons and their childishness," he muttered. His face lit up. "FINALLY, some words I can work with!" He sighed, glad that his freedom to verbally express displeasure hadn't been completely diminished. If he'd had access to his full arsenal, he'd have been pretty far into the procedure of making R-rated movie swears look tame compared to this stupid show.
Jackson sighed. This wasn't a dream; he'd bit himself and head-butted enough trees to know that for sure. And all he'd gotten out of it was a festering headache. He briefly reflected on the events preceding this ridiculous situation.
Yesterday, Denver Colorado
Jackson Fauster liked to think he led an average, normal life, and that's exactly how he liked it. He was a fairly short, seventeen-year old boy at five feet, four inches tall. He had short, combed, brown hair, slightly tanned skin, and hazel eyes. Today, he was wearing a sky-blue t-shirt, blue jeans, and his silver and dark-blue sneakers. He wore them inside today to stave off the leftover winter chill, as the windows were open often. His mother always insisted that it was good for him to get some 'real air' and not that 'stuffy, recycled oxygen you breath while keeping your head in a book all day.'
Yes, Jackson was a workaholic when it came to schoolwork and studying. He did on the occasion enjoy reading a good novel or indulging in a Saturday cartoon. Jackson was a smart person, both bookwise and streetwise. His dream was to become a technician, specifically a military one. With a job like that, he'd get to work with his two favorite things - weapons and vehicles. Jackson knew his way around the shed so to speak. And with his current direction in life and excellent grades, Jackson was all but certain to go where he wanted in the future. His mother and father were both caring people, supportive and understanding towards the trials of teenhood.
His sister, Sara, on the other hand, annoyed the living hell out of him. She was a good girl really. In fact, Jackson cared about his sister very much, as only a proper, single older brother can, but the two of them were far from alike in any way. Sara was a ten-year old, platinum blonde with curly, shoulder-length hair, peachy skin, and excited blue eyes. She almost always wore a shirt that was pink or themed to MLP, which she would get from her seemingly never-ending supply of MLP-themed clothes. She always wore a bright smile on her face, and she always said you were never fully dressed without one. The thing that mostly got on Jackson's nerves was Sara's borderline fanatical obsession with the cartoon and merchandise of the show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Jackson absolutely loathed the message of the show. "Friendship is magic? What a load of crap," he had said. Sara believed every word though, and she even kept a notebook with the lessons in friendship that had been learned from the start of season one to the current position in season four. She even claimed to have two friends who could pass for the elements of Generosity and Honesty, whatever the heck those were. She claimed to be good enough to be the element of Laughter and said her friends agreed. Jackson honestly didn't give a crap, but it was hard not to pick up at least a few details of the show with Sara's insistent rambling.
Jackson had a very rough past, and events that look place three years ago had made him an aloof and unfriendly person. He had had friends then, good ones, but through a series of horrible events he had lost all of them within the space of two days. Nowadays, he was only happy when he was building something or journeying through a good book.
Today was a Saturday, and Jackson had decided to take a rare break from doing something productive to relax. He was currently standing in the kitchen, fixing himself a homemade burger. This day had been perfect so far, and he had made it to noon with no disruptions to his happy mindset. Of course, he should have known better than to jinx it, even mentally.
Sara skipped happily into the room, blonde curls bouncing merrily about her head and shoulders, whilst she hummed a song about smiling while, of course, smiling. "Good morning!" she chirruped happily. She was wearing a cyan short-sleeve that had Rainbow Dash's cutie mark and the words "20% Cooler!" on it. Her other clothes were also Dash themed today.
Jackson sighed. "Morning," he muttered. Sara skipped over to the fridge and opened it, pulling out a tray of twelve cupcakes. Each cupcake had the cutie mark of one of the Mane 6 on them. There were two of each. Jackson raised a brow, as he finished placing pickle slices and the top on his burger. "What's with the pastries."
Sara giggled. "Oh, Silly, don't you remember? I have a play date with Marcie and Becca today! Mom helped me make these cupcakes yesterday!"
Jackson grunted. Now, he remembered. Sara and Becca were going to meet at Marcie's house, eat lunch there, and do whatever it was girls their age did these days.
Jackson could remember the times he'd met his sister's friends. Becca was overall nice and hardworking student like himself. But she was incredibly blunt and always spoke her mind. Marcie, however, seemed to live the good life. On first glance, one might peg her as a stereotypical, snooty, selfish rich girl, when in actuality she was quite the opposite. Marcie actually lived in the same neighborhood as them and lived no more than a minute walk away. These were Sara's two best friends, but she was always looking for more.
