Equestria: the Everfree Forest
All was calm in the Everfree Forest that night when all of a sudden, Kurt and Jet appeared in a violent flash of light and sound. They both sat on the ground coughing and wheezing for a moment before Jet regained his composure. "Travel sickness... bluh. If you can't see, are feeling nauseous, have a pounding headache, or are really thirsty, don't worry. This is normal, and the symptoms will pass."
"Ugh... remind me to never use you as a travel agent ever again."
After a moment's pause Jet mumbled, "Huh, this is strange..."
"Wha.. *cough cough*... what do you mean?"
"That was not at all how atomization is supposed to feel. I feel... strange now."
"Oh please, don't say that our atoms got mixed up... I am going to kill you if you do."
Both of them sat there in the pitch black of night waiting for their eyes to adjust to the new light level. Jet, who was practically nocturnal due to his research binges he would occasionally go on, adjusted first. Upon seeing himself and Kurt, he said one thing: "Oh..."
"'Oh' what? I don't like the sound of that 'oh' one bit." Kurt rubbed his eyes, trying to massage his temples with his fingers only to discover that he didn't have any. Instead he had two hooves. "What?" he turned to Jet for guidance.
"I have no clue as to how or why this just happened, but it looks like you have wings now. Wait a second... no way..." then Jet started convulsing with fits of laughter.
"What is so friggin funny? Am I a horse! Although I will say that having wings is pretty boss, but ...A HORSE!" His eyes finally adjusting themselves Kurt looked at Jet. "It looks like you have wings too, but you have some weird horn on your forehead."
Jet straightened up and examined his wings and horn, "The heck? I'm an alicorn? That is a twist. Anyway, as to why I was laughing, I don't suppose you ever watched any of those My Little Pony videos I sent you?"
"What? No! Maybe... a little...That stuff is for little girls though and I can't believe you would watch such tripe, much less trick me into watching it! How does that even relate to... oh..."
"Yeah, 'oh,' indeed."
Jet and Kurt sat and attempted to understand their current situation. They were now in Equestria, the land of ponies, unicorns, pegasi, and much more.
Kurt asked, "So are we still gonna explore or are we gonna head home? Personally I didn't sign up for a species change, so home sounds great until you can figure out what went wrong."
"Yeah, I think it might be best if we head home for now and then come back later, better prepared."
"Good idea, wonder why I didn't think of it."
Jet looked around for a moment in confusion, frantically searching for something that simply wasn't there. "What's wrong now?" Kurt asked, sighing in frustration.
Jet whipped around to look Kurt dead in the eyes, "The portal is not here, and I don't know why. It should be sitting directly behind us, and it is not. It looks like we are stuck here."
"If this is your idea of a prank, then you have one sick sense of humor man."
"I only wish that it was a prank."
"Well... crap."
"Yep."
Jet pondered on their situation for a moment before turning to his friend, "I think I may know how all this," gesturing to their new bodies, "happened."
"Care to enlighten me?" Kurt asked spitefully.
"Each dimension has a type of radiation that is specific to it, if anything from another dimension comes into contact with it, the results are... unpredictable to say the least. Usually, the foreign matter explodes, but in some cases, it changes into a new form." Jet explained.
"Seeing as how we didn't explode, I guess we are the latter?"
"Exactly, but I am baffled as to how this happened! I had safeguards in the device to prevent this from happening, but they must have been turned off while we were in transit."
"You think someone turned off the safeguards in attempt to kill us? That would explain the sudden lack of a way back." Kurt observed.
"Why does this always happen to us?"
"Tell me about it... you don't think it's that oil company again?"
"Nah, more likely it's communists."
The two friends sat there glumly for about five minutes, neither saying anything. Finally Kurt broke the silence, "Well, we had better get used to these bodies then, shouldn't we?" With that he stood up shakily on all four legs. Jet slowly nodded and followed in suit.
"This isn't so bad actually, it just takes some getting used to." They started slowly walking around the clearing getting a feel for their new bodies. "Holy crap man, try stretching your wings, it feels awesome!" Jet exclaimed. Kurt gave it a try and was surprised at the warmth that coursed through his back. Like he had been in the same position for to long and was getting in a nice stretch.
