The first thing I realized was that I was still alive. The last thing I remembered was that semi headed straight for me, and knowing I was going to die. I'd been in a little Honda, sliding sideways down the street at close to fifty miles an hour, and was about to hit an oncoming semi driver's side on. There really wasn't much of a survival chance there.

Strangely enough, I didn't jolt awake, I just gradually drifted back up. I was laying on my side in a bed. I could feel my arms and legs, and the sheet laying on top of me. I tried to move, and discovered that I couldn't. I tried to look around but I couldn't see much. About ten feet away there was a wall, with a bookcase built into it. The wall looked like some kind of wood paneling, and they'd somehow made it look like the bookcase was carved into the wood. The books were all cloth-bound hardcovers, big dark books like you'd find in a law library. I couldn't make out the words on the spines from here, they all seemed to have long titles, and even on the big books the font had to be very small to fit. I swivled the eye that wasn't obscured by pillow a bit more and saw that whoever had done the bookcase had obviously done the whole place, as the ceiling had been made to look like it was all cut from the same piece of wood as the wall and bookcase.

Taking a deep breath, I noticed something. I could see my nostrils flare at the bottom of my vision. I frowned. That wasn't right. I tried to look down, and it seemed like I could see a bit of yellow, but I couldn't make it focus.

I tried to say, "Hello," but it came out as a dry croak.

"He's awake!" I heard someone say, it was one of those voices I'd heard before.

"Don't you mean... mmph," the second familiar voice started to say, but it sounded like it got cut off.

"Not just now, Pinkie. Let's give him a couple minutes first."

"Hello," the first voice started again, "Peter, can you hear me?"

"Yes," I managed to get out, my voice still sounding all wrong, cracked and dry like I hadn't swallowed in far too long.

"Okay, good. My name is Twilight Sparkle. The first thing you need to know is that you're okay. You're under a... you're under some sedation, that's why you can't move your limbs. I need to make sure you're not going to hurt yourself before we let you up."

"Alright," I croaked again. I tried swallowing a few times and felt my throat start to feel a little more normal. "Have you got a mask on me?" I started to say, but this time it didn't come out as a croak, it came out almost clear, but it wasn't my voice. It really wasn't my voice. It sounded like a woman's voice!

I looked down at my nose again. I could see my nostrils flaring, I could control it. It wasn't just some breathing mask with diaphragms opening when I breathed. That yellow thing was somehow my nose. I started to hyperventilate, breaths coming faster and faster. If I could've seen myself from outside, I would've probably seen my eyes roll wildly, as I've seen some others panic since then.

"Pressure!" a new voice shouted.

"What?" said Twilight.

"Put some pressure on her, around her barrel. It'll help calm her down!"

Immediately, I saw a soft lavender glow out of the corner of my eye, and felt a light pressure surround somehow ring my chest and back, even though I was laying down. Immediately, I felt my breaths begin to slow, and the panic that had been rising was now receding.

"What'd you just do?" I asked when I could speak again.

"Oh, um..." the new voice answered, still out of my vision, "pressure around your..." and there was another pause, and I could almost imagine a look being exchanged or some gesture made before the voice began again. "Pressure around your... middle like that helps you to calm down. That's all. It's comforting as long as it's not too tight."

"Huh," I said, "weird." Something wasn't right, my voice was wrong, my nose was wrong. I couldn't move and couldn't see anything else, but there was something they weren't showing me, weren't telling me. However, the new voice was right, with that ring of pressure on, I was somehow a lot more calm than I should've been.

"Peter," said the voice that had called itself Twilight Sparkle, "there's been an accident, and I've got to show you what happened. You're probably not going to be very happy, but there's nothing I can do right now. I've sent word to someone who I hope can help, but it'll probably be a while before they can get here. I'm going to let you move your head a little. I have to show you something and I want you to be able to look around a little.