Sara took the tray of cupcakes to the front door and headed outside. Jackson watched her go. "You be careful... and have fun!" Jackson called after her.
She smiled back at him. "Don't I always?!"
Jackson just shook his head and closed the door. Little did he know, that he would need his own words more.
An hour or so later, Jackson was vegging out on the couch in the living room. His empty plate sat on a coffee table beside him. The show Transformers: Prime was finishing up on the Hub tv station. Jackson sighed and reclined with his eyes closed. Truly, he had needed this relaxation and lethargy.
Suddenly, his peace was shattered as the blasted theme song for MLP: FIM began to play. Jackson groaned and lifted his head to glare at the television set, as if hoping his glare would turn the damn thing off from a distance by pure force of will and loathing. When it did not, he sighed and sat up fully to grab the remote off the table in front of him and switch off the tv. Jackson sighed again and set the remote on the couch. "Friendship is magic huh? Yeah, what a bull-faced lie. Such a joke," he muttered.
The sound of static interrupted his reverie. He looked over. The tv was on again, displaying multiple, rainbow-colored bars. Jackson frowned and tried to turn the power off with the remote. After several tries when it didn't work, Jackson tried changing the channel. When that also failed, Jackson stared at the remote critically. "Out of batteries maybe?" He stood up and walked over to the tv. He tried both actions again manually. They failed. "So, it's the tv then. Better unplug it." He did so, but... it didn't turn off. Jackson blinked and gave the tv a mechanic's whack.
The tv began to vibrate violently, and the rainbow-colored bars on the screen began to warp and twist. Jackson stepped away from the tv, made wary. 'Is it going to explode?!' he panicked mentally. 'Illogical, televisions don't just explode!'
Then, a voice echoed throughout the room, one that could neither be pegged as male or female. It was omnipotent to the ear but amused in tone. "Friendship is a joke to you, hmm? You believe it to be the single greatest lie in the universe?"
"The hell?!" exclaimed Jackson. "Who's there?! And of course it is!"
The voice chuckled. "You won't need to know who I am, till you find who you truly are. And secondly, we'll sure see about that..." The voice trailed off slyly, which severely unnerved Jackson to no end.
The television began to shake more violently than ever, and a gravity-like suction began to fill the room, drawing things towards the tv. The rainbow-colored stripes were no more on the screen, and in their place was swirling vortex of prismatic color. The tv collapsed in on itself, releasing the full might of the vortex. Things began to disappear into the vortex, even as Jackson shook himself of his shock and bolted.
Table lamps, the tables they were on, the remote, paintings, that empty plate that had held a burger once... it all went in! Jackson vaulted over the couch and made for the kitchen like an athlete. The suction was stronger than ever now, as it lifted the couch into the air and consumed it as well in moments.
Jackson was nearly to the kitchen door. He would have leaped had he not mentally done the math and realized that the suction would catch him were he midair. He needed all the traction that he could get. He made it, even as the gravity-like force latched onto him. He stumbled, lashing out with his hand and catching hold of the door handle to the kitchen. He twisted and grabbed onto the inside door handle, as the door swung open. The suction yanked at him, determined to wrench his grip from the door. Jackson was determined that it would not. "This is insane!" he exclaimed, and with a grunt he managed to dig his shoes into the carpet and use the new traction to inch his way inside the kitchen.
The suction let up for but a second, but that was all he needed. Jackson practically swung himself inside the kitchen, slamming the door closed behind him. The door groaned and it hinges creaked dangerously as the suction resumed, even stronger. Jackson huffed for breath but knew that the kitchen door wouldn't hold for long like this. He looked about his dead-end for an escape of some sort. His eyes fell upon his last chance, the fridge.
He had seen an Indiana Jones movie, where Indiana had survived a nuke by hiding inside a fridge. Jackson only hoped that was something that actually worked. He rushed over the the fridge and tore it open, ripping out the contents to make room for his body. As an afterthought, he grabbed his backpack from a hook on the wall, where he kept it in the kitchen, and stuffed food items from the pantry into it, dumping out his books hurriedly, save the ones on mechanics and science. The entire stock of granola bars and chips went in, as well as lots of water bottles. Logically, with the vortex sucking stuff up and said stuff disappearing, all that stuff had to be going somewhere. If this really was some kind of vortex or portal (as Jackson now suspected), then there was no telling where it went. He would need to be prepared to survive without civilization in the worst case scenario. He zipped the thing up and returned to mauling the fridge.
