I woke up, and instantly knew something was wrong. I couldn't put my finger on it, though, and rolled onto my side to get more comfortable. What could be so bad that it couldn't wait until morning? After all, it was dark outside. I became more aware as I felt my arms move into an odd position. It felt like, instead of at my sides, they were on my chest. As I opened my eyes fully, I spotted my nose. It was hard to tell in the dark, but it almost looked completely pink. I looked down at my body, and my blood ran cold.

The first thing I saw were my arms, but it appeared that my entire hands had been removed, leaving only stumps. I tried wiggling my fingers just to be sure, and felt nothing. I mentally scolded myself for tempting fate, thinking nothing could stop a good nights sleep. Still lying down, I craned my neck to see the rest of my body, feeling something at the end of my back. What I saw made me freeze in horror.

Not only was I lacking feet in the same way as my hands, but I could see the back end of a horse, including a tail. Checking my front arms again, I saw that that was part of a horse too. Does that mean my lack of hands and feet were actually... Hooves?

I screamed. An actual, full blown, high pitched, unmanly scream. I screamed until my throat was hoarse, and I tried to scream after that. I was feeling my throat burn up when I finally stopped. As soon as I stopped, I could hear hurried footsteps. My first thought was to hide, lest they see my as a horse. I was about to remind myself that I wasn't really a horse, and that this was supposed to be some kind of sick, horrific joke when I realised they were the clip-clop of hoofsteps. I almost laughed at the irony of the situation, somebody finding a man-horse while riding a horse (or was it just a coincidence?), when I saw the cause.

It was a short horse who, from what I could see in the dark, was coloured orange. Its yellow mane appeared to be styled with a hair band, and it was wearing a proper cowboy hat. I almost laughed out loud at the absurdity of it, but I fainted instead. I suspect it wasn't much of a show, as I was laying on my side already, but I was too busy being unconscious and having a flashback to see if it was.

I was in a house, at a party. It was the night before, apparently, and I was just dancing with the girl of my dreams. We had both had a few drinks, but we were both genuinely having fun. I was finally living something that was close to my greatest dream. However, the orange horse was soon at the party, dancing in an oddly human fashion, staring at me with terrifying, quizzical eyes, and I realised something was wrong. Not after long, my unconscious dream was slowly becoming more unrealistic and I finally woke up, eventually.

I stirred on the hay that I lied on, this time prepared for what I was going to see when I looked down at myself, but I shivered nonetheless. In the clear daylight, I could see that I appeared to be coloured bright pink, and light purple hair slid over my eyes as I angled my head to see myself better. I thought back to my dream, and remembered that the horse I saw before I collapsed was actually dancing. Did this mean I saw it in a human light? As I pondered my dreams implications deeper, I heard a sound.

I glanced up, and saw that I was in a barn. The door began to open, and I tensed. More colourful horses? People? I had no idea what lie behind the rapidly opening door. The same and only horse I'd seen stepped in the room, and I relaxed a bit. Perhaps because the unknown would be much more terrifying than this. I noticed that its eyes were a lot less creepy than they had been in my dream. They looked expressive, and right now they looked concerned. I put two and two together and realised that this horse might be intelligent. It spoke before I could, in English, with a southern American accent. It was definitely female. "So yer finally awake! Ah heard y'all screamin' in the forest back there and ah ran over tah see if y'all were okay and then yah collapsed. Ah brought y'over to my barn for you tah rest."

I was perplexed, and after a moment of silence, I quickly moved over what she had said and picked out the key info. For a start, I had been asleep for a while, which explained the light outside. Secondly, I had been in a forest, presumably in the middle of nowhere. Most importantly, she was concerned for me and therefore not hostile. Also, I was in a barn.

Without having anything else to go on, I said the only thing that I could think of. "Hi," I said. She looked at me, as if judging me, or maybe judging what to say next. I sighed, and carried on. "Sorry, I'm sort of in a bad position at the moment. I... I have no idea what to do." I noticed that I was taking this much better than I thought I would. She still looked like she was deciding something, and a thought occurred. "Are we in America?" I asked her. I had lived in England my whole life, and I noticed that her accent was American. She stood up straight at being asked a question, as if snapped out of a trance.

