Matt had finished trying to catch his breath after a couple of minutes, Dale wasn't sure if Matt was also shaken up by the event that just happened. Matt kept a level head throughout the ordeal, almost like he thought of a plan almost immediately. Dale took a few steps towards Matt while he was checking his status screen, Dale assumed he levelled up as well. Matt closed his menu when he finished allocating his stats and turned to face Dale.

"Yo, you doing alright? You're pretty lucky that I found you when I did, you could've been torn to shreds," Matt said while placing one hand on his hip.

"Yeah, I'd say so..." Dale began, he tried to avoid eye contact since he didn't really know what to say to Matt. It's not like he was just going to come out and say 'you and everyone you know died' Dale didn't know how Matt would react to that, it could end badly, "Thanks for the help. How'd you find me anyway? It was pretty dead out here and no one knew where I was."

"Mind if you follow me while I answer that?" Matt responded as he began to walk a little deeper into the forest, "I was helping my friend Fluttershy look for her animals that went missing. We just got back from a party and wanted to unwind, but she was worried that some of her animals were missing when she counted them. I told her that I would go and look around for them and I found you while you were trying to fight off a Manticore by yourself. I got to admit, that's pretty ballsy," Matt nudged Dale with his elbow while the two walked through the forest, "I was pretty surprised to find another human here, especially one that also has one of those arm braces. Why were you out here by yourself?"

"Believe it or not, I was looking for you," Dale stopped in his place while Matt began to rustle around in the bushes, looking for Fluttershy's lost animal.

"For me?" Matt questioned.

"Yeah. I need to know what you remember before ending up here in Equestria."

Matt crossed his arms, "Shouldn't I be the one asking you how you ended up here in the first place," Dale took note that Matt thought Dale was a bit suspicious. Dale couldn't blame him since he was probably the first human he has come across since arriving in Equestria. Dale thought to himself that he would probably be doing the same thing if he were in Matts' shoes, it's probably best to come clean.

"Look, it's very important to me that you tell me what you know. I'll even tell you how I got here too, but you'll have to believe that I'll be telling the absolute truth. Hell, I can even tell you why you're here if that means anything," Dale bargained, "If it helps, I can see the numbers and the screens too. I'm not like everyone else here, I'm from Earth too."

"Everypony," Matt responded, while he pushed more shrubs to the side.

"Pardon me?" Dale said with a confused look on his face.

"That's what they say in the show. It's not 'everybody' it's 'everypony' I thought you would've known that since you're here. Aren't you a brony too?" Matt asked. Dale was a little annoyed that out of everything he just said, Matt chose to focus on the least important thing.

"First of all, I'm not saying that. Second, I'm not even a brony and I have no idea why I was sent here of all places."

Matt looked at Dale dumbfounded before beginning to smirk. This smirk turned into a snicker, which turned into a gut-busting laugh, "You can't be for real?!" Matt managed to spit out while he fell onto the dirt ground. Dale rolled his eyes in annoyance while Matt pointed at him, "I don't know if somepony has it out for you, or you're just that unlucky!"

"Please stop saying that," Dale requested.

"Do you even know how many people would give you anything just to be in your shoes?" Matts' laughter slowed down a bit while he stood up from the ground, dusting himself off.

"It wouldn't surprise me if I saw it, to be honest, people seem to have a really strong attachment to My Little Pony of all things...

"How about we go back to Fluttershy's Cottage, for now, the last thing I want is to be caught be another Manticore. You can tell me what you wanted to say when we get there," Matt suggested. Dale knew that it would be a better place to talk than here, there's no telling what could jump out of the shadows, "Melissa, open up the Map," Matt said into his arm brace.

"Sure thing, Master Matthew!" Melissa's voice sounded young and bubbly, unlike Alex's. It surprised Dale that Matt had his own unique A.I instead of the same one. It's not completely out of left field, but it was something Dale took note of.

Dale followed Matt through the forest while he was looking at his holographic map, hoping that they would be out soon.