The kitchen door had begun to crack, by the time Jackson had finished preparing. He slipped into the chilled confines of the fridge with his backpack and closed the door. From within, Jackson heard the deafening crack of the door giving way. The vortex's power roared throughout the kitchen ripping the place apart in it's quest to consume a living being. Jackson held the fetal position, as the fridge was ripped from its position and tumbled about. The roar of the portal came nearer and nearer, until, finally, it stopped.
The house was silent and very much wrecked. The tv was back in place hooked up and working as if nothing had ever happened. The front door had been left unlocked by Jackson, so he wouldn't have to get up to open it when Sara got home. It had swung open under the force of the vortex. It was now, two hours after leaving home, that Sara returned with her friends. Three jaws dropped open simultaneously.
"What in the world happened here?!" Marcie practically shrieked. Her green eyes were wide in alarm. Her brown hair was long and brushed to perfection of straightness. She wore a yellow and red shirt and skirt, that were both frilly but not overly so.
"Dunno," commented the african-american among them. Becca stepped inside first, paving the way for the other two's courage. Her raven hair was held in two braids. Her dark skin contrasted heavily with her observant, green eyes.
"Do you think it was robbed?" squeaked Marcie. The lack of furniture and, well, generally anything seemed to support her.
"Perhaps..." answered Becca thoughtfully. "You told us your brother was home, while we were at Marcie's?"
"Uh-huh," said Sara with a nod. Actually, where was Jackson right now?
"If this place was robbed, Jackson wouldn't have let it happen without a fight. We all know how he is," Becca said. The other two nodded silently. Becca's brows scrunched up in concentration, as they reached the living room. "If there had been a fight, there should be some broken furniture, but there's not. There aren't even any blood stains or bullet holes as evidences of a gun fight, which would excuse the lack of broken furniture with a fight being very fast."
The other two girls winced but nodded again. Becca was the most practical of the three, and her mother was a detective. Becca had a natural knack for detective work herself and wanted to be just like her mother, when she grew up.
"Why don't you go look for your brother," Becca suggested, taking control of the situation. Sara nodded and ran off. "Marcie, please help her. I'll get ahold of my mom." Marcie didn't hesitate to do so. As Marcie left the room, Becca pulled a handheld phone from her pocket and dialed in her mom's number.
While the phone dialed, something caught Becca's eye. The tv. Why would that still be here with so much else missing? She noticed that the paintings remained on the wall that had been behind the tv, but the ones on the far wall were gone. Skid marks adorned the rug, and the door to the kitchen was missing. Her mom hadn't picked up yet, so she went into the kitchen.
The devastation was no better in there. If there had been robbers, they had certainly been thorough. Every cupboard had been emptied. Lightbulbs had been ripped from their sockets. Even the fridge was missing. This had to be the weirdest robbery in the history of robberies. There were scratch marks and skids where the fridge had been tumbled and dragged. The marks led out of the kitchen and towards the tv before disappearing. Becca's eyes narrowed. There was definitely something off about this.
Her mother finally picked up. "Hello, Becca, what is it?" Mrs. Dreyer asked.
"Mom, my friend Sara's house seems to have been broken into, and her brother is missing," Becca said.
"Are you sure, honny?" Mrs. Dreyer asked.
"Still working on proving the theory, mom. But the situation here is wierd to say the least. Furniture has disappeared without a trace, while some items of the same remain. Only one side of the house appears to have been robbed, and the other is left untouched."
Sara came back at this time, as did Marcie. "Jackson's not here!" exclaimed Sara. Marcie nodded.
"Sara and Marcie have confirmed that Jackson is missing. I'm investigating here. I'll let you know what I've found when you get here," Becca said.
"Well, this actually seems very serious. I'll be over as soon as I can," Mrs. Dreyer said. "Oh, and good going on finding your first official mystery, Becca, even under the circumstances."
"Thanks, mom. See you in a bit," Becca smiled. She closed her phone and became serious again. "My mom's on the way. Let's investigate till she arrives. This whole thing is mighty suspicious." The television screen displayed rainbow stripes.
"Huh, what about it?" Marcie asked. Becca nodded and walked over to the television. The remote was nowhere to be seen. Why was this the only major décor left in the room? Becca tried all the buttons, but nothing happened. Looked like it was broken. She glanced behind it to where the plug was hooked up.
Becca reached for the plug and then hesitated. There was suddenly just this feeling, a slow one that was creeping up her spine in warning. She took hold of the plug and...
