Short Summary
A series of one-shots set in Equestria based on the Twilight Zone. Some will be original, some will be parodies of classic episodes. All 'episodes' will cover only one chapter in length, be they long or short. None will be completely canon, but I will try to get as close to it as possible.
You break the fourth wall with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension; a dimension of muffins, a dimension of friendship, a dimension of ponies. You're moving into a land of both magic and flight, of parties and magic. You've just crossed over into…
The Equestrian Zone.
EPISODE 1: The Spark of Friendship
Harold was just your average American, low on work and high on optimism. But today, he will dare to venture beyond his own dimension, and into a strange land known only as The Equestrian Zone.
It all started with a spark of electricity at Harold's Television Set…
"That's the third time this week!" he said. "What is wrong with it? I called the Electrician, but does he show? Nooo!"
And indeed, he had. The electrician had told him how to fix it, and he had done all of those steps, but the crackling energy kept coming back somehow. He was thoroughly warned not to go back there when it was sparking. But surely, as long as he didn't get too close, he would be fine, right?
One would think. Of course, this was no ordinary spark. Tripping on a textbook that he had never been able to put away, he stumbled a bit, and landed with his left hand leaning on the top of the set to keep from falling into the sparks. He got up from his position and breathed a sigh of relief. He left his hand upon the surface of the set, resulting in a most unfortunate tickle.
Sss-Zap! "Ouch!" He reflexively pulled his hand up to his mouth and bit on it. The small shock was not nearly as bad as he had expected it to be. It hurt, but that didn't mean he couldn't handle it. Until he noticed something. The finger was still in his mouth, massaging it with his teeth, when he felt a little bump.
Bump. Bumpity bump. Bump. Something seemed to be growing out from the skin. It barely registered in his head. He pulled out his hand to look at his wrist watch. The time read 4:05, but that's not what caused him to gasp in shock. His arm was now a sickly red and was growing at an alarming rate. His fingers fused together, until it was just a giant mitten. Actually, it began looking more like a red marshmallow…
Harold would have screamed… if he was conscious. The shock was too much, however, and he fell to the ground in an unconscious heap.
The first sensation to hit him was the warmth of the sun. It beamed down on his body, filling him with peace and well being. He must be dead, he thought carelessly. The soft blanket below him swayed in the soft breeze. Soft, and green… almost like…
"Grass?" Harold sat up. He wasn't in a hospital, and he certainly wasn't in his home. There was still the possibility that he was dead, but he seemed less and less certain on that theory now. The hair on his neck tickled his back.
Wait, what? He looked at his back and saw the queerest sight – a long, white mane that went from (he presumed) the top of his head to his back. Worse yet, his entire back looked alien to him – equine, in fact! Gasping in alarm, he bolted upright onto his feet, only to fall flat on his face.
Looking down to find four hooves instead of the two hands and two feet he had previously existed with, he was much more careful in standing this time. It felt strange looking down to see red fur - and white hair that seemed to touch the ground. Walking was tricky – not like crawling, like he had thought it would be, but more like standing with extra foot support. It felt surprisingly easy, actually, to walk around on them. 'Although', he thought, 'it might be some sort of automatic instinct or something.'
Harold tried to get his bearings as best he could. He was some sort of equine, who had no idea where he was, in a forest he had never seen before.
Yeah, this wasn't normal.
Well, he figured the first thing he should do is find shelter – or better yet, civilization. He pointed his nose – muzzle – in the air and sniffed. Curious by how good his nose was, but amazed that he could also tell how far off people were. And did he smell muffins? No, no, it was just his adrenaline filled brain playing tricks on him. Still, he decided to follow the scent. He hadn't walked a mile when a gravel path me his feet – err, hooves.
"Well, it's as good a path as any." He told himself. He followed the scent and the path until he came across a smaller equines playing in the road. 'So I'm not the only one here,' he thought. He walked up to them, trying to be as gentle as possible – something told him they were only children. It was probably how they were behaving. What surprised him even more was that they seemed to be talking to one another… horses! Talking! Who would have guessed? On the left was a small orange one with purple hair and wings. In the middle was a yellow coated filly with red Raggedy Ann-style hair, and the right spot was held by a white unicorn with mixed light purple hair.