"Ah can't say ah've heard of 'America' anywhere in Equestria before, but Ponyville is where y'are now." My face visibly fell. Not even close to resembling home. However, I noticed the names. 'Equestria'. Wasn't that to do with horses? And 'Ponyville'? I began to notice a pattern. Was this place populated solely by horses, so much so that they give the places horsey names? Too many questions spawned in my head, too fast for me to think of logical answers for them. My first priority was probably to find a way to get home, which would first mean finding out where, exactly, home was. I thought for a second. To my knowledge, nobody on Earth had ever found these talking horses before, or these horsey place names. Was I even on Earth anymore? The thought of being on another planet scared me. I had started to think about possible explanations involving alien ubductions when the horse spoke again.

"Ah'm sorry, where are mah manners? Mah name's Applejack," She said. Applejack looked at me, and I correctly assumed that she was waiting for me to say my name.

"Uh... Pleased to meet you. My name is Eddie," I said, never one to forget my manners. I still had no idea where this conversation was going or how it was going to end. Should I tell this horse the truth? That I am a human being, and have no idea how I got here? Or lie, and let her believe that I was supposed to be here? Something told me that this horse would make a valuable friend, and I'd be damned if I ever lied to a friend, but how would I casually mention that I suspect that I'm from a different planet than the one I currently stood on? Or, more accurately, laid down on. I got up to stand on my legs, but a searing pain shot through all four of them, almost making me forget about the pain from the flurry of questions that flowed though my head.

"Whoa nelly," I heard her say, but I had tilted my head down as a reaction to the pain. "Ah always like a pusher, but Ah really don't think yah should try using yer hooves just yet." Was the pain the result of a transformation? Sloppy biological work? A bad teleport? I was so filled with questions that I barely felt her gently push me back down after walking closer. I glanced at her, but lying down did stop the pain, so I made no moves to stop her. "Wait right there," she spoke again, with concern in her voice. "Ah'll go fetch mah friend Fluttershy. She usually works with animals, but she'd probably know a thing or two about what's wrong with yah." Without waiting for an answer, she was off, and closed the barn door on the way out.

I briefly wondered if she locked the door behind her. I doubted it, since she sounded sincere. I wasn't taking any chances though, and I tried standing up as images of Applejack going to find her harsh "Queen bee" to get it to kill me flashed through my mind. The same pain coursed through my body, but I managed to get my body off the hay. I tried to walk, but my legs went all over the place. Whether it was the pain or being a horse, I wasn't sure, but I ended up on the cold wooden floor. I tried again, but fell down faster and harder. I began to panic, but cursing calmed my nerves. I wondered if I should give up trying, but I didn't stand up so I could be eaten alive. Or helped by the horses friend. Some critical instinct inside me told me to run while I still had a chance, but another part of me told me to trust the only friendly face I'd seen since I became a horse. The only face I'd seen since I became a horse.

I looked up at the door and realised I had no idea of what lie behind there. Another world? A set? The end of a dream? The thought of this all being a dream made me relax. I closed my eyes tight, and reopened them. The barn walls still stood high around me, and I started getting worried. Usually, when I became aware of my dreams, I could easily wake myself up.

I looked at the hard barn walls, and briefly wondered if I could smash my head against one to wake myself up. I remembered the pain from my legs, and I realised that if pain could wake me up, my legs would do the trick. I thought back to my earlier fantasies of being eaten alive, and tried standing up again. There was a lot of pain, but I managed to stay standing. As long as I could figure out how to walk, I'd be able to get out.

I looked down, and raised my front left hoof. Easy enough. I placed it on the ground a little in front of me, and put weight on it, anticipating the pain that washed over me. I picked up my right hoof, and found myself off balance. I quickly placed it next to my left one, and found myself stretched. I looked to my back hooves, and wondered which one to risk moving. The pain was making it hard to concentrate.

I picked my back left hoof, to follow the order of my front hooves. I managed to raise it, and fell to my side, the momentum taking me to my back. I lied there for a while, staring up at the ceiling, feeling the brief pain in my left subside. I felt foolish, and kept laying there, accepting defeat. Maybe the orange horse was right, and she'd bring her friend and I can learn how to walk when my legs weren't so broken.