The tv blared to life before the plug was pulled. Becca jerked back and stared at the screen. The beginning of the second half-hour of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic had started. It centered on the Everfree Forest were a beam of energy from the sky created a clearing in the Everfree and spat out tons of stuff, including a large white fridge. A sky-blue pony stumbled out of the fridge and looked around confusedly before shouting, "WHERE THE HAY AM I?!" The show cut out to the theme song. Becca's eye's widened. Odd... Very odd indeed...
Earlier...
Jackson slowly opened his eyes, glancing around at the darkness of his lifesaver of sorts. All he could hear outside the fridge was a faint tinkling. He also got the stomach turning feeling of falling. Rather anticlimactic all in all. Jackson gulped. He dared not open the door, not till the feeling ceased. But one minute turned into two, two into five, five into ten, and ten into thirty. Jackson knew so, using the light feature on his watch, and he was very bored.
"Ugh, screw it, maybe this place is just messing with me." Jackson slowly, carefully opened the door. He was nearly blinded by the brilliance outside, but his stomach dropped all the same once he saw where he was. He was indeed falling down a seemingly endless golden tunnel with a prismatic sheen inside the vortex. There was no immediate end in sight, but there were glowing white pathways that branched off this one. Unfortunately, he was headed for none of them. "Nooooope. Nope, nope nope, nope, nope..." He muttered, shutting the fridge again. At least there was oxygen here; it would have been quite the bummer to lose his remaining breathable air to curiosity.
He sighed. Who knew where he was now, where he was going, or if he would ever leave here at all. Would he ever see his parents or sister again? He scowled. This was all the fault of that damn voice. Who the hell did he or she think he or she was?! The situation seemed hopeless; that was until Jackson got an idea. When he had opened the fridge, there had been no wind resistance even with there being breathable air. The laws of physics here (wherever here was) seemed to be void physics. In a void there was no air, resistance, or gravity, which meant that objects in motion stayed perpetually in motion until pushed in another direction by collision, and objects that were stationary would never move unless effected by a separate moving object. It was how astronauts travelled such long distances. The only fuel they ever used was for takeoff and direction, then they let the void of space do the rest.
Jackson put his plan into *ehem* motion. Excuse the science pun. XD He opened the fridge and leaned out, holding his backpack in one hand. The vortex hadn't changed, and an exit was still nowhere in sight. He raised his backpack, intending to hit the side of the fridge, when the fridge lurched and began to move towards one of the glowing openings in the vortex.
Jackson's eye's widened. He quickly slipped back inside the fridge and shut the door just as he entered the glowing hole. Then, he knew only pain.
It was like every fiber of his body was being lit on fire. He tried to scream, but his throat clenched. Confined as he was inside the fridge, there was no room to thrash. His head pounded. His lungs screamed for air. His stomach and guts lurched violently inside his body. It was as though every bone in his body was broken and being moved around inside him with no regard for his opinion on the matter. It all hurt like bucking hell.
When it stopped, the relief washed over him like a hot shower, and he descended gratefully into unconsciousness.
Gia, Equestria, Everfree Forest
The dark forest was eerily quiet. No birds flittered about, singing happy songs. The clouds were large and irregular, moving according to the will of the wind and no-one else. No small critters dared to explored their habitat, instead hunkering down in trees and burrows away from the terrors of the forest. Even the more daring inhabitants of the land outside the forest drew the line before entering unless near life or death business was at hand.
The silence was broken by an earth-shattering "BOOM!" that echoed throughout the land. The quake was felt by all, as a tunnel of rainbow-colored energy shot down from the sky. It created a clearing, as it came down. The powerful trees of the forest were ripped up like fledgling weeds and scattered to the wind, while a circle of arcane symbols carved itself into the ground with a golden light. The beam touched down and tossed random objects every which way before dissipating into nothingness and leaving a large, white fridge at the center of impact.
Silence. That's all there was yet again. It was a different kind of silence though. Mystery hung in the air. This silence was one so foreign, that it nearly coaxed some of the forest's denizens out of hiding for sheer curiosity. The winds of change had blown, and they had blown a doosey.
Jackson coughed and gave a loud groan, as he came to. "Ugh, the Tartarus? Oh man, my stomach. Ahhhh..." The fridge seemed to have gotten oddly bigger, since he had blacked out. Jackson repositioned himself and kicked out. The fridge door was flung open, letting in the blinding sunlight. "Ahh, the light!" Blinded by the sudden light, Jackson stumbled and fell face first to the dirt ground. He muttered loathings, as he spat dirt from his mouth, regretting the action of simply leaping out into the unknown.