With that, I could suddenly move. I felt some control return to my neck. I still couldn't move my arms and legs, though. I tried to lift my head, but it felt really weird, like everything was out of proportion. As I lifted my head higher and tried to look down at myself, I realized my neck seemed to be moving all wrong. It was, I still can't describe it, it was just wrong. I laid my head back down and said, "I think there's something wrong with my neck."

"Does it hurt?" asked Twilight, and I could almost hear the frown in her voice.

"No, but it's not moving right. What happened to me?"

"You're fine, and your neck's fine, Peter, no worries there. But I'm going to walk around the bed now. Please try not to freak out, okay?"

"Why would I freak out?"

I could hear footsteps, a few of them, moving around the bed. Then, something walked into my field of view. It took me a moment to even process it. It was a little purple horse, with big, expressive eyes, and a dark purple mane, with a light purple stripe in it. It had a horn growing out of its forehead, and a pair of wings on its back.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle," it said, "and I'm sorry, but you're not on Earth anymore."

"What are you?" I asked, still feeling far too calm. Some part of my mind knew I should be gibbering at this point, but something was keeping me from panicking.

"I'm a pony, and you're in a place called Equestria. Ponyville, actually, but that's the town. Equestria is the country. We call our world 'Earth', too, but it's not the one you're from. I pulled you out of your car, because you were about to be in a pretty bad accident. But the spell I was casting wasn't made to let me do that, so there was a bit of a... translation error. You got turned into a pony. That's why your neck feels weird. It's a little different now. In fact, everything on you is a little different now. Well, some things are a lot different.

"I want you to know I'm really sorry. Somehow you heard Pinkie and I talking through the observation spell. That shouldn't have been possible, but you did, and when you turned around to look, you lost control of your car. The accident was my fault, and I didn't even think about it, I just tried to pull you away on instinct. I'm a little stronger than I used to be with that sort of thing, and I don't know what happened, but you're here, and healthy, just in a different body."

"Spell? You're talking like you're some sort of D&D character. Magic's not real," I said.

"Magic works here, in this world, even though it doesn't work in yours. Here, watch," she said. The light lavender glow that her horn had been emitting almost without me noticing it suddenly intensified, and four of the books from the shelf in the background began to glow the same color. The pulled themselves off the shelf, floated over between Twilight and me, spun in a little circle, then floated back and reshelved themselves.

I watched this with wide eyes. "I must be hallucinating. Something really bad happened in that accident and I'm hallucinating all this."

"Peter, please believe me when I say that this isn't a hallucination. If it was, you probably wouldn't be able to formulate that thought. Like when you're dreaming, you just accept the dream as real, no matter how weird it is, right? Hallucinations generally work the same way."

"This can't be happening," I said, "I'm way too calm. If this was real, I should be having a breakdown about now. That's like what you're saying right? I'm way too calm and that's because this is just a dream. It's in my head."

"You're calm because of that pressure that Twilight is keeping around your barrel," the new voice said, "It's very calming for most ungulates. As long as that's there, you should stay pretty calm."

"Peter, I'm going to get you out of bed, then let you have control of your legs again. I'd feel a lot better if you were up, just to make sure everything's working, okay?"

I felt myself being lifted and supported, even though I hadn't felt anything slide under me. The sheet lifted off, and I was turned and gently dropped to the floor in front of Twilight. I could feel the weight on my arms and legs. She'd put me down on all fours. I couldn't feel my hands, and as I looked down, I saw I didn't have hands. Two bright yellow legs, ending in bright yellow hooves, were touching the ground under me. My breaths started to come a little faster, as I felt the panic rise again. I looked a little farther back and saw another set.

Breathe, Peter, I thought to myself. It's just a dream, just breathe and don't pass out. I looked up at Twilight, who was looking at me with worry in her big, expressive eyes. I looked back down at my arms, or legs, or whatever. I tried picking one arm up and the yellow leg came up. I carefully set it back down. I tried the other one, and the same thing happened. My elbows, or knees, I guess, felt really weird, like they were bending the wrong way, and I couldn't feel a thing through those hooves, like my hands were somehow numb.