I gasped out loud. What if my legs were broken? I dismissed it quickly, as I was sure I wouldn't be able to walk at all. Just then, the door reopened and the orange horse walked in again. Behind her, a yellow horse peeked her head in. Despite hiding behind her pink hair, she stared at me, along with Applejack. Still on my back, all I could do was stare back.

"Uh... Are y'havin' a little trouble there?" Applejack asked me, as the yellow horse walked further in, still behind Applejack. No tricks then. Yet. I considered rolling onto my side and getting back up, but decided against it, having already finished my battle with pain. The yellow one remained silent, and I wondered if she was the one supposed to help me. I decided to respond, nonchalantly, "I'm fine, just having a little walking issue." I was pleased with myself being able to communicate with these things so well.

Despite their resemblances to normal horses, these things were a lot different. For starters, their hair. Horses had manes, right? From my knowledge, a horses mane only ran down their necks and a little on their heads, and they certainly didn't have as much hair as these ones did. Secondly, their eyes were huge. Much larger than a horses eye, and certainly larger than a humans. Hell, I was willing to bet that they had larger eyes than anything on Earth. Except maybe wales.

Moving further down, their hooves weren't actually hooves, but their legs just ended with nothing at the bottom. Most obviously, they had different colours to horses. I was coloured bright pink! I moved a hoof up to my eyes to look at it again, and cringed, partly because of the colour, but mostly from the pain. That was why the yellow horse, Fluttershy, I believe, was here. The pain.

She had still neglected to speak, and an awkward silence had washed over the barn while I was in deep thought. I carefully and painfully lowered my hoof to the ground, rolling back into my four hooves by bending down, intending to respark the conversation, when Fluttershy took note of my apparent injury and gasped dramatically.

"Oh my!" she stated, almost whispering. She walked up to me, keeping her head down, and pulled a medical pack out of nowhere. I realised she was a professional, and I also could have sworn that Applejack had said that Fluttershy usually only worked with animals, so was the medical box for animals too? All of these questions were washed out of my mind when Fluttershy reached my side and I caught sight of wings on her sides.

Shocked, I looked back to Applejack to see if she had wings too, but she didn't as far as I could see. Looking around at my sides in turn, I could see that I had no wings either. Was this some kind of horse overlord, signified by the wings? I thought back, once again, to my earlier visions of Applejack getting her leader to destroy me, and suddenly I really wanted to escape.

It was too late, however, as Fluttershy had lifted my hoof in hers and was wrapping bandages around it. I dismissed it, as she seemed like she genuinely cared, although it was a little odd that she didn't ask me for permission first. Working with animals must mean that she wasn't used to getting the ok before helping her 'patients'. I wondered why bandages were needed, as there was no visible wound, but she knew what she was doing, supposedly, so I didn't question it. As Fluttershy started on the next leg, Applejack tried to make more conversation.

"So, where y'all from, anyways?" she asked me. I almost gulped. Now or never, I thought, but I quickly chose a third option.

"Really far away," I replied, and then added for good measure, "I'm kind of lost."

Applejack paused, and tried to dig deeper. She clearly knew what she was doing. "Any place names?"

I tried my luck. "London."

She clearly hadn't heard of it. Fluttershy, however, perked up. "Lunadon?" she asked, almost excitedly. Looks like my lying by omission luck ran out. The horses had a version of London? Fluttershy carried on. "What's it like? Do you know Pulse? Are you planning to go back?" She got quieter the more she spoke, as if suddenly aware that she was blabbering. Applejack looked back to me, still confused. I was stuck. Do I tell them the truth? Or keep up the charade? I was sure they would stop helping me if a started saying that I actually wasn't a horse, but I'd also seen it in films a hundred times. Whenever someone lied, the one they lied to always found out eventually, and they almost always resented the liar for it. If I lied, I'd have to tell them the truth before they figured it out. I lied.

"It's busy." I prayed that their version of London was like mine. "It's too big for me to know Pulse, and I also have no idea where it is from here." I was relieved to see that the two horses accepted it, but realised my mistake too late.

"Oh! I could help you get back, it's just south of here!" Fluttershy said, 'helpfully'. I accidentally put my hoof to the ground while thinking for an answer, winced as the pain came back, and lifted it again sheepishly. Fluttershy took note of this. "But you're in no condition to go anywhere now," she added. Problem solved, then. For now.

