Chapter 02: First Voyage
James blinked several times, still not believing what was happening. He was still falling with the swirling lights around him, his stomach threatening to return his lunch. Several minutes passed since he crossed the mirror, maybe two, maybe ten, he was not sure, but there was no sign of anything he could do to escape this torture. Eventually, he saw a dim light below him, where he was falling to, and that light kept on getting bigger and closer. Scared, he got on a curl, hands and arms in front, legs flexed, bracing for impact.
When James arrived at the source of the light he could see briefly that it was a mirroring surface, with a golden horseshoe around, similar to the one he crossed before. He took a deep breath just a second before impact and crossed over it again. His vision darkened for a second when he was crossing and then his eyes got temporarily blinded with a bright light, and then, he got onto the floor. He was not sure exactly how did he roll, but he suffered the pain of several bumps.
Once James regained a sense of balance, he opened his eyes. He was on the floor, looking up, his rear against a wall, his legs hanging over his head. From his view he could see that the walls were decorated with some very tall skirting boards, made of polished wood with golden details. The upper part of the walls were made of marble, and towered for at least 30 feet until they meet several arches that made the ceiling. On three of the walls rose great arches that lead to hallways and on the fourth wall a set of elegant stairs decorated a path into a higher floor, with a red rug coming from it until it meets a golden eight pointed star and then diverges onto the directions of the arches, up to the hallways.
After a few minutes of just laying there appreciating the room, James started hearing a metallic sound clanking closed each second. He turned his head and saw two small white horses coming his way. The horses were armored, with golden boots (The source of the clanking sound), the same golden metal covering their coats and a helmet that resembled a roman galea covering the back of the neck and part of their muzzles, with a blue brush extending to the back of the head.
James moved his feet to the side, and stood up. Looking at the pair of horses he noticed they were pretty small, no more than 4 feet tall. James kept looking them as these little horses as they kept walking steadily to him.
"These seems docile," James thought "most likely pets of the owner of this place… wherever this is"
James crouched to look at them closely when they were close enough. "Hey little thing" - he said looking at them"
"AAHHH! IT TALKS" shouted one of them jumping back.
"AAAHHH! IT TALKS" Replied James, shouting and jumping back too.
The horse that did not jump back looked back at his companion. "Go get the princess, I will stay with him" said promptly, the other pony running the way they came. "Now please stay calm, we just…" said turning back to James, just to see that he was escaping through the stairs, into the upper floor.
James kept running, scared, breathing heavily. "This is mad, horses doesn't talk, I must have hit my head when I went jogging and I'm in a coma, or something" – he thought while running. Few minutes later, he was tired, Headache was tearing his head off, and the walls were spinning, his hands were trembling, and the clanking steps of the trotting horse pursuing him started sounding muffled.
Looking up, James realized that he was cornered. The hallway he was following ended in two giant golden doors, which he tried to pull open unsuccessfully. Turning around, he saw the horse getting closer, and two other figures coming on his direction. He couldn't focus properly, but he could hear clopping sounds echoing from back there.
"Get back, leave me alone!" – Shouted James once the armored horse stood a few feet near him
"It's ok, we don't want to hurt you" – replied the horse. "Look, I'll just stand here…"
"Stop! Get away!"- Interrupted James, shouting. He stood firm, trying to look intimidating, but he was feeling too dizzy and lost his balance. Before falling down James leaned back to the door, allowing him to remain on his feet.
He looked up, and saw what made the clopping sounds arriving behind the guard. Two other horses were present, but James could not believe what he was seeing. He cleared his eyes and stared at this situation, incredulous. Before him was the guard that was chasing him, a bright purple pony with blue, pink and purple mane and tail and a horn matching the color of the coat and to his right a taller dark-blue horse with both wings and a horn.
"NO! THIS IS WRONG!" shouted at the newcomers. Panic was invading him and he felt dizzier than before, with his lower lip trembling, and his legs shaking. With a swift movement he pulled Pigslayer from it's scabbard and pointed forward
The blue, larger horse stepped forward, and spoke with an elegant feminine voice. "Sir, you need medical attention. Lower your sword at once and let us help you."
James looked forward and tried to cope with all of this, but failed miserably. The disappearance of the people on his town, the mysterious mirror, the elegant palace, the talking, colorful, winged, horned, speaking horses were too much for him. Before realizing, his balance was totally lost and he was already falling to the floor, with his vision darkening.
"Shit, that one was rough." Though James when he woke up. "That one was a hell of a nightmare".
James opened his eyes and looked around. He wasn't sure where he was. He was in a comfy bed with rails to the side. The room was dimly lit, and was pretty featureless. The room presented white, simple walls with a few signs that he could not read. On the wall to his right was a white door without a doorknob and to his left was an open window showing a night sky with lots of stars and fresh air was breezing in.