I looked around again, this time trying to look over at the owners of the voices I'd heard earlier. Turning like this, my neck felt very weird. It was way too long and I could feel way too much bending going on. Just breathe, I thought again.

On the other side of the bed were two more of the pony things. One was yellow, kind of like me, but not as bright, and the other one was vibrant pink. The yellow one had wings, like Twilight, but no horn, and the pink one had no horn or wings. Both of them, though, had bright blue eyes. Just like Twilight, their eyes seemed too large, but were very expressive. I could tell that the yellow one was worried, and that the pink one was excited.

"Hiya," the pink one waved, "I'm Pinkie Pie, and this is Fluttershy! We're super-excited that you're okay. I'm really sorry that Twi and I made you crash your car, but she saved you and everything's all okay. I'm sure Princess Celestia will be able to fix everything once she gets here!"

"Yes," said the yellow one, in a much more subdued voice, "I'm glad you're alright. I'm sure the princess will be able to fix everything."

"This can't be real," I said.

"Sorry, totally real!" said Pinkie Pie. "But that's okay, because you're here, and not hurt, and that's way more important than what you look like, right?"

"I... yeah, I'm alive. At least I think I am."

Suddenly the pink pony was right in front of me. I never even saw her move. She touched my nose and said, "Boop!"

I sneezed.

"Yeah, totally alive. Betcha didn't know that ghosts can't sneeze."

"Pinkie!" Twilight said, "You just made that up. One, there's no such thing as ghosts, and two, how would you know if they could sneeze or not?"

"Well, yeah, but it was an educated guess. I mean, ghosts don't really need to breathe anymore, and if they don't breathe, then why would they need to sneeze, and if they don't need to sneeze, then they probably can't, right?"

"Pinkie, just... I don't even know," said Twilight.

"Uh oh," said Pinkie, as first one ear twitched, then her knees shook, then the other ear twitched, then both ears together, then her tail suddenly popped straight out like some sort of party favor.

"What's that one mean, Pinkie?" Twilight asked, suddenly concerned.

"You'll see in just a second," said Pinkie.

As I looked between the two of them, I saw a bright flash, and suddenly, standing in the room with us was a pony at least twice the size of any of the others. It was white, with wings and a horn like Twilight, but her mane was pastel hued and seemed to be blowing in a wind that I couldn't feel.

"Twilight," the newcomer said, "I'm glad I found you. Something happened a few minutes ago..." The newcomer looked around and then noticed me. She frowned. "Who is this mare?"

Then something clicked. Fluttershy had said 'her', even though Twilight had said 'him'. Then there was my voice, and now this huge pony had called me a mare. I dropped my head down and looked back between my legs, both sets of them. I could see straight to my tail. There was something rather important missing, though.

I looked up again, my breathing suddenly speeding up again. "What?" I managed before I couldn't speak anymore. I felt like I couldn't get a full breath, my lungs pushing against the pressure that Twilight was still holding around my chest. I suddenly felt sick, and my eyes started to water. My vision tunneled down to a small circle centered on Twilight, who said, "I'm sorry, Peter." Then suddenly, my world went black again.

I woke up again in the same bed as before. This time, though, instead of just the walls and bookshelves, I saw Twilight, as well as well as the large white pony that had showed up out of nowhere before. They were laying down, the large pony taking up as much space as the bed I was on. Twilight seemed to be asleep, her head leaned against the larger pony's side, half buried in that pastel mane, still flowing in a wind that didn't seem to be there. Frankly she looked adorable. The larger pony, though, was wide awake and watching me closely, concern evident in her expression.

"Hello, little one," she said. "I am Princess Celestia of Equestria. I'm sorry for what happened earlier. Twilight explained as much as she could of what happened, and I know it must've been quite a shock. I have a few answers for you now, and both some good and bad news."