"Ah, hello." He greeted. The three of them stopped horse playing (pardon the pun) and looked up at him. "You wouldn't be able to tell me where I am, would you?" he asked
Immediately, the orange one on the left spoke up. "You're in Ponyville, mister!"
"Ponyville?" he repeated. What an odd name for a town! He chuckled a bit to himself, coming out as a low whinny.
"What, you've never heard of Ponyville?" said the unicorn
"Uh, no... I'm, uh, not from around here…" Somehow, Harold got the feeling that they weren't going to be the best of help. But any help in a situation like this was better than no help at all, he figured.
"Ooh! Where do you come from?" asked the orange Pegasus. (Well, what else could it be? He reasoned.)
"A – A bit far away…"
"Really? Like Trottingham?"
"Whatever that is, it's further away than that."
"Further than Canterlot?"
"Yes."
"Cloudsdale?"
"Yes."
"Appleoosa?"
"Yeeeesss."
"The MOON?" asked the white one. The orange one just looked at her like she was stupid.
"Of course not, you colt!" the orange one started. "He's obviously not -"
"I think so, yes." Harold interrupted. She stopped her rant, and the white equine stuck her tongue out at the orange one. The outcome was immediate. The three of them broke out into giddy banter, talking so fast it was nearly impossible to keep up with. They were almost at each other's throats, and Harold decided it was time to intervene before things got out of hand.
"So, can any of you tell me where I am? I mean, I'm not exactly sure how I got here…"
"Well, that's easy, mister! You're in Ponyville! Well, almost. We're right inside the EverFree forest right now. My name's Apple Bloom," said the one with red raggedy Ann hair and yellow colt
"I'm Sweetie Belle," continued the white unicorn.
"And I'm Scootaloo." Finished the orange Pegasus.
"Come on, we'll show you around town! Maybe we'll get Alien Ambassador cutie marks!" said Sweetie Belle. "What's that?" asked Harold.
"An ambassador is a pony who represents another region of ponys, such as Canterlot." Explained Sweetie Belle matter-of-factly.
"Thank you for another big word, miss dictionary!" Apple Bloom teased.
Harold laughed. "No, I meant Cutie marks. What are those?"He explained. All three of the fillies stopped in their tracks, looking back at him like he was he had just said something really stupid. Apparently everybody knows what a cutie mark was in this world. "What?" he asked somewhat rhetorically, trying to break the silence. Come on, he was the new one here!
"Did you just ask what a cutie mark was?" asked Scootaloo slowly.
"Yeah…" his voice trailed off. By the way it sounded, everybody was supposed to know what a cutie mark was. They just looked down, not sure what to say. An awkward silence hung in the air, all parties not knowing exactly what to say. Harold finally tried to break the creepy quietness by asking again.
"Soooo – what is it?" he said nervously
"It- it's a mark we get on our flank when we find our special talent…" Sweetie Belle began to answer
"…but we haven't found ours yet." Apple Bloom finished. They all seemed down at the thought.
"Well, I'm sure you'll find it eventually. Why don't you try working with what you like to do? Maybe that will help." Harold suggested.
"That's what all the big ponies say…" Apple Bloom said with her head down. Harold smiled.
"Then they're right. You should listen to your superiors. They tend to know what they're talking about."
"Yeah…" Sweetie Belle sighed. Soon enough, they reached the outskirts of the community. Ponies lined the streets, not too crowded but obviously busy. A few Pegasus' flew in the skies above, moving clouds about. 'How odd!' Harold thought to himself. 'Controlled weather! Must be nice…'
"Well, it looks like we're here!" said Scootaloo. "Do you want us to show you around town?" Harold nodded.
"I just need to find a way home, and maybe a place to stay."
"Well, I'm sure somepony can help you out with that! Let's see, closest is Fluttershy's cottage, maybe she can help you out!" said Sweetie Belle
"Well, Ok. Lead the way, then." Harold pointed in front of him with is hoof, suggesting she take the front. The walk through town was quiet, as was to be expected. Most people stayed on the sides of the road, although a few did give him curious looks. But nobody did anything, and went on their merry way.
Until he met the pink one. Her back was to the quadruplet, bouncing and talking excitedly with a blue Pegasus pony with rainbow mane and tail. The blue Pegasus motioned her head to the four of them. The pony immediately looked underneath her to see them. She gasped excitedly, and ran off in a blaze of speed.
