Chapter 2
The Reawakening
Wayne quickly found that they had actually not been gone from Earth for that long, a year at tops. Not much had happened in the last year, at least nothing that Wayne had taken much notice in. Celestia, Luna, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy just sat there, utterly confused about what the other three were talking about. They heard a low growl come from the door. In the doorway stood a fully grown panther. The ponies screamed and backed away from the door. They'd never seen an animal like it before. The only one that didn't run was Fluttershy. If there was one thing she wasn't afraid of, it was animals. She walked right up to it and scratched behind its ear with her hoof. The panther began to purr loudly and laid down on the floor, thoroughly enjoying itself.
"Awwww, your just a big kitty aren't you?"
The panther purred in response and rolled onto its back and exposed its belly, like many house cats would. Fluttershy scratched its belly and it began to purr even louder.
Wayne patted space on the couch next to him, "Cmere Midnight."
The panther got up and hopped onto the couch, curled into a ball, and laid its head on Wayne's lap. The ponies, Mat, and Najmi looked at him in surprise.
"That thing's your pet?"
"First off, it's a panther, not a thing. Second, she has a name, and it's Midnight. And yes, she's completely tame."
Najmi looked in shock, "How's you manage to do that?"
"It's not hard actually. I've just raised her since she was a cub and trained her well. She won't attack anything unless I tell her to. You'd be surprised how smart they actually are."
Najmi was going to ask more questions when they all heard a groan from the next room. Applejack and Rarity slowly trotted into the room, looking around at their surroundings. Applejack lied down on the couch, too exhausted to do anything else. Rarity didn't even make it that far. She made it half way to the couch and then collapsed to the floor. Wayne just sighed and picked her up. Celestia looked at him.
"Where are you going with her?"
"I'm bringing her upstairs. There are actual bedrooms upstairs and I'm pretty sure they're more comfortable than the floor."
Celestia nodded, "Okay, I'll bring Applejack up then."
Wayne carried Rarity upstairs and Celestia carried Applejack. Wayne took Rarity into her room and laid her on the bed. He tucked her in and then closed the door so that she could rest undisturbed. Wayne led Celestia to the room for Applejack and did the same thing. Once Wayne closed the door to Applejack's room, Celestia got in his face.
"Okay, what's going on here?"
"Whatdya mean?"
"You don't even seem remotely confused about us being here. It's like you knew it was going to happen the entire time."
"As for knowing about this, I didn't. This was a total surprise to me. As for why I don't care, well, its because I honestly don't give a fuck about anything. I stopped caring about what happened long ago. I learned to just accept everything for what it is and move on."
"So… You don't even care that were here…?"
"No, don't get me wrong, I think it's awesome that you're all here. I'm just not really that shocked by the fact that you are here. I stopped asking questions about why things happen because I decided that they happen because they do. You appeared here because you appeared here, I don't need any further explanation, so I just accept it."
"Well…, it's definitely an interesting view…"
"I don't expect you to follow my view, just to accept it. That way we have some sort of understanding."
"I understand. I wasn't planning on this, but you just seemed so unfazed by this that I thought you might be planning to hurt one of my ponies or something…"
"Why would I do that?"
"Well, I've seem some pretty messed up things, so I've began to suspect anypony who…"
"It's anyone here." Wayne said, interrupting her.
"Oh, in that case, anyone who seems to be a threat of any kind."
"There we go. Much better. We should probably go head back downstairs."
"Actually, I was curious, how many rooms do you have?"
"Well… a lot…"
"Why would you need a house this big?"
"Well, it used to be more than just me living here, and as each family member was added, a new room was constructed for that person."
"So there will be enough rooms for us?"
"There are enough rooms for each of you to have two."
"Wow, that is a lot of rooms."
"Yeah, we should head back down. I need to check on the others."
The two walked back downstairs and saw that Twilight had woken up and lying on the couch sniffling. When she saw Wayne she gave him a questioning look, but then took a happier face when she saw he was talking to Celestia. Celestia trotted over to Twilight.
"I would like you to meet somepo, er, someone."
Wayne smiled at Celestia's catch, "Hi, my names Wayne."
Twilight weakly put her hoof in his hand and shook it, "Twilight Sparkle, but you can call me Twilight. Where am I?"
"You're in my house. You were pretty badly beaten up so we took you here and I bandaged you up."
"You're the one who healed me? Wow, thanks. Ummm, is there a room or something I could sleep in? I'm exhausted from recovery."
"Of course, let me take you upstairs."
He carefully picked her up and brought her upstairs.
"So would you prefer a room with a view of the lake or a view of the forest?"
"Umm, the lake would be nice."
"The lake it is."
Wayne walked down the massive corridor until he came to a large room at the end. He opened the door and laid Twilight down on the bed. The room was huge and it had several shelves filled with books in it. It had a massive window with a view of the lake that was unblocked. The sunset shone through the window and reflected off the lake, giving the room an orange/red glow. Twilight sat up and dangled her legs over the end of the bed. She stared out the window and sighed. She wondered if Spike was ok. She already knew Frostbite was fine, or she hoped, but there was no way of knowing.
Wayne noticed that she looked troubled and sat down next to her.
"You ok?"
Twilight sniffed, "Not really…"
"What's wrong?"
"Well it's just that I'm worried about all of my friends back in Equestria. Spike could be in trouble for all I know. Frostbite's probably fine. He can take care of himself, but I'm just really worried about everypony else…"
"Don't worry, they're probably fine. Besides, if it's possible for you to get to this world, then there has to be a way to get you back."