Twilight, hearing Celestia speak, began to wake up. "Princess, whazzat?" she mumbled as she lifted her head and looked around. Realizing where she was, her eyes widened and she quickly scooted away from the big pony, with a blush that I could somehow see even through her fur. "Erm, sorry Princess. I guess I nodded off, there."

"It's no problem, Twilight," Celestia said, with a chuckle in her voice. "I was telling Peter here that we found out a little more about what happened to him."

At that, I saw the little purple pony's gaze drop to the ground and her ears droop. "Oh, that. I'm so sorry, Peter."

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Before we start, how do you feel?" Celestia asked.

"Actually, I feel okay. I don't know why I'm not totally freaked out now. I mean, it was all I could do to keep it together before. Now, I guess, it seems less strange. I don't know why."

"That's just sleep. Sleep provides your unconscious with time to deal with crises. You've actually been asleep for about two days. That was my doing, I thought it would be better to let you sleep for a while and let your subconscious start to work things out before trying you with more news."

"This is still very weird, though."

"Of course it is. I'd be worried if you didn't think so. I'm glad you're not so close to panic now, though."

"Now, what was Twilight's apology about?" I asked, although I already had my suspicions.

"Well, first, the good news," Celestia began. "You're healthy and well. Despite the rather dramatic circumstances, you came to no harm. As to why you're a pony now, when Twilight saw that you were in danger, her first instinct was to get you to safety. The only problem was that she was merely looking at you through a dimensional lens, seeing into your own version of reality through her magic. That would usually mean that she couldn't affect your realm or you, at all. However, you may have noticed that both I and Twilight have horns and wings. That means something rather special here. We're called alicorns, and we have quite a lot more magic than any normal unicorn would. Also, Twilight was only recently... let's say promoted to this level of magic. She panicked as she saw you in danger and her power allowed her to reach through to your world and remove you from danger. As she cast no spell, though, the magic was somewhat wild. It pulled your mind out of your body and brought your consciousness here to Equestria. However, you had no body here, so the magic made you one out of what was handy. It used Twilight as the blueprint. I think you'll find you're very much like sisters."

"Wait, does that mean I have a horn?" I asked, reaching up, hardly noticing that I could move freely and that a normal horse's leg shouldn't be able to easily reach their head. I felt on my forehead, but there wasn't a horn there.

"No, I can only guess that because you had no magic before, the body created for you was that of an earth pony. No horn."

"Also, I'm yellow and she's purple, if I'm her twin, shouldn't I be purple?"

"I never said you're her twin, you're more like sisters. The magic used her as a template, but it didn't slavishly copy her. In fact, I doubt it could. To make a new alicorn would require more magic than either I or Twilight have.

"Now, though, you heard me say that Twilight's magic moved your consciousness?"

"Yes," I said. "Does that mean, my body..." I felt sick.

"I'm afraid so," said Celestia, her eyes downcast. "Your body perished in that accident. Unfortunately, there's no way to send you back."

"Wait," I said, "can't Twilight just make me a new body there? I mean she made this one, right?"

"I'm sorry, Peter," Twilight interrupted. "Doing that took a massive amount of magic. But I could do it because it was here, in Equestria, where there's lots of magic. There's not enough magic in your world to allow me or anyone else to do something like that."

"But you pulled me out of my world. How could you do one and not the other."

"I cast the spell that let me reach out for you here. Think of throwing a lasso. You throw the rope out, but when you catch something with it and pull it in, all the effort is expended right where you are."

"Couldn't you just send me back, then? Like all of me and not just my mind?"

"No physical matter can cross between the dimensions, just energy, like the pressure creating the sound waves we hear and the photons that made up the scene we saw."

"Well, can you at least turn me back into me? At least if I'm stuck here, I'd like to be me again."