Whilst mentally complaining about the soreness of his entire body, Jackson glanced around the clearing that he had ended up in. Household object littered the place. Most of them were broken. The tv remote: smashed. The couch: crunched. Shattered plates and glass lay all about. The fridge was the only thing that appeared to be fully intact, and Jackson was very glad to have hidden in it.
Deciding that just sitting in the middle of this rather cartoonish, yet uneasy feeling, forest might be a bad thing, Jackson made wobbly attempts to stand. He pushed up, only to promptly fall down, with a complete lack of balance. He did so again and received the same result. Jackson growled in frustration and settled for an oddly comfortable crawling position. Yes, this position was suddenly very unsettling, and Jackson glanced around for a reflective surface. He found one in a shattered mirror. His jaw dropped. "Oh, no no no," he muttered. "Please, please let this be a dream."
Staring back at him in the shattered glass, was a sky-blue unicorn with a short, copper mane and tail and hazel eyes. "I'm a freaking pony, and a unicorn at that," he whispered.
He raised a single hoofed appendage and (finding that he couldn't pinch himself) bit himself... hard... several times. He then proceeded to charge and headbutt trees on the edge of the clearing, which just earned him a blaring headache. And to seal the deal, his menagerie of curses had been replaced by pony variants.
And so we arrive back where we started. "WHERE THE HAY AM I?!" He didn't expect an answer and didn't get one. Jackson sighed. This wasn't a dream. Unfortunate, though it was, this was real. "Screw these darned children's cartoons and their childishness," he muttered. His face lit up. "FINALLY, some words I can work with!" He sighed, glad that his freedom to verbally express displeasure hadn't been completely diminished. If he'd had access to his full arsenal, he'd have been pretty far into the procedure of making R-rated movie swears look tame compared to this stupid show.
But now what should he do? Jackson explored the clearing, trying to salvage anything useful. He found little of note. There were actually some food items from the kitchen scattered about. He knew many of them would go bad without refrigeration. He managed to get open and eat a yogurt cup by clenching the darn thing between his hooves and prying off the top with his teeth. Surprisingly, he had managed to do so without too much mess and rather enjoyed the contents. This made him remember his backpack.
He trotted over to the fridge at a paced speed, somewhat unsteady on his new hooves. He found, upon reaching the fridge, that his backpack had transformed into a saddlebag. He grunted in displeasure but got the thing out. He found that the contents had not changed and was grateful for that. He managed to get the saddlebag on his back without too much trouble. It was securing the strap of the gosh darn thing that was trouble. He spent a good twenty minutes working out a system with his surprisingly versatile teeth and tongue to secure the strap. If he were capable of using unicorn magic, it would have been no problem. As it was, he couldn't even produce a spark. He might as well have been a earth pony, lacking in strength.
Having done all that he could, Jackson was about to leave the clearing, when he spotted a previously unnoticed ring of symbols that ran around the clearing. He couldn't make heads or tails of the thing, but it looked important. He took a salvaged pencil and some paper and scribbled down as many of the symbols as he could onto it. His hand... err... mouth writing was pretty messy, but it was legible and easily salvaged for the proper inscriptions later. He wrote on anything he could until he had the entirety of the circle on paper. He made sure to number the pages as well. This was important he felt; who knew if he would ever get the chance to do this again. This whole procedure took the better part of an hour, but Jackson was satisfied.
He stuffed the papers and pencil into his new saddlebag and sighed wearily, but this was no time to take a break. It was noon again (He had woken up in the late morning), and he had to get out of here. There was just this feeling that he got from just being here. He felt like spontaneously panicking, even with no immediate danger in sight. Equestria: Land of Rainbows and Sunshine this may be, but this forest was evil. "Yeesh, I hate being a horse. Stupid herd instincts."
The next order of business was to get the freakin' Tartarus out of here! But how would he know if he was going in the right direction? He decided on climbing a tree. It took a bit, but he was able to eventually find one that grew at an odd enough angle for him to get up. The tree was thankfully tall enough to spot the nearest exit to the forest. His joy at finding said exit lasted for all of a moment, when a loud 'crack!' was heard.
"Buck," he muttered, as the branch gave way, sending the unicorn plummeting headfirst into the forest floor. Jackson groaned. The headache that had finally dulled away returned full force and with a vengeance. "Stupid forest." Standing up, he stepped on a thorn. "Ow! Stupid karma!" He promptly tripped on a rock. He pulled out the thorn, but there was nothing to be done for his bruised hoof and ego. After that, he refrained from any more insults to the demon-spawned land. The forest could have this victory, but he would get even, petty as it was to do so. This just felt personal for some reason.