"Uh, Fluttershy," Applejack interjected, putting the pieces together. "As much as Ah want to help the colt," She had lowered her voice, probably thinking that I couldn't hear. "Ah need this barn empty." Fluttershy got the message.

"Oh, that's fine, Applejack," She said softly, "He can stay in my house while he recovers." If I had been doing anything, I would have stopped dead. Something told me that her wanting me to stay with her was something more than to look after me as a patient. She was way too quick in suggesting it.

Later, while Fluttershy was walking me to her house, I had a chance to see Ponyville in detail. Luckily, for my curious mind, Fluttershy's house was on the other side of the town, which basically gave me a tour of the entire place. I was right; The entire place was filled with horses.

I learned from random snippets of conversations that they called themselves ponies, which explained Ponyville. I also learned that pegasi, winged like Fluttershy, were common, along with unicorns, who I saw could lift things into the air with their horns. Nobody mentioned what ponies without wings or a horn, like myself, were called, so I had no idea what to call myself.

As I was helped across town, I heard a few of them mutter "Blank Flank" under their breath, and I looked at them to find that they had pictures on theirs. Were they tattoos? I couldn't think of a way to incorporate it into a conversation to find out more. I didn't see any of them run to any police, so I figured that it didn't matter that much that I didn't have a picture.

Come to think of it, I hadn't seen any police at all. Were they monitored remotely? I couldn't see any cameras, or anything that could be a camera. I didn't see any advanced technology at all. Thinking back to the pictures, from what I could see, the pictures represented something about the pony they were on. I saw one with flowers on her side watering some flowers, and one with an hourglass was running, which was odd. Did the hourglass signify that he was always late?

Also, genders. The females all seemed to have huge eyelashes, while the males didn't seem to have any at all. While I was in my train of thought, a blue pegasus with a vibrant rainbow mane flew down, expertly slowing to a halt while still in the air. "Hey! Fluttershy!" she shouted, despite only being a few feet away. "Who's your friend?" I guessed she meant me, and wondered if I should speak for myself.

Fluttershy responded. "Oh! Hello, Rainbow Dash." Imaginative name. "This is..." She trailed off when she realised I hadn't told her. She looked at me, and I took the liberty of filling her in.

"My name is Eddie Warren." I carried on. Maybe word would spread and I wouldn't have to repeat myself a hundred times. "I have come from Lon..." I corrected myself. "...Lunadon. I got lost while travelling and found your town." When I finished, Rainbow Dash started grinning.

"Lunadon? The small village south of here?" Small village? "The one where Pulse lives?" Uh oh. Her face fell, ever so slightly, and she frowned a little. "How can you get lost from that?" Both she and Fluttershy gave me a look. Just as I thought of the answer, 'I don't remember', I was attacked by a pink blur. I landed on my back, with the blur in question standing on me, in the form of a pony. The only information my startled mind could take in before she started talking was that she was a female, and she was a slightly darker pink than me.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie and welcome to Ponyville! I see you've made new friends already which is fantastic and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash and hi Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash they are the best best friends that you can make! Oh I can't wait for you to meet all of my other friends who happen to be everypony in Ponyville and now I have to go plan your surprise party so bye!" She jumped off me, warranting an "Oof!" from me, and sped away, leaving me in the dust. I lied there, blinking, and I noticed how good the clouds looked.

I should have been thankful for the distraction, but even I forgot what was happening in the conversation after that. I managed to pick out that she was called Pinkie Pie, and she apparently was friends with every pony in the town. That struck me as odd that she would specifically only mentioned ponies as her friends. I hadn't seen anything else except for birds. I dismissed it, and looked back at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, who were looking at me almost sheepishly. Rainbow Dash spoke first.

"...Yeah. That was Pinkie Pie. She knows everyone, and now she knows you," She said, and grinned. "Welcome to the herd. Later, Fluttershy!" She flew off, seemingly heading in a random direction. I guess Pinkie Pie wasn't kidding when she said that she knew every pony in Ponyville. Did she say she was planning a party? The dream of dancing with the girl and Applejack came to my mind, and I suddenly got a huge longing to be back at that party, right there, lying in the dirt. I managed to not burst into tears. Just.