"Again, little one," Celestia said, "I'm sorry. When Twilight's magic created your new body, it created it in Twilight's image. You're now a pony, and though we could change you for a little while, it wouldn't be permanent."

"Then is this permanent? I mean, will I just turn back to me in a while?"

"No, that is your body now. When Twilight's magic pulled you here to Equestria, it made a new body for you. In fact, it did more than that, it made a new spirit for you. I'm honestly not sure how that happened. In all the magic I know, and I've been studying it quite a lot longer than Twilight, I've never seen anything that can create a spirit. Now, your mind has fused with your new spirit, and they can't be separated again."

"But Twilight did it once," I said, quietly.

"I don't know how I did it, Peter," said Twilight. "Like Princess Celestia said, the spell went a bit wild, and I can't understand what it did, much less replicate it. If I cast wildly again, there's no telling what could happen. You could die. I... we can't take that chance."

"So I'm stuck here, as a female pony?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so," said Celestia, nodding gently. "However, I promise you that Twilight and I will do everything within our power to help you start a new life here. Twilight and I will keep working on this, and as Twilight's understanding grows, maybe she will be able to send you back to your world."

"How long do you think that might take?" I asked.

"I've honestly no idea. Maybe a hundred years, maybe never. I've been studying magic for a very long time and I've never seen anything like."

"I'll be dead in a hundred years anyway," I said in a small voice.

"Hardly," Celestia snorted, "barring the unforseen, anyway. How long do humans usually live?"

"Seventy or eighty years," I said. "Some make it up into their nineties or even past that, but I've never heard of anyone making it to a hundred and ten."

"Oh my," said Twilight, "I measured your day/night cycle when I started looking at your world, and your years are the same as ours. Ponies live much longer than that. I mean, Granny Smith was around when this town was founded, and that was hundreds of years ago. She's a little over three hundred, I think. You're all pony now, so in a hundred year's time, you won't even be middle-aged."

"You're kidding?"

"Nope, totally honest. You've got quite a bit more life to look forward to, even if it is here in Equestria."

"Wow."

"One last thing, little one," said Celestia. "You're an earth pony. Earth ponies don't express their magic directly, like unicorns, or through flight, like pegasi. Earth pony magic gives them exceptional strength and a connection to the soil and plants. You'll need to be very careful at first, as you're far stronger than you ever were as a human on Earth. You could cause unintended damage very easily. I expect there will be some pain in your future as you come to grips with what's happened. I'm so very sorry that we were the cause of that pain, but you'll have to face it at some point. If you lash out, you could well do something you'll come to regret. Please keep that in mind."

"I... um. I'll try?"

"I can't ask for more than that," said Celestia, getting up. "Now, I have to leave. I've been away from Canterlot for too long. However, Twilight will be here, and if you need anything, let Twilight know. We'll both do whatever we can to help you."

The big alicorn stepped towards me, and I started to cringe. She was amazingly imposing, if not from power, then from sheer size. However, she gently laid a wing across me as I lay in the bed, and somehow I felt all the care and concern and joy and sadness that she felt for me. The feelings didn't lash my brain the way my panic and fear had the day before, they were subdued, but immesurably deep. I may live to be three hundred now, but I doubt I'll ever have an experience like that again.

Lifting her wing from me, she stepped back, and I saw her horn begin to glow. With a bright flash, she was gone. I looked to Twilight, my eyes wide.

Twilight just nodded, "I think it has to do with being one of the oldest beings in existence. I can't even imagine the level she experiences life on."

I could only nod in return.

Author's Notes:

Okay, so now Pete's in Equestria. My cruddy deus-ex-machina to get him there is now thankfully over, and we can move on to him actually dealing with a new life. If you're expecting clop, don't. I won't rule out a future love interest, but if there's anything cloppy, it'll go in a side story, as I'd like this one to remain family friendly (with a bit of teen rating for his gender issues).