As he neared the exit, he came upon a patch of blue flowers. They kind of looked like hybrid bluebells. He nearly trotted though them, when he remembered something.
Jackson walked to his room, backpack slung over his back. When he entered his room, he was suddenly rained upon by little, blue cutout flowers. "What the-?"
Eight-year old Sara laughed furiously with an empty basket in hand. "You touched poison joke, so now you're a girl!"
"Says who?" Jackson said with a raised brow.
"No-one! You touched poison joke, so it made you silly looking!" Sara squealed, still giggling with childish mirth.
Jackson picked up one of the little paper flowers. "Hmm... guess I must be immune then."
Sara shook her head furiously and took on a sagely tone. "Nopey dope! No-one's immune to the joke. You touch them, and you'll get joked! And they only grow in the Everfree Forest."
Jackson's eyes widened, and he quickly backed away. He was in the Everfree Forest, wasn't he? "Yeah, that's some nasty stuff," he commented while looking at the flowers. He didn't know exactly what poison joke was supposed to do, other than it played an incredibly embarrassing and permanent prank on your physical body. Yeah, better not to find out if this really was poison joke by accidental test. He skirted around the patch and left the forest.
From the shadows, a black and white figure watched him go with a smile at his cautious actions.
Next order of business: find civilization. "New Quest: Find Civilization! You have gained 300 exp for escaping the Everfree Forest!" Jackson said to himself. Jackson had a hunch. There was supposed to be a town nearby, the one that the main characters of the show lived in. Supposedly, it should be close enough to see from the edge of the forest. Jackson continued to trot. He would break out into a gallop every once and a while to train his hoof work and coordination.
He briefly wondered how the villagers would react to his arrival in town. He shuddered when thinking about 'The Pink One.'
Eventually, Jackson happened upon a small cottage on the edge of the forest. As he approached, he almost felt that there was a gental warmth about the place. It carried an air of security. "Might be a good place to ask for directions," he mused.
Jackson trotted up the dirt pathway, over a small bridge which spanned an even smaller creek, and up to the door of the cottage. He noted mentally that the place was a tree, as he knocked.
Moments later, the door was answered by a small, white bunny. Jackson initially blinked in surprise and stepped back slightly, when the bunny gave him a venomous glare. 'What the hay?' Regaining his nerve, Jackson returned the glare. After a moment, sparks were quite literally jumping between their eyes. Jackson ignored them, his only purpose currently being to beat this bunny to a mental pulp. 'The situations you get yourself into these days,' Jackson mentally sighed.
Luckily, before the battle of wills could become one of blows, a feminine voice called, "Who is it, Angel?" "Angel" actually answered with a series of rabbit noises. A pale-yellow pegasus with a long, pink mane that reached the ground stepped into the doorway. Her features were youthful and caring. "Now, now, Angel, that's not very nice to sa- O-oh, oh my. H-hello, m-may I help you?" She blushed and seemed only interested in hiding behind her own mane.
Jackson raised a brow at the somewhat cowering pony. "Huh?" His gaze flitted to the bunny, who gave a look that said, "Make to be nice, or I'll burrow through your skull and rip out your heart!" Jackson gulped. Amazing what can be convened with a look these days. And this is a freaking bunny! "Hey, hey. I'm not that scary, am I?"
The yellow mare blushed harder. "Oh, n-no. It's not you. It's just..." she trailed off.
Jackson sighed. He wasn't getting anywhere with this one. Yeesh, why'd it have to be a painfully shy one? "Look um. Uh... yeah, I'm just looking for the nearest town. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"N-no," replied the pegasus meekly. She looked up slightly. "A-actually, the road to Ponyville is just over there." The yellow pegasus gestured down the direction of the dirt path that led to her house, where there was a much larger and more noticable dirt path that led away.
Jackson nearly fell over, raising a hoof to rub the back of his head with a somewhat bashful laugh. "How could I have missed that?"
The pegasus seemed to light up a bit in his abashed state and smiled warmly. "D-don't worry, e-everypony gets a little lost at least once in their lifetime."
Yeah, this is actually a first for me. I don't think I've ever been so far from home." He began to mutter darkly about portals and voices.
"Oh? Where do you live. T-that is, if you don't m-mind my asking..." the pegasus asked before trailing off meekly.
Jackson ceased his loathing mutterings and smirked reassuringly. "Don't worry about it. I don't mind you asking at all. I'm from Colorado."
"You mean C-coltarado?" the pegasus asked. Jackson gave her an odd look at that, causing her to shy away.