"We should be able to fly with these right? Care to give it a try?"
"Sure, why not. It will also let us see where we are so we can formulate a plan from here."
"Last to clear the trees is a rotten egg!" with that Kurt leaped into the air beating his wings madly.
Jet sighed, "Really? You are that immature?" Jet then extended his wings and began flapping them rhythmically, gradually increasing his pace until he gracefully rose off the forest floor. While he wasn't moving as fast as Kurt, he was steadily rising faster and faster, whereas Kurt's progress was erratic in comparison. They cleared the trees at almost the same time and kept rising higher, trying to find some kind of landmark. Jet then noticed a few lights in the distance, "That must be Ponyville!"
"What? How could you possibly know that is Ponyville?"
"Come on man, at least try to be a bit genre savvy! We just got portal'd to Equestria, where do you think we are going to end up? Even if it is not Ponyville, we need to find shelter."
Kurt grumbled beneath his breath. By now his wing beats were as even and graceful as Jet's. "Well, it is some kind of civilization, so we had better head that direction."
Neither of the stallions noticed the large rogue storm cloud floating behind them. They started to fly in the direction of the town, staying close together so that they wouldn't lose one another in the night. Kurt noticed the growing number of dark clouds in the sky. It seemed as if the stars were being blotted out one by one. Suddenly a bolt of lightning cracked from the cloud above and behind them, striking Jet's wing knocking him out cold and causing him to careen into Kurt. Their wings became tangled and they soon found themselves plummeting toward the ground, spinning out of control. At the last moment, Kurt freed himself and pushed himself free. Trying to slow Jet's descent, he flew under him, supporting their combined weight, and had almost stopped their dive when a second bolt of lightning struck his right wing tip. Kurt's last thought before blacking out was, 'Dang it Murphy.'
Ponyville Medical Clinic
Kurt groaned as he slowly cracked open his eyes only to find his vision totally obscured by a pair of maroon eyes staring back at him, mere inches from his face. A cyan pegasus with rainbow colored mane and tail hovered above him. "Umm... Can I help you?" he said, totally confused.
"How about telling me your name cutie?" Rainbow Dash asked, setting down next to the bed. "It is good to see that you are improving though. You've been asleep for the whole day."
"Wow, talk about a power nap." Taking his time to admire this other pony, and stretch a little. 'Not bad, for a horse... maybe I can still find some...entertainment in this dimension too.' Noticing that Rainbow Dash was still waiting for an answer he quickly blurted, "My name is Kurt, by the way," grinning up at her. "And what might your name be?"
"I am Rainbow Dash! Only the fastest flier in all of Equestria!" she responded, totally unabashed at her bragging.
"Wow, I leave you alone for one minute and here you are hitting on the first thing you lay eyes on," Jet had awoken as well and heard most of the exchange. Rainbow blushed lightly, while Jet and Kurt chuckled and winced as the laughter brought on fresh pain. "Now see what you made me do?"
"Well, seeing as how you two are both awake now, I'm gonna grab my friends so they can come meet you!" Rainbow didn't wait for a response and quickly exited the room. This gave Kurt and Jet a chance to examine themselves, only to find that they were covered with bandages, mostly concentrated on their wings.
"OK, now then down to business. What is our story going to be?" Kurt asked.
"Well, I don't think lying to them is a good idea, but if we tell them the truth, we may exit this clinic only to be taken to a mental hospital."
"Good point. Hmm... how about the old amnesia act?"
"Nah, that never works out. I've read enough fan fiction to know that the 'amnesia act' will only end badly."
"Wait, you mentioned earlier that we can make our holographic screens visible to others. We could use that as proof!"
Jet sat totally shocked that he hadn't thought of that same solution. "Brilliant! Now to see if we can't get these working without fingers." he said motioning to the watch-like devices which they still wore.
"You said it was thought activated though."