All before Harold could say hello.
The blue Pegasus with rainbow colored mane and tail shook her head in slight annoyance, smiling just the same. She floated over to Harold, the red Pony.
"Hello, there! Sorry about Pinkie Pie, she does that with anybody that's new around here. My name's Rainbow Dash! What's yours?" she greeted. Her rainbow mane fell down over her right eye, resulting in a strangely cute expression that Harold simply couldn't look away from. He eventually managed to choke out a response.
"My name is Harold, and I have no idea how I got here." He told the mare.
"Well, where do you come from?" asked Rainbow Dash. Thoughts raced through her head faster than she could fly. Was he a secret talent scout? Was he sick in the head? Just how foreign was he? He didn't act like a proper pony, that was for sure! His mannerisms were quite ungraceful!
"Um. The United States. Earth." He answered slowly, not sure if he should answer her.
"Earth? Never heard of it." Rainbow Dash shook her head slowly. Harold would have been surprised if she had. The little fillies that had seemed to run off without a thought hadn't, so why should this mare?
"Well, that's where I'm from. I'm a human, I'm not supposed to be this – pony thing I am now." He explained. "My body is quite, err, different than this."
"Human, eh? What's it like?" Rainbow Dash's eyes grew a little, creating an even cuter glow around her irises.
"Well, we walk on two legs, and have these things called hands that are great with picking things up." He explained. "Mostly because of our thumbs." At this, the multicolored mare burst out laughing.
"Buahahaha! That's a good one! THUMBS! Hahaha!"
"But I did! I'm telling the truth!"
"Listen, I don't know who you are, but around here, me and Pinkie Pie are the prank champions. So if you're trying to prank me, it ain't gonna happen!" continued Dash, completely not listening to anything he had to say.
"B-but I - !"
"Listen, it's nice to see a new face. But let's leaving the pranking to the professionals, okay fillies?" she looked at the three little mares that were looking really down.
"Buh – but!" Scootaloo started to say
"No buts. Really, making up stories like this! Now, go and play - something!"
"Awwww." They groaned, walking away in defeat. Harold's heart went out in sympathy to them. He could recount many times where somebody from back on his world didn't believe him when he told them the truth. It was a bitter feeling, and if left to stir it would just make the madness worse.
And he couldn't have any of that for these fillies.
"Hey, cheer up! It doesn't matter if she believes us or not, she's just one pony! I mean, it's not like everybody's going to think we're lying!" They smiled a bit, and continued through the town.
"Everypony." Scootaloo muttered.
"What?" asked Harold, not quite sure he had heard the young pony.
"I said, 'Everypony'. I never heard somebody say 'Everybody' before." Said Scootaloo. Harold couldn't help but chuckle at the strange word play. So they went around the town, hoping for somePONY that would help him out.
Pretty soon, Harold assuring words that 'Somepony will believe them!' came to be the exact opposite of the truth. NOPONY believed them. A wall-eyed grey coated pegasus that ended up breaking the bench she sat down on, rotting a patch of grass and knocking down a lamppost. Needless to say, they left before they got damaged as well.
A green unicorn on a bench was ecstatic at Harold's proclamation of human to pony reincarnation, but then realized he was traveling behind the three fillies. Immediately she turned sour, yelling at them to stop making fun of her, and that humans were real.
She was a bit obsessed with the existence of humans, according to her nearby friend, Bon-Bon. Harold, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle explained it to her as well, but she was quick to angrily send them away as well.
At Fluttershy's, the three fillies hopped on top of each other, with Sweetie Belle on top and Scootaloo on the bottom. The filly on top knocked on the door with her face.
"Doesn't that hurt?" asked Harold as they jumped off of each other.
"Nope! I learned how to do it without hurting my face!" she replied happily.
"Really? From Who?"
"Pinkie Pie!" she answered with a grin on her small face
"The pink pony from earlier?" Sweetie Belle nodded. They waited a few minutes, and when nobody came to the door, Harold decided to just open it.
It was dark inside. A bouquet of flowers in a purple vase stayed upright in the center of the room upon a table, the petals blowing slightly in the breeze from the door. A rabbit cage laid empty, and while the only light that came into the place was from the natural sun, it was somehow black like nighttime.
"Where could she be?" wondered Sweetie Belle
"Ah dunno! Maybe Pinkie Pie'll know!" Apple Bloom suggested. And so, the shut the door and left the bleak foundation.