He had an oxygen mask over his face with a tube going to a gas tank on the side. He tried to remove it, but found his arms tied to the bed. Checking further, he realized that only a white blanket was covering his naked body. His clothes were folded on a big couch nearby.
"Am I in a mental asylum?" James thought trying to calm down "So it seems that all that mess was actually a hallucination"
James tried to force the binds on his arms with no avail, and then he surrendered. After several minutes the door opened and a blonde pony with wings entered the room. He seemed to be wearing a white coat, like a doctor, and in his flank was a painting of a stethoscope. He also seemed to be carrying a tray with fruits on his mouth. Following him was the purple unicorn that he saw earlier, and some kind of biped purple lizard with green scales.
"Oh, you are awake," the purple unicorn spoke with a feminine voice while walking right next to the bed. "Sorry for the restraints, you were trembling when you collapsed, and the doctor was worried you might have a seizure"
What happened next, he was not expecting. The horn on the purple horsie began to glow with white light, and the ropes untied themselves, then started levitating and finally rested over James's feet.
"Alright," James said while sitting up. "I will assume my mind broke some time ago, so I will play along with it. Where am I?"
"This is the palace infirmary, and I'm doctor Scope" said the winged horse. "You were lucky Miss Sparkle was the one who brought you here. She described your symptoms and helped us to discover that you had oxygen poisoning. As long as you don't hyperventilate you should be fine."
"Alright, I understand that," responded, paused, and then spoke again. "Scope and Sparkle? Are those really your names? Wait, scratch that. What are you exactly? What kind of horse are you?" The doctor raised a brow while the unicorn giggled.
"Ponies, not horses." said the little lizard. "The doctor here is a Pegasus pony, and Twilight is a unicorn. There are also Ponies who don't have wings or horns, but are mighty strong. Those are called Earth ponies. I'm spike By the way, and I'm a dragon"
Several seconds passed where nobody said a thing until doctor Scope spoke up "Well, it seems you are pretty confused. I will leave you with Miss sparkle here so you can catch up.". The doctor walked to the door, but stopped and turned around. "Oh, by the way, you have been out for 8 hours now. You might want to eat something" Doctor Scope finally said and exited the room
Twilight looked at james and spoke up. "WE have a bit of time before visiting hours ends, so we can chat. Also, Princess luna Left you on my care, so tomorrow morning I will come here to get you."
"Alright, so this Princess Luna you speak of…"James made silence for a second, scratching the back of his head. "Is she the other one that I saw earlier? The big dark one?"
"Yes." Twilight responded.
"And you call her Princess as in the heir of the throne?"
"Nope. Princess as in Equestria's ruler."
"Equestria? That's what this place is called?" James thought while frowning. "Is everything here pony themed?. Unicorns, Pegasus, weird hoofed mirrors, the land of equestria, and the princess is a horned winged…Oh god, I pointed a sword at the ruler of the land"
"So, Twilight,did I point a sword to the ruler of this nation?" James said, his hands starting to tremble.
"Well, I know it looks bad," Twilight responded "but the princess doesn't hold any grudge… HEY WAIT!" Twilight had to cut short her response because James jumped from the bed and ran to the window.
Without thinking twice James jumped, stretching his arms and legs to pass through the opening, but as soon as he could look down, he noticed he was not on ground level, but rather on a fifth story or so. Realizing he did something very stupid he covered his face with his arms and braced for impact.
Several seconds later, he noticed that he did not feel the fall. "So, it seems that death is painless" concluded James, and when he opened his eyes, he noticed his body was floating inside the room, surrounded by a purple halo.
"Next time you try that I will let you fall" muttered twilight. Her horn was glowing the same light that haloed around James. She was gritting her teeth and squinting her eyes, on the strain of levitating him. Suddenly, the light around her horned flickered and disappeared, letting James fall on his feet, on the middle of the room. Twilight panted heavily for a few seconds while spike closed the window.
"Are you OK Twi?" the little dragon said walking quickly to her.
"Yes, it's just that…huff… moving him was pretty hard. Moving him was as hard as moving an adult dragon" Twilight said, regaining composure. "James, really, you need to relax. I just came to see if you were alright."
James took two steps towards twilight and crouched in front of her, laying his feet under him in similar to how Japanese people sit. "So, how did you do that exactly and why am I not dead?" James said, putting his Trembling hands on Twilight's shoulders.
"By levitation of course…" started saying twilight, but was interrupted when the door opened again when Princess Luna entered the room.
"Good evening, my subjects, I hope I'm not interrupting anything" said the darker regal pony while entering the room.