"Yeah, but I have no clue if that will still work with our new physiology. The only way to find out is to try." With that, Jet tapped his device once and closed his eyes in concentration. After a moment, a holographic screen appeared in midair in front of Jet. "Yes!" The screen dissipated and Jet said, "Well now we have our proof. Let's see if we can't get that far in the conversation first."
No sooner had he finished his sentence, the door burst open and a pink comet began bouncing around the room followed by five calmer ponies.
"Consarnit' Pinkie Pie, you're gonna scare our guests here tah death with all o' your bouncin' around!" Applejack grumbled. It was apple bucking season, and she was missing out on valuable work time. After one more lap around the room, Pinkie Pie settled down next to Applejack, almost vibrating with poorly contained energy.
"We would like to welcome you both to Ponyville. We are so glad that you are recovering so quickly!" Twilight said. "To be honest, when I first saw the state that you two were in, I didn't have much hope that you could pull through."
"Well, we are glad we could disappoint you in that regard." Jet smiled wryly.
"I-I-I didn't mean that-"
"It's alright, I was only playing around." Twilight sighed in relief at this. "How rude of me I have yet to introduce myself. I am Jet Black, but please call me Jet."
"And I am Kurt G. Eisenhower, but the ladies all call me Kurt." Kurt winked saucily at the group of ponies, who blushed and fidgeted slightly. Rarity snorted in derision at the shameless display.
"I am called Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends: Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and I think you have already met Rainbow Dash." Twilight said, pointing to each of her friends in turn."
"Those are definitely some interesting name you have," Rarity mused.
Kurt told them, "Yeah, in case you hadn't already guessed, we are not from around here."
"We-figured-that-much-because-we-had-never-heard-of-another-alicorn-in-all-of-Equestria-but-that-means-you-are-new-here-so-that-means-you-have-no-friends-so-that-means-I-have-to-throw-a-party-for-you-so-you-can-make-lots-and-lots-of-friends! Yay!" Kurt stared in awe of the sudden deluge of words issuing from Pinkie Pie. Since he had never seen her in action, he had no way of preparing for that much condensed happiness and laughter.
Jet, on the other hand, merely cracked that same smile and replied, "That sure sounds like a lot of fun, but we do have to get better first." Pinkie Pie's smile drooped ever so slightly. "But then it can be a celebration of our health as well. However before you get carried away planning for our party, we do have some very important information to discuss with you all."
Pinkie Pie was about to start up again, but Twilight cut her off, asking, "And what business might that be?"
"Several things actually. One: How can we repay you for your kindness towards us?"
"Oh think nothing of it, really."
"No way. From what little I can remember about the accident, I think I may have crash landed in someo- I mean somepony's house." Jet mentally berated himself for the slip up.
Fluttershy looked up timidly and spoke for the first time, "You both crashed into my cottage, but... you know... it's not that big of a deal..." her voice grew quieter with each word.
Jet sat straight up in bed and rolled out from under the blankets. He took a moment to make sure he could actually bear the pain of standing before walking right up to Fluttershy. Jet then leaned down to her and said, "I couldn't bear the pain of knowing that I ruined your home and did nothing to help fix it. Please, let us help you." Jet looked into Fluttershy's eyes and she gazed back into his. The moment was shattered as Nurse Redheart walked in and gasped at the sight of an alicorn that was so badly injured that it shouldn't be able to move, much less walk, towering over little Fluttershy.
"What do you think you are doing? You need to rest right now!" Nurse Redheart ushered him back to the bed where he laid down, glad to be relieved of the pain. "And you all need to leave as well so that these ponies can get some rest," she motioned for everyone else to leave. Even as the Mane 6 were leaving, two ponies in particular couldn't help but glance back every now and then.
Rainbow Dash was the last to leave the room, but as she was about to pass through the doors, Kurt called out flirtatiously, "Catch you later Dashie!" Rainbow blushed again and sped out the door.
Later in the day, Nurse Redheart was recounting the incident to Doctor Whooves when she realized that the entire time that the dark alicorn had been looming over Fluttershy, she didn't cower or cringe. If anything, she seemed to lean in closer.
**END OF CHAPTER 2**