Eventually, we reached Fluttershy's house. It was right next to a scary looking forest, and I noticed that the clouds over it didn't look half as good as the ones over Ponyville. Much more familiar, though. Inside, the house was filled with animals and little animal toys. All creatures, great and small, stared down at me as a was helped through the house with indeterminable gazes. They looked intelligent, and being in a land of talking horses, I wasn't about to dismiss that they were.

Fluttershy led me to a sofa, and laid me down on my back. I felt strangely immobile, and wondered if I would be able to get down if I wanted. Fluttershy spoke to me in a soothing voice, and I was reminded of scary movie villains saying 'Nighty night' as they murdered someone. "As long as you get your rest," she informed me, "You'll be up and about in no time." I wondered how long 'no time' would be, and how we would spend the time together.

I couldn't even bend my bandaged legs, and I found myself again questioning why I needed them. I felt I'd be rude and arrogant if I just asked, and couldn't think of a way to incorporate it into conversation. So, instead, I stared at the animals while Fluttershy walked away, gently humming to herself, and did... Something that I couldn't see.

They were all coming closer to me, curious of why I was here. A little white rabbit jumped onto my stomach, and I hardly felt it at all. It walked right up to my face and stared into my eyes, as if looking for my soul. After staring for a while, making me nervous, it gave a small nod, and span around, jumping off me. I wondered what that meant.

Did the rabbit just accept me? Thank God, as long as a small rabbit thinks I'm ok, then I don't have to have this urge to hurl myself off the nearest cliff anymore. Speaking of God, did the ponies have their own version of Him too? Maybe the rabbit was God, making sure I was ok, I mused. My slight smirk fell when I realised I couldn't stop thinking about the rabbit. It made me feel so helpless, and I actually got scared when it was staring at me. What would it have done if I wasn't 'approved'? I shuddered.

I looked around, trying to see where the rabbit went, when Fluttershy came back from what I assumed to be her kitchen, carrying a steaming bowl on her back. I could see a slight smile on her face, for reasons that I didn't quite understand. I was tired of jumping to conclusions at this point, so I ignored my instinct to run. In one fluid motion, she moved the bowl onto my chest and sat down, and I suddenly felt completely helpless.

As Fluttershy spoke, I quickly tried to shut down the voices telling me that I was going to be eaten by some kind of horrible beast. "Drink this special soup, Eddie, it'll make you feel better," she said, in her soft yet insistent voice. I noticed that she said my name in an awkward way, and, as I obediently started drinking, angling the bowl with my chest, I wondered why.

Fluttershy, I thought, was shy, and she could fly. Rainbow Dash had a mane in the colours of a rainbow, and flew fast. For Applejack, I remember seeing fields of apples as I was being taken to Fluttershy's house, and that other girl... Pinkie Pie? She was coloured pink, but I had no idea what the Pie was supposed to mean. I thought to how couples sometimes call each other 'sweetie pie' or 'cutie pie', and just wrote it off as that. The point is, Eddie didn't mean anything about me, which might look suspicious to everyone else. I hoped that nobody would ask about it.

Then again, I could just tell the truth and change my name. That was another thing. Telling the truth. How would I go about doing that? I suddenly found myself wishing that I hadn't lied at all. Admitting a lie was a lot worse than telling the truth, I suddenly realised. Could I just spill the beans now? Again, I had no idea how I could do it. Everyone had trusted me so much, assumed that I wasn't hostile, and now this animal lover was trying to help my hopefully not broken legs by giving me soup. Which was odd, but the gesture was showing kindness, and I had lied my way in.

As I remember, I didn't tell the truth because I was afraid that they wouldn't help me or accept me. I wondered if this was always the case in my life on Earth. I could remember about my life as a human, with all of the ups and downs that it had. I remember how I was born into a rich family and brought up around all of my snobby siblings. I don't remember me ever lying to get accepted, though. I never needed to.

I finished drinking the soup, and I suddenly felt my eyes become heavy. Fluttershy took hold of the bowl, and looked at me, calmly. It wasn't like a predator waiting to pounce, though, but I could tell she expected me to sleep. I suddenly wondered if this was a trap, or if she was going to do something different to what I suspected these ponies wanted to do to me. I felt myself go red as I thought about what Fluttershy could want me asleep for. I fell asleep before I could think about it anymore, and, for the second time in Equestria, I slept.