Twilight separated from James to make a reverence, and he stood to imitate the reference, lowering to one Knee. "I'm not stupid enough to insult a royal twice in a day" he thought, but when his hand touched his knee he realized something embarrassing: He was still naked.
Jumping back, he grabbed the bed sheet and covered his groin. "This is not what it seems, I was like this when I awakened" said. James had to swipe sweat from his brow, and he noticed getting dizzier. Both Luna and Twilight crooked their heads in a clear sign of not understanding what was happening.
"Dude, you look bad" Said Spike pushing the couch next to James. The naked human looked at all of them, trying to perceive any kind of hostility. Finding none, he sat on the couch, over his clothes.
The regal Princess took a few steps forward and stood next to James who raised his brow to look at her, his hands were trembling and his face contorted in fear. James took a few seconds to breathe slowly, then gulped and opened his mouth to speak, but found no words to express. Luna stood patiently during this time.
"My liege…" Said finally James and did a pause to think.
"Please, just call me Princess Luna" The dark winged unicorn replied.
"Right, Princess Luna." Said James. Then he stood up, still grabbing the bed sheet to cover himself, and bowed properly over his left knee. "I want to apologize for what I did. I Panicked when I drew the sword. I did not want to hurt anybody."
The princess nuzzled James face with her own, which surprised him. He kept staring at her with his mouth partially open, as if he was to say something he could not find the words for.
"Tell me, What is your name?" Inquired Luna.
"I'm James, Princess Luna. James Smith" replied the surprised man.
"James, you are not a bad pony, but it is obvious you are pretty scared and there are some things that you must know. I will be very direct, so tell me if you need me to stop." Said Luna with a more regal and commanding tone.
James looked at the eyes of this princess, but could not figure what was her expression. He did not know how body language worked with this equine race, and was a bit scared, but he had wronged her once, so he decided to cooperate. "Alright. I'm ready" He said.
"You don't look like anything I have seen before, and I understand you must feel pretty lost here. We checked the place where the guards found you, and found some traces of what used to be a portal. I've got a team of unicorns checking that, but we are still lacking information, so we are still unsure how you arrived here." Luna made check if James understood, he nodded and then she continued.
"If anything else comes up we will be sure to inform you, meanwhile, you will be staying with Twilight Sparkle. We spoke earlier and she accepted to take care of you, and to make you feel at home while you are residing here. She has a room at the palace, and while you were asleep a carpenter worked on a bed for your size, but the doctors recommend that you stay this night here so they can check up on you."
James nodded once more time.
"Please rest. It will do you good" Said Luna finally. "And I hope you have a peaceful night" As soon as that was said, she turned around and crossed the door.
James looked at Twilight and then looked at spike. "Twilight, Spike…" He called out. Both, the unicorn and dragon looked back at James, expecting him to continue. "I… I'm not sure how to feel. If all of this is real, I intruded unexpectedly on a palace, pointed a sword to a ruler of a nation and fainted. In return I get medical attention and a personal visit from said ruler. I hope you understand that I still have my doubts on my mental sanity"
James lowered his face, looking at the floor, and a few seconds later, he looked up to the unicorn and dragon with a little smile. "I'm still grateful though."
"Don't worry James; we'll be taking care of you." Said twilight returning the smile. "Tomorrow morning well help you settle on the room, so rest tonight."
Twilight turned around and slowly walked to the door. "Come on spike, you will see him tomorrow."
"Ok, see ya James." Said Spike waving his claws at James.
James stayed on the couch for a few minutes, considering the fact that Spike's claws are most similar thing to a hand he has seen around. Sighing, he stood over and looked at the couch. James had sat on his clothes and were a bit wrinkled, but he didn't care and wore them anyways. Once fully clothed, he checked his pockets looking for his cell phone, which he did not found.
James sighed again, walked slowly to the entrance of the room and moved a light switch that was positioned far too low for his preference. With the lights off James had little problem to see, as the window was shining with a dim, white light. James approached the window, kneeled next to it and opened it.
The moon was beaming calm light, illuminating a whole city under. It was brighter than any night he could remember, despite being just a crescent moon, and it flowed into the buildings below creating narrow passages of light and shadow. James remembered the night where he was brought here, he remembered the empty streets, the missing family, and the full moon.
"It was full moon" said James in a whisper. He double checked the surface of the half glowing orb, and didn't fully recognize it. The craters were different, the starts around were unknown and plenty, the constellations were bizarre and unrecognizable. James realized in a bit of sadness, that wherever he was, it was far, far away from home.
Author notes:
Second chapter is on, I hope you like it. You may be confused about the fact that twilight is living in Canterlot with Luna. That will be explained better on the next chapter/s
again, any kind of reviews are helpful, and i do not own My little pony Friendship is magic or it's characters.