Before the four of them knew it, they were standing outside of a bakery that looked like something out of Candy Land. According to Apple Bloom, this is where Pinkie Pie and the Cakes lived. They walked inside, Harold himself hoping for something to eat. They had been walking around the town all day and he was quite hungry.
They opened the door, only to find it dark in the house as well.
"Why did we come in if nobody was home?" Harold asked them.
3, 2, 1…
The lights flashed on, temporarily blinding the human turned pony.
"SURPRISE!" Burst a chorus of high pitched voices. "Ah!" Harold cried out, seriously surprised from the amount of ponies hidden in the room. The brightly colored pink pony from earlier jumped in front of him.
"HI!" shouted the energetic mare. "I saw you were new here and I wanted to throw you a great big party to help you meet everypony because when I saw you I thought you might be lonely, and being all lonely isn't fun at all, and I thought 'GAAASP!' I know! I'll throw this pony a great big splendiferous party to celebrate you coming here and have you meet everypony! And then I put all this together and here you are! Do you like it! Do ya – do ya– do ya?"
"Ah – ah – ah!" stuttered Harold
"That's a yes! Yay!" and with that, the exuberant pony bounced off into the crowd.
"Ah – ah – ah!" the stuttering continued. A white pony with blue hair and a purple unicorn with a green dragon on her back were talking nearby, and noticed his stutter. The unicorn's horn began to glow, and in moments his stutter was gone.
"Thank you, miss." He spoke kindly. "I'm Harold. And you are?"
"My name is Twilight Sparkle. And this is the DJ, DJ-Pon3" (pronounced Pony)
"Please, I'm offstage. Call me Scratch."
"Well, Scratch, Twilight, it's very nice to meet you both."
"If you don't mind me asking, where do you come from? I've never seen anything like you in Equestria before." Asked Twilight.
""Well, I'm a human from a long off planet called Earth…" he began. Immediately, the dragon on her back woke up.
"A human? In Equestria? So they're real!" the baby dragon exclaimed excitedly, his pupil eyes grown to twice their size.
"Spike!" Twilight hissed, glaring daggers at the dragon. Said dragon just slipped back onto her back, unseen from behind her mane.
"Wha – well, of course they're real! I was one! And then I was sent here, I guess, I don't really know why or how. And now I'm a – this. Pony." He gestured with his right hoof to himself, inwardly surprised by how easy the motions were.
"Well, I'm sure you've had an exciting day. How would you like to come over and check out the Lab with me?" suggested Scratch
"Lab?"
"That's what I call my set up. Gotta call it somethin' cool, right?"
"Um, yeah. Sure."
"Coolio! Come on!" the white pony wove through the crowd, head bobbing with the repetitive beat. Harold couldn't help but find himself getting into this music as well, no matter how different it was from his own. It had a funky beat, like a sped up Buddy Holly. A pony walked by with a tray of glasses. Vinyl grabbed one with her teeth, carrying it with ease. Impressed, he tried to do the same thing.
He ended up spilling the entire tray over both him and the waiter-pony. A few ponies nearby laughed, and being the good sport he was, he chuckled along. Instinctively, he shook his coat off, spraying the other guests.
By now, he had completely lost sight of Scratch. He stood up over the small crowd of people, looking for the turn table. 'Target acquired,' he thought to himself as he eyed the 'Lab' across the room.
In no time at all, he was back right beside the blue-maned eccentric DJ. Who just acted like he had never left.
"…And so I said to Zecora, 'It's double rhyme time!'" Harold managed to catch the tail end of what seemed to be a very humorous story, as she was laughing quite heartily. The mixed mixer set down the glass on a small table near the soundboard and set to work at her masterpiece.
Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle met up with the three young bubbly blank butts.
"Hello girls! How's the party?"
"Oh, it's great!" said Scootaloo
"But we lost Harold in the crowd." continued an unhappy Sweetie Belle
"Well, don't worry girls, I'll help you find him!" she promised happily. It couldn't be too hard, right? She looked over the crowd of ponies. There must have been about ten red coated ponies in the crowd, and they all looked similar to each other.
This was going to be a lot harder than she thought.
