Hey, Thad here with not much to say as far as notes go for this one aside from the fact that I forgot to mention that this is set before Twilight became an alicorn. I myself have no problem with her being one but I just feel that putting it at this time frame could help the story more so. Like I said last time I will accept and respond to questions, comments, concerns, and or ideas about the story and thank you for reading.

Chapter 2: Wake Up Call

Zachary Winston III's Point Of View

Opening my eyes all I could think of was how much pain I felt. I had pains everywhere on my body. I noticed that I was in a bed so I assumed the entire thing with the portal and everything was a bad dream. I decided that my dad wouldn't keep laying down at a time like this so, pains or not, neither would I. Upon sitting I noticed I wasn't in my room and got worried.

"HELLO, IS ANYBODY THERE," I called out hoping for an answer. "HELLO? MOM? THAD? CHARLES? ANYBODY?" I heard movement in the next room and saw the door open only to show an orange pony with green eyes and a blonde mane and tail.

"So yer finally awake eh, that's good," the pony said sounding like she came from one of those old westerns I used to watch with dad. "How ya feelin'?"

"Y-you talk," I asked.

She replied with a somewhat confused look, "Corse ah talk Sugarcube, ah ain't a lil filly. Are ya feelin' ok?"

At this point I realized it hadn't been a bad dream and I decided to answer this pony's question. "Yes, I'm sore but I'm fine," I replied. "There was another pony with me when I passed out, one with a blue coat, blueish grey eyes, and red mane and tail both with an orange streak in them. The front part of his mane was kind of curled back making it look like a wave. He also had wings. His wing tips and hooves were a darker blue than the rest of him. Where is he?"

"Woah there partner, he's in the next room," she replied. "He woke up a lil while ago and came right in here to check on y'all. Said his name was Berry Waves but didn't say your name. Mine is Applejack, mind tellin' your's?"

Applejack, Berry Waves? His name is Thad Peterson not Berry Waves. He must of had a reason to lie about his name so I guess I should play along. "My... My name is..." I stopped for a second to think and finished, "It is Cloud Rider. Can I please go see him ma'am?" Dad did always say to be polite.

"Sure thing and please, jus call me Applejack," she said. "Ma'am sounds so formal."

"Ok and thank you applejack," I said getting up out of the bed. I followed her out of the room on all fours figuring that if I was a pony I should act like it. As we left the room I saw Thad and two other ponies in the next one. One had a red coat, green eyes, orange mane and tail, and yellow hooves who was about the same height as Thad now was. The other, who was sitting in a rocking chair sleeping, had a light green coat, white mane, and a orange scarf thing with an apple print design.

Applejack introduced me to them and said that she has a little sister about the same age as me who's in bed at the time. She claimed that she had found Berry Waves and I passed out in the West Orchard of her farm called Sweet Apple Acres. Upon finding us she galloped back to this house to find Big Mac who she asked for help bringing the two of us back here. "So the two of you carried both of us back here all alone," I asked skeptically.

"Eeyup," Big Mac replied with a nod.

"Impressive, isn't it Cloud Rider," Thad asked.

"Yea, very much so," I responded.

"So where y'all from anyway," she asked. "I ain't never seen the likes of ya here in Ponyville."

"We're... travelers," Thad said looking at me. "We are from a town in the north you probably never heard of before." This wasn't exactly a lie, we were from a town in the north, Sauk Center, Minnesota to be exact.

"So why'd y'all come to little ole Ponyville," she asked.

Of course Thad had an answer to this. "All do respect to your town we didn't plan on coming here, it just sort of happened."

"That so? Well how long ya stayin' for," she inquired. This was starting to sound like a bad game of twenty questions to me.

"I'm not really sure myself," Thad replied not missing a beat. "Do you know of anywhere we could stay?"

"Y'all are more then welcome to stay here until ya can find a place to stay," she offered.

"Why thank you for the offer but we wouldn't want to impose and-" Thad began but was cut off by Applejack.

"Nonsense, ya and your lil brother are stayin' here," she began. "Sides, we got plenty of spare rooms."

"Well, thank you then," he said. "And he's not my brother, he is my charge. I was hired as his tutor and protector."

This seemed to surprise the orange pony, "Really? Well ya could of fooled me with how you were so worried bout him."

"It kind of comes with the job," he chuckled, "anyway I think the two of us should be heading back to bed, it is pretty late and we've had a big day."

"Sure thing Sugarcube," she said. "I'll show ya to y'all's rooms."

And with that we headed off to our rooms for the night which we made sure were side by side.