Twilight looked up at him, a glimmer of hope in her eyes, "You really think so?"
"Of course."
Twilight hugged him and Wayne hugged her back. She felt the heat resonating form his body. She felt safe. Wayne pulled away from her and laid her back in her bed, "You need to get some rest so your wounds can heal."
Twilight nodded and snuggled into the bed. Wayne pulled the sheets over her and told her goodnight and then left the room.
Wayne walked back downstairs and went to go show the others to their rooms. Wayne put Najmi in one of the larger rooms. It had a king size bed, some bookshelves, a dresser, a closet, and a couple windows that looked into the forest. It had black carpeting and the walls were dark blue. Every bedroom had its own bathroom as well. Najmi gladly accepted the room and went to bed, still wearing his black wristband.
Wayne showed Mat to his room next. The room was technically part of Wayne's but it wasn't the part he used. Mat had said that he liked to sleep on the branches of trees, so Wayne had volunteered to let Mat sleep in the branches of the sequoia that was part of his room. Mat could keep his clothes and such in Wayne's room, since Wayne didn't use the closet at all anyways. Mat gladly accepted the terms and hopped up into the branches to take his catnap.
Wayne brought Luna up to the highest room in the mansion. The roof was connected to the ceiling of the room, which was glass. The roof could slide out from above the ceiling so that you could see the night sky from the room. There was almost no light pollution since the mansion was build thirtyish minutes (at legal speeds in a car) from the actual town. You could easily see thousands of stars and there was a high power telescope in the room as well. Luna stared up at the sky in awe; the night sky was so much different in this world. Wayne offered to teach her about the way the night sky worked in this world the next night, which Luna gladly accepted.
Wayne then brought Fluttershy to her room. It was a smaller room. It had tan carpet, very light blue walls, and a window that looked into the forest. Fluttershy scrambled into the bed and pulled the sheets over her head. Wayne sighed and sat down next to her until she was comfortable enough to take the sheets off of her head. He showed her how to dim the lights so that she wouldn't be in complete darkness. She thanked him, but she was still scared. Wayne had an idea. He left for about a minute and returned with Midnight. Midnight hopped up onto Fluttershy's bed and curled up next to her. Fluttershy felt a lot less scared now that she had something to guard her. Plus she had always been used to there being animals around, so it made her feel more at home. She thanked Wayne in her quiet voice and snuggled next to Midnight to share the warmth from Midnight's soft, black coat.
Wayne brought Celestia to her room next. She was hesitant to go since Rainbow Dash was still unconscious downstairs, but Wayne finally convinced her to go to bed and said that he would watch over her in case she woke up. He gave Celestia the room his parents had used to sleep in. The walls were a rich, golden yellow and the floor was a dark wood with a lighter, rippled design in it. It had a large mirror that had a brass case around that looked like the sun. It had all the other basics, shelves, dresser, bed, etc. The one thing that was special about the room was that when the sun rose, it would shine through the front window and the skylight and the entire room would glow a beautiful, golden yellow and would make every morning amazing. Celestia thanked him for the room and quickly went to bed.
Wayne went back downstairs to check on Rainbow Dash. When he got into the room she was in, he could see that she was conscious.
"You ok?"
Rainbow slowly rolled to face him, "Not really, who are you?"
"I'm Wayne, I'm the one who treated you injuries."
"What about the others?"
"They're all upstairs asleep. Don't worry, everybody else is fine. As a matter of fact I should probably get you into a room too."
Rainbow let herself get picked up by Wayne and carried upstairs. Halfway up the stairs Rainbow realized that she hadn't introduced herself.
"I'm Rainbow Dash by the way, or you can just call me Rainbow. By the way, what happened to me?"
"I'm not sure, but you had a pretty good sized gash in your side and your wing was broken. Whatever happened you must be pretty damn tough to have been able to make it through it."
Rainbow giggles, "Thanks."
She kept giggling until she felt a sharp pain in her side. She let out a small cry as the pain shot throughout her body and then stopped.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah… I just moved the gash a bit by laughing, that's all…"
Wayne decided to put her in the nearest room and then give her a room of her choice the next day. He laid her down on her bed slowly and tucked her in. He said goodnight and was about to leave when she called for him.
"Wayne."
He turned around and looked at her. She seemed nervous.
Rainbow had never felt this scared before. She'd been scared for others, but never for herself like she was now. She was afraid that if she fell asleep again, then she'd never wake up. She didn't want to be left alone in case something happened to her.
"Will you stay in my room for the night?"
"You scared?"
"What? Of course not! It's just that…"
"No, you're scared, I can tell."
Rainbow just hid her face, upset that he'd figured out her real reason for asking him to stay. He walked over to her bed and sat down on the edge. He rubbed her back and tried to comfort her.
"Don't worry; I'll stay here for the night. There's nothing to worry about."
Rainbow nodded and tried to sleep, but she couldn't. Wayne could tell she was having trouble sleeping and gave her another option. "Do you want me to lay with you?"
Rainbow nodded and Wayne laid down next to her. He put his arm around her, making sure to avoid her wounds, and tried to comfort her. She felt much safer knowing that there was somebody there to protect her and she quickly found herself falling asleep. Wayne fell asleep shortly after Rainbow did. He would have to look after her more carefully because of the severity of her wounds.
Well that was interesting. Typing on a broken finger is much more difficult than I thought. It may have taken me longer, but I'm glad I got another chapter up. And yes, Midnight is a panther, get used to it. Anyways, it may be a while before the next chapter since I'm getting surgery tomorrow!
Peace out and a brohoof for all!