'Hmm, perhaps that area of this world is similar to the Colorado of my world,' Jackson thought. Jackson quickly thought up a way to cover for his mis-speaking the name of a place that he had supposedly lived all his life. "Heh heh, yeah. Guess I must have hit my head harder than I though."
"O-oh, how did that happen? Does it still hurt," the pegasus asked.
Jackson raised a brow. Why was she so concerned? They'd only just met! 'This pony is either extremely and legitly concerned, or incredibly nosey... or even both! Freakin' ponies, man,' Jackson thought. But in all honesty, he had fallen from a tree (headfirst, in fact), and his head did still hurt. He told her as such, and she looked horrified.
"Oh my goodness, you should get your head looked at right away!" she squeaked.
"Nah, I'm sure it's nothing," Jackson responded dismissively. It hurt, but surely it wasn't that bad.
"But it isn't nothing, you could have a concussion, or worse... spinal injuries!" the pegasus insisted. Why was she suddenly so assertive now?! "And do forgive my saying so, but unicorns aren't the most physically durable of ponies."
"Forgiven, but- Hey!" Jackson exclaimed, as he was suddenly snatched by the pegasus and pulled inside the cottage. "So, I take it when you said for me to get looked at, you meant for me to let you look me over?" Something about the way he asked it caused the pegasus to blush immensely.
"N-not exactly," stuttered the pegasus. "She closed her eyes and regained her composure, the burning in her cheeks dying down. "It's really just that I've seen your type before. You'll play the tough-guy act and never get yourself injuries looked at. I actually only know enough about ponies to give a checkup or assess a few varied conditions, such as concussions. The rest of my medical expertise is in animals as part of my talent for taking care of creatures." She then turned so that Jackson could now clearly see her cutie mark, a triplet of pink butterflies seemingly tattooed into the fur of her flank.
Jackson raised an amused brow. 'She really is making this just too easy. Innuendo found... and initiate contact!' "So, you want me to stare at your backside?" Jackson asked cheekily. The pegasus' cheeks burned bright red, and she quickly changed the subject by herding Jackson onto the couch in her living room.
"N-now then, y-you stay r-right there, and I'll b-be back with my medical kit," the pegasus ordered.
"Yes, nurse," Jackson sighed, nodding reluctantly and resigning himself to his fate. It was a very flustered yellow pegasus who left that room and headed upstairs. Of course, once she was gone, that left Jackson alone with the demon bunny, Angel. The bunny's body was practically trembling with rage, all of which was directed at Jackson. Jackson gulped. He had watched a few animes like Naruto. Was this what it was like to be on the receiving end of waves of Killer Intent? Honestly, it was rather terrifying, even more-so that a bunny could be projecting such ridiculous amounts of it.
Jackson chose (probably for the better) to ignore Angel and take in his surroundings, leaving the bunny to stew and bore imaginary holes into Jackson's head with his glare.
It was a quaint, little place with a few pieces of furniture. There were some inhabited bird houses inside, a few mouse-holes, and also an archway that Jackson assumed let to the kitchen. "What do ya' know? I've found the pony version of Snow White." Jackson actually now remembered where he had seen this pony before! It was something that had been bugging him ever since meeting her. This was one of those ponies on his sister's shirts, one of the main six or something. He was with one of the main characters right off the bat!
Suddenly, he began to wonder. 'Do things that happen here effect the show at home? Does this mean that meeting this pony has inadvertently introduced me into the show?! No way! Does this mean I could call out to home, send a message?' The implications were exciting to say the least, but then he frowned. 'It would probably get cut out. Fourth wall breaks are hard to pull off right I suppose.' He sighed; it was probably futile.
Before depression could set in, he was alerted to the pegasus' return by the clopping of hooves on the hard wood stairs. The pegasus had returned, gripping the handle of a medkit in her mouth. She set the kit on a small table beside the couch and opened it. Inside, there was a small roll af bandages, some band-aids, a small light (Jackson couldn't guess what powered it, with the ponies' general lack of advanced technology unless it suited the situation. Freaking ponies, man!), an injection needle, assorted medical fluids, and a needle and string for sewing stitches.
The pegasus brought out the small light and held it up to Jackson's face. "Please sit still and keep your eyes open, while I check for concussions," she said softly. How that had come out as an understandable sentence Jackson might never know.
"Yeah fine, whatever, let's just get this over with, so I can be on my way," Jackson replied rudely. The depression had morphed into frustration, frustration that was just waiting to be taken out on somepony... ?! Even his lingo had suffered this universe's tyranny! The bunny glared at him. "Up yours, Hopper," Jackson snipped hotly. Angel absolutely glowered and then hopped away, obviously to plot some sort of revenge. Jackson didn't care. This was a bunny. What did he think he was going to do?