Scratch's hooves were moving faster than Harold could keep up, and even with her unicorn magic to help her, she seemed like she was struggling to keep up with everything.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked
"No!" she shouted "I mean… no. It may look chaotic, but I've got everything under control here."
With an answer like that, there wasn't much he could do. He felt resigned to just stand back and watch the master at work. A few minutes go by, and Harold has the party itch. The itch that cannot possibly be scratched, except through getting out into the throng of the crowd and dancing. His hoof started tapping with the beat. Vinyl called him before he could make up his mind to go out into the party or stay and awkwardly watch.
"Hey, there is one thing you can do. You used to be 'human', right? There's this weird thing going on with that amp over there -" She pointed to a large black amp to the right of the stage that was two times as tall as the stage itself. "- is making some funny sparks. Do you think you could check it out?"
"Sure thing!" Harold replied, glad to be actually doing something amidst all the controlled chaos. He walked down towards the large amp, which was much harder to miss than a white pony.
Twilight walked up to the DJ stage with the CMC trailing behind.
"Hey, Vinyl, have you seen Harold around?"
"Yeah, totally! Just sent him off to check that amp! Can you believe he thinks he's human?" she laughed
Twilight smiled, knowing the joke between the two. She thanked her graciously, and they left to find the trouble making pony.
Harold looked at the sparks. Reality seemed to slow down on itself. Those blue sparks… he would know them anywhere.
This was his ticket home. Nothing else would get in the way now. Who knew how much longer he had?
A voice came out over the crowd. "Harold?" called Twilight.
"There he is!" Apple Bloom shouted. Harold turned around, and sure enough, there were the four of them. The three fillies bounded up to him. Instinctively, he nuzzled each one of them on the head.
"Thank you for showing me around this wonderful place," he said warmly. "I'll never forget you all."
And with that, he lifted his right hoof to touch the sparkling energy, mentally preparing himself for the slight pain again.
Ssss-Zap.
Twilight gasped. Harold had just voluntarily touched a live amp wire! She moved forward to grab him back, when the entire room shorted out. The music stopped, the lights stopped, even the sounds of ponies dancing around halted. There was no noise, sound or feeling to the four ponies. There simply - was.
And in a split second, it was all back on again. The party kept going like it hadn't even stopped. The amp was fixed.
And Harold was gone.
Confused by the sudden dissapearance of their new friend, the four fillies went back to the DJ table. Vinyl Scratch ran around, hooves running a mile a minute.
"Hey, Scratch!" Twilight shouted over the noise of the crowd.
"Hi, Twilight!" she shouted back.
"Have you seen Harold anywhere? He just disappeared!"
"Who?"
"Harold! You know - red coat, white mane - you were just talking with him a few minutes ago!"
"Twilight, I don't know what you're talking about. I've never heard such a ridiculous name before in my life."
Harold woke up. The scent of grease and oil flared his nostrils. His senses came flooding back, and the sensation of violent shaking came over him. He opened his eyes. Above him was a heavy set man in the cliched electricity man coveralls, complete with sweaty bald head, grease over his eye and a used blue handkerchief hanging out of the front pocket.
"Hey, man, are you ok?" the man asked in a gruff voice.
"Huh? What?"
"The name's Dan." he said as he pulled Harold onto his feet. "I came by to fix your TV like you had called. When you didn't answer the door, I looked in through the window and saw you lying on the floor. I broke your door trying to get in, but you didn't look healthy. I'll try and pay for it."
"No, no, it's fine. Thanks, I guess I just had a bad fall. I'm getting old, after all." he laughed.
"Well, I'm going to work on this then." Dan leaned down back behind the television. There were no sparks this time. Harold looked at his Rolex (wristwatch)
It was 4:06.
Twilight Sparkle and Spike were walking down the road back home. The party had ended up lasting well into the night, meaning there were going to be tons of tired ponies the next morning. Spike brought up a subject Twilight was sure they couldn't avoid.
"What do you think happened to Harold, Twilight?"
"I don't know, Spike. He probably just ran off or something. If he needed to leave, I'm not going to go and stop him." she reasoned
"But do you think he was actually - you know - human?" Spike asked
"Oh, Spike! Don't you know by now that humans only exist in those silly comic books you and Heartstrings read?"
Spike sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right." and with that sentiment, the duo walked into their home and got ready for bed, the memories of the strange stallion already fading into their subconscious.
Fin.