After what felt like an hour, the two boys had made it back to Fluttershy's cottage, they just crossed the bridge and were about to enter the home. Matt grasped the doorknob and turned to Dale, "Just letting you know, Fluttershy is a little... Uncomfortable around strangers," Matt said.

"Let me guess, is it because she's shy?" Dale folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. With a literal name like that, Dale knew what he was getting into.

"Oh ha ha," Matt responded sarcastically, "But I mean it. Just try not to do anything that may freak her out. Also, don't mention anything about the status menus or video gamey shit around the ponies, they don't seem to know about it and I don't think they'll respond to it well." When Matt finished, Dale gave him a thumbs up with a smirk as a sign of saying 'I got it'

When the two boys walked inside, their visions were flooded with the bright lights of the cottage. After a few seconds of adjusting to the light, Dale looked around the unfamiliar place. The cottage wasn't that big on the inside, but it had a lot of furniture and a staircase that lead somewhere. Dale saw that there were plenty of bird cages and holes in the walls for mice, as well as a small fluffy bed for other animals to sleep in. The cottage looked like it was a makeshift animal shelter, there was plenty of different kinds of food laying around in bags and on the countertops.

"Yo, Fluttershy!" Matt called out, "You just stay right here, I'll be back" Matt then ran up the stairs, leaving Dale to fiddle around with his arm brace.

"Alex, can you bring up the Quest Log?"

Quest Log

Current Quest

"The Creator"

Find the creator of this reality to hopefully receive answers to why you're here.

Current Objective:

Talk to Matthew in order to gather information on this world.

Rewards:

100 EXP

50 Bits

5 App Points

"Jesus, how much longer is this fucking Quest going to go on for?" Dale thought to himself as he closed the menu. He was beginning to get impatient with the Quest Log and began to fear how tedious the future Quests could possibly be.

"There's somepony I want you to meet, Fluttershy. Don't worry, he's friendly. He's actually a human just like me," Matt's voice can be heard from upstairs, "I found him while I was looking for your animal friends in the forest, he was attacked by a Manticore, but I managed to save him," Matt walked a yellow pegasus down the stairs. She had a pink mane that covered one of her eyes and her flank had an image of pink butterflies on both sides of them.

"Oh my goodness!" The yellow pegasus said with a soft voice as she saw Dale's ripped shirt, "It's not hurt, is it?" Fluttershy walked around Dale, making sure he wasn't injured. Dale was taken aback that she wasn't as shy as he thought she would be.

"I-I'm fine," Dale said as Fluttershy's tail brushed past a ticklish area causing him to feel rather weird.

"So, umm, are you from this Earth place too?" Fluttershy asked Dale, "Matthew told us that he was from a faraway land called Earth, that's where your species live."

"Yeah... I am..." Dale wasn't sure what Matt has told Fluttershy, so he thought it would be best to just play along with whatever Matt has said.

"Dale is from a different part of Earth than I am, he also just arrived here today and doesn't have a place to stay. Would it be alright if he also stayed here for the night, he'll be up looking for your animal friends with me in the morning!" Matt clenched his fist with determination. Dale, on the other hand, wasn't too thrilled with the idea of wasting time going on a scavenger hunt for Fluttershy's animals, he thought he had more important things to do.

"Of course, I really miss Harry and I would love any help I can get to get him back home. Mr Dale, is it okay that you sleep on the couch for the night? I'm really sorry but I don't have enough beds for the both of you at the moment," Fluttershy's sweet voice almost melted Dales' heart.

"That'll be no problem," Dale said, "I just need to talk to Matt about something if that's okay? Just between us guys," Fluttershy nodded and began to go upstairs to grab a pillow and blanket for Dale. Dale looked at Matt with a little annoyance, "I didn't agree to help her out with this," he whispered so Fluttershy can't hear.