The pegasus had decided not to break up the short quarrel between unicorn and bunny. (Mostly because it had already resolved itself for now.) She was worried about a fight breaking out between the two, though more for the unicorn's sake than Angel. It probably wouldn't end well for the unicorn. Angel Bunny was known for his ability to back up some frankly terrifying threats. She shuddered. Angel Bunny was absolutely not to be trifled with.
But enough of that. The pegasus checked both Jackson's eyes and checked his limbs and ribs for fractures or broken bones. She put away the tools and hmmed thoughtfully to herself. "Well, you don't have any broken bones, so that's good." She closed up the medical kit. "You do have a small concussion though, just as I suspected. You should really get a proper checkup, when you arrive in Ponyville. By the way, do you happen to have any other noticable symptoms?"
Jackson's patience was seriously waning by this point, but something important occurred to him. This would be an excellent way to pass off his lack of magic. "Well... I've kind of forgotten how to use my magic."
The pegasus gasped. "How terrible! Why, that's what makes a unicorn a-"
"Yes, yes, it's a real tragedy. Can I go now? I need to see if there's a library in town... so I can get a map and hopefully relearn my magic," Jackson said, making up explanations on the fly. He didn't really need the map, not now anyways. And the magic could be useful, if only for the levitation that seemed inherent to all unicorns.
"Oh yes, we can go in a minute," the pegasus answered while heading for the stairs.
"What do you mean 'we'?" Jackson asked, even though he suspected the answer.
"Why I'm coming along, of course," the pegasus answered. "If you have a concussion bad enough to cause memory loss, you could faint at any moment in the middle of the road." Jackson groaned. It looked like he'd be stuck with the yellow pony for a little while longer.
5 minutes later, road to Ponyville
Jackson trotted side-by-side with the pegasus. To Jackson's relief, the trip so far had been relatively quiet, and the demon bunny had been left at the cottage. Suddenly, something occured to the unicorn. He groaned mentally. It was only polite to do what he had thought of. "Goodbye, silence," he muttered. "Hey, miss?"
"Hmm?" the pegasus perked up.
Jackson sighed. "Look, I'm sorry for being rude to you and the fluffy terror back at your home. I know you were just being nice, but I wasn't exactly in the best mood. Regardless, I could have stood to excercise better mannerisms."
The pegasus smiled warmly. "It's quite all right; I understand completely. I was rather pushy, and Angel can be just a tad overprotective of me."
Jackson grinned. "Don't sweat it! Really, I'm over it now. Besides, everyone is privileged with their own personality and all the quirks, talents, and oddities that come with it. Obviously, not all individuals will get along. We can't change that. It's just a fact. Not to say that I don't like you or anything like that. Actually, you kinda' remind me of-" the words caught in his mouth, and his face took on a pained expression. His pupils dilated. Too quiet to be heard, he gasped, "Amy" with a silent gag.
"Are you alright?" the pegasus asked, when he stopped moving.
Jackson shook his head; the memory chased itself back into the recesses of his mind. "Y-yeah, I'm fine." He shuddered. The pegasus frowned. He was obviously not fine, but she would leave the matter be if he didn't wish to tell her. "You know, I don't think I ever got your name this whole time."
The pegasus blushed; it was true. She'd been so caught up worrying about the unicorn, that she hadn't bothered to introduce herself. "M-my name's F-fluttershy," she mumbled.
"Flutter-what now?" Jackson asked.
"Fluttershy," she answered -more clearly this time.
"Hmm, fitting," Jackson said. He mentally reminded himself that these ponies often had names very characteristic of their profession or personality.
"I-if you don't mind terribly, I didn't catch your name either," Fluttershy said.
Jackson caught himself from answering with his real name. His name didn't sound Equestrian at all. He'd need to come up with a good one that described him in a nutshell. I suddenly came to him, a name that would certainly do well enough. "The name's Sprocket Blast, but most others call me Sprocket for short."
"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Sprocket," Fluttershy said with a smile.
"Likewise, Fluttershy," the newly self-proclaimed Sprocket Blast replied.
AN: I've kind of got a general idea of where I want to go from here. This story will encompass a good portion of season 4 with Sprocket Blast added to the mix. He might get somewhat OPed in this story, especially at the end of season 4, but there will be a good reason for it. You'll just have to wait to find out what. Loved it? Hated it? Let me know. Good or bad reviews, I welcome them all. Flames? Hah! I bathe in them! XD