"Hey, she's letting you stay here for free out of the kindness of her heart. The least you can do is help out by looking for her animal friends," Matt pushed Dales' shoulder with his palm aggressively. Matt's voice was lowered like Dale's was, "If you don't want to do that, then you can just leave right now and sleep on a park bench."

"I didn't choose to come here, you know. I was happy living my life back on Earth before that black star came and ruined everything!"

"Black star?" Matt asked, backing off from Dale a bit.

"Wait... What's the last thing you remember before coming here?" Dale asked with a pit beginning to form in his stomach.

Matt stood in silence for a second before speaking, "I was at my house, there was a warning on my T.V about staying inside. I heard people yelling outside, so I wanted to go and check on it, but I just blacked out before I could even get there. I then woke up in a castle in the Everfree forest. I had no idea where I was until I saw one of the monsters from My Little Pony while trying to reach this town, that's when I got pretty excited actually."

"For real?" Dale was dumbfounded, how did Matt not see the black star that replaced the sun.

"Yeah. I couldn't believe that I was in Equestria, and on top of that reality was almost like one of my favourite video games. The menus of an RPG with stats and levels, I could recruit the monsters to join my party, I saw many faces that I longed to be with back at home. It was almost like I woke up in paradise," As Matt continued on, Dale sat in silence, "I was welcomed in like I was always apart of this world. I got to meet Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Spike, and many others. I thought I was just dreaming this entire time until I found you being attacked," Matt finished and looked back at Dale who was trying to process the information.

"I... I don't know how to put this... But..." Dale was trying to think of what to say to Matt, he decided that just being straightforward would be the best option, "I didn't know that you never saw this, but something horrible happened back on Earth," Matt's face became one filled with worry as Dale began to speak, "Out of nowhere, the sun was replaced by a black star. The star was soul piercing and it just hung in the sky. People on the streets were worries, I was scared out of my mind. I was on the phone with my Mom, we didn't know what was going on. Suddenly, everyone just became silent, it was almost like they ceased to exist all at once. My friends, my family, they were all gone in a flash of light and I was left there alone. I then woke up in the same castle as you did, with the same arm brace that you have," Dale pointed his finger at Matt's arm brace. Matt was left in shock and didn't know what to say.

"Does that mean, everyone died? Matt was being filled with many emotions as he began to feel sick.

"Honestly, I don't even know at this point since you and I are still here. I remember a voice telling me something about entering someone's dream reality since I didn't have one of my own, and I woke up here. That's why I wanted to find you, Matt. I needed to meet you to see if you knew anything about this reality since you're the one who created it," Dale pointed his finger at Matt when he finished speaking. Matt looked at his own hands in shock as he began to tremble slightly.

"Does that mean, this is a second chance at life?" Matt asked with hope in his eyes. Dale could only shrug his shoulders since he didn't know the answer.

"That's why I can't stay here, Matt. I don't have much time to rest, and I need to keep moving. I need to find the answers to what happened to our world and why I'm here."

"Dale, this is a second chance to live and be whatever you want. I don't think that chasing after an answer that doesn't exist is a good idea," Matt said.

"You don't know that there isn't an answer!" Dale panicked.

"Look, if you want to leave tomorrow, you can. I won't stop you, but can you at least help me find Fluttershy's animal buddies before you leave? I can help show you the ropes of this world that way. I can teach you everything you need to know, and maybe you'll change your mind about leaving," Matt held out his hand for a handshake. Dale looked at his own hand for a second, many thoughts swirled in his brain. Dale's hand locked with Matt's firmly as the boys reached an agreement.

Quest Log

Quest Completed!

Rewards:

100 EXP

50 Bits

5 App Points

New Quest

"Equestria 101"

Team up with Matthew and learn how to survive on your own.

Current Objective

Meet Matthew in the Everfree Forest tomorrow.

Rewards:

120 EXP

60 Bits

5 App Points.

Level Up!

EXP 17/200

You've earned 3 stat points! Please chose what stats you wish to improve!

App Points: 15